Hi,
I’m 6ft2(188cm) and 100kg. According to a generic bmi calculator my body fat is 28%.
Though I’m a newbie I have owned kettlebells for 10 years, mainly for swings and do them periodically throughout the week. I have a 16kg,20kg and a 32kg. I can do 8-10 two handed swings with the 32kg for about 3 sets.
I checked with a calorie calculator that said I need 2400 to maintain 1800 for weight loss and 1400 for extreme weight loss.
I want to keep using the kettlebells a few times a week to maintain any strength and muscle that I do have already. Will 1800 calories a day allow me to lose weight and keep muscle or is it too low? Although I don’t have a lot I don’t want to lose weight and just look like a rake
Cheers
Are swings the only workouts you do?
Doing mental math, if you’re 220 at 30%, you’re about 160 lbm.
Post diet and workout.
BMI calculators calculate your Body Mass Index, not your body fat %. Your BMI is 28.2, which is considered “overweight” - almost every one who trains with weights would be considered “overweight” according to BMI.
Did you use something other than the BMI calculator to determine a 28% body fat, or did you use some other device to determine it was 28%?
It is currently. I’m a postman in the uk, I only deliver once a week for but I walk about 7-8 miles that day. I’m also currently landscaping the garden as we’ve just moved in so I’m not looking to do anything more intense at the moment in case I’m too sore to do any work. The landscaping is dying down though, I’m looking to get a small squat rack for the garage. I already have a bench I found on eBay and a cheap barbell with I think 60kg of weight.
My diet is relatively normal. I am a vegetarian but I take protein powder in oats and shakes. I eat beans and grains etc. In general my diet is healthy, it’s the extra crappy “fun” foods that I’ve always tended to add on that have caused my weight gain. My weight has been stable for quite a while but I don’t track anything.
Oh I see. It might not be quite that bad then but I’m definitely overweight
Don’t know if they give a better idea
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Are you tracking how much you eat now?
Little, it’s intermittent.
How much of a deficit? 1700? 1400 feels far too low, I don’t want to burn out
My recommendation would be to just start writing down everything you eat in an app. Don’t worry about what it is. Just the act of being mindful will typically clean up some habits and you’ll drop some pounds. We’ll also probably see some easy behaviors to address. We’ll then also have a baseline from which to adjust, when we need to.
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Can you tell us what you ate & drank yesterday?
My guess is I snack too much without being mindful, I tend to eat if I’m bored or watching tv. I’m not much of a binger, I can be from time to time but my guess would be it’s snacking
That wouldn’t give a very good picture as I didn’t eat a huge amount yesterday. I was at work between 8-5, I didn’t eat until about 12pm when I had a sandwich, that was 400 calories, it was shop bought.
I had a frozen pizza at 5:30 which was about 600 calories. I had that because I had to finish building a patio in the evening so I really couldn’t be bothered to make anything. About 8-9 I had half a smoothie that was 250 calories and before bed a protein shake. The shake was just 1 scoop with water. Not the most nutritious day but it wasn’t that usual to be honest.
I could have quite easily eaten more (crappy stuff) but I was so tired I went to bed early.
In terms of drinking other than the occasional coffee which for me is just coffee and milk, no sugar, cream or syrups, I only drink water and 0 calorie drinks. It’s usually fizzy water
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Thank you for answering. No, that wasn’t a huge total.
I had a slice of frozen pizza for dinner last night myself, because I was tired from mowing, I get it.
@TrainForPain and @bulldog9899
Gave some excellent advice about tracking the calories so you can get an idea of where to start.
There are plenty of things you can do with the kettlebells.
Goblet squats
Lunges
Farmers carry
Single Arm Floor press
Single Arm OHP
Rows
Single leg RDLs
Waiters carries
Etc…
Since you have so much other stuff going on right now just pick 3 exercises a day and do 3x10 2-3 days a week. It’s not going to turn you into Arnie but it beats nothing. When that gets easy… make it harder. Up the weight, up the sets or reps, slow the tempo.
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Yup. Having to write it down tends to cure that. Don’t even obsess about the calories right now. Just the act of tracking forces some accountability. I can’t write down “bag of Doritos” and then still be honest with myself and say “why am I not getting lean” you know?
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Will do!
My hope is it’ll die down by the end of the week. We’ve been aiming to get the bill finished for a party next Saturday.
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It has done in the past.
Dinners are the tricky one, if I don’t cook it doesn’t get weighed. She’ll have to get used to it 
