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Crook3456
Crook3456 Posts: 9 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
looking for input and suggestions on diet and exercise. I just turned 40 and am trying to get back into shape and I've put together a program that I believe is healthy but I'm inexperienced in the fitness department. I'm 188lbs, 5'11". I'm currently taking in 1200 calories and I work out 2 hours a day. I'm trying to trim up and just want to get some input on whether this is the right way to go. Thank you

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  • wunderkindking
    wunderkindking Posts: 1,615 Member
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    You need to eat more calories.

    Faster is not better.

    1-) It needs to be sustainable. Are you REALLY going to be able to work out 2 hours a day and eat 1200 calories a day forever just to keep from GAINING? Because that's what you're setting up for.

    2=-) Metabolic adaptation happens. When you lose enough that your metabolism downshifts and you're not at your goal, and you're already eating the minimum calories, you are going to have nowhere to cut more from.

    3-) Fast weight loss is dangerous. It can wreck a lot of things in your body, but the thing MOST likely to the point of being probable is your gallbladder. Do you feel like gall bladder surgery?
  • goal06082021
    goal06082021 Posts: 2,130 Member
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    You can absolutely eat more than 1200 calories per day and still lose. 1200-calorie diets are for little old ladies with five pounds to lose (literally, women over 50 who are under 5'4" and under 120 lbs). Redo the guided setup and set it to lose 1lb per week.

    If you spend the other 22 hours per day sitting down or asleep, mark yourself as Sedentary for activity level, log your workouts, and eat back those calories. If you're on your feet most of the day whether you're working out or not, you can pick a higher activity level. Lightly Active would be standing but not walking around much (retail/cashier); Active would be walking at a leisurely to moderate pace for most of the day, perhaps with some bending and lifting (teacher/stocker/foodservice); Very Active would be constantly carrying heavy things from place to place (warehouse/landscaping type jobs).
  • Crook3456
    Crook3456 Posts: 9 Member
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    Thank you for the input. I've been on "vacation" for the past 5 years and now that I have access to my own food I'm trying to live a healthy lifestyle and didn't know where to really begin
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    Crook3456 wrote: »
    Thank you for the input. I've been on "vacation" for the past 5 years and now that I have access to my own food I'm trying to live a healthy lifestyle and didn't know where to really begin

    I would begin by using the tool as designed and not making it up yourself when you even say yourself you don't know where to begin.
    1200 for a 5'11" man is a frankly terrible idea!

    Go to your goal setup.
    Answer the activity setting accurately (it's your lifetsyle and job and nothing to do with your exercise)
    Pick 1lb a week weight loss.
    Log and estimate your exercise calories - you get to eat more on days you exercise to keep to the deficit you selected.
    Be patient and think long term not week to week. Crash dieting is not a healthy approach and surely health should be your primary goal?

    If you haven't been exercising regularly don't go straight to 2hrs a day - that way lies soreness, fatigue and starting to hate your exercise. Possibly also injury.
    Build up gradually. A mix over the course of a week of both cardio and strength/resistance training is ideal but also think what you enjoy as you are far more likely to stick to it.

    What is this program you have thought of and what are your fitness goals?

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