Wait a freaking minute? I’m done, these items don’t touch my lips. And if you are trying to lose fat, they should not touch your lips either.
I knew a fat guy once named Bob. He walked everyday at lunch and wanted to drop weight. One day we were talking and he said I watch what I eat, I only have one bowl of ice cream a night now… I flipped the fuck out.
This is a terrible diet. I have no clue as to why you would be confused about your stalled weight loss.
So firstly that’s great progress from 415, good start and I’m sure you feel noticeably better. You’re working on the CICO model and thats great, you’re focusing on the right things. Looks like you have the CI part of CICO nailed, assuming you are logging your food honestly and not sneaking in extra treats, where you are falling down though is in the following logic:
You believe that this wrist band is somehow calculating all of the thousands of complex metabolic processes happening within your body, as well as your nature and the nature of the physical activity you are doing?
This band might know how many steps you take in a day and is probably measuring your heart rate elevation over time and, using those factors EXCLUSIVELY is ESTIMATING your calorie expenditure.
The bottom line is, you’re eating 2500-3500 (ish) and you are maintaining your current bodyweight. Therefore that is how many calories a day you are burning. There is no argument to be made there, if you eat 3,000 on average long term, and weight does not move long term, 3,000 is how many calories you are burning, on average, long term.
I also don’t buy for a second that you are in ‘starvation mode’ at 3,000 calories. Your body has more than enough calories for its basic underlying functions, no survival instincts are required at this point.
Since it looks like you are already working out pretty hard with some cardio, and in my experience there are definitiely diminishing and negative returns to adding more cardio to achieve weight loss, the bottom line and boring answer is that to continue weight loss, you need to do exactly what you did to lose weight in the first place, the same thing everyone else has to do to continue stalled weight loss, you need to get more strict on your diet.
You need to eat slightly fewer calories daily, and I would seriously recommend getting some vegetables, or at least some fruit in there. Your diet is literally brown exclusively and I don’t see that there is any way that you aren’t micro nutrient deficient across the board.
I’m not going to make specific reccomendations, mostly because there are hundreds of ways you can improve your diet or effect the reduction in calories. I think whats important is that you understand that is what is required and find a way to do that which is sustainable for you. You managed it once so I believe you have the mindset to do so successfully.
I would like to reiterate my first point, that you’ve lost 80lb and that’s awesome, probably lifechanging to a degree. Losing the next 80lbs will be harder, probably slower BUT even more rewarding. Physiologically and psychologically.
So with the information given, what would be a good calorie goal while doing Waterbury’s Summer Project? 2000? 2500? 3000?
I can cut the shit completely and eat clean, with more vegetables and healthy carbs, but what calorie goal should I aim for and how many grams of protein?
My advice, learn to appreciate the slow burn of progress. If you’re maintaining weight now, then first thing is replacing the oreos et al. with a cleaner alternative. Then once you are stalling out weight loss wise, you do another thing that inches you towards your goal.
But if you desperately need absolutes: Start at 3000 calories with protein at 0.8g/lbs. Once you stop making headway, bump the protein to 1g/lbs. Then, 1.25g. Then cut calories or add in activity.
Caveat emptor: I haven’t checked out the program, it might be unsuitable to run whilst dieting.
That’s it. Get more protein, you’re probably consuming way too many carbs and not enough protein to encourage muscle growth. I use Scooby’s Calorie calculator, which I’ve found is the most in-depth caloric intake calculator out there.
Bodyweight x10-12.
1g per pound of bodyweight, if not more.
I recognize that that’s a fairly significantly increase in calories from where you are currently, which was generally addressed in the Metabolic Damage article linked earlier, so you may not actually see fat loss initially. Basically, you need to (finally) start eating to support your training until your body understands that it’s not going to explode from all the work you’re asking of it.
If you’re maintaining at a a number now, take off say 500 and track progress for a few weeks. It has to be a dynamic process. If you lose weight too quickly, up the number, if you don’t lose, lower it.
Is this really a helpful metric for a dude carrying 150lbs of fat?
For a guy considering training 6 days a week, with 3 full body lifting sessions and 3 HIIT cardio sessions, who’s also coming from a prolonged period of significant undereating, yes I think it is.
Target calorie generalizations are generalizations that don’t extend accurately to the far ends of the bell curve (like this guy’s size certainly is), but what he’s been doing so far has also been at the far end of the bell curve, so some degree of “normalcy” is required.
