Tired of Beating My Head Against the Wall, Need Advice

I’ve done a lot of crappy stuff in ridiculous conditions, and I like squinchers. Mix up a jug in the morning and use it all day.

I’ve always felt that by the time you realize you’re behind, it’s too late.

How many calories do you burn per day?

What do you eat on the weekends?

How much do you eat when you don’t nail your meals the other 20% of the time?

many moons ago i worked in a moving paint booth for mobile home frames wearing 2 suits, mask, and Texas heat. we drank aqua fresca.

Now in the tropics of the world , coconut water canned or fresh is my go to drink for the heat. Do as the natives do

I get what you’re saying, the last meal is dinner with the wife and kids lol. The days she works she’s not home until about 19:45-20:00. I train after work, so that puts me at the gym at about 15:30 or so.

I understand your concern about the protein powder. It’s for convenience. Cooking/eating a solid meal at 3 in the morning isn’t fun. I’ve tried it. I’ve tried cutting my food off after meals 5 or 6 and I end up getting sick or hypoglycemic. I’m glad your concerned about my financial situation, I assure you that I’m doing just fine.

Cool, thanks for the info. My assistance work is usually pretty fast paced (low rest time) though I don’t usually super set. I’ll have to try it. Thanks.

Yeah that would be correct. I’ve never slept much. Even as a kid. In all honesty it’s what I have to do to take care of my family. I know that my sleeping schedule isn’t optimal. But I don’t have an other choice in it at this point in time.

Yeah coconut water is amazing. Guess I should swift to using that.

See, you get it!! Lol yeah we usually have those at the shop. And in the middle of summer I use them to help keep up.

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Yeah. I’ve welded in barges during the summer. The thermometer stopped at 120 and it hit that by 10:00 am every day, in full ppe, etc.

At a couple of places if they weren’t being used the supervisor or foreman would get written up or fired.

Typically hydration and electrolytes are a foregone conclusion, but in those conditions they are a must.

How many do I burn? I have no idea.

The weekends are usually the same types of foods just smaller quantities because of not working.

The 15-20% of the time is the normal stuff, dinner with friends, date with the wife, working a random crazy long shift (we’re talking 14-16+hrs) and I run out of food and have to eat whatever is in the snack bar like ON protein almonds or whatever protein bars are there. And a breakfast burrito once every 2 weeks when we get them as a shop on the Saturdays we work.

Exactly. For me it’s driving pins out of machines that have just been heated or in really bad cases lanced. Usually that means you get really friendly with a 20lb hammer. And because it’s metal on metal contact that means face shield and full frontal leathers.

I would suggest you either try to estimate your TDEE with an online calculator or get a FitBit type watch so that you have a bit more knowledge into how many calories you’re burning.

I would also suggest that you try your hardest to be consistent with your calorie and macro intake 100% of the time. That 20% plus weekends (which turns it into 50%) could be hampering your efforts when you eat whatever is available.

If you’re not losing weight, you’re eating at maintenance, that is a fact. If you want to lose weight you may need to be more strict with your dietary intake. My #1 tip is to log everything.

sorry for being unclear. The 20% is including the weekends.

I work at a power plant, so I totally get the hydration needs. I buy hundreds of sqwincher packs a week for my guys during the Summer and during outages, they give you the electrolytes without any calories.

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Even 20% is a lot to be inconsistent with. If you eat at 500 calories below maintenance for 80% of the time but eat 2,000 calories above maintenance 20% of the time (which is not hard when you eat out, eat whatever is available, eat breakfast burritos) you end up averaging at maintenance.

Ultimately that doesn’t even matter if you don’t know how much you actually should be eating. You could be eating at maintenance for that 80% of the time.

Learn your maintenance calories and eat below that 100% of the time.

So a Fitbit isn’t an option for me because it’s a safety issue. No rings, watches, bracelets or anything due to risk of getting caught and sucked into moving machinery.

I looked up a few different tdee calculators as well as math equations online as well as here on tnation. Using my stats of 31 years old, 6’ tall and 260 lbs and using a moderate activity level the highest one (which included time spent lifting calculated at 30 minutes of intense effort spent on big lifts) placed me at ~4200. The rest were between 3200 and 3400.

So if we average that to 3300 and then take a 20% deficit that places overall caloric intake of 2640. My current average is 2450 which is even further below deficit.

So this would mean one of 4 things:

  1. I’m snacking and not realizing it.
  2. The 20% is totally messing me up
  3. My metabolism is slower than normal (which I’ve issues with in the past)
  4. Or I’m not eating enough.

Does that sound about right or am I missing something?

Thanks for the advice btw. It’s appreciated.

I used to work for a contractor that did work at PVNGS. Outage sucked.

#1 is possible.
#2 is probable; you might also not be measuring portions accurately enough as well.
#3 is possible although highly unlikely. If you feel you have a problem with your metabolism you should contact your doctor and maybe have some blood tests done to check your thyroid.
#4 is highly unlikely. 2450 calories isn’t low enough to put your body into starvation mode.

3300 seems reasonable if you have a moderately active job and exercise 30 minutes a day.

For me at least: consistency is king. I measure, record and track everything (there are various apps). I used to use an app called FatSecret that worked very well for me; I hear MyFitnessPal is also very good. Since I got a FitBit I use their app which also syncs up to their scale.

Try to be consistent 100% of the time with tracking what you eat. It’s okay to treat yourself once in a while, but log it so you can reference the data later. If you’re not getting the results you want then you will know where to make adjustments to your diet. Honestly often times my desire to hit my calorie targets override my desire to eat sweets.

Measure and track everything! I guarantee that once you’re consistent with tracking you’ll start seeing the results you want.

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Right on. I know my thyroid is ok. Had it checked 8 weeks ago with my last testosterone check. I get the results from my most recent blood draw on Wednesday.