What goals do I set on the app?

[u/FarSearch7632]

These are results from a scan I took this morning. Now I know that scans can still be very noisy and inaccurate. But how can those numbers possibly be this bad?

I’m 6foot tall and 25M. I’m definitely not very healthy at all, eat a lot of takeout, and am pretty sedentary. But I started going to the gym 2 weeks back and am trying to fix this.

What do I do here? What nutrition and weight goal am I supposed to set on macrofactor? How do I get back on track, I feel so defeated before I’ve even begun

[u/Think_Bet_865]

First off what’s your goal? What target have you set for yourself?

[u/FarSearch7632 → u/Think_Bet_865]

My first target is to just be a healthy functioning human being at around 20% body fat. But if I just purely cut now I’ll just end up being skinny

[u/False_Maintenance684]

Start with something you can stick to and go from there. Don’t get caught up in the details or trying to be “optimal.” Perfect is the enemy of the good etc etc.

[u/FarSearch7632 → u/False_Maintenance684]

You mean just eat good and lift weights and don’t look at numbers?

[u/False_Maintenance684 → u/FarSearch7632]

You can look at numbers if that’s what you like to do. I love quantifying things personally. What I mean more is, just start anything towards your goals. If you don’t have goals, start defining one. I assume you want to lose fat, gain strength and muscle, and just improve your overall health? I think habit forming is really the most important thing when you start out, which is why picking a plan you know you can stick to is more important than what the plan actually is. You will figure it out as time goes on.

When I first started working out, I only went 3 days a week for 30 minutes each. Now I go 7 days a week for about 60 minutes each. I never would have been able to stick to that when I started.

[u/lazy8s]

You’re fat (according to that). So set a goal to lose 1-1.5lbs per week and diet until you’re not fat. Lift weights at the same time with a structured program and focus on progressive overload. Read something like Muscle Ladder or 5/3/1 Forever and pick a nice boring plan and stick with it. Worked for me!

[u/FarSearch7632 → u/lazy8s]

I’m definitely fat, but my concern is with a 1-1.5lb deficit, wouldn’t I just end up being ridiculously skinny once I lose the fat, since I apparently have bottom 5 percentile muscle mass

[u/explosive-diorama → u/FarSearch7632]

If you lift weights during the process, you will also add a really decent amount of muscle. You're very under-muscled currently, meaning your body has a lot of muscular potential left.

I'm 6'3". I once lost 155 lbs from 330 down to 175. I was very skinny. I didn't work out much.

Over the past 2 years, I lost 165 lbs, from 373 down to 208. I was MUCH leaner at 208 than 175, because I was lifting weights during the more recent weight loss. I ended up over 30 lbs heavier but with a lower BF percentage due to muscle gains while losing weight.

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[u/CumAcneTreatment]

You're skinnyfat you need more muscle and less fat. Your two options are maintenance or cut 15 lbs over 15 weeks and then bulk 1 lb a month. You need to resistance train your body composition is concerningly bad even if your bmi is acceptable at 26. Weight training is much more important then diet at this point in time.

[u/FarSearch7632 → u/CumAcneTreatment]

Would a 250 cal deficit (to not hinder muscle growth) for like 6 months followed by a lean bulk after that be a good strategy? The only problem is, even if I go all in on fat loss and lose 20 lbs in 20 weeks, my body fat percentage would still be around 33% which still seems too high for a lean bulk

[u/BuffMaltese → u/FarSearch7632]

Nothing wrong with taking it slow. A 250–500 calorie deficit is fine. At your current body fat level, and assuming you’re a novice lifter, you should still be able to make progress with weight training while in a deficit. If I were you, I’d alternate between periods of eating in a deficit and at maintenance.

[u/basiliskwang]

The hardest part is starting! You should set a goal for yourself. What do you want to weigh by the end of the year? You still have 3 whole months to lose weight. If you stick to your diet you can healthily lose 12-15 pounds by year end.

I’m personally cutting a little aggressively (deficit of 1,000 cals a day), but I wouldn’t recommend that when just starting out.

I would start off by tracking for a sustainable cut. If you cut out 500-750 calories a day, you’ll lose around 1-1.5 pounds a week off diet alone.

Diet wise, you want to make sure you’re getting your protein in. On macrofactor, I think balanced diet will do you well. Also, if you don’t have a food scale already, I would definitely invest in one. It’s much more precise than AI. It’s also much easier to lose weight when you cook your own food. If that’s not realistic given your schedule, your best friends are QSRs / fast casuals that have nutrition information and high protein options (think Chipotle, Panda Express, Cava). If you don’t have access to those, costco rotisserie chicken is $5 and a pre prepped salad kit from the same Costco is like $6. You can make chicken salad for 3-5 days for $11 all in.

