I hit my calorie goal 3/7 days, one day I missed by 23 calories so whatever. Two small misses (200 or so), one big miss (800). But, a couple of my days going under I was way under. So the averages:
Calories In: 2,151 (goal 2,100)
Calories Burned: 3,461 (goal 4,100)
Expected Weight Loss: 2.62 lbs
Days of 15 mins in the Sun: 4/7 (got like 4 hours one day though)
Lifted: 3/7 (need to step it up)
Stationary Bike: 1/7 (golfed one other day, though, which burned a lot)
100+g Protein: 6/7 (Avg 130)
Pretty happy to see it fall where it’s expected to be. My stationary bike is like straight garbage (it’s really cheap with very limited settings), and the seat is extremely uncomfortable. New plan is to give myself options: 1 hour stationary bike, 1 hour walking (might be pacing back and forth on my terrace lol), or playing golf. I can use the bike on rainy days. I considered upgrading the seat, but it would be like putting Ferrari seats in a Honda Civic, and that’s being generous to the stationary bike.
That should let me get up toward my 4,100/day target for burning calories, though. I think if I lift 5 days a week and walk/bike 60 mins or golf 7 days a week, I should be there. That would put me on track to significantly reduce my comorbidity risk for 2/3 factors by the end of September.
But losing that much weight it’s really important that I lift often and keep my protein intake up, because I need to lose almost all fat in order to really get the comorbidity risk where I need it. I’m thinking I need a bodyfat % under 20% to feel somewhat safe, and under 15% to feel totally safe.
Sub 15% body fat is really low man, I don’t know your height but even if you have a lot of muscle mass you’re going to need to drop a ton of weight to get there. Lifting consistently and keeping protein consumption high will be important but 100g of protein is really light, why not bump that goal up?
Is it actually really light? Should he base his protein requirements off his current weight, or his target weight? If it’s based off his target weight, I think 100 grams/day should be fine.
It should be based on current weight and you adjust your macros as your weight changes. It’s light for someone trying to lose fat, if I was cuse I’d be shooting for 150g per day
So this is an interesting area scientifically. The overwhelming majority of research into protein requirements has been based around current bodyweight, but it’s also been almost entirely done on athletes. For somewhat obvious reasons, nobody has done a lot of research on how much protein obese people need to maintain muscle mass while dieting.
Since we need protein to maintain muscle, not to maintain fat, I believe it should be based on muscle mass or lean body mass. There has been a little research into this, which seems to support the notion that we need something like .7 to .9 grams per pound of lean body mass to support muscle growth. For me, that would be 110-140 grams per day. Last week I averaged 130, so I’m in the range.
I spent hours pouring through the research one night, and can’t find my bookmarks, so you guys will have to take my word for it for now.
At some point it’s hard to go too much higher while eating healthy food that I enjoy and taking in < 2100 calories per day on a predominantly vegetarian diet. 125g splits that range, and that’s got me getting about 25% of my calories from protein.
I should probably try to go higher on days I lift and just add some egg whites or something to get me to maybe 150g.
There’s also the problem of measuring body fat. The studies have their way of measuring, which you are not going to do (or at least not during the pandemic). Are you going to use calipers, mirror test, scale, or some other method? I found 15% by the scale to be frustratingly elusive last time I got close.
Also, what is the safety factor? I thought just not being obese would be good enough to avoid COVID risk.
Yeah ability to accurately measure fat and lean muscle mass is all over the place, I think the Dexa scans are considered the most accurate but they’re expensive and you have to leave the house to get it. I’ve used the InBody bioelectric impedance scales and they’re good enough to track general trends over time, I don’t take the numbers as gospel I just use it to make sure I’m on the right track
I’m using waist measurement with the RFM formula to estimate it. It should be fairly accurate, at least until I lose a lot of fat and need something more precise.
For me it’s obesity, elevated cholesterol, asthma. For the weight, most of the data on what’s safe is based on BMI - but that’s not as accurate of a health indicator as bodyfat is, so I’m trying to guess. Like off straight BMI I’d need to get down to 190 to get to “overweight” and 159 to get to “normal.” But I’m pretty confident that, if I retained muscle, those numbers would get me to 16% and 0% bodyfat. So I’m trying to just sort of guess what is a weight at which I can be very confident that my body isn’t working against me in this regard.
So I estimated 110-150 for my weight, that chart would suggest like 135 to 165. So I’m in the ballpark. Logically speaking, the more overweight you are, the less protein you need to maintain your muscle mass.
Another way to phrase that is that my g/lb of protein intake will go up as my weight comes down. So week #1 I averaged 130g of protein per day at ~247 lbs, or .53g/lb. Once I’ve lost 20 lbs and maintain the intake, it’ll be 130g for 227 lbs, or .57g/lb and that’ll continue.
And doesn’t that make sense, doesn’t a 247 pound person with ~65% lean body mass for 161 pounds of lean body mass need about the same amount of protein as a 227 pound person with 71% lean body mass for 161 pounds of lean body mass?
Now the counter is that protein-rich foods can enhance the metabolism and, in many cases, provide satiety. But foods like potatoes (shout to OP) and most vegetables/beans are higher in satiety than foods like meat, seitan, etc. So it comes down to the metabolic effects of protein-rich food, and whether they are worth the tradeoff.
I’m a big believer that people at my weight should not be taking protein shakes and such. I don’t want to consume calories that don’t either:
Provide me satiety
Provide me enjoyment
A mediocre tasting drink with like 200 calories that gives me 50g of protein is not, to me, more valuable than a fat-free cheese quesadilla that provides me with 155 calories and 25g of protein, but is also filling and enjoyable.
I’m in for a bit of accountability - I’ve gone from 248 12 months ago to 277 this morning.
For reference in October 2017 i weighed in at a hefty 350 but lost a load by having a very simple set of meals. I’m a bit of an all or nothing sort of guy so I plan on following this verbatim for the next few weeks, which means no beer - always my weakness.
Breakfast 3 egg Omelette 4oz Potato - I have actually had this for breakfast every day since Oct 16th 2017 apart from 4 days when I was hospitalised last year.
Lunch 6oz protein 6oz salad/green veg
Dinner 6oz protein 14oz veg/salad
2 fruits a day
Protein will be mainly fish and fowl - with the odd steak thrown in
So no pasta rice sugar dairy, no potatoes apart from breakfast(sorry keed) no booze
The only soft drinks I have are black coffee, herbal tea or water - so apart from alcohol that’s not a problem
I was going to the gym 3/4 times a week after discovering the joys of lifting aged 56, but I can’t see me going back even when they open as I have some impaired pump function with my heart, so I really don’t want to catch this thing. Currently running three times during the week, and a couple of decent 2 hour walks at the weekend.
No running yet, but I have walked and done yard work. I was definitely just eating out of boredom or work avoidance, and I’m now trying to be conscious of eating only when I’m hungry.
At 305 from 308, just finished an hour of barbells. My fitness place had reopened and I was contemplating returning. However, got an email that they’ve no re-closed.
Went to the store yesterday and got mostly healthy food, but did have coco crispies x 2 for breakfast and three hotdogs and some grapes for a late lunch. Figure that’s my full allotment for today.
I’d like to be in “good” shape (like 270) by the end of September, but March is more likely. For me this is a marathon lifestyle thing and i just need to keep putting one foot in front of the other and making fitness a major priority. Overall, am feeling good and fairly strong.
