Please critique my weight loss plan

[Fedorgasm]

Hi Guys,
I would like some feedback on my weight loss plan below. Any and all recommendations are welcome. I probably provided too much info, but let me know if there's anything I left out.


Goals:

1. Primary goal is fat loss
2. Secondary goal is to maintain what little muscle I have. Any noob gains would be a plus.


Restrictions:

1. Time - I work long hours, have kids, care for ailing parent, and go to school.
2. Injury prone - Pushing 40 and have had more injuries in the past 5 years than in all my years prior to that combined.


My diet plan:

1. Intermittent fasting - 9pm to 1pm fasting period. Basically I skip breakfast.
2. no more than 50 carbs per day
3. must eat 1g of protein for each lb of lean body mass (for me this means about 150g of protein)
4. No more than 1800 calories per day (I know this sounds low, but I work at a desk for 10-12 hours per day and burn hardly any calories).
5. Not sure what to do about alcohol. Should I drink as much as I want as long as I don't go over my carb and calorie limits? Or should I limit myself to drinking only once a month?


My workout plan:

1. Modified stronglifts 5x5. I really like this workout because it's simple, doesn't take too much time, and the app is really easy to use. The only thing I couldn't take was the fact that it increases the weight by 5 lbs per workout. That was too much for me and led to injury. So I've decided to take it slow. I've tweaked the plan so that it only increases weight by 2.5 lbs every other workout.

2. On my non-lifting days, I will do HIIT running on the treadmill. This was recommended to me by another sherdogger. 30 seconds jogging and 30 seconds sprinting, for 10 minutes to start with, maybe I'll increase it when it gets too easy. With a 5 min warmup and cooldown the entire thing takes 20 minutes. Perfectly efficient for a time-starved guy.

3. Occasionally I find myself without even 20 minutes to work out. In those cases, I will do the scientific 7 min workout as I figure it's better than nothing:

4. Have not decided on whether I should do the cardio on every single non-lifting day, or if I should take a rest day once a week and do no workouts at all.

 

[Hankooks]

You can have results or excuses, not both.

 

[Fedorgasm]

You can have results or excuses, not both.

That's funny, I have that quote written on the desktop of my phone so I see it every day. I presume you're insinuating that me mentioning how little time I have is an excuse?

I don't intend it to be that way. I've thought this over and think the workout and diet plan above is going to get me the most bang for my buck... or bang for my minute, I should say. Since stronglifts takes about an hour and my cardio will take under 20 minutes or so.

But I want the feedback in case others feel like this is not efficient, or if I'm unintentionally doing things that are going to hinder progress, since I'm combining many different plans. Or maybe there's tweaks to make it even more efficient. I dunno. That's why I'm asking for feedback.

edit: I've gone back and removed the part about weaknesses, as it's probably not relevant and can be seen as making excuses.

 

[Hankooks]

Since you are short on time I wouldn't have cardio days. Cardio acceleration between sets instead. It'll end up making your lifts easier once you get used to it also. Leaves you with more rest days if particularly busy as well.

I'd up the protein another .5 per lb, wouldn't cut the carbs so much until you're at least a few weeks in and would try to consume only good fat. Writing down what you eat for a couple weeks will help with figuring where you should start diet wise. Wouldn't worry about calories unless you're over 2300-2500.

3x5 or 5x5 for a month or so to get back in the swing of lifting and then change it up to more detailed workouts.

Sources: We're the same age and I've lost a bunch of weight the last few months.

 

[j123]

Hi Guys,
I would like some feedback on my weight loss plan below. Any and all recommendations are welcome. I probably provided too much info, but let me know if there's anything I left out.


Goals:

1. Primary goal is fat loss
2. Secondary goal is to maintain what little muscle I have. Any noob gains would be a plus.


Restrictions:

1. Time - I work long hours, have kids, care for ailing parent, and go to school.
2. Injury prone - Pushing 40 and have had more injuries in the past 5 years than in all my years prior to that combined.


My diet plan:

1. Intermittent fasting - 9pm to 1pm fasting period. Basically I skip breakfast.
2. no more than 50 carbs per day
3. must eat 1g of protein for each lb of lean body mass (for me this means about 150g of protein)
4. No more than 1800 calories per day (I know this sounds low, but I work at a desk for 10-12 hours per day and burn hardly any calories).
5. Not sure what to do about alcohol. Should I drink as much as I want as long as I don't go over my carb and calorie limits? Or should I limit myself to drinking only once a month?


My workout plan:

1. Modified stronglifts 5x5. I really like this workout because it's simple, doesn't take too much time, and the app is really easy to use. The only thing I couldn't take was the fact that it increases the weight by 5 lbs per workout. That was too much for me and led to injury. So I've decided to take it slow. I've tweaked the plan so that it only increases weight by 2.5 lbs every other workout.

2. On my non-lifting days, I will do HIIT running on the treadmill. This was recommended to me by another sherdogger. 30 seconds jogging and 30 seconds sprinting, for 10 minutes to start with, maybe I'll increase it when it gets too easy. With a 5 min warmup and cooldown the entire thing takes 20 minutes. Perfectly efficient for a time-starved guy.

3. Occasionally I find myself without even 20 minutes to work out. In those cases, I will do the scientific 7 min workout as I figure it's better than nothing:

4. Have not decided on whether I should do the cardio on every single non-lifting day, or if I should take a rest day once a week and do no workouts at all.

