An MRP experiment: Help me get lean

Sepean · 2016-06-20T09:24:01+00:00

The basic point is: Every diet works and will make you lose weight if you eat fewer calories than you burn. If you eat more calories than you burn, all diets will have you gain weight.

What it all comes down to is eating less than you burn, day in and day out.

You need to count calories. Begin reading labels, weighing your food, and calculate how many calories you're getting (use an app or a spreadsheet). Weigh yourself every day, and track the moving 2 week average (ignore the first 2-3 days after changing your diet as fluid and stomach content will change and that is irrelevant). Compare the long term changes in your weight; each pound lost gave you about 3150 kcals of energy. With the energy from fat burn and record of daily calories consumed, you can estimate your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure). With that and your desired daily calorie deficit your can set your daily calorie target. Keep track and adjust as needed; your TDEE will drop and your weight loss might stall if you don't.

You also need to count your protein intake. What you don't want to do is burn off muscle while you're losing weight; so you must lift (albeit at a lower volume than you're used to) to tell your body you need that muscle mass, and you must eat plenty of protein. How much protein you need depends on the diet; 0.8 g pr lbs of lean body mass when bulking up to twice that on a protein sparing modified fast.

Your lean body mass is your weight without the fat. Btw I think you're above 30% bodyfat. Either that or you've been juicing seriously and you're humongously big, far above what any human can achieve naturally.

Under perfect circumstances if you are not in ketosis, you can burn fat at a rate of 31 kcal per lbs of fat per day; a larger deficit than that will come from your body powering itself from burning muscle. In practice your sleep and diet is unlikely to be perfect so I'd say you should only try 65% of that or you're going to burn muscle.

If you are in ketosis (ie. eating practically no carbs so your body begins another type of fat burning process) this limit disappears and you can diet harder. Another benefit of ketosis is that it reduces your appetite, making it easier to stay hit that calorie deficit. A final upside is that many people feel grumpy and lethargic on normal diets while they don't have that problem on keto diets. The downsides are eating weird food, and maybe some digestion issues.

Alright, some diet forms that I recommend:

IIFYM: If It Fits Your Macros. You just eat whatever you want, as long as you hit your macros (daily protein and kcal targets). If you count your calories and have the willpower for it, great. The downsides is that if you're a big eater you're constantly fighting the urge to eat more, and technically you're allowed to splurge on some crappy food at lunch and use up your daily calorie budget.

Eating clean: You still hit your macros, but you eat clean. Lean meat, veggies, brown rice, shit like that. It tastes like crap but it leaves you full for a long time. If you can stomach the food long term, you'll be struggling less with hunger and it is much easier to hit your macros. Some people also say there are a ton of other benefits to eating clean, which I personally think is completely bogus unless you have insulin insensitivity.

Intermittent Fasting/Lean Gains: This is basically IIFYM but you only eat for 8 hours during the day and fast the other 16. Typically you wake up and don't begin eating until 8 hours later. After a few classes of water (and provided you get enough protein the night before), hunger is no issue. You are then able to eat satisfying meals that leave you full during your eating window; within limits of course, you still have to hit your macros, but unlike a regular IIFYM diet where you're always eating small portions and feeling hungry, this is is much, much more pleasant in my opinion. The best source on this Martin Berkham, leangains.com and /r/leangains.

Keto: Very, very few carbs so you go into ketosis. I covered some of it above. Hunger is not a problem. Some people can easily lose lots of weight on keto without even counting calories. Some really like the keto foods, others don't. Eating out or with your family becomes a chore. You need to be fairly strict with your diet here; dropping out of ketosis is majorly annoying so if you can't stop from snacking on carbs, don't try this. Lyle McDonald is the go to guy about this.

Protein Sparing Modified Fast: This is the most rapid, most extreme diet. Only intented for short term diets. You eat nothing but protein and veggie. It could be a great way to kickstart your diet if making tons of initial results is important for you. A lifter like you would go cycles of 11 day modified fast followed by a 3 day refeed, repeat. Like with keto, hunger and energy levels is not really an issue. Again, Lyle McDonald for more info (and for this one you REALLY need the info since you're going to suffer from nutrient deficiencies if you don't get some supplements - check his Rapid Fat Loss Handbook).

That is the overview. The most important thing is that you find a diet that you can stick to. Don't try to toughen it out. Pick the one that you will have the easiest time doing. You got months and months of dieting ahead of you. If hunger is an issue for you, don't pick IIFYM. If you need to eat candy, pick IIFYM or leangains. Etc.

