Help with weight loss.

[Francour]

So I have l have lifted in the past so have an alright idea of what I am doing in the gym.

I started back up at the start of October. And have been taking a picture of myself at the 1st of every month.
I have been making strength gains.

As of right now I am doing a 5 day split. With 0 Cardio.
At the start of January I want to transition to Ice Cream Fitness 5x5 Program.

My problem is that I have literally lost 0 pounds since I have started. (1 and a half months). I have noticed a change in body composition however.
I am 25, 5'6, and 170lbs. My goal is 145 ripped by May 2018.(Got a sweet music festival to attend).

My question is what do I need to achieve my goals.
I have cleaned up diet a bit by eliminating soda and sweets.
I will admit I enjoy booze and drink it multiple times per week.

Give it to me straight. What do I need to do to achieve my fitness goals..(145lbs ripped by May 2018)

Of course the easiest answer is to give up booze, keep a clean diet, and add 20 minutes of cardio to the start and end of every workout, but I am only human, not perfect!!!!

***Attachment is Oct 1st / Nov 1st.

What are your guys opinion on how I should achieve my fitness goals

[BecomingSmaller]

To lose weight you need to get better control of your diet, it’s all about the calories, so track what you are eating now in an app as that is maintenance, and then cut around 700 calories off it.

[pettlan]

Track your calories.

[Nobodyfit]

Of course the easiest answer is to give up booze, keep a clean diet, and add 20 minutes of cardio to the start and end of every workout, but I am only human, not perfect!!!!

This is the answer with the addition of counting your calories...

[Kansas123]

Alcohol takes a huge toll on weight loss. Brb 1 can of bud light is like 110 or 120 calories you have 10 and you’re well over 1k calories.

If you have a problem with food cravings while dieting try intermittent fasting. Brb diet on Wendy’s.

But first things first track calories and don’t add exercise into the calculator (MyFitnessPal)

[grayguo]

So I have l have lifted in the past so have an alright idea of what I am doing in the gym.

I started back up at the start of October. And have been taking a picture of myself at the 1st of every month.
I have been making strength gains.

As of right now I am doing a 5 day split. With 0 Cardio.
At the start of January I want to transition to Ice Cream Fitness 5x5 Program.

My problem is that I have literally lost 0 pounds since I have started. (1 and a half months). I have noticed a change in body composition however.
I am 25, 5'6, and 170lbs. My goal is 145 ripped by May 2018.(Got a sweet music festival to attend).

My question is what do I need to achieve my goals.
I have cleaned up diet a bit by eliminating soda and sweets.
I will admit I enjoy booze and drink it multiple times per week.

Give it to me straight. What do I need to do to achieve my fitness goals..(145lbs ripped by May 2018)

Of course the easiest answer is to give up booze, keep a clean diet, and add 20 minutes of cardio to the start and end of every workout, but I am only human, not perfect!!!!

***Attachment is Oct 1st / Nov 1st.

What are your guys opinion on how I should achieve my fitness goals

What are your guys opinion on how I should achieve my fitness goals[/QUOTE]

Hey Francour, as others have mentioned already, the key part of losing weight is just eating less than your maintenance calories. Now how you go at it, will depend on how much time and energy you want to put into it and how much flexibility you're okay with.

Basically if you want to be super accurate, you can buy a food weigher and track everything to the gram using MyFitnessPal while hitting your macros and calories everyday. Or you can be more flexible, and guesstimate what you eat, and try to eat below your maintenance calorie while hitting your protein intake. The trade off is you can be less anal and enjoy life and eating a bit more, but you won't be as accurate and thus your bodyweight will probably drop at a slower rate.

There's a lot more that goes into this than just tracking your calories, so if you want to learn more, I would check out the nutrition book by 3dmj (google search muscleandstrengthpyramids.com, I can't post links yet) . They are an elite team of physique coaches that wrote a nutrition book that will give you the information you need to make your own nutrition plan.

If you want some information to help you get started now. First figure out your maintenance calories (if you don't know, a round about starting point would be to multiply your bodyweight in lbs by 16), cut that by ~500 calories. Make sure to eat ~ 1.3 g of protein per lb of bodyweight. Aim to lose 1% of your bodweight per week. If you stall/gain weight after several weeks, decrease calories by a couple 100 more calories. Be careful to not decrease calories to a point where it feels unhealthy. If you reach that point, stop the cut and start eating at maintenance.

Hope that helps!