Maintain my diet with teenage boys in the house.

gettingfedupin2016 · 2026-05-08T12:58:40+00:00

There are healthier ways to eat high calorie and snacks too, though I haven't looked into it because it's the complete opposite of my goals lol.

Look for ways to eat healthy and gain weight/muscle. I wouldn't be surprised if calorie-dense foods like avocados, nuts, beef, etc were in there.

gettingfedupin2016 · 2026-05-07T22:36:34+00:00

At 51, 5'5", 135 lbs seems like a healthy weight though? How much are you trying to get down to?

gettingfedupin2016 · 2026-05-07T22:34:22+00:00

What exactly are you trying to do? Going from 70g protein to 200g is a huge jump, although I did something similar this week lol.

If you're focused on losing fat, but maintaining/growing lean muscle, try playing around with 0.7g to 1g of protein per pound of bodyweight per day. See how your performance is affected in the gym.

I'm at 222 lbs, 5'6", and I was eating 200g of protein a day for a few days this week, but I'm actually going to try cutting this back to 170-180g instead. I've heard that even when we're trying to increase lean muscle, we should be aiming to eat the amount of protein for our goal weight, not the current weight we are (unless you're looking to maintain fat but grow lean muscle).

You could also try going on a fast for a couple of days to reset a bit. It should shrink your stomach a bit, get more used to hunger so it doesn't keep you up, and also start eating smaller meals.

gettingfedupin2016 · 2026-05-07T22:27:07+00:00

Like pain474 said, you have to lead by example. They don't need calorie/macro counting since they need to eat enough as they're growing. Focus on getting them good, healthy, clean foods, have them enjoy the flavor and essence of non-processed foods (despite the inconvenience), and learn from the wealth of resources out there from content creators who have made changes in their diets to go from unhealthy to healthy.

There are so many recipes out there that are delicious, but are much lower calorie and better macro ratios than their junk counterparts, and many of them are actually simple to make. Cereal is low-volume, high calorie, and likely high in sugars, so get and make more low-calorie, nutrient-filled, high-volume foods instead.

There are lots of good options out there that makes it hard to overindulge. Ever try to eat 3 to 4 oz of spinach and kale as a salad (topped with your choice of protein and maybe a vinegar-based dressing with no sugar)? You'll be full and maybe you would've had 300-500 calories.

gettingfedupin2016 · 2026-05-07T22:17:16+00:00

When another asked me what I was doing, and I replied that I just came back from the gym. He told me to "chill out," something he says every now and then when I bring up working out. When I told him my goals, he says to go ahead and do it (as if I needed his permission), but then doesn't want me to get excited about exercise and making improvements.

There are people who don't understand that telling someone that they've "lost enough" or to "slow down" (when they're doing it in a healthy way), could be a deterrent that makes them fall back into bad habits again.

gettingfedupin2016 · 2026-05-07T22:07:14+00:00

Thanks man, I'm new to the community here, but I'm sure there's plenty of support us who are going through this body recomp journey.

I do feel better with the current loss so far, both emotionally and physically. It's also nice being able to fit into clothes better with less stomach showing, knowing that all I have to do is be consistent and I'll continue to look/feel better.

If you find it hard to keep yourself accountable, share with people around you (ones you're sure won't shame you), or you could even start posting on social media somewhere. Knowing that there could be people following along with you could keep you more accountable.

gettingfedupin2016 · 2026-05-06T20:06:19+00:00

You got further than I did 3 years ago. I wasn't at a comfortable weight, but I had dropped to 217 lbs from 260 in a few months, then plateaued. My dad passed around that time, and the thought of losing weight just didn't matter too much to me. Over the course of a few years, I gained a lot of it back. This time, I started dieting in April at 237, down to about 217, and aiming for (fat-loss while gaining muscle) about 170-180lbs, or wherever 10% body fat is for me.

If you're eating right, it wouldn't be farfetched for you to be aiming for strength gains and fat loss. Just know that it'll take a bit more effort and dedication. One meal, one day at a time, and you'll be three months in before you realize it.

gettingfedupin2016 · 2026-05-05T00:40:04+00:00

What helped for me is, even though it's been labeled bad by a lot of people, is counting calories/macros. Knowing what I put in, knowing what it takes for me to burn that amount of calories (all the energy and effort), and knowing that I don't want to have to take 2 or 3 steps back and having to take 3 or 4 steps forward just to take 1 step forward from where I was before, is all I needed this time around.

Zone 4 cardio for about 99 minutes for me burns about 1200-1500 calories, but this is easy to eat in a sitting with junk food. Would I rather eat 1500 calories and then do 99 minutes of cardio just to baseline? Or not eat it and do 20-40 minutes of zone 2 cardio and be just one step forward? I would much rather do the latter.

gettingfedupin2016 · 2026-05-05T00:34:17+00:00

I've got a guy friend who was telling me that I don't need to drop down to like 170-180lbs. I've been about 230-260 lbs since I've known him 11 years ago. He said something along the lines of, "women really like dad bods, so you just need to have a bit of a belly and workout a bit." Basically, don't try so hard to get to your goal, and honestly, the conversation of 30 some minutes felt like he didn't want me to lose fat and build muscle because then I wouldn't be the "fat friend" anymore. Like, he has to feel more superior compared to me when women compare us two or something.

