Fine. Let's Get Skinny and Hangry 2017 Diet/Body Compostion Thread

[Jtbny]

Great looking single there at 340!

Thanks! How long have you decided to diet down?

[Hammerhagen]

I'm still in, believe it or not. Longest I've been able to stick to a deficit in over a year, and feeling good about it. I'm not weighing myself often at all, I may check it again next week. But I know I'm headed in the right direction, the lifting belt is a bit looser and I can see some fatty areas smoothing out on my leg. Yeah I know, nice description of fat leg

Also, in on squats feel good but not bench crew.

good job sticking with it, my belt finally got looser too. That's a good indicator of progress. And welcome to the bench sucks crew

Thanks! How long have you decided to diet down?

I'm gonna run it through February to get a little more of out of this diet mode i'm on. My total in April will suffer a little, but i've decided i'm ok with that. I'm not putting up really competitive numbers yet anyway and i do think i will add to my current total so that will still be a win. Part of me want to eat and try to beat Shawn but i'll let him have this one ....next year will be a different story

[Hooverville]

I'm gonna run it through February to get a little more of out of this diet mode i'm on. My total in April will suffer a little, but i've decided i'm ok with that. I'm not putting up really competitive numbers yet anyway and i do think i will add to my current total so that will still be a win. Part of me want to eat and try to beat Shawn but i'll let him have this one ....next year will be a different story

I like that attitude!

[Hammerhagen]

I like that attitude!

thanks! One thing i'm starting to learn is that no-matter what my goals are (body composition, strength, etc..) this chit is slow and just takes time

[BMX10]

Glad to hear everyone's progress and learn from all the experience in this thread. Don't like hearing about the strength loss because I know when I start loosing strength I will struggle psychologically.

At about 2,550 a day my 1st full week. Only down about 1 lbs but feeling great. Going to stay the same for at least another week and see if I can drop another lbs or two before cutting a little more. Other than a little active recovery in the form of walking I have dropped cardio. Might be sad but this is the best position I have been in to drop some fat maybe ever. Sure glad I worked hard to increase my calories without gaining a lot of fat.

This chit is slow regardless of the goal as Hammerhagen said. Kind of like watching paint dry but going to try to take it slow and steady this time around. Hoping you all keep providing updates so I can continue to learn as I go and maybe reach my goal by June.

Best of luck everyone! Looking forward to seeing some tremendous results.

[Jtbny]

Glad to hear everyone's progress and learn from all the experience in this thread. Don't like hearing about the strength loss because I know when I start loosing strength I will struggle psychologically.

At about 2,550 a day my 1st full week. Only down about 1 lbs but feeling great. Going to stay the same for at least another week and see if I can drop another lbs or two before cutting a little more. Other than a little active recovery in the form of walking I have dropped cardio. Might be sad but this is the best position I have been in to drop some fat maybe ever. Sure glad I worked hard to increase my calories without gaining a lot of fat.

This chit is slow regardless of the goal as Hammerhagen said. Kind of like watching paint dry but going to try to take it slow and steady this time around. Hoping you all keep providing updates so I can continue to learn as I go and maybe reach my goal by June.

Best of luck everyone! Looking forward to seeing some tremendous results.

Its all a slow progress. Getting stronger is even slower, for me, than losing weight. It's actually motivating right now because I can see weekly progress on the scale where as even when not dieting adding weight to the bar might be a monthly occurrence if I'm doing everything right

Dieting down until June?

[Plateauplower]

Its all a slow progress. Getting stronger is even slower, for me, than losing weight. It's actually motivating right now because I can see weekly progress on the scale where as even when not dieting adding weight to the bar might be a monthly occurrence if I'm doing everything right

Dieting down until June?

Yep - same here. Kind of motivating to see some changes in the mirror that come "easily" as compared to beating the $hit out of yourself to MAYBE add a couple lbs on the bar. That said dieting till June myself is very likely. I know that right now the changes come easy, but just like adding weight to the bar, as you get closer to what you want to see, everything gets very similar, changes slow way down, it takes more effort and less margin of error to eek out the tiniest bit of changes and they happen seemingly on geologic timescales....