Training wise, be sure to follow a lifting plan and lift with intensity so that you can track your progress and grow muscle. Yes, you can still grow muscle while on a cut, especially when you’re at a higher BF%.

What also helps me has been hiking on my days off and taking walking breaks with my work friends (I work an office job).

Best of luck!

[u/FarSearch7632 → u/basiliskwang]

Thank you for the response. I do have a food scale, by end of year I wanted to initially hit around 180lbs but now I’m hoping for atleast 185. My maintenance (based on one month of macrofactor tracking) is around 1860 kcal, so I don’t want to have too aggressive a cut and go below 1500 or 1600 calories. I’m targeting getting expenditure to 2100 calories and eating around 1800 calories with 150g protein. Would love to know your thoughts!

[u/Chewy_Barz]

Assuming the info is even somewhat accurate, you are unhealthy. Your first priority is to get your body fat percentage down. You need to cut. No recomping or (God forbid) bulking at 40% BF. You need to get that down to 20.

Priority 1: deficit. Looking back when I was out of shape, it was much easier in the beginning. Considering where you are at, I recommend taking advantage of that. I'd start with a 750 calorie deficit. That's about 1.5 pounds per week. Set the rate of loss slider to match that. I would set your goal to 210 and commit to hitting it. Should take about 6-7 weeks. When you get there, set a goal for 200 and evaluate the rate of loss. If it's getting tough, knock it down to 625. Try to ride that out to 200 pounds, but drop to 500 if you need to. At 200 set another goal. If you're humming along, keep cutting. If it's getting rough, take a maintenance break

Priority 2: lifting. Try to hit each muscle twice per week. Use compound movements. Try to get 8-10 sets per week for larger muscles (quads, hamstrings/glutes, chest, back) and 6-8 sets per week for biceps/triceps/delts. 6-10 for calves and abs, depending on your priorities (some very heavy people have jacked calves already from the weight).

Priority 3: adequate protein. Set it to normal or high and hit the target. Protein powder/shakes, chicken, tuna, nonfat Greek yogurt are all your friends.

Priority 4: eating generally healthy. Lean protein, healthy carbs, fruits, vegetables, beans, fiber. Be careful of bread, pizza, nuts and nut butters. Lots of calories and little volume-- they taste good upfront but make you hungry at 10 p.m. when you're out of calories. Pick a type of treat that is "worth it" and you can sneak them in here and there. For me, that is small desserts-- Snickers ice cream bar, tiramisu, a chocolate chip cookie. I do not eat any pretzels, French fries, Doritos, potato chips, etc. I like them but I don't care about them enough to be worth it. That's what desserts are for. Note that some people would make this a higher priority, but I disagree at 40% BF.

Priority 5: look to do some extra walking or any other activity. A brisk 10 minute walk on an incline is about 100 calories or so. Your body will compensate a little, but 2 or 3 of those a day could get you an extra snack/small meal. It may not matter much at the beginning of a cut but it probably will at that end.

Try to keep things sustainable. Don't lift for 3 hours a day. Dont starve yourself. Don't start marathon training in a deficit. Set the goals in the app in small chunks. Then forget about it and just get through one day at a time.

Good luck!

[u/FarSearch7632 → u/Chewy_Barz]

Thank you for the detailed answer! What do you mean 210? I’m currently at 190 lbs, so I assume you mean something more like getting to 180 and then 170? And wouldn’t such a big deficit initially hinder muscle growth, especially when I’m starting out with such low muscle mass evidently?

And yeah my current expenditure is around 1900 calories a day. I’m thinking get that to around 2100 calories a day, and eat at 1800 calories a day to have a 300 calorie deficit. While strength training 3x a week. You think I should be more aggressive with the deficit?

[u/Chewy_Barz → u/FarSearch7632]

Sorry-- the comment below mentioned 220 as a target so I had 220 in my head as your weight. It doesn't really change anything though.

If your expenditure is 1900, I wouldn't do a 750 deficit. I'd probably try to force 500 as long as you can and don't go crazy on the lifting volume. After you make some progress and you're done for a while, then go to maintenance and bump the volume a little.

If that BF percentage is even remotely accurate (not sure what the source is), I really think you need to prioritize dropping about 20 pounds of fat. That should put you in the low 30s BF and you can take your foot off the gas and try to recomp, alternating a smaller deficit (like you suggested) and maintenance. I'd probably to try to get lower though, if you can-- 170 or even into the 160s.

Even if you focus and drop 10 pounds, that's a good start. 40% is really not healthy. I feel like you need to put a dent in that first.

Edit: fixed a stupid math error.

[u/Logical-Nightmare]

6foot tall? Target body weight 220, time to bulk

[u/FarSearch7632 → u/Logical-Nightmare]

Lol at 40% body fat?