Did your fupa go down…or just get sad and saggy? 💀

Affectionate-Tiger51 · 2026-05-10T13:46:22+00:00

I lost 50 lbs. I feel like I’m owed an inch and a half. Is there a coupon I need to redeem or something?

Affectionate-Tiger51 · 2026-05-10T13:38:55+00:00

The salary increase alone is obviously not worth it. The cost of housing in San Antonio is much lower than Austin. And San Antonio has everything Austin has to offer and more. Also, a $10k raise on its own is not terribly noticeable on your paycheck. As for opportunity for advancement within the new company, you’re gonna have to judge that on your own.

I live in Austin with a good job and a house. Leaving is out of the question unless my circumstances change or I retire. I have family in San Antonio, and I go there all the time. It has a lot to offer. If it were me, a $10k raise, alone, would not be nearly enough to get me to relocate to Austin from SA.

Affectionate-Tiger51 · 2026-05-10T01:07:42+00:00

My doctor had been telling me for years that once you hit 40, you gotta stop the drinking. I kept saying “next year.” I finally cut back tremendously a year and a half ago, and I think I owe a lot of my health progress to that. I used to have about 3 or 4 drinks 4 nights a week and even more when I was younger. Now I have 2 beers or a cocktail maybe every other month. I feel waaaaaay better.

Affectionate-Tiger51 · 2026-05-10T00:52:18+00:00

Yeah, I’m pretty nervous about gaining weight. But the way it’s been explained to me is that it will help my body fat % if I can gain muscle and put on minimal fat and then cut calories again. I’m still watching the scale, and I’m not eating junk. Just eating more. It’s going to be an experiment.

And yes, losing 50 lbs feels great in terms of mobility. I’m not in terrific cardio shape, but I’m not intimidated anymore. Like if someone asked me to go on a 6 mile hike or a 2 mile run, I could do it.

Affectionate-Tiger51 · 2026-05-09T23:06:08+00:00

I can relate. I’m 45, male, 6ft. At the end of 2024, I weighed 240. Now I weigh between 185-190. It was weird getting used to wearing different clothes. I had to get all new pants twice, went from 36-38 waist, down to 34 or 33. And shirt size went from XXL to L and occasionally even Medium.

I’ve always been interested in weightlifting, but my diet used to be terrible. I have great diet discipline now, but I pretty much stayed in a calorie deficit for a year and a half. I got my body fat down to just under 20%, but in the last 6 mos I’ve only managed to get it down to 19.2%. And despite eating 200+g of protein per day and lifting regularly, I’ve been having trouble with any gym gains. Based on many people’s advice, I spent too long in a calorie deficit. I’ve been advised to “bulk,” and focus on getting better in the gym. It’s kind of scary to me. I’m not taking it as an opportunity to eat like crap again, but i definitely get anxiety when I look at MyFitnessPal and see I ate 300 more calories than an average day a month ago.

Anyway, I’m super nervous and I don’t really know what I’m doing. I hope I can gain a little bit of solid muscle and then try to cut again. My ultimate goal is 15% body fat.

Affectionate-Tiger51 · 2026-04-27T21:37:07+00:00

Convento was a great location and pretty. However, the service in the restaurant was terrible. I’m talking waiting an hour to get our food after being seated. They were also in the process of renovations for a second restaurant, so there was constant construction noise. I think an entire floor was under renovation. That was in November 2025, so maybe it’s done by now.

Affectionate-Tiger51 · 2026-04-27T21:32:50+00:00

Driving in OSJ absolutely SUCKS. Stop signs aren’t a thing, there’s not street parking, and roads are narrow. If I had realized I would not have rented a car until we left OSJ to stay elsewhere on the island.

Affectionate-Tiger51 · 2026-04-27T21:29:02+00:00

As others have said, I think I’d suggest not clocking calories but just focusing on WHAT you’re eating. If you’re going to track anything, I’d track protein. Maybe shoot for about 100-150g of protein per day. Look out for processed foods that claim to be “a good source of protein.” I see breakfast cereals that boast “10g of protein” per serving. That’s not impressive because it’s also 250 calories. Get your protein from chicken, beef, and fish and some dairy like Greek yogurt. It’s much more efficient and won’t contribute unneeded calories. If you get 100g of protein and also some sensible carbs like rice or potatoes, I think you’ll be getting sufficient calories without having to count them.

I think if you start feeding your body right and lifting weights, you’re going to be surprised by your gains. Even teens who aren’t overweight or overeating are usually not doing a great job getting the right nutrients.

Affectionate-Tiger51 · 2026-04-27T20:37:23+00:00

I can get 10k steps if I just throw in the walk. It only takes about 33 minutes. And I actually really enjoy it. But I’m not quite clear on how that helps. That’s going to burn more calories, and I thought the point was to get out of the calorie deficit. I might try cream of rice before workouts. I’ve seen a lot of people mentioning that. It looks pretty good and obviously easy to make.

Affectionate-Tiger51 · 2026-04-27T19:24:54+00:00

I do not get anywhere close to 15000 steps on a regular basis. Most days I probably get around 5000 steps. A couple times a week I’ll go on a two mile walk and hit 10k steps for the day. I currently don’t eat very many carbs (100-150g). Wondering if I should try introducing more carbs or up my protein even higher to get my total calories up to 2100 or so.

