Progressmarcus_t·21 Apr

Lost 8.4kg in 12 weeks. What actually worked and what was noise

M38, 181cm. Started at 97.2kg on Jan 26, weighed 88.8kg this morning. Not a dramatic transformation, still have a belly, but I have been trying to do this for about 6 years and this is the first time it has actually worked past week 4. So here is the honest list.

What worked:
- Weighing food for the first 3 weeks. Not forever. Just long enough to find out that my "handful of nuts" was 480 kcal.
- 2200 kcal a day. Calculator on here said 2350 for a slow cut, I rounded down a bit. Never went below that.
- 170-180g protein. Mostly chicken, greek yogurt, eggs, one shake. This was the thing that killed the 9pm snacking.
- 9k steps. See the other thread about this, I am not going to repeat it.
- Weighing every morning but only looking at the weekly average. Daily number is noise.

What was noise:
- Fasting windows. Tried 16:8 for 3 weeks. Did nothing the deficit was not already doing. Made breakfast meetings annoying.
- Cutting carbs. Lost 2kg in a week, felt awful, gained it back the first time I ate rice. Water.
- Cardio for the sake of cardio. Did 30 min on the bike 4x a week for a month. Was hungrier. Weight loss rate did not change.
- Supplements. Bought a fat burner in week 2. It was caffeine.

Lifting 3x a week the whole time, full body, nothing fancy. Lifts stayed the same or went up slightly.

Next 12 weeks: same thing, maybe 2100. Will post again.

10 comments

142

sarah_morning·21 Apr

The nuts thing. Every single time. Mine was olive oil. I was "cooking with a bit of olive oil" and it was 300 calories a day.

annika·21 Apr

Peanut butter here. "A spoon" was 3 spoons.

jay_from_leeds·22 Apr

Milk in tea. 6 cups a day. Never counted it once in my life.

yusuf.a·21 Apr

Respect for the honesty on fasting. I actually like IF but it is an adherence tool, not a fat loss tool. If it did nothing for you then it did nothing for you.

fitafter45·22 Apr

38 and finally doing it, 45 here and in month 9 of the same approach. It gets easier. The weekly average thing is the single best habit on your list.

coachraf·24 Apr

This is a textbook slow cut and it is textbook because it works. 0.7kg a week at your weight is right in the zone where you keep your lifts. People who want 1.5kg a week lose it for 4 weeks and then disappear from these forums.

hollow_body·21 Apr

What did a normal day of food look like at 2200? I'm at a similar weight and 2200 sounds like a lot to me

marcus_tOP·22 Apr

Breakfast: 3 eggs, 2 slices toast, coffee with milk. ~520
Lunch: chicken breast, 150g rice (cooked), veg, bit of sauce. ~600
Snack: 200g greek yogurt + berries. ~220
Dinner: whatever the family eats, I just weigh the protein and go light on the oil. ~650
Shake before bed if protein is short. ~150

It is a lot of food. That is why it worked. The 1500 kcal attempts always ended in a Friday night pizza.

redlightrory·23 Apr

Did you track on weekends?

marcus_tOP·24 Apr

Yes. Badly, but yes. A rough guess logged is better than nothing logged. The weeks I "took off" tracking Sat/Sun the average did not move.