Advice from those who know please

[Greyeyes]

Well here are some pictures of me.

Age: 29
Height: 5'11''
Weight: 180-185 (it fluctuates alot)
Bodyfat: I hope you can tell me, but I'm guessing 18-20 percent.
TDEE: 2800 cal
Goal:maintain current weight but drop BF to around 10%
A little history, I grew up overweight and when I was 24 i had a life changing experience and ever since then Ive been on a mission to better myself especially my body. I topped out at around 300 when I was 19 and the lowest i got to was aroumd 165 which was in April/May of 2010 but I was skinny fat and since then ive gotten serious about lifting and eating nutritious food and have made it to my current weight, but im still fat and its driving me crazy.
I lift 4 times a week M/T/Th/F 5:30am-6-6:15 (mostly compound movements) and rarely do cardio but I am into intermittent fasting 16/8 fast/feed give or take an hour or two both ways because life sometimes interferes. I eat combination of meat and sweet potatoes and low carb tortillas and frozen veggies for lunch which is usually my PW/first meal of the day but night ill usually end up eating another good size portion of meat along with whatever my chick wants to eat which is usually take out or like tonight i had a half a boneless porkchop and a chicken breast wrapped in a lowcarb tortilla with some hot sauce and mustard. weird i know but it was good.
Anyhow, as stated above life makes it hard for me to count calories and macros but i do eat alot of real food that i pre cook on my grill and in the microwave. Im going to buy a food scale real soon now that I Calculated my TDEE at 2800 because Im sure I over eat. I deliver furniture for a living and it can be pretty labor intensive at times but its obvously not enough.
Anyhow, any advice and/or criticism is welcome. Thankyou.

[slfmade]

If you precook your food, it's not hard to count macro's. All it takes is about 10 min to seperate your food into the macros you need for each meal/day.

[slfmade]

I say this because you're diet is going to be the number one thing that will help you accomplish your goals....YOU HAVE TO KNOW YOUR MACROS! Not screaming with those caps, just pushing how important it is.

[tall76]

agreed. You need to know what you are eating. Do the work, sit down and write out every meal then make the food yourself. Too much is too much, doesnt matter if its broccoli or cheesecake if you want to lose weight you need to be in a deficit of cals

[gbrice75]

Exactly what they said above Grey... you've gotta count. Guessing just doesn't work in this game, at least not for the majority of people. You need to have a structured meal plan that fits your shedule.

Have you had a look at my Dieting: Cutting 101 sticky?

[Greyeyes]

You guys are right, and the more i research on here the more apparent it is becoming to me. I was really suprised when i calculated my TDEE at 2800. Im already looking at food scales. Judging by the pics can any of you give me a BF estimate?

[gbrice75]

It's really hard to tell from those pics... and you hold the majority of your fat all around the hips/waistline... i'd like to see better/bigger pics but based on these, ~20%.

[tall76]

I would advise you to stop doing the fasting. With your body composition the way it is you will get better results fueling your body every 3-4 hrs with protein/ veggies to cut bf. Going for a day without eating will encourage your body to hold onto bodyfat and slow down your metabolism- your body thinks you dont have access to food and will try to conserve energy.

[GirlyGymRat]

check out livestrong.com myplate for the macros....and yes, I had to start measuring to be accurate. Once you know what it looks like it gets easier. Every while, I measure food again just to keep it real! Good luck!!

[Greyeyes]

Ok here are a couple more pics. And once again after looking at my TDEE calc and thinking it was low i did re calculated it and came up with about 2900 calories per day.

[Greyeyes]

Here I am, its 633 in the morning and just got back from the gym. Today I did Two sets of Deadlifts 3 at 275. and then 5 at 225. I rested for a few minutes and followed that with 2 sets of weighted chin ups. 4 at Bodyweight + 25lbs and then another set of just bodyweight for 8. I did 20 minutes of walking on the treadmill at a 6 incline 3 mile an hour pace. All training is fasted as I have not eaten since 7 last night and that was a whole chicken breast on a small low carb tortilla and some frozen green beans I wont have my first meal until noon or sometime after depending on how busy we are at work but i do know today is our Christmas lunch and my boss's wife is making mexican food so all diets are out the window until tonight at dinner. I still need to buy a food scale but was wondering if there are weight conversions for measuring in cups.
I guess Ill google it.

[gbrice75]

I would advise you to stop doing the fasting. With your body composition the way it is you will get better results fueling your body every 3-4 hrs with protein/ veggies to cut bf. Going for a day without eating will encourage your body to hold onto bodyfat and slow down your metabolism- your body thinks you dont have access to food and will try to conserve energy.

While fasting might not be ideal for you (OP) right now, I respectfully disagree with the bold. Your body does not slow down metabolism after a single day of fasting... I have run a 16 hour fast with an 8 hour feeding window, trained fasted (BCAA's only) and made strength gains each week.

After an extended period (it's different for everybody), and particularly with a severe caloric restriction, your body will slow down metabolism and we definitely don't want that.

OP, what does your fast consist of? (sorry if i've missed it somewhere)

[Greyeyes]

Im also doing the 16/8 fast/feed and i train at around the 9 hour mark of the fast with out BCAA. Ive been doing it for almost 3 months now and havent had any problems with weakness and ive dropped 7 lbs since i began but i attribute it to caloric deficit due to not eating breakfast anymore. You think a standard bodybuilding diet would be better for me?

[tall76]

interesting stuff guys about the fasting- new to me as ive never tried it. I cant even walk around after going 5 waking hrs without food nevermind train hard. Im going to do some research on it, I just assumed it would slow down metabolism of someone with higher bf and would be catabolic eating into lean mass of someone in shape. I probably picked up these presumptions from the average overweight person who asks me- "why cant I lose weight?? I only eat twice per day, late lunch and then a huge dinner late at night"

[jpowell]

how current are these pics? the first set looks worse than the second set? but newho if you go to the gym, u pt area should have a bf measurer thing. the hand held one, seems pretty accurate. on a daily b4 workout measure bf and get your weight. once you find out your macros then the help will really start to come and you'll be seeing results. the first couple a pounds will melt off, and do all your supps with water no milk. aim for a gallon a day.

[gbrice75]

interesting stuff guys about the fasting- new to me as ive never tried it. I cant even walk around after going 5 waking hrs without food nevermind train hard. Im going to do some research on it, I just assumed it would slow down metabolism of someone with higher bf and would be catabolic eating into lean mass of someone in shape. I probably picked up these presumptions from the average overweight person who asks me- "why cant I lose weight?? I only eat twice per day, late lunch and then a huge dinner late at night"

T - check out leangains dot com for some great info on IF (intermittent fasting) dieting.

The slowed metabolism 'myth' is mostly broscience, however as I said there is some truth to it. It just gets crazy when people think if they miss a meal, they're going to lose muscle, lol!

[tall76]

Thx GB ill def check that out
#NeverStopLearning

[Greyeyes]

Jpowell-- the pice were taken days apart from eachother. Just different angles. thanks for the advice also.


tall76-- definately check out leangains like GB said. I was skeptical at first because it goes against everything ive learned but its working for me. Now im working on tightrning the diet to see what i can really do with it.