Guide on how to loose fat and get to your goals.
spramn
Posts: 67 Member
Hello All, this thread is a re-write of my other thread located here: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/814913-things-i-wish-i-was-told-when-i-started-my-journey
I wanted to add a few things to the thread, and in addition address a few points and common questions.
Step One: Open your mind -
Try forget all these myths and diets you hear of, most of them can be true under certain conditions, and for certain people, to start you need to forget everything that’s in magazines and what friends/family have said for years. You are the only one who can create a plan that will work, don’t let this discourage you though, as there are guidelines on how to get you where you want to be. It’s not hard or that serious - in the sense you need to be so obsessive over getting the perfect diet etc, so long as you follow the basics you will be successful, it does not matter if you’re not doing the most efficient method available, so long as it gets you to where you want to be. The basics below is what will allow you to succeed, Diets you hear of in books and on tv are Tools, nothing more, you need to have the right plan to be successful. You can build a house with only a hammer, but a person with a full arsenal of tools will be more successful.
Step Two: Rate of Fatloss -
Decide how you want to lose the weight and what time frame your happy with. A healthy plan would be to lose 1 to 2LB a week. You can achieve much higher rates of weight loss, however there are consequences and in the long term may not be the best for you. I know you have heard it before, but it holds true, slow and steady wins the race. I’m 6ft 4, and i started at 130kg (290lb), on April the First, 2011. By July I had lost 10kg (22 pounds), By November 2011 I was down to my goal weight of 102kg (224 pounds) in 240 days, that’s 28kg(62 lb) lost in 34 weeks, average of 1.8lb a week. So I defiantly believe that 2LB a week is achievable from my experience, I would still have chocolate, ice-cream and take away, so long as it would not send me over my calories for the day. I then over the next 10 months I maintained my weight, I was happy being back down to size XL T Shirts and 40 inch waist. I recently decided I wanted to change my body again, by not just loosing weight, but being muscular. I have now started a new journey on muscle gain and definition. There is a big difference between weight loss, and muscle gain, I just want to quickly suggest, loose the weight, get to where you want to be, then look at building muscle.
Step Three: Define goals -
You know have an idea on how fast you now want to lose the weight, now we need to decide the body type you will be happy with. Do you want to be skinny or lean? What i mean is, do you want muscle definition(lean) when you get to your goal weight, or are you just desperate to lose the weight and your happy to have no muscle definition(skinny)? Being Lean has a lot of benefits, not only cosmetically, but loosing the weight is the priority. We have many roads to the same place, but maintaining your muscle mass – yes you do have it right now, is a great strategy as it takes years to build once its lost. If you think about myself, I lost 60lb – 28kg with diet, no exercise. I have no doubt, I lost 8kg (17lb) of muscle. I have come to this number based on my change in TDEE. Because I lost that muscle, my TDEE was 2400 calories, which I lived on for 8 months maintaining weight. Now I have gained about the same back in muscle, 7-8kg and maintained my body fat percentage. I now need to eat 3200 calories to maintain my weight. My own experience has shown me in my situation, if I had incorporated weight training into my plan when loosing weight, I would have been a lot more efficient. However I can say, the looking back at my journey, I would of still done it the same way. I know it is what it is, but I would of felt too uncomfortable in a gym at the weight I was back at the start, and I was not strong enough at the time to overcome that.
Step Four: Do you want to exercise -
Decide if you want to incorporate exercise into your plan.
Lean: Depending on your body fat percentage will depend on how fast you can lose weight without negatively effecting your muscle structure. You will need to incorporate strength training into your exercise plan, as you lose weight. Depending on how heavy you are, or your muscles will naturally decrease as you become lighter. Your body will not preserve muscle to support its previous “load” naturally. To avoid this and to further increase muscle mass, a strength training program is needed, you need to use it (muscles) or you will lose it. Apart from the cosmetic appeal to have a muscular/toned lean body, you will naturally have a higher metabolism ( as outlined above) with a high lean muscle mass compared to someone who is “skin and bone”. Someone who has more calories to play with are often more successful in the long run.
Skinny: If your happy to just loose the weight, you don’t need to worry about trying to increase or preserve muscle mass. This means you can do no exercise or just do low impact cardio (walking).
