Just found you all! I've been EM2WL-ing all along?!

williams969

I just wanted to pop in and say "Hi" to everyone here. I started my weight loss back in April (MFP since May). Stumbled across Heybales spreadsheet along the way, and have been eating at those goals (with a couple "diet breaks") for 12 weeks now.

Umm, I'm a EM2WL-er? I guess, and I didn't even realize it. I thought I was an IIFYM girl, lol. Well, labels/shlabels. The point is, the science and logic of those two intertwine and make sense for me, and obviously work well in my success. After 12 weeks of modest TDEE -15/18%, I'm down a ton of inches, up gobs of energy and vitality, and even the scale has been kind to me.

The pants don't lie :laugh: In fact, I never thought these shorts would fit again, they were ready to be tossed. Glad I kept them: ("Before/After"):



I want to give a huge public thank you to heybales for his spreadsheet and helping me find "faith" in the math. I found it just in time, since two weeks of 1200/1300 calorie eating was "stupid", and I didn't realize there was another way to get the body I wanted.

All the advice here and the website is incredibly helpful and supportive. Thank you!!!!!:drinker: Next step: maintenance/recomp/reset whatever it's called for the next 8-12 weeks (or longer, we'll see) and boosting my strength training from bodyweight/boot camp style to lifting all the heavy things!

butterbear1980

Awesome progress!!!! What are your stats? Height weight and pounds lost? Your photos are amazing! Keep up the great work and as you get closer to goal you could go to a narrower cut. I'm doing 10% to get the dreaded last 10#...which I fully expect to take a year . Again, just awesome!

heybales

Congrats on loss and sticking to it. I'm sure there were times others started a diet you knew about, and proudly proclaimed their big losses. Usually you stop hearing from them though.

Indeed, the idea of reasonable deficit for what you do and how much to lose is not unique, I took the math from studies that showed what seemed to be the best way to retain muscle mass, since usually if you are doing that, it means you are doing other things right automatically.
Just hard in spreadsheet to try to encourage resistance training, but at least if you don't do it, you still get deficit that should work well, though less than if you did.

Congrats on changes to lifting routine too.
Watch those stats as inches drop and of course weight stays the same. Since that means LBM goes up, so does BMR and TDEE.

And you'll want to use the Progress tab TDEE calc, because the amount of burn from lifting heavy really starts to change as you eat closer to maintenance, the calories burned from repair increase. It's why many may have had very accurate estimates of their TDEE when losing and lifting, but when they come to bulk time, they have hard time gaining weight because the repair burn just goes way up compared to prior.

williams969

Awesome progress!!!! What are your stats? Height weight and pounds lost? Your photos are amazing! Keep up the great work and as you get closer to goal you could go to a narrower cut. I'm doing 10% to get the dreaded last 10#...which I fully expect to take a year . Again, just awesome!

Thanks for the thoughtful words! I'm 38 yo, 5'6", started at 161lbs(~31/32%BF) on April 1, currently at 143lbs(~25%BF). My plan is to slowly increase my intake (weekly) until I'm closer/at TDEE. Yeah, I'm at the last 5-10lbs or so, too. I'm totally okay with getting there (or not) in the next year. As long as I'm progressing in my strength training, retaining muscle, and feeling great, I'm happy with whatever the scale says.

Heybales--Thank you for responding. Oh, yes, the Progress Tab has been utilized by me the whole time. Twelve solid, accurate weeks of logging and measuring . I'm quite confident my TDEE is ~2,050, which is crazy exciting, since it really hasn't changed much over the last 12 weeks. The power of retained LBM, baby!

I will definitely be continuing with accurate data entry on that Progress Tab page. Using my actual numbers (food vs. scale/measurements) to calculate an average TDEE for me has been priceless.

SeptemberLondon

This is fantastic progress, and you seem ecstatic - as you should be!
Many of these terms don't make sense to me. Can anyone tell me where to start in this program? Where do I learn the basics? I'm currently using TDEE method.
Congrats again! You look amazing!!

JHart0816

Wow - awesome progress! I'm on week 4 and have lost an inch and a half even though I'm up a pound. I'm also trying to lose the last 5-10 pounds, or at least replace the flab I've gained over the past two years with muscle. I love seeing how much your body has changed in only 12 weeks. Keep it up!

Jennbecca33

Awesome progress! Congratulations!! You look great!

Jennbecca33

This is fantastic progress, and you seem ecstatic - as you should be!
Many of these terms don't make sense to me. Can anyone tell me where to start in this program? Where do I learn the basics? I'm currently using TDEE method.
Congrats again! You look amazing!!

Hi September! You can find more info at EM2WL.com and the forums there. If you have any questions, any of the moderators are happy to help you here on the mfp forums or on the em2wl website forums. There's a starter kit for $5 that is so helpful...you can get it on the website as well. If you're using TDEE method, we recommend no more than a 15% cut. Enjoy everything in moderation and keep it sustainable!

williams969

This is fantastic progress, and you seem ecstatic - as you should be!
Many of these terms don't make sense to me. Can anyone tell me where to start in this program? Where do I learn the basics? I'm currently using TDEE method.
Congrats again! You look amazing!!

Hi September! You can find more info at EM2WL.com and the forums there. If you have any questions, any of the moderators are happy to help you here on the mfp forums or on the em2wl website forums. There's a starter kit for $5 that is so helpful...you can get it on the website as well. If you're using TDEE method, we recommend no more than a 15% cut. Enjoy everything in moderation and keep it sustainable!

^^All of this. I happily purchased the $5 PDF "Starter Kit". It wasn't too different than what I was already doing. That likely had to do with some of you here advising me and others on caloric goals and whatnot in the main forums.

I keep a copy on my phone for quick reference when someone asks about my way of eating. It's really not difficult, all common sense really. The Starter Kit PDF will answer most of your questions, especially addressing whether you should proceed directly to a 10-15% cut, or whether a metabolism reset (eating at TDEE/maintenance for several weeks) is best for you. And it will explain "why" a reset is needed. Happy eating!:drinker: