255 to 171 lbs / Ask Helhedded

[helhedded]

[Szczerba]

I have a friend. Let's call him "Bro". He has a question.

Bro works out 4-5 times a week and maintains caloric intake pretty good during the week. Bro usually takes 2-3 days of rest per week with no workouts. Bro is wondering if he should lower his caloric intake, maybe down to maintaince, on days he doesn't workout. What advice would you give Bro? Bro doesn't like to read articles or watch youtube nutrition videos either.

[helhedded]

Originally Posted by Szczerba

I have a friend. Let's call him "Bro". He has a question.

Bro works out 4-5 times a week and maintains caloric intake pretty good during the week. Bro usually takes 2-3 days of rest per week with no workouts. Bro is wondering if he should lower his caloric intake, maybe down to maintenance, on days he doesn't workout. What advice would you give Bro? Bro doesn't like to read articles or watch youtube nutrition videos either.

Bro needs to understand that timing isn't as important as the total. Some people believe that you should eat less on off days thinking that you won't gain any extra fat from eating less but that idea is absurd. The body doesn't work like that and we all know that you never get results in one day.

Tell bro to look at the big picture, specifically the weekly picture. If bro needs "20,000" calories a week bro can choose when/where/how to get them. If bro felt like getting part of that 20k every morning at 3am that would be fine. So If he wanted to eat in a slight surplus on work days and a slight deficit on off days that would be fine as long as he met his weekly goal.



...now bro's water rentention might get funny depending on the severity of the surplus and deficits.... but we should all know water weight is bullshit in the sense that it can vary depending on how you're eating and your activity.

[Szczerba]

Originally Posted by helhedded

Bro needs to understand that timing isn't as important as the total. Some people believe that you should eat less on off days thinking that you won't gain any extra fat from eating less but that idea is absurd. The body doesn't work like that and we all know that you never get results in one day.

Tell bro to look at the big picture, specifically the weekly picture. If bro needs "20,000" calories a week bro can choose when/where/how to get them. If bro felt like getting part of that 20k every morning at 3am that would be fine. So If he wanted to eat in a slight surplus on work days and a slight deficit on off days that would be fine as long as he met his weekly goal.



...now bro's water rentention might get funny depending on the severity of the surplus and deficits.... but we should all know water weight is bullshit in the sense that it can vary depending on how you're eating and your activity.

Ok, I'll let Bro know. In a rare moment, Bro was watching an Elliott Hulse video and saw where one of his plans he had a 24 hour fast and got him to thinking.

[helhedded]

Originally Posted by Szczerba

Ok, I'll let Bro know. In a rare moment, Bro was watching an Elliott Hulse video and saw where one of his plans he had a 24 hour fast and got him to thinking.

havent seen that, but I have heard about-
Intermittent fasting works for some but so does a good ole deficit. You- I mean bro can try it and see if it works. If the idea of eating in a 6-8 hour window sounds exciting to him... I know I like to eat frequently (expecially in a deficit) so that does not sound too hawt.

[lead lobber]

Here is a question that may help others as well...
How would I go about finding the caloric content of a meal I made? For example...
Stuffed Green Bell Peppers.
1 lb ground pork,
1 lb ground sausage,
1/2 Red Onion
1/2 a flat of mushrooms
Maybe? 1/4 cup of scallions
1 1/2 cup of cooked white rice
2 cups Prego Traditional Spaghetti Sauce

the above contents, chopped, cooked together and evenly distributed among 6 Green Bell Peppers. Is it as easy as looking up the caloric contend of all the ingredients and then dividing the total by 6? Or is there a magical formula that involves Unicorn tears and elf farts? :flipoff:

Thanks for the wise words Ashton

[helhedded]

Originally Posted by lead lobber

Here is a question that may help others as well...
How would I go about finding the caloric content of a meal I made? For example...
Stuffed Green Bell Peppers.
1 lb ground pork,
1 lb ground sausage,
1/2 Red Onion
1/2 a flat of mushrooms
Maybe? 1/4 cup of scallions
1 1/2 cup of cooked white rice
2 cups Prego Traditional Spaghetti Sauce

the above contents, chopped, cooked together and evenly distributed among 6 Green Bell Peppers. Is it as easy as looking up the caloric contend of all the ingredients and then dividing the total by 6? Or is there a magical formula that involves Unicorn tears and elf farts?