[wesleysh21]

Yep - same here. Kind of motivating to see some changes in the mirror that come "easily" as compared to beating the $hit out of yourself to MAYBE add a couple lbs on the bar. That said dieting till June myself is very likely. I know that right now the changes come easy, but just like adding weight to the bar, as you get closer to what you want to see, everything gets very similar, changes slow way down, it takes more effort and less margin of error to eek out the tiniest bit of changes and they happen seemingly on geologic timescales....

I'm starting to wonder how long I'm going to diet as well. I'm going thru April no doubt. But after that, what kind of sacrifices will I have to make? I thought about that all weekend. Right now I'm on a half azz diet where I'm eating intuitively and still drinking on the weekends, and the weight is coming off. Obviously that is not going to be the case soon. I picture the longest I will be able to do this and still lose will be thru February, then I'll have to get serious in March and April. I don't know if I have the willpower to do a "real" diet for more than those 2 months.

[Plateauplower]

I'm starting to wonder how long I'm going to diet as well. I'm going thru April no doubt. But after that, what kind of sacrifices will I have to make? I thought about that all weekend. Right now I'm on a half azz diet where I'm eating intuitively and still drinking on the weekends, and the weight is coming off. Obviously that is not going to be the case soon. I picture the longest I will be able to do this and still lose will be thru February, then I'll have to get serious in March and April. I don't know if I have the willpower to do a "real" diet for more than those 2 months.

I journal my food / macros for the most part in my journal. Once the eating intuitively stops producing results, your best bet is to start tracking and finding the foods that provide the most satiation while hitting your desired macros and calories. I can still have a few drinks on the weekend and get lean, although its not ideal becuase it usually means sacrificing food to make it happen, then ending up closer to maintenance. 3-4 good beers is around 600-800 cals. The good thing is if you eat lighter on a day your going to have a couple beers, and you have been losing weight, it doesn't take very many to "relax" . When I am deeper into dieting I will have a vodka drink occasionally on the weekend with no cal lemonade. Usually after one or two, I decide I would rather just eat the remaining calories in real food.

I don't even think about it as dieting as much anymore, its just how I need to eat if I want to look a certain way for the summer. And looking decent for the summer is kind of fun. We went to a pool party last year for my kids playgroup thing, makes it kind of worth it when you get a lot of stares cause you don't even look like the "average in shape person".

[Hooverville]

I'm starting to wonder how long I'm going to diet as well. I'm going thru April no doubt. But after that, what kind of sacrifices will I have to make? I thought about that all weekend. Right now I'm on a half azz diet where I'm eating intuitively and still drinking on the weekends, and the weight is coming off. Obviously that is not going to be the case soon. I picture the longest I will be able to do this and still lose will be thru February, then I'll have to get serious in March and April. I don't know if I have the willpower to do a "real" diet for more than those 2 months.

I'm with you on this, after my initial oh chit moment of dropping weight to fast, I added back the beer that I do adore. It hasnt helped me maintain strength or given me any cardio benefit- but it does help with sanity.

I still plan on cutting it out entirely. We make a low alcohol lager at my place that fits the bill for cutting though. 6 grams of carbs and 4% alcohol. I count it as 100 cals. I may have had 6 of them this weekend

Soon enough I will have to make that call, besides the wife and I are trying to get knocked up. Once that happens, we(she obviously) go dry entirely.

Still getting leaner, slowly now. Keep it up folks.

[wesleysh21]

I journal my food / macros for the most part in my journal. Once the eating intuitively stops producing results, your best bet is to start tracking and finding the foods that provide the most satiation while hitting your desired macros and calories. I can still have a few drinks on the weekend and get lean, although its not ideal becuase it usually means sacrificing food to make it happen, then ending up closer to maintenance. 3-4 good beers is around 600-800 cals. The good thing is if you eat lighter on a day your going to have a couple beers, and you have been losing weight, it doesn't take very many to "relax" . When I am deeper into dieting I will have a vodka drink occasionally on the weekend with no cal lemonade. Usually after one or two, I decide I would rather just eat the remaining calories in real food.

