What type of deficit should I be eating at? 180 lbs lost st

jhardenbergh

Here's my situation

I am trying to loose 20 lbs of fat while tone what I got and build by muscle mass. I know in order to get bulky you have to eat at a surplus, I don't plan on doing that. I am 5'7" and 196 lbs and am eating on average 1500 calories a day. I workout 6 days a week, usually burning 1000 calories plus per my HRM. I know nothing is 100% percent accurate so I don't eat all my excercise calories back and on heavy burn days, I can eat up to 1800 to 2000 calories. I think I eat pretty good, my diary is public, so feel free to critique me.

For exercise

Sunday

I usually do a 50/50 cardio and weight training day. I will do a 10-15 minute jog (gets the heart rate up) around 6 mph, then I do weight lifting stations. 15 reps moderate weight. Chest, bi's, and tri's. Usually non stop lifting with limited rest in between sets. My HR sometimes can get into the 150's based on lift. Followed with 10-15 minutes of arc trainer. My average HR is usually around 135.

Monday

It's a 75/25 weights to cardio. start with a jog for 5 minutes to get the heart rate up. I do legs, core exercises, back followed by a 10 minute jog. My avg HR is usually around 120-125.

Tuesday - All cardio . I will either go for a run if it's nice out. If I go to the gym I will do treadmill 25 minutes, stair climber 15 minutes, arc trainer for 20 minutes, My avg heartrate is usally above 150

Wednesday - OFF

Thursday - same as Sunday

Friday - same as Tuesday

Sunday - same as Monday

My workouts are usually around 60-65 minutes long.

I am asking cause I have seen some better definition in my upper body and arms. My legs have been pretty solid from carrying around 376 lbs for all those years. I have been eating more protein. Any tips or advice on things I can do. I do have some loose skin from losing my weight pretty quickly. It could be worse. My goal is to get down to 175 lbs and put some muscle mass back on and then a year down the road get a consultation for skin removal. Based on calipers and my trainers professional grade scale I am around 20% body fat. I know it's not 100% accurate, I would like to get that water test done, which I heard is the most accurate. My final goal is 10% body fat or a little below.

I know there are alot of people on here that are trainers and nutritionist and I appreciate all the information you can pass my way. Thanks for reading.

beastmode_kitty

I can't see your diary. But based on what you say you do it seems to really work! But be careful though. If you do the same routine from week to week it might stop working after awhile. However, if you change up the type of exercises at least every few weeks then you should be fine.

Congrats on the weight-loss so far though!

jhardenbergh

oh my diary might only be able to be viewed by friends, I will change it. I do change up the exercise some, especially on the all cardio days. I was just running for a while and I have added in the arc and stair climber. It's about time to go maybe to all arc trainer. I just get a little bored doing one thing on a machine for too long. With the weights I change it up some doing different chest, bi's and tri exercises. It's the food thing that I am most worried about. I am just not sure of the deficit I should be at. Recently I have eaten all my calories back with the holidays and all. I gained about 3 lbs of water weight.

jhardenbergh

The food diary is now public, sorry about that, thanks for the kind words.

beastmode_kitty

Well based on your diary, it seems like you are eating just fine. MFP tells me to eat 1680 cals a day, so i eat that whether I workout or not. I never eat back my exercise calories either, I just think its pointless.

I've also cut out a lot of sugar too. I did that and cut out pop for a week, and lost 6 pounds in under 3 weeks. I also don't eat bananas as they are FULL of sugar also.

As far as exercising, it sounds like you have a pretty good routine. I get sick of doing the same thing from day to day. I like to do weights one day, kettle ball the next, resistance ball, etc etc.

Keep up the great work!

jhardenbergh

yeah, bananas have a lot of sugar, I don't eat them all the time, but they are a good source of potassium. I hardly eat three a week, some weeks I don't eat any. It just depends what we got in the house. Out of all the fruits I eat, I probably eat apples the most. I limit myself to two servings a day. A full banana is actually considered two servings. A serving should consist of 60 calories and 15 carbs. Apples are 4 oz or a really small one.