I have lost 30 lbs, thoughts needed.

[Powermoloch]

Hey guys 😀

Since mid february I took one of the biggest changes in my life. I'm 23 yrs of age , male and was 5'10" @ 222 lbs. And today I'm at 191 lbs 🙂 !

My old bad diet was mainly 2-3 cups of jasmine rice (uncooked, pretty much half of the pot when cooked 🙁 ). Burgers for breakfast, sweetened milk coffee, loads of oil, fried rice...you know bad junky on the go food. And now I almost taken out rice out of the equation and avoided fast food restaurants since then (except for subway 🙂 ).

I eat six time a day, with 3 normal meals, 2 snacks and a whey protein (2-3 servings worth ) shake after 30-40 mins resistance training workout every day. I've been watching what i eat and stayed around 1800 Kcal a day by creating a calorie deficit.

I've been more active now since before, I walk towards my remote, doing marches during commercials and etc. My meals are usually high protein, high fiber and low Carbs. Since then consists of eggs for breakfast, soy imitation meat, chicken breast, fish when possible (grilled/roasted), mixed beans, lenthil, whole grain bread and what not. the good stuff ! 😀

But now I need some questions to be answered:

1) Am I losing weight a bit tad fast over the 3 month period?
2) what will be my weight goal for my height? I would want to avoid skinny fat, but at the looks of it...My pectorals are getting bigger, so does my arms, legs. (which I like)
3) 30-40 mins of resistance training exercise suffice for me?
4) Anything I should do to reach my goal?


Other than that I'm very comfortable on my new eating plan, the first weeks was very hard. But after that bump, I enjoyed food so much better now.

 

[brikis98]

First off, congrats on the weight loss. I did something similar a couple years ago, going from 223lbs down to 180lbs and it felt great.

1) Am I losing weight a bit tad fast over the 3 month period?

30lbs over 3 months is 2-2.5lbs per week which is just a tad on the fast side. Of course, with some of your diet changes (such as eating less carbs), it's likely that some of that weight loss is water weight, so it's not too bad. However, the danger is that you risk losing more muscle mass than necessary. If you are happy with your body composition (ie, your bf % is dropping) and your strength is still going up, then don't worry about it. However, if you are starting to look "skinny fat" and are stalling on your lifts, then it's probably a sign you are burning up too much LBM.

2) what will be my weight goal for my height? I would want to avoid skinny fat, but at the looks of it...My pectorals are getting bigger, so does my arms, legs. (which I like)

That depends on your goals, how much muscle you carry, how well you carry weight and so on. Lose weight until you're happy with your appearance/performance or until you want to gain muscle mass via a bulk. For reference, I'm 5'11", carry a fair amount of muscle mass, and 180lbs is as low as I'd go.

3) 30-40 mins of resistance training exercise suffice for me?

The duration of a workout isn't that important with resistance training. What counts it the exercises you are doing, the weight used, the number of sets/reps, etc. What routine are you following?

4) Anything I should do to reach my goal?

Just keep up the good work and enjoy. Only downside is you'll probably need new clothes...

 

[rcpratt]

Just keep up the good work and enjoy. Only downside is you'll probably need new clothes...

Seriously. I got a bunch of new dress shirts for xmas and none of them fit me now. The good news I suppose is that my shirts/pants from 5+ years ago fit me now...

 

[Powermoloch]

Thanks for the reply ! to add a tad bid information:

- So far I'm getting stronger, 3 months ago I wasn't able to do let alone 1 traditional push up. Now I'm able to do 20 ~ without a problem ! And haven't stalled in lifts so far . I was very aware of losing too much muscle with dieting, I eat as much protein whenever possible in my meal plan.

- I guess I would to stop around 175-180 lbs. I could use the bulk. atm I still have some belly fat to get rid off.

