Hello, a little advice needed please

RandyShackleford

Hi there - a little about me to help you see where I am coming from ( hopefully lol) I am a guy who recently turned 40 and had the stereotypical moment of looking in the mirror and thinking how did I go from fit looking to middle aged spread man! Up until about 36 I was a pretty constant weight (I am 5'9 and my weight was about 150) as I played tennis regularly and did distance running - half marathon etc. All that changed with the birth of my boy - without going in to too much detail on it he was born with medical complications that are ongoing to this day. As I am sure happens to a lot of new parents exercise can go out of the window and extra calories are taken onboard. Well, I think I was eating my stress - not good I know, and the exercise dried up. I would get a week or 2 going and then something would happen and a few months would go by again.

I am sorry this is turning in to an essay! I will get to my questions soon I promise lol
My heaviest was after Thanksgiving at 168. I started MFP on Jan 5 and weighed 163. I currently weigh 159. I posted in this section as the aim is to gain muscle mass, but I am not sure when to go about that. I do not know my body fat% exactly, but a look in the mirror shows a good bit around my hips still (can easily pinch an inch). Should I keep going with the weight loss until I have lost a bit more fat? The thing that makes me hesitate on that is I am naturally quite thin so have been careful to keep my protein high while dropping weight but don't want to get too skinny before trying to gain muscle.

My long term goal is to be back around 168 but for it to be a different ratio of muscle/fat and to begin krav maga. I might be getting ahead of myself with this one but I'll ask anyway. If the gain when bulking is around 50/50 muscle/fat would I be right in saying that if I wanted to reach my goal of 168 I would need to actually get closer to 178 and then try to cut the fat?

I appreciate any advice if you make it through my long post! and fwiw I am not someone who is afraid of eating pizza etc I understand the calorie is king philosophy I'll leave it there for now. Thanks!

AKDonF

It is really hard to say without knowing your bf% but I tend to guess you are too high to really start given what you described. There is a large benefit (technical) of being at or less than 10% bf or so to begin. If you can provide more detail, maybe we can help.

jim180155

RandyShackleford wrote: »

Hi there - a little about me to help you see where I am coming from ( hopefully lol) I am a guy who recently turned 40 and had the stereotypical moment of looking in the mirror ...

My heaviest was after Thanksgiving at 168. I started MFP on Jan 5 and weighed 163. I currently weigh 159. I posted in this section as the aim is to gain muscle mass, but I am not sure when to go about that. I do not know my body fat% exactly, but a look in the mirror shows a good bit around my hips still (can easily pinch an inch). Should I keep going with the weight loss until I have lost a bit more fat? The thing that makes me hesitate on that is I am naturally quite thin so have been careful to keep my protein high while dropping weight but don't want to get too skinny before trying to gain muscle.

I'm 60 yrs old, 5'9", and had gotten up to 188 when I noticed I had gotten out of shape. I'm now at 149. According to my calipers and tape measure readings, I'm at about 14% bodyfat.

I've been tempted to go on a bulk, but I think I probably ought to lose a bit more fat before heading in the other direction. Supposedly at less than 15% BF your hormones help to put on more muscle than fat when gaining weight with progressive overload/ weight lifting. Under the same conditions, your body will want to add fat rather than muscle when you're over 15%. So the easiest way to get the desired results is to stay in the 10% to 15% range: cut until you're close to 10%, bulk until you're close to 15%, then repeat the cycle. Over time, you'll accumulate more muscle during each bulk period.

3laine75

You didn't say if you were strength training yet or not. This could make a difference as if not, there may be some small gains to be had (through newbie gains or returning to training) while still at a small deficit or maintenance.

Like the other guys said, the ratio of fat to muscle can be affected by your current bodyfat AND if you did need to head on up to 178 that could mess with your head a bit after losing weight in the first place.

I'd lift at deficit or maintenance till you get your bf% where you want it.

RandyShackleford

Thanks for the replies. Are calipers the only way to measure the bf properly? I am only going by how I look in the mirror, which I have always done. I am not doing strength training per se. I have only been back doing fitness since the 5th. I have a program that I am following which is 2 days cardio and 2 days strength (push ups etc) There is an option to do the strength in the gym, but I am trying to ease my way back in to exercise.

