The Fitness Thread

[Reach]

I was getting out of shape because of university. I used to bodybuild back in highschool and university, so I decided to get back into it in January.

Started at about 165 lb, 5'11", bodyfat at about 17% (I measure with calipers).

Bulked up to about 177-179 lb, bodyfat actually dropped to about 16% at that time.

I've been cutting now for the past few months and I'm down to about 160 lb and my bodyfat % is down to 8%. Have gained over 10 pounds of lean body mass. Waist is down from about 35 inches to 28.5 inches. At this point, I'm going to start clean bulking again.

Benchpress went from 110x10 to 180x10 during the process, squat went from about 155x10 to 250x10.


I just started using www.fitocracy.com to track my progress and I really like it. Would recommend. I was using a word document, but an RPG is a lot more fun haha.

Can also give routine/dieting advice to anyone interested.

I'm not sure what exercise routine to follow or how to adjust BMR to account for caloric expenditure. For sedentary people like myself who have a desk job Monday through Friday, the multiplier to BMR is typically 1.2 -- i.e. without working out, my daily caloric output (maintenance calories) would be 1860*1.2 = 2232 calories.

Problem is that a deficit of 1000 from this number puts me at eating 1232 calories a day, which seems quite low. Of course, I'd need to work out.

I don't know the best way to work out and how to calculate the correct caloric output from that. I am figuring that if I lift weights 3x/week and do cardio twice, that brings the multiplier from 1.2 to 1.4, thus a maintenance of 2604 (and eating 1600 calories each day doesn't sound outrageous).

I don't know if 1.4 is too aggressive an estimate or what. I'm not sure what goals to set currently, since right now nothing seems to be moving the needle.

Also not sure how to determine the macros. I figure a gram of protein per lb lean mass is adequate, but I'm not sure if this is optimal (let alone how many carbs/fats I should be taking in). Always hear about the 40/40/20 rule but that sounds a bit outdated, especially for those with high bf%.


EDIT: As you can probably tell I am a bit obsessed with the math. I need the math to make sense but I don't know enough about the underlying biophysics to gauge certain things.

What are your goals? I highly recommend weight training to anyone that plans to lose a lot of weight, because it will help you maintain muscle mass, but depending on your resources and goals it might be easier to simply adopt a cardio routine.

By my calculations, your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) is about 2500 calories. That is how much you would need to consume to maintain your bodyweight.

I would start someone like you off at a fairly large deficit to get the weight off fast. Definitely under 2000 cal/day. So, try 1700-1800 a day for starters.

Make sure you log these calories somewhere. Add them up. Only eat foods for which you know the caloric content. The biggest mistake people make is trying to estimate this in their head and doing it completely wrong.

Make sure you weigh yourself every week when you start this, and when you do weigh yourself, do it first thing in the morning. The night before, do not eat any food after supper, and keep supper relatively light. Try to minimize how much water/fluid you drink in the evening as well. The goal of this is to determine your dry mass that is not influenced by fluid retention.

From there, track your weight over time. Someone your size should safely be losing 1.5-2 pounds a week. If you're not losing enough, try cutting back your intake *slightly*. If the weight is literally falling off, increase intake *slightly*, unless you're not hungry at all, in which case keep going!

Do NOT worry about macros or how to compensate for working out if your goal is weight loss. These are advanced concepts. Learn to walk before you run. Just workout and eat the same amount that you planned to eat.

The only macronutrient you should even take into consideration is protein, if you are doing resistance training. At that point, I would keep it over 100 grams per day. Otherwise, just worry about your calories.