Pyro's Christmas weight loss

[Pyrodog783]

Hey guys after 4 months of cutting I'm coming close to my Christmas goal down to 190 from 210+. I'm going home to my family for the first time in a while and want them to be shocked at my progress!!

Here's a little back story: Years of eating like $#!t and building bad habits was taking a toll on my body and I was sick of being the only fat guy out of pretty much everyone I knew. I started a cut the wrong way 1500cals low protein and lost a lot of muscle but fat too. I raised it to 2000 about 2 months ago but struggled with 3-5 binges which definitely messed me up. I have 32 days before I go home and want to make the most out of them!

My Diet/macros:
-I was told I should get 194 grams of protein and have been hitting that in 1700cals lately eating clean as a whistle. Those are the only rules I have been following.. I'm 190lbs at 75inches tall(6'3")(around 17%BF) is 1700 safe for a month or longer?

I'm also on Kris Gethins week 8 making good progress, which is a mix of cardio and bodybuilding.

Now some questions:
-Is protein the most important macro in my case because its pretty much the only one I've been tracking/hitting.
-Is 194 grams enough protein per day?


My Supps:
Protein Powder(ON pro complex, 100%whey, gnc soy)
GNC creatine monohydrate
gnc mega glutamine(I know the controversy about it but it was on sale for cheap)
900mg fish oil 2x a day
AMP muscle igniter
GNC mega men Sport multivitamins 2x a day

I also have many progress pics I'll throw up here as soon as I have time(pos internet)

I just want to know if I'm doing things right in the nutrition department and want to ensure my 10-12lbs fat loss by Christmas is done the right way. Extremely motivated for this!

[Pyrodog783]

Had about 1800 cals today feeling full all day which was different, usually I'm hungry as $#!T but having a few snacks helped out a lot.

Morning:
shake - 270cals - 60g p
oatmeal - 100cals - 4gp?
apple+carrots - around 100cals I guess - 3g protein?

Lunch:
2 chicken breasts - 200cals - 40g p
salad - 100
rice - 100
apple - around 100

snack:
shake - 135cals - 30g p

din din:
3 chicken breasts - 300 - 60g p
what bread slice - 65cals - 4g p
salad w/ nuts - 200cals

This is usually my diet unless the chow hall has low cal fish but Ive been finding It real hard to cut AND get my protein out of 1700 cals, I don't want to raise my calorie intake and I'm eating the most bang for your buck protein at the chow hall(4oz chicken breasts 20g protein per 4oz) I would prefer to eat real food but the shakes buy me some extra play around calories.

[Pyrodog783]

I found that in the morning I tend to eat more and need to tone it down to maybe 300-500 calories otherwise I constrict myself for the rest of the day. Went and bought a 5lb tub of cookies n creme protein (ON) to help hit my whopping 194g's of protein which is usually a pain in the @$$ with military food. Heres my day so far:

Breakfast:
Shake - 130cals - 24g
omlette- 180cals - 15g
wheat meal- 200cals - 10g
apple - 90cals - 2g
ham - 95cals - 15g
milk - 100cals - 7g

Lunch:
Chicken breast - 100 - 20g
chicken boyou breast - 173 - 33.3g
salad+apple - 210 - 8

That leaves me with around 500 cals to get 60G's of protein and I still have to go to the gym so I'm probably looking at a shake of 240 - 48 and a chicken breast with some nuts or vegies to fill the rest in.

[Pyrodog783]

Had a good shoulder/calf workout but gym was crazy packed. This morning had a pretty dam good shake -

scoop of vanilla ON - 120cals - 24g p
scoop of C&C ON - 120cals - 24g p
oatmeal - 100 - 4g p
banana - 100? - ?g p

it actually held me over until lunch too which was good, found out adding just a banana and oats can help a lot.

*Weight update: I usually weight in on Fridays but I was anxious yesterday, after my workout I was 194! I think starting that creatine last week kicked in and hopefully its water storage! and Ive been feeling stomach cramps probably from the creatine so I'm just going to bank on more water. My creatine schedule is 3 days on of 20g 3 days off.

Anyway I got legs today which is usually pretty rough because I hit them pretty hard.

[Pyrodog783]

Hit legs pretty decent, not so great on the squats because my body sways and shakes so much on the way up but I'm getting it down. Dropped weight on the scale just to be sure things were going right and not checking until my usually weight in.

Getting to 180 by next month will be tricky now with the creatine water weight I gained but I'm not to worried about it knowing that its just water.

STILL MOTIVATED!

[Pyrodog783]

Grits don't taste good in shakes.. beside that been enjoying my meals but having slight cravings for sweets, greasy stuff. Every time I walk by the sweet window at the galley its pretty tempting but a LITTLE piece of cake is like DAM 400 calories lol. cookies is the "healthiest" thing weighing in at 230cals per 2 cookies. But I'll somehow incorporate these into my diet to keep me from bingeing.