Step Five: Calculate BMR -
Work out your BMR, this is your base metabolic rate, if you where in bed for 24 hours not moving at all, this is how much energy your body will need to sustain your current weight. There are plenty of calculators out there, that all use the same formula, Google will provide many calculators and MFP has one.
Step Six: Calculate TDEE -
Work out your TDEE, this is your BMR + exercise. Many BMR calculators will have this naturally built in, any time they ask you to select your activity level they are actually giving you your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure)not BMR. My experience has been best to always select Sedentary, then manually record all exercise you do.
Step Seven: Find a tool for calculating calories -
Formulate a way to count your energy in (calories). Since your here, you have a good start as MFP is one of the best i have found.
Step Eight: Formulate a calorie budget -
Now you know how many calories your body needs, you and how fast you want to lose the weight, you can establish how many calories you want to consume. You can select the weight loss speed when you first follow the MFP steps, anything over 2lb a week and your likely losing more than just fat, even if your doing gym work in an effort to maintain muscle mass. ** Depending on your body fat %
Step Nine: Choose your eating plan / diet -
You now know how many calories you plan to eat, now we need to figure out how you want to eat them. So long as you’re in a calorie deficit you will lose weight. While it’s not healthy, someone with a -500 calorie deficit eating only chocolate will lose the same amount of weight as someone eating a perfectly balanced diet (extreme example). Obviously there are many downsides but the point I’m trying to make is, so long as you’re in a calorie deficit you will lose weight. Work out your eating plan. Do you want to eat six meals a day? do you want to eat three meals a day? These options differ for different people, there is no huge difference to the styles. The main advantages between different styles are their relation to the person’s ability to adhere to them. Forget all the myths about starvation mode if you miss breakfast, and needing to constantly feed your body every 2 hours etc. For me the intermittent fasting style works well (I eat for 6 hours then nothing for 18), because it’s easier for me to plan and adhere to. For others they may have more issues with hunger, so the additional 2/3 meals a day may be beneficial. Everyone fasts when they sleep hence the term Break-Fast, dont be scared of the term Fasting.
Step Ten: Choose your macros -
Work out your macros, this is what we refer to the types of calories you consume, generally used are Protein, Carbs, Fats and i suggest tracking Fibre. Fibre is very important as its natures broom, and the benefits can not be understated. There are many suggestions on how much fibre is ideal, I personally aim for 25 to 30g a day. Remember if your increasing fibre or decreasing, to do so slowly, maybe 2g a day.
As a general start MFP will work out your macros for you, generally 40% carbs 40% protein 20% fat is a good start. This will depend a lot on your goals and where you’re at. Again tho, the calories are what’s important, someone with 100% carbs will lose the same weight as someone on 100% protein macro allotment. The importance of Macros is the healthiness of your diet. Also Fats are so important to consume, obviously try not to have any trans fats etc. Dietary fats do not turn into fat on your body, excess calories do, fats are needed for your hormone levels, as the molecular structure of the compounds are needed to be converted so they can be turned into essential hormones.
Step Eleven: Tracking results -
Track Results and always adjust your plans as you go. If the BMR calculator says you need 2000 calories and your weight loss slows down to under what you want, reduce your calories. Try to keep track of your Weight, Measurements and Body Fat %. There is a lot more to the picture that just weight loss – you loosing muscle weight? Water weight?. Also take that picture, I wish I did to compare progress
In Summary
Being in a calorie deficit will ensure you lose weight, try do this in a healthy manner adhering to macros, to reduce cravings and ensure your body is getting everything it needs. Remember don’t take it too seriously, be accurate with your reporting, but relish in the opportunity to try different styles of eating and dieting, there is no prefect diet or way to eat, it is your preference, what works for your best friend, may not be good for you. Weight training while your loosing weight will help you keep your muscle and build small amounts of muscle for the first 12-15weeks. As you loose weight you will naturally look more toned/muscular as your body fat % reduces.
Points and Tips:
Drink a lot of water, helps in so many ways.
Learn about what foods are good and bad – good calories vs bad calories - dirty vs clean.
Try stay away from fast food, and if you do have it, even if they say how many calories are on the menu add 10%.
Record every single calorie, sugar in tea, breath mints, etc
Minimum recommended protein a day is 1.5x your weight in KG to preserve muscle mass.
