Feed to shed fat

tellybelle

2)How much of a deficit do we need to shed fat? Well that is around 15-20% of maintenance. MFP gives you a best guess, its not bang on and may require some tinkering to get it right. In my case it was pretty close and I had great success shedding fat by cycling my cals using the zig zag principle. Zig zagging is not going from 2000 cals down to 1200 then back up despite what many on here have said. In proper application it is going to the max deficit (20% or in some cases 1000 cals) for 2 days and on the 3rd going back to maintenance, the purpose is simple to confuse the body, you are taking it to the brink of starvation mode and then recovering on the day you eat maintenance keeping metabolic rate high. So if you are 6ft tall and 300 pounds 1200 a day is not enough to shed fat effectively end of story. You may have great success for a week or 2 maybe even 3 but then you will bring up solid and be in worse shape than when you started out to begin with.

3) Exercise cals there has been great debate about this, eating them back or not. I want you to consider the case where you have someone whom works out 5-7 days a week burns off 500 or more cals a day eating 1200 and not eating them back as an extreme example and not losing weight despite their best efforts. Well you are killing your body, congrats, you are in starvation mode friend. This is why you are deadlocked, the body requires a min of 1200 for women and 1500 for men unless you are exceptionally short to function at a good metabolic level. When you drop below that level the body shuts down the metabolic engine and fat loss, it will consume muscle to feed itself and it will not get you results. So if you are working out like mad you need to eat to feed that metabolic engine to keep burning fat, up the cals, spreading them out throughout the day for optimal fat loss.

Ok I am interested in trying the zig zag and I am following how to do it based on using the MFP values given (maintenance amount and deficit amount and bmr amount). I get confused once exercise gets factored in. Do I just eat back the total amount of calories burned through exercise (ignore those as far as calculating them into the zig zag) and only zig zag the actual MFP values?

beatlemom

I agree with EVERYTHING you said. I have insulin resistance and eating every 3-3.5 hours is exactly what I am doing. I am never super hungry anymore, which is perfect cause I don't overeat anymore either. And I am losing at a pace of about 3 pounds a week, which I imagine will slow down as i get closer to my goal ( I still have 99 pounds to go). I also drink at least 8 glasses of water a day and try to watch my carb intake. And I exercise every day for at least 30 minutes if not more. I always say you gotta work HARD for what you want and you really have to want something bad to work hard, lol. I want to lose this weight BAD.

Newfiedan

). I get confused once exercise gets factored in. Do I just eat back the total amount of calories burned through exercise (ignore those as far as calculating them into the zig zag) and only zig zag the actual MFP values?

yes you eat them back so that you are at your goal for net cals. The exercise will boost the metabolic rate, so not eating them back can hinder progress in the zig zag principle.

Newfiedan

I agree with EVERYTHING you said. I have insulin resistance and eating every 3-3.5 hours is exactly what I am doing. I am never super hungry anymore, which is perfect cause I don't overeat anymore either. And I am losing at a pace of about 3 pounds a week, which I imagine will slow down as i get closer to my goal ( I still have 99 pounds to go). I also drink at least 8 glasses of water a day and try to watch my carb intake. And I exercise every day for at least 30 minutes if not more. I always say you gotta work HARD for what you want and you really have to want something bad to work hard, lol. I want to lose this weight BAD.

glad to hear that you are on track. You will get there and yes as you get closer it will slow down I am currently in that stage. I am going to start zig zagging again though to amp it up again. I like to vary things based on how I feel, if I am feeling sluggish I eat, and when I am feeling good I am on track and ready to go.

kalia87

LOVE this !!!!!

mollymoo89

Bump. Thanks for posting!!

kalia87

Just order the clean eating mags:)

sweetsarahj

bump

Newfiedan

thx for the bump sarah

sweetsarahj

thx for the bump sarah

No problem! It's all great info. I presonally can't understand how people diet and eat so little... I love food too much!

My personal goal is to reduce my BF%. It's at 30%, I want it down to 25%. My calucations tell me that my weight would be about 125ish with a 25% BF (weight is about 131 right now). I think I'll also be a lot happier with the way I look with less fat and more muscle.

I'm exercising 2x a day, 5 days a week. Cardio in the morning and weight training in the evening. I'm hoping I can gain a bit of muscle and lose a bit of fat. I'm doing intervals for my cardio and lift pretty heavy weights--- I'm squating 150 lbs and leg pressing 240 lbs. Still working on the old bench press- just up to 80 lbs on that. Oh and I always have a protein shake after weights.

