I need some advise, terribly bad!

AaronPybas

What's up community?!
I'm a male 18 year old, currently 165-166, 5 foot 9 inches, and currently in taking 1690 calories. Before you start saying how low 1690 is too low, I know it's too low but I'm desperate to get cut and look good! I workout 5-6 days a week for about 30-35 minutes each day (I workout during my gym period) I don't do a lot of cardio because my calories are already low. I lost 10 pounds my first week, and not sure about this week. My arms are starting to look even better, got that vein coming out of both of 'em, my chest is starting to look a bit more sculpted, but my abs aren't NEAR as defined as I want them to be. So my questions are, one, was that first 10 pounds water weight? Two, should I continue to keep eating 1690 calories or should I raise them? I just want defined abs, sculpted chest, and good lookin bi's and tri's. Any information and/or advise would be GREATLY appreciated! Thanks!!

27jynx11

The 1st 10 pounds was more than likely water weight, as that tends to be the first weight people lose. The way to see your abs is to lose the fat around your stomach, the best way to do this is cardio. Also the more lean muscle mass you have the more fat you will burn.

Your callory intake will depend a lot on how much calories you burn, the more you work out the more you should consume.

The more defined your ab muscles are the higher your body fat % can be before you see them, for most abs your body fat % would be around 8-12%.

phildawson75

Being ~165lbs its likely the vast majority of that 10lbs lost in 7 days would have been water weight. Probably around 1-2lbs in fat in reality, the rest just from eating better.

1 lb is 3500 calories that would be a deficit of 500 day.

If your TDEE before the deficit is 2190 then it would be a pound lost or if 2690 then that's two pounds lost over a week by being at 1690.

I'd stick with the deficit for the time being, give it a few weeks then reassess it. The less the deficit the more muscle you'll retain when losing weight.

As far as abs you have to be very patient, stay focused and they will appear. Its all about reducing your BF% to below 12% to make them visible. Going from 27% to 15% took me a few months, but 15% to 12% took another year.

As far as not doing cardio because your calories are two low, if you do an extra 300 cals that aren't factored into your TDEE then just eat 1960 for that particular day to compensate for the extra activity. Its fine to do this, and your body will thank you.

AaronPybas

Thanks to both of you!!!

holliwood97

Aaron look around on these threads and look at the guys that have had success and message them... most of them would be happy to tell you how they got the ads and the lean body you are looking for....

Microfiber

I just want defined abs, sculpted chest, and good lookin bi's and tri's. Any information and/or advise would be GREATLY appreciated! Thanks!!

Try Insanity for 60 days. You'll get all of that and more

TavistockToad

Just for comparison, I am a 5ft5 130lb woman and I am losing bodyfat netting 1800 cals... So you don't need to eat so little to get results

AaronPybas

Just for comparison, I am a 5ft5 130lb woman and I am losing bodyfat netting 1800 cals... So you don't need to eat so little to get results

I'm sloooooowly starting to realize this.. I just thought if I dropped my calories so drastically, I would lose fat faster, but I didn't think how bad I was F'ing up my metabolism. When I train, I drain decently hard, and having that low calories with hard lifting, that can't be too great either. Thank you for your input!

AaronPybas

I just want defined abs, sculpted chest, and good lookin bi's and tri's. Any information and/or advise would be GREATLY appreciated! Thanks!!

Try Insanity for 60 days. You'll get all of that and more

How bout no.. I'm not about that life! Hahaha
Thank you though!

nannukka

I do not know if you have seen this yet. If not, please read. It is golden. Don't get overwhelmed by the looks of it. Just read first. Then at the end (10) you will see link to a spreadsheet. Use the Simple Setup and measure your numbers. You might need to go to the links in the PU's explanation to figure some numbers and you will need measuring tape. Just plug the numbers in and the spreadsheet will do the calculations (read carefully what numbers to change etc). And that's it. This is the safe, awesome way to loose weight/change your lifestyle and still live full, non-depriving life. Try it. If you do not have much to loose, you might need some advice from the "muscle boys", but I believe this would work for you neverthless.

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Pu_239
Joined Sep 2011
Posts: 7,242
Sun 03/31/13 11:02 AM
This is summary and outline of IPOARM(In Place Of A Road Map Version 3)

1. Calories
Calories are a unit of measurement. How an inches measure distance, pounds measure weight, calories measure energy.

2. Weight loss
Your body uses calories every second of the day; this is energy you’re burning. If you eat eat the amount of calories your body burns you will maintain your weight. If you eat less than your body burns there is not enough energy to support your weight so your body has to shrink (lose weight). If you eat more than what you’re burning your body will store it. You will weigh more.
To lose weight you must burn more than you consume.(Take note how it says nothing about food choices, it’s about calories).

3. TDEE(Total Daily Energy Expenditure)
This is how many calories you burn per day. If you eat at your TDEE you will maintain weight, you won’t gain or lose.

