Journey

stefan121ionita

Hi guys, I have some questions as I am a bit stuck at the moment.

So I am in my mid 20's I exercise everyday for a good hour , I use dumbbells (I have started with 10kg ones now I am at 25kg each dumbbell) , I walk at least 6000 steps/day , I work 8h/day on a job that keeps me on my feet for the whole duration.

I tend to eat around 2350kcal/day , the workout that I am doing is out of apps and I have structured them so that I do upper body , lower body etc.

I am 80kg and I want to get to 77kg , I'm quite new to this so here are some questions:
-Should I work out everyday?
-Do I have to have only weights training ?
-How to I get tonned ?
-Can I have a cheat meal ?
-Is 2350kcal good ?

I only take thewhey (protein), Calcium&Magnesium, Omega 3 (tablets)
I am not on a diet but I put everything I eat on the app so I make sure I get to the maximum amount of kcal allowed.

Thanks a lot and have a good evening

musicfan68

Should I work out everyday?

Yes, wxercise everyday is good for your overall fitness and health

-Do I have to have only weights training ?

No, you should also do cardio, even just getting a walk in everyday.

-How to I get tonned ?

To get "toned" lose enough weight that your muscles show. Also keep exercising.

-Can I have a cheat meal ?

That depends. Will it wipe out your deficit? A lot of people wipe out their weekly deficit with a big cheat meal. If you plan for the calories and stick to those. Then you can have a cheat meal.

-Is 2350kcal good ?

We have no way of knowing because you haven't given any useful info, height, age, gender, how did you come up with your calorie level and what is your deficit? Are you weighing your food on a food scale?

stefan121ionita

Sorry , my mistake .

I am 25 , 180cm , 80kg now, male.
I am weighing my food on a scale only when it comes to big things like: oats, sweet potato's, wholemeal pasta , avocado etc.

I use to eat hectic like around and nibble all day but I got I touch with a nutritionist who is also a PT and he asked me the same questions about gender and things and based on that he said 2350 .

I do walk everyday at least 6000 as I have a dog who needs long walks (so that benefits me as well) .

Is an hour of training plus the walking enough?
Should I keep on this deficit until I heat the 77kg mark and then start the lean bulk process?

Good to mention that I have started only 2 weeks ago with everything.

Thank you for your reply , really appreciated

Lietchi

You can exercise daily, but for strength training it's better to avoid training the same muscles on consecutive days, to give your muscles enough time to heal.

stefan121ionita

I tent to do chop&change the workout depending how my muscles feel after the previous session, but sometimes. I will start swapping then a bit more rigorously.
Thank you !

0somuchbetter0

Sounds like you’re doing a lot of things right. Two things: (1) be patient. To have realistic, sustainable weight loss, you have to be slow and consistent. (2) The things you’re doing now — exercise routine, food choices, etc. — can you sustain them over the long term? If you can, great, but if you go back to”old habits” once you reach your goal, you’ll get into a yo-yo pattern.

Well done so far — keep it up! 👍

stefan121ionita

Thank you very much for your reply.
I will try and keep it going , especially having in consideration how challenging is so far, I wouldn't want to throw it out the window just like that .

Habe an amazing day, take care and stay safe

AnnPT77

stefan121ionita wrote: »

I tent to do chop&change the workout depending how my muscles feel after the previous session, but sometimes. I will start swapping then a bit more rigorously.
Thank you !

For return on your effort investment, you're likely to get better results following a well-designed, professionally-produced, progressive strength training program, like those discussed in this thread:

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10332083/which-lifting-program-is-the-best-for-you/p1

How the muscles feel later is not necessarily a great indicator of recovery needs at the physiological level.

Wishing you continued good progress!

stefan121ionita

Thank you ever so much, I will definitely have a look

stefan121ionita

Another quick question if I may ;
The app is showing me my daily intake of calories and the maths for my daily intake is
My target - kcal of the food I eat + whatever I burn through my workout .