On another note Ive felt really tired the past 2 days and think I need to catch up on sleep/my body's recognizing the lack of calories.

[Pyrodog783]

Had a real good DTP shoulder workout and WOW I'm sore today. My weight in last night was steady and 189 but later on a couple of my buds dragged me to the bar and I ended up going over my daily 1800 a lil bit from alcohol. dunno how many cals over but I may have his maintenance - 2 killians, 1 guiness, 1 corona, and a jaggerbomb. Needless to say I feel kinda ****ty this morning seeing as it was my first time drinking in a while. Might take the day off or go through depending how I feel after breakfast.

[Pyrodog783]

More good progress and staying real focused, today was an off day but played some bball and sat in a sauna for 30 mins. weighed 187.8 but it was on a different scale. Tomorrow is the first of a few thanksgiving dinners so I'm skipping breakfast and just going to eat small portions at the feast hoping to not stunt my progress too much.

[Pyrodog783]

Had the first thanksgiving meal of the week with my chain of command, I can honestly say for the first time in years, I had a responsible meal with no overeating/excessive sweets/going out of control.

We sat down had a good time, and instead of being obsessed with the food available I focused myself on the company around me with conversations, jokes, and just everyday bs'ing. For most people that sounds normal but it was a big step for me, I felt shaky at first like I was going to snap but just told myself - its just food, not the enemy, I control how much I eat.

Pretty proud of myself for that, of course it was my calorie limit in one meal and I cant eat for the rest of the day lol but it was a good learning experience. Felt like a load off my shoulders not worrying so much about cutting for a few hours.

Anyway got today off, hitting the gym tomorrow morning and trying to hit 186 by Saturday

COMMITTED TO THIS

[Pyrodog783]

was Day 62 of Kris's program today - felt so out of energy but still made strength gains.

I had a piece of banana cream pie for the first time in ages and man it took a toll on me, all through the workout I had that acid reflex thing were it shoots back up your mouth - yea pretty sweet I know and later on I had a brownie and had a cramp for like 2 hours, SERIOUSLY??! I think my body officially told junk food to gtfo. 2 and 1/2 weeks ago I binged on a bunch of bs and all I had was bloating/gas.

Weighed myself and came in at 190.6, water weight for sure, usually my changes in weight come in on the weekends for some reason.

That's all I got for right now, cant wait for tomorrow - Triceps/Biceps.

[Pyrodog783]

Well I survived another Thanksgiving dinner yesterday, ate a 2000cal daily total instead of my usual 1700, but was still hungry because every little thing was so calorie dense at the dinner. But today I noticed some changes in my body, I can start to feel my abs when I flex and my shoulders are becoming more defined too, strange because I weighed in at 191.8 today. Has to be water weight, plus I've been taking creatine the past 3 days.

I'm going to try and take progress pictures tomorrow morning. Still pumped and highly motivated. My diet has curved a lot since I started and I'm actually letting sweets go with ease. When I do eat them I'm effected by them a lot more though which sucks and is good at the same time I suppose, keeps me away from them.

Either way I go home in 20 days so I'm really hammering my workouts, man will it be nice.

[Pyrodog783]

Had around 2100 calories today, couldn't gym because of work, don't know why but just felt like I needed an extra 4-500 calories today, since I was still far under maintenance and progress is on track I figured what the hell.

becoming hard to hit my protein of 195g I've been getting around 120-160 for a few days because no access to lean meats.

Still focused and determined to get this, changes in appearance come with less fat loss at this stage in the game. Nothing can stop me now!

[Pyrodog783]

Day 66 DTP Legs drained me worse than I thought it would, almost threw up a few times on the 40+reps. Weighed in at... 196, I have no idea how, after taking a leak and 20mins in the sauna I was 194.8 but I know I'm losing fat because I look a lot more cut in the mirror (more veins/definition/less roles). I just really hope this isn't a plateau, I'll continue cutting on 1700-1900 until Friday or Saturday for weigh in and see where I'm at.

[Pyrodog783]

DAMMIT - The combination of having a wack schedule and missing breakfast made me binged. I realize I am 100% responsible but it was just very hard to stop once I had those first few treats, I basically was very hungry with nothing around more than a vending machine.. here was the days food log, very scary..

butterfinger - 290
nuts -300
poptarts - 420
poptarts - 420
cookies
cinnibon - 500
2 brownies
crispy chicken sub
brownie
bbq chips
banana
fish sticks
fried shrimp
cake
2 oatmeal cookies
2 big glasses of chocolate milk
spaghetti
Hooters 10 piece bonless wings
2 pieces of dominoes pepperoni pizza
a twix
glass of jack and coke
wendys large carmel shake
wendys 10 peice chicken nuggets
wendys fries
wendys oreo parfait

I think that was it for the day, weighed in at 201 this morning - an hour in the sauna and an hour of cardio later I was 197, didn't feel hungry at all today so I'm not going to eat.