4. BMR(Basal Metabolic Rate)
This is your BASE metabolic rate, this means this is the bare minimum of your metabolic rate. This is what you would burn if you where in a coma.

5. Body Fat %
This is just the percentage of fat on your body. If you weigh 200lbs and have 100lbs of fat, you have 50% body fat. Pretty simple.

6. Eat at a moderate deficit.
1. Moderate Deficit(fat loss)
2. Large Deficit(stall out/muscle mass loss)
3. Starvation (Mostly muscle mass loss, some fat) This is usually defined of a diet around 800 calories a day.

7. Setting everything up.
1. Determine Body fat %.
Know your body fat %, you need a tape measurement for this. If you don’t have a tape measure, skips this part(go to step 2). It’s recommended to know it because your calculations would be more accurate. Go to: http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/mbf/ obviously enter your data.

2. Calculate your BMR
Go to: http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/bmr/ then enter your data, where it says “Enter Goal Weight” enter your current weight. On the next page it will show 2 BMR calculations.


If you entered your body fat, use the “Katch-McArdle Forumla” as your BMR. If you didn’t enter your body fat use the use the “Harris-Benedict Formula” as your BMR. If you’re using the “Harris-Benedict Formula” Your TDEE will be displayed under “daily calories” skip to step 4(calculate a deficit) if you’re using the “katch-McArdle Formula” continue to step 3.

3. Calculate your TDEE(if you’re using Katch-McArdle Formula)
Multiply your BMR by one of the numbers below based on your activity level.

Sedentary = BMR X 1.2 (little or no exercise, desk job)
Lightly active = BMR X 1.375 (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/wk)
Mod. active = BMR X 1.55 (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/wk)
Very active = BMR X 1.725 (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days/wk)
Extr. Active = BMR X 1.9 (hard daily exercise/sports & physical job or 2X day training, i.e marathon, contest etc.)

4. Calculate a deficit
Remember if you don’t eat enough you will stall out and risk losing muscle mass. Most people recommend eating at minimum your BMR and lower than TDEE.
If you know your bodyfat go by this chart.

Men Categories
Category 1: less than 15% body fat.

 Category 2: 16-25% body fat 

Category 3: 26 > body fat 



Women Categories

Category 1: Less than 24% body fat. 

Category 2: 25-35% body fat 

Category 3: 35% > body fat.

If you don’t know your body fat go by this chart
Category 1: Less than 15lbs to lose.
Category 2: 15 -30 lbs to lose.
Category 3: 30+ lbs to lose.

Below is the formula to calculate your deficit.
Category 1 = multiply TDEE by .90
Category 2 = multiply TDEE by .85
Category 3 = multiply TDEE by .80

8. Macro nutrient intake

Priorities:
• Hit your calorie goal
• Hit your protein goal
• Hit your fat goal
• Hit your carb goal

9. Macro nutrient intake
I’ll just make it simple, use the excel sheet, it will calculate things out for you. Just enter your TDEE, weight, and body fat% Up on the left hand corner it will say “file” click on that, then click on “download.” Under fill there will be a little arrow pointing down, click on that, that will download the file as well.
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B2MlEgY5q9lgTk1abHJsMElONlE/edit?usp=sharing

10. Extras
Heybales Spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Amt7QBR9-c6MdGVTbGswLUUzUHNVVUlNSW9wZWloeUE

IPOARM GROUP: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/8017-in-place-of-a-road-map
IPOARM Forum topic: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/937712-in-place-of-a-road-map-ver-3-0
Edited by Pu_239 on Sun 03/31/13 11:57 AM

AaronPybas

After a lot of thinking and researching, I've come to realize that I'd be damaging myself if I continue to eat a less than 1700 calories. I only made them that low because I wanted to see results fast.. I'm not a patient person lol.
But I didn't mention I didnt track my cardio, so I was burning calories from lifting and walking throughout the day and maybe getting 1300-1400 calories.
So my new plan is, I'm gonna continue to NOT track my cardio because I dont want to be taking in more calories than I need, and I'm raising my calories to 2000. Thank you everyone for your input and the helpful information!

AaronPybas

It's 1900, not 2000. I am gonna track my cardio but I'm not gonna intake what I burned off to make sure I'm not taking in more than I need.

nannukka

Did you calculate your numbers through the formula or are you guessing? With the above system you do not eat back exercise calories. It is already factored in when you put your activity level. To me that makes it easier and my pounds started to fall off once I switched to this system. I really liked heybale's spreadsheet below. I believe that this is his updated "simple set up". Really easy and you can track your progress in one of the spreadsheet tabs. It simple and beautiful.

This is the link to that:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Amt7QBR9-c6MdGVTbGswLUUzUHNVVUlNSW9wZWloeUE

And the thread for that conversations is here.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/750920-spreadsheet-for-bmr-tdee-deficit-macro-calcs-hrm-zones

Good stuff. It takes a while to educated yourself so it is good that you are researching and reading and thinking. There are many ways doing things, but for me this worked. Not to say it is the only way (even though I'm excited "new convert"...heh hee).