Should I maintain or what?

TheBeachgod

I'm 55, 5'9", 168 lbs. and a few pounds away from my arbitrary weight goal. I don't mind my current weight but I look the same now as I did 15 pounds ago only smaller. I'm not wanting to become smaller, just less jiggly and more buff. I'd love to lose the gut and moobs, tighten the bingo wings and legs and build and define my chest, arms and shoulders some.

I have Pushing The Limits by Al Kavadlo and he is a brick sh!thouse from bodyweight exercises and calisthenics so I'd say a gym membership is not a requirement to get in the shape I'd like which is basically a fit guy who looks good on the beach. I ride my bike a lot and have started doing bodyweight exercises very recently. I have a few dumbbells, a jump rope and a chin-up bar, too.

I'm wondering if I should ditch the caloric deficit and magic scale number and go into maintenance and start exercising with more gusto instead. I'm worried about putting on more fat if I change my goals to gain. My macros are 40/30/30 carbs/fat/protein.

So does maintenance and more intense and frequent exercise sound like the way to go for what my current goals are? I'm more than happy to see what advice anybody has and people who are chasing the same (-ish) goals feel free to chime in, too.

mccindy72

Two options here: Starting a lifting program while eating at maintenance and work on body recomp. This means tightening the wings and core and working on strength. It will change your shape and improve your look.
Or you eat at a surplus while building up a heavy lifting program and building muscle, adding to your bulk. You'll change your shape and add the same time get bigger. You'll need to change your macros to a higher protein ratio.

It's really up to you, and you could use some advice from others who've done one or the other - @Hornsby , @ndj1979 would probably be a good start.

TheBeachgod

All right! My first reply was from someone behind bars! You're actually the good guys! Thanks for the advice, option1 sounds like a good place to start and maybe do a surplus when/if my goals change as I progress.

mccindy72

you're welcome!

cwolfman13

I'd say eat at or around maintenance and start hitting the weight room or bodyweight stuff hard...body re-composition is a slow process, but living a fitness centric lifestyle combined with a healthy diet is ultimately going to result in that fitness body.

TheBeachgod

I changed my goal from lose (loose )1 lb./week to Maintain and my calories went from 1,520 to 1,990. Good. I was tired of trying to hit 1,500 and not be hungry. Time to hit it!

At least I've been at it to some extent long enough and been on mfp enough to know snake oil and woo don't work. I've tried tons of supplements and now I don't use anything except food and sometimes protein powder.

I did 30 Day Shred last year and it shook some fat off of me. I was a heaving, sweating mess after each session but it helped change my appearance. Maybe the cardio from that and the strength training from Al Kavadlo's book will help me get there.

AJ_G

TheBeachgod wrote: »

I have Pushing The Limits by Al Kavadlo and he is a brick sh!thouse from bodyweight exercises and calisthenics so I'd say a gym membership is not a requirement to get in the shape I'd like which is basically a fit guy who looks good on the beach.

Honestly, he's just really lean with a medium amount of muscle. I wouldn't say he's really built, he's just crazy lean.

brdnw

i think you just need to focus more on lifting t get ur goals. a few dumbells wont accomplish much.

brdnw

and saying "sometimes protein powder" makes me think youre not getting enough protein. i shoot for like 190g each day

sijomial

Blimey! You are my twin....
I'm 55 years young, 5'9" & maintain between 164 & 168lbs (mostly - I drop lower for big cycle events).

I also look a lot different to how I look when I first got down to 168lbs.

Recomp is a great choice for us 50 somethings IMHO - we don't really have the capacity to add muscle quickly anymore (unless you have got to this advanced age without ever doing weight/resistance training perhaps....) so bulk/cut cycles are a waste of calories and most likely we would just get fat/get slim and have no better rate of muscle gain than just training hard at maintenance.

My goals are to be fitter than ever (done that, but not finished yet) and see if I can get back to touching distance of lifetime bests for strength.

One thing you might discover is that just a few pounds around goal weight make a huge difference in how you look so be flexible with your goal weight. It also takes longer for older skin to catch up with weight loss. How you look now is just the start.

mccindy72

brdnw wrote: »

and saying "sometimes protein powder" makes me think youre not getting enough protein. i shoot for like 190g each day

Which is why I advised to increase his protein macro.

sijomial

brdnw wrote: »

and saying "sometimes protein powder" makes me think youre not getting enough protein. i shoot for like 190g each day

How heavy are you though?
(Agree with setting a target in grams BTW - percentages for macros are just a PITA)

TheBeachgod

168 lbs.