There's some more details like calorie cycling, carb/fat distribution, refeeds, cheat meals, bla bla; when you pick your diet you got some more work to set up the diet properly.

On exercise, I recommend skipping cardio and only lifting. Lift heavy, but reduce the volume A LOT. 6-8 sets of compound lifts every 2-3 days is plenty. The big thing here is a) stimulating your body to not burn muscle and b) don't do damage that you don't have the calories to repair.

A final thing to observe is that we all burn calories through NEAT (non exercise activity thermogenesis); walking around, fidgeting and stuff like that. Most of us reduce our NEAT drastically when we diet for prolonged periods. I like taking walks to keep my burn up and my body going when cutting.

CaladhanBrood · 2016-06-20T10:44:29+00:00

I've literally just woken up, but here goes:

330 x 0.3 = 99lb of fat that's currently on you. If you knock off 65lb of fat you now weight 265lb with 34lb of that being fat.

34/265 x 100 = 12.83% body fat.

If you want 15% you need algebra. X is the amount of fat to lose:

(99-x)/(330-x) = 0.15

Multiply both sides by your new weight

99 - x = (330-x) * 0.15

Multiply out the bracket

99-x = 330 * 0.15 - 0.15x

Add x and subtract 330 * 0.15 to both sides to keep it balanced and get like terms on one side

99 - x + x - 330 * 0.15 = 330 * 0.15 - 0.15x + x - 330 * 0.15

99 - 330 * 0.15 = x - 0.15x

49.5 = 0.85x divide by 0.85 which is roughly 58.24lb

If you plug that into the original to check the answer is right:

(99-58.24)/(330-58.24)= 40.76/271.76 = 0.14998 = roughly 15%

So to the nearest lb you need to lose 58lb (that'll get you to 15.07%). All the best.

it_is_not_the_spoon · 2016-06-20T13:09:11+00:00

You're a fat fuck.

Also:

MyFitnessPal

/r/keto

/r/ketogains

ParadoxThatDrivesUs · 2016-06-20T15:48:58+00:00

Here's a hard truth: This whole post is just an elaborate way of getting validation for saying you're going to lose weight without actually having to do it. I can't believe no one is calling you out on your bullshit. You're not going to do a damn thing.

Prove me wrong.

RedDreadWolverine · 2016-06-20T12:29:30+00:00

Eating strict keto plus intermittent fasting is the way to go in my opinion.

I eat nothing but meat and veg. I even feel like fruit is overrated these days.

drqxx · 2016-06-20T12:57:30+00:00

KETOSIS!

Im the skinniest ever!

druganswer · 2016-06-21T02:37:58+00:00

All covered but another vote for keto. Just because it forces you to down protein and will keep you full and off the "junk" food for the most part.

Heard good things about IF, but never needed it. Keto can get me absolutely shredded.

2016-06-20T13:11:21+00:00

maybe I drink too much

If you're too fat then any drinking is too much drinking

Also, don't listen to the cardio haters.

stonepimpletilists · 2016-06-20T14:31:09+00:00

I take a different approach, changing the relationship one has with food. Besides, until people are at 10% and shooting for a competition build, a lot of the things out there are precision tools on a brute force problem anyways.

So anyone who is overweight is eating more than they need to for psychological reasons, or just bad habits. that sugar craving, the need to open the fridge and look in when not hungry, the need to eat everything on your plate, resting metabolic rate... These are all things you can alter.

Obviously lifting. Repairing muscles takes a ton of energy, muscles burn more energy. I'm sure you have that on lock at this point, if not... Switch to a bodybuilding type routine. Instead of strength, push to volume.

Kill your downtime. If there's times of the day with nothing to do. Fill it. Walk the dogs extra long, learn a sport, go to starbucks... Whatever. Less down time means less time to eat.

Switch your drinks. Since we know drinking calories is that sleeping giant in a workout plan. (and yes, I'm aware of the hunger switches in sucralose) switch to calorie free drinks. I drink a LOT of coffee. Black, half a pump of sugar free hazlenut. There's at least a dozen starbucks in upper/lower canada that pour that for me, just for walking into the room. No pop, no juice, no cream (have it black btw)

Whatever you order, eat half. I love hamburgers. simple food, done right. I eat half, leave the rest. Money is cheap, calories are too. Getting over that need to finish whats on your plate is a doozy, just have to do it, and stick to it. The more social you are when having dinner out, the easier it is to do.

