a few more questions..... little pot belly!

I'm sorry... where exactly is this pot belly you speak of? I see nothing of the kind in your pics.....

^^^^^ look above, listen to him.....

I thought you were going to put your settings to gain muscle/lose fat on the calculator. You need to eat enough and lift weights for what you want. I know the gym makes you nervous, did you check out convict conditioning? Those guys make do. You can also look for a weight bench and bar/weights used and do your routine at home.

Your weight trend over all is down, the huge loss at first was most likely water weight.

so... what I really want to ask is...

... what do you guys think I need to do? what kind of deficit should I be eating? .... have I damaged my metabolism? ...I've increased my protein intake because it turns out I was eating loads of carbs and not very much protein.

Eat at maintenance or even slightly above. No your metabolism is fine. Great job increasing protein!

.... what kind of exercise should I start doing?

You already know my answer

... I know that I need to start lifting.... at the moment I've been exercising at home doing some bodyweight exercises and hitting the exercise bike... my plan is to build up my strength, and confidence at home, and then pluck up the courage to join a gym.....

No one can help you here, you just have to do it! You can do it at home though.

.... do you think I would be able to get good results based on what I look like now? I'm not too fussed about looking "ripped" and having a massive six pack and muscles, I just want to be leaner - and slight muscle definition would be nice!

Not trying to insult.....seeing the pics, yes you can have what you want....if you take the advice offered to you. You told me before you had food issues, looking at your pictures you depleted some of your lean body mass. To look like you want you need to put on some muscle...don't worry, it isn't that easy so you won't get huge without a lot of effort. Then go on a small deficient, maintain workout and cut the final bit of fat.


There are some great guys here, most would be more than willing to help. Also did you check out the group Eat, Train and Progress? Sidesteal and Sarah are great and very knowledgeable..

You need to see cutting fat will not give you what you want. If you were a girl, I would say you were skinny fat ....the only remedy for that is muscle building.

If your food issues and insecurities are effecting you to the point you can not make the changes you need, you may need to talk to someone and find the underlying issue.

ETA never apologize for asking questions, it is the only way any of us learn.

You don't seem to have a lot of fat, what I see is a lack of lean muscle, have you considered eating maintenance or a slight surplus and lift heavy to add muscle? If you don't have a guy, look into the book you are your own gym and follow that program, there is also convict conditioning and a few other body weight routines. Pick one and follow it for at least 12 weeks, don't make up your own program, no reason to reinvent the wheel.

If you still want to lose I would suggest a 10% reduction from TDEE 20% is too large with so little to lose that you will also lose some of the muscle you already have. That said, if you are in a deficit and not losing than you are not really in a deficit or water retention is masking any loss.

Do you weigh all solid foods you eat with a kitchen scale?
Do you measure all liquids with measuring cups and spoons?
If no to either of those you may very well be eating 10-50% more than you think you are.

That^^

Another thing to consider is that the increase in weight honestly has not been much at all and can most likely be attributed to increased glycogen and food in the GI track.

Don't put much faith in the bf readers as they can be wildly inaccurate and very hydration dependent.

Yes, what you did was go at that 1200 defecit drop to quick, then you re-introduced more calories too quick, your body sucked in those extra calories in compensation for the defecit shock, which has now caused your metabolism to stall

You NEED to watch this video - metabolic damage by biolayne or Layne Norton
layne norton explains this, he is a bodybuilder and has his PHD

I find this site full of people uneducated about this and the danger of stalling metabolisms, everyone goes to far in defecit, the key is slow And Steady loss/gain... as in no more than 75-100 calorie change each week/ week and a half... when people go all out they tend to lose lots of weight, then once they introduce their maintanence, your body becomes a sponge and you end up gaining more than you ever did because the metabolism is haulted... so watch laynes videos to get back on track.

No to metabolic damage. You love promoting that.

I also checked out the 5x5 lifting. Is that something aimed at beginners? (It seems to be but some comments didn't agree)

Or maybe you need to do starting strengths before that!

I started with 5x5 because it was recommended for a beginner. I am still a beginner but I now use IceCream fitness 5x5.

http://www.muscleandstrength.com/workouts/jason-blaha-ice-cream-fitness-5x5-novice-workout

Starting strength I have heard is excellent, so it really is up to you. 5x5 strong lifts is just an easy workout with 5 exercises, I do not know about the other program.

Find one that interests you and have fun :drinker:

Depending on your goals, you might just need to get a bit leaner.

I'm male, 1.87 m and 75 kg. Body fat around 13%. I still don't have super defined abs - actually look a lot like your photo - but I do have veins running down my arms, lower abdomen, and legs. I've been 72 kg and I definitely could see the outline of my obliques (internal and external), but just barely the vertical middle line across the navel.

I have no intention of getting more muscular, just leaner (muscles still weigh when pedalling uphill). So it's fat loss. Which takes time and discipline for logging food and exercise, monitoring changes in loss rates, etc.

I would go TDEE, for a month and track your weight. This way if you gain (not fluctuations) you know your TDEEis a little lower, if you lose then TDEE is higher. The numbers are all estimate, so its a good time for you to learn where your numbers are. After that you can bump to the TDEE +250, go 75 per week or so. Remember just do what your comfortable with, and you want very slow weight gain, to keep any gain mostly muscle.

I am glad to hear your confident in your metabolism now.

The workout will begin to feel better after the habit forms, then you'll feel weird if you don't workout :drinker: your confidence will also build when all of a sudden you can do things that a few weeks ago you couldn't It helps to to give yourself mini goals, like pull ups, even 1 if now you can't or set an amount.

As for macros, I see .82g per lb of LBM around here often, I have mine set at 30% but I see many of the guys lifting set at about 40%. Remember protein is a goal not a limit.

Also I saw you in another guys thread offering some great advice, it really seems your comfort level with all this is improving and the mind is more important than the body.

For the macros look into iifym.com and there are iifym (If It Fits Your Macros) groups here

Don't forget to measure and take pictures. These will help the most for you seeing your results..