He’s 335 pounds right now and the other day he ate 2360 calories. You’re saying he should drop 500 calories a day and track progress, and then potentially lower calories even further if he’s not seeing results? That’s bonkers.
I’m ignoring a one day snapshot on a thread about why he can’t lose weight because I am 99% sure that is not an average day, but an aspirational day or a particularly good one. I’m asking him to honestly assess his average intake over the past period of stagnation and adjust based on that, because if he has been tracking then that is a much more accurate estimate of maintenance then a generaliswd start point that, as you say, does not work on his end of the bell curve. 4,000 calories a day is not going to lose him weight.
I mean, all we have to go on is the info he’s provided. A few days ago, it was “I eat 2500-3000 calories”, then the one semi-detailed snapshot he shared is quite less than that. In my experience, snapshot’s do tend to reflect the norm, not the exception. If we had a full 7-day log to review, that’d be great, but we know that ain’t happening.
Agreed, which is what I said. Increasing his calorie intake (particularly from quality sources like protein) will slowly/eventually normalize his body systems which’ve been in panic mode for the last six months when he was eating 2500 calories as a 415-pounder.
Once his body is able to function properly, he can resume a more appropriate calorie deficit. I just don’t see the benefit of continuing such a drastic restriction when he’s been literally starving his body for so long.
here is my calorie consumption over the last 90 days.
All the while, i’ve been lifting 4 days a week with multiple HIIT sessions.
I just did a 2000m row in 7:40.8 today after a 5/3/1 bench day and Im 335 every morning when I wake up.
Sometimes i would think I was eating too low so I’d have a high calorie day trying to boost my metabolism.
But this brings me to my main issue with the starvation mode idea…anorexic people aren’t fat… I figured even though my calories might be too low, if my expenditure was higher i would eventually lose weight again.
I appreciate you posting the additional info. However, I count 26 days out of 90 that were at or below 2,000 calories. So nearly 30% of the time, you were significantly undershooting your already-low calorie goal.
Okay… now expand that same concept from days to weeks, and that’s kinda-sorta the basic premise of undoing metabolic damage.
They’re also literally on death’s door and have no lean muscle or ability to perform physical activity.
Nope.
If you up your calories at this point you’ll gain some weight, some of will be water weight, some will be muscle, some will be fat, some will just be having more food in your bowels.
I’d reverse diet by adding calories back in, by increasing your daily caloric intake in 250—500 calorie increments over a few weeks until you feel well and your weight is pretty stable despite not running a deficit. Maintenance will be between 13-15xBW (I’m guessing, not sure how well the model holds up at higher bodyweights) depending on your level of physical activity.
Once you are there and have been there for a few weeks I’d consider running a deficit again.
My experience was dieting for too long and losing strength and muscle in the process. My heart rate even slowed down significantly. I mention this because I feel as if my suggestions might be biased as a result.
But, I’d be willing to argue that this approach won’t undo your work and is the safer alternative and will set you up for continued progress later on.
I have found that to merely do cardio can only do so much. I only do about 20-30 min of cardio a day in the morning and about 1-2 hrs of weights later. To only do cardio especially only HIIT everyday for a very long length of time can put your body in a very acidotic state (not to mention your cotirsol levels can go through the roof with just cardio and hiit training which can actually give way to fat deposition) and if you continue to focus on macros and perhaps change them up a bit (just with needing to change up exercise to confuse your muscles sometimes you need to change up the fats:carbs ratio to break through the plateau).
I would consult with an experienced coach for specifics on amounts of macros. I would do more weights as well. It’s not just about burning calories. When you eat the right foods and macro nutrient quantities you’d be shocked how much your fat percentage can go down with weight training alone. As I said, I would consult with an experienced coach. Hope this helps.
Cut out your bullshit foods dude if you want to keep losing weight. The shitty snacks you are eating are designed by scientists to not be satiating, and are designed to make you want more. You can’t outsmart these scientists with macro-tracking… It is you vs biology.
Nothing complex here. Replace every POS oreo/cheezit/junk with a bland chicken breast and i’m sure you will feel more full and lose more weight. Eating real food cuts down urges to snack. Eat all the bland chicken breast you want, go crazy, and you’ll find less of an urge to snack on these bogus calories.
multivitamin supplements, B complex with C, D3+K2
protein rich foods that cover your micros requirements: whole eggs, red meat, fatty fish
your body will burn those stores of fat to reach TDEE.
