After A Full Year, I Need Help

Training
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I’ve been on this journey for 4 years. I started out weighing 330lb. I dropped down to 183 at my lowest, then climbed back up to 245 slowly the past two years. I’ve been doing the Stronglifts program the past year. Unfortunately, I sprained my ankle pretty badly sliding into home at a softball game, then sprained my wrist over winter break snowboarding. My wrist only kept me out of the gym for 3 weeks. The ankle kept me out for almost 3 months, and I had lost mobility that I’ve slowly gotten back.

I’m tired of being fat. I thought I could read and figure everything out on my own, but it’s just not working. For the past 5 weeks now, I’ve switched it up in a desperate attempt to get that “WOW” transformation. I’ve been working out 6 days a week, m-w-f are Stronglifts days. t-th-sa are hypertrophy sets of seated rows, lat pulldowns, hamstring curls, and dips.

I used the calculator on IIFYM, Male, 6ft, 245lb, 28 years old, sedentary, then 100 minutes in the gym for 6 days at light activity. To get a TDEE of 2869.

I cycle for about 35 minutes while I wait for the pre-workout to kick in, (lightly, like a brisk walk) then start my workout, which varies from 1 hour to an hour and 15 minutes. Then I go back to cycling for about 10-15 minutes and I’m done.

I’ve been eating 2000-2300 every day except Sundays, where I eat about 2600. Recently I’ve started feeling crappy, but I’ve attributed it to getting demotivated about my progress. (I’m still at 245lb)

What I eat hasn’t changed. I measure out 1lb of beef sirloin, 4 scoops of Myprotein, 1 cup of malk, 1 tbls of butter, 1 tbls Olive oil, steamed veggies, and one Powerful yogurt (strawberry). Depending on how hungry I get, I’ll either add in 1 serving of peanut butter with Omega 3, or 2 more cups of malk. I alternate iced tea with sucralose and water throughout the day.

I know some of the weight is a tiny amount of muscle that I can see on my arms and shoulders… But not a single clothing item fits any looser after these 5 weeks. This is me:

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My short term goal is getting rid of this fat, my ultimate goal is being fit and getting stronger (I’m not in it for the aesthetics).

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First - congrats! Both on what you’ve accomplished and for having the balls to lay it out asking for advice.

What were you doing that list you 150 lbs in the first place? Is it a lot different than what you’re doing now? Maybe there’s a recipe there we can adapt and adopt?

Before the 20-year-olds with metabolisms jump in, I don’t think you’re eating poverty calories (sorry!) but you are doing quite a bit of activity on not a lot of activities. My first instinct would be we want to change one of those variables, but that’s why I ask what you were doing before.

Lastly, and just for my curiousity, what is malk??

And P.P.S. Let’s end this on a high note - you’ve already accomplished an amazing feat! We can tweak something to be both more sustainable and more effective, so this is all a good news story!

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When I first started, my doctor asked if I wanted to try an amphetamine based medication to curb hunger. I stopped taking it after about 6 months from being up 5 days in a row. (I was seeing Shadow people… It wasn’t fun… But it’s funny now). I was just walking an hour a day and taking that medication. I continued to walk an hour a day after it and ate relatively the same as when I was on it. After about two years is when I started piddling around in the gym and trying to figure everything out on my own.

Malk = milk… it’s a joke with my friends and it just bleeds into everything else if I’m not paying attention to it.

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I forgot to add, I selected “light” on my workout descriptor because the cycling is light. While lifting, I sweat and don’t have the breath to carry on a conversation, haha

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US-based? I’m not questioning it, because the greatest health risk was your weight, it’s just not an approach I’ve seen often.

Hopefully one of the actual coaches (and there are many on here) will jump on, but I’d call this a clue. Maybe we should throttle back on some of your harder conditioning (I don’t know how hard the cycling is) in favor of walking? What was the diet, since that’s definitely the most critical factor here? More or less restrictive than what you’re doing now?