My brother goes one further on the dieting. switches a meal every day or two with a protein shake. Do your research, compare the protein balance of the one you are buying with straight whey protein. If you see more non-essential aminos there? It means they are spiking it, and it's just added calories to save money. Remember that nitrogen spiking they were doing on dog food a few years back? Yeah, you're getting it too.

Only eat when you're hungry, stop eating when you're not hungry. Chances are people stop when they are full. Try stopping when you aren't hungry anymore. Means you have to slow down as well, the signalling from stomach to brain when you're full? Takes something like 20 minutes. I used to be a 'get it into you' kind of guy, and just slowing down and stopping when I wasn't hungry made a huge difference.

Also, don't buy bread, pasta, rice, barley, or tortillas (you can use corn, they are usually too small to load on) You'll learn to cook with a different mindset than the standard, starch, meat, vegetable (in the order of volume) Think protein, fat, and fibre. e.g. green beans with pork in hoisin sauce(just enough to coat em) with a healthy sprinkle of chilli oil. Green beans are cheap too, guarantee you'll be done eating before long. soups are awesome too, water is filling. Eating vietnameese, thai, mexican and japaneese/chineese will be your freinds.

The things you'll notice:

you'll lose a lot of your apptitite your stomach will be full faster you'll start to eat for fuel, and not for cravings you'll learn to cook better water retention isn't as big

You'll never get to 8% with this, but you will get to 10-15. At that point I would worry about counting calories and the like

pcadrian · 2016-06-21T13:05:51+00:00

Time to switch to cyclical keto diet. Carb load one meal a week. The rest protein and fat with as little carb as possible.

Time to embrace hunger. Do not eat before noon. And do not eat anything past 8 pm. You will consume all your calories in an 8 hour window.

Time to download myfitnesspal. And get an electronic scale to weigh things you are going to cook for yourself. Get used to eating the same thing every day, otherwise you must recalculate new foods you introduce which is annoying. No more eating out, sorry.

Do one heavy day a week, good to have it after your carb load, then the rest high rep workouts. Time your brakes to 60-90 sec depending on how much intensity you can handle. In the morning your new breakfast is a cup of coffee, then the iron weights. That's what you're having for breakfast. Then nothing till noon. Forget about anabolic window and all that jazz. If you have time, 1 HR of walking on an empty stomach every morning.

Time to get used to not being as strong as you were while "bulking". You are not doing this to impress your male friend. You are doing this for aesthetics.

This is what it takes to lose fat and get lean. It's a lifestyle. Embrace it. Embrace the discipline you will need to develop to get it done. Get used to throwing out candy you get for Christmas from your mom. Learn to make hunger your best friend, and use snacks when it gets unbearable. No, you do not get a full meal every time you're hungry. This will push you over your calories for the day. That's 1500 for you.

Snack = 5-6 peanuts, sesame sticks, etc. Cheetos? No! Maybe once a month so you don't go insane. But you will feel like shit after, as you will see.

If you are using PEDs, 1 rest day Max a week. If natural, you get more.

HandsOutOfMyPockets · 2016-06-20T10:36:51+00:00

As /u/Sapean said, if you eat less than you consume, you will lose weight.

Now there are several techniques to do this. They are called diets. But here is a caveat: If you aim just to lose weight, you may well do so, but you will get it back.

The thing is, to be a 200lbs person, you have to eat like one. Your current weight may be anything from 130lbs to 400lbs, but if you eat like a 200lbs person, and keep doing that long enough, you will end up weighing 200lbs. To maintain your current weight of 330 lbs, even though you are a big guy, that is a lot of food. Eat less.

Now when you start doing that, you will be HUNGRY. But keep doing that for a week or two, and it will fade away. Hunger has nothing to do with your calorie intake. It is about the size of your stomach and how full it is. When your stomach gets empty, you feel hungry. But it is also a highly adapting organ. When you keep eating much smaller portions for a week or two, your stomach actually gets smaller. That is the reason you should eat smaller portions through out the day. If you don't stretch your stomach with large meals, it will shrink and you need less food to feel full.

Another great way to fight hunger is to drink water. It will fill up your stomach, it contains zero calories, and it does not trick your brain to think there is something more to it. Now Coke Zero also has zero calories, but the amount of artificial sweeteners it holds will make your brain think you have just consumed a whole lotta sugar. Now when there is no actual sugar present, all the effort your brain makes to lower sudden rise of blood sugar levels will make you feel tired and anxious. Sooner or later you'll find yourself buying an ice cream or candy bar to go with you calorie-free soda.

