Clueless...any advice?

stud_pride05

Hi... I'm 25 yrs old and I'm 5'4" and weigh 191 lbs. I'm currently a 41 inch waist. I started my fitness and healthy lifestyle on june 9th 2013. I eat about 1200 calories a day...and drink water only. I'm not hungry either because other than my workouts I don't do much else..I'm unemployed right now and spend most of my days at home. I eat a healthy diet of mostly green vegetables, healthy carbs like brown rice, and wheat pasta, almonds for a snack, air popped popcorn and apples and bananas (i don't like fruit). I also limited my meat intake to just 3 times per week. I rarely eat sweets at all, but I allow myself one square of dark chocolate per day..it's about 28 grams ( or 6 grams of sugar and 57 calories) ..and I eat portioned meals and do a 1 hour long cardio workout at the gym about 3-4 days per week. Is there anything else I should be doing?

grimendale

Are you eating back exercise calories? If not, you are likely undereating, which will significantly slow your weight/fat loss. Limiting your meat is fine (I'm vegetarian), but make sure you get your protein. Nuts can be a good way to get your protein and up your caloric intake simultaneously. Adding resistance training to your routine, in addition to your cardio, will likely help as well.

moondawg14

Hi... I'm 25 yrs old and I'm 5'4" and weigh 191 lbs. I'm currently a 41 inch waist. I started my fitness and healthy lifestyle on june 9th 2013. I eat about 1200 calories a day...and drink water only. I'm not hungry either because other than my workouts I don't do much else..I'm unemployed right now and spend most of my days at home. I eat a healthy diet of mostly green vegetables, healthy carbs like brown rice, and wheat pasta, almonds for a snack, air popped popcorn and apples and bananas (i don't like fruit). I also limited my meat intake to just 3 times per week. I rarely eat sweets at all, but I allow myself one square of dark chocolate per day..it's about 28 grams ( or 6 grams of sugar and 57 calories) ..and I eat portioned meals and do a 1 hour long cardio workout at the gym about 3-4 days per week. Is there anything else I should be doing?

YOu don't need to eat so few calories. If you're not miserable, you can keep doing it. Eventually it'll slow your metabolism down and you'll have to change things. You need to be NETTING that many calories... If you're not eating your exercise calories, you're headed for a crash... trying to exercise with too little fuel. Personally, I've been doing strength traning 3x a week and I like it WAY better than cardio. It will also help you maintain LBM(lean body mass) while you're on a deficit... cardio won't do that.

It sounds like you're off to a decent start, even though some people are going to give you crap for the 1200 calorie thing. It's not sustainable... but it's a start. You gotta do what you gotta do. If you start to plateau, you'll probably want to UP your calories instead of reduce them. good luck.

stud_pride05

Thanks for the tip..i've been seeing eating ppl say I should start eating back calories and I didn't know what that meant. I'm learning about nutrition though.

55in13

The medically documented metabolic slowdown is usually 10% or less and has never been documented to slow or stop weight loss. I wouldn't worry about that; I would worry more about whether you are able to continue eating like you are long term. Generally speaking, diets don't quit working; people quit diets. You could eat more and still lose, but you are getting enough calories to be able to get nutrients, so if you aren't having trouble staying with this, then stay with it and it will work.