New Diet - New Start - Former Fatty!!!

[dodgyone]

Hello. I was overweight during my childhood and teenage years and I worked really hard to lose the weight and look half way decent (see my avatar picture). Calories have always been an issue for me like with many people having that fear of putting on the weight again. I have been eating around the 1800 to 2000 calorie range (for years now) and I end up feeling really fatigued during my day.

So I have decided it's time to take the plunge and up my calories. I'm pretty nervous about this and my goal is to maintain as much as possible and try to slightly lean up. Any advice on the attached would be appreciated. Also I do eat oily fish 2 or 3 times every week. It's normally in my final meal of the day in place of the nuts and chicken.

I do 30 minutes of fairly intense cardio 5 to 6 times per week and I weight train 4 times per week. I'm 30, 5.6 ft and my present weight is around 155-160lbs. I think my body fat is around 11-12% mark. I tend to go to the gym between the 4th meal (snack) and dinner on my diet sheets.

Thanks guys...

 

[danzik17]

Whatever you did in the past, it worked.

Don't worry about upping your cals. From the totals you posted, you are probably still on the low end. Think about it this way - you won't put on 20lbs of fat overnight, you will notice your definition slowly being lost and can adjust calories as needed. Losing fat is like riding a bike after a while, you can do it almost on demand.

I will say that I think you need to decrease your workouts a little bit. If you are doing cardio 5-6 times per week and lifting 4 times, where is your offtime for recovery? I think some of your fatigue might be attributed to overtraining. I would designate at least one day a week to just pure recovery, no cardio or training.

 

[andrew1989]

Yeah I would agree that you are definitely over-training. The 4 days of lifting is good, the 2 days on 1 day off has worked well for me. I wouldn't do cardio more than 5 times a week at the very most, on the days that you lift and maybe one day you don't.