Have you done keto type diets before? I ask this, because everytime weight loss comes up, going low carbs is the buzz when in fact some, if not alot do not function well with it. I've went through that, and the way my body works is I need very high carbs. Higher fats make me sluggish, prone to sore throats, and colds/sick down the line. So what I'm saying is, unless it works well for you and you normally eat that way, go with a regular diet with balanced macros: 0.8-1g/bw protein, 0.35g fats, fill the rest with carbs.

1800 is very low, if you're going for 2lb loss a week (1000 cal deficit) it might be reasonable since you're a smaller guy. I don't recommend doing 2lbs/week right off the bat esp. if you're not used to dieting. Doing so, you might end up burning out early and end up binging for days which will render everything pointless. I suggest you go for a 1lb/week start, then eventually maybe 5 weeks in you feel okay with it, shift to 1.5-2lbs.

Ideally you use the first couple of weeks to assess how high your metab really is. Calculators are a good starting point, but like a suit, everything needs to be customized. Calculators say my TDEE (maintenance) is 2700, when in fact its 3400.

For alcohol, as long as you don't go over your caloric intake then you could lose weight eating junk food and drinking. I did that before, but its just I don't perform well eating junk and drinking, so I cut it out for that reason.

1oz of liquor is about 65 calories, so keep that in mind. On average a 473ml can is about 200-300 calories. Keep with the heavy lifting to maintain what muscle you have on you. Of course your plan is a 5x5 so that shouldn't be a problem.

 

[dat1978]

Have you done keto type diets before? I ask this, because everytime weight loss comes up, going low carbs is the buzz when in fact some, if not alot do not function well with it. I've went through that, and the way my body works is I need very high carbs. Higher fats make me sluggish, prone to sore throats, and colds/sick down the line. So what I'm saying is, unless it works well for you and you normally eat that way, go with a regular diet with balanced macros: 0.8-1g/bw protein, 0.35g fats, fill the rest with carbs.

1800 is very low, if you're going for 2lb loss a week (1000 cal deficit) it might be reasonable since you're a smaller guy. I don't recommend doing 2lbs/week right off the bat esp. if you're not used to dieting. Doing so, you might end up burning out early and end up binging for days which will render everything pointless. I suggest you go for a 1lb/week start, then eventually maybe 5 weeks in you feel okay with it, shift to 1.5-2lbs.

Ideally you use the first couple of weeks to assess how high your metab really is. Calculators are a good starting point, but like a suit, everything needs to be customized. Calculators say my TDEE (maintenance) is 2700, when in fact its 3400.

For alcohol, as long as you don't go over your caloric intake then you could lose weight eating junk food and drinking. I did that before, but its just I don't perform well eating junk and drinking, so I cut it out for that reason.

1oz of liquor is about 65 calories, so keep that in mind. On average a 473ml can is about 200-300 calories. Keep with the heavy lifting to maintain what muscle you have on you. Of course your plan is a 5x5 so that shouldn't be a problem.

What method did you use to figure your TDEE if the calculators are wrong? Thanks.

 

[j123]

What method did you use to figure your TDEE if the calculators are wrong? Thanks.

I based it on what I was losing/gaining on the scale over a couple of weeks.

At 2800 I was still losing, so I adjusted. If I was still losing, I would adjust it by adding:

0.2lb = 100 calories
0.4lb = 200 calories
0.6lb = 300 calories
0.8lb = 400 calories
1.0lb = 500 calories

So say I'm 170, and at the end of the week I'm 169.4 after eating 2800 everyday, then for next week I'd eat everyday at 3100. If i were trying to lose weight at 1lb a week I'd drop it to 2600. I ended up making a spreadsheet on it to plug the numbers in to make it easier than doing the calc. manually.

 

[Fedorgasm]

Have you done keto type diets before? I ask this, because everytime weight loss comes up, going low carbs is the buzz when in fact some, if not alot do not function well with it. I've went through that, and the way my body works is I need very high carbs. Higher fats make me sluggish, prone to sore throats, and colds/sick down the line. So what I'm saying is, unless it works well for you and you normally eat that way, go with a regular diet with balanced macros: 0.8-1g/bw protein, 0.35g fats, fill the rest with carbs.

This turned out to be good advice. I got the stupid keto rash since making this thread, and the only cure is to eat carbs, so that's what I'm doing til it goes away.

So plan B is to do a more balanced diet like you said. I may lose fat slower but it's better than having some unbearable rash on my skin.

 

[j123]

This turned out to be good advice. I got the stupid keto rash since making this thread, and the only cure is to eat carbs, so that's what I'm doing til it goes away.

So plan B is to do a more balanced diet like you said. I may lose fat slower but it's better than having some unbearable rash on my skin.

Ouch that sounds nasty. You'll lose fat at the same rate if your calories are the same. Carbs just binds on to water more, but in the grand scale there's no difference in fat loss.

 

[LondonGuy]

It does seem very well planned and thought of indeed. Myself in the past I have made plans and diet regimes which I never followed thoroughly and just gave up.

Then I just thought I already do know whats good and bad to eat, I am going to reduce my portion sizes not order takeaways and start cooking more and do some exercise (walking, jogging, press ups).. It has really started to improve and I can notice the difference. Going for my first BJJ class soon and hopefully it will improve again and I might change my diet up even more!

I think what I am trying to say is start off slow and then build it up with all the planning. That is what has worked for me so far.