Compound movements when weight training are the best type when trying to preserve or gain muscle mass. General 3 day split, Push day, Pull Day and Leg day is good start for guys. Or full body workouts 3 times a week. Important to do those major compound movements, doing 3 days of isolation movements is not efficient.
You “cannot effectively” build muscle with a calorie deficiency, get to your goal weight then have a calorie surplus before trying to build a muscular body. (you will see some newbie gains tho, nothing too major and will stop).
Common Questions
Q: If my BMR says i need 2000 calories to maintain my bodyweight, can u eat 500 a day a loose a lot of weight? Will my body enter starvation mode?
A: Yes you will lose weight, it takes your body 48 hours to enter “Starvation mode”, but what is starvation mode? This is when your Metabolic Rate decreases. This will not be a drastic change, if you’re eating 500 calories when you need 2000 to maintain your weight, your metabolic rate will decrease over a few weeks, but your metabolic rate will never go drastically below your calculated BMR until you get into the low levels of body fat. However, it’s not recommended, aside from the obvious side effects, main reason is because you cannot maintain it. You body is a Fat Storing Machine, think of your body’s fat cells as water balloons, over the short term you will empty them, but it takes a very long time for the actual balloon (fat cell) to decrease in size. As a result when you do eventually go back into a calorie surplus your body will just fill them back up, and it will take a lot longer for your metabolic rate to increase to where it once was since you have burnt your muscle away by having such a huge calorie deficiency.
Q: Should i eat back the calories i burn from exercise?
A: Its down to personal preference and how fast you want to lose weight, so long as when the end of the day comes, you are at a calorie deficiently you will lose weight.
Q: What’s the best diet? Low Carb?
A: A diet is only as good as it is to be able to stuck too, that being said... Low carb naturally equates to high protein, protein is slower digesting and requires more energy to process, so it’s often seen as more beneficial. This is only because you feel fuller for longer. 2000 Calorie Carb high diet will allow you too loose same amount of weight as a 2000 Calorie Protein high diet, however you will see different benefits to both. Such as hunger levels, energy levels, mood etc.
Q: Why am i getting constipated?
A: Often on too much protein, not enough fibre or water. You also have a tendency to pass less frequently when doing intermittent fasting as your eating window is smaller.
I wanted to add a few things to the thread, and in addition address a few points and common questions.
Step One: Open your mind -
Try forget all these myths and diets you hear of, most of them can be true under certain conditions, and for certain people, to start you need to forget everything that’s in magazines and what friends/family have said for years. You are the only one who can create a plan that will work, don’t let this discourage you though, as there are guidelines on how to get you where you want to be. It’s not hard or that serious - in the sense you need to be so obsessive over getting the perfect diet etc, so long as you follow the basics you will be successful, it does not matter if you’re not doing the most efficient method available, so long as it gets you to where you want to be. The basics below is what will allow you to succeed, Diets you hear of in books and on tv are Tools, nothing more, you need to have the right plan to be successful. You can build a house with only a hammer, but a person with a full arsenal of tools will be more successful.
Step Two: Rate of Fatloss -
Decide how you want to lose the weight and what time frame your happy with. A healthy plan would be to lose 1 to 2LB a week. You can achieve much higher rates of weight loss, however there are consequences and in the long term may not be the best for you. I know you have heard it before, but it holds true, slow and steady wins the race. I’m 6ft 4, and i started at 130kg (290lb), on April the First, 2011. By July I had lost 10kg (22 pounds), By November 2011 I was down to my goal weight of 102kg (224 pounds) in 240 days, that’s 28kg(62 lb) lost in 34 weeks, average of 1.8lb a week. So I defiantly believe that 2LB a week is achievable from my experience, I would still have chocolate, ice-cream and take away, so long as it would not send me over my calories for the day. I then over the next 10 months I maintained my weight, I was happy being back down to size XL T Shirts and 40 inch waist. I recently decided I wanted to change my body again, by not just loosing weight, but being muscular. I have now started a new journey on muscle gain and definition. There is a big difference between weight loss, and muscle gain, I just want to quickly suggest, loose the weight, get to where you want to be, then look at building muscle.
