Firs time posting - Have some questions

[aimlessly]

Greetings!

I recently made the decision to do something about myself physically and started exercising on the regular. I'm at 74 inches tall and weigh 312 pounds (started at 325 3 weeks ago) and 40 yro with type 2 diabetes.

Here's a break-down:

• Spending 1 hour per day for 5 days a week. Sat and Sunday are break days.
• A typical day is 15 minutes of inclined treadmill and 45 minutes of stretches and dumbbell and weight bench work. Dumbbells are adjustable from 10 to 55 pounds; the weight bench is fully adjustable, too.
• I try to spend each day working different areas of the body.
• Primary focus is to lose fat; secondary is building muscle. I want to see my fat % drop to at least 20%. Overall weight not an issue since muscle building will negate lost weight from fat loss.
• I'm using the 3x10 routine, depending on muscle group and exercise.
• I've been cutting back my caloric intake a lot for the fat loss. A typical day has me eating: 2 bacon and 2 eggs with a fruit cup for breakfast, lunch is grilled meat with green veggie and dinner is a low cal frozen dinner (easier to keep track of calories this way). Evening snack has been a Quest bar, but not sure if I'll stick with it due to expense. I've been replacing snacks with chewing gum, has been working so far; although, I do get to a point where I have to have something swallowable.

Some problem areas I'd like addressed:

• Unable to lift arms much above shoulders (t-pose). Left arm stops short of horizontal plane. The muscle/fat on the shoulders bunches up and prevents arms from raising any higher. I'm trying wall stretches, but no gains yet.
• I do ok with weighted squats (about 40 pounds holding a single dumbbell); but lunges kill my legs w/o weights.
• Knees are not in the best of shape from previous injuries; so, doing anything on the floor involving sitting on the knees is a hard no.
• Leg day has the least amount of variety compared to other areas of body
• Arm day has too many exercises and I run out of time before I can finish.
• Arms, shoulders, upper back and chest are the weakest areas and inhibit other areas from getting a beneficial workout. Last week, I started curling 25 pounds; however, any shoulder work is either down w/o weights or I try 15 pound weights. Overhead presses are near impossible due to lack of range of motion my shoulders have.

The progress I've made thus far has been pretty good, especially the weight loss. The gains I'm seeing from weight lifting hasn't been quite as apparent, which I figure would be the opposite since I've never weight lifted before. I would to break the 300 pound barrier by the end of the year, if possible.

I'd appreciate any insight, tips n' trick and any other advice provided. TIA!

 

[kaiisbae]

@aimlessly Reading your post and your other response, a couple of suggestions/responses.

1 - the gov recommendations for protein are extremely low, especially for muscle building and weight manipulation. The golden rule for bodybuilding is .8-1g per pound of body weight, but that’s obviously an absurd amount if you’re overweight, so aim for somewhere around 150-180 per day. Eating high protein will help retain and build lean body mass as you lose fat.
2 - I think your calories are too low. It’s likely you could lose weight around 1800-2000. The problem with starting at 1200 is you have no room to drop calories again, which you will have to do eventually. As you lose weight, your BMR will go down, so the deficit will need to increase. It’s better to start in the smallest deficit you can make and then increase it as needed. I would try increasing to around 2000 and see if you continue losing weight.
3 - find a weightlifting plan, stick to it, and track your lifts. Something is certainly better than nothing, but it’ll be much easier to see if you’re making progress by tracking your lifts on a consistent program.

https://thefitness.wiki/
Or an app called boostcamp has good free programs in it that you can log your workouts in.

4 - every exercise is going to be loaded differently, so don’t worry about how the weight on one compares to another
5 - don’t worry about lunges, or any exercise that causes you pain. Not discomfort, because exercise can be grueling, but pain is a sign to do something differently. Romanian deadlifts are a great exercise for the hamstrings and posterior chain. You can do them with dumbbells or the barbell. Similarly with shoulder work, use the range of motion you have and focus on progressing over time. It sounds like your limited by the fat around those areas, so use the range you have and keep losing weight. Your range should increase as you drop fat.
6 - it’s ok, and good to have rest days and not do anything exercise related. Do some walking or stretching if you want, but rest is just as important for muscle as exercise. You could probably do 3 or 4 days a week instead of 5, but pick whatever works for you.
7 - diet as long as you can mentally and physically handle it and then take a diet break and eat at maintenence for a month. Then go back into it. You don’t have to do it all once. You can and probably should break up your weight loss into segments and take your time. You want long term changes, so take as long as it takes to make it permanent.