I don't even think about it as dieting as much anymore, its just how I need to eat if I want to look a certain way for the summer. And looking decent for the summer is kind of fun. We went to a pool party last year for my kids playgroup thing, makes it kind of worth it when you get a lot of stares cause you don't even look like the "average in shape person".

I've tracked everything before, so I have a good idea of how many calories, etc that I'm putting in my body. I certainly recommend everyone track at least once. Like you said, it's eye opening what you really have to sacrifice to get close to your calorie/macro count if you want to throw in a couple of beers. On Friday's I do pizza and a movie with the wife. The only thing I've been doing the past 4 weeks is drinking a water bottle full of prune juice leading up to the pizza that night. Last Friday the pizza was going to take a little while, so I went next door and had a nice IPA (8%). Holy crap was I messed up!

As I said in another thread, I feel SOOOO much better during the week when I'm not drinking. And "looking forward" to it like its Xmas every weekend has been pretty neat. Before I start getting serious and tracking everything I'm going to cut my drinking days down first and see if it keeps the scale moving. Right now I'm drinking Friday thru Sunday. Next step will be to cut Sunday's. Then I'll need to decide whether I'm going to cut Saturday or Friday. And then...bye bye beer.

[Hooverville]

I've tracked everything before, so I have a good idea of how many calories, etc that I'm putting in my body. I certainly recommend everyone track at least once. Like you said, it's eye opening what you really have to sacrifice to get close to your calorie/macro count if you want to throw in a couple of beers. On Friday's I do pizza and a movie with the wife. The only thing I've been doing the past 4 weeks is drinking a water bottle full of prune juice leading up to the pizza that night. Last Friday the pizza was going to take a little while, so I went next door and had a nice IPA (8%). Holy crap was I messed up!

As I said in another thread, I feel SOOOO much better during the week when I'm not drinking. And "looking forward" to it like its Xmas every weekend has been pretty neat. Before I start getting serious and tracking everything I'm going to cut my drinking days down first and see if it keeps the scale moving. Right now I'm drinking Friday thru Sunday. Next step will be to cut Sunday's. Then I'll need to decide whether I'm going to cut Saturday or Friday. And then...bye bye beer.

Shedding a tear for both of us...

[BMX10]

Thanks for the encouragement. Dieting is a pain in the a$$ but adding weight to the bar is even harder ;-). Life is fricking hard but what hell else we going to do? I am betting if it wasn't hard most of you all would be doing something else that was extremely difficult.

I think the struggle is what this chit is all about and believe most of you enjoy the fight of making your body do what its damm well told. Maybe I am wrong or missing something?

[baker]

Shedding a tear for both of us...

Me too!!

I switched to wine recently, good for the heart.

[Jbizzlechizzle]

Nice to see so much progress itt! Good job sticking with your plans. I haven't been strictly counting calories or macros this time around. I wouldn't recommend this for anyone that hasn't been successful with weight loss before. I'm down to 200.0 as of this morning from a high of 208 a couple months ago.

Things are starting to lean out, I think I'll shape up really nicely at 190. All of my lifts seem to be hanging in there. Worked up to 455 squat over the weekend and 315 moved nicely on the bench as of last night. I haven't pushed deads lately but managed 405x8 a couple weeks ago.

[highiso]

I rarely stop by here as life has been incredibly busy. I still train 5 days-a-week but no longer push myself like I used to. I'm honestly just trying to maintain anymore as sad as that may sound. I do continue to eat as I have for the past 7 years.

A friend of mine that I just reconnected with works for a company that specializes in on-site Body Composition Analysis. I was skeptical when I was told that these tests are as accurate, or even more accurate than Bop Pod. The instruments to do the test with can be carried in a small bag.

I have no scientific experience with any of this stuff but the results were within 1% of what I estimated by body comp to be; yes I still consider myself fat at this weight.

