insertnamehere
New Member
Of course it is but it will take consistency, hard work, and patience. Having a long term plan instead of the short, quick fix is what you need to stay focused on.
Sounds like you want to be lose weight and be lean first and foremost and strong second? If so, I think you should focus on losing more weight. IMO, 200-220 is a good weight for your height but you'll decide that later on.
I think the first thing you need to do is to know your current daily calorie intake. If your diet is fairly consistent, it shouldn't be difficult or take too long to get a good idea how much you're actually eating. You'll need to weigh everything you eat and write it down/type it up to get a good estimated calorie intake and to help keep track.
After you have a good estimate on daily calories, you'll need to try and establish what your maintenance calorie number is. There's calorie calculators out there to help get a starting number to play with but ultimately you'll have to establish your ideal calorie numbers with experience.
Once you have a maintenance number, subtract 300 from it to start and see how it goes (you may want to start at 500), adjusting your diet accordingly. Weight yourself every morning under the same circumstances and log the scale everyday to establish the trend over the weeks and months. If its going down, you're in a deficit. If its staying the same, you're at maintenance, and if its going up, you're in a surplus. Follow the trend and adjust your food intake and activities accordingly.
Additionally, if you've lost 5 to 10 lbs, you'll need to recalibrate your maintenance and deficit number.
After you have stayed in a deficit for say 2 to 3 months, I would bump up the calories to maintenance calories (based on what your then current weight is) and stay at maintenance for 3 months to help build up some strength and muscle. You could even go slightly above maintenance. Repeat this cycle for a year or two and I think you'll like what you see.
The above is based on my own experience and observations. I think this plan offers a good, realistic balance of continued weight loss as a primary focus while allowing for periods of strength and muscle to gained.
Others may disagree with parts or all of this plan. If so, I hope they post their thoughts on the matter.
Sounds like you want to be lose weight and be lean first and foremost and strong second? If so, I think you should focus on losing more weight. IMO, 200-220 is a good weight for your height but you'll decide that later on.
I think the first thing you need to do is to know your current daily calorie intake. If your diet is fairly consistent, it shouldn't be difficult or take too long to get a good idea how much you're actually eating. You'll need to weigh everything you eat and write it down/type it up to get a good estimated calorie intake and to help keep track.
After you have a good estimate on daily calories, you'll need to try and establish what your maintenance calorie number is. There's calorie calculators out there to help get a starting number to play with but ultimately you'll have to establish your ideal calorie numbers with experience.
Once you have a maintenance number, subtract 300 from it to start and see how it goes (you may want to start at 500), adjusting your diet accordingly. Weight yourself every morning under the same circumstances and log the scale everyday to establish the trend over the weeks and months. If its going down, you're in a deficit. If its staying the same, you're at maintenance, and if its going up, you're in a surplus. Follow the trend and adjust your food intake and activities accordingly.
Additionally, if you've lost 5 to 10 lbs, you'll need to recalibrate your maintenance and deficit number.
After you have stayed in a deficit for say 2 to 3 months, I would bump up the calories to maintenance calories (based on what your then current weight is) and stay at maintenance for 3 months to help build up some strength and muscle. You could even go slightly above maintenance. Repeat this cycle for a year or two and I think you'll like what you see.
The above is based on my own experience and observations. I think this plan offers a good, realistic balance of continued weight loss as a primary focus while allowing for periods of strength and muscle to gained.
Others may disagree with parts or all of this plan. If so, I hope they post their thoughts on the matter.
