Weight loss questions answered
These are answers to questions asked on social media health and fitness platforms. All are of course anonymous, and not medical advice. Just sharing anecdotal stories. Some numbers, dates, and details have been changed to protect privacy.
My answers are in italics.
Question #1
I don’t understand how intake and calorie deficits work.
(19M, 5’6” tall, 143lbs) my maintenance cal is around 1750-1850cal, and the thing, is what exactly should I be doing? (I wanna lose weight/cut and also gain)
I consume 1500cal(I try) everyday and protein intake is not up to the mark sadly, and burn around 310cal (for 4times a week from workout and will try to make it more frequent and higher cal burn soon), am I considered to be on deficit?
I saw some where, a guy said if I intake 1700cal and burn 2000cal(from workout and involuntary actions) then the body burns -300cal and that is the deficit, but isn't burning 2000cal a day too high?
Can someone please help me out with this thing (think of it as a free personal trainer session of once and help me out, TIA!)
As an 19 y/o male, and the weight you listed, you should not be in a calorie deficit. Counting how many calories we burn is extremely inaccurate, so the math likely isn't working anyways.
Eat good food, spend your time doing exercises instead of all the gadgetry which doesn't work. Those exercises will take care of it, and you won't get too big. Bodyweight routines like plank variations, pull ups, push ups, dips, etc.
Not being insulting towards you with my tone, its just my frustration with a con industry. Many people on here are spinning their wheels and losing money with all this stuff that doesn't work.
And you are not overweight. Best of luck to you.
I agree with your advice, but I don’t feel my body is in ok state now, though I could make it better, and 19yo with 5'6ft height is short and I’m ok with that, but the fact that my body's fat is distributed very disproportionately, like my thighs are fatter than my legs and my chest fatter too, so wanted to make myself lean and fit with some muscles too, I know I’m not over weight my BMI is 22.7, but i just want to get like down the weight and a bit fitter and lean so yeah.
I understand. You might also consider that at 19 you may not be done growing. Some people thin out in those areas over the next 5 years with continued natural testosterone and human growth hormone. Those levels will increase with resistance training.
Also, the Body Mass Index, or BMI is not a good measure of healthy weight. The government uses it to try and manage the weight of millions of the populace. The math they made is too simple and doesn’t work.
If you gain muscle mass, the BMI will state that you are becoming more obese.
Question #2
I’ve been trying to drop 20-30 pounds as a 6ft3in 25 year old man. Currently 297 pounds. Trying to lose fat around face and stomach area. Any tips greatly appreciated!
Generally, we can’t “spot burn” fat storage in our bodies. That is fat/calorie storage, meaning sit ups won’t lose the belly fat, walking will. I do think working the muscles underneath the layers of fat does help with the entire process, however the amount of food consumed is the greatest factor.
I’m not a big fan of all the new calorie counting gadgetry. Eat better food, no sugary soft drinks, limit alcohol, go for long walks. Too many people on here see it as a race, and want to nickel and dime the process.
Consider some of these points. https://open.substack.com/pub/mikeshomeexercise/p/people-with-more-body-fat-are-built?utm_source=direct&r=17pv2u&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Ultimately, it's just eat less than you burn, and it's much easier to eat less, than to try and burn excess calories.
Calculating how much we burn is extremely difficult and inaccurate, as there are so many different factors that are unaccounted for; humidity, elevation, temperature, effort, etc. It’s also an exponential relationship in the math, not a one to one relationship.
The apps will guess we burned 250 calories for the moment, yet the recovery process the next 24-48 hours will also account for more.
And, at 25 y/o you already have all the natural hormones to help.