Just out of interest I've just visited eight different sites to see what my calorie intake is with my current weight...
Standing 5 foot 5 inches and weighing 157lb, being relatively fit, going to the gym three to four times a week and football on Sundays. However I spend a lot of time sitting down outside of the gym, so I eat for a "sedantary" lifestlye.
And I found eight different calculators gave seven different results. Some asked for a little information, some asked for a lot.
Everything from between 1300 to 2400.
They averaged out at 1880 for me to maintain my current weight, so naturally cutting down to 1400 for 1lb a week loss though a calorie deficeit.
My question is how many calories should I be shoving down my throat? And in what quantities per meal?
I've spent a year wasting my time focusing on what these sites have said i should use for cutting. Frankly ive had results from logging what I eat and determining my weekly intake averaged out and going from there for the following week compared to absolutely no progress for over a year.
IIRC you seem to base your gym workouts mainly with CV activity as opposed to weights. IMO, that doesn't help as much. If its the case and still is, I'd focus solely on just that.
The problem's not the calories, it's your body composition. At 157 and over 20%, you don't really have the muscle mass to lose 1 lb per week, and you're not doing enough in the gym to stimulate it which means on top of that, when you do lose weight, a much larger percentage of that will be the muscle you do have, s not only will you not look any different, but you'll have cut your metabolism by a load more than if you lost a higher percentage of fat, again making it even harder for you to shift it. Vicious cycle!
It can be fixed though. Firstly, cut your cardio down to two days per week and put it on different days to your weights.
Switch your gym routine to this one: Mansized Gym Rat Weight Loss Routine and do it twice per week instead of the three times reccomended. So your weekly routine will now go:
Day 1: CV
Day 2: Weights
Day 3: Off
Day 4: CV
Day 5: Weights
Day 6: Off
Day 7: Football
So you're now actually doing cv work 5 days per week, but now two of those CV sessions are done with weights. By splitting them up, you can now also work hard enough to stimulate new muscle and get stronger by working your whole body in one go, and consistantly striving to increase the weight lifted over time.
Lastly, increase your calories to about 1800, making sure you get plenty of protein (you're looking for about 120g per day), and plenty of carbs (double the protein figure). You may also benefit from cycling your calories between 1800 and 1600, dropping 100 every week, then after a week of 1600 going back to 1800 and starting again.
Don't forget if you're not already to make sure you're getting at least 4 litres of cold water down your neck, and split your meals up into 4-6 smaller meals per day. You could use the meal plan templates here for some ideas on how that can be done effectively: Mansized Lose Weight Challenge
It's unlikely lose a pound a week just yet, as you'll need some time for your body composition to adjust, but you may actually find it's been so long since your muscles have been stimulated to grow, coupled with the amount of lean tissue you've likely lost, it'll respond quite quickly!
The last tip is to keep a close eye on your bodyfat percent. Whether you get it tested every fortnight by a proffesional down the gym or do it yourself (our answer How do I measure my body fat percent? will show you how) doesn't matter so much, but it'll help you make sure you're losing fat and building muscle.
With any luck, your body weight will go up a bit over the next couple of weeks as your body composition changes, but while that happens, your body fat which is what we really want to lose when we talk about weight loss will go down.
And a Back extension on the end. Because the exercises are in pairs to be performed back to back, you wont find an odd number. Then a new exercise pair is added at 4 week intervals.
mjoyeux wrote:
Doesn't seem like an awful lot. I think I do a little more than that... normally ;-)
That's right, and as a result, particularly coupled wth tiring yourself out with the CV first, you're not working as hard as you could be. On top of that, your volume of work (including your CV) is way too high for the calories you're on at the moment, so essentially your body will hold onto fat for survival, and ditch the muscle it doesn't need because it's not being stimulated.
Net result, thinner fat person with a much slower metabolism! Not the result we want!
By cutting the volume, it'll allow you to put more effort into each exercise to get those extra reps each session, and get the extra weight added as you hit the top number of reps.
mjoyeux wrote:
So I'm essentially I'm just doing weights?
On your weights days, yep.
mjoyeux wrote:
I'm going to get my Body Fat done at the gym tonight to confirm your suspisions.
I'm going to take your advice, I've tried everything else over the last 18 months as Silent Guy said...
Obviously being "fit" and having good endurance doesn't help :-(
Not for fat loss, no. But from your post it sounds like you need that endurance for races as you mentioned running past people, so we wont change your routine too much.
