There comes a time for most people in their fitness journey that they hit a wall of some kind, whether it is a bodyweight plateau, a lifting barrier or a time that they just can’t beat. This plateau has been hotly debated over the years and everyone knows that variety is the spice of life but also the harbinger of change. The problem is that most people don’t understand that there are subtle changes that are just as effective as making major changes to the way you are doing things. The fact is that simple changes like the amount of water you drink (which was my problem), the amount and quality of sleep you get and that one late night snack are enough to make major effects long term. Also, for those like me who like to follow a low carb high fat diet need to realise that with the extra water consumption we need extra sodium, it’s a very small change but having sodium out of balance can have some negative effects.
Recently I have started working with an 800 calorie deficit, and I never really realized until I started with this level of detail just how easy it is to predict what will happen if you know what you are eating. I had been stuck at around 250 since I started my cut a couple of months ago. Nothing seemed to be working and I was kind of half-heartedly documenting what I was doing. It wasn’t until I finally took a strict adherence to the plan and micro managed my intake that I started to see results. I am currently down to 242 and with my short term goal to get back to 232 which is what I am in the picture on the top right of the page. I am hoping to get there by July 1 but even if I am a little late it will be good enough for me. I know it’s super tough to keep this level of attention for very long, but at least I know that if I need to do this that it really, and I mean REALLY works.
If you want to see the same results you will need a tracking app like myfitnesspal and a bucketload of honesty. So no leaving out the handful of nuts or couple of chips here and there… With the help of a high fat diet to kill your appetite you can do it but you have to pay attention to every single thing you do, This usually results in you doing less which means easier tracking. 3 meals, basic ingredients, easy peasy lemon squeezy.
If you can do this for 4 weeks you can basically kick start yourself to whatever weight loss you want to achieve, I am at an 800 calorie deficit which would mean with my exercise surplus burn of 300-400 calories a day I am using between 1100 and 1200 calories a day of stored energy. That translates to around 1lb every 3 days or 10 lbs in a month. The more I do, the more I lose and because I am feeding my body. The way to get an accurate picture of how to do this is by knowing what your body needs just to survive every day (BMR) and what you need according to your activity level (TDEE)
I used an online TDEE calculator -Â http://iifym.com/tdee-calculator/Â to get my BMR and TDEE (2184 and 3290) and from that knew I would still be eating almost 2500 calories a day on active days which is more than enough to spare my muscle mass from being catabolized.
I didn’t really mean this to be a weight loss post but I am excited about finally getting back to that 232 and seeing if I look the same as I did back then. At my age, this kind of thing is not easy, I guess I am a little proud of myself right now! 🙂