Hello all. First of all i want to thank everyone for some great reading cause i ahve spent a couple of hours reading through the posts above to try and get myself some help from others experiences.

But still i got questions and I still need help cause i do not see the improvements that I want to see.

So I got several questions that I will need help with and I hope you here on the forums will be able to help me.

As the title says I need help with my weightloss. But I also want to build muscles and gain strength at the same time.

I am 175cm/5.7feet tall and weighing 89.7kg/197.75 pounds. Sadly I cannot tell you my bodyfat % cause I dont know how to calculate that stuff sadly.

I currently work out 6 days a week at the gym with a 10 minute fast paced walk with a 3% incline on the treadmill, I also walk to the gym instead of taking a car or something silly like that. My workouts take normally between 60-90 minutes with warm up included (stretching not included in that time).

Mondays: triceps, shoulders and chest (doing 3 shoulder, 3 chest and 3 triceps excercises) all 3sets of 10 reps

Tuesdays: back and biceps (doing 4 back excercises and 3 biceps excercises) here i do some different sets and reps on my back but biceps are allways 3x 10

Wendsday: Legs and abs (doing 5 leg excercices and 3 ab excecices) all sets for legs are 3x10 and abs are allways as many as i can muster at the moment since it arent that many.

Thursday: tricep, shoulders and chest ( same setup with excercises and sets/reps)

Friday: back and biceps (same here, doing 4 back excercises and 3 biceps excercises. Since i do different back excercises this day its 3x 10 all the way through.

Saturday: legs and abs with same setup as on wendsdays.

Preworkout i drink BSN No-xplode 2.0 1,5 cups of it. and after workout i drink Scitec 100% whey professional

My biggest concern I think is my diet. I have an immense sweet tooth which i am trying to hold back so if anyone got some tips and pointers about how to do that i would be grateful. Currently been free from snacks, sodas, candy, pastries and cookies for 1 week yay me.

The problem I have had with the diet is prolly that I cannot stand eating this bland stuff that alot of people who workout do. I want tasty food that is also good for me but I am having trouble finding recipes. A friend of mine that is very well sculpted eats nothing but broccoli, boiled chicken and some rice basically all day and then eats extra vitamins and stuff in pills. I dont want this, as I said I want to be able to eat good but healthy.

So yes please, I will be very grateful for any help you guys can give me. Cheers

Micael,

Welocme to the site. The good news is you are not alone when it comes to changing your diet and fighting cravings especially for sweets. You have a good foundation of workouts and cardio to help you get to your goal. The most important piece is diet, as you are already aware.

To answer your question, you need to understand what is going on inside. Without going into a lot of detail, the basic issue is you are a victim of processed food and simple sugars. When you eat a diet that is not very nutritious and full of lots of sweets, you actually re-wire your brain to want and crave sweets. Sugar actually affects the same pleasure centers in the brain as nicotine, cocaine, and other drugs. You also have trained your metabolism to use and expect simple sugars. Your cravings are caused by the "addiction" to sugar both in the brain and metabolically. The only way to fix it is to re-train your metabolism to eat wholesome slow-burning energy from complex carbs and vegetables and fruit and re-wire your brain to not crave simple sugar. It is not easy to do and takes time and determination. You will have times where you will "fall off the wagon" and give in to a craving. The key is to move on and keep fighting. Eventually you won't have them anymore once you have reset your brain and metabolism. How long this will take depends on the individual. Believe it or not, but I have been eating clean nutritious foods for so long now that just the site of something sugary or sweet makes me nauseous and gives me a headache because I know how I will feel if I eat it :-)

Now eating good doesn't mean you have to eat bland food. Fat, contrary to popular belief, does not make you fat and is actually very good for you. You just need to pick the right fats to eat. Fat also is what makes food taste so good. Try cooking skinless chicken in olive oil and season it with pepper or rosemary. Add some coconut oil to your brown rice. Add in some cheese with your meals. Stir fry vegetables in olive oil and add some garlic. There are many ways you can spice up nutritious foods so you can enjoy them and stick to a solid diet :-)

John

Ty for the quick reply and some good advice.

So how many meals per day should i eat and i have read a bit about countin calories and macrics and micros and what not, sadly i do not understand alot about it and i am trying to learn more.

Currently i think my biggest thief in cooking is that i fry most of my things in butter instead of olive oil, so guess i could start a rather big change there. I also heard that alot of spice mixes contains alot of sugars, is this correct in the way of generally speaking?

It depends on how you were used to eat .. Some people can be fine with 2-3 huge meals but some others would need up to 4 or 6 with smaller portions but it doesn't matter how many meals you should have as long as you get all of your Macros/Micros. Just find what works for you!

I would recommend installing MyFitnessPal and tracking your calories there, it's so smooth and there is also a bar code scanner to help you.

But first, find your BMR and try to get a good estimate of your activity levels and eat a certain number of calories, let's say 2000 for 7 days and then weigh yourself in the 8th day to get a good estimate of how many calories you burn in a regular day.

