Trying to lose weight. Please help advice on calorie intake.

LeakingLava

Hi everyone.

I have recently been 'sort of' serious about losing weight. I mean, I have lost quite some weight but I haven't put in much effort into it. The main factor for my weight loss was the decrease in calorie intake. In about 6 months, I have gone from 146kg to about 116kg. I am now feeling like my attempt of reduction of extra calorie intake is not going to reduce my weight anymore than it did. I am just wondering, for a guy that is 6foot2inches, what should my everyday meals consist of? I didn't seek advice from a professional regarding this so I have no idea what I should actually be eating.

Regarding exercise, during the 6 months, I have walked maybe twice a week for long periods of time. But I seem to have gotten tired of that recently and have done less and less of it. Now because I have lost some weight, I am fascinated that I am able to do push-ups at all so I have been doing that and a few other home workouts. Again, didn't seek for professional advice so I'm not sure what the actual guidelines are regarding these things so please do advice on what my everyday should consist of in terms of food and exercise.

Thanks a lot

GalwayGrrrrrl

LeakingLava wrote: »

Hi everyone.

I have recently been 'sort of' serious about losing weight. I mean, I have lost quite some weight but I haven't put in much effort into it. The main factor for my weight loss was the decrease in calorie intake. In about 6 months, I have gone from 146kg to about 116kg. I am now feeling like my attempt of reduction of extra calorie intake is not going to reduce my weight anymore than it did. I am just wondering, for a guy that is 6foot2inches, what should my everyday meals consist of? I didn't seek advice from a professional regarding this so I have no idea what I should actually be eating.

Regarding exercise, during the 6 months, I have walked maybe twice a week for long periods of time. But I seem to have gotten tired of that recently and have done less and less of it. Now because I have lost some weight, I am fascinated that I am able to do push-ups at all so I have been doing that and a few other home workouts. Again, didn't seek for professional advice so I'm not sure what the actual guidelines are regarding these things so please do advice on what my everyday should consist of in terms of food and exercise.

Thanks a lot

Try downloading the my fitness pal calorie app (or use online). You can add your daily food diary and weight/height etc. it will give you a good idea if you are on the right track. It tells you calories and a breakdown of protein/fats/carbs so you
Can adjust your diet as needed. I sound like I'm selling it but it's something I use every day and has helped me enormously. Well done on your weight loss btw.

LeakingLava

xfactorfan23 wrote: »

Try downloading the my fitness pal calorie app (or use online). You can add your daily food diary and weight/height etc. it will give you a good idea if you are on the right track. It tells you calories and a breakdown of protein/fats/carbs so you
Can adjust your diet as needed. I sound like I'm selling it but it's something I use every day and has helped me enormously. Well done on your weight loss btw.

Thank you! Will definitely try this out.

LeakingLava

Just tried that app out. Does it do anything with the exercises log or does it just log it for you? I mean does it do any calories calculations? I'm just not sure if I'm doing something wrong.

Thanks again.

cmyk

LeakingLava wrote: »

The main factor for my weight loss was the decrease in calorie intake. In about 6 months, I have gone from 146kg to about 116kg. I am now feeling like my attempt of reduction of extra calorie intake is not going to reduce my weight anymore than it did. I am just wondering, for a guy that is 6foot2inches, what should my everyday meals consist of?

Well done, 30kg in 6 months is a fantastic achievement! Have you actually stopped losing weight?

LeakingLava wrote: »

Now because I have lost some weight, I am fascinated that I am able to do push-ups at all so I have been doing that and a few other home workouts. Again, didn't seek for professional advice so I'm not sure what the actual guidelines are regarding these things so please do advice on what my everyday should consist of in terms of food and exercise.

Home workouts are absolutely fine, don't overcomplicate it, if you search the forum for this you'll find a few of the guys have linked to some videos you might get some ideas from. Walking is also fine and it's a nice compliment to the home workouts too.

LeakingLava

cmyk wrote: »

Well done, 30kg in 6 months is a fantastic achievement! Have you actually stopped losing weight?

It feels like it. I've even gained some due to less walking. I think I reached around 112kg.

cmyk wrote: »

Home workouts are absolutely fine, don't overcomplicate it, if you search the forum for this you'll find a few of the guys have linked to some videos you might get some ideas from. Walking is also fine and it's a nice compliment to the home workouts too.

Just been doing push-ups, sit-ups, and some dumbbell exercises as I just bought some. Doing seated biceps curl, lateral raise and squats with 1kg front lateral raise. These are just exercises that I remembered because I've done them before when I was in gym a few years ago but I just googled the names so I can tell you what I was actually doing. haha :P

Hanley

I'm going to throw a curveball in here.

You've done an amazing job over the last 6 months. Your only goal for the next 3 months should be increasing the amount you eat, while maintaining your new weight.

Let me explain - in order to get your bodyweight down to where you have it now, you've reduced calories and increased exercise. There's only so low you can go on kcals, and so far you can go with exercise before you burn out and get sick of it.

Once that happens, you're more likely to regain all the weight you've lost. So instead of chasing the magic dragon for a few months, stop, step back and gradually increase your food back up from "healthy" sources.

If you can increase kcals by say 2-3% each week you'll end up 700 to 1,000kcals above where you are each day right now. And if you do it with the right foods, slowly, you won't regain any weight.

Then when it is time to start pushing for more weight loss, you've now got an extra 700-1,000kcals to work with, AND you'll have more energy to train harder for it too.

Of course that means you need to know where you're starting right now. Without that, you're only guessing.

My advice would be to track an entire week of eating using my fitness pal or something along those lines, and report back 4 figures for each of the 7 days - protein, carbs, fat and total kcals.

Not because you need to know those numbers to successfully lose weight, but because if you'v been dieting for months on end and its now stalled out, I've a sneaking suspicion that you've dipped too low on kcals and need to get back to 'normal'.