- I use the resistance bands w/ handles, Super heavy. I like it because it's really easy to setup (to my door 😀 !). My usual work out in the rotation:

before 1st rotation

- 1 set of inclined 25 push ups before
- 1 set of 25 calf raise

1st rotation ( lateral > rotation > front> later> rotation "" "" "")
- 10 sets of 10 Lateral Rows (side shoulder)
- 10 sets of 10 front shoulder
- 10 sets of 10 shoulder rotation

before second

- 1 set of inclined 25 push ups before
- 1 set of 25 calf raise

- 10 sets of 10 biceps curl
- 10 sets of 10 rear delts
- 10 sets of 10 (sigh couldn't figure out the name 🙁 )

before 3rd


- 1 set of inclined 25 push ups before
- 1 set of 25 calf raise

3rd rotation ( triceps > row > pull up > tri > row "" "" " )

- 10 sets of 10 triceps
- 10 sets of 10 Behind-the-neck pull-up (while kneeling on the floor) resistance bands mind you 😛
- 10 sets of 10 Rows

lastly


- 1 set of inclined 25 push ups before
- 1 set of 25 calf raise
- 5 sets of 10 reverse crunch


and a shake 😀


And yes..I need new clothes.. too many big shirts and phat pants 🙁

 

[brikis98]

Er, your routine is a bit... lacking... to say the least. You are not training the biggest muscles in your body - the legs & back - and are just focusing on very high rep, high volume, low resistance training of your "beach muscles". This is pretty inefficient for building strength and mass and is a very unbalanced routine. You'll become one of those dudes with shoulders that massively slope forward and chicken legs with no functional strength to speak of. Moreover, such a routine isn't as effective at maintaining muscle mass as something with heavy weight, low rep training.

I strongly recommend looking into full body strength training routines. If you have access to a gym or can get your own barbells, the gold standard for beginners is the routine in Starting Strength. The book is also the best resource I've seen for teaching all the lifts and worth every penny. Stronglifts 5x5 is a very similar routine that's also worth looking into.

 

[MJinZ]

Your routine sucks.

You don't need more than 4-5 heavy sets to completely exhaust a muscle/group. That 5 minutes is more effective than what you probably spend 1/2 an hour doing.

 

[Kipper]

Congratulations on your loss thus far and the massive changes you've made. That couldn't have been easy. What is your goal weight?

Also, I'm not sure if you eat any green vegetables (spinach, kale, chard, bok choy, mustard greens, green beans, etc.) but from a dietary standpoint I think there is room for improvement there. You could also do some fruit (NOT fruit juice).

 

[Powermoloch]

I appreciate the feed back brikis 😀. I'll look into on the workout plan. Especially the leg and back exercises.

And Kipper to answer ur question. I usually have a side salad with no dressing, carrots, and long green beans in my diet.

 

[KingGheedora]

I highly recommend you read the fat loss sticky in this forum. That is full of good info and will help answer question #1.

Hey guys 😀
1) Am I losing weight a bit tad fast over the 3 month period?
2) what will be my weight goal for my height? I would want to avoid skinny fat, but at the looks of it...My pectorals are getting bigger, so does my arms, legs. (which I like)
3) 30-40 mins of resistance training exercise suffice for me?
4) Anything I should do to reach my goal?

1) 30lbs/3 months = 2.5lbs/week. This is pretty fast, people (fat loss sticky) recommend 1lb/week as a good rate. If I were in your shoes I wouldn't worry about it, but that's me and that may or may not be unsafe. Giving advice to someone, else I'd tell them to slow down to ~1.5lb/week.

2) Ideal weight is up to you. Do you want to look athletic and sleek, or do you want some bulk? This is subjective, and really depends on your goals. You can be "healthy" across a wide range of weights at any height. There is a lot of room for opinion on what is ideal. I'm 5'10 / 160lbs. I'm pretty "skinny" compared to all my friends -- most of whom don't work out and are around the same height or shorter and weigh 180-210. My build makes me look bigger than I actually am when wearing looser clothes.

3) Yes, sufficient workouts can be done in this amount of time, though it seems like your actual workouts are not optimal, as Brikis pointed out. Take his advice; he knows his stuff (though there are other ways of doing things that might just as effective, anyone who follows his advice should get results).

4) We don't know your goal, but I'm assuming it's continued weight loss. I'm going to assume you just want to look good and be healthy? Decide your target weight and then read the fat loss sticky. Improve your diet where you can (without looking too closely you're already decent compared to avg. Joe), and update your routine to include more balanced resistance training and maybe also add in some cardio. Getting good, intensive cardio workouts regularly makes me feel much better physically and mentally than just resistance training, and i take that as a cue that it's also beneficial in ways that resistance training isn't.

 

[Powermoloch]

To Kinggheedora, I pretty much want to get rid of my belly fat. And get muscle tone all around.