Need Feedback on This new diet I created for myself

kwkeegan wrote: »

My thought was getting to a healthy weight was priority number 1 then I can maintain as I work on the glamour muscles. I'm already fairly muscular just have to drop this excess

If you are at a unhealthy weight, then it's the fat -- not the muscle -- that is the problem. Muscles aren't just for "glamour." Why would you want to lose more of them than absolutely necessary?

Losing muscle mass won't make you any healthier.

Ok, so you're 5 foot 10, 220 pounds, and I'm guessing your age at 30, which is probably a little high. You exercise (at least) 5 days a week for at least 30 minutes. So I calculate your TDEE at 3200 calories/day. You are eating (at least) 1600 calories per day, which makes your deficit (at least) 1600 calories per day. This is higher than necessary for the 1.5 pound per week loss than is your goal. Also higher than most people would consider healthy or desirable for long term results. I agree that the shakes are probably going to make it harder in the long run because you're not teaching yourself anything about how to eat well without them.

This basically sounds to me like the slimfast diet that was so popular a decade or two back. Pretty sure you can do better for yourself.

Speaking for myself, I am concerned about your diet and muscle loss because when I have done similar things I became very ill. Most of us have to work very hard to gain muscle and pay for 'living' expenses.

Also, I think it's fantastic that you're eager to get it done and make the changes you need to. All of the feedback here is meant to assist you, not to bash you. People here like seeing others succeed.

"Need Feedback on This new diet I created for myself" is the title of your thread.

janejellyroll wrote: »

kwkeegan wrote: »

My thought was getting to a healthy weight was priority number 1 then I can maintain as I work on the glamour muscles. I'm already fairly muscular just have to drop this excess

If you are at a unhealthy weight, then it's the fat -- not the muscle -- that is the problem. Muscles aren't just for "glamour." Why would you want to lose more of them than absolutely necessary?

Losing muscle mass won't make you any healthier.

I'm just going to explain this in a little bit more depth from the perspective of a healthcare professional/competitive powerlifter. When you have too sharp of a deficit, your body begins to use the protein in your muscles for energy. This catabolism of muscle isn't compensated for and thus you lose muscle mass. When you lose muscle mass your TDEE goes below expected for your age/gender/weight/height. Not only that, proteins are important in many other processes of your body that they can't be utilized for when your body has to resort to using it for energy.

This is part of the reason that yo-yo dieting occurs. When you're "done" with this diet, your energy expenditure will be much lower than someone of the same height/weight. This means that you'll have to resort to eating lower calories than you would want/what calorie calculators will predict for you in order to maintain your weight.

Also, it is MUCH more difficult to gain muscle than it is to lose it and just eating in a surplus and lifting weights will not give you only muscle. In order to gain muscle, you will also have to gain fat. That is why people do bulk/cut cycles. This means that you will have to diet all over again in order to lose the fat you gain while trying to gain, "glamour muscles" in your "douche" routine.

You asked for advice so it would probably be best to listen to it.

kwkeegan wrote: »

What I have gained from this is that supplements are worthless, if my goal intake is 1700+900 then I should be eating 2600 calories per day, and that anyone that tries to find a diet that they enjoy, where I can eat what I want most of the time, while still maintaining macros and nutrient intake and creating a deficit will be dealt with, scorched earth policy.

I'll just let y'all know how it goes.

kwkeegan wrote: »

Thank you for your helpful input, am I to assume that it is harder to maintain weight than to lose it? Also, my calorie input is mostly protein, and I do not see how it is helpful for me to eat almost 3000 calories per day when I feel great hovering around 2000. I don't feel tired or hungry

Just watch how much you loose each week. As long as it's under 2 maybe 3 lbs you'll be fine. Your workout probably isn't 900 cal so I would bet you're not under eating as much as it seems. Most workout estimators seem to over calculate. I agree, as along as you're honestly feeling good you can probably stick with it. It really only becomes a problem when you are so hungry that everything falls apart. Try to develop good eating habits at dinner. If you were eating a burger and fries with a beer every night, when you reach goal and start adding back in breakfast and lunch, you're reward meal might start to spill over to every meal of the day.