my fitness goals and tentative plan, please advise

[dethgrind]

First some background: I'm 23 6'4" 195 lbs 17% bodyfat. I played high school basketball and college ultimate frisbee. I graduated college last June at 185 and reasonably healthy, then partied a lot, got a full time job in September, and have been sitting on my ass and slowly getting soft ever since. I've done some lifting in the past, but I've never been able to stick to it for more than 3 months or so before quitting for whatever reason. My personal bests: squat 205x10, deadlift 215x10, bench 145x5.

I've started playing basketball again, and I hate how slow I feel out there. I also would like to be able to dunk easily again. After my last season of ultimate I was really cut with a six pack. I'd like to get that back. So my goal is to get down to 10% bodyfat (I only recently started measuring bodyfat so I'm not sure if I've ever been that low, or if that is even a reasonable goal for me). My guess is that if this is possible, I'll weigh somewhere around 175-180 at the end of it, which I'm cool with.

My plan is to eat six ~400 calorie meals a day Mon-Thu and then just eat sensibly Fri-Sun, never letting myself get hungry or full. I drink way too much way too often which I still need to figure out how to moderate. I play basketball 2-3 times a week and plan to lift 2-3 times a week. I recently bought Starting Strength and I started that program yesterday, though I'm not sure if that is ideal for my situation.

Should I use a different lifting program? Should I add some HIIT or other cardio? I'm thinking that if I just make sure to work really hard when I play ball, that should be enough. Any tips or success stories about cutting down your drinking for fitness reasons? Unfortunately I've made pretty much all my friendships through drinking, so that is what I do when I socialize.

Thanks for any help.

[guids]

bball should be good enough. as far as drinking, the only thing I tend to do is stick to the hard stuff, learn to appreciate straight bourbon or whatever is up your alley, dont drink much beer, dont get mixed drinks unless its diet coke (tonic water has calories!, and most of teh time bartenders will give you tonic even if you ask for soda water).

[SmileyEH]

You have very little muscle mass so my primary concern would be maintain/building more than cutting so much weight.

[Thremp]

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You have very little muscle mass so my primary concern would be maintain/building more than cutting so much weight.

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Fat people who bulk get even more fat. He needs to reduce body fat first. He's borderline skinny fat or just fat.

[SmileyEH]

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You have very little muscle mass so my primary concern would be maintain/building more than cutting so much weight.

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Fat people who bulk get even more fat. He needs to reduce body fat first. He's borderline skinny fat or just fat.

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2400 calories a day though? It's not something I have much experience with, but with his composition I think he can safely lose fat/gain muscle mass at this point, without running a big calorie defecit.

[Thremp]

Smiley,

I'm not advanced enough to know if his diet recomps etc. For beginners though after the initial CNS stuff if his diet etc is vastly improved (judging by his build he was doing some pretty rough stuff before) then he'll recomp to a significant degree purely through better eating (dropping BF), and then lifting to gain muscle.

I'd keep cals around maintenance or below in his case to do this. Should take more than a couple months at most to move him back to bulko zone and get his initial CNS adjustments out of the way.

[SmileyEH]

Ok I think we're on the same page then. I'd just hate to seem him try and eat 6 400 calorie meals a day, probably getting ~700-100 too few calories and getting burnt out and quiting.

[Thremp]

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Ok I think we're on the same page then. I'd just hate to seem him try and eat 6 400 calorie meals a day, probably getting ~700-100 too few calories and getting burnt out and quiting.

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I can't do calcs cause I have no clue how sedentary his life is but yeah -400 to +200 would the range I'd try to stay in right now and see what happens. Obv workouts etc will kick it up as those get incorporated.

[dethgrind]

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Ok I think we're on the same page then. I'd just hate to seem him try and eat 6 400 calorie meals a day, probably getting ~700-100 too few calories and getting burnt out and quiting.

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I can't do calcs cause I have no clue how sedentary his life is but yeah -400 to +200 would the range I'd try to stay in right now and see what happens. Obv workouts etc will kick it up as those get incorporated.

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I walk two or so miles a day, play basketball 2-3 times a week, and plan to lift 3 times a week. Using one of those guides I figured 3300 calories is my maintenance level. So I was thinking 2400 calories food plus on average 2-3 drinks a night (obviously not evenly spread out) would put me at a slight deficit. Does that seem reasonable?

And I take it the starting strength program is fine for what I'm trying to do? The book seems to be targeted on skinny high school kids so I wasn't sure.

[SmileyEH]

I would put your maintenance level higher. If you MUST drink, drink bacardi/diet cola type stuff. Give yourself at least 3k of real calories per day.