Fat as hell. Ready to change! Have some questions.

[CTB123]

I have been researching bodybuilding for well over a month now and continue to learn a lot from these forums alone. However, I have some questions.

I will start by publicly humiliating myself, lol, and sharing my weight with all of you:

I am 255 pounds, 5' 4", 21 years old, and female. *Hides*

In order for me to lose fat, yet retain existing muscle or (even better) build new muscle, how many calories should I consume per day?

Thanks!

[Amanda76]

Assuming you'll be challenging yourself in the gym 3-5 times per week, start off eating 2,500 clean calories and see how you do over the next month. That should have you losing about a pound a week IF you'll stick with it (remember that loss of inches will count for more than loss of pounds though...especially if you are trying to gain muscle at the same time). If there is no change in your weight or measurements, go ahead and drop your cals by another 2-300. But make sure you're being honest about the effort you're putting into your nutrition...If you do 2,500 some days, but get lazy about tracking other days you're likely to spend too much time following the habits that got you to where you are now. So really commit to this as a lifestyle change, not a diet.

[Surf_N_Turf]

Yep - as a beginner you could see some muscle gain along with fat loss if you keep your diet in check.

[twinnett]

Listen to Amanda...she gives great advice! Good luck to you! I suggest starting a journal..it's great for accountability, friendship, support and advice!

[healthierJ]

A journal has helped me bunches. Writing down what you eat will help you get things under control and see where you need to make changes. I started out at 184 in Jan and really started lifting weights in March. I'm down to 161 and have really seen changes in my measurements

[FencingGal]

A journal has helped me bunches. Writing down what you eat will help you get things under control and see where you need to make changes. I started out at 184 in Jan and really started lifting weights in March. I'm down to 161 and have really seen changes in my measurements

I agree with this 100%. I carry a 3 ring journal everywhere I go. I jot down my meals, my exercises, supplements, weekly pics - everything. Yeah its dorky to pull it out every 10 minutes, but its what I need to keep me in check.


Also, its nice to be able to look back several months down the road to see how far you've come.

[CTB123]

Assuming you'll be challenging yourself in the gym 3-5 times per week, start off eating 2,500 clean calories and see how you do over the next month. That should have you losing about a pound a week IF you'll stick with it (remember that loss of inches will count for more than loss of pounds though...especially if you are trying to gain muscle at the same time). If there is no change in your weight or measurements, go ahead and drop your cals by another 2-300. But make sure you're being honest about the effort you're putting into your nutrition...If you do 2,500 some days, but get lazy about tracking other days you're likely to spend too much time following the habits that got you to where you are now. So really commit to this as a lifestyle change, not a diet.

That is 500 calories more than I originally thought that I need. I have difficulty creating a meal plan worth 2,000 calories. Creating a meal plan consisting of 2,500 calories will definitely be a challenge for me. I reach 1,500 calories and run out of ideas. Which types of food should most of my calories come from?

By the way, I appreciate your helping me out! Thank you so much!

[Amanda76]

1,500 calories will be what you need to eat to lose when you are closer to my weight. Don't screw yourself over by eating that little too soon. The following is really close to my base nutrition plan over the winter (2,494 calories 40/28/32 aiming for 2,500@40/30/30), so a normal person can eat this much volume throughout the day if it looks like a lot.

M1: 1 cup pasturized egg whites scrambled with 30 cals of stir fry veggies
1/2 cup (dry) oats in water with 4 oz banana, 1T peanut butter and cinnamon squished in

M2: 6 large hard boiled egg whites
1 medium apple
1 oz almonds

M3: 8 oz baked chicken breast (or 10 oz tilapia)
1/2 cup brown or red rice
Salad made with (lots of) spinach, 4 oz tomato and 60g avocado (check into wholly
guacamole products if you like that kinda thing).

M4: 3 oz tuna packet
1 large sweet (yellow, orange or red) bell pepper

M5: 8 oz (cooked and drained) extra lean ground beef (or 5.5 oz salmon)
8 oz (microwaved) sweet potato
1 cup mixed veggies (corn, lima bean, carrot, pea type mix...)

M6: 1 cup cottage cheese
1 oz walnuts

[healthierJ]

Amanda i'm gonna take your meal plan for tomorrow. I already have the sweet potatoes cooked I had half of one tonight with a ny strip ,lima beans and asparagus

[Jrzimmer]

This might sound weird or embarassing but take pics of yourself in shorts and a fitted top. You don't need to post them if you don't want to, but take them for you. Repeat every 2-4 wks. This helped me a lot to see the progression I've made even when I don't see it in the mirror or on the scale.

[halcyonnwar]

get a food scale, doesn't need to be digital. Weigh what you eat, and then enter in that value into something like calorieking.com and track your calories, grams of protein, carbs and fats. I put it into an excel spreadsheet everyday. Being disciplined about this has gotten me much better results, and I've definitely learned that I cannot estimate portion sizes worth anything.

[Amanda76]

Amanda i'm gonna take your meal plan for tomorrow. I already have the sweet potatoes cooked I had half of one tonight with a ny strip ,lima beans and asparagus

Cool...what I ate close to that was for bulking purposes (coming up from around 125 pounds, I ate 2,100 a great deal of the winter and then several weeks at 2,300 before I started to lean up). If your current stats are correct (5'4" and 160ish) your goal is to lean up, you'll probably want to adjust so your cals are around 1,800, though. When I was at about 150, I started leaning up eating 2,300 (lost water weight the first week from cleaning up my diet and stalled out pretty much immediately), then dropped to 2,100 and got down to 140. But eating so close to maintenance, that happened very slowly. You could do the same thing and eat at around maintenance (should be 2,300-ish) see what happens and adjust from there, too.

[AlisonWundrland]

hi, i just started here too, and they are right about WRITING THINGS DOWN EVERYDAY to keep track of what in the world you are putting into your mouth. Im a nerd like that so it comes natural to me. Once you get into the swing of it, though, and begin seeing some progress it will all be worth it. YOU CAN DO IT!

[CTB123]

1,500 calories will be what you need to eat to lose when you are closer to my weight. Don't screw yourself over by eating that little too soon. The following is really close to my base nutrition plan over the winter (2,494 calories 40/28/32 aiming for 2,500@40/30/30), so a normal person can eat this much volume throughout the day if it looks like a lot.

M1: 1 cup pasturized egg whites scrambled with 30 cals of stir fry veggies
1/2 cup (dry) oats in water with 4 oz banana, 1T peanut butter and cinnamon squished in

M2: 6 large hard boiled egg whites
1 medium apple
1 oz almonds

M3: 8 oz baked chicken breast (or 10 oz tilapia)
1/2 cup brown or red rice
Salad made with (lots of) spinach, 4 oz tomato and 60g avocado (check into wholly
guacamole products if you like that kinda thing).

M4: 3 oz tuna packet
1 large sweet (yellow, orange or red) bell pepper

M5: 8 oz (cooked and drained) extra lean ground beef (or 5.5 oz salmon)
8 oz (microwaved) sweet potato
1 cup mixed veggies (corn, lima bean, carrot, pea type mix...)

M6: 1 cup cottage cheese
1 oz walnuts

Sorry for the delay in response, but thank you so much for this example meal plan. It definitely helps!

[CTB123]

I'm all about writing down everything that I eat and keeping track of calories and such. I have major OCD when it comes to that sort of thing, lol.

[Amanda76]

Sorry for the delay in response, but thank you so much for this example meal plan. It definitely helps!

Not a problem.

Have you looked at sites like fitday or nutridiary to come up with meal plans (it's easiest to have a pre-defined meal plan over "tracking as you go").