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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   1858 thread views

Wellness Wednesday for August 2, 2023

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That's great and I don't want to take anything away from a fantastic accomplishment. I do want to provide some useful info on your diet plan. There is lots of good published studies on which weight loss strategies lead to long-term decreases in fat mass (youtuber jeff nippard covers a lot of the science if interested). In short, you want to aim for an average weekly calorie consumption of about 10% below maintenance, with weekends eating at maintenance, and weekdays consuming 14% below maintenance, with 2-3 times a week resistance training, and protein consumption of 1.8-3g protein per kg bodyweight. Cardio is not strictly necessary. Low impact cardio is recommended. So that is a brief description on how to increase and keep lean body mass gains. I think calorie tracking apps are a good idea for the first few months. Keto is fine for many, but I would bump the calories, take the fat off more slowly, and do something to retain muscle. That way when you're done dieting down, you're most likely to keep the gains you made. Whatever you choose, best of luck and congrats!

3g per kilogram is ridiculously overkill. Untrained individuals probably don't need to worry about losing muscle mass either.

Thanks for the info. I have tried such a diet in the past (2-3 g / kg protein, 0.3-0.4 g / kg fat, the rest carbs, with a 300-400 calorie deficit per day) and while it definitely worked, it took a lot of time and attention to track everything. I recognize that my current diet may be worse (at least for retaining muscle mass) but the weight loss is about 10x faster, the calorie tracking is somewhat easier (less food to track), and the hunger pangs / lack of energy actually aren't too bad at all.

My current plan is to transition to a more typical cutting schedule once my weight is in a more typical range, which (at current rates) looks to be in about 1-2 months. At that point I'll do something close to what you describe. I'd like to ask though, how do you keep a strict diet without counting calories? I weigh everything and put it on a macro spreadsheet and still worry that it's not precise enough.

RE: protein / kg, I'm (marginally) obese and don't have all that much muscle mass to lose, so I figure 1g / kg will be sufficient; do you disagree? If I'm trying to eat at least 0.3g/kg fat and eat only 1000 calories that leaves me 1.6 g / kg protein max (which is the main reason I'm doing keto). Costco rotisserie chicken has been a lifesaver haha.

I'd like to ask though, how do you keep a strict diet without counting calories? I weigh everything and put it on a macro spreadsheet and still worry that it's not precise enough.

I don't know if keto is significantly different, presumably the need to limit the amount of carbs might require more careful tracking, but I don't weigh every portion. I've weighed my portions once, and I just write:

  • cheese sandwich
  • turkey sandwich
  • cocoa
  • rice
  • chicken curry
  • protein shake
  • fish soup
  • bread slice

and so on. I don't bother recording most vegetables, as they are not calorie-rich enough to bother, so I just have my salads recorded as dressing. If my 2000 daily calories are actually 1800 or 2200, I don't really care as long as I'm not constantly biased in one direction, I'm not a competitive bodybuilder.

how do you keep a strict diet without counting calories?

For me its getting really good at estimations after logging everything in a paid app for a couple of months. Now I just log my weight a few times a week, and the scale keeps me honest. Everything is a habit now. I cook most of the food I eat, and I think thats important. If I go out, I try to eat a filling snack before (veggies, fruit, low-cal smoothie, water, etc). I just assume the calories I consumed while out are double or triple my norm, so I just go hungry for a meal or two afterwards. If the scale is trending up, I just get more strict for the next week and see what happens. The key is never letting the weight creep back up.

so I figure 1g / kg will be sufficient; do you disagree?

I'd up the protein. Iirc the research shows that protein drives lean body mass and helps spare muscle. You may have more muscle than you think and probably want to save it as much as possible. I think you have a lot of headroom for additional calories and should be mindful of crashing, yo-yoing, and lowering your BMR for a few months. Whey and filtered milk (ie Fairlife)/water might be a good low carb protein and calorie adjustment; 40-50g protein, 6g carbs, and 250-300 calories. I don't know much about keto to say if 6g is too much. Also, I do know that people take keto supplements like magnesium for some reason.

I've thought about what you're trying; melt the fat then build back the muscle. The research convinced me to go the very slow route of 0.25-0.5% body-weight loss per week for 15-30 weeks. My base metabolic rate, satiety, and fitness should be exactly where I want it as soon as I'm done. But I love to cook and lift weights so it also suits me personally.

If you go for operation fat-melting, you should start a really dialed-in fitness routine when finished, which should take 4 months to figure out. Done correctly, that should stoke your metabolism. Then you can maintain easily (with keto or whatever). I've had friends that had success going this route. Eventually they found the keto too boring, but I eat a lot of repetitive meals so who knows. You'll gain water weight if you stop keto, which isn't something to worry about. Then just keep your eye on the scale. Best of luck.

As I mentioned before, I got most of my info from youtuber Jeff Nippard. He has a lot of videos going through quality research on diets, proteins requirements, cheat meals/compensatory overeating, rep-ranges, and progressive overload.

Just Interested: how can you measure if you're on track if you aim for such a low goal? If you are 100kg, that would be 250-500g of weight loss per week, which even with a very precise balance may be affected by random variation in water retention and the like - if you weigh less, the situation is even more difficult.

Any idea here?

I'm about 100kg right now, with a goal of 95kg. 250g of weight loss in a week means a net expenditure of some 1900 calories over the week. That alone is quite noticeable to me just from an appetite/ caloric budgeting perspective. In order to end the whole week 1900 calories under maintenance I have to try pretty hard. I don't have room for cheat meals, regular drinking, heavy drinking, peanut butter, empty calorie snacks, etc. I had to make noticeable changes just to get 1900 under per week. I eat so many frozen veggies and chicken breast now! Some weeks I come in 3800 calories under (or theoretically 0.5% bw), but they're the exception. With a calorie tracking app you know exactly where you land. There is random weight variation throughout the day/week, but I habitually weight myself after my morning piss and make a note. The trend is down about 4kg's in 10 weeks. I've got 10-20 weeks left to go. It's the slow and boring route, but time keeps on slippin into the future, and all I have to do is stay the course. At the end, my fitness should be where I want it, and I'll just maintain.

So it's the calories you need to measure, not the weight!

Thanks!

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