Also, it takes some 15-20 minutes for your guts to tell the brain that enough is enough. So eat a moderated portion, drink your water, and if you still feel hungry after half an hour or so, grab a fruit. Or just bear with it, your next meal is only 2-3 hours away. Remember, it is just your stretched stomach lying to your brain. When you feel dizzy or start to see stars when you get up, that means you should give your self a break and eat an apple.

IASGame · 2016-06-20T11:27:58+00:00

tl,dr: Track your macros for a while.

I'm sure this is contained somewhere in Sepean's megapost.

I'm coming from the other side (I should put on a bit of weight) but I think you should really consider, for at least a couple of weeks, up to a month, to weight almost everything you eat / drink and track it on MyFitnessPal or similar so you know the respective macros. It is easier than it sounds as many common foods are already entered by other members into their database (at least on MFP).

After that trial you may stop doing it and you will at least have a better idea of what you are really consuming. You may then decide to keep doing it (I did) - not everyday but regularly. In my case I didn't have an accurate idea of how much I was (not) eating.

reborn_red · 2016-06-20T11:45:19+00:00

Things you can do now, to kick-start any diet:

Black coffee for breakfast, or caffeine pills with water (if you don't like coffee)
Fasted cardio (in moderation)
Increase water intake massively
Increase walking (walk instead of driving to places near enough to walk, walk the dog, walk on your lunch break)
Buy some Whey Protein Isolate, consume 2 shakes daily ( basically increase protein intake without increasing calories too much)
Supplement with CLA
Combining some of the points above, my breakfast when dieting is: Black Coffee, 2 CLA, 1 WP Iso

Things to consider for longer-term weight management:

Cook your own meals (this for me and LTR has been the biggest factor in managing our weight)
Cook Meat / potatoes in Fry-lite, instead of unmeasured oil, if you need to use fat
Cook enough to take to work the next day, so you continue to eat your home cooked (healthy) food
Stop using jars of sauces - make your own (learn how to make a basic tomato sauce for pasta etc.)
Swap Chocolate / crisps / cookies for protein versions of said snacks
Swap simple carb products with wholegrain (pasta/bread/rice)
Swap red meats for white meat and fish (beef mince for turkey breast mince, as an example in a chilli/lasagne)
Decrease Carbohydrate amounts per meal, up the veggies (Kale, Spinach, Broccoli, garden peas)
Train yourself to think of Beer as a treat, for the weekends, special occasions, vacations etc...

Items you may want consider, if you are an advanced lifter:

Testosterone supplementation (gear/juicing etc..) to preserve muscle mass during calorie deficit
Clen/EPH (High BP - not the best idea, but for info)

mrp_1844 · 2016-06-20T12:09:45+00:00

I have tried dozens of things over the years. Nothing worked except this: http://fitness.mercola.com/sites/fitness/archive/2015/03/27/shed-unwanted-belly-fat.aspx

Even then its a slow process.

The_Litz · 2016-06-20T12:44:21+00:00

Sepean has nailed most of it, if it helps I can tell you a few things that do and don't work for me personally.

I use Macros to get what I need. The most usefull tool is an App to monitor what you are eating. I was very surprised to find out just how shit I was eating. Protein intake was much lower than I thought, carbs much higher. So I got that straightened.

Biggest and best tip ever: Go to bed early. There are all kinds of hormonal changes taking place when you sleep. And, it stopped me from snacking after 22h00. Just the late night snacks can easy add 300 kcal if you are careless. A whole day of fretting over your food intake undone in minutes.

Check your T levels. You are old enough that it can be part of your problem. Low T doesn't only manifest in low libido and loss of boners.

You can still have a beer when you want, IIFYM.

Scurvemuch · 2016-06-20T12:46:02+00:00

Describe your daily routine. Down to how much time you sit, what activities you do outside just going to the gym... it would be helpful.

also, do you work your core in a mindful way?

Persaeus · 2016-06-20T12:49:29+00:00

I'm convinced it would go down if I weren't so damn fat.

You are correct. In addition, if you follow Sepean advice, your blood sugar will go down, your cholesterol numbers will improve (takes high cardio to push up good cholesterol though....), your T will go up, and loosing that belly will make your dick bigger (I am not joking).

My advice: less than 25 grams carbs per day and all the protein/fat you want (see Induction phase in "The New Atkins Diet") coupled with Intermedient Fasting. Drink water all day long.

Lastly:

Like maybe I drink too much.

