NEED help/advice with calories/losing weight

Livaren
Livaren Posts: 4 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi guys, first post.

So last year around March time I decided to lose weight, I was very overweight at the time.

I am now 17, male, 5ft 9, 172 lbs and still need to lose at least 12lbs to reach my goal

I started at the time on around 1200-1300 calorie diet, eating fairly clean, but not exercising.

In a month or so I lost not sure how many pounds, but approximately 3/4 inches off my waist making me a 32inch waist.

I started working out in May 2013 with a 5 day bodypart split with dumbells and eating approximately 1800 calories and put on a small amount of muscle mass but did not lose much fat at all since I started exercising. I continued this until January. I evaluated my progress:

I lost a bit of weight, put on a small amount of muscle mass, but hardly lost much of my fat and I certainly did not make any viable amount of progress for the time I carried out my plan.

I realise something must of been of been wrong and now I am looking to start again but this time I want to take onboard advice on my calories and workout regime. I know the best way to go about this is to lift heavy, but I don't have the facilities for that and I can't really do many compound movements as I only have dumbells with fairly low weight, so i plan to do high reps, please give me advice on this.

I plan to work out 5 days per week, taking saturday/sunday off.
Monday: Arms/Shoulders
Tuesday: I will be going for a 30min run
Wednesday: Chest/Back
Thursday: 15-20 mins of HIIT/30 min cardio routine
Friday: Upperbody


I don't plan to train legs as they are the most muscular/largest part of my body and I will be training them tuesday/thursday and I usually play soccer/football on Saturday.

I plan to eat 2000 calories of only clean foods Monday-Friday and eat 1800 on my rest days. I am also concerned about this as I feel my calorie intake for me seems too high, but my TDEE came out at 2744.

Please read and give me suggestions and advice from what I have written on what I should do/eat etc. All help will be massively appreciated, thank you!

Replies

  • NapsAndNachos
    NapsAndNachos Posts: 80
    What made you decide on having a goal of 160lbs? Is that weight goal important or are you just looking to change your body composition? (less fat, more muscle)

    If I were you, I would eat at maintenance calories (2700-ish) and continue with the training. Then re-evaluate after a few months. Your body is still changing and while it's growing, I would give it as much energy and nutrients as possible without going overboard. You don't want to hamper your growth.
  • Livaren
    Livaren Posts: 4 Member
    I feel 160lbs is a healthy weight for myself and the sports I participate in. After reaching that goal I plan to bulk up. I burn around 250 calories per training session and I think at 2700 i would put on a lot of weight?
  • NapsAndNachos
    NapsAndNachos Posts: 80
    I feel 160lbs is a healthy weight for myself and the sports I participate in. After reaching that goal I plan to bulk up. I burn around 250 calories per training session and I think at 2700 i would put on a lot of weight?

    If your TDEE is 2700 (which is quite honestly quite low in my opinion if you're a 17 year old man who trains 5 times per week), then you're not going to be able to put on a lot of weight by eating 2700kcal per day.
  • Livaren
    Livaren Posts: 4 Member
    I agree although I've maintained my weight/muscle mass for majority of last year. My average net calories were 1800?
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    why no leg day?
  • NapsAndNachos
    NapsAndNachos Posts: 80
    Also, you do realize that when you star to bulk, you will gain fat as well, and obviously weight? So you first get down to an arbitrary number of 160lbs and then start putting on weigh back.

    I'm not trying to be intentionally difficult and most certainly not mean, but I would like to challenge you, as our perception is not the same as reality. Also, I am kind of worried of a young lad eating too little...
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    I agree although I've maintained my weight/muscle mass for majority of last year. My average net calories were 1800?

    it is impossible for you to have maintained your weight if you are truely in a deficit of nearly 1000 cals per day... sounds like some calculations are off?
  • adamnb13
    adamnb13 Posts: 9
    Firstly, eat more food. 1800 calories is not enough for a 17 year old guy, especially one that is active. You will find that if you eat more, you will actually have greater energy expenditure throughout the day. And when you work out you will be able to train harder. Eating too little at your age will cause stunted development. I'd say eat around maintenance, but loose weight through exercise.

    I too was in your predicament where I only had dumbbells to train with, an that was a bit of a trial and error period for me. What I would suggest is that you make sure you are training at a very high intensity. Do super sets or circuit type training where you do a set of one body part then straight into a set of another body part. So for example you would do chest say, and straight after that do dumbbell rows, and repeat that 3/4/5 times. Then maybe dips and pullups or whatever and so on. Done right you will be sweating and have a heart rate as if you have been doing sprints. This is how one looses weight and gains muscle at the same time. Doing strength exercises in a manor that also counts as a cardio workout which burns fat.

    I would also suggest that you may want to try and incorporate some leg training. although it would seem that you do a lot of running, as you mentioned the legs are the biggest muscles, and this results in the greatest growth hormone production when the legs are worked. Growth hormone is incredibly important for muscle gain and fat loss, so many doing one leg squats or lunges after a running session every so often may be beneficial.

    Also, doing runs on an empty stomach, so like first thing in the morning b4 breakfast will maximise then amount of fat used as an energy source. Don't go too intense though, at least at first, as may take a little getting used to.
  • Livaren
    Livaren Posts: 4 Member
    Thanks for the great advice everyone, I'm going to try incorporate most of it. The only issue I have left is with my calories. I'm eating 1800 a day and sometimes less ad I can still get my workout in, feel great and not hungry, why is this if my TDEE is 2700 and even at 1800 i don't seem to be losing any weight?
    I'm 5ft 9.5 and 172lbs

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