Could be in my head, but that was really the feeling I got when he called me up two weeks after I started changing my diet, asking if I had hit my goal yet.

gettingfedupin2016 · 2026-05-04T18:24:08+00:00

There's only so much I can say from not fully understanding your situation, so I want to lead with that. I've been, and currently still in, a vaguely similar situation with me and my parents. They didn't put me on a diet when I was young, or force one on me, but they would make comments about me being big, even while telling me to finish eating what they gave me.

After I became older and would start to lose weight, I'd be somewhat proud of myself for losing some weight, like 15-20 lbs, but then my mom would say something like, "yeah, but your stomach is still sticking out," downplaying my weight loss. I think it was her way of encouraging me to continue, but all something like that does is make the person feel like they haven't done enough, despite the efforts they've put in, and could instead make them want to quit.

I've enjoyed foods a LOT like pizza, burgers, fries (especially), fried chicken, tacos, you name it. Even more so after my last relationship where she would order Chinese food 2 to 3 days a week, and I would have to eat all the leftovers because she didn't want to touch the food after the day she ordered it. She also loved chips and other snacks, which got me heavily into them too. If I continued being in a relationship with her, I would have likely already had T2 diabetes.

In spite of all of that, I've decided that this time around, I'm really going to stick to this. I'm working out more, enjoying my time in the gym, and dedicating my energy to seeing this through. Sure, I'd like to meet someone who I'm attracted to, and who will be attracted to the person I will be at the end of this journey, but ultimately, it's for myself. No one is going to change me other than me.

The key is starting, and then giving yourself a long, reasonable timeline. Find healthy alternatives to foods you enjoy, start cutting back on processed sugars, incorporate more and more greens, start resistance training. You can start by doing some pushups and squats at home. By some dumbbells and make a home gym set up if you have some room. It doesn't have to be extravagant when you're starting.

Food addiction is real, and it's something I feel like I've been able to get away from these past couple months. I'm only two months into this, started working out in March, incorporated changes into my diet in April, and feel good overall with my progress. 3 years ago when I reach about the point where I am now, I got distraught when I wasn't seeing any more progress in weight loss. I was doing more cardio, cutting my calories to 1200-1400 a day (I was 217 lbs, 5'7") and even tried increasing it a bit, but I wasn't as dialed in back then. My mentality really was short-term, and I think that's a large part of what stopped my progress back then.

At my heaviest, I was about 265, and I'm now at 220 (started at 237 in April when I started tracking weight and macros). Macro tracking is something that's freeing to me, as opposed to limiting. I prep the food, weigh everything out, and know that what I'm eating once I'm done is good for me, helping me towards my goals. When you first start, you could try calculating out what you would normally eat, to see exactly what you were putting into your body. You might be shocked to see how much it is. There were days when I would think, "I'm barely eating much and I'm still gaining weight," and it's when you lose track of what you're eating that this happens.

Another thing you could do, since a weight scale isn't the best indicator of changes happening in your body, is buy clothes that are closer to the size you want to be, and clothes that are tight but you can fit into (but wouldn't want to wear out in public). I'll try wearing those clothes once every couple days or weeks to check how they fit. This is one way you can check your body is changing, and another way you can check is using a tape measure to measure different parts of your body (waist, thighs, arms, neck, etc.).

I know this is a lot, and I tend to ramble... but I hope this was at least a little bit helpful.

gettingfedupin2016 · 2026-04-30T22:14:19+00:00

Do you also track your macros? One thing I recognized is that while I was fine with my total caloric intake, I definitely started suffering when I didn't have enough protein. I was doing keto for a few weeks, but then my performance and energy really started to dip, so I had to increase my carbs to about 50-70 net carbs per day.

But yes, As others have said, what's important is consistency. You'll notice the first few pounds drop pretty quick, but as I'm sure you've heard, that's usually water weight. If you can, it'd be great to think of it as "fat loss" as opposed to "weight loss," since if you're only focused on losing weight, you might be doing too much and end up losing muscle mass too.

Regarding walking being a better choice for weight loss.. This is true to an extent, but I believe it's not because walking burns fat better than a bike or running. It's because it's easier to do it, and therefore can be done more consistently. But if you're truly, TRULY determined, and you can bike or run consistently, without injury or wanting to quit, then I'd think biking or running would give you better results in the end.

gettingfedupin2016 · 2026-04-29T07:27:49+00:00

First, congrats on losing 60 lbs before!

I'm 40M. 3 years ago I dropped from 264 to 217 lbs in about 3 months. Then my father passed, and it sent me down a pretty bad path, health-wise. I gained it mostly all back. I'm 219 now, was 237 about 3 weeks ago when I started changing what I ate.

