Really disappointment with my results really. I’ve been quite compliant overall but it looks like my daily baseline for calories is just too high as if i have a meal out or something i seem to stall overall.
Need to rethink my daily calories even though i feel like i’m struggling to balance a deficit, protein and fats etc.
Definitely not winning this challenge now.
Are you tracking calories?
Are you weighing food?
Unless you’re training like Pwn then you need to be in total control of the cutting process.
You need to go all in man. A man your weight? It should be flying off IMO
What are you at? I think you’d easily get away with 175g protein and 65g fat
What am I thinking? @QuadQueen ie here to help; let’s take advantage of her thoughts
Well @ChongLordUno & @TrainForPain
| Protein | Carbs | Fat | Calories | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pre workout | Black Coffee | ||||
| Workout | Intra Workout | 2.5 | 15 | 0 | 69 |
| Post workout/ Breakfast | Milk 1 pint | 19.88 | 14.768 | 8.52 | 215.84 |
| Oats 1 scoops | 2.8 | 17.8 | 2.0 | 103.5 | |
| Snack | Shake | 42 | 2 | 3.8 | 206 |
| Lunch | 2 cans of tuna | 60 | 2 | 2 | 260 |
| 1 carrot, 1 big tomatoe and some cucumber | 30 | ||||
| Snack | Shake | 42 | 2 | 3.8 | 206 |
| Dinner | Dinner allowance Meat | 28 | 100 | 20 | 250 |
| Dinner allowance Veg | 250 | ||||
| Dinner allowance Carbs | 10 | 90.4 | 2 | 428 | |
| 207.1 | 243.9 | 42.1 | 2018.3 |
Current plan. I’ve been 99% compliant to my breakfast and lunch and snacks. Days when i’ve had a big meal in the evening out i’ve dropped my 2nd shake to buy me another 200 calories.
I give myself a massive 100 calories for dinner and probably don’t hit that every night but i can’t be 100% sure as the evening meal is the only thing i don’t weigh, i eat with my family.
Normally we’d have meat, potatoes (or rice or tortillas) and veg, so its all home cooked and normally very healthy.
I just can’t see how my one or two days off piece would have just a stagnation on my overall weight loss when I’ve been so compliant the rest of the time.
Help appreciated from anyone including @QuadQueen
I don’t believe i’m eating more than 1000 calorie dinner every night so should be well in the weight loss zone.
I’m definitely following along for @QuadQueen’s take as well. I know you also have additional life stressors right now.
Tbh mate I’m on 2300kcal a day and I’ve dropped from 167lbs to 150lbs I’m around 6 weeks
I’ve had a few dinners out at restaurants and some KFC in that time
Granted I’m training like a maniac though 
Okay, so overall your diet looks not too bad. I really hesitate to decrease your calories any further based on your workouts, something we can look at trying here is taking the focus off of the meticulous macro counting and doing more of a freestyle template. This may be especially helpful if you already have significant outside life stress. It’ll be one less thing to stress about.
My suggestion to start would be something like this:
Intra-Workout: Do you feel like this is giving you any sort of edge right now? If no, ditch it until we get the weight moving.
Post-Workout Breakfast:
Don’t stress about exact macros - go by how you feel. If you’re hungry - eat. If you’re not - don’t. Don’t over think it. Eat the veggies and proteins BEFORE the carbs. Stay well hydrated. If you find you’re hungry between meals - we can look at switching those shakes out for something you can chew. That may go a long way here.
@TrainForPain mentioned that you might be living the high-stress life right now and if that’s the case, it will make things harder in terms of progress. Do your best to prioritize sleep. If you get <6 hours of sleep and/or feel exhausted - skip the workout. At this point it may be doing more harm than good. Take care of you. Your muscles aren’t going anywhere. I promise.
Are you game? If so, give this a shot for a couple weeks and then let’s regroup. Keep posting updates - tag me to let me know how it’s going - hunger, energy, etc. and let me know if you have any questions. Let’s see if we can’t get things moving again.
Thanks for the response. Going to have a think about how to implement some of these changes. Couple of initial thoughts:
I currently eat my breakfast while driving to work (straight after the gym) would need to change that on the above
Stress isn’t too bad from work/life etc. but i am having hormone issues following on from an operation i had last February. Currently awaiting blood rest results but currently i’m certainly not 100%, probably feel around 60% of how i used to. Not sure if there are any medical issues effecting my weight struggle. My doctor did request thyroid tests as well as test etc.
I like my shakes because i can eat them on the go at work in an office but i’ve not problem with dropping them
Intra workout for me is a game changer in my energy levels in the gym. I’d love to keep it as its helped so much.
I’m a routine kind of person so don’t mind counting macros etc. but struggling with dinner as its a family dinner albeit its healthy 99% of the time
Hunger levels at the moment aren’t too bad. Sleep is usually 7-8 hours a night, i’m always very hydrated, probably too much as i end up weeing all day lol
Thanks for your help though. Will read through this again later and get my head around the changes i need to make in terms of food prep.
