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Originally Posted by Matthew_M3
As of now, I dont have a way to accurately count my calories burned throughout an entire day. Might pickup an apple watch soon so that shouldn't be a problem after that. However, im more using this 8 week plan as a start because lack of motivation and knowledge has held me back up until now. So far, im 2 pounds down and im attributing it to my cut in calorie intake and increase in cardio so we'll see how it is at the 2 week check in mark.
If your curious, my daily meal plan averages 2600 calories, 268g carbs, 69-88g fat (69 w/ 3 meals and 1 shake, 88 w/ 2 meals and 2 shakes) and 216-232g protein (232 w? 3 meals and 1 shake, 216 w/ 2 meals and 2 shakes). Before, I probably averaged between 3300-3600 calories a day as I only ate one meal that was prepped and the rest of the day, I ate whatever I pleased or what was available while at work.
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Don't worry so much about counting right now. When I used to be a personal trainer, I would tell people to "log" what they ate for two weeks (only calories at the time as that was all I needed to know) along with what they weighed at the end.
I would average a daily number...and that would give me a "dirty" estimate of what their TDEE was. You are used to meal prepping....so I assume you have a scale.
I would then take that number....subtract 500 calories per day from it and tell them to eat at the new number and according to the Macros I listed earlier and let's see where they were in two weeks time so that we could start dialing things in.
I can say just following that approach at you current BF levels can get you to down to 12-14% pretty easy if you do this day in and day out. Diet is 80%+ of all this. The gym is the easy part. And 12% is an easy level to hold pretty much indefinitely if you want to.
Also don't guess at what you eat. I have heard it all from I eat like crazy and can't gain...to I barely eat and can't lose. Most people have no idea the amount of calories they are truly taking in until they see it on paper.
Getting below 10% is where it gets a little trickier. I have hired a coach one time in my life...and it was when I wanted to get as lean as I could. And it wasn't because I needed to know what to do...I needed a second pair of eyes to guide me as a "seasoned' coach will see where you are at when you may feel like second-guessing yourself and that will ultimately sabotage your efforts.
Once you do it the first time....it gets easier after that. I got very lean that time (<6%)...and I held it for as long as I could until my body adapted to it.
After that.....it's just been years of training my body to handle higher amount of calories and process them more efficiently in the off-season.
Years ago...I would have to start a diet in the 2K calorie range to start cutting. Over the years ...I have it now where I have to eat at least 3500+ calories to maintain my current body weight.
Once you are at that point...it's a lot easier to go on a diet when you are still able to eat 3K calories a day. It feels like you aren't dieting at all.
Over the course of my cuts....I typically have to make adjustments twice to get where I want to be. These days it usually just beach season. So I will go down to around 8%. This is more healthy than going too extreme.
My wife doesn't like anything lower than that as I tend to be naturally vascular....and it gets very exaggerated looking once I go below 10%.