Completely new to dieting. Help me burn fat please! :D

OldHairy

Hey all. I'm a 23 year old guy and I've never dieted or really been bothered about exercise before.

I weigh 170 lbs and I'm about 5 foot 8. I think I've probably got somewhere in the region of 20% body fat, and would like to decrease it to as close to 10% as I can. I also want to better define my upper body, so maintaining or preferably increasing muscle mass is also a goal. My weight is not a concern, rather the body fat.

Using calculators I have estimated my BMR to be ~1800 calories, and from this I have taken 1700 - 1800 as my average daily intake of calories.

I now exercise three times a week, doing either moderate uphill cycling or HIIT running for cardio, and calisthenics and a bit of weight lifting for strength on each of those three days.

I'm currently getting about 70g of protein, 50g of fat, and 150g of carbs a day.

My questions are:

Is the deficit I have chosen safe, healthy and likely to be effective?
Am I getting enough nutrients to lose fat but not muscle?

Thanks for reading!

psuLemon

I would probably up your protein to help with muscle retention. It should be around 140g of protein based on your estimates. Also, 1800 seems low for a young guy. Also, I would probably bump your calories to around 2000 or 2100. Yes weight loss is a bit slower but it will help with muscle retention. HIIT and weight training will be your biggest components to maintain lbm. And once you get to a good BF%, then you can evaluate if your shoulders are big enough and whether or not you need to bulk.

OldHairy

Hi psulemon. Do you have any suggestions on how to increase my protein intake healthily? I've made adjustments and upped my calorie intake.

As for the exercise, what do you recommend for cardio and strength? Would 20 mins HIIT running be more beneficial than thirty mins uphill cycling (with accompanying downhill freewheeling)? Currently I do about 20 - 30 pressups, 30 crunches, and 20 dumbell curls, flies and presses, all three times a week.

Thanks man, nice to meet you!

Gags5400

Your carbs are diabetically low, but nothing wrong with that as it will certainly help with weight loss. You should make sure most of those carbs come from whole foods like fruit and whole grains to help maintain proper nutrition. Citrus boosts your liver function which will help you burn more fat and retain muscle. Many people eliminate fruit as a means of cutting calories, but I actually increased my intake (I get about 2-3 servings per day now) and I've lost 23 pounds in 6 weeks. My doctor was like what?

AmyRhubarb

If 1800 is your BMR, you need to be eating above that, not below it. BMR is coma calories, and you are far from comatose!

I have had great success with fat loss following the advice and tools in this topic: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12

You need to find your TDEE as well as your BMR, and take the deficit from your TDEE number. Eating in between TDEE & BMR is the key, and it's workin' great for me. Check it out!

rainbowbow

How do you want to look?



1.) up your protein.
2.) you can continue your cardio, but don't rely on cardio for a caloric deficit. Do it for health reasons.
3.) start lifting HEAVY.
4.) switch your macros around a little. (I have mine set to 40c/30p/30f)


Best of luck!

OldHairy

Thanks for the quick replies

Obviously the first picture haha!

As per that thread I've changed my macronutrient balance, and upped my calories to above my BMR.

My protein is now 147g, my net calorie intake is now 1900 kcal.

BarackMeLikeAHurricane

Thanks for the quick replies

Obviously the first picture haha!

As per that thread I've changed my macronutrient balance, and upped my calories to above my BMR.

My protein is now 147g, my net calorie intake is now 1900 kcal.

Make sure your fat is at least .35g per pound of body weight

OldHairy

Thanks for the quick replies

Obviously the first picture haha!

As per that thread I've changed my macronutrient balance, and upped my calories to above my BMR.

My protein is now 147g, my net calorie intake is now 1900 kcal.

Make sure your fat is at least .35g per pound of body weight

A 40c/30f/30p split makes my fat intake just right.

OldHairy

I have to say, I'm getting better response here than on the BodyBuilder forums :P

AnneU93

you said a bit of weight lifting -I would do a good amount of weight lifting and lift heavy, my trainer always said that I would get much better results if I lifted so heavy that even though I was suppose to do 3 sets of 12 reps I could not lift past 10 reps and as soon as I was able to do 3 sets of 12 reps I should up again to where I again could only do 10 reps

-mind this is before I got sick and put on all the weight so my pictures are not the results -would be pretty bad results then :P

OldHairy

you said a bit of weight lifting -I would do a good amount of weight lifting and lift heavy, my trainer always said that I would get much better results if I lifted so heavy that even though I was suppose to do 3 sets of 12 reps I could not lift past 10 reps and as soon as I was able to do 3 sets of 12 reps I should up again to where I again could only do 10 reps

-mind this is before I got sick and put on all the weight so my pictures are not the results -would be pretty bad results then :P

Oh right, ok. Currently I'm doing sets of ten, so if I can do say 15 then I should up the weight?

Will try that from now on, thanks

AnneU93

yes if you are pushing yourself and have enough strength to do more reps than 10 (10 because that is what you say your goal for each set is) -if you can do more than 10 you are not lifting heavy enough. I say 12 because the first set you do you most likely could do more than 12, but the second set you are less likely.

to sum up, the weights should be heavy enough to make it so difficult to do rep 10 so that you have to take a 30 second to 1 minute break before you do the next set of 10.

psuLemon

To up your protein, you can add more meat, protein bars, shakes, nuts, or other stuff.. .look at my diary if you want.


Ideally, 6-12 reps is good for hypertrophy, so I would aim for that. Lower will provide greater strength, higher will provide more endurance. I actually like 3 days of heavy lifting for strength and 1 endurance day. If you only like 3 days of weight training, you can always do a few endurance sets. This way you hit both fast and slow twitch muscle fibers. A program that consist with compound lifts is ideal as well. I like a program like strong lift 5x5 as it's excellent for beginners.