First off, thank you to everyone for their input.
I am trying a different approach. I haven’t touched the calories, but increased cardio to 6 1-hour morning walks and increased my lift days from 3 to 6-7. I’m doing 2 max bench/DL/squat days, 2 DE days, atleast one day solely for core work and one day for maximum repetitions.
I don’t have many social responsibilities and my work is light, so I thought I might as well take the opportunity and do what I love and see how far I can push myself.
Just like a brick wall, everything bounces back, nothing goes through. Why ask for help if you arent going to listen anyway???
[quote]boss99er wrote:
Just like a brick wall, everything bounces back, nothing goes through. Why ask for help if you arent going to listen anyway???[/quote]
But I have. You are just making an assumption. I didn’t see a need to detail everything.
For example I left out most of the fats from my breakfast. They weren’t necessary after all. I now eat the cottage cheese a bit earlier before going to sleep. I increased cardio. I read the FFB handbook and gained much from it.
I also decided to cut down on the steak and use lean meat more (obviously this will reduce my calories on those days, but I will increase veggies to balance it again). I am also planning to tweak my caloric intake in the coming weeks to see what works and what doesn’t. Like I said, I do office work and I don’t really burn many calories at work, so ready-made formulas might not be the best choice. As you adviced, I am trying to find the ‘sweet spot’ for fat loss.
Ok, I probably jumped to conclusions because that is how quite a few people are. They ask for help and then dont take the advice seriously. I really do think you need to up your calories a little though. You should find that the lbs start dropping off. I know its weird to get it through your head that upping calories can cause weight loss but I am living proof that it works.
I used to weight around 280 and have gotten down to 205 by using the formulas that you find on this site, like the ones that we have given you in this thread. You say you have a sedentary job, but so do I. I work at a desk all day long. I lift 3 days a week before work, and do cardio (usually a long walk or HIIT) 5 or 6 times a week.
Did you read the FFB handbook. That should be your bible from now on. If you didnt, here is the link. Read it carefully and soak it all in. Good luck bro, its all worth the work in the end.
[quote]boss99er wrote:
I really do think you need to up your calories a little though. You should find that the lbs start dropping off.[/quote]
I will in all likelyhood increase them, but I haven’t really given thought yet to how to add them. I considered stuff like rye crackers to increase fiber, but even after that I am still short from the 3000-3500 mark.
My main problem is that I have never eaten big portions, just calorie-dense foods. Thats why I like to add fats to the protein shakes so I don’t have to eat constantly.
But I also want to see what happens if I keep my calories at 2700 and increase expenditure. I have been in starvation mode more than once and I have never stayed at the same weight, let alone gained weight, during it. So I don’t understand why it happened this time.
I dropped my weight from 375 lbs to my current 300 lbs awhile back, but my body fat percentage actually stayed pretty much the same. So I know what you are getting at by telling me to eat enough. I would hate to be 230 with a 37% body fat.
Just thought I’d update the thread.
I have to admit that I have made no progress on the diet front, but I have put 40 pounds on my deadlift for some reason… I can’t find the area where the loss would be acceptable. I either lose way too much (2 pounds or more a day) or nothing and the whole thing usually degenerates into a hedonistic orgy where I dive head first into a sea of pizzas and doughnuts…
Anyway. Shugart mentioned that getting rid of a bad habit takes 21 days on average, so I’m cutting all unclean food from my diet for a minimum of a month. I can’t seem to cheat without binging. It has always been a way for me to relax, so it should be my priority to get rid off. I’m on day 4 now. I’m not gonna worry about calories or losing too much, I’m just gonna try to eat enough clean food. Advice and hints are naturally welcome, if anyone out there has had a similar problem with ‘comfort food’.
I also got a more accurate bodyfat reading. 30-32% at the moment (so the 37% reading was a bit high).
I should also say something nice to the guy who today bravely ventured into the public toilet after I used it. God… he only weighed 120 pounds at best and today was chili day. Extra kidney beans… He never had a chance. May a flight of angels sing thee to thy rest, little buddy.
Another update.
2 weeks without crappy food and no apparent problems with sticking to it. I’ve lost about 2 pounds in that 2 weeks. I’ve actually made gains, like putting 20 pounds of my deadlift, but I’m betting thats mostly from squatting for the first time in a long while.
But my goal is losing fat, so I have opted for the V-diet. I’m on day 4 now and going relatively smoothly if you don’t take into account getting an erection from the smell of sun-dried tomatoes… I did it before, but I didn’t eat enough protein and too much fat and lost a lot of muscle. But I did get hungry for veggies and I’m hoping that I’ll get it again. Oddly enough the veggie munchies disappeared once I went back to crappy food (yeah, not the smartest thing to do).
I will try to follow the diet to the letter. 360 grams of protein or so and enough healthy fats and some carbs after workouts. It should even out to about 2200+ calories. The only thing I couldn’t get were the Biotest stuff, since no one imports them to Finland and customs won’t let them through. So I’ll have to do it without HOT-ROX and Surge. I did opt for CLA, but I’m not sure how much it will help. Training will consist of 3+ gym days and an hours walk in the mornings.
And the lesson thus far I have learned is that if you are psychologically dependent on certain foods, the worst thing you can do is prime yourself for a ‘diet’, instead of working on removing that dependency. Thats the thing I’ve been doing wrong for the past 10 years. Now that I have focused on not eating crappy food it has been a smooth ride. Where as before I would have lost some weight, rationalized that I can eat some processed shit now and gained most or all of the weight back.
Well, I managed to fuck up the V-diet… Hurt my knee a bit and that disrupted both my cardio and weight training. And for some reason, whenever I’m idle, a big old PIZZA sign starts flashing in my head.
Of course it all rationalizations. Nothing forced me to eat that pizza. Can’t shift the blame for this one on anyone or anything but myself.
Anyway, its back to the drawing board. Its a shame cause I got 10 pounds off and the past 2 weeks have not been overly difficult. I have found that in the case of a fuck up like this, its mentally best to change your diet a bit. That way it feels ‘new’, instead of the diet you already cheated on and thus are likely to re-cheat.