DU weightlifters - help me lose my last 20 lbs

I've lost a lot of weight in the last year and a half, and I am about 15 or 20 lbs away from my goal of 10% BF. I've built some muscle and I have been real conservative about weight loss, going about 2lbs a week. I am male, late 40s, 5 feet 9, 182 lbs.

Nutrition looks like this;

5 meals a day, following "The Zone," currently 117g of protein, mixed w clean carbs and good fats per Zone

Training like this:

Monday: Chest and Back, multiple exercises, 3 sets, trying for 6 to 8 reps
Wednesday: Legs, multiple exercises, trying for 6 to 8 reps
Friday: Biceps/Triceps. multiple exercises, trying for 6 to 8 reps

Tues Thurs Sat Sun 45 mins cardio

Up until mid February I was also doing 30 mins of cardio on lifting days, but got nervous about losing muscle mass. On leg day it especially seemed like overkill.

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This appears to be working, but I am wondering if I ought to add back in more cardio. Or any other ideas?

If you've hit a plateau, I'd mix things up a little and add cardio on Mon and Fri (I agree that leg day could be overkill). Do you do the same cardio each day? Maybe jump from the treadmill to the elliptical (or vice versa). Gotta keep the body guessing.

You're doing really, really well, though from what you've stated. 10% bodyfat will be very nice. I have to say, though, most guys that get to the single digit zone, keep trying for the elusive 7% where those abs really pop.

Nice work! Keep it up, and keep us in the know.

I am doing mostly elliptical, with a treadmill session here or there. Will shake it up a little more. Thanks again for the praise, advice and motivation. And the new challenge - 7%?!?!? Here goes. . . .

High Intensity Interval Training. Even though you are burning fewer calories DURING the workout, you are speeding up your metabolism enough for the rest of the day that actual body fat loss can be as much as 9 times greater than steady, moderate cardio. You might want to consider replacing two of your regular 45 min cardio with two of these workouts a week.

http://www.musclemedia.com/training/hiit.asp
http://davedraper.com/hiit-cardio-training.html

Fivegan may disagree with me here, but I think losing muscle mass from doing cardio is over hyped. As long as you don't train like a Kenyon marathoner, and get proper nutrition (especially your post workout shake) you won't loose much in the way of muscle.

So many thanks for the links. . .davedraper.com especially clears it up for me.

I do my cardio now on a rowing machine.

I warm up for 12 minutes, followed by stretching. Then:

I go as hard as I can for 30 seconds, then rest for 30 seconds. Repeat until I can no longer. I may only get 6 or 8 hard reps in before I'm exhausted. The actual workout will only last 6-8 minutes (excluding the warmup and cooldown).

I then cool down for another 12 minutes.

to really lose that last 15 or 20. You should be doing cardio 5-6 days a week. You could drop it down to 30 minutes most days and do one day 45. Also you can try to do 8-12 reps instead of 6-8. You will probably have to decrease the weight by 5%. You still will get hypertrophy and strength. It will shake things up for you. Also if you can get three days that you can do exercises for each major muscle group. (not on consecutive days obviously.)

Good luck

Appreciate the suggestions - will definately get back to 5-6 days a week of cardio. I had been doing 8-12 reps for a while now - 6 to 8 reps is something I started in December and I made some real gains with it in terms of muscle building . . .

try to separate the big muscle groups. Don't work back and chest on the same day. Consider back and biceps, chest and triceps, legs and shoulders. Change your routine and your body will respond. If you stick with the same workout, your body will adapt to it and not lose any weight or make gains. The Zone is a pretty good diet. Also, consider cycling your calories.

Will post results one month frm when I made the original post. . .

do 15 minutes of lifting on you lifting days
Monday: chest and shoulders or triceps
Wed: legs
Friday: biceps and back
only two different excercises a day, maybe 3 if you want to do abs too.
Pick a weight that you can lift comfortably but has resistance.
Do a set of 5 in one excercise, then do a set of 5 in the other excercise.
Alternate like that until you do 5 sets of 5, then drop down to sets of 4, then 3, then 2. Stop when you have done this for 15 minutes.
It's convenient if one or both excercises are with free weights.

You can do cardio for up to 1 hour without losing muscle mass. (actually you can do more, but don't) And you can certainly do cardio and weights on the same day. If it's morning and you haven't eaten any carbs yet, do cardio first. If it's evening or you have eaten, do weights first.

Every 4 weeks change your excercises.

If you don't like the 15 minute routine, then try lifting and lowering the weight really slow. Like 3 seconds up and 7 seconds down. or 10 seconds each way.

are you saying each session of two excercises is 15 minutes long? or 15 minutes each for a total of 30? Currently I shoot for no longer than 45 minutes per weight work out. What's the theory behind your recommendations. . . .THANKS!

don't worry, it should burn like a mother when you're done. :P