With assistance from the community here I am finally making some progress. My current weight is 275 and it appears to be trending down from 280, as I need it to. I've been eating 2175 calories a day. My calculated need is 2509. So I'm roughly 315 a day deficit.  My macros are as follows; 203g protein, 51g fat, and 230g of carbs. I am noticing a few things. First my appetite was so stagnated prior to getting the intake down, I was never hungry and I assume I was grossly under eating, I'm actually hungry sometimes now. The next huge thing I notice is my energy levels are through the roof! I sleep 7-8 hours daily, I work mids so I sleep daily lol. I don't want to nap always anymore! I'm doing the 12 week ppl program on here. I have no reason to get into any competition at this moment. I am having trouble doing some of the circuits in the program as I am still large and I more or less flop like a fish. I do run 3 days a week, either I'll run three solid miles or I'll run 2-3 miles HIIT. It all depends on the day. I was actually sad that I had to take a day of Sunday. Any ideas where else I can make strides? Not looking to do to much of a drastic change as this is working well for now. Thanks Scott Herman for all the advice. Last question how often do you re-evaluate your macros? Every 10-15 pounds? Stay tuned for more updates when I take my life back!

I also put some week one photos in the 12 week challenge album and some other recent fandoms in my profile. Feel free to check em out to so where I am starting at. Should be a pretty cool thing to watch. I'll repost photos monthly. Again not concerned about actually winning a challenge just want to win life back.

Great start @ARordnance! Sounds like you are well on your way man!!

One thing I would say is that if you are cutting, I would actually increase your protein intake a bit to make sure you are maintaining as much muscle as possible while leaning out. Try cutting the carbs to 200g and increasing the protein to 230g if you can.

Running is fine if you don't/can't do the circuits. But even if you 'flop' around...who cares man?! At least you are getting it done!! :D

For re-evaluating macros, I would do it whenever you stop seeing progress. So for you, that would mean that when you stop losing weight, either add in some more cardio, or cut back on some more calories. Try to cut carbs and fat mainly, not so much protein. Fat is already pretty low so I would say manipulate your carbs at this point.

All that being said...if you are still losing weight, stick with the macros you have until you do hit a bit of a wall :)

Excellent progress so far and keep it up. One tweak you may want to try as your weight gets a little lower than 275 is to up your fats and lower your carbs. I am not sure how up to speed you are on nutritional science and research but contrary to popular belief and Western medical dogma, fats not only are very healthy for you but also do not make you fat. The key is eating only healthy natural fats like Omega 3s, nuts and seeds, olive and coconut oil, avocadoes, egg yolks, and full fat dairy.

Carbs are the primary macro that regulates your insulin response. Insulin is the primary anabolic hormone responsible for conversion of excess glucose to body fat. Fat, on the other hand, is metabolically processed via a different pathway which does not invovle insulin at all. Fat is also another energy source for all cells after glucose. Fat is not converted to body fat by insulin and it actually increases your insulin sensitivity which is key in preventing Type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, heart disease, cancer, and a host of other chronic diseases.

Numerous studies have shown that high healthy fat/lower card diets lead to larger and more sustained weight loss. I recommed you try this after you get more "established" metabolically with your current nutrition plan. After this, I would cut the carbs down by 50 grams or so while increasing your fat intake. You still want to keep a slight daily deficit as you are doing but your macros will have lower than 230g of carbs and higher than 51g of fat. As fat has 9 calories per gram versus 4 calories per gram for carbs, it is not an exact 1:1 substitution but you basically swap out the same number of calories of carbs with fats so the net daily calorie count is still the same - 2,175.

Once your body learns to turn-on the fat burning pathways that have been dormant due to our typical high carb/high sugar diets, you will see your fat loss continue to increase as well as your energy levels. You won't be as hungry as often - fat is very satiating - and you will actually eat fewer calories over time.

John

Looks like you have two great answers above @ARordnance! Did that help you?

Outstanding. I am learning daily from you guys. I don't always reply but I do get on here at least once a day to learn and read. This post about macros is great. I think it's going to take some months or longer to have an actual full understanding of nutrition. I am developing a working knowledge daily. I miss my days in the military where it was brainless. All I had to do was show up at the chow hall and my meals are prepared nutritionally sound for me. When I got out in 2011 is when I started to see weight gain, did not expect to spiral so far out that I would put on over 100 pounds. I recognize there may have been some mental impacts from the army which played a huge role. I am going the right direction thanks to you great folks here. There was a time very recently where I contemplated druging. I really came close to starting something like clenbuterol. I credit Scott, joe, and Jmboiardi for being here when I was ready to jump. This was my last stop before I made that bad choice. Thank you guys you really did me a life changing service and I owe you folks my support. You guys are doing something great.

Well I am glad we were able to help you out before you did something you regret @ARordnance!

Don't worry, counting macros and calories can seem daunting at first, but the more you do it, the easier it gets, and you'll soon get the hang of it :-) Remember that we are all here to help! Let us know if you need anything else!!

And thank you for serving my man!!

I can safely say you don't really have to worry about being that stringent with macros unless you're in competition. I say this in the sense that you shouldn't worry about trying to be dead on all the time. That's crazy making and it's an approximation to begin with.

Good point. You should have numbers that you aim for, but generally if you are within about 5-10g either above or below them, that's fine. As long as you have a target and you are working towards it!!

sounds great! I pretty much have been eating the same meals daily

Excellent! Keep up the great work!