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US based, yeah. I actually had started walking until I developed plantar fasciitis. That’s why I switched over to cycling. I stretch my calves every day and use a lacrosse ball, but its still not fixed. I keep the cycling to 11-12 mph. I’ll break a sweat after 30 minutes. I figured I probably just need to lose a bunch of weight to really help the plantar fasciitis.

My diet was actually the same except every now and then I’d eat a loaded potato… But I wasn’t eating yogurt or peanut butter and less whey protein from what I can remember… I highly doubt I was hitting 150g of protein a day

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So that makes sense about the cycling. I’d say I would just keep your mindset of equating that to walking (don’t kill yourself on it).

I don’t like peanut butter (well, I’m allergic so I really don’t) for fat loss - seems like garbage food and it’s very easy to overdo the calories with high-fat foods, so what you think is 2100 calories is now 2500. Maybe start by dropping that?

I’ll tag @BrickHead here (there’s many others whose screen names I can’t get right and I’m on my phone so it’s harder to look), because I know he has specific experience and is always helpful, but I think you’re planning on the right basics - lift some, move some, and eat in a deficit. My gut tells me maybe we’re eating a little more than we think we are (I do it all the time!), but I don’t know anything so maybe someone else will.

P.S. additional screenname: @EyeDentist

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I weigh everything and use a tbsp measure for the peanut butter… I’ve been thinking my tdee is off and that I should go lower on my calories. Which is why I’m here, I’m tired if trying to figure it out and finding out I’ve screwed up and wasted so much time when I could just try asking.

I tried asking once over at Bodybuilding.com, but that was a mistake… Holy cow was that a mistake.

I appreciate you taking the time to reply and help me out!

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Do you feel horrible? If not, and you haven’t lost weight for 5 weeks, why not try dropping a couple hundred calories for a couple weeks? I’m an example of someone that has to go pretty low in calories to lose weight. I think those calculators are fine to start with just to start somewhere, but they’re pretty meaningless overall. The goal is losing the pounds, not eating a certain amount of calories

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I can’t say I feel horrible, but I don’t feel energized to go to the gym (I’m still going). I feel pretty tired, takes me a while to get going when I wake up. But I don’t feel sick. The past spring, I got really caught up in school and started eating at 1200-1400 calories without realizing what I was doing in a desperate move to lose weight. That’s when I felt like complete crap and I caught a cold that seemed to go on for half the semester.

Edit I will say, though… My forearms feel perpetually sore. Even close to the wrist and elbow joints. (Muscle sore, no joint pain)

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Why not just follow the plan that produced this ~150# weight loss?

You’re tired of being fat. I totally get it (I’m a FFB myself.) But I’ll bet it wasn’t a ‘WOW transformation program’ that got you from 330 to 180. Don’t let impatience and frustration get you off on an unhelpful tangent. WOW approaches have a terrible track record.

Forget WOW. Becoming and staying lean is a marathon, not a sprint. And backsliding on weight loss is as easy to do as it is frustrating–as I’m sure you know from your 180->245 experience.

You need to come to grips with the fact that you are either going to find a healthy way to eat for the rest of your life, or you are doomed to obesity.

How much did you exercise in your initial, successful weight-loss phase?

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Fair enough, I could have been more clear. I know this is a marathon, which is why I haven’t given up. I still feel much better than I did as a walking Lipid. I just thought a year should have been enough time to have that transformation.

The problem with following what I did do, was that I never counted calories, and all I did was walk for an hour and played video games all day. I enjoy working out when I actually get to the gym, I don’t really enjoy playing video games as much… I’ve played once this week. And I’m not 100%, but I’m pretty sure there’s not too many calories burned moving my fingers over a keyboard and mouse, haha.

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I think that’s the point, though. Maybe you don’t need to count calories and try to make everything up through your output. Do what worked, and it’s certainly a net positive if you trade video games for lifting. That’s at least one variable at a time to control.

