Introduction - Help!

lukeryanoneplus

Hi MFP Community!

I'm a new member signed up after putting on some weight during lockdown. A bit about me, I'm a 27 year old man who works in tech. I'm 6ft but weighing 15st 3 - almost 30% body fat which I want to bring right down.

I was doing the Joe Wicks for a while but the calories are quite high and high fat intake also which wasn't doing anything for me. I'm also currently dealing with a damaged rotator cuff/wrist which means I'll be cardio only for a number of weeks (4 weeks in physio so far).

Welcome for any tips you can offer, but my rules are to be this:
- 4 cardio session (45min) per week. With 1-2 HIITs in the evening for 15-20mins just to top up the fat burn.
- 1500 max calories per day.
- Mostly sticking to carbs after workout and fats if haven't worked out.

Any tips would be greatly appreciated!

Luke

harper16

The minimum a sedentary male should be eating is 1500 calories a day. Are you eating back your exercise calories?

lukeryanoneplus

harper16 wrote: »

The minimum a sedentary male should be eating is 1500 calories a day. Are you eating back your exercise calories?

Thanks Harper! I'm trying to find balance. I'm not eating back all that I'm burning as I want to shift the weight faster than the calculator is suggesting. I'm probably eating 1800 calories on days I'm burning ~770cal on the exercise bike and about 1300 on days I'm doing nothing.

snowflake954

"Probably" isn't a good word to use. You should know closely how many calories you're eating. Do you have a digital food scale? Are you weighing and measuring everything you eat and drink? Shifting the weight faster tends to backfire. People that make goal and keep the weight off (which is by far the hardest) usually pace themselves and eat enough to fuel their workouts. I'm getting the idea that you're in a big rush--why?

lukeryanoneplus

snowflake954 wrote: »

"Probably" isn't a good word to use. You should know closely how many calories you're eating. Do you have a digital food scale? Are you weighing and measuring everything you eat and drink? Shifting the weight faster tends to backfire. People that make goal and keep the weight off (which is by far the hardest) usually pace themselves and eat enough to fuel their workouts. I'm getting the idea that you're in a big rush--why?

It's a fair point to pick up on, I'm saying probably because I'm using the MFP food logger which in a slice of sourdough has a range of about 30 calories, eggs have a swing of about 100 calories for the same size depending on where they're bought. I don't have the time to log my individual macros as I'm quite busy even while working from home. So although I'm logging it all, I'm relying on the data other people have submitted to the app that's why it's a probably.

In terms of the rush, I've just hit my max weight for the second time in my life which I know is largely down to working from home, it's 12,000 less steps per day too easy to lay in bed for an extra hour rather than the gym. I've laid down my anchor today, burned that 770 on the bike first thing so I'm riding this motivation while I have it and really hope this lifestyle change stays consistent - I feel much better for it.

snowflake954

lukeryanoneplus wrote: »

snowflake954 wrote: »

"Probably" isn't a good word to use. You should know closely how many calories you're eating. Do you have a digital food scale? Are you weighing and measuring everything you eat and drink? Shifting the weight faster tends to backfire. People that make goal and keep the weight off (which is by far the hardest) usually pace themselves and eat enough to fuel their workouts. I'm getting the idea that you're in a big rush--why?

It's a fair point to pick up on, I'm saying probably because I'm using the MFP food logger which in a slice of sourdough has a range of about 30 calories, eggs have a swing of about 100 calories for the same size depending on where they're bought. I don't have the time to log my individual macros as I'm quite busy even while working from home. So although I'm logging it all, I'm relying on the data other people have submitted to the app that's why it's a probably.

In terms of the rush, I've just hit my max weight for the second time in my life which I know is largely down to working from home, it's 12,000 less steps per day too easy to lay in bed for an extra hour rather than the gym. I've laid down my anchor today, burned that 770 on the bike first thing so I'm riding this motivation while I have it and really hope this lifestyle change stays consistent - I feel much better for it.

You can't depend on the data people have plugged into the app---many entries are off. A slice of sourdough has a weight and so do eggs. I go by grams because it's accurate. When logging a new food I check the package to see if the entry is correct. If it's something not in a package with the weight and calories posted, I check 3 or more entries to see if they're all giving me the same numbers. I may pick one in the middle. Once you've done this, it goes on your list of current foods for that meal, and the next time I just weigh and plug in. Much quicker.

As for motivation--it runs out. Make new habits that you will stick with for the rest of your life. When we went into Lockdown here in Italy, my gym and pool closed. I got up at 6 to either exercise or go for an hour jog around the piazza (parks were closed too). No excuses. I'm 65 by the way.