I am so confused

[bud_2005]

Ok I want the very lean and cut look (I am following Brad Pitts Figh Club routine) with added squats and deadlifts but instead of using high reps I was using 3-4 reps and taking in a low amount of calories because I thought with strength training I wouldn't put on a lot of size. I stopped seeing strenght gains but I was losing weight. I'm 5'8 and 175 lbs now. I would like to get down to about 155-160 lbs.

But then people on here said I had to take in more food to see strenght gains. But more food equals weight gain and I don't want to gain weight. So if I do high reps (15-20) and keep the calorie intake low will I get the body I want or shall I keep doing low reps and not get frustrated because of no more strenght gains (I change up the workout often and I just took a week off).

And should I take Nitric Oxide and Protein Shakes for the lean look?

 

[Kerpal]

Try doing more conditioning work. HIIT will melt the fat away.

 

[Throttle]

there's a lot of confusion in your post:

- you're focused on getting to a particular weight. why? muscle is quite dense, though hard to put on. to get a lean look with some muscle, you may ultimately end up weighing more than you do now.

- you're using the 'brad pitt' routine, but then you've changed the number of reps. so you're not really doing that routine anymore.

- gotta decide if strength is important to you or not. we can't tell you whether that's important to you or not.

- very high reps (15-20) are by themselves essentially useless. better not to play with weights at all than to waste your time on that crap. your time could be better spent on just about any form of exercise.

- if you add mostly protein calories (and shakes are one way to do some of that, but hardly the only) and you're lifting hard & heavy, weight gains should go to muscle, not fat.

- supplements (apart from protein) won't help you until you decide what your goals are. do you want to add strength or not? why do you want to look lean, and how hard are you willing to work to maintain it? maintaining that look will probably require even more dedication to diet if you don't add muscle. adding muscle would ultimately give you a bit more wiggle room in your diet, but that requires a different kind of hard work to maintain.

 

[bud_2005]

Why are high reps useless? It obviously worked for him.

Strength is important to me. But the lean look is very desirable to me. They say 80% of how you look is your diet. So I'm confused about how many calories I should take in for the lean and cut look.

 

[blinkwatt]

- very high reps (15-20) are by themselves essentially useless. better not to play with weights at all than to waste your time on that crap. your time could be better spent on just about any form of exercise.

Not so true.

Try doing 15-20 pull-ups with good form and call them useless. Try doing 15-20 rep dips and call it useless.

It's not about the weight,it's about the form and feeling when you go for looks.

 

[blinkwatt]

@ the Original Poster,

You going to want to get down to 135-145 lbs at your height to have that Fight Club look. Trust me,I'm your height and 6.75-8% bodyfat depending on how much the darn calipers want to piss me off.

 

[Warboss Alex]

high reps are useless if strength is an issue, since strength gains occur in the lower rep ranges, any higher and it's just cardio. try doing 5x20 rep benches every week and tell me how often you can add weight. if you want to get strong then follow a powerlifting workout or strength routine

(bw dips/chins for high reps as blinkwatt said will still be useless after a point, it's good cardio but won't tax you enough to grow or get stronger)

as for Brad Pitt, don't fool yourself - he had little to no muscle and was in no way strong, it's just the very low bodyfat gave the illusion he was muscular.

basically, you need to get on a clean and strict carb cycling diet, no cheating, lots of cardio and be very patient.. unless you wanna look emaciated this is a long-term project. i would run several no carb days but not eat a whole lot below maintainance

what you ask is very doable but will require a lot of dedication and consistency

 

[blinkwatt]

as for Brad Pitt, don't fool yourself - he had little to no muscle and was in no way strong, it's just the very low bodyfat gave the illusion he was muscular.

basically, you need to get on a clean and strict carb cycling diet, no cheating, lots of cardio and be very patient.. unless you wanna look emaciated this is a long-term project. i would run several no carb days but not eat a whole lot below maintainance

what you ask is very doable but will require a lot of dedication and consistency

Don't forget that it was a movie and lighting was used to his advantage.

Just push it in the gym and kitchen and you could have that physique in no time.

+1 to Warboss suggesting that you stay consistent,that's the most important thing.

 

[Being_the_Don]

Don't forget that it was a movie and lighting was used to his advantage.

Just push it in the gym and kitchen and you could have that physique in no time.

+1 to Warboss suggesting that you stay consistent,that's the most important thing.

What about weighted pullups/dips? I'm going to be incorporating them into my workout soon.

 

[bud_2005]

Blinkwatt, I realized I might be getting down to that weight because my brother is 5'7 and weights 143 lbs with 9% bf. Brad Pitt is 5'11 and I was told weighed 150-155 for Fight Club.

How do you train Blinkwatt, how many calories do you usually take in, and do you do a lot of cardio?