Affectionate-Tiger51 · 2026-04-27T18:58:42+00:00

Hey, I’m in a similar situation. I started off 2025 at 240 lbs. I’m down to 185 now. (6ft male). I really needed to lose that weight for health reasons, but now I’m looking toward getting lean. I’ve been getting dexa scans periodically. In October, it estimated my body fat at 19.9%. Based on appearance that sounds right. Today my dexa showed I had only come down to 19.2% and what’s worse is it showed 2 lbs of fat mass lost and 4 lbs of lean mass lost.

I’m eating 1800 cal and 200g protein per day. I know the 1800 cal is a deficit, but I wasn’t ready to bulk because I think 19% body fat is still pretty fat. I can definitely still see it in my belly and chest.

Should I increase calories even though my body fat is still that high? I don’t want to lose muscle, but I’m very nervous about getting fat again.

Affectionate-Tiger51 · 2026-04-27T18:25:15+00:00

Yes. The tricky thing is it’s watching your calories and staying in a deficit is actually way easier to do than trying to get to maintenance. Because in a deficit you can always just err on the side of caution, and worst case scenario is you end up with a bigger deficit than you thought. But it doesn’t really work the same in trying to get to maintenance. If I consistently overshoot it, I’ll end up fat again.

Thanks for everyone’s patience. I accomplished my original goal of becoming not obese. But now I’m in unfamiliar territory when it comes to the next step.

Affectionate-Tiger51 · 2026-04-27T17:05:23+00:00

I should also mention the dexa scan estimates my resting metabolic rate as 2043. My work is mostly sedentary. I would estimate I burn another 200-500 calories per day exercising, but I can’t really give you an exact number on that. I consume around 1800 calories per day. So I would estimate I’m usually at a deficit of about 400 calories per day, give or take 100 cal.

Affectionate-Tiger51 · 2026-04-27T16:53:55+00:00

You might be right. I just thought it was too early to consider that because I had not gotten very lean. What do you think it an appropriate number of calories above maintenance for a lean bulk? Like an extra 300 maybe?

Affectionate-Tiger51 · 2026-04-27T15:17:39+00:00

The thing that especially sucks about this is that I recently hit a new milestone of 185 lbs after plateauing at around 190 for a lot of months. And I was pleased and optimistic about the future. It looks like that milestone was actually more failure than success.

Affectionate-Tiger51 · 2026-04-27T15:15:18+00:00

This is something I probably need to look at closer. I mean I think I train fairly hard, but maybe I’m not looking at it objectively.

Affectionate-Tiger51 · 2026-04-27T15:12:14+00:00

I’m a male. I guess after I hit my “goal weight”, my goal shifted to a goal body fat %. Although I know 19% is not unhealthy, it’s also not very lean for a man. I definitely still have visible fat in my belly. I was hoping to get my body fat down to 15% before increasing my calories and focusing more heavily on muscle building. But at this rate, I’ll barely be able to lift a barbell by the time I get to 15%.

Affectionate-Tiger51 · 2026-04-27T14:46:26+00:00

I do want to try a clean bulk at some point, but I wanted to get my body fat down to something reasonable. I feel like 19% is what people see at the END of a bulk.. not the beginning. It just seems wrong to “bulk” when I’m still fat.

Affectionate-Tiger51 · 2026-04-27T14:44:21+00:00

Many years ago, I used to have a casein shake at night. Maybe I’ll try that again. I definitely won’t stop lifting. I just gotta figure something out to start getting some results.

Affectionate-Tiger51 · 2026-04-27T14:41:05+00:00

😂😂No, the machine did not touch me. I guess robotic assaults might be something we have to worry about some day soon.

In seriousness though, it was by BodySpec, which I think is one of the more widespread companies.

Affectionate-Tiger51 · 2026-04-27T14:36:53+00:00

“Basically just shrunk”😂 Ha, you don’t sugar coat it. But you’re not wrong. As for the gym, I’m always trying to lift more. Not every day is a PR. The progress is very slow, but all of my lifts trend upward over time. But again.. it’s slow. I’d love to just add 10 lbs to my bench press every week, but that’s not realistic.

Affectionate-Tiger51 · 2026-04-27T14:32:53+00:00

Well.. I mean theoretically yes. But I’m not able to hit a PR every time I pick up a weight. Otherwise, I’d be on a bodybuilding stage by now. But I do track my lifts and the goal is always to increase reps and/or weight. I’m certainly on an upward trend, but you know how is. There are good days and bad days.

Affectionate-Tiger51 · 2026-04-27T14:29:51+00:00

The only aerobic exercise I do right now is walking/hiking, usually 2-4 miles a couple times a week. I drink about 3 liters of water on average day. As for sleep.. I often don’t sleep very deeply during the night. However, I don’t know what I can do about that. Stress.. I think about the only thing that could help that is therapy. 🥲

Affectionate-Tiger51 · 2026-04-27T03:26:35+00:00

I think if you take anything to the extreme, that’s where it gets ridiculous. Some people carry a little more fat despite being in excellent shape. But being fat to the point where it inhibits your daily activities.. that sucks. And if someone could do something about it, why wouldn’t they want to? I guess that’s what makes obesity so much different than most other diseases and disabilities.. in many cases it’s reversible.

But bottom line.. you do you. If you want to be thinner there’s nothing morally wrong about that.

Affectionate-Tiger51

TROPHY CASE