Hello everyone, I am new to the forums so nice to meet you all. Here is my problem.
I am 25 years old, 5’6" @ 204 lbs. According to the scale I am at 28% bf. Back in March I weighed 275 lbs. and was at 25% bf according to the scale. I severely restricted my calories, took some pills for weightloss, drank a gallon of water a day and did tons of cardio. (Seems as though my upper body narrowed itself. It was quite painful at times)In the state that I am at now, I can’t seem to get below 204 lbs. and I have no energy and look kind of sickly. I also became weak and could not lift a fraction of what I was lifting in the gym before weightloss.
A friend I used to train with told me not to go below 200 - 190 because I am not meant to be skinny. It may also be of note to say in highschool I weighed 195-198 lbs. and according to my doctor I was always 50-40 lbs. over what I should have weighed according to w/e chart he was talking about.
My first question is should I continue to try to lose fat, or just improve my ratio by adding muscle mass?
Should I worry about my height/weight ratio. According to my friend at school, I should drop to 140-150, but he does MMA.
You should eat a healthy balanced diet (search this site for a good diet, T-Dawg, Anabolic Diet, look up precision nutrition)
You should perform a balanced weight training routine (Rippetoes Starting Strength, look it up at bodybuilding.com )
Perform some cardio, you don’t need to run like an anorexic 12 year old.
Eat slightly below maintenance. But only slightly. You should be burning plenty of calories in the gym, so you don’t have to restrict calories so much. Calculate your Daily Energy expenditure (DEE) and eat slightly below that.
What ever you like best when you look in the mirror
Depends on what you like. And what your health insurance company thinks. Mine is not very happy with my BMI of 26.
Just ask yourself: Would you like to do that? Is it really too stressful?
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If you answer “yes”, keep doing it.
Alternate between HIIT and low-impact cardio, though.
Post-workout shake: Good idea. Either Surge or at least whey protein mixed with maltodextrin.
On off-days. 3 days lifting, 3 days cardio seem like a good basic training schedule to me.
But I guess some basic facts would help. So: How much do you eat daily, what amount of calories, what percentage proteins, carbs and fats?
Your friend is an idiot. And never trust either a scale or a chart to tell you how much bodyfat you are. It’s a hell of a lot more complicated than that.
[quote]Contrl wrote:
Your friend is an idiot. And never trust either a scale or a chart to tell you how much bodyfat you are. It’s a hell of a lot more complicated than that.[/quote]
Right, we’ll need a picture of you holding a shoe to know for sure. j/k
Seriously though, Pozzska’s advice was right on the money.
j/k