I need some nutritional guidance. I’ve broken from my desire to attempt veganism as my research has indicated to me that it is unnecessary. The need for eating clean is not a question. But I’m wondering if anyone can tell me how much I should be taking in calorie wise?
I’m 73 inches tall, as of yesterday I weigh 460 pounds (long story of failures and lapses but NEVER quitting!), I’m 28 years old, and I’m a male.
If you could give me a bit more information it will help me. Do you have a sedentary job, workout, etc… The more I know the better I can help you predict your caloric burn.
I work at a desk job. I work out usually between 6-7AM every day. M-W-F I do full body weights using compound exercises e.g. squats, deadlifts, rows, presses, etc… with 10-15 minutes of the recumbent bike for cardio. On T-Th-Sa I usually do 30 minutes on the recumbent bike with about 10-15 minutes of swimming in the pool.
Pardon the double post and off topic post, but I was wondering if you could also suggest a strength training routine for me. I’ve been following a hybrid version of StrongLifts and Starting Strength e.g. mostly Squats, Deadlifts, Presses, rows, etc… but even doing the exercises correctly, the amount of weight on my form is really causing my back to hurt badly during a workout.
Based on your activity level you are most likely burning somewhere between 4500-4800 calories per day. This is an estimate but will give you a starting point. From here if you track your food intake and loss rate you will be able to tweek the numbers to achieve your goals. I would suggest starting at between a 750-1000 calorie deficit, eating between 3500-3750 calories per day. Over the next 3-4 weeks of tracking the data will let you know if you are burning/eating in the correct zone.
As for your workouts, it sounds like it would be a good idea for you to switch to using some machines. Compound exercises are good but because of their nature can put extra strain on the body. By switching to machines you will still be able to target the major muscle groups, but with support for your back. Depending on the gym equipment you have available you should be able to achieve the same level of workout without the back strain. For legs you can do leg press, leg extentions & leg curls instead of squats. Use the cable machine for cable rows, lat pull downs, triceps, biceps and flys. And if you have a chest press machine available you can use that for awhile instead of free weights. Often times free weights and compound exercises are said to be “best” because you use more muscles when performing them. And this is true to a point, but you also have to consider both muscle fatigue and muscle adaptation, to best avoid both you should be altering your workouts every 4-6 weeks. By switching between compound exercises and cables/machines you will allow your muscles to recover and not allow them to adapt to quickly.
Thanks for the insights! Believe it or not, I was considering the very same things you suggested. The information was coming from places I didn’t trust and I was feeling very waffley on the situation. I actually just re-tailored my routines to use more machines (keeping some free weights like for bench presses). Every month, I think I will tinker with things and change them up to, as you say, avoid adaptation.
I am glad you have not quit. I did for a while and (strangely enough) things did not get better. I topped at 417 when a younger coworker had a heart attack and freaked me out. I started the life change last December. One of the things that has helped me out the most was going through a 12 step program, getting a sponsor and an accountability partner. I understand that those programs are not for everybody. I just want to recommend trying one if you never have. I would recommend an all male/all female group over a combined group. I had (and still have) a lot of “emotional weight”. Meaning, I was not injured nor did I have a legitimate medical condition that explained the extra weight (I did not suddenly gain 200 pounds of bones…on my belly). The group helped me a lot, and (as these things go) others noticed before I did. I hope you keep not quitting.
I have been having problems creating meals for a 20/60/20 diet. Just wondering if anyone could give me some help? or maybe even a sample day?
I’m not sure that my particular solution will make a lot of sense as a) I’m vegetarian, b) this was during a build phase (so it’s a lot of food), and c) at least from what I can tell talking to most people I have unusual tastes. But if it helps:
The trick is to use something like MyNetDiary (which this came out of) to play around with inserting foods into the plan and removing them while watching the numbers change. It also helps to get familiar with the ratio of fat/carbs/protein in the foods you like so you have a good idea what to add or remove.
Other thoughts: You do want to stay reasonably balanced with each meal, in that you don’t want to, say, eat all your carbs in one sitting and all your protein in another. But they don’t have to all be perfectly 20/60/20. You also want to try to spread the food out over the course of the day as much as reasonably possible. At minimum, I’d try to eat three meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner) with two snacks in between. I generally shoot for 6-8 meals during loss phases (8 if over 2,800 cal, 6 if not) and 8-9 during gain (where I’ll likely need 3,500 - 4,500 cal). This keeps me from having to eat more than about 500-700 cal in a meal and also keeps me from going excessively negative during the day. Even during a loss phase, where I want to run a little negative (like ~200-400 cal), I don’t want to extend that further because it’ll make it hard for me to hang on to lean body mass. Truthfully, I’d think the same applies to running a high (1,500+ cal) deficit during large-scale weight loss. You want to run the 1,500 or whatever, but you don’t want that to vary between 1,500 and 2,000 during the day.
Hope this helps. If you’re still having trouble, post some ideas and I’ll try to help. Remember that I’m not a nutritionist; I’m just a guy who thinks a lot about what he eats. 
Has anyone ever heard of The Whole30. It is a program for changing the way you eat and what you eat. The best part it is a lifestyle change and not a diet. For one month you eat a very restrictive diet while getting your body used to eating whole foods (for example: no processed foods, no dairy, no legumes). The result: in one month I lost 22 pounds and one pant size, my wife lost 23 pounds. Two weeks later I have lost 2 more pounds, energy levels are up and I have control over food. I was able to break my Diet Mountain Dew habit (don’t even miss it). Still eating whole foods, and the best part is, unlike a diet, I am not starving. For more information the website is: http://whole9life.com/