Weight Loss Thread
- Thread starter Sean_sl
- Start date
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Cad
scientia potentia est
- 25,830
- 50,705
You need to start using myfitnesspal and actually measure/buy your food with the intention of counting it. Then log everything all day and stay consistent. You're probably feeling the drag of being on a cut which you probably haven't been on a cut in a long time.
Rezz
Mr. Poopybutthole
- 4,486
- 3,531
Yeah, that or look up some fda numbers and work from there. Also, "scoops" is a super nebulous amount. If you are intent on actually watching your calories, I recommend you become familiar with basic food measurements and what they look like (ie, is your "scoop" 4, 6, 10, 20oz?) and you may want to get a kitchen scale for home stuff.
As a ballpark, I'd say that the meals you outlined (if scoops were 5 eggs worth) at roughly 2kish calories. 750 from the steak, 500 from the combined bacon slices, and 750ish from the eggs. Granted, you're 300ishlbs and you lift; that seems like an absurd cut in calories for someone your size, but hey, whatever. I can eyeball calorie count like a champ but without looking at what you're eating (and specifically you saying 10oz steak but then using "scoops" for measurement on eggs) that is just a complete guess.
TLDR: get a scale or learn measurements, then do a little bit of googlefu or myfitness pal action. Only way to really count calories without having experience doing so in the first place.
As a ballpark, I'd say that the meals you outlined (if scoops were 5 eggs worth) at roughly 2kish calories. 750 from the steak, 500 from the combined bacon slices, and 750ish from the eggs. Granted, you're 300ishlbs and you lift; that seems like an absurd cut in calories for someone your size, but hey, whatever. I can eyeball calorie count like a champ but without looking at what you're eating (and specifically you saying 10oz steak but then using "scoops" for measurement on eggs) that is just a complete guess.
TLDR: get a scale or learn measurements, then do a little bit of googlefu or myfitness pal action. Only way to really count calories without having experience doing so in the first place.
I haven't bothered with the Keto war being fought again, but if you did go Keto, be careful of cafeteria eggs. I do not remember specific brands, but if these are the powdered eggs made into scrambled eggs, they can have quite a few carbs for whatever reason. If they were made from whole eggs they are probably safe. However, again, be careful as iHop(I think) adds pancake batter to their scrambled eggs so even then it is hard to be sure.
Brahma
Obi-Bro Kenobi-X
- 12,691
- 47,481
This app is awesome!! Thank you!
According to MyFitnesspall I am at 1100 calories today. I can have another 1k. This seems extremely low. I wonder if I may be over doing this.
Brahma
Obi-Bro Kenobi-X
- 12,691
- 47,481
No no. SO FAR I have had 1100. Tonight will be steak and more than likely some berries.
- 17,879
- 8,779
yes, 2100 is extremely low for someone your weight.
I weigh 165 lbs and would cut at that calorie intake.
At your weight you could easily eat 3000-3300 and still lose weight.
Itlan
Blackwing Lair Raider
- 4,994
- 744
- 17,879
- 8,779
Take your weight in lbs and multiply by 11-12. That's how many calories you should aim to consume each day.
Arden
Blackwing Lair Raider
- 2,782
- 2,087
So after a ton of research/experimentation/trial and error, I found something that works for me. I've been doing it for almost a full year successfully now.
Post is going to be long as fuck, but I figured I would share it (since that what the thread is about).
A few things:
1. I don't believe in "diets" because I am not interesting in something temporary. I am interested in long-term, sustainable, reasonable, eating and exercise habits. If I feel like a program is too painful/annoying/difficult to keep up for the very long-term, then I won't bother.
2. Getting HUGE or heroin-thin is not my goal. My main objective is trim, athletic, muscular, 6-pack abs, etc.
3. I really enjoy my free time, and don't want to spend it all in a kitchen or gym. Of course, you can't get trim, athletic, muscular, 6-pack abs without putting in the time and effort, but a big part of my goal has been to become as efficient as possible. My objective has been to weave my program into my daily life as seamlessly as possible so that I don't ever feel like I'm "going out of my way."