I was just really pissed off from being stuck at 190 the last few months and just kept saying "I'll get back on track tomorrow" A little frustrated with my progress and the fact that these binges are coming about every 2-3 weeks.

Still going to stay on track but this plateau stuff is really getting to me.

[HeeeyYouGuuuys]

High quality log you've got here, I'll be following. Hope you get some more responders.

I had the same frustration with plateaus, so I changed my view to be a bit more scientific. With your calorie tracking, you can calculate your avg. daily calorie burn rate by looking at weight loss vs. calorie intake. Let's say its 2800. Now, if I eat 2250 calories in a day, I know I "lost" 550/3500 = 0.15 lbs of fat that day, even if the scale doesn't move. And if the scale doesn't budge for 4 or 5 days, no worries, you're probably holding more water from increased carbs -- the fat loss will all come through on the scale eventually.

Keep up the excellent progress. And avoid that first binge food, its damn hard to shut those floodgates!

[Pyrodog783]

Thanks I'll have to keep that in mind next time I start to stall, unfortunately I fell off the wagon last weekend but am losing the water weight right about now. I binged from Friday to Monday and wow it took a toll on my body, I tried running to the gym and my whole body hurt, everything was like jelly slapping in all directions and I started sweating at 6 minutes on the bicycle machine, usually I barley sweated at 25 minutes! It was a motivation killer for me but I'm just going to weigh in today and reassess my goals.

I noticed the same thing with myself, once I eat that ONE little piece of cake/cookie its reaaal hard to stop. So I figure I'll just stick to a strict diet beside holidays.

Today:
breakfast:
two scoops ON cookies and cream - 240cals - 48g protein

Lunch:
2 fillets baked fish w/ spinach on top - 288cals - 47g protein
2 chicken breasts - 200cals - 20g protein
2 salads w/ cheese, egg -220cals - 22g protein

Total so far : about 950cals and 135g protein

Leaves me needing about 60g protein which I could do with around 300calories.

[Pyrodog783]

I realized I never posted anything about my history or anything about myself so here's a quick mash up of my weight loss history --

All my life since around age 7 I was a fat kid, I was the kind of guy who would go to the gym work hard but then go and eat like a maddman and drink protein drinks. I had no idea about calories in vs. calories out. During high school I weighed in at 250lbs the biggest I ever got and with all my friends getting the ladies left me alone and with almost no self esteem. I always felt down and it effected my life in every way - performance in school, relationships with friends/family. I was always going to the gym but just had no knowledge about nutrition, I ate everything in site! A year later I lost 45lbs in 3 months over the summer. I was still fat though, a few years went by feeling like **** all the time about myself fluctuating between 210 and 220.

at 19 working the night shift at a target eating vending machine breakfast's for years I said forget this BS and joined the military. I have a lot of military members in my family and just because I love my country's freedom. Came out of bootcamp weighing at 186 the lightest since I was in middle school!! Funny thing is it was all because we were moving all the time aka I still ate pb&js cookies and loads of calories everyday. Not knowing anything about calories in vs calories out I went home for 10 days and ate until I was back up to 214, I was so frustrated and couldn't figure it out. A few months after that during a physical training exercise I was falling behind and had a few of my higher ups tell me my career was on the line because of it.

Found this website and the rest is history, I began to cut just by counting calories with good progress but didn't get any protein for like the first 2 months of that, found out about carbs/fat/protein and read a few books that helped me critique my diet. I started Kris Gethins program with good progress and will be done on the 17th with the 90 day transformation.

Although I am going to be in way better shape than when I started I still could have made better progress. You see when I get into certain situations like a change in plans or I'm forced to eat out or if I get nervous I have a tendency to binge on the sweet stuff. I'm really trying to keep it down but its hard when the old me keeps creeping back.

All in all I have to say bodybuilding and cutting has helped me tremendously, mentally and physically. It helped me identify what was making me eat so much and how to counteract it. Depression + eating = extreme binges. I've curved a lot of bad habits and now know what hard work it takes to change your life.

My Goal is to one day get down to 10% BF. I would also like to instill good eating habits into my brain for the rest of my life and show the world "HEY, I was a lazy depressed fat ass and this is how to help yourself!"

Hopefully by posting on here someone can relate and can start up a plan to reach their own goals. Pretty much my routine through this whole journey was 1500-2000cals a day with 194g protein everyday while working out 5 days a week.

Still motivated and shooting for under 185lbs by Christmas.