Soldato
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Any of the commercially produced protein cookies? Battle Oats are the tastiest I've found so far
** The Official Weight Loss Thread **
- Thread starter Andybtsn
- Start date
Any of the commercially produced protein cookies? Battle Oats are the tastiest I've found so far
Soldato
If your TDEE is 2,500 cals then eat 2,000 cals per day, I wouldn't advise any less (1,500 cals is way too low).
Second lesson in weight loss
Your body adapts to the amount of calories you're eating so if you continue to eat 1,500 cals that'll end up being your TDEE in a couple of weeks. Instead you want eat at 2,000 calories per day until you stop losing weight then reduce your calories to 1,900 and continue until you stop losing weight then drop to 1,800 etc. Continue this until you end up at 1,500 or you hit your goal weight
There's a little metabolic down-regulation but nothing massive - the biggest thing that changes when dieting is NEAT/non-exercise activity often can go down the toilet as your body tries to sneakily conserve energy and reduce the size of the deficit - which is why it can be a good idea as well as tracking food intake to track steps etc since if you can force yourself to be consistent then you'll go some way towards countering that - people get lazy and move less. Generally with an aggressive deficit I'd be looking at
a) running it for a shorter span of time, like 4-6 weeks max with 10-14 day diet breaks in between if you're aiming for more than one cycle. It's unrealistic and unsustainable to diet hard AND for a long time
b) only going as low calorie-wise as you can without disrupting your ability to maintain intensity in the gym, since the aim of dieting is loss of fat whilst minimising loss of muscle tissue. There's only so low you can go before you're running on empty and start seeing big drops in performance, and muscle is metabolically expensive, so use it or lose it applies
I'm having some surgery done Monday and did a very aggressive mini-cut for 4 or so weeks at around 1700 calories. I made sure I walked 10-15k steps a day, plus lifting x4 a week and yoga x2 a week. Weight loss was pretty linear, I didn't alter calories once although I did drop some fat for more carbs, and my overall bodyweight dropped by 7.5% ish, although this will get knocked back a bit once glycogen is replenished. I only lost a rep here or there on a couple of exercises but nothing drastic and after the 4-6 week lay-off I'll hopefully have maintained my weight and look to gain for the rest of the year. Probably the leanest I've ever gotten actually.
Soldato
There's a few ways you can go about it, although a common theme is that most meals out a a restaurant are going to be most if not all of your cals for the day if you're dieting and almost certainly all of your fats.
If I'm going out for a meal, I like making sure my other food that day is high protein and low carb/fat (with what carbs I do have around my training), get plenty of activity in and then just go and eat the meal out and not worrying about it too much. I like shorter harder diets though, so if yours is more of a longer term thing there's no harm in treating it more like a 'free meal' if eating out isn't something that's happening regularly. Some places have the nutritional info on their website but you're then invariably not going to be able to pick from much on the menu.
Guessing macros is stupidly hard, Ben Carpenter (great resource on FaceBook) has a couple of photos demonstrating this. Exhibit A uses different interpretations of what a tablespoon is...
Exhibit B has exactly the same quantities of ingredients, but different types of butter/mayo:
Thus I tend to YOLO it and make smart choices the rest of the day and depending on how hard I'm dieting I might pick certain things off the menu that aren't going to be calorie-laden. Even if you end up in a surplus it's only 1 day and unless you start eating other people's food or go mad at a buffet style place, you're not going to be making much of a dent in long-term progress - just enjoy the meal out and get back on the diet the next day. Definitely don't start thinking you have to 'make up' for a day of over-eating by starving yourself the next day or the day before - you want a healthy relationship with food after all - and remember in the context of a diet a 'day off' can often be both helpful psychologically to break up the monotony of dieting or give you a bit more energy for training later that day or the next day.
There's a little metabolic down-regulation but nothing massive - the biggest thing that changes when dieting is NEAT/non-exercise activity often can go down the toilet as your body tries to sneakily conserve energy and reduce the size of the deficit - which is why it can be a good idea as well as tracking food intake to track steps etc since if you can force yourself to be consistent then you'll go some way towards countering that - people get lazy and move less. Generally with an aggressive deficit I'd be looking at
a) running it for a shorter span of time, like 4-6 weeks max with 10-14 day diet breaks in between if you're aiming for more than one cycle. It's unrealistic and unsustainable to diet hard AND for a long time
b) only going as low calorie-wise as you can without disrupting your ability to maintain intensity in the gym, since the aim of dieting is loss of fat whilst minimising loss of muscle tissue. There's only so low you can go before you're running on empty and start seeing big drops in performance, and muscle is metabolically expensive, so use it or lose it applies
I'm having some surgery done Monday and did a very aggressive mini-cut for 4 or so weeks at around 1700 calories. I made sure I walked 10-15k steps a day, plus lifting x4 a week and yoga x2 a week. Weight loss was pretty linear, I didn't alter calories once although I did drop some fat for more carbs, and my overall bodyweight dropped by 7.5% ish, although this will get knocked back a bit once glycogen is replenished. I only lost a rep here or there on a couple of exercises but nothing drastic and after the 4-6 week lay-off I'll hopefully have maintained my weight and look to gain for the rest of the year. Probably the leanest I've ever gotten actually.