Drinking and weight loss do not go together. Full fucking stop on drinking when trying to loose the kinda mass your talking about.

dandar4600 · 2016-06-20T13:14:02+00:00

I lost 45 pounds in less than 6 months. The biggest factor was cutting out sugar and fat from my drinks. Coffee is black or with skim milk only. No juices or sodas, just water. Beer at 140 calories a 6 pack will cost you 800+ calories. Just stop it or give up losing weight now.

2nd part was counting my calories. A 6'5 guy working out 4 times a week needs 3200 calories to lose weight. That's a lot of calories to eat. When I was losing weight (I was 5'9 190 when I started, 5'9 145 when I finished) I ate 1200-1500 calories per day. What did I eat? Steak, pork chops, chicken breast, turkey, pork loin all grilled. With that I had veggies. No salads cause dressing for a salad is what really gives you calories. But grilled squash, steamed broccoli, tomatoes with onions and some light crumbled feta cheese. All really good tasting food, but cooked fairly healthy. No mashed potatoes are rice with butter. Both contain really large amounts of sugar and are just not necessary. You can get them back after you already lost your weight and are just trying to maintain current weight, but for weight loss, cut them out.

What about breakfast? Eggs, yogurt, skim milk, one sandwich with lots of turkey, no cheese. If you spread it to two sandwiches then you get penalized with extra bread which is carb (read calorie) heavy.

You're trying to cut calories from your diet. One table spoon of oil or regular mayo is roughly 100 calories. One toast without butter is 70-110 calories. With butter, it's 200. You can eat them, as long as your final amount is 3000 or less for the day.

Now if you want to do all that and lose minimal muscle mass, you need to get enough protein in your diet. Milk, eggs, yogurt are all protein rich food for your breakfast. Steak, pork chops, pork loin, turkey and chicken breasts, salmon, cod are all protein heavy for your dinner. Eat enough protein to balance out at 300+ grams per day. If you don't get enough, then supplement your diet with protein shakes.

Other than that you're on your own. We're not gonna make you your meal plan. /r/loseit has links for meal plans. Don't be lazy. We're not here to hold your hand and give you excuses to stay fat. You want to lose weight then take steps to lose it.

PaterFamilias79 · 2016-06-20T13:32:13+00:00

Boy, u/Sepean killed it but here's my two cents.....

Google "insulin resistance" and educate yourself. I was counting calories and not losing much weight while still north of 250. I tried all kinds of thing until I "hacked" my way to this loose "keto" plan. I've been eating this way for about 8 mos and at this point it's not hard anymore...It's just what I do.

I painfully learned that my body is just kind of shitty so all sugar and bad carbs had to go. I do eat one cheat meal a week as early in the day as possible.

Eat all the eggs, meat and veggies you want.
Limited fruit(berries), nuts, and cheeses.

You will lose weight on this plan but you've got to experiment with your body to see what works best. Some people tolerate carbs and sugar better than others. I stay between 25-50 carbs a day and I've found that eating my carbs earlier in the day works better for my weight loss. I don't focus on caloric intake at all as it's actually tough to get too high eating mostly protein and veggies.

I've also found that a high intensity cardio type workout(boxing for me) early in the day tends to accelerate weight loss for me as well.

I prefer to eat at home and that's normally protein with spinach salad(add sliced almonds/walnuts and feta/gorgonzola) but I'm in my car a ton so I had to figure out ways to eat on the road without wrecking my diet. Here are a few of the things I've found that work if you're out and about.

Chipotle, Chipotle, Chipotle....Prob 3x's a week. Steak or Chicken burrito bowl with no rice(sometimes beans).
Krystals-Low carb bacon/sausage scrambler for breakfast.
Panda Express-Terriyaki Chicken-No sauce.
Wendys-Only once in a while cause the sodium intake is insane but Dave's triple/No bun.
Zaxby's/ChicfilA- 4 or 5 piece chicken tenders. I only eat this if I know I'll have very few carbs the rest of the day as you're between 25-40 carbs based on order size.

Lift 4 days...Box 3. You will get shredded in 6-12 mos.

mrpCamper · 2016-06-20T14:34:25+00:00

Why may advice may help you

I'm 45 years old and have lost 40 pounds and put on significant muscle since unplugging a year ago. Most of the weight loss came in the first few months.

I work at a desk too. I now weigh 169 pounds and am 5'10" tall.

I worked with a nutritionist (Who lifts heavy herself and was a former personal trainer). I told her my goal was to lose fat and gain muscle.

