A newbie sharing and seeking...

Hello to all the MFPers!

My name is Justin and I am new here. I have been really soaking up all the great advice and information available in these forums. So many great people really stepping up and helping out is a beautiful thing to see.

I am looking for friendship, guidance, and inspiration and to share these things with others.

At my worst I weighed about 265lbs and lived a very very sedentary lifestyle.

My diet consisted of eating out/taking home usually with appetizers, big main meal, dessert, and cocktails (beer, shots, etc).

Working at home on computer and not exercising at all my daily routine consisted of at most...
- walking over to the computer and spending most of the day there
- walking to the bathroom
- showering, getting dressed, etc
- walking to another room to get something
- watching tv 4+ hours a day
...no exercise and I wasn't the one doing the shopping either.

So when I say I had a sedentary lifestyle, I really really mean a SEDENTARY lifestyle.

With that diet and that lifestyle it's no surprise that I reached 265 and it really snuck up on me. I didn't even realize I was getting big until it just hit me in the mirror one day and I jumped on a scale.

That was all the motivation I needed to make a change. I started doing some research about what my diet and lifestyle should look like in order to lose weight and I was overwhelmed, to me there was just no way I was going to make all those changes at once.

So instead I came up with a simple game plan. I would make very tiny changes, a tiny little bit at a time, that were so minor that there was just no way I could imagine any possibility of failure.

At first the changes were things like...
- drink a little bit less
- eat exactly the same as I would but have half of the dessert

Then I added...
- exercise 5 minutes a day (not even to the point of sweating or heavy breathing, I did a very low impact routine)
- start skipping the desserts here and there
- start cutting back on the appetizers a little

Then I graduated to...
- exercise twice a day (same routine, no sweat, no heavy breathing)
- start skipping the appetizers here and there
- drink even less

It wasn't long before I almost completely eliminated the drinks, desserts, and appetizers.

I still ate whatever I wanted. The nastiest, fattiest, dirtiest foods from chain restaurants and drive thrus still filled my diet.

The weight starting melting off quickly, an easy 2lbs+ per week and it really felt like I wasn't even trying.

Soon I realized that even just the main meal from these places was actually more food than I need.

I had been over-stuffing myself for years and not paying any attention to how full I felt. Half a meal from these places was actually a lot more food than I needed in a sitting.

Now I was eating whatever I wanted, to the point of being full, and the weight was melting off without any real exercise.

However since I was not exercising and I was not actually paying any attention to my real nutritional needs I kept making more and more cuts.

I got to a point where I was always low on energy, never really felt great, and eating made me tired.

I moved to Ohio in May 2011 (from New York) and at that time I was down to about 140lbs, probably a few lbs below actually.

But I was skinny fat... to family who hadn't seen me in years, and new friends, I looked too thin, even malnourished (scarily so), but with my shirt off you could clearly see a big roll or 2, moobs, big love handles, etc.

With the help of friends and family I soon realized that I was actually pretty weak.

Clearly while I lost over 100lbs the really easy way and really fast, the way I did it likely caused a pretty significant loss of muscle mass and issues with my metabolism.

Being around friends and family (and with their encouragement) my food intake went up and my strength increased. I started exercising sporadically and definitely got much healthier overall, I could feel the difference.

I however also started putting weight on again, eating much more than I should, and still had a mostly sedentary lifestyle similar as it was before the move (a little better).

By May 2013 I was back up to and maxed out at 186lbs. Still with big rolls, moobs, and love handles, but clearly bigger muscles underneath. Feeling a lot better physicaly, though not very happy with the outer appearance.

Since then I have been really good and really bad about my eating habits... exercising everyday and then not at all... doing that I found myself back down to 170lbs now.

I got it in my mind that I might be better off at 150lbs (without any research) and considered trying NutriSystem. After doing a little bit of research I decided to just a little better, bought a bunch of Lean Cuisines, honey wheat bread, and precooked skinless grilled chicken. I thought I would make an entire diet out of mostly that (and a multivitamin).

I was being lazy about and wasn't really thinking it through. After a couple days I thought about it and realized I was probably getting less than 1000 calories a day and knew that couldn't be good. I also started to feel a little low on energy.