 

[aimlessly]

@kaiisbae I appreciate your advice!. It'll be difficult to address all your points, but here goes nothing:

1. I'm eating around 8 ounces of protein or more. Meat is one thing I have no problem eating a lot of, lol!
2. I agree, and I can attest that low of caloric intake has affected my workouts. This last week I Found it difficult to get through the inclined treadmill work. Just didn't have the energy. Plus, my blood sugar was tanking a lot during and after the workout.
3. I have a plan in my head, I'm simply overwhelmed with various exercises and still figuring out which ones I like. I find there are too many for the arms; but the shoulders, chest, back, and abs are fine. The legs don't seem to have enough at this point.
4. I understand, but if my arms aren't strong enough to handle the weight while working other muscle groups, then it makes that exercise less beneficial.
5. Lunges aren't painful, just my legs aren't used to them. Any floor work involving my knees will be painful from past injuries incurred to them.
6. Yeah, that has been my plan for rest - do nothing.
7. Diet is going to be the hardest part. I have cut back a lot over the pat couple years. I'm nearly to the point of cutting out fast food altogether. It's the diabetes and eating for it that makes it hard. The foods high in calories are typically high in carbs, too. The more carbs I eat, the more insulin I take and the more fat gets stored from the insulin. That's why my caloric intake has been so low, I'm struggling to find ways to beef it up w/o jacking up the carbs.

 

[kaiisbae]

@aimlessly 8 ounces of chicken is about 50g of protein - you want about 3 times that per day. Not all in chicken obviously but total with any sources. So if you don’t have a problem eating it, definitely eat more and eat more of your calories in protein and fat. To that effect, you may do well doing keto, or at least with a higher percentage of protein and fat vs carbs, since you’re trying to limit carbs. I haven’t done keto and don’t necessarily think there’s anything magic about it, it just sounds like it would fit your needs. In general though, you can just incorporate more fatty cuts of meat or oils if you’re having trouble adding calories without adding carbs.

Don’t stress yourself trying to write your own program at this stage. There’s plenty out there that are effective. You can always customize an existing plan or write your own once you’ve run some other plans.

The important thing is to have consistency so you can accurately track progress and make smart decisions about your training and diet.

As far as your arms.. I’m not sure there’s an answer besides what I said - do the best work you can with what you are able to do and use the improvements over time to snowball into getting stronger and more capable.

I hope any of that helps and I’m happy to answer any further questions, too.

I have a beginner program I can message you with or talk with you further about adapting it if that would help.

 

[aimlessly]

@kaiisbae I tracked my food today, and I barely ate half of my protein needs today (about 90g so far), but I did manage to increase caloric intake a little (at 1400 calories now). I'll have to step up my game next time I food shop. The meats I stick to are primarily skinless chicken thighs and pork steak. If I want to split the 180g of protein between 3 meals, how would I go about eating 60g worth for breakfast? I'm cutting out bacon as soon as it's gone, which leaves me eating eggs, cheese and a banana.

The lack of protein also explains what my Galaxy Watch4 has been indicating with skeletal muscle. I'm finding I'm losing more than gaining, and it baffled me. So, now I know why.

I have tried a lazy keto diet, and it's ok. I'm not much of a cook, so the lack of variety in food burns me out after a while. I'll have to try it again next week.

As far as a workout routine goes, it would be a lot simpler going off a chart that shows me what I can do with dumbbells and then figure out which ones I like from there. Upper body strength building is my primary focus since it's the weakest, and I'd like to see my genetically inherited curved back straighten up a bit, if it can. But, as with anything, it'll take time. As long as I'm doing something to burn now is all that matters.

Thanks again for the help, I'll likely be asking for more as I progress.

 

[kaiisbae]

@aimlessly For the protein, you can distribute it however you want to fit your eating habits. Personally I aim for around 20-30g at breakfast. Eggs and turkey sausage get me there. Lunch I’ll have about 30-50, using lean meat like turkey or tuna, plus non fat yogurt, which can be from 11-20g, depending on the brand. Then I’ll have 40-50g with dinner - so I plan my dinner around a protein and eat plenty of it. And then I finish the day with a protein water (like a shake but clear and fruit flavored vs milky/desserty) for 20g and maybe some non fat Greek yogurt and fruit for another 20g.

 

[aimlessly]

@kaiisbae I was just sitting here going through the food tracker on my phone and looking at what has loads of protein and cottage cheese looks to be a winner; so, I'll start including that next week for breakfast and lunch. I pretty much have breakfast and lunch figured out, but dinner is still in the works. By the looks of it, I should have about 120g consumed by dinner, so not much left to eat for the day.

Well, it's start. Too bad I grocery shopped today. Thanks again!

 

[kaiisbae]

@aimlessly Check out the Strong app. You can sort exercises by body part and equipment, so you could easily see a list of exercises that fit your criteria and then go from there. You can then build a workout in the app and use it to track your workouts.

 

[aimlessly]

@kaiisbae Thanks! I'll look into it!

 

[aimlessly]

@kaiisbae I've been using that for a couple of days now, and I like it, except for the template limit. I can work around it, though. I like how it illustrates how to do various exercises.

 

[kaiisbae]

@aimlessly Yeah, I pay for the pro version and have a ton of templates. Worth it imo. Caliber is a new free app that can make workouts for you or you can create custom ones. Not sure if they have a limit but I don’t think they do.

 

[rashmii]

@aimlessly Some questions:

-rest days, are you doing active recovery or nothing at all? Doing active recovery like going for a walk would help burn some extra calories.

