Introduction

Why am I doing this fitness blog? Well I’m sick and tired of all the misinformation online or people trying to make money out of others. I have nothing to sell. I’ve never taken ANY performance enhancing drugs (PEDs). The only supplements I use are protein, creatine and BCAAs. I wish I had a resource like this when I started. I’ve lost weight multiple times. I’ve learned a lot through this process. I want to share this with people, especially with the new year.

This information can be applied to males and females. If you don’t identify as a male or female, then idk, I guess this applies to potatoes as well. I do work in healthcare, but, I’m not your physician, so none of this is medical advice. Always make sure to talk to your doctor as well.

Here’s a little about myself. If you don’t care about this, no hard feelings, just jump to the next paragraph. You won’t hurt my feelings….actually maybe just a little. I’ve been overweight a few times in my life and have lost weight. The first time I did, I was 19 (I’m a 29 year old male now in case you were wondering. Like I’m 29 now, I’ve always been a male though.) and lost 50 lbs over the course of 6 months (in not the most healthy way because I was starving myself). Then, about 4 years ago, I gained a lot of weight because I thought eating as much food as possible was the best way to gain muscle (I gained a lot of fat). I lost 20 lbs by myself then I hired a coach who was a professional body builder and learned a ton from them. I lost another 30 lbs this time around. It was brutal, but at the end of it, I incorporated a lot of their ideas I liked into my own regimen when I stopped being coached. Now I’m eating more and still becoming leaner.

How to calculate Your Calories

So, this will be kind of an overview of how not to be stupid while losing the weight. So listen up, or read up. I’ll be starting off with calculating calories. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT. First and foremost DON’T JUST MAKEUP HOW MANY CALORIES YOU SHOULD BE EATING!!!!! That’s what I did. “Oh, I’ll eat 1800 calories because hurr durr”. No, that’s not how it works. Use online BMR calculators to ESTIMATE how many calories YOU need. Everyone will be different. Here are a few links:

https://www.muscleandstrength.com/tools/bmr-calculator

https://www.bmrcalculator.org/

https://www.calculator.net/bmr-calculator.html?ctype=standard&cage=29&csex=m&cheightfeet=5&cheightinch=10.5&cpound=195&cheightmeter=180&ckg=60&cmop=0&coutunit=c&cformula=m&cfatpct=20&x=84&y=27

They will be somewhat different, just take an average. “But, but I’ll just eat 500 calories a day to lose weight super-fast, I don’t need this”, yeah lol, have fun. You’ll be miserable and rebound super-fast. You’ll have out of control cravings too, believe me. On top of that, have fun losing additional weight when your body adjusts to 500 calories a day and that’s your new maintenance. These calculators are free, so you don’t need to go running for your credit card.

How to Estimate a Calorie Deficit

You can go maybe 500 calories below your maintenance calories that we calculated with the BMR calculators and try it out for a few weeks. See what happens. It takes my body 3 OR 4 WEEKS TO START LOSING WEIGHT, so don’t crap yourself if you don’t lose any weight in a week or even two after starting your diet. Take it slow. If after 3 or 4 weeks, your weight doesn’t come down or even goes up, go down another 200 or 300 calories and see what happens. You can also increase your cardio, which I’d prefer. We’ll talk about cardio in the next blog. Do this for another week or two and reassess. Take it slow, this isn’t a race. CREATE HEALTHY HABITS.

Your body is smart, it will adjust to your new maintenance after a few weeks. This is when our body “plateaus”. When that happens, decrease your calories by another 200-300 calories, or increase cardio, and see what happens after a week or two. You can also look at your calories as calories for the entire week instead of stressing out about each day. Maybe some days your calories will be higher, you can just adjust your calories to be a little lower in a future day of the week.

You goal should be to lose anywhere from 0.5% – 1% of your body weight in pounds per week. So if someone weighs 200 lbs, that’s a maximum of 2 lbs a week. There’s nothing wrong with going slower than that. Don’t try to be a smart butt and go over that. The slower you go, the more muscle you’ll hopefully maintain. Track your weight every day. It will fluctuate day to day, don’t panic about this. My weight has fluctuated by 10 lbs if I go crazy with my diet. It might take a few days to come back down. Take the median if your weekly weight.

How to Track Your Calories

Secondly, download myfitnesspal. This app is great, you’ll be able to track everything you eat. It’s also has a free version, which I use. Now third, buy a food scale. Yes, this will help TREMENDOUSLY. I didn’t buy one for years and just estimated. Just buy one. They’re like $20. Cut it out of your McDonalds budget for the month, ok?

What Should I Eat

In terms of what you should eat. Try to get 1 g of protein per pound of body weight every day. You do not want to lose muscle. “But…but..I don’t care what I lose, I just want to lose weight”, shut up. If you lose muscle, your metabolism will go down. You can use any protein source that you like. Examples of what I use: chicken breast, salmon, protein shakes, Kodiak cakes (pancakes), egg whites, mozzarella cheese and milk. Now see how many calories this is and subtract if from your total. The rest of the total calories you can FILL WITH WHATEVER YOU WANT. Obviously, some choices will be healthier than others. Try to make the choices healthy, the less dense your calories are, the better. You DO NOT NEED TO ELIMINATE CARBS. You actually don’t need to eliminate ANY MACRONUTRIENT or ANY SPECFIC FOOD. I don’t really like eating fats, so I just fill my diet with carbs. Though, I will be trying to eat more cashews and having avocados. Healthy fats are important for hormone production. My carbs include things such as white rice (I like it more than brown rice. Yes brown rice has more nutrients supposedly, but I don’t’ like it. I can’t see myself eating it LONG TERM so I just eat white rice), potato chips (yes, I eat these almost every day in moderation), bread (I have a grilled cheese basically every day) and cereal. As long as I get in my protein for the day I EAT WHATEVER ELSE I WANT. If I want to eat a CRUMBL Cookie and can fit it into my calories, I WILL EAT IT. It’s also guilt free because I’m within my calories.

Just take it slow. I know it’s frustrating. I know you might just want all the fat to melt away as soon as possible. Just take it slowly. It’ll make the entire process less painful than it has to be. Also, if you screw up from time to time, it’s okay. We are human, we are meant to mess up. Consistency is key the majority of the time. Next time, I’ll talk about cardio.

Key Points

1. Use a BMR calculator to calculate your maintenance calories
2. Go roughly 500 calories below your maintenance to start. Aim to lose 0.5-2 lbs of body fat a week. It might take 3-4 weeks for you to start losing weight.
3. Track everything you eat using myfitnesspal
4. Eat at least 1 g of protein per pound of bodyweight. Fill in the rest of the calories with WHATEVER ELSE YOU WANT
5. Track your weight every day. It might fluctuate day to day, don’t panic
6. When your body plateaus, decrease your calories by another 200-300 calories or increase cardio to see what happens after a week or two
7. Don’t be overly serious. If you mess up, get back on track

Disclaimer: I’m not your doctor. Please consult your doctor, nutritionist or any health care professional before making any changes in your own lifestyle. These blogs are just me sharing my knowledge for you reading entertainment purpose only. None of this is medical advice.

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