Hello! Looking from guidance as I want to switch it up from a very food restrictive diet to a more balanced one. Apologies for the long post but wanted to include as many relevant details as possible
Note I weigh myself every day at the same time (just after waking up) I am aware the bathroom scale is not 100% accurate but if i used the same scale at the same time at least it's consistent and I can track what is happening to my body
Male 37/85 kg (starting weight) trying to get to 73KG (None drinker/None smoker)
Starting Point
My initial starting point is doing what I've done successfully in the past. Which is switching to a paleo-type diet with low carb, upping water intake, and regularly exercising. While on this diet i was able to lose 5kgs in 5 weeks without counting calories or tracking food. My exercise is 4-5 HiiT/Bootcamp style circuit @ the gym for around 40 mins and tacked on my watch, normally anywhere between 300-450 calories burned. Plus WFH means walking at least 6k steps a day.
WK1: Starting Weight: 85.3kg
WK2: 84.5kg
WK3: 82.5kg
WK4: 81.4kg
WK5: 80.3kg
Typical Diet
After 5 weeks the diet has been solid but finding it boring with no variety. Typical meals are:
Breakfast: 2 eggs + salmon + veggies
Lunch: Meat + veggies/salad
Dinner: Meat + veggies/salad
Snacks: High protein/low carb bar (morning) + Protein shake with water (evening)
Water intake: 1-2 liters
While trying to transition I have done a lot of reading in here about CICO and TDEE to incorporate more carbs but still losing weight. But since doing that I am not losing anything, or losing very little.
Challenges
- Restrictive diet
- Getting tired of lots of meat only
- Sometimes still hungry but couldnt stomach any more meat
Altho interestingly my energy wasn't depleted and I could do a very good workout every day.
Trying to Switch
My TDEE was coming around 2600 - with it recommending 2100 as a deficit. Just out of interest I went into MFP to see how many calories i was consuming on my paleo diet and it looked like this (on average)
1245 calories a day with a breakdown of
P100 C56 F69 (My carbs were coming from the veggies)
I looked at this and thought wow i could potentially have as much as 600-800 more of food to play with like Rice/Pototes Beans. I started to incorporate them more into the food with mixed results.
1592 calories a day consumed
Breakdown of P132 C100 F72
Even with some leeway for oils/butter etc it would still be clear of the 2100 Calories, my scales said:
WK6: 81.4
WK7: 81.2
WK8: 81.2
WK9:81.0
My exercise remained the same.
Questions
- With adding more carbs, but still under my TDEE limit weight loss has stalled. Have a made my body resistant to carbs by going Paleo for weeks before?
- Am I doing the calculations wrong? My meals with similar just with some rice or wholegrain wraps added at lunch/dinner. All still tracked thru MFP
- Does it normally take a while to kick in? looks like (by the readings) i am in maintenance mode somehow. Looking at my Macro breakdown ive only really added 44 more Carbs, i havent touched any sauces or hidden macros. Only Olive oil that I havent tracked, but was using the same as paleo (1TSB to cook) and sometimes nothing as i was BBQ the meats.
I really do want to stick to a more balanced diet so I enjoy some more variation and enjoyment to the meals (rice, wraps etc) and eventually add yogurts etc.
Any help would be appreciated, I did read through the wikis, which got me to the TDEE and then my reverse engineering my calories for the paleo just to compare. also FYI i set the TDEE as moderate excersie.
Thank you!
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