So I decided to really get in shape, finally commit to really doing it right, collecting the best advice, formulating a smart and healthy strategy and seeing it through.

Thanks to many great posts on this forum, and very much inspired by IPOARM (though not strictly following it), I put together the following strategy...

Current Sedentary TDEE: 2203
(http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/bmr/)

TDEE - 20% = 1762.4

My goal is to eat 1762.4 (1763) NET Calories Per Day (eating back what I burn through exercise)

This is a calorie deficit of 440.6/day or 3084.2/week or about 0.88lbs per week.

I chose Sedentary TDEE because as I described above, other than my exercise sessions, I still have a very very sedentary lifestyle.

Rather than focus on a Goal Weight I realized what I really need is a lower body fat percentage... I don't really care what the scale says so long as I am fit, healthy, and look my best. I decided to make my Body Fat Goal 17% which is the higher end of "Fitness" according to IPOARM and other sources.

For benchmarking I am using the average of all 3 calculators from Fat 2 Fit Radio which in my case is...
Original: 31.5%
Military: 26.9%
Covert Baily: 20.5%
= 78.9% / 3 = 26.3%

Just for the sake of being thorough I did run the Goal Body Weight Calculator at http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/ibw/ and entered 17% for my desired body fat percentage, and it says I should weigh 151lbs to reach that goal.

So what I have done is left my Goal Weight in MFP as 150lbs but set my NET calorie goal to 1763.

I am logging all of my calories and my exercise.

I have a roughly 45 minute exercise routine that I perform everyday, which includes...
- 15+ minutes of sweat pouring heavy breathing walking/marching/jogging in place (knees high + arms moving) (don't really know what to call this) (I get my outer thighs and my biceps parallel to the floor and do so at a heightened pace)
- 60 reps of 6 different low impact exercises that I don't know the name of (such as arms extended out to the sides and rotating forward for 60 then backward for 60, arms extended out to the sides and clapping for 60, 60 curls without weights, etc) (I do it fast enough to get my heart pumping a bit but I also think it's really good for my joints with all the time I spend sitting)
- 2 sets of 15 push ups
- 2 sets of 15 crunches
- 50 calf push ups (correct name?)
- 3 sets of 10 on my biceps with 25lbs
- 3 sets of 10 on my triceps with 15lbs
- 3 sets of 5 to 10 on my shoulders (arms at sides and lifting all the way up out toward my sides and to the ceiling)
- some stretching

I don't know what most of the exercises are to enter them properly in MFP. So what I did was search a few of them, find some I guesstimated as comparable, and extrapolated based on that. Using that what I have been doing is entering this 45 minute session as 30 minutes of "Push ups, vigorous" which is a 305 calorie burn.

Does this sound remotely accurate to you? Think I am burning significantly more or less?

I have my eye on a Polar FT40 to use for counting calories. I know it won't be completely accurate but I would configure as best I can for HRmax and vo2max to get the best reading possible, and perform other calibration tests outlined on the forum.

So by my calculations I am currently...
170lbs (actually lost a couple already) with 26.3% BF

My goal is...
150lbs (roughly) with a 17% BF

I will likely buy a caliper and use that to measure BF%... supposedly it is more accurate than the calculators if you do it right. I have read it takes some practice. I will likely keep rechecking using Fat 2 Fit tools averaged out for benchmarking and work on getting good with the caliper at the same time.

I know my current plan is not the best possible plan but I know it is without a doubt a plan I can stick to right now. Once these new habits are set in stone I will then improve them.

I need to look at my macronutrients and see what I can do to improve there and research how that might help my goals.

I am just getting started and looking to continue making improvements.

Once I reach my 17% BF Goal, I will then switch over to going for gains and building a lot more muscle.

I don't want to look like a boxer, a WWE/MMA wrestler/fighter, etc... I have just decided to get really fit and healthy.

I choose to have tight, muscular, healthy body, because I know it's a choice and I deserve it.

I would very much appreciate any useful feedback, constructive criticism, or even just friendly greetings.