Overweight. Help Planning Lifting, Nutrition, and Protein?

So, I have done my share of lifting throughout my life. Now 44 years old and weigh 230. I ave started lifting again. My body makeup is fit but not big arms, fit but not big legs. My stomach is big though. I wear 36 inch waist, but belly hangs over it. I know with lifting there is a way of eating especially protein. How do I lift, eat right, eat at the right times, and consume enough protein without getting fatter in the stomach? Thanks

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You won’t get fat eating meat and eggs. Cut down on carbs on non lifting days.

Eat 1.0-1.5g of protein per lbs of bodyweight per day.

Eat 11-13x per lbs of bodyweight in total calories per day.

Get 15-25g of fibre per day

Get at least 100g of carbs in and 50g of fat in but otherwise spread your carbs and fat as you like.

Lose 0.5 to 2lbs of bodyweight per week. Adjust calories up/down depending on what you see on the scale.

Adjust based on your personality and preferences. Keep it as simple as possible.

I did keto strictly for about 8 months and lost 40 pounds. I have gained about 15 of it back. I am really finding it difficult to up my carbs that much. I will put these rules in place and do the math. Thanks a lot.

What’s your height?

5 feet 9 inches

at your height and weight a 36 inch waste isnt that bad

Yeah but that belly hanging over my waist line is very bad. I have it.

Yeah Keto is hard to do LT. I find bacon and eggs fills me up more than other protein sources.

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If you up your carbs, lower your fat.

If you up your fat, lower your carbs.

Protein should be anywhere from 1-2g/lb.

Can you give a bit more detail.
What is your current training program
How many days/hours a week are you training.
Do you have a history of sport or other training.
What does your current diet look like. Give an example day of eating and drinking (be honest).
Losing weight isn’t really that difficult, clean up your diet and be more active should do the job as long A you stick with it.

I life whole body three days a week and do cardio one to two days a week. My whole body is mainly compound movements. My cardio and weight workouts last about an hour each. Honestly my meals are pretty clean.
Breakfast:
Protein powder shake with a half of avocado, 1 tbsp peanut butter, a cup of unsweetened coconut milk, and a banana. If I don’t have this, I eat eggs and cheese on a low carb tortilla shell.
Lunch:
Salad greens, maybe a cup or two with cucumbers, and a little homemade Italian dressing. A tbsp or two of cheddar cheese. I have usually leftovers, pork chop, chicken breast, etc.
Supper:
Beef, chicken, salmon, pork along with two veggies like squash, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, broccoli, etc.
After workout shake:
Just coconut milk and protein powder

Many thanks.

If this is what you are eating every day and you haven’t forgotten anything (like 10 beers or 4 bags of chips), then diet shouldn’t be a problem. It’s hard to know for sure as you didn’t write how big your portions sizes were. But I’m going to assume your getting enough protien and the rest looks pretty clean.
How long have you been back training and eating like this ? What progress have you seen so far.
Are you following a written program or did you do your own program?
From what you’ve said, my only advise would be to pick a proven full body workout, follow it 100%, train hard. Track your progress over the next 3 months and make adjustments after that.
It takes time to undo years of abuse so don’t expect it to change overnight. Good luck I think you’ve got this, it’s just time and consistency now.

When I first joined the gym on March 31, 2019, I was doing only cardio. I did 3.5 miles in an hour with incline up quite a bit. I did go from 237 down to 228. Then back up to 230. And still there. I started lifting a couple weeks ago. Three day whole body. I did not make it up myself. Just time, I know. Thanks a lot.

I was the one they posted the thread about being overweight but working out and under eating a bit. I am male, 44 years old, 5 feet 9 inches, 233 pounds this morning. I am lifting three days a week whole body with mainly compound movements. I have upped my calorie intake to 2,200. I am trying to stay around 100-120 grams of carbs a day, 160-180 grams of protein a day, Andy 80-90 grams of fat a day. So, me being 233 pounds, my doctor isn’t going to say hey it’s fine that you weigh 233, you lift weights. Well, I am also probably 30-40% body fat. So, what should my next plan of action be? I like lifting heavy, well heavy for me. Just not sure what direction is going to allow me to gain some muscle, lose some fat, and be a lot healthier. I talked to a woman I would work with. Neither are extremely heavy. She and her hubby are on this diet program that comes in a box. They are eating like 900 calories a day and losing like crazy. I saw the pictures. She has lost 30 pounds and he has lost 68 pounds. There no way no way that calorie intake can be healthy, but they sure look a lot healthier than me. Any help?

