How the hell do I make this diet work?

trpaderp · 2014-09-07T01:48:43+00:00

I highly doubt you have 24% bodyfat, how did you come up with that number? At your age the simple act of growing should keep your bodyfat below 24%. Is your diet truly terrible? According to IIFYM you should be eating around 2000 calories just to maintain.

Also, you are damned skinny beneath that fat (126lb lean). Instead of losing weight on a crash diet, why not start lifting and try to gain muscle? If you put on 30lbs of muscle (6-12 moths of lifting for a noob) then that 40lbs of fat would look a lot better on you. Gaining muscle would also lower your bodyfat percentage to 20% without any calorie cutting.

If you really want to go on a diet, start with realizing that losing fat is not as simple as cutting calories. Your body needs nutrition to stay healthy and at your age, grow. If you cut your calories and nutrients too low your metabolism will slow to compensate. Read up on NEAT (non-exercise activity thermogenesis).

How about this as a sample diet, based on IIFYM.

1900 Calories
1-1.5lb of meats for 150g protein (sub 4 eggs for 0.5lb meat)
- 1000 calories
2 salads (4c greens, 2c other veg total) for nutrients
- 100 calories
4 tbsp salad dressing for fat
- 250 calories
Fill the remaining calories with carbs or whatever
- 550 calories

If you follow this diet and workout 3x per week for about an hour then you will have a calorie deficit of at least 600 calories per week based on activity alone. (If you do cardio then the calorie deficit will grow quickly.) That'll cut at least 1ib of fat per month while you gain more than that in lean muscle.

Lastly 7-9% bodyfat is unsustainably lean. Models and stars get that lean for shoots and then gain up above 10% for normal life. Athletes train at 12-16% bodyfat depending on the sport, with 14% being a good all around percentage. If you want to see your abs, 12% or below will do nicely.

friestogo · 2014-09-06T23:44:10+00:00

160 lbs. at 5'8 is not 7-9% body fat, not even close.

When eating at a caloric deficit you do risk losing muscle. But if you're a total noob and are lifting intensely and consistently ~5 times a week then it's possible to gain a little muscle whilst cutting fat, but not a lot.

Unless you've been lifting for at least a year and made good gains then seriously do not worry about losing muscle, cause there isn't much to lose. Just worry about losing the fat.

As for diet. When I was cutting I didn't even track my macros that closely, just my calories and I made sure my diet was high in protein. Sources of protein - lean chicken and fish i.e. Cans of tuna, cod (not breaded). Good sources of carbs - rice, potatoes, I ate a lot of rice cakes cause they're filling but very low calorie. Feel free to eat a lot of vegetables as well. Steer clear of calorie dense foods like nuts and milk. Don't drink your calories, just drink water/flavoured water so long as there's no calories in it.

tornado28 · 2014-09-07T03:40:08+00:00

There is nothing wrong with IIFYM's math. Since there are 4 calories per gram of carbs, 4 calories per gram of protein and 9 calories per gram of fat the number of calories obtained from eating what they suggest is:

87.5 * 4 + 122.5 * 4 + 62.2 * 9 = 1399.8

Flutterbree · 2014-09-25T06:04:33+00:00

Now, how the hell do I eat that much while maintaining that caloric intake?

Those macronutrient numbers add up to 1400. I'm not sure what your problem is?

A gram of carbohydrate is 4cal. a gram of protein is 4, and a gram of fat is 9. This all adds up.

Just remember that most meat sources only contain a gram of protein per 4 grams of mass in the food. this is a pound or so of chicken breast a day for you. It's not that hard.

When you say "according to IIFYM", which coach or website is giving you these numbers? Theres lots of different sources of "IIFYM" diets, being that IIFYM basically is just the process of meeting your macro numbers with food that pleases you instead of only eating "clean foods"

Secondly, your math is way off. You're not going to get to 160 @10% bodyfat without gaining 20 pounds of muscle. If you were to try to cut down to ~10% you'd have to get down to 140.

Trying to put meaningful muscle on at sub 10% is a fools game and wont work out. But thats ok, it's irrelevant right now. With your young age and incredibly short training history you'll gain a bit but not a great amount while cutting. The fastest way to looking good will probably be to cut down to like 160 so you look good at your current muscle levels. This will go quickly if you're weight lifting and still growing. Over the time period you've indicated you're gonna get taller, and probably heavier without lifting.

thenakedwarrior · 2014-10-09T17:59:02+00:00

Good Lord with all these comments. Here is your diet for the next 60 days. Eggs, chicken, fish, meat, Veggies, avocados, water. Nothing else. Don't even count calories. Don't do cardio, but throw some extra walking in there.

squidiron · 2014-11-11T07:09:10+00:00

congrats on making the decision. Also 5'8" and just finished a long cut at about 1500 cals/wk. I'm guessing I got down to 13 or 14% and decided to bulk during the winter. Here are things I learned slowly over time that helped a lot.

Chew sugarless gum a lot (I like trident layers)
Coffee is great for hunger suppression (I learned to like black).
Track stuff in myfitnesspal.com
Do intermittent fasting - skip breakfast. Chew gum and coffee in the AM. Apparently it's good at burning fat but it also makes it easier to eat less.
Eat a LOT of protein - You could even go up to 150gs. Protein generally fills you up more
I eventually cut out bread and pasta. It sounded shocking to me at first but I've adjusted and now even on a bulk don't really want to go back. Meats - mostly chicken and vegetables in general. Sauces at alumnimum
Realzie it's a lifestyle change and you'll learn what works best for you.
If you can, running for 20-30mins every AM will boost your TDEE by a decent amount (few hundred cals). It also 'boosts your metabolism' but I'm not sure what that means. I did this a bit and found it to be helpful but I hate mornings so couldn't do it consistently.
Your friends: Greek Yogurt, hard boiled eggs, hard boiled egg whites, grilled chicken, salads (make sure you know how many cals is in the dressing), chipotle burrito bowl (no cheese, rice, or guac)....
Drink whiskey. Straight up or with diet coke. Stay away from cocktails and beer.

Good luck man and it's honestly not that bad!

Title	How the hell do I make this diet work?
Author	[deleted]
Upvotes	12
Comments	14
Date	September 6, 2014 10:56 PM UTC (11 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/becomeaman
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/becomeaman/comments/2foa4j/how_the_hell_do_i_make_this_diet_work/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/becomeaman/how-the-hell-do-i-make-this-diet-work.137466 https://theredarchive.com/post/137466

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