Obesity Discussion Forums

[Gord0n]

Hello Forumites, new guy here. And I have questions. Here is a basic background to what I am doing, and after I have a few questions.

Background.

My employment has gone from Banking to Driving (Public Transit driver)
I now sit all day long.

6Ft1
30years old
Decent build

After slacking off since my kids came (six years ago) I noticed almost two weeks ago I tipped the 280 mark. I decided to take action. I have been going to the gym 3 days a week, with a goal of 300calories burned in cardio (apx half an hour of stairs/inclined walking/jogging which I alternate on each visit) as shown by the equiptment calorie calculator. And then 30 mins of free weights.

I have also changed my eating habits drastically. Before I would eat no breakfast, huge lunch and huge dinner with lots of great greasy salty snacks in between. (A lunch would consist of 18 perogies cooked in butter with lots of ketchup, or a whole box of macaroni or hamburger helper. Lets face it, i didnt get this big eating wheaties)
Now I have a slimfast for breakfast, which takes a bite out of my apetite around lunchtime. My other meals consist of 90% vegetables/fruit and 10% fish/chicken.

I have kept this eating habit for almost two weeks now, and see no reason to go back. I find I can eat plenty enough food within my calorie allotment to meet my goals.

I have lost 15lb in my first two weeks, which is wayyyy to fast. But I am assuming this is mostly water weight as I have gone from consuming 1000% of my sodium requirements to being within my 100%. So this is slowing down to apx 1lb every other day.

This is what I am basing my diet on.

6ft1
30 years old
Male
265lb
8hours sleep and 16 hours sitting ( I have a sit down job, but I dont actually sit that long)

This gives my a BMR of 2923
To reach my goal I need to loose 1370 calories a day.
And that has been easy, as I have found a few vegetables that are uberlow in calories vs volume to ensure my meals are satisfying (without being too big of course)

Questions

Are those calorie burned calculators on workout equiptment accurate at all?

How do i get rid of all the extra skin Im going to have when the weight comes off?

Im thinking my BMR might be off as people apx the same height weigh the same or less, but look heavier. (I have broad shoulders and 18inch biceps, arms and shoulders are not flabby at all (although far from ripped as well), so my muscle mass may be throwing off my BMR. When I was 23 I weighed 200lb, and was in good shape with a small belly (no big gut) whereas by some charts I would be considered obese. Would that mean I naturally burn more calories or less?

My calorie budget breakdown is as follows


260 breakfast (slimfast)

6-700 lunch (big meal)
150 snack (cucumber slices and cerlery slices and carrots)
400 dinner (medium meal)
150 snack (popcorn/yogurt/cereal without milk.)


Does this sound good?

Any other advice would be great. I will be active here from now on, as I find the more involved I am, the more I will stick to this.

PS
I am using the VidaOne Diet and Fitness program to track calories taken in, and calculating BMR.

[Obesity Discussion]

Originally Posted by Gord0n

I have lost 15lb in my first two weeks, which is wayyyy to fast. But I am assuming this is mostly water weight as I have gone from consuming 1000% of my sodium requirements to being within my 100%. So this is slowing down to apx 1lb every other day.

I'm guessing your salt decrease reduced your water retention big time. But I agree, 15lbs is a lot for the first 2 weeks. I'd see if that continues going forward, and if it does, you may want to slow things down a bit.

Originally Posted by Gord0n

This is what I am basing my diet on.

6ft1
30 years old
Male
265lb
8hours sleep and 16 hours sitting ( I have a sit down job, but I dont actually sit that long)

This gives my a BMR of 2923
To reach my goal I need to loose 1370 calories a day.
And that has been easy, as I have found a few vegetables that are uberlow in calories vs volume to ensure my meals are satisfying (without being too big of course)

I got the same calorie totals you did......setting up a calorie deficit like you are should put you at about 2.5-3lbs weight loss per week.

Originally Posted by Gord0n

Questions

Are those calorie burned calculators on workout equiptment accurate at all?

I wouldn't rely on them to be 100% accurate, but it's not a horrible judge.

Originally Posted by Gord0n

How do i get rid of all the extra skin Im going to have when the weight comes off?

Surgery is a very popular option if there's extra skin. Some people luck out with good genetics and don't have to resort to surgery.

Originally Posted by Gord0n

Im thinking my BMR might be off as people apx the same height weigh the same or less, but look heavier. (I have broad shoulders and 18inch biceps, arms and shoulders are not flabby at all (although far from ripped as well), so my muscle mass may be throwing off my BMR. When I was 23 I weighed 200lb, and was in good shape with a small belly (no big gut) whereas by some charts I would be considered obese. Would that mean I naturally burn more calories or less?

In theory muscle does burn more calories than fat, but it's not as substantial as many people think. I would ignore it for the purposes of weight loss.

Originally Posted by Gord0n

My calorie budget breakdown is as follows


260 breakfast (slimfast)

6-700 lunch (big meal)
150 snack (cucumber slices and cerlery slices and carrots)
400 dinner (medium meal)
150 snack (popcorn/yogurt/cereal without milk.)


Does this sound good?

Any other advice would be great. I will be active here from now on, as I find the more involved I am, the more I will stick to this.

PS
I am using the VidaOne Diet and Fitness program to track calories taken in, and calculating BMR.

Ideally I think it would be better to see more protein in your diet, as I do not see much. I would also look into lifting weights if you could to prevent muscle mass loss while you lose weight.

We have a ton of tips stickied at the top of this forum to help with appetite suppression and other areas, may want to check those out as well.

[Gord0n]

Thanks for the info. I am doing weights with my cardio to retain muscle mass. I am downing low reps of higher weights to maintain.

As for protein, I am getting 14-20grams a day in the form of egg whites, and fish (tuna/basa/salmon)

Is this range enough??