50 Pounds Gone and Not sure How to Proceed....

Diet and Nutrition
1

I have lost almost 50 pounds of me since about March.
I am 5’8 or 9…started at 253 and now I am 206.

I went LOW calorie, and lots of raw greens…and treadmill 25 minutes 3-4 times a week.
My initial goal was to lose 50 pounds quickly. I am there now. I went from a 40 inch waist starting get tight on me to a 36 that is VERY slightly lose. I went from wearing XX Large (belly should have been XXX large) to now wearing a large in most shirts.

I feel a whole lot better, but I also know that with that kind of “diet” muscle also gets lost.

I am now ready to go to “Phase Two” of my plan…build muscle and still lose more fat.
I have done no resistance training and I am ready to start now.

Anything I do at this point will be an improvement. I will be doing basic stuff for a short time and then get more creative as I go.
Nutrition…I am not sure what to do at this point.

I plan on early morning workouts and need to know how to time my nutrition.

suggestions?
Thanks

2

How many daily calories are you planning on eating, and with what types of workouts?

Make sure to eat before you workout.

And eat lots of protein (the usual target being 1g protein per lb bodyweight).

3

Congrats on the weight loss dude. Last year I dropped 30lbs of fat. I did resistance training throughout, and it helped immensely.

If you haven’t done any resistance training yet, you will likely put on some muscle mass while dropping fat just by adding resistance training, though aiming to do both at the same time is tricky. But as for nutrition, same as EasyRhino, what kind of caloric intake are you looking at? Make sure you eat whole foods, lots of proteins (1g/lb, as already stated), good fats, and go easy on the carbs (especially simple carbs, the exception being post-workout).

Check out some of the older articles in the diet/nutrition section. There’s some good stuff. Also, Shugs has some good tips for FFBs (former fat boys, of which I am one) and nutritional tips.

Hope that helps a bit.

4

Whatever you do…do not be afraid to see weight gains.

Thats a slippery slope, one that “FFB’s” are susceptible.

My suggestion would be to pick a shoot for a set number of calories per day. If you are losing weight, eat more, if you are gaining weight, stick with it unless it is not accompanied by further strength gains

5

EasyRhino…honestly I am not sure…let me share what I have been doing and what I sort of have in mind.

Breakfast… 1 slice of whole wheat bread and glass of milk.

Lunch…2 cups of raw spinach, about a cup of cottage cheese, small yogurt, apple

midnoon…apple, sometimes…sometimes nothing

supper…it varies, whatever the wife cooks up, less of the high starch stuff…more of the greens or veggies.
For instance, my plate might be nearly half full of brocollii, a spoon of mac and cheese, and chicken tenderloins.

Other times it might be 2 cups of raw spinach and slced chicken breat on whole wheat.
Really, supper had no hard and fast rules other than eating more of what is generally considered healthy and leass of what is not.

Drank mainly milk, water and diet sodas.

meal 1…Now I am thinking of breakfast being oatmeal and protien powder mixed…maybe a banana or an apple (looking for carb and protien mix with little to no fat)

meal 2…Post workout would be protien powder…not sure what to mix it with.
I am not sure if carbs are needed post workout?? And if so should they be slow, like whole wheat, or fast, like fruit?

meal 3…Lunch something along the lines of a grilled chicken breast on whole wheat and 2 cups of spinach.
Again, looking for protein and carbs

meal 4…this would be supper…not sure what to eat at this point.

meal 5 … big old scoop of natural peanut butter and wash it down with a little milk…or possibly make a protien shake with skim milk and add peanutbutter…going for fat and protein.

6

I will see if I can post a pik of me so that you can know where I am right now…

7

you’re gonna have to gauge your diet and see how fast/slow you want to lose weight and how fast muscle is being built, id avoid doing you’re cardio and weight sessions together, if they have to be close together id do this.
-Upon waking, 1 scoop of protein or fasted
-Immediately followed by you’re usual cardio
-Breakfast (complex carbs [oats], and some protein) + Pre w/o nutrition (w/e you do)
-Weight training
-Post W/O meal, (Faster digesting carbs[waxy maize, dextrose,maltodextrin] and protein

I’d also do a carb cut-off at about 6 PM, to increase the effectiveness of you’re morning cardio (empty glycogen storages)

8

Did you do any lifting while you were cutting?

9

Your current diet sounds like a TINY amount of food. I mean… 1500 calories or less? It would help to use some calorie tracking for a day or two to peg some numbers (I use dailyplate.com, fitday.com is popular).

I like what you’re thinking with the new diet. Yes you want carbs around your workout. Pre-workout is somewhat better than post, and faster ones are somewhat better than slow ones. Don’t sweat it too much.

Shifting from super tiny diet to a larger one might be a big shock to your metabolism. Maybe try making stepwise adjustments over a few weeks.

Also, it sounds like you still may be wanting to lose fat. It can be challening to lose fat and gain muscle at the same time. Something I’m fighting with. It’s doable, it’s just slow.

10

lose the milk. aside from protein shakes, you should consider eliminated all beverages that have any calories.

