Need advice/criticism

[Dutch]

I have been a couple months now trying to cut. It's working somewhat well however not how I'd like it to.

I am currently eating five meals a day consisting of 1 cup of lean ground turkey and 1/3 cup of basmatti rice and I throw some hot sauce on there as well.

I work a lot and so this keeps things simple and I can eat anything with hot sauce. I drink a shit ton of water everyday so I assume the sodium from the hot sauce shouldn't be a problem.

I'm not leaning up as quick as I imagined I would be and I started off with about 15-20 percent bf. I have dropped about seven solid pounds and a bit of size but nothing crazy and in fact people are telling me I look bigger.

Some days I do feel like I'm leaning out and then the very next day I feel like a bloated cow despite keeping everything the same.

I do replace a meal or two w sushi that I make myself so no added sugar to the rice and salmon or tuna w avocado. Also maybe one cheat meal every seven to ten days usually a burger w sweet potato fries which makes me feel amazing and actually leaner the next day.

So I'll shut up now and if u guys have any advice crticism please share

 

[Savagesteve]

What's training, cardio, and macros look like?

 

[Demondosage]

What's your age? I was having trouble leaning up and after the third blood test in a row confirming my thyroid was low I got on levothyroxin and it helped. All I'm saying is it could be anything, I know guys on hgh who diet and complain of bloat from the initial water weight, I know ppl who under eat, many variables here. But it sounds like it's just time. I mean you're down 7 lbs already, this stuff takes awhile. Sometimes diets need to be 20 weeks depending on how much fat there is to lose

 

[Dutch]

1436 calories/359 per meal
144 protein/ 36 g per meal
52 carbs/ 13 g per meal
68 fats/ 17 g per meal

I'm in my early thirties

I lift every day skip very few days. Some days are a quick 30-40 mins and other days two hrs (those are rare days). I also train bjj two to three times a week which is my cardio as well as working construction. I do feel like I'm holding some water because when I train even right after I feel and look a lot leaner and I drop up to ten pounds so that's gotta be water. I also only drink water no exceptions I don't really care to drink anything else anyways and I drink a lot of water piss is always clear.
Macros are what I calculated using Google however I think a lot less fat cuz I drain the extra fat out the pan for the turkey and use a paper towel to get the rest and the shit is dry.

 

[Dutch]

1795 Cal's
180 protein
65 carbs
85 fat
That's my actual macros I had figured the other numbers for four meals was thinking of cutting back to four.

 

[Savagesteve]

1436 calories/359 per meal
144 protein/ 36 g per meal
52 carbs/ 13 g per meal
68 fats/ 17 g per meal

I'm in my early thirties

I lift every day skip very few days. Some days are a quick 30-40 mins and other days two hrs (those are rare days). I also train bjj two to three times a week which is my cardio as well as working construction. I do feel like I'm holding some water because when I train even right after I feel and look a lot leaner and I drop up to ten pounds so that's gotta be water. I also only drink water no exceptions I don't really care to drink anything else anyways and I drink a lot of water piss is always clear.
Macros are what I calculated using Google however I think a lot less fat cuz I drain the extra fat out the pan for the turkey and use a paper towel to get the rest and the shit is dry.

What's your current weight and height?

 

[Demondosage]

Those cals are pretty low man, you may not be eating enough to keep your metabolic rate firing

 

[Dutch]

5'9" and 195
Demondosage should I add more meals then or a different food?? Thought about adding a shake or two w some oats in the mix??

 

[Savagesteve]

5'9" and 195
Demondosage should I add more meals then or a different food?? Thought about adding a shake or two w some oats in the mix??

If you stick to them macros and are as active as you posted you shouldn't have a problem losing some fat but remember it's a marathon, not a sprint. Had any blood work by chance to check thyroid function?

 

[Ackmud]

Call me crazy but I don't agree that adding more calories will help lose more weight lol, unless it's just the odd exceptional refeed but if you're eating 1800 calories every day No way would upping it to say 2100 calories or more every day make you loose fat faster.

Sure your metabolism might increase a bit but not more than enough to outweigh the extra 300 calories per day.

My suggestion would be to replace the basmati rice with a veggie mix, not necessarily every rice meal right away but go by how you feel, the more rice you replace with veggies the lower your calories and lower insulin. Maybe only have rice on days where you're doing weights for example. Non-starchy veggies like brocolli, cauliflower, green beans, asparagus, zucchini etc maybe even a tad bit of carrots or yellow peppers but in moderation only.

 

[Savagesteve]

Call me crazy but I don't agree that adding more calories will help lose more weight lol, unless it's just the odd exceptional refeed but if you're eating 1800 calories every day No way would upping it to say 2100 calories or more every day make you loose fat faster.

Sure your metabolism might increase a bit but not more than enough to outweigh the extra 300 calories per day.