Anyway, I'd love any advice on how to acheive my goals!

LaurnWhit

Bump awesome info.

Laura

Newfiedan

I'm exercising 2x a day, 5 days a week. Cardio in the morning and weight training in the evening. I'm hoping I can gain a bit of muscle and lose a bit of fat. I'm doing intervals for my cardio and lift pretty heavy weights--- I'm squating 150 lbs and leg pressing 240 lbs. Still working on the old bench press- just up to 80 lbs on that. Oh and I always have a protein shake after weights.

Anyway, I'd love any advice on how to acheive my goals!

I would switch from your current program to a metabolic resistance routine, or ketlebell routine, those are great weights to be lifting for your size and there is nothing wrong with how you are doing it right now but the methods I use have a longer lasting effect on fat loss effect than separating the workouts into cardio/weights, also make sure you are eating back most of those exercise cals and give the zig zag method a shot to really amp up fat loss and muscle preservation/gain.

GTI_Girl

bump

Rubie81

Wow, what a great post. You need to write a book or something your tips and your way of expressing them are fantastic.

sweetsarahj

My gym doesn't have kettels balls, uunfortunetly. What is metabolic resistance training? Is it like circuit training? Do you think you could give me an example of what you would do in one of those workouts?

Newfiedan

I am only repeating much of what Tom Venuto teaches, in my opinion he is one of the few that teaches real nutrition and real methods without complicating things, fat loss is not rocket science, it is easy, it just takes hard work and dedication to achieve permanent fat loss. I have used this practice on and off for a while but this time around it is with a clear and defined purpose and I am honed in on my goals which are ever evolving and ever changing. At first it was to get to 180, then when I hit that it was 170, I am 1 lb away from that currently, then its going to be a 6 pack and once I achieve that its going to be muscle gain.

MooseWizard

Great informative post. I've pieced most of this stuff together from here and there on these boards, but good to see it clearly laid out together.

sweetsarahj

I am only repeating much of what Tom Venuto teaches, in my opinion he is one of the few that teaches real nutrition and real methods without complicating things, fat loss is not rocket science, it is easy, it just takes hard work and dedication to achieve permanent fat loss. I have used this practice on and off for a while but this time around it is with a clear and defined purpose and I am honed in on my goals which are ever evolving and ever changing. At first it was to get to 180, then when I hit that it was 170, I am 1 lb away from that currently, then its going to be a 6 pack and once I achieve that its going to be muscle gain.

Ok great, perhaps i will look at buying one of his books. I have heard a lot of good things about his stuff. I don't often buy fitness-related books because it seems like there is so much garbage out there, I don't want to waste my money.

Newfiedan

metabolic resistance training in its simplest form is cardio with weights. You can use dumbbells for all the same movements as kettlebells just modified to accommodate the dumbbells.

deanie0515

bump

dwellsouth

Thanks. I'm going to try to apply what you wrote here with my daily goals and not put my body in starvation mode.

ahmedlogic

Bumpin.

Where do you get your MRT workouts from? Are there any websites you would recommend to find a little bit more information on this type of training?

Newfiedan

once you learn what it is you can make up a program or take the guess work out and use this program; http://www.spartacusworkout.com/program.html#week2

gottabekd

Really good tips in here, i find it hard to keep focused on what I should be doing. Threads like this help.

jnchorn

Thanks for the information. There is a lot to still figure out. If I went by MFP guidelines I would be eating 3 times as much as I do daily.

Newfiedan

Thanks for the information. There is a lot to still figure out. If I went by MFP guidelines I would be eating 3 times as much as I do daily.

chances are you are not eating enough I learned that when I joined at 198 pounds, started eating enough and 3 months later I am 171.

porchwork

Good info...bump

rachellepilcher

so would that be 1000 cal below what mfp has me set at (to lose 1 lb/wk) or 1000 below what my bmr is...and always including the exercise cal?

Newfiedan

so would that be 1000 cal below what mfp has me set at (to lose 1 lb/wk) or 1000 below what my bmr is...and always including the exercise cal?

if you are at a 1 lb/wk loss then that is an additional 500 cals below that no more if you are close to your goal weight (say 15 lbs or less) then 200 below what mfp recommends you for a 1 lb/wk loss. If you do this eating back to maintenance on the 3rd day is a MUST do, not optional.

rachellepilcher

ok...thats prob what my problem has been this past week cuz I have been going 700-1000 under what mfp has me at...so for prob yrs ive been either way over or way under...its no wonder i keep yo-yoing and not keeping anything off. thanks so much.