-what’s your daily caloric intake? Obviously you want a deficit, but having too much of a deficit can be more harmful thanks good. Use this calculator to make sure you’re getting enough. Tbh I’m not a fan of calorie counting simply because it’s easy to go too far with it and slip into disordered eating. I prefer to focus on quality foods, so I do the Mediterranean diet and lost 20 lbs that way. But do whatever works for you best

-watch your sodium intake, you’d be surprised how much water weight would go away if you keep it low. A rule of thumb my nutritionist taught me is under 650mg per meal

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/how-many-calories-per-day

-what’s your protein intake? You should be about 0.8-1G X kg of body weight. It’s crucial to get enough protein as it will help burn fat and simultaneously build muscle (making sure you only lose fat and not muscle)

As you continue to lose weight, you should gain more mobility. Look at Prehab/Rehab exercises as well, I follow the Prehab Guys on Instagram who post some really good content on mobility work like proper form tutorials. Can also start doing some mobility work to prevent injury (trust me I’ve learned the hard way the importance of this)

When planning out your workouts, how do you plan? Do you write down? I use the app Fitbod which plans and customizes workouts based on progress/goals/etc. I’ve used it for over a year now and have made great progress with it.

 

[aimlessly]

@rashmii Caloric Intake is about 1200, give or take depending on grilled meat and frozen dinner I have. I know my BMR is something like 2300 calories. I don't agree with those calorie calculators. There's no way I'm eating close to 4000 calories a day to maintain my weight, 2700 calories seem like more than necessary, too. However, I am finding myself wanting to bail and eat more food by the end of the week into the weekend. I'm hoping that fades over time.

I'm eating about 8 ounces or more of protein a day. I checked an online calculator, and I'm eating enough for the American Dietetic Assoc. standards.

During break days, I don't do active recovery.

I have been watching my sodium. The largest sources will be from the frozen dinner and bacon. Outside of that, I don't add extra. I'm considering chucking the bacon and sticking to eggs and cheese.

I don't have much of a plan with my workouts other than which muscle groups I want to train. Although, what I have been doing has evolved since I started. I don't write anything down. Arm days have the most exercises, and everything else has less.

I'll check out some rehab exercises for my shoulders. It would be nice to get full range back so I can do proper overhead presses.

 

[rashmii]

@aimlessly If you’re willing/able, you can go find an InBody/body pod testing. There’s very accurate and can give a better idea on your BMR and as well as body fat/muscle% (it would also help knowing where you are at in terms of body composition)

You should be doing active recovery, not just to burn the calories but moving daily is good for cardiovascular health and warding off disease.
Would recommend switching out the bacon, as bacon is linked to increased heart disease and other health issues. Every once in awhile is fine, but every day is not.

If you’re still feeling hungry, you should increase your fiber Intake. Apples/bananas/etc.

You should also come up with a schedule for the gym. An example would be M/W/F cardio Tue/Th-upper M/W-Lower. Track your workouts; it helps with forming those healthy habits, helps sustain motivation/accountability, and helps with making sure you’re getting an effective workout.

 

[aimlessly]

@rashmii Keep in mind, I am diabetic. I'm trying to keep my carbs on the low end, not keto diet low, though. Maybe 50 to 60g a day if possible. The other limiting factor is the cost of food. I'm on a tight budget; so I can't go willy-nilly on food. I tend to keep things simple.

I've never heard of these body bod things before. My Galaxy Watch4 has built-in body comp sensors. I don't take them seriously, though.

I'm not sure how I'm going to manage eating more calories w/o adding more carbs. I've always been a 3x a day eater w/ snacks (was) in the evening. Moving to 6 meals a day won't be easy. So, if I'm eating 300 calories for breakfast, I'll need to eat 600 calories. I can't see how to fill the gap w/o adding more carbs.

I know bacon isn't ideal, and I'm gonna change it. Just not sure to what.

Thanks for the insight. Hopefully I can get my meals nailed down.

 

[rashmii]

@aimlessly Healthy carbs are still a necessity for health. Would strongly recommend looking at the blue zone or especially Mediterranean diet (obviously talk to your doctor). It’s easier then a lot of diets to maintain and studies have shown to improve Type 2 diabetes. Unfortunately you cannot outrun a bad diet (trust me, I wish LOL). Just eat well and keep moving every day, and the weight will come off. I went 40% body fat to 28% on the med diet and 165 to 140 lbs in a year.

https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2022/070/keto-mediterranean-diet-diabetes.html

https://www.diabetes.org.uk/guide-t...eating-with-diabetes/meal-plans/mediterranean

https://diabetesjournals.org/spectrum/article/30/2/72/32226/Mediterranean-Eating-Pattern

This sub can help with lowering the cost
r/eatingcheapandhealthy

 

[kaiisbae]

@rashmii .8 - 1g per pound of bodyweight, but for overweight folks you should use lean mass or goal weight

Something like 160-180 would probably be a good target for you

 

[kaiisbae]

@aimlessly Don’t take inbody seriously either…
The metrics you care about are daily weight, weekly average weight, the mirror, and progress on lifts.