HI all. I am currently sitting at 94kg (204 roughly). I had a dexa scan about 6 months ago which layed out about 33% body fat and 96kg, distributed between visceral and adipose.
For the last 6 or so months I have been working out 5 days a week, sometimes 6.
I have body fat scales that I don’t believe that say I am down to about 26% and 94kg. I don’t believe those numbers, I am booked in for another dexa next week. However I have kept record of body parts measurements, and I have reduced size around my midsection, hips, chest. I also went from a 36" pair of shorts/jeans back into my regular 34’s.
I now want to get rid of this last 20 pounds and looking for nutrition advice. My workouts recently are limited to mostly upper body, as I can’t squat, lunge, lateral lunge or do much with my lower body, right knee issue. I can do band work and some stuff like that, but just have to be careful of my knee flexion.
I have been researching on this site, but wanted to get some solid ideas on
Calorie intake/nutrition - If I need to, happy to meal prep sundays
Protein requirement for the weight loss
cardio - I have been doing 1hr slow steady state cardio in the afternoon, do I keep with this or mix it up with HIIT (I can use the ski erg)
really want to get back into some kind of personally acceptable shape, and looking for some advice.
Most of your body composition will be determined by the type and quantity of foods you put into your body.
Keep protein high, 1g/lb bodyweight daily minimum.
Fats are best kept around 0.3g/lb bodyweight daily. More is not better, less tends to impair hormone production.
Carbs should be adjusted accordingly to meet goals. For a cut, you should be looking to reduce 500cal/day from maintenance cals, which is about 125g carbs.
LISS is fine. HIIT is also fine, just separate it from your weight training.
Start logging your food and cut out liquid calories. Eating exactly the same foods day to day makes adjustments very straight forward.
You already know what healthy food is, lets only eat that from now on. Its not a diet, it’s a lifestyle.
I do not know how anyone loses bodyfat without meal prepping. Like, i know i can be done, i just don’t see it happening; it’s quite hard to hit protein goals alone without meal prepping.
Intermittent Fasting is a pretty cool tool for all this. Easy to apply, easy to prep, easy to stick to long term as a lifestyle. It’s just not magical like people claim; you still need to be in an energy (food) deficit.
If you don’t want to count macros, might i suggest the Green Faces Diet?
in regards to protein, a high quality whey isolate will work for my protein additions/shakes right? MD seems to be out of stock until Feb.
And if i take your numbers for P/F/C and use it on the green faces, I should be in a good position to lose some bodyfat.
Is there anywhere in there that I have some kind of refuel day/meal? rice or something? or just like it is for 4 weeks, then re evaluate?
I"ll post a training log to compliment this, might even just post my meals daily here as well.
Sorry about the delay in responding to this. I wasn’t sure which way I wanted to take it.
If we were to bastardize a combination of my macro suggestions and green faces, I would do something like this:
Count only your carbs and keep them at 100g daily. Ideally, clean carbs are best for this (potatoes, rice, etc).
If it’s LEAN protein or veggies, eat as much of either as you want.
Do not add fats to anything, except maybe a light drizzle of EVOO when cooking protein.
I essentially did this years ago and it was the first time in my life that I could count 6 abs. I weigh about 40lbs more than that now, most of it is muscle - so I can’t go quite that straight forward.
That being said, what I’m doing right now is very close to the above recommendation
Macro counting is genuinely unfun and it has it’s own drawbacks, but is helpful/necessary depending on physique and goals. With where you’re at, you probably don’t need to go that hard on the macros - it’s more important that you learn to eat properly and kill any bad eating habits. I still have a few of my own.
So not even butter to cook my eggs? Or no bulletproof coffee? Just want to make sure I understand all of it
Or I could do what you suggested, not even worry about macros, and just follow greenfaces for 4 weeks and see what the results are, and then re evaluate.
I use a spray of Olive Oil Pam on the pan, no butter.
400cal coffee? nah dude, leave that alone.
You can, or just do Green Faces but count your carbs and only eat lean proteins. Going 0 carb doesn’t always agree with folks, and almost guaranteed your performance will drop. Keeping carbs in the mix tends to be more enjoyable and have less impact on performance.
*for maximum effect, time your total carb allotment pre/intra workout only.
Oh, do yourself a favor and take a ‘before’ picture. Ideally, much like my avatar photo. Undies, same lighting, no flexing.
You’ll be happy to have that picture in a month or two when this fat is gone.
It also helps to calibrate… maybe in a month you see no difference - time to adjust.
I’d cut that out straight away, calorie dense and nutrient void.
I’m sure you already know this but that’s generally not a good idea either. Once in a while is fine, we’ve all got to have vices. It’s not just the calorie content but your body essentially priorities metabolizing alcohol to the detriment of burning fat. When I used to weigh myself daily I’d often see that despite being in a similar deficit my weight loss would be slower after having had a drink. I’m not saying live like a monk but just be aware of how your choices will impact losing another 20lbs.
Yeah for sure. Wine was done so that’s not an issue.
Coffee on the other hand, that’s the only way I drink coffee, hate black coffee. If that is the only time I have it and it stays under my calories, 1 tablespoon a day?
Can you switch to like half and half or just regular creamer?
Heavy cream is one of the densest calorie foods out there, literally. If you have to keep it, I understand - I’m that way with my coffee too. Just know that if weight loss stalls, something has to go.
The way you’re doing things looks like IIFYM (if it fits your macros) which is okay, but introduces a lot of variables that are hard to control/account for. just something to be aware of.
So the coffee doesn’t need to go, neither does the heavy cream. It’s just low hanging fruit.
Make the easy sacrifices first, if coffee isn’t the easy one - then don’t make that one first.
You may not need to cut it out at all, it’s just something to be aware of.
Again, IIFYM is fine, until it isn’t. Just eating healthy foods with an emphasis on protein intake tends to make your macros look pretty solid in my experience.
Your listed macros look okay but I personally would aim for more carbs and less fats. If what you did is sustainable though, you may as well stick with it. The best diet is the one you can comply with.
Ever try using unsweetened almond milk in your coffee? 30 cals in a cup (more than you need) and no carbs or fat to speak of. Not as good as heavy cream but I like it more than creamer etc