Thanks for the wise words Ashton

You'd have to go the recipe tab on your fitnesspal and make a recipe for your peppers. This is where the food scale will come in handy if you want to get very precise. Once you get acquire scale, place a 1.25 cc Unicorn tear in the dead center of the scale and tare. Whisk one Elf fart across the glass surface of the scale and now you are ready to get accurate results. Look up each ingredient and input the weights or amounts into the recipe, name it, reuse it, awesome. Depending on what and how much you are making you can tell myfitnesspal to split the recipe into how ever many servings you need out of the dish. see below

http://i460.photobucket.com/albums/q...ps84371f3c.jpg

http://i460.photobucket.com/albums/q...psc4568a8e.jpg

[lead lobber]

Bwahahaha. Excellent use of unicorn tears and elf farts...

Superb! The BX here doesn't have food scales... go figure. So, I had my family send me one from home.

Thanks Ashton.

Jeff

[TEDROCKZ]

I have not done all the calorie counting, yet! I have been of the sweets more and have totally quit the soft drinks since this thread first started. Also drinking LOTS of water. Started walking the day after this thread started. First day was a slow mile and has worked now up to 3 miles round trip with a 5 miler for the next months goal. Not bad for me and with this damn heat and humidity. Been hunting a better shoe as I don't have quiet what is comfortable to me yet.
Also been pretty honest with EPs 100 for 100 challenge. Miss the 100 a day or so but have made most. Lost an honest 8 lbs and even that feels better. I can make the walks easier and easier everyday. I can only imagine another 50 or so, but that will come.
Had a summertime cold/flu like shit since Saturday and that has slowed me some.

I WILL get on the recommended program like Ashton has provided here. A little motivation goes a long ways.

[RiceBurner]

Once a week, usually Mondays, I do a 24-hour fast. Starting Sunday when I'm done eating, usually 5 or so. After work I come home and eat two meals. Great metabolic booster and a great mental exercise. Water only during those 24-hours. I have a physical job and it barely effects my endurance. Started with 18-hours first few times.

[helhedded]

Originally Posted by TEDROCKZ

I have not done all the calorie counting, yet! I have been of the sweets more and have totally quit the soft drinks since this thread first started. Also drinking LOTS of water. Started walking the day after this thread started. First day was a slow mile and has worked now up to 3 miles round trip with a 5 miler for the next months goal. Not bad for me and with this damn heat and humidity. Been hunting a better shoe as I don't have quiet what is comfortable to me yet.
Also been pretty honest with EPs 100 for 100 challenge. Miss the 100 a day or so but have made most. Lost an honest 8 lbs and even that feels better. I can make the walks easier and easier everyday. I can only imagine another 50 or so, but that will come.
Had a summertime cold/flu like shit since Saturday and that has slowed me some.

I WILL get on the recommended program like Ashton has provided here. A little motivation goes a long ways.

You're doing it right

Steve I really recommend what works for you as long as you aren't starving yourself and are happy. If you can manage to keep up the progress without counting then by all means go for it.

[Szczerba]

Originally Posted by TEDROCKZ

A little motivation goes a long ways.

Once you start seeing some results, even minor, it will feed the need to keep it going.
Workout and nutrition programs are tough to keep up with. Takes discipline.
Notice I didn't say "Dieting programs", those are fads, nutrition is a way of life!

Keep on keepin' on.

...

I recently started using the FitBit Flex wristband. If you are a runner/jogger or cardio person, it is showing some promise. Syncs with MyFitnessPal as well. It doesn't do everything but is giving me data that I haven't had before.

..

[Trubble]

This post might be a little worthless, but here goes.... (if nothing, think of it as a free bump)

Tonight the wife pulled out the Wii fit board. She turned 40 this week, and wanted to see what she'd get on her Wii Fit age test. 42.

She challenged me to get on there. I turned 44 back in January, my Wii Fit age test, 40. She about hit the ceiling. I told her not to put too much stock in the results of (essentially) a video game.
Some other stats off my graph.
1,016 days since my last activity
Weight is up to 228.6
BMI is up to 36.74 (obese)
Whatever goal I HAD set, didn't make it.

So anything I lost giving up sodas is creeping back on some other way. I had briefly entertained the notion that we just got back this week from a vacation in the Wisconsin Dells (eating out at least twice a day), but my weight's not that far off from what I usually get on the bathroom scale.

