Am I working towards my goals properly?

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Korean_King
Korean_King Posts: 18 Member
edited July 2023 in Health and Weight Loss
I just downloaded this app 5 days ago and I would like to know if I’m working towards my goals in a proper and healthy manner

I’m 24
I’m 250 lbs
I’m 6”4 (Built like a linebacker is my best description)

The calorie deficit goal the app gave me was 2,310

I am exercising monday-friday (strength training + walks/hikes on trails with my dad)

My goal is to slim down and turn some fat into muscle
-I used the target goal of 225
-My goal is set to lose 1lbs per week

I’ve been noticing that sometimes I undershoot/overshoot my calorie goal by maybe 100-200 calories (300 max)

Sometimes I’m undershooting my fat/carbohydrates or just barely going over it

I haven’t been doing any of this intentionally, just the meals I’ve been eating seem to vary in fat and carbohydrates

I’ve also built a diet in which I’m eating 3 meals a day with 2 snacks inbetween with 2 hour intervals (snacks like nuts, cottage cheese, and greek yogurt)

I‘m worried that I’m undershooting some of my goals and doing my body a disservice

Would like some insight from more experienced members as well as any tips I can get

Thank you so much in advance




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Replies

  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,203 Member
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    Fats and proteins are essential nutrients, so it's good to be pretty close to a reasonable value on those. It's also a good plan nutritionally IMO to get plenty of varied, colorful fruits and veggies, which you didn't mention.

    A pound a week loss is reasonable, will tend to be muscle-sparing at your age/size as long as you're getting adequate protein and exercise.

    If you're under calorie goal by a small number on some days, over on other days by a similar margin, and average out to about calorie goal over a few days to a week, it's fine. In the MFP phone/tablet app, you can look at your calorie intake on a weekly basis as well as daily, which may help.

    Follow your MFP estimate for 4-6 weeks, then compare your average weekly loss rate to your intended pound a week. Adjust if necessary to dial in the intended loss rate, using the assumption that 500 calories per day is a pound a week. (Use arithmetic with that to figure fractional pounds.)

    Should work OK. You might want to slow down loss for the last 5-10 pounds, when you have less fat left to lose.

    Best wishes!
  • Retroguy2000
    Retroguy2000 Posts: 1,522 Member
    edited July 2023
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    OP, that looks like a good plan. Your planned rate of loss is small enough that it should be sustainable. One thing you should be aware of though, unless you're a new lifter, you probably won't be building any muscle while losing a pound per week. You can retain most of what you have, and losing the fat around it will make it look more defined as a result.

    Personally, I've only ever tracked total calories and protein (in grams). The rest falls into place by itself. Obviously you need some fats, and you need some carbs to help fuel your workouts etc. (you don't want your lean mass to become fuel...), but unless you're eating a tiny amount of calories each day, that's all probably fine. You should aim for at least 200g protein.

    After your first week of weight loss which will be mostly water, track your net calories here (food intake minus workout calories, there's a page where you can view that for 7 days, 30 days, etc.) and your rate of weight change, and that will give you a better picture of what your actual TDEE is. What MFP thinks it is, which was influenced by whether you told MFP you are sedentary/active/whatever, and whatever amounts you may be entering for your workout calories, are all just population statistic estimates, not necessarily true to you.
  • Korean_King
    Korean_King Posts: 18 Member
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    Appreciate the feedback a lot from you both. Sounds like I’m over worrying about the fat/carbs

    I usually end up completing or barely overshooting one while the other is 5-10% away and vice versa

    I’m always overshooting my protein goals

    I’ve been completely forgetting vegetables with my lunch and dinner so I’ll have to adjust that as well

    And it sounds like it’s not a terrible thing if I’m only 100 grams under my calorie goal, I can just eat more on another day to make up for it I guess

    Sweet, thanks a lot, I’ll see how my first week finishes and do the math
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,203 Member
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    kinglevy20 wrote: »
    Appreciate the feedback a lot from you both. Sounds like I’m over worrying about the fat/carbs

    I usually end up completing or barely overshooting one while the other is 5-10% away and vice versa

    I’m always overshooting my protein goals

    I’ve been completely forgetting vegetables with my lunch and dinner so I’ll have to adjust that as well

    And it sounds like it’s not a terrible thing if I’m only 100 grams under my calorie goal, I can just eat more on another day to make up for it I guess

    Sweet, thanks a lot, I’ll see how my first week finishes and do the math

    Really: 4-6 weeks, then analyze and adjust. Weight loss is not a steady thing. There will be lots of up and down bumps, and you need enough weeks to see an overall trend through the noise of those bumps (which are mostly about water retention shifts and changes in digestive tract contents, not about fat gain or loss). Adjusting based on one week is a recipe for . . . well, never accumulating enough consistent data to understand your own average calorie needs.

    For fats, since you're male, probably something around 0.3g per pound of bodyweight daily would be good, maybe even less OK. Try to get some MUFAs/PUFAs in there (nuts, avocados, seeds, olive oil, etc.) and some Omega-3s (fatty cold-water fish, walnuts, flax seed, etc.) not just Omega-6s . . . if you want to be fancy.
  • Retroguy2000
    Retroguy2000 Posts: 1,522 Member
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    kinglevy20 wrote: »
    Sweet, thanks a lot, I’ll see how my first week finishes and do the math
    Like Ann says, 4 weeks (not including the first week, because it will be a lot of water) is best. My post referencing week one may have been ambiguous, sorry. I meant you should ignore that for tracking purposes.