What I did/ still do

Fasted Cardio 4x a week. This means first thing I do when I wake up is go for a walk. 2 miles 30 minutes. Fasted cardio burns fat as you don't have any other energy source available in the morning before you eat.
I eat a very healthy diet of natural foods that are good for me and power my body efficiently (High energy for working out and building muscle with little crap to spur extra fat storage.
My exercise is geared towards using food to build muscle and burn fat. (Fasted Cardio and lifting heavy weights 5 times a week.)
Eat 1 gram of protein for every pound you weigh (Edited as I had the ratio for water not protein here.)
Eat nothing with added sugar. Read every label on everything you eat and make sure you are doing this.
Eat some carbs 30 minutes before workout (Oatmeal etc.) give you some energy for workout.
Eat a shit ton of protein after you workout.
Have to cut down on drinking. 2 drink limit per day (Becks Light has 64 calories. Learn to like scotch or Bourbon as they are both tasty and have fewer calories than beer.

Process What to eat

Eat a high protein low carb breakfast (Eggs or greek yogurt, etc.)
Lunch should be reasonable and good for you. get some protein in, a vegetable a fruit and low carbs.( example would be 100% whole wheat bread, Egg salad or tuna or turkey meat.) An apple and some raw vegetables( Green beans or something)
Mid afternoon snack of protein (Yogurt, cottage cheese, cheese sticks, hard boiled eggs etc.)
Dinner - Eat a fuck ton of green vegetables, some meat, and a very small amount of carbs at dinner. One way to model what to eat is if you are on a diet and your wife is significantly smaller than you, try eating what she eats for dinner. If she cooks, tell her to make for you what she makes for her. This worked for me as my wife is 4 inches smaller than me and has a nice body. YMMV. Now that I have things under control I eat about 4 servings of vegetables at dinner, a handful of rice or something as a carb and two servings of some lean meat like white meat chicken, pork chop etc.
No crappy snacks. Only acceptable snacks are fruit, nuts, raw protein.

USe the world wide web to find an app or web site to see how many calories you need to consume to lose weight for your size. Use an app to track your food and hit that goal using the high quality food outline I put in above.

For me, it was that easy. good luck and let me know if you need more specifics.

irateMD · 2016-06-20T15:26:33+00:00

The problem, like most things in MRP, is mindset. You're invested in being the guy who puts up big numbers in the gym. You'll use that to rationalize extra calories.

It's possible to maintain or increase muscle and lean body mass on up to a 40% calorie deficit with protein 1.2-2.4 g/kg. The study subjects weren't as heavy as you, so you probably don't need to go as high at 360g protein unless you reach a sustained 40% deficit. I'd suggest protein intake around 250 g/day for you. For those too lazy to read the paper, the exercise routine was twice weekly full body, 3x10 @ 80% 1RM, last set to failure, and twice weekly HIT/SIT. I wouldn't suggest sustaining that degree of calorie deficit, nor would I suggest going with 500kcal/day like in the /r/fitness circle jerk. This is just food for thought. Something in between would be better for you.

The easiest method is to think about percentages instead of absolute values. Whatever you were planning to eat, take 20% of the calories off the plate. Remove the foods with empty calories to reach that 20% deficit. If you choose to count calories instead, which is ideal, but a pain in the ass, then start with a 1000 kcal/day deficit because of your starting weight.

maybe I drink too much

/u/il-est-ressuscite is right; when you're cutting, any alcohol is too much. Drink only socially; home with the wife doesn't count. There are some fantastic lower calorie beers out there, like Guinness and Cracked Canoe. Alternate with water.

You should not be drinking any of your calories with the possible exception of protein supplements. You will not drink shakes, juices, smoothies, or have sugar or cream in your coffee or tea.

/u/Scurvemuch and /u/Sepean alluded to NEAT. You have some control over it. Spend time outside on cool days. Keep room temperatures lower. Wear lighter clothes. Go outside in the rain. Keep yourself on the verge of being uncomfortably cold. Standing desks are better than sitting. Park further away when you drive somewhere. Take the stairs instead of the escalator or elevator. Take the path with a hill instead of level ground. The temperature piece is the easiest and can even activate brown fat.
Your body weight is an advantage for weight loss because activities that fight gravity will burn lots of calories. You'll often get more out of an incline than increasing speed.

I'll do a daily weigh-in and post it on MRP to track progress

Weigh yourself each morning to generate a weekly average. Daily changes are irrelevant.

You are at high risk of sleep apnea because of gender, body fat distribution, and high blood pressure. Uncontrolled sleep apnea messes up the hormones involved in appetite and satiety. Consider doing the STOP BANG screening tool for a reality check. Your score is at least 3-4, and I'm guessing higher. You need a sleep study. I'd also suggest the Epworth sleepiness scale. It should be under 11 or else you're at risk of crashing your car.

