My Weight Loss Journey

Hey guys! Just wanted to make a new thread to help with my weight loss journey. I have a bit of a hard time gaining muscle but I have an even harder time losing my stomach and love handles. I don’t want a six pack or anything but I just want less fat on my stomach and no love handles. Anyway any tips would be greatly appreciated! Thank you gentlemen.

Neck: 15inch/ 38cm
Chest: 39in/ 99cm
Biceps: 11in/ 28cm
Flexed biceps: 12in/ 30cm
Waist: 38.5in/ 97cm
Thighs: 20in/ 51cm
Calves: 14in/ 36cm

Sorry about showing my ass. Just wanted to show how fucking terrible my love handles are.

If you are not already familiar with what your BMR is (basal metabolic rate), then go online and do some reading about that. There are also online calculators that can help you to estimate this. Essentially you need to begin to think in terms of energy and balancing your calories based on your goals. If your calories exceed what you burn in a day you will store those excess calories as fat. If you eat at your maintenance level, you will maintain your current weight. If you eat less than you burn, you will begin to lose weight. If you maintain a slight caloric deficit while weight training and eating between 100-120 grams of protein, you will begin to go through a body recomposition, essentially beginning to shift your ratio of fat to lean body mass. This should happen slowly if you are staying at or slightly below your maintenance caloric needs.

Weight training, protein, and balancing your calories to your goals are all key components. Eat Whole Foods, not processed.

First steps are eating clean, not processed, and beginning to strength train. I recommend starting with anaerobic and keeping aerobic training limited to two to three times a week. Focusing on building muscle will provide you the greatest long term ROI.

Hi Mtxxx

Well one thing you could do is restrict your eating window as small as possible, at a max your eating window can be 12 hours and it could be as low as one meal a day.The simple fact of restricting your eating window decreases the secretion of insulin and increases growth hormone so you will decrease fat.Another thing is eating things with a low glycemic index a calorie is not a calorie foods with a high glycemic index get directly converted to fat so no sodas or foods with a lot of sugar.Another thing to do is high intensity interval training every morning depending on how hard you go, their are different modalities choose one you like, it also increases growth hormone.

-Intermitent fasting

-Avoid foods high glycemic index foods

-HIIT

Thats the best for losing fat.There is a lot of info for building muscle size but for me I focus on the burn and periodization.

I agree with all of this. I eat once every 24 hours and net carbs are restricted to =<20 grams. Workouts are typically hiss and hiit based. With anaerobic a focus on the weekends.

I believe that such routine is a good long term goal, but first understanding the balance between caloric need vs expenditure is a very important component to weight control, often overlooked.

Even if eating once a day and exercising, you can out eat exercise and eating schedules meant to control insulin secretion. IF and low glycemic eating are tools, but will not provide weight loss if eating in excess.

Thank you guys for the advise. I’m taking everything into consideration and try to apply it to myself. Oh man the cutting sugar is gonna be so hard because I love sweets!!! :(

Keep up the good work

You don’t have to cut out sugar. Sugar is not amazing for you, but you do not have to cut it out. It’s all about timing as well, when are you eating these sugars?

What the rest said above is on point. It’s really simple, so let’s keep it simple. If you can do all of these things, you will increase your muscle, lose fat, increase energy, focus and mood, increase sex drive, as well as your manliness. No joke.

-intermittent fasting. Make the best 8 hour window that suits your schedule. It is best if you can make it so that the first 6+ hours upon waking you DO NOT EAT. Those 8 hours you choose will be when you can and will eat. For instance, between 3pm-11pm you eat, so from 11:01pm to 2:59pm you will not eat. (Does not have to be this exact, just to show example).

-strength train, HIIT is amazing, and so is a 3 day split strength training routine. Heavy weights with lower reps, no more then 1 hour per workout. Concentrate on compound movements (squats, presses, deadlift, rows). If you can, lift at hour 14 or 15 of your fasted stays. This will shove your growth hormone levels through the roof. Which will help with everything you could ever ask for.

-eat as healthy as you can, no junk food. Lots of protein, complex carbs and healthy fats.

-count calories, stay in a slight calorie deficit (100-300 calories a day) IF will make this easy, especially once your body converts to the program.

Oh, back to the sugar trick. If you have to have your sugars, and can’t live without, make it the first thing you eat after fasting. Especially after a workout, and if you can make it healthy/simple sugars like the ones from fruit, extra points, and it will help restore your glycogen levels after fasting which in result will help you build and maintain muscle even more. Everyday the first thing I eat is normally a few big handful of grapes or lots of watermelon, and a banana.

Oh and if you truly follow this regimen, you will actually start to crave sugar less and less. For me, I never crave any sweets or any type of junk food. I can stare at it and know how “good” it would taste, but I have no desire for it. My mind knows it’s deliciosu, but my body doesn’t care for it. It’s an amazing thing.

Check out your BMR. 14-16 x Bodyweight depending on activity level.
Start at eating at maintenance calories (bmr calories) for a Week or two to get your metabolism right.
Cut out 500calories for a slower weight loss, perks are better metabolism, less plateaus, less muscle lost, but it takes a really long time.

Cut out 1000 caloried for a faster weight loss, it’s faster, more motivation, but plateaus are often, muscle loss, slower metabolism and requiring to cut out more calories which isn’t good.

Eat lean protein like skinless white meat, with your favorite choice of carbs, and fat, high protein medium carbs and fat, no low carb or low fat diets unless it really works for you.
Best tip, eat food you like, do whatever makes it easier. If you like sugar so much (I don’t) but my advice is eat a little and add it to your caloric intake.

I personally have lost about 30 lbs this year and hope to lose 60. I am not fat but I just want to lose that last bit of fat which is kind of tricky. If you want more help in this feel free to pm me.
Also watch your macros too. It’s ok if most this is hard to understand it’ll get easier, weight loss is easy if you research.
Lifting heavy in the gym also helps a lot.

Just a small update. I started eating less fried food and sugar drinks. I started prepping my food as well.

I’ve begun running more often at a park near my apartment and timing my progress.

I’ve lost 2 pounds! I weigh 168.7 lbs. I’ve technicaly lost a lot more because back in feburary I weighed 178 lbs but I wasn’t tracking my progress then.

I’m gonna start at a gym in a week or two, it’s just with work, espicaly retail, it’s kicking my ass but I will make time for the gym.

Thank you all for the advise and encouragement. I’m taking everything in little by little.

Looking good dude! Keep up the good work on the physique!! Looks like you body is catching up to your dick so you should start seeing some truly amazing proportions!!!

Thank you learnsomethingnu. I’m really trying. I’m pretty proud of my progress so far.

Thank you learnsomethingnu. I’m really trying. It’s gonna take me a while to get to your level though.

Great work mate. Give up all the sugar drinks and fat fried foods. You’ll live till 100+ and have the tackle to make the most of it. Great work. Excellent. Is that the missus on the wall behind the door?

Excellent!

You look very well! Continue this way and you’ll have a healthier body, look and life in general!

Congrats buddy! Well done!

Man that’s awesome, keep doing what you are doing. And will get to your goals