For the Macros :- 1g of Protein for Lean Body Mass/0.82g of Protein for your scale weight, I would generally go for 50g+ of Fat and fill the rest with Carbs.

1g of Protein = 4 Calories

1g of Carbs = 4 Calories

1g of Fat = 9 Calories

The most important factor IMO that you get a good estimate of your activity level .. One can easily underestimate his activity level(speaking of my Experience) All of the caluclators are inaccurate either too high or too low. When I started dieting, I used to eat 1800calories when I was 85kg and I lost fat, now I am 75kg and eating 2000calories and still losing fat.

About the Butter or Olive Oil subject, there are 4 Types of Fats (Saturated - Monounsaturated - Polyunsaturaed - Trans)

I am not going to tell you to deprive yourself since you were used to eating Junk. Start weighing your food all of it except veggies and especially oils cause they add up real quick but base most of it around Healthy fats like Olive Oil, Coconut Oil, Nuts, Peanut Butter, Eggs.

Also don't stress yourself when you start but instead you should set a small goal and then when you reach it, reward yourself with something you love, if you keep depriving yourself, you'll eventually crash and you don't want that to happen.

Butter is actually OK. Saturated fat is needed for testosterone production and butter is much better than margarine. Don't go overboard but I would include frying stuff in olive oil and coconut oil as well. As for macros these are protein, carbs, and fats of which you need to eat the right ratio to help you lose weight and gain lean mass. Your micronutrients are all the elements within nutritious foods that are critical to many biological processes in the body. The bottom line is if you eat a nutritous diet of wholesome foods you don't need to worry about your micronutrients.

As as for spice mixes, just check the ingredients. Not all have sugar but many do. You just need to find the ones that do not.

John

I would also like to ask if there are any specific way to target a certain part of your body for burning fats, the majority of my fat is on my belly and from speaking to people that seems to be the hardest spot to loose fat on. So is there someway i can improve my fatloss around the waist by certain excercises or is it just dieting and patience that is gonna do it for me?

Micael,

Unfortunately, there is no way to "spot reduce" bodyfat. Your body loses bodyfat evenly over time so this means the first areas to get lean are the ones with the least amount of bodyfat and the last areas to get lean will be the ones with the most body fat. For males, the primary fat storage areas are around the belly button, lower back, and sides of the chest/underarms. The amount and location is genetically pre-determined.

What you need to do is follow a diet and training regime you can stick to because the one thing that burns bodyfat is patience - it takes time and there are no quick fixes. When you do it slow and steady, it stays off for good :-)

John

thx for the info mate. Well i got nothing but time so i guess i will be seeing improvements soon. Do you ahve any favorite recipes that you like to eat for dinner and breakfast that you wouldnt mind sharing perhaps?

Hey Micael.

Have you seen the recpice section on SHF?

http://scotthermanfitness.com/recipes.php

Though I'm sure @jmboiardi has some kick-ass recipes of his own too :)

Not much to add to the other great answers.

You said all that macro nutritions termonology confuses you.. maybe i can support you with a link to scott's explanation on how to calculate them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZjxWqwoWTg

It sounds a bit confusing for a beginner first. But simply write down everything, and pause the video to add your numbers and follow it step by step. And you will have it nailed down in no time =)

To measure your bodfyfat try to obtain a "caliper". It's fairly cheap and a good, reliable method to measure it.

If you don't want to wait until you have one, try to calculate your macros with an estimate of your bodyweight.

You can "guesstimate" it with this here for a start:

But at later points you should make sure to measure the amount correctly, or have it measured at a doctor's place.

And as you might have figured from all the other answers, discipline, consitancy, and commitment is the key to success.

I have turned around from eating sweets all day and drinking 1 liter of cola every day to eating no processed sugars at all.

(luckily my body was always very forgiving and i only had like 3 kilo too much, but the principle stays the same for all of us:))

It is hard, especially in the beginning.. yes.

As John already wrote the things sugar does to your brain, especially the addictive behaviour and the messed up saturation feelings, take a while to overcome. In average it takes 14 days to get rid of the sugar 'addiction', and then about 2 month to reprogram your body and brain to function without this easy-to-access energy source, and kill the crave-and-reward system it had build up.

Once you are over this, it can become a walk in the park and you won't even miss it anymore. (unless you keep cheating and eat it more than just 'on rare occasions' as your brain will easily fall back on that track if you do)

Once you got rid of all the bad things in your diet, you will see some serious decrease in bodyweight. Lots water will go away, which was bound by sugar and extreme salt levels. Replace the bad fats with good fats, remove the preprocessed foods from your shopping list.

And that bound with some additional HIT (high intensity cardio) in your workouts. 15 -30 mins on a few days the week, and you'll see your fat levels going down as well =)

hope that helps, and.. stay motivated!!!