It was interesting anyway to see what my numbers were. Take them with a grain of salt. I wasn't surprised to see my FFMI scored at 23, poverty genetics, hitting 25 will never happen without supplements.

Hope you're all continuing to hit your goals.

[dazlittle]

I rarely stop by here as life has been incredibly busy. I still train 5 days-a-week but no longer push myself like I used to. I'm honestly just trying to maintain anymore as sad as that may sound. I do continue to eat as I have for the past 7 years.

A friend of mine that I just reconnected with works for a company that specializes in on-site Body Composition Analysis. I was skeptical when I was told that these tests are as accurate, or even more accurate than Bop Pod. The instruments to do the test with can be carried in a small bag.

I have no scientific experience with any of this stuff but the results were within 1% of what I estimated by body comp to be; yes I still consider myself fat at this weight.

It was interesting anyway to see what my numbers were. Take them with a grain of salt. I wasn't surprised to see my FFMI scored at 23, poverty genetics, hitting 25 will never happen without supplements.

Hope you're all continuing to hit your goals.

would love to get that done, I love data and charts its the IT guy in me.

[blue9steel]

A bench single from today -

Looked very solid, no bouncing, full extension, great rep!

[blue9steel]

Down 2.6lbs trend weight as of this morning, so far right on target. I've been nailing my calorie intake, and the gym is still going well. Sadly, it's flu season here in Oregon and my wife got sick then I caught it from her. Upped calories for one day to give my immune system some fuel, out of the gym yesterday and today, but I'm already starting to recover so the current plan is to go back on cutting calories today and get back in the gym tomorrow. It's anecdotal, but I feel like I've had less illness since upping my Vitamin C intake by 3g. Relevant study: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1...?dopt=Abstract

[Uber_Dad]

Down 2.6lbs trend weight as of this morning, so far right on target. I've been nailing my calorie intake, and the gym is still going well. Sadly, it's flu season here in Oregon and my wife got sick then I caught it from her. Upped calories for one day to give my immune system some fuel, out of the gym yesterday and today, but I'm already starting to recover so the current plan is to go back on cutting calories today and get back in the gym tomorrow. It's anecdotal, but I feel like I've had less illness since upping my Vitamin C intake by 3g. Relevant study: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1...?dopt=Abstract

My wife and I had that flu back in December, wow was it bad...a friend of ours went to the hospital for it. Only positive thing was I lost ten punds from it!!

[itsagoodday]

Decided to step on the scale this morning. It's been 3 weeks since my last weigh-in, and I'm down 2.7 lbs in that time (181.7). I realize I'm heavy enough that I could push for more weight loss per week, say more like -1.5 lbs/week. Or I could keep my deficit where it is, which is giving me -0.9 lbs/week. Is it stupid to not push for faster weight loss at the beginning? While my absolute priority is maintaining strength, I hate to think that all I'm really doing is prolonging the time I'll have to spend cutting, by not being a little more aggressive initially. Thoughts???

[Jtbny]

Decided to step on the scale this morning. It's been 3 weeks since my last weigh-in, and I'm down 2.7 lbs in that time (181.7). I realize I'm heavy enough that I could push for more weight loss per week, say more like -1.5 lbs/week. Or I could keep my deficit where it is, which is giving me -0.9 lbs/week. Is it stupid to not push for faster weight loss at the beginning? While my absolute priority is maintaining strength, I hate to think that all I'm really doing is prolonging the time I'll have to spend cutting, by not being a little more aggressive initially. Thoughts???

I don't know the right answer I just know what works for me. I start out pretty aggressive the first 4-6 weeks and slow down as I go along. For me that means 2000-2200 a day. Ill slowly increase cal goals starting at about 6-8 week mark- about 50 cals a day more on average. Then I'll level off at aboyt 2400-2500 until the end of the diet which slows down the rate of loss towards the end but seems to help me retain some LBM while not going crazy when the diet runs long. YMMV.

