Another New Guy!

spazmodeus
spazmodeus Posts: 4
edited September 20 in Introduce Yourself
Hello Folks!
Nice to be here!,...I have joined today in the hopes that I can lose some fat but first I would like to introduce myself if I could. My name is Keith, I am currently 38 years old, 167 pounds, and I have a small tire around my middle section! Since Halloween I have started to change my life for the better but I am becoming desperate for help. I have been ill more times this year than ever before in my life, this prompted me to get out there and try to change my health. I set up my old high school weightbench in the basement and began lifting again right around halloween and then joined a local gym on thanksgiving weekend. Since Halloween I have been working out 7 days a week with lifitng and cardio on alternate days,...I am going at a relatively moderate/medium pace lifting and vigourous stationary bike for 30 minutes on the days I am not lifitng. My goal weight is 150 pounds so I am about 17 pounds overweight.

My life before seeing the light was a little horrible, let me explain,...I would skip meals until supper because of being busy with a home business,...I would drink a 12 pack of Mt. Dew a day, and eat garbage for the most part. On Halloween I stopped cold turkey on the pop and fast food. My main problem is,..how much should I deficit my calorie intake? I have the MyFitnessPal app for my iphone and started today on that,..its only allowing me 1200 calories a day, something tells me this is to much? I know I will need the energy to lift and perform cardio right?,..I am currently eating two unsalted scrambled eggs, a whole wheat english muffin and a 70 calorie Low Sodium V8 for breakfast.

The hardest part for me is trying to find out how much and what to eat, I know basically on a common sence level to stay away from the garbage foods like fast food, donuts, candy cookies, ect, ect that stuff we have been hearing since grade school right? I am trying to maximize my results by eating the correct foods but I am at a total loss. The web seems to be FULL of conflicting information so I am always back to square one everyday. The frustration and desperation levels are going through the roof. I thought maybe I could get some help here. So far it seems I have only maintained my current 167 pounds since I started so I must be doing something wrong, any ideas? Maybe I am eating to much, or not enough to lose fat. this is so very confusing and I hate "wasting time" or "wasting efforts" by doing the wrong things. Now I may be able to contribute the weight not coming off to building muscle as I lift, it does weight more than fat and I know at least that is working because I can see and feel my muscles growing and becoming harder. I did lose some initial weight right after stopping the soda pop intake, I only drink water now. I know now not to watch the mirror, but I would love to see some fat go bye bye and bulk up a bit. Maybe I am not giving it enough time, I still look the same to me, my sife says I have lost weight but I cannot tell actually, I do know that a sweatshirt I used to not wear because it was tight across my middle now looks better on me, maybe I am just not giving it enough time.

Anyways,..thats my story, I certainly hope to reach my goal and keep it off, I am afraid that maybe I wasnt eating enough or way to much, not sure and it drives me a little wacko to be honest, and when I try to find my BMR I get different numbers from different places, a little confused to what I am supposed to deficit that number due to the exercize I am getting. All I know is I am strong mentally to change whatever it takes, I know that because I just did it with my "at then in my life" Precious Mt. Dew, I have no desire to ever touch that again.
-Desperately seeking answers,
-Keith

Replies

  • ittybittybadonkadonk
    ittybittybadonkadonk Posts: 11,634 Member
    Welcome to an awesome site Keith .... good luck on your weight loss journey ..YOU CAN DO IT :wink:
  • ittybittybadonkadonk
    ittybittybadonkadonk Posts: 11,634 Member
    1200 seems low to me ...........make sure you eat some or all of your exercise calories .... maybe some of the guys on here will help ya ...again good luck
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,294 Member
    I only weigh about 137 and my maintance calories are about 1900, there is no way you should eat less than 1200 cals and you should also eat your exercise calories as well, at least most of them anyway.