4. This works really well for me, but that doesn't mean it will work for everyone. My situation, physiology, and tolerances might be different than yours.
5. None of this stuff is new. I pulled stuff from all kinds of places (including previous posts in this thread) and put it all together in a way that has given me pretty fast/significant/sustainable results, but none of it is totally original.
Anyway, what works for me boils down to three key things: Intermittent Fasting, Workout, No Sugar.
-Intermittent fasting. I don't eat anything at all between 9p and 12p. It's not nearly as hard as it sounds. It really comes down to no late night snacking and skipping breakfast. You have to be totally strict with the time frame, though.
-Gym workout. I spend 13 minutes in the morning doing abs and 1 hour in the afternoon doing weights/HIIT. Three times per week. That's it. Oh, and lots of protein.
-No sugar. If I am really dying for something sweet, I allow myself one sugar item for the week, but only one. No exceptions.
I found that the intermittent fasting is REALLY important. It was the catalyst that really drives the results. I was being ridiculously strict with my diet and working out five times per week and still not getting the results I got when I began the intermittent fasting.
Anyway, here's what my week looks like. Keep in mind, my objective is to be as time-efficient as possible.
Sunday-
Grocery shopping. I pick a dinner for the week and buy enough so I can make 5 meals worth. This meal needs to be reasonably healthy, but good. If I don't enjoy it, I won't be able to eat it 5 times. This week had mojo chicken in the slow cooker, rice, and cuban-style black beans. Last week I had homemade spaghetti and meatballs. Next week, I'll have white chicken chili in the slow cooker (I fucking love slow cookers).
For these weekly dinners, I try and make healthy choices where possible. For example- brown rice pasta tastes as good as white pasta, so I use that. I limit red meat, so I combine lamb, turkey, and pork for my meatballs (trust me, they are good). At the same time, I don't sweat things like using white rice because I way prefer it to brown or wild. I also use plenty of olive oil in the beans and I use plenty of sour cream (light) in the white chicken chili. In short, I make healthy choices where reasonable, but don't sacrifice taste.
After grocery shopping, I cook my 5 meals and eat one of them for Sunday night dinner. I make sure I eat dinner before 9pm, because I will not touch food after 9pm.
Monday-
8AM: wake up and do 13-minutes worth of abs. I use the original P90X Ab Ripper, which is pretty damn effective. I skip the stretching at the end to get it down to 13 minutes because, frankly, it's not needed. No breakfast. Maybe I have a cup of coffee. At work I make a protein shake using Gold Standard chocolate. Using the scoop from the protein powder, I put one scoop of uncooked oatmeal in the shake to give me carbs for my workout. I don't drink it immediately, but put it in my work fridge for later.
12PM: First food of the day. I eat/drink the shake/oatmeal (which tastes really good when the oatmeal has softened and absorbed the shake btw) and also eat 3-4 handfuls of trail mix/almonds, etc. Again, I don't sweat the raisins, peanuts, etc in the trail mix like some people would.
2PM: Go to gym and lift for my 1-hour lunch break. In between sets I do HIIT (this is pretty important).
3PM: Protein shake (nothing added).
6PM: Get home from work, reheat my already cooked dinner. Enjoy it with a beer or two by 7PM. Notice I'm not worried about the carbs/calories from the beer. I like good beer, so I'm not drinking light beer, either.
8:45PM: Special protein shake. In addition to a scoop of chocolate protein I use: frozen blueberries, 1 tablespoon of high grade fish oil, .5 tablespoon of spirulina, 1 handful of frozen spinach. I could go into a long explanation about why I am using such high amounts of fish oil and spirulina and all the amazing things this shake does for you, but this post is long enough. Take my word for it or you can research it yourself.
Tuesday-
Exact same as Monday except I don't put oatmeal in my protein shake and I don't go to the gym.