Keto works at the cost of reducing maximum sustained power output from your muscles. If you want weight loss above all else, though, then it definitely works.

For all you insecure losers who felt threatened by /u/MarriedBiShorty suggesting a vegan diet, this is a vegan athlete's diet. He looks like this. I'd rather be unhealthy and die young than give up meat, but nobody's perfect.

I should turn this into a post...

PurpleVeteran · 2016-06-20T16:08:35+00:00

I'm 45, 6'4" and started at 340lbs, with most of my weight on my gut. I'm currently down 70 pounds over 4.5 months. I posted some of my details and routines here. I've stalled a bit these last 2 weeks, probably because I've cut back a bit on lifting, but I'm tightening my diet to try and push through. Your results will certainly vary.

My top level advice would be:

Cardio

Pick up some running shoes and start walking 5-6 days a week for an hour.
In 2-3 weeks, start running every other day for 30-40 minutes instead.
You'll only be able to run for 1.5-2 min, then walk until you can run again.
As you continue, you'll need fewer breaks and will catch your breath faster.
Maintain your lift schedule. Gains will stall, but eat right, and you won't lose much muscle.

Diet

~~Carbs~~ -> Ketosis. Full stop.
I haven't had to count macros or buy a food scale, but I do track calories overall.
Breakfast: glass of milk or juice, 3 eggs + 1/3 bag of baby carrots. < 400 calories.
Lunch: small portions of meat and rice. < 400 calories. These are good, or mix half meat and half rice for "Chipotle light".
A piece of fresh fruit, dried fruit, or sunflower seeds for mid-day snack. <150 calories.
Whatever the family has for dinner, in moderation. Varies, but ~1000 calories.
Lots of grilled chicken, pork chops, fish, steak. No rolls, plenty of veggies.
No more beer or sodas, though a diet soda with dinner is fine.
Daily vitamin supplement, and extra fiber.
Water, water everywhere.

amalgamator · 2016-06-21T04:14:17+00:00

Check out http://rippedbody.jp I love Andy Morgan's stuff.

Go thru his stuff - it is similar to leangains, but it regularly updated

Check out Eric Helms pyramid YouTube videos (and the books)

The problem with Keto is it's hard to lift heavy and hard with glycogen depleted muscles. Also having carbs allows tons for flexibility. Leangains > Keto

BluepillProfessor · 2016-06-21T22:05:16+00:00

We are, pound for pound, the best moderation panel on all of Reddit :)

I had the same issue but am a little closer to the promised land. Did you see my fairly recent post on this exact issue?

In that thread (actually in the thread I reference in that thread but whatever) Stone suggested skipping entire days eating. I didn't go that far but I can make it to 5:00 in the afternoon with just some pbj and toast/coffee and an Atkins meal bar. Then for dinner I start out with a huge portion of cold veggies (dipped in Italian Dressing or low fat Ranch). After that I eat whatever I want for dinner.

I also switched from Ice Cream to Frozen Lowfat Yogurt (tastes the same with Chocolate and a reeses cup on top so why not).

Bottom line- you need to eat less of the "bad" foods- pasta, butter, sugar, flour and more of the "good" foods- vegetables, fruit, grilled chicken. If seasoned right grilled chicken is awesome! I love Mediterranean Chicken in garlic and a sprinkling of olive oil. If you have a lowfat dressing (and especially if you are hungry) a mixing of fresh organic veggies is surprisingly good.

Let me guess your biggest problem is booze. You can always try wine enemas or switch to vodka and tonic over beer and whiskey.

Sepean · 2016-06-22T14:37:19+00:00

Send we have two camps on cardio: it's essential or it will hurt the effort. Interesting.

What happens is that there is this myth that cardio is a good way to lose weight. So people trying to lose weight fix their diet and do cardio, lose weight, and then think cardio was important.

Out in the real world, lots of us drop down to low body fat while retaining muscle mass without doing cardio, and many dieters and coaches have found that losing muscle is more likely with cardio and it doesn't seem to speed up anything.

Seems like keto is coming out strong, as is intermittent fasting.

Yeah - both methods are excellent at reducing hunger issues to minimal levels and letting you eat to satiety. That boosts compliance way up.

Both require a couple of days to settle into, especially keto can be rough the first days while your body burns off the remaining carbs in your system but once it switches to ketosis the grumpiness and low energy goes away.