Should I just stick to my intake or should I eat whatever I have burned whilst working out as well ?

Hope it makes sense

AnnPT77

stefan121ionita wrote: »

Another quick question if I may ;
The app is showing me my daily intake of calories and the maths for my daily intake is
My target - kcal of the food I eat + whatever I burn through my workout .

Should I just stick to my intake or should I eat whatever I have burned whilst working out as well ?

Hope it makes sense

Assuming you set your activity level in your MFP profile as per instructions (based on before-exercise activity from your job and daily life), you should eat back exercise. Ditto if you have a good activity/fitness tracker synched to MFP (regardless of how you set your activity level in MFP, because the synch handles that discrepancy if it's present).

Eat back the exercise calories, or at least a consistent fair fraction of them, for 4-6 weeks (whole menstrual periods if you were a premenopausal woman, which you're obviously not), then adjust based on real life results.

People targeting a slow weight loss rate for their current size and very moderate exercise may be OK letting exercise increase their calorie deficit (speed their weight loss). People with an already-aggressive weight loss rate target, and a substantial amount of exercise, can create unnecessarily severe levels of health risk by not eating back some exercise calories. In between? Judgement call.

For someone like you, who wants to gain muscle, and who isn't very over goal weight to start with, eating back the exercise calories is a better idea, IMO. You need calories (and nutrition, especially protein) to build muscle, alongside a good strength training program, faithfully performed. Undereating to lose fat fast is likely to be counterproductive to that, as well as possibly reducing the intensity of exercise sessions via subtle fatigue.

P.S. To other USAians, translating his stats into our silly systems, he's 5'10", 176 pounds, so BMI 24.7, high end of normal BMI range, i.e. not substantially over-fat, in all likelihood.

stefan121ionita

Thank you, so basically I should eat whatever I burn in my workout .I think I can fairly say that I'm over my menstrual period ))

Out of all your knowledge my kcal/day is good 2350 for my stats (age,weight.etc).?

AnnPT77

stefan121ionita wrote: »

Thank you, so basically I should eat whatever I burn in my workout .I think I can fairly say that I'm over my menstrual period ))

Out of all your knowledge my kcal/day is good 2350 for my stats (age,weight.etc).?

You'll know in a month.

Seems low to me, for your stats, since your best bet would be slow weight loss (daily calorie deficit around 250), but what do I know, I'm a 5'5", 125ish pound 65 y/o retired woman. 😆

See what MFP would give you, basing the activity level setting on your job & daily life stuff (before exercise), and assume you'll eat back exercise. Or, check against a TDEE calculator (they average in exercise, rather than accounting for it separately and expecting you to log it), such as https://www.sailrabbit.com/bmr/. Those may give you an idea.

But the month of personal experience is the actual test.

stefan121ionita

Low as in I should eat more ?

I am as I said above very new to this so therefore every piece of advice is more than welcome, I appreciate your time and consideration that you've put into helping me , I am two weeks away into my first month , so fingers crossed 🤞🏼.

AnnPT77

stefan121ionita wrote: »

Low as in I should eat more ?

I am as I said above very new to this so therefore every piece of advice is more than welcome, I appreciate your time and consideration that you've put into helping me , I am two weeks away into my first month , so fingers crossed 🤞🏼.

Yes, that's how I meant "low". But WhatTheHeck do I know?

The more important comment was to consider other research based sources, like the formulas built into the MFP profile set-up and calorie goal setting, or from a TDEE calculator like the one I linked.

I'm a li'l ol' lady, you and I have nothing in common beyond being human: I'm like the last person who should be telling you a calorie goal. Any person's individual opinion or experience is less likely to be accurate than one of the research-based calculators that at least look at population averages.

stefan121ionita

It's not about age or being retired or a women .
It's about getting a bit of advice from everywhere you can and putting it all together until you created something that is yours.

Considering other sources is a useful piece of advice but I find it more useful at times just speaking with other people and see what their experience is like.

Thank you again for your time and effort!