So i did some calculations with my BMR and found out that to maintain my current weight or so. i should eat allmost 3700 calories per day. That feels like shit tons, even if i go below within the recommended 250-500 rate it still feels like tons. I havent really calculated how much i eat per day. But i can tell that it is a long way from that. So i am guessing that my body pretty much has gone into starvation mode as i think someone mentioned earlier and i have no idea how to get so much food into my system cause i am rarely hungry and i absically eat 2 meals per day and an occasional apple or such. This is hard to take in i must say and i got to make some pretty big changes i guess :S

So my question now is, will i be "fine" eating around 2500 calories per day or will my body take to much of a beating doing such a massive cut in calories and will it be enough to get it out of a possible starvation mode?

Micael,

You need to calculate your calories against your lean body mass = current weight minus bodyfat. You will find that the amount of calories you need will be lower. So for instance, if you were 180 Lbs at 15% bodyfat you would not calculate your calories against 180Lbs but rather against 185 x .85 = 153Lbs.

John

Omg, ty for existing jmoiardi, that i should eat around 2200 calories seems alot more reasonable ^^

Hi, my name is cesar i need some advice for losing some fat.
But first let me start by saying my gym hystory progress. I been going to the gym for 1 year and as soon as January comes it will be my 2nd year of going to the gym regularly. I used to weight 230 and I was pretty fat and I'm 20 now. I decided to change my life by working out but ididnt know how to start. So I went online to the bodybuilding online and I choose a program to lose weight. I choose the 12 week program with Kris Gethin. I liked it because he would post a video everyday and he would also lose weight each day. So basically it was like if I was going to the gym with another person. Idid the program but I sometimes ate some bad foods so I wasn't as strict but I still keeped going. Around march or April I lost 40 pounds so I went from 230 to 190. I was so happy, I felt good and people noticed. I'm not ripped with like abbs, but I still have some fat on my stomach that I really want to get rid off. I tried the program again to lose more bodyfat and get that lean cut body but I wasn't as strict and ididnt see results. I stayed around 190. Now in the present I'm still working out and I'm doing a push pull leg routine. (legs pull push legs pull push rest) I'm seeing abit of results but I still have bodyfat around my stomach. I weight around 187 body fat is at 22% and I can see my triceps starting to get cut, shoulders more define and back too. Right now I'm in a caloric deficit of 1880 calories a day, protein intake is 235 grams, carbs are 117 grams, and fats are 52 grams. I sometimes do cardio if I play soccer. also sometimes if I'm not hungry I'll just won't eat so I'll have like 400 calories still (!500). I also have a cheat day once a week on Sunday. I'm ok strong for a beginner. Chicken or eggs and beans are my source of flood that I eat everyday. I want to know if I'm doing ok or if I should just keep going. Maybe I have to be patient, keep going with my workout routine and clean up my diet more. I want your opinion to please.
I think it my diet that isnt helping me see reuslts more. OpinionPlease!

Should i change my routine
or fix my diet
Thanks

Hey Cesar!

Great progress so far man! Amazing stuff.

First thing is you can't spot reduce body fat. As you lose more fat and lower your body fat percentage, you will see some fat go from your stomach, but that will also probably be the hardest part to lose fat, and will stick around for the longest.

With 22% body fat, it's normal to not see your abs. You need to be probably lower than 15% to start seeing some definition, and 10% or lower for really good definition.

I would suggest your best bet for losing fat will be to incorporate some HIIT cardio into your routine, as well as some total body circuits. These will help boost your metabolism so you burn more calories and fat.

Your meal plan will be even more important though. You're on the right track by eating low carbs and high protein. You have some pretty good numbers there, but if you are eating 117g carbs every day, that's pretty low and you should definitely have a re-feed day at least once a week, on your most intense workout day, where you boost your carbs and maybe even double them.

How much of a deficit are you in? What is your BMR? You don't want to eat to few calories, because you want to lose fat but preserve and build muscle. That also means you need to focus on eating well almost everyday, and trying hard to always hit close to your macros. Having 400 calories of food in one day might help you lose weight, but it won't necesarilly be weight you want to lose. A cheat day is OK once in a while.

You say you think your diet is letting you down - what sort of food do you use to fill your macros? Lean proteins from meat and eggs? Wholegrain carbs, vegetables? Healthy monounsaturated fats, and some healthy saturated fat (cocnut oil)? These are all important. Don't forget about your micronutrients too, like your vitamins and minerals.

You're right, patience is important. Building a great physique is a marathon, not a sprint. It won't happen overnight. Work hard and results will come! #HTH

Jordan

Hi Guys , I am Eric from Malaysia I am 17 and is currently taking my exams. In my country maintaining a good diet is hard since all the food are high in fats and low in protein. I somewhat like cooking and I decided to cook my every meal. Do you guys have a simple recipe consisting of chicken and veggies. I need a variety since eating the same thing will bore me . Thanks