MFP has my protein set at 100 grams, so a little less than 1g/lb of body weight. I chose the macros % (Zone Diet even though I'm not doing a diet) and let MFP decide what the grams would be. I was doing lower carbs and that wasn't working for me at all. I was sluggish, scatterbrained and cranky, which is why I went with the new macro ratio. Should I up my protein ratio? I'm not going to be bodybuilding at a gym, mainly jogging, riding my bike, pushups, planks, handstands etc.

This is really helpful info:
"Recomp is a great choice for us 50 somethings IMHO - we don't really have the capacity to add muscle quickly anymore (unless you have got to this advanced age without ever doing weight/resistance training perhaps....) so bulk/cut cycles are a waste of calories and most likely we would just get fat/get slim and have no better rate of muscle gain than just training hard at maintenance. I was wondering about bulk and cut cycles. I'd never done that and wondered if I should get into it. Looks like not.

TavistockToad

sijomial wrote: »

Blimey! You are my twin....
I'm 55 years young, 5'9" & maintain between 164 & 168lbs (mostly - I drop lower for big cycle events).

I also look a lot different to how I look when I first got down to 168lbs.

Recomp is a great choice for us 50 somethings IMHO - we don't really have the capacity to add muscle quickly anymore (unless you have got to this advanced age without ever doing weight/resistance training perhaps....) so bulk/cut cycles are a waste of calories and most likely we would just get fat/get slim and have no better rate of muscle gain than just training hard at maintenance.

My goals are to be fitter than ever (done that, but not finished yet) and see if I can get back to touching distance of lifetime bests for strength.

One thing you might discover is that just a few pounds around goal weight make a huge difference in how you look so be flexible with your goal weight. It also takes longer for older skin to catch up with weight loss. How you look now is just the start.

You're 55? *kitten*!

sijomial

There's endless discussion about protein requirements - even amongst experts.
Generally there's a consensus you need less when maintaining than when you are cutting.
You need more that the "average" man when you are doing endurance cardio, you need more again when you are doing strength training.

There's little compelling evidence more than 0.82 x bodyweight gives any body composition benefit. (Nor on the other hand any evidence a bit more will do any harm to a healthy person).

I tend to prefer 1g per pound of lean body mass - but that's skewed by the fiendish difficulty in accurately working out body fat of course.

So at 168lbs and roughly 15%BF = 142.8g
Or 168 x 0.82 = 137.8

Guess what? I aim for about 140g and that should have a substantial safety margin and I'm not obsessive about hitting it everyday.

TheBeachgod

TavistockToad wrote: »

You're 55? *kitten*!

That's what I was thinking, too. We're the same age, height and weight and couldn't look any more different.

sijomial

TheBeachgod wrote: »

TavistockToad wrote: »

You're 55? *kitten*!

That's what I was thinking, too. We're the same age, height and weight and couldn't look any more different.

Thank you (and @TavistockToad ).

I was soft and chubby when I first got to maintenance, my stomach sagged in certain positions (let's call it push up position, ahem!) - the picture of me in red shorts in my photos if you are interested.

TheBeachgod

AJ_G wrote: »

TheBeachgod wrote: »

I have Pushing The Limits by Al Kavadlo and he is a brick sh!thouse from bodyweight exercises and calisthenics so I'd say a gym membership is not a requirement to get in the shape I'd like which is basically a fit guy who looks good on the beach.

Honestly, he's just really lean with a medium amount of muscle. I wouldn't say he's really built, he's just crazy lean.

I could live with being like that! This is a far cry from me now.

cdcllcga01

Thanks for the post guys. I'm 53 and on a similar journey. My first goal is to get to 180 @ 15% bf; I'm currently 196 @ 25%. So I see my choices as go below 180 and build back up (and then recomp last bit) or get to 180 and recomp to 15%. This discussion is great input.

riffraff2112

sounds like you have the discipline, mindset and a goal in mind. Stop eating at deficit and start working out more. Check every few weeks and see what is going on with your body shape, mass, and strength levels. You can always fine tune your diet, and workouts to better suit your needs.

I have been doing that for over a year. I am happy with weight, but have a certain look I am after...wanted a bigger back, smaller legs, some abs....its coming along. Not easy at 48 but I am seeing results.

TheBeachgod

I discovered MFP reset my macro goals when I changed from Lose to Maintain so I set them back to 40/30/30 and it upped my protein intake to 140 grams/day. That is more in line with what I've been told on this thread.