There seems to be a consensus that no matter what is chosen, it should be done all in and with as little booze as possible. Dammit.

It should fix itself. Once you're on a limited energy budget, you're not going to want to waste it on liquid calories.

taztor · 2016-06-22T17:44:08+00:00

Not a RP guy, was just curious about the sub, found this post and I didn't see anyone mention it so just an FYI. I was 195lbs at my heaviest and plateaued around 180lbs for a while. Goal was 170lbs but I couldn't hit it for a long time. Caloric deficit and strength training are really the only ways to do it, but two major factors were: as you lose weight your caloric deficit has to adjust and you have to maintain a caloric deficit for at least 6-8 weeks to see real results that remain. No cheat days or slips. Otherwise your body stops the burn phase and goes back to storage mode.

Now 170lbs 15% @ 5'8" and still keeping a 10% deficit. One thing that really helped was a very boring meal plan. I eat the same thing twice daily. I skip a meal if I'm going out for the evening and keep the drinking to 3-4 drinks max. Food is fuel, not a comfort.

demeck · 2016-06-27T12:15:29+00:00

AHHHH!. Read Why We Get Fat By Gary Taubes. You will be amazed by what you read. Most of what we believe regarding nutrition and health are built upon bad science, and kept alive by political and social inertia. You can also find a video about why we get fat on Youtube (I suggest this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTUspjZG-wc

ReddJive · 2016-06-20T08:39:41+00:00

Your diet needs to reflect your workout. The diet I am on consists of the following.

Meal 1 3/4 cups oatmeal 6 egg whites 1 cup of spinach

Meal 2 1/2 cup of rice 7 ounces of lean turkey

Meal 3 7 ounces of turkey 1 cup of green vegetables

Meal 4 protein drink (Isopure) 2 tablespoons of natural peanut butter

Meal 5 7 ounces of lean steak

Meal 6 (if needed) Protein shake (isopure)

I drink a gallon of water and take fish oil and multi vitamin. In addition to fiber supplements.

I don't want to hear about how protein shakes and such are worthless. It works for me.

I am 6'4. I was 230 in January with 16% BF, but now I am 270 and 11% BF.

My bench, squat and deadlift are 300 pounds. All for 6-10 reps, I can't recall which is which.

Redneck001 · 2016-06-20T17:33:38+00:00

Sidebar

weakandsensitive · 2016-06-20T09:17:00+00:00

You want to get lean? Eat less faggot.

It's really simple physics. If you're consuming less calories than you use, you'll burn calories from your reserves. If you consume more calories than you need, you'll get fatter. Everything else is hamstering.

So eat less faggot and maintain a caloric deficit for a while. Try leaving a portion of your food on the plate for a change Piglet.

Trekneck · 2016-06-20T16:32:53+00:00

I'll tell you the same thing I told myself. You're not gonna lean down until you do SOME type of cardio. Period.

Running reminds me too much of high school wrestling, so that's out. Riding a bike is great, but only if I can get out of the house to do it. Solution? Heavy bag. 30 minutes a day, every morning. Simple Youtube search will find you plenty of routines you can do, and boy do they burn some calories.

You can jump on the diet train all you want, track your calories/macros, etc. But without at least some modest bit of cardio you're making the battle a lot harder than it needs to be.

As far as dieting while maintaining gains, make sure your supp game is on point, and start taking creatine. Dieting and cardio will put your gains at risk, creatine can help you maintain some size while you cut. It's harmless, despite what your in laws might tell you.

MarriedBiShorty · 2016-06-20T08:17:44+00:00

Go vegan. or even vegetarian. cuts out alot of fatty Food and (hopefully) forces you to eat better. and/or work on portions, do you know how many calories you eat roughly in a day? (calculated your BMR (the very Minimum caloric needs to maintain your weight if you were in a coma)to be about 2800, so I'd Personally suggest about 1800-2000 calorie limit. Most Diets are 1200 for some measurement.) seems like you have 'Beer gut' cut out Beer and Drink dry wine (sugar)

-not a guy, but 'ex-anorexic' and damn I love diet planning..

Title	An MRP experiment: Help me get lean
Author	SorcererKing
Upvotes	8
Comments	86
Date	June 20, 2016 7:18 AM UTC (10 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/MarriedRedPill
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/marriedredpill/comments/4oxjd2/an_mrp_experiment_help_me_get_lean/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/MarriedRedPill/an-mrp-experiment-help-me-get-lean.199849 https://theredarchive.com/post/199849

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KETOSIS!