Really let myself go last semester - time to burn the fat off. Need some help

[Stryfe14]

I'm not that educated with the fat losing process. I know basics about what to do, but I could use some help as far as what my timeline should look like and such.

Really fell off the lifting train with my first semester of college last fall. I stayed the same weight, around 185ish, but lost a lot of muscle mass and gained a lot of fat. I went from a 33 waist to a 35 waist, and I'm at about 18% BF right now.

My goal is to get back down to a 32 waist.

I plan on starting an EC stack next Tuesday and doing HIIT at least twice, maybe three times, a week.

How long do you all think that should take? What

[dmacdonal9]

You need to think about nutrition first. Cardio doesn't burn fat, a calorie deficit does. Cardio can help with that, but it should not be your first focus.

Try to target a pound a week. Check this stuff out for a quick guide:

1. Get rid of your misconceptions
2. Calculate your calories and macros
3. Eat about 20% less calories than you burn each day while still meeting minimum protein and fat. Get the remainder of cals from carbs.
4. Buy a kitchen scale and weigh everything that you eat.
5. Count calories using a site like MyFitnessPal. Here's how to count properly.
6. Lift heavy weights to preserve muscle mass, on a program like Starting Strength. Why not your own routine? Read this.
7. If nothing happens after 3 weeks, reexamine calculations, and eat less.

[Stryfe14]

Thanks for the tips. I can calculate my macros and everything, but the problem with weighing out my food/knowing exactly what I eat is very difficult because I live in my fraternities' house, and we have our own chef who cooks everything for us. I wouldn't even know where to start to find out the macros of the food we eat. However, he does make us generally healthy stuff - always a selection of veggies/doesn't just serve us deep fried stuff. There are several other guys in the house who are Miscers/lift seriously that only eat his food and seem to do alright maintaining their weight and conditioning. Until I move out and get my own apartment I think making my own food is out of the questions since we aren't allowed to use the kitchen, unless I strictly ate only cold-cuts and things which could be microwaved.

[dmacdonal9]

Thanks for the tips. I can calculate my macros and everything, but the problem with weighing out my food/knowing exactly what I eat is very difficult because I live in my fraternities' house, and we have our own chef who cooks everything for us. I wouldn't even know where to start to find out the macros of the food we eat. However, he does make us generally healthy stuff - always a selection of veggies/doesn't just serve us deep fried stuff. There are several other guys in the house who are Miscers/lift seriously that only eat his food and seem to do alright maintaining their weight and conditioning. Until I move out and get my own apartment I think making my own food is out of the questions since we aren't allowed to use the kitchen, unless I strictly ate only cold-cuts and things which could be microwaved.

Yeah, that makes it very tough. I think the best way to go there is to establish a somewhat rigid eating pattern, then make systematic reductions in total intake. So if you usually eat a sandwich and fries at lunch, start eating a half a sandwich or drop the fries, cut out the usual bowl of cereal at bedtime, throw away the buns from your hamburgers, etc. Keep making reductions until you're losing at the rate you want. Within that, minimize carbs, emphasize fat and protein, and you should be reasonably close to good macros.