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What transformation? Your post is confusing in this regard. Consider: You’ve been “on this journey” for four years; you regained 65# over the last two years; you’ve been following the ‘WOW program’ for five weeks. The only aspect of your story that aligns with the passage of one year is the amount of time you’ve been doing Strong Lifts–but of course, that has nothing to do with weight loss. Unless…Is it the case that when you refer to a “transformation,” you are under the impression that a year’s lifting should have produced slabs of muscle, and stripped off pounds of flab? Because if that’s the case, I have more bad news for you…

Given that you can safely skip the video games, I’m not seeing “the problem” here.

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What I mean, is that if I were doing everything right, ie, not what I’m doing now, I think a year is enough to lose 60lb of fat. I’m not following any “wow program”. What I meant was that you can Google 6 month transformations and be inundated with transformation pictures. I figured a year SHOULD be enough time for me to do what they did in 6 months. I wasn’t expecting to be ripped. Hell, I wasn’t expecting to look all that great… I just wanted to not be 245lb anymore. A transformation to me is just getting down to 210… maybe then I won’t hit the person next to me with my fat gut and man tits when I turned around. That’s all.

I am MORE than fine with the length of time, but it doesn’t seem like I’m making progress ->on my own<-.

I already know I’m wrong. I already know I don’t know what I’m doing. I just want to fix what I’m screwing up.

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I think I’m just being more confusing trying to explain it, but frustration at being fat is kind of muddying what I’m saying.

Let me start over.

I’m in this for the long haul. I enjoy being more active. I’m not going to quit the gym or stop being active just because I’m not losing fat. I’ve already made the lifestyle transition, I don’t eat crappy food, no fast food. I enjoy eating healthy, I’m not going back to junk food. I just need help not being a fatass anymore.

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Don’t get frustrated man. You’ve already done a lot. I’d seriously swing back toward what worked before in terms of your eating.

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caveat: I am not an “expert”!

When I studied “personal training” (many years ago, was ACSM & NSCA certified, so not an idiot either), I was taught that for a sustainable diet, eating 10 x bodyweight in calories was the absolute minimum, and I emphasize minimum. Less than that, and your brain will adjust and tell your body to burn less calories.

Minimize the nutrient dense stuff like peanut butter; if you’re doing it for the healthy fats, go for a handful of almonds instead.

No liquid calories, including the artificial sweeteners. Just my opinion, but to me, it’s a state of mind to not have something sweet, period.

If you can, try three 10 minute walks, one after each meal; this also has the added effect of getting you off the couch 3x a day versus just one. Stan Efferding is a huge proponent of this. If you have money, google Stan E., and just buy his meals. If money is not freely available, learn about his Vertical Diet; it’s simple and easy to follow, which is key to, again, sustainability over time.

Keep building muscle, it’s the best way to lose fat (notice I did not say “lose weight”) over time.

Good luck.

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This reminds me, Thibaudeau had an article on here (@redranger I’m sorry, I don’t have the title or I’d link it) about sustainable ways to keep losing fat. There were some solid tips in there like doing 100 body weight squats or something before you went to the fridge; the idea is you have to “decide” to eat. A lot of other folks have written about eating “mindfully”. I really think if taking walks and just eating less worked to lose 100 lbs, you should do that again (caveats that you can cycle since you’re injured and lift since you like/ it’s awesome). I wouldn’t lock into some calories because a calculator gave them to you and it’s obvioauly not working for you. I do agree that dropping the calorically-dense foods will help; it takes food volume to feel full, so fill up on veggies and things with less calorie cost (in my singular personal experience anyway). When I say “fill up” I don’t actually mean full, though. I can’t lose any fat myself if I eat until full, probably not even if it was all cauliflower.

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If I were to put my workout at a moderate pace instead of light, it puts my TDEE at 3200. I feel like my workouts are at least moderate, I just err on the side of caution from over estimating the work I do. I’m just scared of increasing calories even to, like was mentioned, bw x 10.

I want to go back to what I had been doing, but I wasn’t counting calories and ate whenever I felt hungry… Part of the issue with doing that now, is that I’m hungry a lot.