From 220lbs to 205lbs in 2 months

[Harris213]

Hello NF'ers,

 

I'm new here! I would like to share some recent success in realm of fitness. I set a goal two months ago to go from 220 lbs to 195 lbs. I watched enough Youtube videos to know that 80% of the work is done in the kitchen, but needed some guidance to know what good nutrition is. I googled "how many calories should I eat in a day?" and found one of those calorie calculators. I entered into the calculator the following items;

 

1) Male

2) 220 lbs

3) 6'

4) 33 years old

5) Not very active

6) Weight loss goal of 195 lbs

 

The calculator promptly called me fat and said I can meet my goal in 9 months if I ate 2,200 calories per day. I ended up downloading the MyFitnessPal app and have become obsessed. I decided to make my macros 45% Carbs, 35% Protein, and 20% Fat (can't recall my source). I'm seldomly able to actually meet these macro goals...

 

Pounds began to fly off immediately after tracking. Today (about 2 months later) I weighed in at 204.6 lbs! Finally, I'm starting to see some muscle tone... it had been buried behind layers of fat! I'll stick with this and hopefully meet my goal way before what the calorie calculator said.

 

What's next after meeting my goal? I really would like to consistently have access to a cable machine to do cable workouts. I'm saving up credit card points to purchase a $2k+ cable machine off of Amazon, about half way there.

 

Do you all know of any good cable routines for toning? How are you doing on your weight loss goals? What are your macros? Would love to hear from you.

 

-Andrew

 

 

 

[Harriet]

16 hours ago, Harris213 said:

What's next after meeting my goal?

Hey, congrats on hitting your goal. It sounds like you just need to figure out a way of eating that is healthful, maintains your current weight and is enjoyable enough to do indefinitely. 

 

16 hours ago, Harris213 said:

I really would like to consistently have access to a cable machine to do cable workouts. I'm saving up credit card points to purchase a $2k+ cable machine off of Amazon, about half way there.

 

Do you all know of any good cable routines for toning?

I'm not really sure what you mean by toning because people use it to mean different things. If you mean fat loss, that's probably mostly diet. If you mean building some muscle, then any sort of strength training can help. Is there a reason you're most interested in cables? I use them for some things (mostly rowing exercises) but I have to say it seems pretty expensive compared to dumbbells, and at first glance less versatile. I think for a balanced strength routine you want, at a minimum, exercises that represent the following movement patterns: pressing, pulling, squatting and hip hinge (if you want to be more comprehensive you can ensure you have horizontal and vertical pressing movements, and horizontal and vertical pulling movements). I'm not sure how you do pressing or squatting with the cable machine, though perhaps someone else can help with ideas for that. 

[Harris213]

Thanks for the congrats.

 

I don't think the cable machine is too expensive compared to a gym membership. It would easily pay for itself in two years. Especially compared to Lifetime Fitness.

 

I presently have a pullup bar, bench, and dumbbells. The pullup bar is wobbly, so another bonus of the cable machine would be a stable pull-up bar.

 

I agree, dumbells are great for squats and pressing. Dumbells are not so great for rows, chest flies, tri workouts. I'm just curious what routines others are using. My current routine is a modded version of BodyBeast with NO CARDIO...hurray! 

 

 

 

[Harriet]

18 hours ago, Harris213 said:

I presently have a pullup bar, bench, and dumbbells. The pullup bar is wobbly, so another bonus of the cable machine would be a stable pull-up bar.

Ah, gotcha. I thought you were getting the cable machine as your only equipment. I would have recommended dumbbells first if you could only have one thing, but cables sounds like a fine addition to your current gear. And if the bodybeast workout is working well for you, it sounds like you're all set