I've recently weighed myself and was Disturbed with the amount that I weighed. Most of my life I've been overweight but I have reached an old time high of 315 lb. I definitely need to get on the road of losing weight, back when I was still in high school I used to be in weight training and was at my old time lowest weight of 220 but I was pretty muscular. I do miss those days so I'm wondering if any of you guys have any advice on how to start this journey. I have tried many times in the past and have lost a decent amount of weight but I was never able to stick to something and would regain it all back. I've done intermediate fasting as my primary diet in the past. I've done all the variations like 16 to 8 up to two days without eating. I've had good success with intermitting fasting and losing weight but I've never been able to stick to it and would regain it back. I've done some research and calculated that my maintenance calories is about 3,000 so I'm thinking of doing a calorie deficient diets of around 2300. I also don't want to lose any muscle I have as I am a delivery driver for tires so I do a lot of lifting but I also do a lot of sitting in between drives, so I'm having trouble finding what's a good amount of protein to take as I've seen people say you do one gram of protein for your Target weight but I've seen others like Harvard say a lot less so I'm not sure what my protein Target should be. I'd really appreciate any advice you guys can give me pertaining to sticking to a diet, what a good macro calculator would be, and any other useful information you could provide. Thank you in advance! Some quick info I'm 24, male, light activity as I don't really work out other than my tire delivery job lifting tires.
Answer
My advice based on a similar starting size, 312 was my highest, and a background of having some success but then going back to old habits is to change up the mindset.
It was easy for me to want to lose weight, but that was always very driven negatively, for me, and was focused on an outcome. Which meant ultimately I would always gain it back because I wanted that more than I wanted to change.
I finally flipped that script last summer by focusing instead on making positive improvements and goals for myself. Stuff that made me want to engage with the process, not just the outcome.
As for protein, I personally aim for around 1g per pound as I’m working out actively and want to grow/maintain muscle while I am losing weight. Some days this is really hard to get in so as long as I can get close I’m not too worried about it. On the plus side, all the protein is super filling, so hunger is rarely an issue for me. If anything it’s the opposite problem of getting too full getting all of it in.
Answer
If you want results, figure out how many total carbs you are eating every day on average, and then cut that number in half, if not by two thirds.
Chronic, excessive sugar and starch is why you are heavy, and cutting back and/or eliminating them completely is how you will get back to a healthy weight.
Eat all the protein you want, whenever you want!!