    You may also want to change your workout routine up evey month or 2 to shock your sysmtem and so your body does not adapt. Good luck.
  • spazmodeus
    spazmodeus Posts: 4
    Thank you!
    I put my information in and I set it to 2 pounds of loss a week, I only put it on the middle activity section because I am really just lifting 3 sets of weight until failure on every lift, so I feel like I am lifting for sure but I am not dripping with sweat, now on the cario for example, yes, it looks like its raining from my forehead :) Maybe I should tweak it to only 1 pound loss a week?
    -Keith
  • ittybittybadonkadonk
    ittybittybadonkadonk Posts: 11,634 Member
    Keith i would experiment ....try 1/2 pound loss for awhile then try 1 pound ect ect
  • cliddiard
    cliddiard Posts: 1
    Keith,

    1200 calories is the least amount of calories you can eat while still being healthy--if you're exercising regularly, you'll have even more calories to eat (it tells you when you enter your food how many extra calories you've earned for that day.) If you're weight lifting every other day, you may be gaining pounds in muscle, which is not a bad thing because muscle burns fat--just being there--so don't go by the scale. Make sure you're measuring yourself and seeing how you're doing inches-wise. If your sweater is more loose, you've lost inches. A goal weight of . . .what was it.. .150? . . . that's a low weight for a guy who is bulking up. . . your body may be comfortable where it is and that's why you're experiencing a lull right now.
  • jessica_benson
    jessica_benson Posts: 55
    I wish I were only 17 pounds overwieght. LOL! It really sounds like you are making positive changes. Good for you. My name is Jessica. I am 27 and have 6 children. I need to lose about 55-65 pounds to be at my goal weight. I have started working on it but it has been a slow process do far. Good luck in your journey.
  • Essence320
    Essence320 Posts: 154 Member
    Welcome Keith and good luck!
  • spazmodeus
    spazmodeus Posts: 4
    Thank you guys so much!

    I just tweaked my profile settings to take it up to 1690 on my daily limit and see what that does, also, I think you may be right, I may need to change my routine a bit, Maybe I need to change frm the exercize bike to running and shock my metabolism egh? I know I could put on extra weight and do less reps, I should not be doing 15-25 reps a set, but increase the weights and do until failure egh?
    you guys are so helpful!!
    -Glad I found this website (which was actually perscribed by my gym)
    -Keith
  • MadWorld
    MadWorld Posts: 200
    Hi Keith!

    I'm glad you tweaked your settings.... 1200 seems way to low, since you're working out. When you work out you need to eat to maintain energy-- as you realize. It really is all about tweaking and seeing what works best for your body. But, i def think you need to be eating more than 1200. I'm barely 5'3 and am at my maintenance stage-- I eat around 1700-1900/day bc I workout a lot. My body would go into starvation mode if I didn't. Plus, I'd be mean. ;)

    As for foods-- lean meats, veggies (even though I'm not a huge fan), fruits, nuts (careful- in moderation).... hopefully someone will come along with some good food ideas. I'm pretty plane jane when it comes to my eating, it's easier that way for me. Good luck!!
  • spazmodeus
    spazmodeus Posts: 4
    Awesome! Thanks so much, I actually just went to the BMR calculator on this website and came up with 1620,...So, I am a little unsire what this means,..should I still take in the 1690 that my calculator on my iphone app says to reach each day? I'm just a little confused to try and get my daily number of calories,..I know that when I enter exercize it "gives me back" those calories from exercize to eat each day, but where does the deficit come from if this is just a resting or Basal Met Rate?
    sorry I am new and trying to figure it out is all :)
    -Keith
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,294 Member
    Your BMR is your base calories burned in a day and does not take into account moving around. When you signed up you had to put daily activity level based on most likely your job. The diference comes is due to you burning more calories, even at a desk job, then lying in bed all day. That said I would stick with the 1690, as it takes into account you daily activity level and is set to a defict for you to loose weight already.

    My BMR is around 1400-1500 but my maintenance calories are almost 1900 due to my daily activity level, I would loose weight only eating my BMR amount.
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