Intro./question for the board

[boomer1975]

Greetings... I'm former military. Used to "experiment" quite a bit and had no problem getting shredded without dieting much. I didn't eat like crap but I didn't really monitor my intake either. At my best I measured: 5'10", 185, 8% BF... that was when I was 25.

I turn 31 next month and want to regain that level of fitness and then some. I've stopped drinking completely and haven't had a sip of alcohol in a month. I never drank much, mostly a weekend warrior but I can tell you that my mind has never felt more fresh. I've heard people say that it can take up to two months to rid your body of the effects of alcohol and now I'm a believer.

Anyway, I'm no where close to where I was in the military. I'm now well over 200 pounds... in the 220 neighborhood... and around 25% BF... totally unacceptable. Fortunately, my level of fitness has not totally diminished.

My question is this, is there a good starting place for diet... what should I do, start slow? Jump right into it? Also, besides whey protein what supplements would be a good start?

I enjoy reading everyone's posts and look forward to becoming more involved. Thanks.

 

[mm107]

First, i want to welcome you to EF, and enjoy ya stay.

2nd, get over to FITDAY.com, plug in your food intake and see where you are at for a daily day. You also need to find out how many calories your body needs to burn fat.

Go to http://steroid.com/fitcalc.php
click Calorie Needs Calculator and fill it out.

In order to loose weight you must eat under your maintance, but above the minumum. It all depends on how fast or how intense your diet will be will determine how long it takes to loose weight.

When cutting i eat 500 cals under maintance.

So basically if you fill out fitday.com, and your calories are 3,000. Annd the fitness calculator says u need 2600 to maintain, you are obviously over your maintaince. So if the calc says 2600 cals, then i would eat 2,100 calores At the LEAST.

Out of the 2100 calories,
40% Protein/30% Carbs/30%Fats is one macro breakdown you can use, since you most likely have endomorph qualities and is sensitive to insuline(carbs), so a high protein, moderate fat/moderate carbs will work better.

1g Protein = 4 calories
1g Carbs = 4 carlories
1g Fats = 9 carlores

Think of it in terms of Cals in Versus Cals out.

YES YOU MUST EAT FAT to loose FAT. No bacon fat, but fats from peanutbutter, fishoil, etc. They contain EFA's or Essential fatty accids.

Carbs are a MUST as well, but you dont need them after 5pm, since they are used for energy.

h20 has to be over 1 gallone day.
no soda no sugar.

Now out of the 40%/30%30% those foods have to be clean foods, try natural unproccesed foods for meals. Such as Brown rice/chicken.

Breakfast is the most important meal of your day
it should look like this

Oatmeal + 5 egg whites
or
Oatmeal + Protein Shake in Skim Milk.

Follow from there. Come back, and i'll help some more.

 

[boomer1975]

Thanks for the info, my friend. I'll be back often... if not posting, lurking for sure.