Completely confused, I need help.

Omanya wrote: »

Greetings!

Unless you're massively obese, you probably should not aim to lose two lb per week. Truth is, probably most of it will not be fat, particularly considering your calorie intake and level of exercise. In short, you're exercising way too much on way too few calories.

Your goal should be to get to 1,650 even with your exercise in mind - otherwise you'll lose a bunch of muscle, which will cause you to burn calories more slowly. You might also want to reduce your the amount and intensity of the cardio you do, which will also decrease the amount of calories you burn. You're currently encouraging your body to manage calories as efficiently as possible, which is the opposite of what you want to do.

As for diet, increasing calories is not difficult. Nutrient-dense cereal, for example, is relatively high calorie but healthful. That's because nuts, oats, etc., are high calorie. You can very easily hit your goal by not measuring (by weight) and eating a typical-sized bowl of cereal - which might be two-to-three-times a serving size. You can also simply double the portion size to easily increase your calories. Add a glass of milk to every meal. Add an egg or two for breakfast. Eat more calorie-dense whole grain bread instead of calorie(and nutrient)-poor white bread. Eat a few ounces of deli meat. Eat a slice of cheese. Eat some cottage cheese with fruit (but I highly recommend weighing this, as it's much denser than you might realize). Eat some oatmeal. Eat some nuts. Eat some avocados. Add olive or coconut oil to meals. Adding calories is easy peasy - and also why simply "eating clean" isn't enough -- nothing about "eating clean" ensures a low enough calorie consumption to create a deficit.

You should also be mindful of your protein. Are you getting enough? If you want to maintain your workout regimen, you really need to consume enough calories in general and enough protein in particular. Um, maybe unless you're using barbie weights and are doing cardio with resistance instead of strength-training. If that's the case, shift your focus to strength training and work each muscle group only three times a week. You should aim for two sets of ten reps at whatever weight tires you out at the end of the set and makes it so you physically can't do more for another 30-90 seconds. If you can get to ten without hitting failure(muscles can't do another rep), the weight is too low; conversely, if you hit failure before ten, the weight is too high.

On this regimen, you might find yourself gaining raw weight composed mostly of water, glycogen stores, and eventually muscle, but your body composition will change. It's the kind of thing that commonly results in a steady weight but a two or four inch smaller waist. However, over time your absolute weight will drop because your bodyfat % will decrease to the point that its total decrease will outweigh the weight of your muscle increase. Depending on your reserve for lean body mass(everything but fat), your weight estimate might increase but you'll still be around a healthy fat percentage estimate.

Hope this helps! Let me know if you desire any clarification or more information.