Reached Target Weight, Now What?

DaveRCF

Over the past two months through a combination of eating right, cardio and weight training I have managed to drop from 195lbs to 173lbs and I am thinking about the next steps after hitting my target weight of 170lbs. I am tall (6'2") and would be considered an ectomorph (translation - tall and skinny, building upper body muscle is a challenge, hence the satirical avatar).

I use a trainer once a week, strength train twice more on my own and get two cardio workouts in a week, one of which is mainly anaerobic (a hardcore spinning class). I would like to continue shedding fat and adding muscle, while maintaining my target weight. My body fat is currrently 19% (down from 24% two months ago). I find the 19% number surprisingly high but I guess I hide it well. As is typical, I am keen to lose what is left of the love handles/abdominal fat but I recognize that this is often the last fat to go so I am being patient.

My questions are:

1) Within a 6-month timeframe and given my diet and exercise regime, what is a reasonable target for % body fat for a healthy middle-aged male who sits behind a desk during the week?

2) To shed the weight, MFP calculated (what a great tool) that I could consume 1700 calories gross daily, not accounting for exercise bonus calories. How many additional calories per day should I consume going forward and should I stick to the MFP-calculated carbs, fat, and protein or should a manual tweak be made?

Thanks very much in advance. MFP has proven to be an invaluable tool in helping me detemine the right "fuel" to put in my body. It is especially useful for people like myself who tend to be "numbers" oriented. I have also learned a lot by lurking on many of the nutrition and fitness threads.

RiverTom

Hey there. I'm in a very similar situation as you are. Have reached target at the end of November last year. Trying to continue lower my BF percentage, whilst adding muscle. So far I've dropped 3 percent BF since starting regular strength training and cardio exercises in mid November 2011. My main emphasis is on the strength training. Using cardio mostly for warm up and to keep active on "rest days".

I have adapted my calories using this calculator: http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm

It appears to give good numbers if you know your BF. How do you measure your body fat? I have montly measurements done by my Personal Training, using the 7 skin fold method and formula. Not the most accurate method, but more accurate than most of the BF scales, etc.

Add me as a friend, maybe we can support each other.

Cheers

Tom

erickirb

My questions are:

1) Within a 6-month timeframe and given my diet and exercise regime, what is a reasonable target for % body fat for a healthy middle-aged male who sits behind a desk during the week?

2) To shed the weight, MFP calculated (what a great tool) that I could consume 1700 calories gross daily, not accounting for exercise bonus calories. How many additional calories per day should I consume going forward and should I stick to the MFP-calculated carbs, fat, and protein or should a manual tweak be made?

1. A healthy Body fat range for a man aged 41-60 is 11-22%. So anywhere that you feel comfortable in that range should be your goal. Maybe shoot for the middle 16-17%, then when you get there re-evaluate.

2. since you only have 3 lbs to go I would suggest changing your goal to lose 0.5lbs/week. The smaller your deficit is the better as a large deficit, when you don't have a lot to lose can lead to a loss in a large % of lean muscle, not just fat. To get there I would add 100 cals to your current amount and stay there for 2-3 weeks then up it by another 100, until you get to 0.5lb loss goal, or maintenance if you hit your goal weight.

I would also suggest changing your macros in the custom goal setting. I would suggest your protein to be 25-30% of total calories, fat 20-30% which would leave carbs between 40-55%. This would be considered a balanced diet but will give you more protein then MFP gives you now (which is 15%, and that is not enough if you are looking at building or maintaining lean muscle).

DaveRCF

Thanks for the detailed and pertinent advice. I especially like reducing the rate at which I am losing now that I am close to my target. Makes sense if you need to keep up calories to add muscle.