Super real. I’m not willing to make dinner weird for everyone, and I’m not disciplined enough to just quietly eat 350 calories and still be part of polite conversation.
With the family dinner stuff, can you choose a larger portion of veg and little less of the other carbs? The cooking can be the same you just change your portion size of veg/other carb source?
I don’t have any kids, but the missus loves me on a diet. She’ll cater to my intolerances for months on end, but as soon as a cut is happening she’ll tell me to cook for myself and start smashing the tomato-based sauces, lots of garlic, super spicy food etc.
I’m lucky in that my quiet eating of 350 calories is a blessing in the household.
I’m certainly a believer that we all have our challenges and the same 24 hours in a day; dinner might not be one for you, but you’ll have other obstacles I don’t. I try to just frame stuff based on what I’m willing to do, because it annoys me to see “I can’t” for something silly.
A whole other rant is whether you really have a goal (and 4 fingers can point back on me here). If I say “my goal is X, but I won’t do Y,” I don’t think it’s really a goal. I don’t know what other word I’d use, because there’s certainly reasonable exceptions (like it could still be a goal to win a promotion, but maybe don’t murder the other candidate); that’s just my knee-jerk reaction to qualifiers.
Certainly. Everyone’s lives are complex and individual, you never really know what someone else is going through or trying to remedy.
My thoughts on what you said about goals are if you’re not willing to do the things necessary, it’s not a goal, it’s a pipe dream. A “well yeah, maybe in the future”. If you want something enough, a pipe dream can become a goal. Just saying “I want to do X and Y” or “Get really good at Z” isn’t a goal unless there’s action being taken. A goal is something you move towards, and if you’re not moving towards it then it’s just a non-entity, nothing more than a thought.
We’re close-ish in weight…2 weeks behind where you are! So, take my two comments with a dose of salt.
That’s alot of carbs…like alot. Are you eating that amount 7 days a week?
If there’s carbs around (spiking insulin), your body is not going to be able to use fat stores. As you are consuming some throughout the day…it’s a problem.
If dinner is the most important meal (family time), then bias your calories to there. Ideally remove meals in the morning…so your body has some chance to burn fat. You don’t need food the entire day…it’s just a habit. (I fast 48 hrs in a row every week, without issue!).
I’m gonna need further explanation on that.
I’m in agreeance here. @rugby_lifting have you looked at The Pulse Feast? It worked/still works well for me. Each “pulse” is a double-scoop Protein shake (I do 4 whole eggs as one of the pulses in the morning, and a double-scoop shake w/ small handful of carrots at lunch).
Hmmm. I could definitely be convinced on a strategy along these lines. How do you feel?
I like the idea of this pulse feast, but at 6 scoops per day of Mag-10, that goes through a bag in 5 days - that’s 132X6 = $792 a month in Mag 10, that’s just out of the question.
Edit: didn’t see your tweak @Andrewgen_Receptors similar to my idea below.
I am thinking maybe for pulses something like 2 scoops Metabolic Drive and a medium sized fruit or some canned peas for the carbs .
I need a new strategy to lean out. I haven’t really lost any weight this challenge, though I have been putting on muscle (my shirts are much tighter across my back and I can now do 5 pull-ups instead of 2).
Sounds like @Andrewgen_Receptors has a similar substitution strategy. Almost a V-Diet lite kinda thing.
For the dinner situation, ever consider pre-dinner?
No joke: before I go out to eat, I eat. Going out to eat is a social affair for me, and I genuinely don’t want my nutrition to be derived from that food, so I’ll have a large protein meal (often just protein) and be satiated before arrival so that I can pick something light/flavorful to enjoy, rather than having to order the largest thing on the menu to sate my massive appetite and end up putting away 4000 calories of butter and salt presented like a dinner.
A protein shake can answer the mail here too. But just have something before the family dinner that better biases the macros toward your goals and then you can have smaller portions at the meal.
Hungry 24/7 whether I’m dieting or not, but it’s easier when I know I’m going to be hungry from 12-6pm (after 2nd pulse, surrounding Gym hours). It’s even easier to know I’ve got a feast to gorge myself on when I get home. Otherwise, I feel like I’m dieting - so terrible
It’s more enjoyable than having meals that couldn’t satisfy a small child and are filled with rabbit food.
Ehh maybe, but you’re trying to get by with the minimal amount of calories possible. If I were to go any route - I’d suggest something like Carrots or other low-cal veggies.
Although for YOU @cyclonengineer, you’re probably fine to triple scoop protein or add in some low Glycemic Index carbs (because you’re a giant).
I’ve pre-gamed off-diet dinners with double scoop protein shakes before. Nothing crazy, but it works (pretty sure there was a TNation article on this as well).
