beginning of the journey

FloridaMichael

But seeing some small results already.

So to introduce myself, my name is Michael and for the past 5 or 6 years i kind of let myself get out of control when it came to nutrition. I had been traveling around the US playing poker for a living, and in that lifestyle, it kind of becomes, eat when you can, wherever you can. Never really tracked my calories but id estimate i was taking in somewhere between 4-5000 calories every single day, with no real excersize, besides walking from table to table, to car from the casino. I ballooned up from around 165 from the start, to my peak of what i would guess was around 195.
'This was all until about 2 months ago, when i had a reality check, and a life revelation and have since entered into the 'real world' trying to live like an actual person. I joined a gym, and since have been going somewhere between 5-6 days a week.
My usual gym routine involes going on olyptical for 15 minutes before hand for some interval training, followed by strength training with weights for an hour, followed by some more intense interval training on the olyptical afterwards. The more im starting to read though, the more im leaning towards skipping the preworkout cardio, and tacking on the extra 15 minutes to my olyptical session after my workouts. (or doing cardio in morning, weights at night).

I was doing all of this still without really counting calories and seeing what my daily intake was up until about a month ago when i downloaded MFP. I was 'eating healthy' or so i thought but wasnt really counting how much my daily intake was. Now that im using MFP i have set my calorie goal to 1800 calories a day with the macros breaking down into 45c/35p/20f. (but im thinking of adjusting it to 40c/35p/25f...)

Looking for suggestions and imput from people who have been in my position.



Me at my fattest.



image on left was right before i downloaded myfitness pal, and the image on the right was today, since sticking to the <1800 calories net a day.



pic took yesterday, showing deffinition, need critique on what i should be doing, if differently, if im mainly looking for a cut. Im sitting at around 16% bodyfat right now, and would like to get down to the 8-10% range before i think about potentially bulking.