My suggestion would be to replace the basmati rice with a veggie mix, not necessarily every rice meal right away but go by how you feel, the more rice you replace with veggies the lower your calories and lower insulin. Maybe only have rice on days where you're doing weights for example. Non-starchy veggies like brocolli, cauliflower, green beans, asparagus, zucchini etc maybe even a tad bit of carrots or yellow peppers but in moderation only.

This is a good idea and OP really needs to switch things around and see what works for him. I got stuck in a rut trying to lose fat and went keto and I'm losing substantially faster than trying to work on a calorie deficit.

 

[Dutch]

I will try that. So I guess it's about tweaking things to ur body trial and error type of thing

 

[pumpingiron22]

be careful with turkey it can have a bit a fat in its maybe keep that to one meal in early times and do the rest chicken. cut the white rice and go brown, I can help you out with a food plan if needed. just lmk

 

[Savagesteve]

be careful with turkey it can have a bit a fat in its maybe keep that to one meal in early times and do the rest chicken. cut the white rice and go brown, I can help you out with a food plan if needed. just lmk

You're a lot more experienced than I am but they sell lean ground turkey with only 3% fat and it makes it easy to cook when prepping meals for work.

 

[pumpingiron22]

True. It can be pretty lean. But I wouldn't have it for every meal. You have to reamber that different meat proteins can process in the body different

 

[Savagesteve]

True. It can be pretty lean. But I wouldn't have it for every meal. You have to reamber that different meat proteins can process in the body different

Oh I totally agree. How do you feel about 93/7 ground beef?

 

[Demondosage]

Call me crazy but I don't agree that adding more calories will help lose more weight lol, unless it's just the odd exceptional refeed but if you're eating 1800 calories every day No way would upping it to say 2100 calories or more every day make you loose fat faster.

Sure your metabolism might increase a bit but not more than enough to outweigh the extra 300 calories per day.

My suggestion would be to replace the basmati rice with a veggie mix, not necessarily every rice meal right away but go by how you feel, the more rice you replace with veggies the lower your calories and lower insulin. Maybe only have rice on days where you're doing weights for example. Non-starchy veggies like brocolli, cauliflower, green beans, asparagus, zucchini etc maybe even a tad bit of carrots or yellow peppers but in moderation only.

it takes a minimum of 1,200 calories per day to even be considered a balanced diet. I used to do construction work myself, there is no way in hell eating 1,400-1,700 calories a day is enough food......no way, no how!! I start most females around 1,700 calories a day at the beginning of their diets.

This dude just needs to eat more, dieting or building. And yes, there does come a point when less food can halt the metabolism. Just my opinion here, but I used to do commercial construction and I can attest to the physical demands on the body. His body is in starvation mode where it wants to hold onto everything it can, not burn fat

 

[pumpingiron22]

it takes a minimum of 1,200 calories per day to even be considered a balanced diet. I used to do construction work myself, there is no way in hell eating 1,400-1,700 calories a day is enough food......no way, no how!! I start most females around 1,700 calories a day at the beginning of their diets.

This dude just needs to eat more, dieting or building. And yes, there does come a point when less food can halt the metabolism. Just my opinion here, but I used to do commercial construction and I can attest to the physical demands on the body. His body is in starvation mode where it wants to hold onto everything it can, not burn fat

My thoughts exactly his body is holding on to everything due to be under cals

 

[pumpingiron22]

Oh I totally agree. How do you feel about 93/7 ground beef?

I like ground beef. I basically use my heavier meats during the day beef turkey then mid day chicken beef then fish. That's just what I've learned for me digestion wise and they way my body uses food same for carbs. Sweet potatoes the brown rice then oatmeal.
But in the end it's all a calories game depending on what you want to do. I'm just learning now about how food process in the body based on past.

 

[Ackmud]

it takes a minimum of 1,200 calories per day to even be considered a balanced diet. I used to do construction work myself, there is no way in hell eating 1,400-1,700 calories a day is enough food......no way, no how!! I start most females around 1,700 calories a day at the beginning of their diets.

This dude just needs to eat more, dieting or building. And yes, there does come a point when less food can halt the metabolism. Just my opinion here, but I used to do commercial construction and I can attest to the physical demands on the body. His body is in starvation mode where it wants to hold onto everything it can, not burn fat

If your full time job involves physical construction work obviously calorie requirements can be much different. I've competed before and plateaud in weight loss on 1700 calories per day, then got shredded by dropping to 1400. Everyone's different and it's hard to make a blanket statement that x or y calories is the bare minimum. Also a speedy fat loss diet isn't necessarily healthy. He said he lost 7 lbs in a few months (which is great) and he could probably still lose a half pound a week or so for the next few months by upping his calories a bit - but from his post he wants to speed things up - that's not going to happen (all else being equal) by increasing daily calories further, despite that doing so is probably more healthy