[lexluthor]

Hi guys, I'm new to the board. I've been lifting for a few years now but I'm still a little chubby. Probably around 22-25% bf is my estimated guess. Anyways I just got a food scale and I'm looking to changing my whole way of eating in order to cut down.

Right now my idea is to eat chicken, fish(mostly tilapia, occasionally salmon), ground turkey and/or beef, brown rice and veggies(any that I want). My only successful attempts at losing weight are when I first started in which I did a keto based diet. The other, was from loading trucks at UPS which was slave labor(and I lost the most doing this). Anyways I'm finally ready to just break it down...log everything and make the magic happen. I'd like to stay between 1600-2000 cal a day.

I'd like to use this thread to ask if certain foods are ok or not. I've seen a few people mentioning fat free cheese. SO is this ok to add to foods....as long as I stay within my range? I'd like to fight my way down to 15% or so by Jan. I run a lot now (5 miles 3-6x a week) so I think if I can get my diet in order it shouldnt be a problem.

[EasyEJL]

Fat free cheese isn't too bad, even melts decently (the kraft stuff). You should use a service to track calories + macros specifically, www.fitday.com is a nice choice. You should try and find a copy of lyle mcdonalds books about ketogenic diets, as you may be surprised. For instance, on a keto diet, what would you think a 200lb man should be taking in proteinwise if he is a weightlifter? The answer is no more than 180g. the bulk of calories to reach more like 2200-2400 should be made up of healthy fats.

[lexluthor]

Originally Posted by EasyEJL

Fat free cheese isn't too bad, even melts decently (the kraft stuff). You should use a service to track calories + macros specifically, www.fitday.com is a nice choice. You should try and find a copy of lyle mcdonalds books about ketogenic diets, as you may be surprised. For instance, on a keto diet, what would you think a 200lb man should be taking in proteinwise if he is a weightlifter? The answer is no more than 180g. the bulk of calories to reach more like 2200-2400 should be made up of healthy fats.

Oh yeah i'm all over fit day. I definetly would like to go keto again but I feel over the years i've gone back and forth so much. Right now this is what i've got *starting today*

1 cup of ground beef
12 oz chicken breast
1 cup of brown rice
4 egg whites

that comes out to 1593 cal. p/c/f 155/144/39

The rice is to be eaten with the ground beef as pre/post workout meals.

I didn't include but I'm going to leave myself free to any green/yellow/red vegetables...ok any veggies as long as I eat them every day. I'll also have 3 scoops of protein after my workout. All seasoning should come from different herbs and fat free cheese. So I should never cap 2000 calories. I have a really good feeling about this setup.

I'm getting a smart phone in a few days so i'll def keep an excel sheet and log everything so if I happen to eat anything extra I can log it and burn it off through extra cardio.

[EasyEJL]

that looks pretty good, basically any of the colorful veggies have minimal impact based on volume, a cup of any of em is almost insignificant caloriewise.

So all the carbs in the pre/post meals? what time do you work out? I had good luck with carb tapering, all carbs early in the day, none in the late afternoon/evening, but I also workout mornings

I mentioned keto as I missed the brown rice in your original post

[lexluthor]

No prob.

I usually work out at 2am. Actually..I work two jobs and one happens to be at a gym overnight. So really my schedule is....i'm up 6pm-12pm usually. Today's a little different but that's about normal. I may even begin to do cardio after lifting at 2-3am...and also one more time at 11:30 right before I go to sleep. Would that be overkill? I'm looking to burn a good 25-30lbs by Jan. I'm at 193 right now and 5'7-5'8

[EasyEJL]

well, 25lbs is 2lbs a week, which really is as far as you should push it. What you need to do (and it may sound funny) is track the heart rate + calories burned both in strength training + cardio. you really don't want or need to go more than 1000 below maintenance including both restricted intake + output.

So at your size as a rough guess (you can find a calculator to get specific) an ordinary day with no workout or cardio is probably around 2700 calories for maintenance. if you take in only 2000, that means you don't want to add more than 300 calories worth of cardio/strength training per day. So... the funny part is you may need to eat more. Otherwise what starts to happen (I know this from experience) is your weight loss will slow or even stop, and lowering calories further will only help for a short while. I reached blowing out 900-1000 cal a day in exersize and being at only 1300 cal a day in intake, and seriously was loosing less than a pound a week. (this was after 5 months of restricted calories getting tighter and tighter). Your body adapts, and does act to try and conserve itself and slows its metabolism down if you go too far off from maintenance

[lexluthor]

Originally Posted by EasyEJL

well, 25lbs is 2lbs a week, which really is as far as you should push it. What you need to do (and it may sound funny) is track the heart rate + calories burned both in strength training + cardio. you really don't want or need to go more than 1000 below maintenance including both restricted intake + output.

So at your size as a rough guess (you can find a calculator to get specific) an ordinary day with no workout or cardio is probably around 2700 calories for maintenance. if you take in only 2000, that means you don't want to add more than 300 calories worth of cardio/strength training per day. So... the funny part is you may need to eat more. Otherwise what starts to happen (I know this from experience) is your weight loss will slow or even stop, and lowering calories further will only help for a short while. I reached blowing out 900-1000 cal a day in exersize and being at only 1300 cal a day in intake, and seriously was loosing less than a pound a week. (this was after 5 months of restricted calories getting tighter and tighter). Your body adapts, and does act to try and conserve itself and slows its metabolism down if you go too far off from maintenance

Hrmm I'll boost calories up to 2200-2400 then. I usually burn 500-700 from jogging alone.