Long time lurker first time poster, I’ve done some reading at a lot of articles and get some mixed messages about diet; carbs vs fat and cardio vs weights.
24M 6’1 245lbs roughly 20%bf.
Need to lose 45lbs to be at weight requirement.
Currently eating 40/40/20 macro ratio 2,250 Cals and doing cardio and weight lifting 4-6 times a week.
Im a little confused on what to do since I haven’t lost much weight in about two weeks. I’ve read cycling is good but not for people who need a lot of weight loss and low carb is good for fast fat loss but bad in the long term I’d like to pack on some muscle and drop the weight needed. If anyone can give some guidance on how I should go about this and some better idea for diet and exercise; cycle, hclf, cardio vs weights and ect. it’ll be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!
When do you want to lose it by?
Want to lose it asap to get down to weight and stay there 200lbs. Honesty don’t need to lose it by three months or more.
Low carb covers a fairly wide territory.
I’d go no lower than 2400 calories per day, and would have carbs at no higher than about 200 g/day, which would happen to come out at 33%. So unless your calories are now too low, that would involve reducing carbs at least somewhat.
I would increase fats to about 80 grams per day, and have the remainder as protein.
If cutting carbs yet further, for example to 100 g/day, then fat and/or protein would go up to balance this, with no need for protein to exceed 300 grams.
On cycling carbs, there are two broad ways: One is to have some meals as protein/carb with very little fat, and others as protein/fat with very little carb, and being sparing about having meals which combine all three. This method (which I learned from John Berardi although I’ve bastardized it here) has among its advantages that meals tend naturally to be calorically reasonable when they are either P/C or P/F. It’s the P/C/F meals that very readily become big.
Another approach is the cyclic ketogenic diet in which one or two days per week allow reasonable carbs but the remainder are very low carb.
Both these methods and also the examples written above work very well when followed with care to the diet and training.
I think much of the confusion that often results from diet articles or posts is that often it sounds as if a given, exact way is really the only way or somehow invalidates other ways. In fact, a wide variety of things work well – and a wide variety of things work very badly! It’s more a question of having things working together in a sound way rather than having to hit exact ratios or use any one sole method.
[quote]card1017 wrote:
Want to lose it asap to get down to weight and stay there 200lbs. Honesty don’t need to lose it by three months or more. [/quote]
Not sure what you mean by this…?
Do you have more than 3 months to lose the weight? Do you have a hard deadline? Because right now you’re looking at 15 lbs a month and that is going to be a challenge using any type of conventional diet eg: high fat, carb cycling, etc.
If I were you - since your focused on hitting a scale weight - I’d look into a PSMF like McDonald’s Rapid Fat Loss Handbook or this very site’s V-diet. You won’t be able to maintain your 4-6 day a week lifting regimen, but you will lose the weight.
[quote]card1017 wrote:
Im a little confused on what to do since I haven’t lost much weight in about two weeks. I’ve read cycling is good but not for people who need a lot of weight loss and low carb is good for fast fat loss but bad in the long term I’d like to pack on some muscle and drop the weight needed. If anyone can give some guidance on how I should go about this and some better idea for diet and exercise…
Thanks![/quote]
You’ve got to lose 45lbs, you’re not going to be packing on muscle. Focus on what is your most important goal, which I take is to get down to 200lbs. Your training and diet will assist you in keeping as much LBM as possible, but with the caveat that weight loss is your primary goal. The good news is at 200lbs whatever muscle you do have won’t be covered by a thick layer of fat.
[quote]Dr. Pangloss wrote:
[quote]card1017 wrote:
Want to lose it asap to get down to weight and stay there 200lbs. Honesty don’t need to lose it by three months or more. [/quote]
Not sure what you mean by this…?
Do you have more than 3 months to lose the weight? Do you have a hard deadline? Because right now you’re looking at 15 lbs a month and that is going to be a challenge using any type of conventional diet eg: high fat, carb cycling, etc.
[/quote]
This confused me too, which is why I skimmed over it.
If you’re looking to lose 45 lbs in 3 months WHILE packing on muscle, you need to find a new flavour of crack, because whatever you’re on isn’t cutting it.
Thanks for some of the great answers and replies.
I’m going to look into all the info you’re giving and I Want to drop it theen build muscl. But weight loss is most important. I’m sure some muscle will come from lifting but not a lot. No confirmed deadline buy want to meet weight requirements before meps. Thanks again everyone.
[quote]Bill Roberts wrote:
On cycling carbs, there are two broad ways: One is to have some meals as protein/carb with very little fat, and others as protein/fat with very little carb, and being sparing about having meals which combine all three.
[/quote]
FWIW, CT wrote about the same thing, and how carbs and fat = adipose. I don’t know how scientific that was, though, or just hyperbole.
The approach does tend to make things in the kitchen easier: A bit pot of potatoes/rice once every day or two, and the rest is just cooking meat and veggies
I ate an entire box of cereal today.
It’s definitely not hyperbole, but from experience.
Weight loss comes first and I’m sure I’ll make some small gains like more pullups when I lose more weight.
I’m still a little confused on macro. Bill says 2400 cals at 200g carbs and I keep reading about “100g carbs is low enough for low carb.”
Should I cycle carbs for heavy lift days and rest/cardio days?
What should the macro cycle be or cycle be? 2 low 1 high?
I logged food for the day and I barely make 2,000. Macros are 90gfat/100gcarbs/240gprotein
Should I bump up carbs and or fats To meet daily calorie intake?
Thanks for all the help everyone!
[quote]card1017 wrote:
I’m still a little confused on macro. Bill says 2400 cals at 200g carbs and I keep reading about “100g carbs is low enough for low carb.” [/quote]
I wasn’t clear.
Usually there’s nothing wrong with 100 g/day either for cutting.
My meaning was that, unless doing a great deal of physical work, there would be no reason for you to be above 200 g.
Focusing carbs largely around time of workout is an improvement over having them mostly at other times.
[quote]card1017 wrote:
I logged food for the day and I barely make 2,000. Macros are 90gfat/100gcarbs/240gprotein
Should I bump up carbs and or fats To meet daily calorie intake?
Thanks for all the help everyone![/quote]
Bump up animal fats
Training 4-6 times a week. Usually weights 3 times and cardio 3 times.
Mostyly running for time and body weight workouts and a 5x5 or 4x4 for weight training.
I’m going to bump up fat And have an avocado with my meals, I usually eat 3-4 meals a day just based on work and meal timing. I always try to hit 2000 or more but some days I’m less than 500 short but I’m not starving or anything.
I’m going to stick to around 150g carbs and cycle some days on rest days to less than 100g.
Fat I’ll keep around 90g a day and protein 240g a day. On low carb rest days I’ll bump fat up a little bit just to get rid of a starving hungry feeling to stay satisfied.
I really appreciate all the great responses and answers.
Hopefully I’m on the right path with everything I’ve said and you be given me.
Over a short period of time your present intake may work fine, but long term dropping below the suggested 2400 minimum (which is average; a given day could be somewhat less if balanced later) is likely to result in sluggish thyroid and impair your long term results.
This is exactly what I see happening if I stay at 2000 cals or less. I’m going to work on getting another meal or just make much larger portions. 3-4 meals a day works for me so a 700-800 cal meal is what I’ll start to aim for