3laine75

In that case, I'd get yourself on a progressive strength programme - yesterday. You'll maintain the muscle you have (if diet's on point) while at deficit. (SL5x5, Starting Strength, ICF 5x5, AllPro etc)

Callipers are as good as anything IMO (tape measure/eyeballing) - more accurate, bodpod, DEXA are expensive.

ndj1979

3laine75 wrote: »

In that case, I'd get yourself on a progressive strength programme - yesterday. You'll maintain the muscle you have (if diet's on point) while at deficit. (SL5x5, Starting Strength, ICF 5x5, AllPro etc)

Callipers are as good as anything IMO (tape measure/eyeballing) - more accurate, bodpod, DEXA are expensive.

this…

I would suggest setting MFP for .5 pound per week loss, and get on one of the programs mentioned above.

Lose about five to ten more pounds and then go for the bulk …

the most accurate way to measure body fat is through DEXA scan …

if you have a picture you can post it and we could try to estimate it for you ….

RandyShackleford

Cheers ndj - I have already set MFP to 0.5 pound loss per week, but I must have got calculations wrong somewhere as I lost 3.5 pounds in the first week. So strange trying to lose weight, never tried it in my life before, but yeah I think the concensus is it would be a mistake to bulk now. Appreciate it. I haven't heard of DEXA scan. I'll try and put a pic up - pretty embarrassing state right now though lol

Springfield1970

I'm agreeing with the others. Learn how to lift while you gradually cut back down to your lifetime weight. I say gradually because you don't wnt to risk injury. Take the opportunity to learn your form well so that when you do bulk you can kill it!

Go to Scooby's calculator and maybe a 10% deficit for a while. You'll feel weaker for it but while you lift you'll be stimulating the muscle so you don't lose too much of it (must eat 1g of protein per pound of lean body mass too!)Get some running back in there too! I always do a 5k before I lift as a warm up, some people run after they lift, so it doesn't interefere with their form too much.

Springfield1970

RandyShackleford wrote: »

Cheers ndj - I have already set MFP to 0.5 pound loss per week, but I must have got calculations wrong somewhere as I lost 3.5 pounds in the first week. So strange trying to lose weight, never tried it in my life before, but yeah I think the concensus is it would be a mistake to bulk now. Appreciate it. I haven't heard of DEXA scan. I'll try and put a pic up - pretty embarrassing state right now though lol

Some of that loss will be water and glycogen. Weigh every day and average out every seven days. Plot on a graph with your gross and net calories plus your exercise cals (if you're doing sedentary plus exercise calories).

Look at how the line isn't linear, it stops you going batshit crazy. You'll see the trends.

When I was 40 I was a big wobbly pear with bingo wings (a cute british term), my posture sucked. I was well over 30% body fat! and now I go from 15-20% depending on the time of year. I look like the daughter of that woman and I'm 44! Lol! Thanks to the MFP posse!

You got this, it's a great journey!

Wheelhouse15

RandyShackleford wrote: »

Cheers ndj - I have already set MFP to 0.5 pound loss per week, but I must have got calculations wrong somewhere as I lost 3.5 pounds in the first week. So strange trying to lose weight, never tried it in my life before, but yeah I think the concensus is it would be a mistake to bulk now. Appreciate it. I haven't heard of DEXA scan. I'll try and put a pic up - pretty embarrassing state right now though lol

Actually, if you eat close to maintenance and start lifting you can gain some muscle and lose some fat at the same time. You will need to be within about 200 of mainteance to do this and it will be slower than doing a cut then bulk but it's something to think about as well.

Good luck to you.

ndj1979

RandyShackleford wrote: »

Cheers ndj - I have already set MFP to 0.5 pound loss per week, but I must have got calculations wrong somewhere as I lost 3.5 pounds in the first week. So strange trying to lose weight, never tried it in my life before, but yeah I think the concensus is it would be a mistake to bulk now. Appreciate it. I haven't heard of DEXA scan. I'll try and put a pic up - pretty embarrassing state right now though lol

I would say stick with the .5 per week loss…like spring said it may just be water weight..

I would stick with it for four months and see if your loss averages out to about .5 a week…and weight loss is not going to be linear ..so you might lose two pounds one week and nothing the next….

Oh, I hope that your son is doing better…

RandyShackleford

Springfield - I have heard that term before - I'm English but live in the US

Cheers ndj - it's complicated but he is doing as well as can be expected.

I appreciate everyone's input. I am going to keep on losing weight and check again in Mar/Apr to see if I am at a good starting point for the muscle gain. I am sure I will keep looking in at the awesome advice in this section, and probably have some more questions closer to the time.

Thanks