Wednesday-
Exact same as Monday.
Thursday-
Exact same as Tuesday, except I take a break from the weekly dinner. Instead I have a big snack, usually 12 triscuits with melted cheese and yogurt/granola.
Friday-
Exact same as Monday. Maybe do happy hour.
Saturday-
Make big fucking breakfast, but wait until noon because the intermittent fasting time frame is an "every day" thing.
Usually try and do something active during the day. I live in CO, so that's pretty easy.
Go out and get a burger or steak Sat night and then go get smashed at a bar with friends.
What that schedule doesn't show is the shit-ton of free time I have to do whatever with, because I'm spending almost zero time cooking, but I'm still eating well and I'm spending only a few hours in the gym but I'm maximizing it.
Anyway, I'm going to emphasize again that this is what works for ME. If you can pull some useful stuff from it, great, that's what I posted it for. I've gotten some great stuff from this thread myself.
Either way, cheers, and good luck finding your own groove.
Post is going to be long as fuck, but I figured I would share it (since that what the thread is about).
A few things:
1. I don't believe in "diets" because I am not interesting in something temporary. I am interested in long-term, sustainable, reasonable, eating and exercise habits. If I feel like a program is too painful/annoying/difficult to keep up for the very long-term, then I won't bother.
2. Getting HUGE or heroin-thin is not my goal. My main objective is trim, athletic, muscular, 6-pack abs, etc.
3. I really enjoy my free time, and don't want to spend it all in a kitchen or gym. Of course, you can't get trim, athletic, muscular, 6-pack abs without putting in the time and effort, but a big part of my goal has been to become as efficient as possible. My objective has been to weave my program into my daily life as seamlessly as possible so that I don't ever feel like I'm "going out of my way."
4. This works really well for me, but that doesn't mean it will work for everyone. My situation, physiology, and tolerances might be different than yours.
5. None of this stuff is new. I pulled stuff from all kinds of places (including previous posts in this thread) and put it all together in a way that has given me pretty fast/significant/sustainable results, but none of it is totally original.
Anyway, what works for me boils down to three key things: Intermittent Fasting, Workout, No Sugar.
-Intermittent fasting. I don't eat anything at all between 9p and 12p. It's not nearly as hard as it sounds. It really comes down to no late night snacking and skipping breakfast. You have to be totally strict with the time frame, though.
-Gym workout. I spend 13 minutes in the morning doing abs and 1 hour in the afternoon doing weights/HIIT. Three times per week. That's it. Oh, and lots of protein.
-No sugar. If I am really dying for something sweet, I allow myself one sugar item for the week, but only one. No exceptions.
I found that the intermittent fasting is REALLY important. It was the catalyst that really drives the results. I was being ridiculously strict with my diet and working out five times per week and still not getting the results I got when I began the intermittent fasting.
Anyway, here's what my week looks like. Keep in mind, my objective is to be as time-efficient as possible.
Sunday-
Grocery shopping. I pick a dinner for the week and buy enough so I can make 5 meals worth. This meal needs to be reasonably healthy, but good. If I don't enjoy it, I won't be able to eat it 5 times. This week had mojo chicken in the slow cooker, rice, and cuban-style black beans. Last week I had homemade spaghetti and meatballs. Next week, I'll have white chicken chili in the slow cooker (I fucking love slow cookers).
For these weekly dinners, I try and make healthy choices where possible. For example- brown rice pasta tastes as good as white pasta, so I use that. I limit red meat, so I combine lamb, turkey, and pork for my meatballs (trust me, they are good). At the same time, I don't sweat things like using white rice because I way prefer it to brown or wild. I also use plenty of olive oil in the beans and I use plenty of sour cream (light) in the white chicken chili. In short, I make healthy choices where reasonable, but don't sacrifice taste.
After grocery shopping, I cook my 5 meals and eat one of them for Sunday night dinner. I make sure I eat dinner before 9pm, because I will not touch food after 9pm.
