Guys who don't go to the gym: what's your calorie budget?

5'8 summer reached highest weight of 212. Started serious committed change October 1st. (195) Now weigh 147. Running, strength training at home. Kept calories at around 1500-1650 throughout.

I'm personally not hitting the gym til I get to my goal weight.

Huh? What? Logic broken.

Why aren't you planning on going to the gym until you get to your goal weight? Going to the gym will do two things:
1) Help you get to your goal weight faster
2) Help you have a better body when you get to your goal weight

Because I get crazy butt sweat and I wanna spare others from seeing what I got going on.

Nah. I just decided to keep my focus on myself in a multi part strategy. First, I want to lose the weight by diet and my own exercise. I have my own little plans and things I'm shooting for. Right now I'm walking. When I lose 20lbs doing that, I'm doing couch to 5k and making running a hobby. Also going to try insanity. Then another 20lbs gone I'm going to buy a nice weight set at home and put together a killer weight routine.

Then phase two: I hit my goal weight of 150. Now I've made it. I've done something that's taken me more than a decade to do. Now it's time to bulk up. I'm getting a personal trainer and dedicating a ridiculous amount of time to getting into the best physical shape of my life. I want to spend that next year getting so buff I rip my shirts when I flex too hard. Being skinny and semi athletic (from running, some sports and weights at home) will give me a good foundation to build upon

But that's just my own personal plan. I agree with you about hitting the gym being a good thing along the way, but this is the way I want to do it. And I'm still getting some good exercise!

Bro. No. So much fail.

1.) anti monkey butt should help your butt sweat. (It's a real product, I'm not joking)

2.) I'm just going to take a moment to explain to you why you aren't going to be happy at your goal weight- and you sure as hell aren't going to bulk up in a year to where you can do the shirt rip.

As your body is in this caloric deficit you are going to be losing three things. Fat, water, and muscle.

I cannot even BEGIN to stress to you the importance of adequate protein and resistance and weight training at this time. This is your ONE chance to retain as much lean body mass as you possibly can while losing weight.

As you get smaller it takes less and less calories to maintain your weight. The most important factor in having a better metabolic rate is the amount of muscle mass you have. What does this mean? This means you will have a significantly lower metabolism, you will have to eat less SIGNIFICANTLY to maintain your loss.

Lets not even get started on aesthetics. You seem to talk about losing "weight" NOT losing FAT. The result of this haphazardous thinking is a body that looks smaller, but still has a significant amount of body fat. Who the hell cares if you're 150 if you're still in the 25% body fat range?

This is called skinny fat. Ill edit in a moment to show you pictures.

Now, other than the fact that you ill have a lower metabolism, still plenty of body fat, and unpleasant aesthetics lets talk about how much harder you're making it on yourself to FIX it.

Men- even those who are young with superior genetics gain about .5-1 pound of muscle per MONTH. In a newbie year you're still looking at 10-15 pounds MAX with perfect and consistent diet and training. With the damage you're thinking of doing good luck being happy with the results even 2-3 years of consistent lifting and proper diet if you want to be so ripped you can "flex and rip your shirt off".

I think you overestimate the effort and ability your body has to gain muscle. You also grossly underestimate the importance of retaining muscle while you still can.

Do yourself a favor and retain what you can now. Focus not on the "weight loss" but try and tip the scales in your favor and lose as much actual fat as you can. Track your bf% and ditch the scale!

Eta: I was going to post pics.... But meh. Do whatever you want to do. Just for reference I have OCD, GAD, and a personality disorder. Part of dealing with anxiety (other than medication) is learning to cope with it. You can't live your entire life on fear. Focus on improving yourself, focus on having a healthier body image. Calling yourself a porky or fatty or whatever and then medicating with food is just succumbing to the thought that your anxiety is in control. I've find lifting and improving my physique (hell even the exercise itself) to have a great impact on my levels of anxiety and overall quality of life. Take it from someone who's been there and is still paying for it three years later. Or not. The choice is yours.

Okay then. You state you want to be buff and ripped and then get offended when someone tells you your current plan of action isn't going to work?

then get offended when someone tells you

I took the no bro approach in jest as the post I quoted was also joking. I was truly intending to be helpful.

Please continue with "whatever works for you". Although it seems unwise to completely ignore the advice of someone familiar on the subject.

Your entire question was somewhat silly to begin with considering everyone will have a different body fat percentage, height, weight, age, and activity level.

Find out your tdee with the plethora of online calculators or invest in a fitbit or something similar. Eat less than your tdee.

Dude, she gave you tough love.
I don't agree with the "tone" of her message, but the content of it is pretty solid. You should re-read what she posted and take it as helpful advice (it is, really) and stop being so defensive.

Good luck on your journey!