I agree mate but my example was to get the OP to eat more
Good luck with the surgery.
Soldato
Thanks. It's a revision as it goes; had my teenage gyno removed a couple of years ago, let it heal for a year or so before assessing the results and they either missed a bit on my left side or I have a chunk of scar tissue or some sort of trapped fluid. Won't cost anything bar the anaesthetic if I need it... but it's in Poland so I'm flying off this evening and flying back on Weds. Bit of a faff but hey ho.
Dieting strictly and fairly hard was a good test of willpower and I'm pleased I didn't fall off the wagon - I think I could theoretically run something like RFL successfully if I had 100% autonomy over what's for dinner! I look so flat though and that won't really change much for a few weeks until I can train again, but in the grand scheme of things it won't put me back too far. Not looking forward to the inevitable DOMs.
Obligatory leanness shot nobody asked for. Diet over, hello food! <3
Dieting strictly and fairly hard was a good test of willpower and I'm pleased I didn't fall off the wagon - I think I could theoretically run something like RFL successfully if I had 100% autonomy over what's for dinner! I look so flat though and that won't really change much for a few weeks until I can train again, but in the grand scheme of things it won't put me back too far. Not looking forward to the inevitable DOMs.
Obligatory leanness shot nobody asked for. Diet over, hello food! <3
Really helpful replies, thanks all.
What are peoples thoughts on wholemeal bread for an alternative lunch? Mainly with peanut butter. Bought a shed load of cottage cheese too which I historically hated but mind over matter.
What are peoples thoughts on wholemeal bread for an alternative lunch? Mainly with peanut butter. Bought a shed load of cottage cheese too which I historically hated but mind over matter.
Associate
Thanks, that's reassuring
Weigh in yesterday was 17.13st so another 1lb lost. Into the 17's...roll on 16's!
Soldato
I bought a Fitbit last April, where I'd gone up to about 15 1/2 stone. I'm 6' 1" but don't carry weight well at all. All I did was log my calories on the Fitbit app, I walk around at work all day etc and managed to get under 14 stone by the time Summer rolled around properly. Did a bike ride or two a week throughout May and June. I didn't bother doing anything special apart from sticking my calories, still drank or had takeaways, just careful in the week and less greedy with takeaway foord (eg: 1 Chinese dish, rather than 3 or 4, tandoori chicken and salad etc rather than a full on curry) . It's the easiest I've ever lost weight, apart from having achalasia (couldn't eat) in my early twenties!
(I should add that once I was used to calorie counting I don't even use the app. Gone up to about 14.3 after Christmas but I eat and drink what I want at the minute! Getting dog has added 30mins+ a day walking though).
(I should add that once I was used to calorie counting I don't even use the app. Gone up to about 14.3 after Christmas but I eat and drink what I want at the minute! Getting dog has added 30mins+ a day walking though).
The only disappointment I have so far despite losing 11lb, is that I feel no different and even worse my trousers/t-shirts etc still feel just as tight!
Man of Honour
Have you been taking pictures? They really are the best way to judge your progress.
No I must admit progress has always been by fitting in clothes that used to fit me many years ago!
Soldato
Not all fat is subcutaneous (under the skin) - if your bf% is quite high then you're going to have plenty of visceral fat (around the organs) to get through too and often you have to get through this stuff before you get more dramatic visible losses on the surface.
Consistent measuring can be a faff but it can give you a lot of information which can be interesting and motivating in conjunction with average weight and mirror shots (making sure all variables, like doing it first thing in the morning after using the toilet in the same light, same angles etc, are consistent). I was taught to measure:
Chest (nipple line)
2 finger-widths above navel
Navel
2 finger-widths below navel
Widest point of hips
Largest part of the quads
Biceps, arms flexed
While you can't spot-reduce fat, actual losses as your weight goes down tend to come from areas in spits and spurts rather than in a uniform fashion so your waistline might not change over a couple of weeks but your could have had losses elsewhere.