See if your coworker & her husband rebound after they go off that crash diet. It’s better to learn & practice healthy eating habits (hit calorie targets, know your macros, etc…) than it is to blindly follow fad diets.

You are very overweight. Stay a little hungry, walk up hills (real ones are far superior to angled treadmills) & learn to love squatting for reps. When you get under 190-200 lb, worry about the fine tuning.

2200 cal/day & a quality 3day/wk full body plan combined with (2-3) ~1hour long walks on off days should have you dropping pounds. It doesn’t happen overnight, but it will happen. Weigh yourself on the same scale & at the same time daily for “true” weight.

Welcome to the board, consider starting a log to hold yourself accountable & to get advice/encouragement from folks who have been there & done that.

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Did you see Dan John’s article on T Nation today (the article is a couple years old, but it’s on the front list of articles today):

Basically, whatever you are doing now stop it and do something else.

Doing full body workouts 3x a week? Stop that, and learn a new lift or use a completely different weekly split.

Doing straight sets? Stop that, and superset everything.

Doing 1 hour of steady state cardio a couple times a week? Stop that, and do KB swings or intervals or hill sprints or play sports for conditioning.

Now, about eating, I personally don’t believe that is your typical eating day. Or, at least not something you’ve sustained. Most overweight people either list their most perfect eating day and claim this as their “norm”, or neglect large amounts of calories that come from somewhere. When I lived in PA, I knew some strong yet pretty fat dudes that would claim “slow metabolism” was to blame for their bellies. Yet, hanging out with them for a day I was shocked at how much food they would eat. For example, a salad for them was a bed of greens with fried chicken strips, bacon, cheese, gobs of ranch dressing, plenty of bread rolls, and a diet coke. “See, I eat salads for lunch, drink diet sodas, and I still have a huge gut. My metabolism sucks!”.

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I liked that article. I think it’s important for people new to lifting/fitness to try new things, and ultimately it helps them.

I’m still a firm believer in doing compound movements for sets of 5-12, but then it’s all open season for everything else.

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college,

So I’ve noticed there is a bit of an issue with losing weight then putting it back on. This tells me that a short term diet with a lot of complexity isn’t going to be sustainable for you. Dieting to a 10 - 12% bf range isn’t complicated and doesn’t need to be. Keep it simple…

  1. Protein - to preserve muscle
  2. Lifting Weights - to preserve muscle
  3. Caloric deficit - to lose fat

If you are already doing full body 3 times a week (assuming you aren’t doing something stupid) than we don’t need to worry about that.

Since you have quite a few lbs to lose I’d stick to a reasonable protein intake about .8 to 1 g/lb. There really isn’t a need to go higher (this wouldn’t be the case if you had a much lower bf)

A caloric deficit is a personal thing so its impossible for me to give you an exact answer but the more fat you have you can incur a higher deficit than someone who is leaner. Until you get leaner a goal of 1 - 1.5 lbs per week is appropriate. How many calories? Well we are going to have to do some trial and error here. I think a good starting point is maybe 15 * BW * .75 then adjust from there. So maybe for you… 15 * 230 * .75 = ~2600 cals.

So putting this together you’ll want to shoot for 180 - 230 ish grams of protein and 2600ish calories a day. Don’t bother watching your weight for 1-2 weeks because there is alot of flux at the start of a diet. You can track after that. Your goal is 1-1.5 lbs a week. Reduce calories slightly if it stalls. Rinse and Repeat.

–Ralphie

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There really isn’t a question here. You need to drop bodyfat.

The good news is you can get there pretty easily if you are patient and don’t chase quick fixes:

  • Having a decent serve of protein and vegetables in 2 of your meals per day
  • Eating slowly and until you are just full in atleast 2 of your meals per day
  • Some form of exercise for 30 minutes 5x per week
  • reducing desserts, processed food and drinks with calories (ie. You are likely having each of these daily, limit to once from one item)

Consistently hitting those 4 things every day will get you to a far healthier bodyfat. When you are closer to 20% then getting down to the mid-teens will take a bit more effort and planning.

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