Working towards weight loss first, then muscle building after

mrbumblepants

Hi! I'm an artist, events coordinator, and all around geeky person. I have chickens, an anxiety disorder, and I live in the pacific northwest. Currently going vegan, except for eggs (backyard chickens!) Would enjoy having friends here! I love helping to encourage people with their goals.

I have been gaining about 10 lbs a year for a few years, and was planning on trying to get back in shape at some point. Had also wanted to get more active. Then I had surgery in the spring, and managed to gain about 20 extra lbs! So in addition to health concerns, I would also have to replace most of my clothes if I continued on this trajectory without trying to get back on track.

I've been using another app that I have turned back to every so often over the last few years. This time, rhough, I discovered they took a lot of useful features abd put them behind a paid subscription. Additionally, there is no option to track weight gain, which I'll need when I start building muscle. So I came here, and am delighted to have features like micronutrient tracking again! Very much enjoying trying to get the carbs/fat/protein chart balanced. It's much better for me so far than just trying to stay under my calorie count!

My plans:
- Go from 179.5 to 150 lbs by December. This is 5 lbs over my ideal weigh, but since I'm planning on building muscle after, I don't feel I need to worry about those last 5 lbs.
- burn at least 500 calories per day. Eat a 2000 calorie diet, so I'm effectively getting 1500 net calories a dat.
- Eat more protein than fat, but not too much.
- Learn more about nutrition.

Once I reach my initial goal, I'll change things up for building muscle.
- Increase calorie intake, and increase the amount of protein in my daily diet.
- Shift my exercise schedule so that I do more muscle building activities.


So far, adding lots of exercise is great for me. I have less trouble getting enough nutrients, like vitamin b12, and I get a better variety of food. I'm also easily able to incorporate snacks if I get extra hungry at some point during the day.

TavistockToad

There is no reason to not do muscle building exercises now, if that's what you like to do for exercise, you want to maintain as much muscle as possible while you're losing weight anyway.

gothchiq

Start building muscle now, because that muscle will help you burn more calories. It will make the whole process easier.