Monday-
8AM: wake up and do 13-minutes worth of abs. I use the original P90X Ab Ripper, which is pretty damn effective. I skip the stretching at the end to get it down to 13 minutes because, frankly, it's not needed. No breakfast. Maybe I have a cup of coffee. At work I make a protein shake using Gold Standard chocolate. Using the scoop from the protein powder, I put one scoop of uncooked oatmeal in the shake to give me carbs for my workout. I don't drink it immediately, but put it in my work fridge for later.
12PM: First food of the day. I eat/drink the shake/oatmeal (which tastes really good when the oatmeal has softened and absorbed the shake btw) and also eat 3-4 handfuls of trail mix/almonds, etc. Again, I don't sweat the raisins, peanuts, etc in the trail mix like some people would.
2PM: Go to gym and lift for my 1-hour lunch break. In between sets I do HIIT (this is pretty important).
3PM: Protein shake (nothing added).
6PM: Get home from work, reheat my already cooked dinner. Enjoy it with a beer or two by 7PM. Notice I'm not worried about the carbs/calories from the beer. I like good beer, so I'm not drinking light beer, either.
8:45PM: Special protein shake. In addition to a scoop of chocolate protein I use: frozen blueberries, 1 tablespoon of high grade fish oil, .5 tablespoon of spirulina, 1 handful of frozen spinach. I could go into a long explanation about why I am using such high amounts of fish oil and spirulina and all the amazing things this shake does for you, but this post is long enough. Take my word for it or you can research it yourself.
Tuesday-
Exact same as Monday except I don't put oatmeal in my protein shake and I don't go to the gym.
Wednesday-
Exact same as Monday.
Thursday-
Exact same as Tuesday, except I take a break from the weekly dinner. Instead I have a big snack, usually 12 triscuits with melted cheese and yogurt/granola.
Friday-
Exact same as Monday. Maybe do happy hour.
Saturday-
Make big fucking breakfast, but wait until noon because the intermittent fasting time frame is an "every day" thing.
Usually try and do something active during the day. I live in CO, so that's pretty easy.
Go out and get a burger or steak Sat night and then go get smashed at a bar with friends.
What that schedule doesn't show is the shit-ton of free time I have to do whatever with, because I'm spending almost zero time cooking, but I'm still eating well and I'm spending only a few hours in the gym but I'm maximizing it.
Anyway, I'm going to emphasize again that this is what works for ME. If you can pull some useful stuff from it, great, that's what I posted it for. I've gotten some great stuff from this thread myself.
Either way, cheers, and good luck finding your own groove.
Brahma
Obi-Bro Kenobi-X
- 12,691
- 47,481
Mures
Blackwing Lair Raider
- 4,014
- 511
Yeah man, myfitnesspal is great. Its what I used early on when starting out. Like you said I just wasn't aware how much I was eating before. I tracked everything I ate on myfitnesspal for 30 days straight and after that point I was in a routine. I know what I eat and I'm eating between 1600-2200 calories a day. After not tracking for awhile I came to a point where I didn't feel like I was still losing as much weight as I should be so I started tracking again and it helped me identify some bad habits I was picking up so it really kept it in check.
- 26,483
- 40,585
Yeah I was doing that app for a few months. It does really wake you up to just how much you can consume unattended. But once you get the gist of how much and what shit is, I found it just to be a pain in the ass to log the same shit every day. The key is just to get to know roughly what shit is calorie wise just by looking at it, and for this you really also need a scale of some sort. Because in my minds eye that 10oz really looks like 3oz, lol.
What I find to be a crutch for me is alcohol in the summer. I usually dont drink at all during the fall and winter, but just something with spring and summer I just want to hang out outside by the pool and drink.
What I find to be a crutch for me is alcohol in the summer. I usually dont drink at all during the fall and winter, but just something with spring and summer I just want to hang out outside by the pool and drink.