[itsagoodday]

I don't know the right answer I just know what works for me. I start out pretty aggressive the first 4-6 weeks and slow down as I go along. For me that means 2000-2200 a day. Ill slowly increase cal goals starting at about 6-8 week mark- about 50 cals a day more on average. Then I'll level off at aboyt 2400-2500 until the end of the diet which slows down the rate of loss towards the end but seems to help me retain some LBM while not going crazy when the diet runs long. YMMV.

Thanks!!! I think my brain is telling me I should push for more at the beginning, but my gut feeling is that if I'm feeling fairly sane and strong doing what I'm doing, maybe I should just stay the course. I don't know the right answer either lol.

[wesleysh21]

Thanks!!! I think my brain is telling me I should push for more at the beginning, but my gut feeling is that if I'm feeling fairly sane and strong doing what I'm doing, maybe I should just stay the course. I don't know the right answer either lol.

I HAVE to take my time with it, or else my body fights back and goes into starvation mode. So it's slow and steady for me, going lower and lower every few weeks as my weight drops and my body adjusts. I knew a guy that quit drinking, basically stopped eating and did a crazy amount of cardio and dropped 20 lbs in 3 weeks. And he hasn't put it back on years later. My body will just shut down if I did that. I guess the upside is he would waste away on a deserted island, and my body would ration my fat stores a lot better.

[blue9steel]

Thanks!!! I think my brain is telling me I should push for more at the beginning, but my gut feeling is that if I'm feeling fairly sane and strong doing what I'm doing, maybe I should just stay the course. I don't know the right answer either lol.

For me, slow and steady wins the race. Personally I feel like if I try to go too fast my body want to resist by dropping my metabolism faster and cutting more LBM, some people like it though. YMMV

[dpadilla4]

Down to 190 in the early morning and now on my 4th week. Started at about 205-206. Goal is to hit 180 or less by April but still keep most of the muscle I gained durimg my winter bulk. How does one post pics on here?

[Hooverville]

Down to 190 in the early morning and now on my 4th week. Started at about 205-206. Goal is to hit 180 or less by April but still keep most of the muscle I gained durimg my winter bulk. How does one post pics on here?

You can use an image sharing site like imgur or photobucket. I just add photos to my bodyspace and then copy and past the link between [img] and [/img]

[itsagoodday]

I HAVE to take my time with it, or else my body fights back and goes into starvation mode. So it's slow and steady for me, going lower and lower every few weeks as my weight drops and my body adjusts. I knew a guy that quit drinking, basically stopped eating and did a crazy amount of cardio and dropped 20 lbs in 3 weeks. And he hasn't put it back on years later. My body will just shut down if I did that. I guess the upside is he would waste away on a deserted island, and my body would ration my fat stores a lot better.

For me, slow and steady wins the race. Personally I feel like if I try to go too fast my body want to resist by dropping my metabolism faster and cutting more LBM, some people like it though. YMMV

Thanks guys, I appreciate the input! I'll go with my gut feeling to stick with what I'm doing and not push for more, I'm feeling pretty good and I wouldn't want to change that. I figure I have a long haul ahead of me one way or the other anyway.

[Hooverville]

Thanks guys, I appreciate the input! I'll go with my gut feeling to stick with what I'm doing and not push for more, I'm feeling pretty good and I wouldn't want to change that. I figure I have a long haul ahead of me one way or the other anyway.

Do me a favor? When you have that moment, wether it be next week or next month, when you look in the mirror and say "hot damn! I'm making progress!" Post about it ITT. Then look at how long it took for that to happen, and think about how much more you can accomplish in a relatively short period of time.

Dieting makes time slow down. Keep busy, get as distracted as possible by family, work and hobbies. Getting lean is like waiting for a pre planned vacation that seems far off- keep your nose to the grind and soon you will be on the beach with a low cal margarita.

[EjnarKolinkar]

Keep busy, get as distracted as possible by family, work and hobbies.

Srs, some of the best advice. Caught myself slipping into "Diet thought" and realized I have about 20 books I have not read. Pulled out two, started them, and put them by where I rest and relax in evening.