    Say in weeks 2-5 you end up losing 6 pounds, but you expected per MFP to only lose 4 pounds. That would tell you that your deficit is higher than you expected, and you're actually in a daily 750 calorie deficit not 500, and therefore maybe you can increase your calorie intake a bit if you want to.
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,412 Member
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    Hey, looks like you got a plan! Congratulations :) All the people above have already said the intelligent things, thus I'm the annoying one here as that's all what's left :D You can't turn fat into muscle. Both are totally different types of tissue that function independent of another. Would be cool though if we could o:)
  • serpentegena
    serpentegena Posts: 42 Member
    edited August 2023
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    A word about "turning fat into muscle", that's an expression frequently used to refer to losing fat while building muscle, and there are valid training and nutrition plans to achieve just that. OP you might want to look into what's called a body recomposition program. It involves, amongst other things, eating at maintenance (or slightly under) and a carefully planned resistance training routine. It might be an efficient way for you to reach your goals.
    Youtube has some solid science-based resources, including from Jeff Nippard:
    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=M4K0s792wAU
    And from Jeremy Ethier:
    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rkv1fpWLy0Q
  • Korean_King
    Korean_King Posts: 18 Member
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    I am in love with this community, you guys are so helpful and amazing, I appreciate you all a lot
  • herringboxes
    herringboxes Posts: 259 Member
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    Love the update, keep it up!
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,659 Member
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    Also remember that weight fluctuates for many reasons especially if you don't have access to your day to day fluctuations to better establish your trend.

    A 249 to 251 variance over a month between August 19 and September 17 is just not of a large enough magnitude to say much more than you are more or less at a stable weight.

    At this stage how you look and how you feel is much more relevant than the 0.8% change you observed especially since it is well within the margin of measurement error.

    Sounds like you're doing an AWESOME job improving your health!
  • serpentegena
    serpentegena Posts: 42 Member
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    Korean_King wrote: »
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    kinglevy20 wrote: »
    Appreciate the feedback a lot from you both. Sounds like I’m over worrying about the fat/carbs

    I usually end up completing or barely overshooting one while the other is 5-10% away and vice versa

    I’m always overshooting my protein goals

    I’ve been completely forgetting vegetables with my lunch and dinner so I’ll have to adjust that as well

    And it sounds like it’s not a terrible thing if I’m only 100 grams under my calorie goal, I can just eat more on another day to make up for it I guess

    Sweet, thanks a lot, I’ll see how my first week finishes and do the math

    Really: 4-6 weeks, then analyze and adjust. Weight loss is not a steady thing. There will be lots of up and down bumps, and you need enough weeks to see an overall trend through the noise of those bumps (which are mostly about water retention shifts and changes in digestive tract contents, not about fat gain or loss). Adjusting based on one week is a recipe for . . . well, never accumulating enough consistent data to understand your own average calorie needs.

    For fats, since you're male, probably something around 0.3g per pound of bodyweight daily would be good, maybe even less OK. Try to get some MUFAs/PUFAs in there (nuts, avocados, seeds, olive oil, etc.) and some Omega-3s (fatty cold-water fish, walnuts, flax seed, etc.) not just Omega-6s . . . if you want to be fancy.

    Hey, I’m back again to drop the update for you

    I weighed in at 249 lbs (-6 lbs) on August 19th which was a little over 3 weeks of starting

    I just weighed in at 251 lbs on September 17th

    I’ve taken all the advice given to me, watched the videos on body recomposition and adjusted my routine based off of them

    My new routine consists of
    -Strength training 2-3 times a week
    -Hiking for an hour+ 1-2 times a week on some local trails
    -Randomly doing sets of pushups throughout the day (Usually 30+ by EOD)

    I currently am sticking to my 2300 calorie deficit aiming to intake 200 grams of protein everyday and 250 on the days I weight train

    I no longer desire to drink soda everyday except maybe a can on the weekend

    I’m still able to go out to restaurants and eat delicious food while staying within my deficit when I’m not cooking

    I feel and look slimmer, I fit differently into a shirt that was kind of small on the old me and I’m starting to see muscles on my arms that I’ve never had in my life

    Everything seems like they’re on the up rn and I don’t plan on stopping

    I guess the only downside is that I’ve gained 2 lbs after losing 6, but it’s muscle instead of fat I think

    This new lifestyle is amazing, I don’t think I’ve ever felt this happy

    With the new data that you asked for, any new advice and feedback is greatly appreciated for helping me on my journey

    Thanks in advance, again!

    Keep killing it, king 💪💪

    About the weight progress, try to always weigh yourself under the same conditions, i.e. after going to the bathroom and ideally before you've had a meal. If that doesn't work for you that's OK, but if you decide you'll weigh yourself every day at exactly noon (after having had breakfast), stick with it to minimize the amount of variables going into measuring your weight.

    Don't sweat the small variations in weight. Rather, weigh yourself every day, but at the end of a week calculate an average of your numbers for the week. As long as it's lower than your average for the previous week, you're making progress.

    Avoid the pitfall of comparing yourself to others, this is your journey and yours alone. It's good to be a little competitive in tests of strength and endurance, but not so for general health and weight loss. This is for the long term, so the more sustainable your health strategy, the better you are setting the stage for future you.

    Very happy for your progress!!

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