You want to follow a bodybuilders cutting diet imo. 5 or 6 meals per day. 1gm+/pound bodyweight of protein. Breakfast might be porridge and whey protein. Other meals can be chicken breast and broccoli (a lean protein and greens). You can eat apples (for fiber) and low fat milk here and there as a snack or something. Definitely no refined sugar. If you feel low on energy I recommend microwaved sweet potato with your meal as a carb source. Just keep it super simple and try to buy your food fresh and unrefined.

With regards to training try to keep it simple. If you just want to get leaner quick it will mostly be diet. I used to jog 5km a few times a week and do some weights a few times.
Your goal is to figure out what you need to do to get calories in to be about 500 less than calories out per day. Find a good metabolic calculator and go from there.

A good broscience method might be to keep an eye on your weight and fat levels and stay just a little bit hungry all the time, not too much or you'll relapse. If you are weak you may have to allow for a snack at certain times, maybe a cheat meal once or twice a week like pizza if thats your thing.

Don't be scared of good fats like olive oil and avocados etc they will help you feel more satisfied after a meal and you'll crave less. Just be aware they are high in cals. Water fills you up as does protein so these are the things I would up the most.

And Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi Oi Oi

I was under the impression that regular consumption of large quantities of alcohol can **** with your hormones, specifically cortisol, resulting in preferential storing of fat as VAT

I've heard that (albeit) in plain English too. Beer can give you titties.

WOW I eat about 6K cals in a decent day. Too much? Could that actually make me perform worse in the gym? I'm about 215 pounds btw.

Rip would be proud.

When is the best time to exercise? Whenever you feel like it? Some people are morning people some are night. Some studies say you should have been up and out of bed for a certain time like 1 hour at least. Some trainers like you to have a few meals in you some first thing after breakfast. It's broscience afaik atm.

I have heard that if you are overweight you should exercise after you eat, and if you are at the weight you want, you should exercise before you eat. Does it matter?
This statement is baloney. I'll leave it to the more educated and articulate to expand. Everyone should exercise after they eat (unless you believe in fasted cardio for fat loss which I don't). An hour or so is a general guideline for a whole meal and 15 to 30mins for a liquid meal.

Well... Ive actually been in Brazil the last 4 weeks and will be here an undecided length of time... but my last residence was Coorparoo and before that I kinda whored my way around rentals in Valley/New Farm, and before that I studied at UQ and whored my way around Indroopilly/Taringa/Toowong/Auchenflower.

I train(ed) at Goodlife in the Valley, City and the one on Logan Rd.

How big of a mistake/violation is it, if I only workout twice a week instead of 3times?

Probably pretty bad if you're training for strength. You aren't taking advantage of shorter recovery cycles as a novice trainee.

everyone in this forum seems to do starting strength, or did when they were beginners. SS seems to consist of only a handful of different things. why are stuff like curls, tricep pulldowns, upright rows, inclines bench press, stuff involving dumbbells, etc, not included? are they generally useless? thanks.

Generally useless and not as effective as the base exercises in Starting Strength, which are:

-Back Squat
-Bench Press
-Standing Press
-Power Clean
-Deadlift

Common additions to the program that are seen as beneficial are:

-Pull-ups/Chin-ups (better than curls for developing big gunz, also develops your lat-blasting technique)
-Stability and mobility work (foam rolling)
-Direct abdominal and core work (reverse crunches, weighted sit-ups, glute-ham raise, pallof presses)

Tricep press/pulldowns are useful in the intermediate stage when you need to focus on tricep strength as an assistance to the bench press, but it's pretty poor early on.

Think of it this way: The best exercises are the ones that move the most weight and integrate the most body parts in anatomically useful planes of motion. Stuff you do with low weights does not fit this definition useless they are being done at high rates of speed for the purposes of Rate of Force Development training, which is also something that can probably wait until late in the novice stage.

DB work is actually very good and can be substituted for barbell training for nearly every lift. Some people in this forum DB Bench (I should be one of them) and it's a great exercise.

Rip includes back extensions as assistance in the core program in PPST v2. Done on same day as chins/pullups.

Edit: I should learn to read instead of skim

I covered that in the full glute-ham-raise exercise

But yes, for those not fortunate enough to have access to a GHR, back extensions are quite useful.

1) Inferior and useless sans for l337 trainees
2) Inferior, though may have a place
3) Dangerous
4) Pointless
5) Unilateral training is an issue that isn't a pertinent issue for beginners
6) etc consists of lol Mike Boyle

Basically each program consists of certain sacrifices, unilateral training will not create the same bilateral strength gains as bilateral training, etc etc. SS has an issue with horizontal pulling movements that can be addressed in a pulling movement progression, but these issues are small and rather irrelevant compared to the broader goal of developing an adequate level of strength before worrying about other silly bull****.

Caloric surplus should be determined by body fat levels. Lyle talks about how fatties preferentially store lol fats, eating eating eating is a solution when not progressing rather than vice versa. Just eating everything not nailed down is lol.

70sBig alludes to someone on this site taking a cute midway in the intermediate phase (I hate all of their form vids that are posted. The clean ones are ******ed, and the squats have **** ROM)

lol

yeti,

Things that kyle+thremp said. But more generally, "Bang for your buck" i.e. if you are a normal dude (only a limited time to train per week, with regular non-pharmaceutical-enhanced recovery, you want to be focusing on movements with the highest "return on capital.)

I dont necessarily want to get big asap, just some basic workout for now, since i got exams in january and got to study now for some exams in december. Plus there is the squat stuff i described earlier. i guess it doesnt hurt if i do only 2 workouts per week.

Well, doing anything > doing nothing, if those are your options.

Spurious: do 2 workouts before christmas, then 3 after? Like someone said, you can front squat on the one day you can't access the gym with the squat rack.

Yeah, my plan was to do 2 before christmas, then 3 after, if everything works out the way I planned.

I actually cant access the gym with the squat rack on monday and friday.
Are front squats as useful as regulars are? I could do them instead.

I can't find the link but IIRC it's def a good idea to wait at least a couple hours after waking up before doing heavy squats / deads because of spinal discs needing to "settle" before being safe to bear such weights.

Stuck in my mind somewhere is a what I recall to be Rip quote saying optimal timing for max power is 3 / 13 hours after waking... but that could easily be someone else or an erroneous of my imagination

Thats sounds about right me mate Dave (Ali G lol)

wait wat