Step Three: Define goals -
You know have an idea on how fast you now want to lose the weight, now we need to decide the body type you will be happy with. Do you want to be skinny or lean? What i mean is, do you want muscle definition(lean) when you get to your goal weight, or are you just desperate to lose the weight and your happy to have no muscle definition(skinny)? Being Lean has a lot of benefits, not only cosmetically, but loosing the weight is the priority. We have many roads to the same place, but maintaining your muscle mass – yes you do have it right now, is a great strategy as it takes years to build once its lost. If you think about myself, I lost 60lb – 28kg with diet, no exercise. I have no doubt, I lost 8kg (17lb) of muscle. I have come to this number based on my change in TDEE. Because I lost that muscle, my TDEE was 2400 calories, which I lived on for 8 months maintaining weight. Now I have gained about the same back in muscle, 7-8kg and maintained my body fat percentage. I now need to eat 3200 calories to maintain my weight. My own experience has shown me in my situation, if I had incorporated weight training into my plan when loosing weight, I would have been a lot more efficient. However I can say, the looking back at my journey, I would of still done it the same way. I know it is what it is, but I would of felt too uncomfortable in a gym at the weight I was back at the start, and I was not strong enough at the time to overcome that.
Step Four: Do you want to exercise -
Decide if you want to incorporate exercise into your plan.
Lean: Depending on your body fat percentage will depend on how fast you can lose weight without negatively effecting your muscle structure. You will need to incorporate strength training into your exercise plan, as you lose weight. Depending on how heavy you are, or your muscles will naturally decrease as you become lighter. Your body will not preserve muscle to support its previous “load” naturally. To avoid this and to further increase muscle mass, a strength training program is needed, you need to use it (muscles) or you will lose it. Apart from the cosmetic appeal to have a muscular/toned lean body, you will naturally have a higher metabolism ( as outlined above) with a high lean muscle mass compared to someone who is “skin and bone”. Someone who has more calories to play with are often more successful in the long run.
Skinny: If your happy to just loose the weight, you don’t need to worry about trying to increase or preserve muscle mass. This means you can do no exercise or just do low impact cardio (walking).
Step Five: Calculate BMR -
Work out your BMR, this is your base metabolic rate, if you where in bed for 24 hours not moving at all, this is how much energy your body will need to sustain your current weight. There are plenty of calculators out there, that all use the same formula, Google will provide many calculators and MFP has one.
Step Six: Calculate TDEE -
Work out your TDEE, this is your BMR + exercise. Many BMR calculators will have this naturally built in, any time they ask you to select your activity level they are actually giving you your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure)not BMR. My experience has been best to always select Sedentary, then manually record all exercise you do.
Step Seven: Find a tool for calculating calories -
Formulate a way to count your energy in (calories). Since your here, you have a good start as MFP is one of the best i have found.
Step Eight: Formulate a calorie budget -
Now you know how many calories your body needs, you and how fast you want to lose the weight, you can establish how many calories you want to consume. You can select the weight loss speed when you first follow the MFP steps, anything over 2lb a week and your likely losing more than just fat, even if your doing gym work in an effort to maintain muscle mass. ** Depending on your body fat %
Step Nine: Choose your eating plan / diet -
You now know how many calories you plan to eat, now we need to figure out how you want to eat them. So long as you’re in a calorie deficit you will lose weight. While it’s not healthy, someone with a -500 calorie deficit eating only chocolate will lose the same amount of weight as someone eating a perfectly balanced diet (extreme example). Obviously there are many downsides but the point I’m trying to make is, so long as you’re in a calorie deficit you will lose weight. Work out your eating plan. Do you want to eat six meals a day? do you want to eat three meals a day? These options differ for different people, there is no huge difference to the styles. The main advantages between different styles are their relation to the person’s ability to adhere to them. Forget all the myths about starvation mode if you miss breakfast, and needing to constantly feed your body every 2 hours etc. For me the intermittent fasting style works well (I eat for 6 hours then nothing for 18), because it’s easier for me to plan and adhere to. For others they may have more issues with hunger, so the additional 2/3 meals a day may be beneficial. Everyone fasts when they sleep hence the term Break-Fast, dont be scared of the term Fasting.
Step Ten: Choose your macros -
Work out your macros, this is what we refer to the types of calories you consume, generally used are Protein, Carbs, Fats and i suggest tracking Fibre. Fibre is very important as its natures broom, and the benefits can not be understated. There are many suggestions on how much fibre is ideal, I personally aim for 25 to 30g a day. Remember if your increasing fibre or decreasing, to do so slowly, maybe 2g a day.
