A bit of background about me - late 29 male, 5'9", 246lbs. I actively lift weights and have a solid strength and strength-endurance base. Years ago I was prescribed medications for anxiety and depression that made me gain a lot of weight in a short time period. I started at a nice 200lbs, peaked at 270lbs, dropped down to 240, then dropped down to 215, but then went back up to my current weight of 246lbs. The reason for the rise is multifaceted - I had a major injury from weight lifting that forced me to stop all activity for 6 months and I was in a serious relationship where we would have big Sunday dinners at her family's house. We recently broke up a few months ago, mutually, because our lives are going in different directions. I am still not over her and really wanted to have a family together.
Now that I am single and in my late 20s, I feel the pressure to go on dates moreso than when I was in my teens or early 20s. I am also seeing many people age terribly as I get older. This includes people I grew up with and older people who let themselves go. Either way, I want to get the most out of my life and keeping a reasonable body fat percentage while strength and endurance training is the key to longevity. I am 29 but I still feel largely the same as when I was 18 - I want to hold onto that physical fitness as long as possible.
Being a mathematically minded person, I derived a formula to predict how well I will lose weight. I used it twice on myself. The first use when I went from 270 to 240, and the second use when I went from 240 to 220. I know my method works for me because it helps me see the big picture. Losing one pound a week seems trivial, but when I see my progress in the context of a 12 to 16 week goal, and I see my weight-loss is coincident with what I should expect; it helps me stay motivated. I wish I could upload a picture.
My plan is simple: 6 days out of the week I eat 2000 calories. On the remaining day I let myself eat what I want with no restrictions, typically up to 4000 calories. The one cheat day helps me have something to look forward to in the short term, and I have read that calorie cycling is beneficial for reducing the rate at which your metabolism slows down. According to my projections, if I do this and exercise (weight lift with cardio ) 3 times per week I should reach 230lbs over a 16 week period. If I either exercise 10% more or eat 10% less, the 16 week weight projection is 222lbs. Likewise, exercising 10% less or eating 10% more calories pushes the 230lb projection to as a high as 237lbs. This is a wide margin of error in terms of body weight, but actually only represents at +/- 10 error in the estimates over 16 weeks.
I'm going to be using this thread to log my progress and make notes to myself. People can comment as they like.
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from loseit - Lose the Fat https://ift.tt/2VboGI6
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