Apparently my ideal weight is 138.something

I was 150 out of high school, and 137 out of boot camp. I cannot for the life of me imagine being that thin again. I suppose I'd be happy getting back down to 185-190, but I just think below that I'd be too scrawny and weak to handle life in the bullish manner that I do.
But just to appease the game console I set the maximum weight loss goal it would allow (22 pounds) in 6 mos. At 1.7 pounds a week, the wife thought this would actually be a pretty level-headed goal for anybody willing to do some work.
I'll hafta see if this winter I can do a little more shoveling, and a little less falling (hard) on the ice. Hopefully I can keep my weight from creeping up like it usually does.


So it may seem like kind of a worthless post because I show no signs of being mentally "there", but I'd like to think I at least have a map or reference point to let me know where I am, and where I gotta get to. (It's) Just a long uphill climb from here, this is gonna take some getting ready for.

Kudos to you who've gone on the journey, though. You've found somethin' I ain't found yet.





Tedrockz: Take it easy, Bud. A little loss is more valuable than pushing too hard and suffering a bigger setback. Easy. Let the little changes do the work, don't force it. Get your feet up under you with some good progress, and you can worry about taking bigger strides later on down the road. Best of luck.





.

[braceysdad]

I found out last week that the big knot on my quad is a tore muscle that isn't healing correctly due to my running... I have had to cut my weekly mileage down from 40 miles per week to only 20 miles per week at a slower pace and no hill work for the next 8 weeks or so. That said, I went from burning around 6800 calories per week to only around 3000 calories per week just from running. I had to alter my diet because in the last 2 weeks of not running I gained weight. I cut about 600 calories out a day and I feel like I'm starving... Was that too big a cut all at once or is it something that my body will adjust to?

Was consuming around 3200/day and now 2600/day...

[helhedded]

Originally Posted by braceysdad

I found out last week that the big knot on my quad is a tore muscle that isn't healing correctly due to my running... I have had to cut my weekly mileage down from 40 miles per week to only 20 miles per week at a slower pace and no hill work for the next 8 weeks or so. That said, I went from burning around 6800 calories per week to only around 3000 calories per week just from running. I had to alter my diet because in the last 2 weeks of not running I gained weight. I cut about 600 calories out a day and I feel like I'm starving... Was that too big a cut all at once or is it something that my body will adjust to?

Was consuming around 3200/day and now 2600/day...

Hell yes, 600 at once will leave anyone miserable. Depending on your time frame you might have to drastically cut them like that. I usually add or take away 100 calories a day when I need to make adjustments, and even then some think that's too fast. 250 a week would be best as you'd never really notice the deficit or surplus but that takes more time.

And yes your body will adjust to 2600, but you will be hungry in the meantime. To make this go the smoothest, add more satiating food to your diet like potatoes and oatmeal. They make you feel very full. I'm not sure what your macros are set at but you need to be consuming 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight daily.

[1tonscout]

Get strep throat and mononucleosis! watch the pounds disappear. So far I've lost 15 pounds

[helhedded]

Originally Posted by 1tonscout

Get strep throat and mononucleosis! watch the pounds disappear. So far I've lost 15 pounds

...and watch them come back with fury when you get your appetite back

[TEDROCKZ]

Down another 9lbs and up to a 7 mile round trip walk. If I can get my morning rituals in order to have more free time I wanna do a brisk 3 miler in the morning. Then my normal 5-7 in the evenings. Went to the gym a few days with some of the local high school football players. Made my ass feel OLD quick. Still can press 395, long ways from my high school days but still impressed myself a bit.
Still no sodas, beer seems to be at a snag though. I have cut @ 1/2 of them out though. Cutting more and more of the fast foods out which was mostly lunch anyways. It's all getting easier and easier...MOTIVATION

[EeePee]

Right on Steve!

[lead lobber]

Great job Steve! Keep it up!

I weigh in tomorrow, Friday here in Korea. I'll let you guys know how it goes. I took the Endomondo September challenge, Get on Your Feet or something like that. At the same time I started a 10k running program on Endomondo. I have committed to running a Spartan Sprint Race in Phoenix the February. 4.7 miles and 10-12 obstacles.

Jeff

Originally Posted by TEDROCKZ

Down another 9lbs and up to a 7 mile round trip walk. If I can get my morning rituals in order to have more free time I wanna do a brisk 3 miler in the morning. Then my normal 5-7 in the evenings. Went to the gym a few days with some of the local high school football players. Made my ass feel OLD quick. Still can press 395, long ways from my high school days but still impressed myself a bit.
Still no sodas, beer seems to be at a snag though. I have cut @ 1/2 of them out though. Cutting more and more of the fast foods out which was mostly lunch anyways. It's all getting easier and easier...MOTIVATION