11

I’d recommend a general Berardi diet. Lay off the carbs except around the workout window. Otherwise stay high protein/fat. I’ve used with great success. so a day mite look like:

Breakfast: three eggs, hand full of frozen spinach, 2-4oz ground turkey, some salt and pepper.

snack: protein shake blended with frozen broccoli

lunch: steak stir fry.

snack: handful of almonds

workout: Surge Recovery

dinner:Chicken fajitas with 1 cup brown rice

throw fish oil in with protein/fat meals. You can count the calories if you want til you start to learn your body. I’ve found after counting calories for a few months that I only need to keep a food journal for what I ate not really how much since I naturally eat what i need for my goals.

12

[quote]mch60360 wrote:
I’d recommend a general Berardi diet. Lay off the carbs except around the workout window. Otherwise stay high protein/fat. I’ve used with great success. so a day mite look like:
[/quote]

Speaking of Berardi, as you should plan to keep this for the long haul you may want to follow Berardi’s advice from: Strength Training, Bodybuilding & Online Supplement Store - T NATION and the other two parts of the same series. In that, he gives particular guidelines for what to eat, but more importantly how to plan, track, and really importantly to evaluate your eating over time.

From that you can modify the eating incrementally. Following this method will help you find the point that will let you keep dropping fat or get the process going again if the process stops. Also, as you start to focus on gaining muscle, you will be in a good position to increase your caloric intake incrementally to get the nutrients you need for growth without rebounding with fat. For many, like myself, dropping the initial weight is the easy part (eat things with few calories and do lots of cardio – nothing more specific or measured is needed), but getting down a good nutritional system for the final fatloss, maintenance and clean bulking is much harder. Berardi’s articles make it really systematic and are very helpful. Also, if you do not find that his specific recommendations for eating are for you, the overall system for making, sticking to, evaluating and adjusting a plan is very helpful no matter what plan you use.

In any case, congrats on the progess, and I hope you continue to have success at pursuing your goals.

13

Before trying to bulk immediately after, just try for a good while to stay where you are. You’ve obviously made a lot of progress, so give your body a break for awhile and let it adjust a bit so that the changes can be permanent. Get off the diet, and learn to just eat healthy in general while maintaining your weight.

My biggest mistake after losing a lot of weight and rushing off to a bulking diet to get back some of that lost muscle. The result was a whole lot of regained fat. Take it slow.

Berardi’s 7 rules are a great guideline.

14

It sounds like you eat very few calories so metabolism may have slowed down, so as evilmage says do not rush into a bulking diet. Try upping your protein intake and add some resistance training in. This sshould burn more calories as well as stimulating muscle fibres.

I think you will need to go a bit instinctively to know when to increase your calories, but increase them a small amount at a time so you gain muscle and don’t put the fat back on. Also keep eating healthy and do not get tempted to eat junk food.
Good luck.

15

[quote]mch60360 wrote:
I’d recommend a general Berardi diet. Lay off the carbs except around the workout window. Otherwise stay high protein/fat. I’ve used with great success. so a day mite look like:

Breakfast: three eggs, hand full of frozen spinach, 2-4oz ground turkey, some salt and pepper.

snack: protein shake blended with frozen broccoli

lunch: steak stir fry.

snack: handful of almonds

workout: Surge Recovery

dinner:Chicken fajitas with 1 cup brown rice

throw fish oil in with protein/fat meals. You can count the calories if you want til you start to learn your body. I’ve found after counting calories for a few months that I only need to keep a food journal for what I ate not really how much since I naturally eat what i need for my goals.
[/quote]

This advice is solid, I do a varation of this diet – although I prefer to include carbs at breakfast also. You don’t too get too complicated with your pre/PWO nutrition, I’d suggest blending a serving of whey protein, oats, and a tbs. of peanutbutter thirty minutes before you lift – 1-2 servings whey protein and 1-2 pop-tarts PWO.

I’d also second the advice to count your calories; and the advice to drop all drinks out of your diet besides protein shakes/water.

I’d recommend a Barbell TBT to start off – bill starr’s 5x5 program is a solid program that I’ve used myself.

16

I didn’t read all of the responses because I just woke up from partying all night, but all I can say is that with heavy eating and lifting, you will gain rapid weight for at least a month or so because of muscle memory. Whenever I have dieted and lost muscle, I gain it back rapidly when I bulk up again until I’m just as big as I was before, but much leaner.

17

[quote]guitarlifter wrote:
I didn’t read all of the responses because I just woke up from partying all night, but all I can say is that with heavy eating and lifting, you will gain rapid weight for at least a month or so because of muscle memory. Whenever I have dieted and lost muscle, I gain it back rapidly when I bulk up again until I’m just as big as I was before, but much leaner.[/quote]

Did you bother to read the OP’s post? He said he dieted without resistance training, just cardio.

18

[quote]Chi-Towns-Finest wrote:
guitarlifter wrote:
I didn’t read all of the responses because I just woke up from partying all night, but all I can say is that with heavy eating and lifting, you will gain rapid weight for at least a month or so because of muscle memory. Whenever I have dieted and lost muscle, I gain it back rapidly when I bulk up again until I’m just as big as I was before, but much leaner.

Did you bother to read the OP’s post? He said he dieted without resistance training, just cardio.[/quote]

Did you bother to read mine? Mine addressed his issue of wanting to build muscle which includes the muscle that he acknowledged that he lost with his diet. I saw the cardio remark, but it honestly doesn’t matter how he lost the muscle, just the fact that he did lose the muscle during his cutting diet, and some heavy eating and lifting will solve that especially since he only dieted with cardio.