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Thread: Overweight Army Pilot seeking diet/programming guidance

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Apr 2023
    Posts
    13

    Default Overweight Army Pilot seeking diet/programming guidance

    • starting strength seminar december 2024
    • starting strength seminar february 2025
    • starting strength seminar april 2025
    Sex: Male
    Age: 32
    Height: 6'0
    Weight: 225
    BF: 28.4% (BodPod)

    Weightlifting history:
    Last year did 6 months NLP up to 315 squat. Took 6 months off. This year did another 4 month NLP back to 315. Then switched to Madcow for another four months.

    Current 5 rep Maxes:
    Squat 355 (each workout feels like I'm about to fail)
    Press 160 (pretty much stalled)
    Bench 230 (could keep going a few more weeks)
    Deadlift 410 (could keep going a few more weeks)

    Diet: Pretty trashy. I push myself to eat more than I want, trying to hit protein goals with eggs, beef, yogurt etc. Still eat treats every now and then like chips or ice cream. No soda and rarely eat candy. I don't count calories. BF was around 26% for most of this year but the last test put me at 28% (I kinda broke the required fast a little, which might have skewed it. I can't fit into any of my 36" pants anymore, and I now fully fill 38".

    My circumstances: on a military exercise all this week, so no lifting, and another field exercise scheduled for 3 weeks in January. I plan on joining the police academy exactly 1 year from now. I have three kids under the age of four, so I really can't let my workouts go over 1.5 hours tops (that scared me away from Texas Method, along with my age)

    Goals: 500/400/300/200 lifts, and bodyweight preferably under or around 20%, ideally before the police academy next year.

    My question:
    I heard you recommend 15-25% BF. Given that I'm at 28%, would you recommend I go on a cut to get back in that range? Or should I take advantage of my weight to keep putting weight on the bar until the police academy? Or should I just clean up my diet? Any preferred program for a cut? I don't cry when I look in the mirror, and aesthetics aren't my main goal, but I kinda worry that I'm slowly creeping towards the 30% fat range. But I also feel my lifts are relatively low, and I don't know if I've "earned the right" to go on a cut (it also seems like a difficult and complicated process, whereas I'm very comfortable with the plug and play format of Mehdi's Madcow app, which makes for quick workouts without much thought.)

    I appreciate any thoughts or guidance you have to offer!

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Aug 2013
    Location
    Phoenix, AZ
    Posts
    4,733

    Default

    You're on the edge and your bodyweight is good for your height. Stay where you are, don't gain anymore, and continue adding weight to the bar and I suspect that number will drop below 25% as the ratio of muscle increases. Do not drop below 220.

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