As a general start MFP will work out your macros for you, generally 40% carbs 40% protein 20% fat is a good start. This will depend a lot on your goals and where you’re at. Again tho, the calories are what’s important, someone with 100% carbs will lose the same weight as someone on 100% protein macro allotment. The importance of Macros is the healthiness of your diet. Also Fats are so important to consume, obviously try not to have any trans fats etc. Dietary fats do not turn into fat on your body, excess calories do, fats are needed for your hormone levels, as the molecular structure of the compounds are needed to be converted so they can be turned into essential hormones.
Step Eleven: Tracking results -
Track Results and always adjust your plans as you go. If the BMR calculator says you need 2000 calories and your weight loss slows down to under what you want, reduce your calories. Try to keep track of your Weight, Measurements and Body Fat %. There is a lot more to the picture that just weight loss – you loosing muscle weight? Water weight?. Also take that picture, I wish I did to compare progress
In Summary
Being in a calorie deficit will ensure you lose weight, try do this in a healthy manner adhering to macros, to reduce cravings and ensure your body is getting everything it needs. Remember don’t take it too seriously, be accurate with your reporting, but relish in the opportunity to try different styles of eating and dieting, there is no prefect diet or way to eat, it is your preference, what works for your best friend, may not be good for you. Weight training while your loosing weight will help you keep your muscle and build small amounts of muscle for the first 12-15weeks. As you loose weight you will naturally look more toned/muscular as your body fat % reduces.
Points and Tips:
Drink a lot of water, helps in so many ways.
Learn about what foods are good and bad – good calories vs bad calories - dirty vs clean.
Try stay away from fast food, and if you do have it, even if they say how many calories are on the menu add 10%.
Record every single calorie, sugar in tea, breath mints, etc
Minimum recommended protein a day is 1.5x your weight in KG to preserve muscle mass.
Compound movements when weight training are the best type when trying to preserve or gain muscle mass. General 3 day split, Push day, Pull Day and Leg day is good start for guys. Or full body workouts 3 times a week. Important to do those major compound movements, doing 3 days of isolation movements is not efficient.
You “cannot effectively” build muscle with a calorie deficiency, get to your goal weight then have a calorie surplus before trying to build a muscular body. (you will see some newbie gains tho, nothing too major and will stop).
Common Questions
Q: If my BMR says i need 2000 calories to maintain my bodyweight, can u eat 500 a day a loose a lot of weight? Will my body enter starvation mode?
A: Yes you will lose weight, it takes your body 48 hours to enter “Starvation mode”, but what is starvation mode? This is when your Metabolic Rate decreases. This will not be a drastic change, if you’re eating 500 calories when you need 2000 to maintain your weight, your metabolic rate will decrease over a few weeks, but your metabolic rate will never go drastically below your calculated BMR until you get into the low levels of body fat. However, it’s not recommended, aside from the obvious side effects, main reason is because you cannot maintain it. You body is a Fat Storing Machine, think of your body’s fat cells as water balloons, over the short term you will empty them, but it takes a very long time for the actual balloon (fat cell) to decrease in size. As a result when you do eventually go back into a calorie surplus your body will just fill them back up, and it will take a lot longer for your metabolic rate to increase to where it once was since you have burnt your muscle away by having such a huge calorie deficiency.
Q: Should i eat back the calories i burn from exercise?
A: Its down to personal preference and how fast you want to lose weight, so long as when the end of the day comes, you are at a calorie deficiently you will lose weight.
Q: What’s the best diet? Low Carb?
A: A diet is only as good as it is to be able to stuck too, that being said... Low carb naturally equates to high protein, protein is slower digesting and requires more energy to process, so it’s often seen as more beneficial. This is only because you feel fuller for longer. 2000 Calorie Carb high diet will allow you too loose same amount of weight as a 2000 Calorie Protein high diet, however you will see different benefits to both. Such as hunger levels, energy levels, mood etc.
Q: Why am i getting constipated?
A: Often on too much protein, not enough fibre or water. You also have a tendency to pass less frequently when doing intermittent fasting as your eating window is smaller.
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