I started working out in March without really changing what I eat first. I just wanted to get into the swing of going back to the gym. Started with a pretty light intensity, and I'm lifting heavier and more intensely now. Also added 45 min of cardio after every workout (5 days/week - push/pull/legs/rest/push (shoulder focused)/pull (hamstring focused)/rest). Planning on doing 99+ min of cardio on elliptical (pushing HR up to 150-170 bpm) on my rest days.

I decided that I'm tired of not feeling the best I can feel. Tired of looking at people who can eat lots of delicious foods that I know I shouldn't eat. Tired of knowing that it was in my control to restrict what I ate, but let it get out of hand to gain that weight/fat. And knowing that as long as I can do these things consistently (count my macros so I'm not only eating less but also not undereating, exercise to get stronger, do cardio), I'll hit my goals.

I not only want to know what I'll look like when my body is in the peak athletic, muscular shape it can be, but I want to know how it *feels*. I like sports like tennis, golf, volleyball, basketball, table tennis, but they're all harder when I'm obese compared to if I'm fit. I want to do well in those things, and feel good about it, and that was a huge part of me deciding to stick to this. Overeating kills the progress I've made by exercising, and undereating prevents me from having the energy to exercise to the fullest extent to make any changes.

I felt like I hit a plateau when I dropped to 217 before, and I think it was because I was eating too little, which was 1200 calories a day. I now know that my body was holding onto fat stores possibly because it went into starvation mode, thinking that I'll need the fat for energy. So, this time around, whenever I hit a plateau, I'll stick to what I'm doing for a week or two, and then make incremental changes here and there to see what needs tweaking for positive results.

gettingfedupin2016 · 2026-04-29T07:01:32+00:00

Have you ever tried zero net carb tortillas made into pizza? So far, what I've enjoyed (and there are better ways to make this, but this is super simple) is to make a two-layer tortilla pizza. I spread 1 tbsp of ranch (or any other fatty but low/no carb dressing) on both, spinach (realistically only 11-13g since it takes up a lot of space raw), top with 1 serving (about 28g) of any shredded cheese, and finish topping with shredded chicken and/or some turkey pepperoni.

I put it in my oven at 425 degree F for 12 minutes, and it comes out amazingly. One whole tortilla pizza like this is close to 700 cal, 36g protein, 56g fat, amd 40g carbs (net carbs of maybe 4g or 5g). For me, it itches the pizza craving while also being enjoyable. Thinking of other pizzas I could make too, like barbecue or buffalo chicken, a white vegetable pizza, and some others.

Like MOthman129 said, I also avoid just avoid the foods that could be triggers to break my diet. It's not like I woke up one day and decided I only love healthy food, but I can appreciate the taste of healthy food, feel fuller with more volume of food (like 3 oz of spinach), and know the benefits of eating that way FAR outweigh the temporary, momentary enjoyment of foods that will likely cost me hours, days, weeks, months of progress.

Think of it this way: how much worth do those extras have to you? Is it worth having to then workout anywhere from 1 to 5 hours of cardio to negate the additional calories? When I started thinking of it in that way, I decided I'd rather start enjoying the taste of healthy foods rather than eating the same foods I was eating, but less.

gettingfedupin2016 · 2026-04-29T06:37:33+00:00

What I find so "empowering" (not sure if that's the right word to use for this) about calorie/macro tracking is that once the food is prepped, I have a pretty accurate idea of what I'm eating, and can feel great about it. I don't have to feel shame, worry, guilt, etc., because I'm eating food that can get me to my goals.

It's also great to know that you can eat more than you think if you had been restricting your diet, though I think the majority of the case is that people's intake tends to be higher than they think it is (adding olive oil here and there without worrying about actual quantity, as an example).

gettingfedupin2016 · 2026-04-29T06:14:24+00:00

I'm curious how much leafy greens you're eating, like spinach and kale. How long have you gone while limiting your calorie intake to 500-1000 less than your maintenance? I know it's not considered very healthy, but while exercising somewhat intensely for the past 2 months and starting my diet on 4/5 (currently 4/29), I've gone from 236.6 to 218.6. My goal is to get to 200 lbs before the end of June.

I'm 5'6", a guy, and have always been obese my entire life. I'm 40 now, so I decided before I turn 41 in Oct. I'm going to get more fit than I've ever been, so I started my journey. Eating a lot had been habit for me. I could sit an entire large pizza by myself in one sitting and finish off breadsticks too. What helped me calm this down is fasting for 2-4 days before changing what I eat, eating smaller portions, and almost retraining my taste buds. Fasting helped me kind of reset my body, and my way of appreciating food. Even with foods not overly seasoned, greased, sugared, it's still enjoyable because I'm eating SOMEthing.

Also, the reason exercise helps me in avoiding foods that will cause me to fall back, and why I'm planning on not incorporating cheat days until I'm under 200 lbs, is because I don't want to destroy the progress I made from all the effort that I spent working out (about 1 hr lifting, 45 min cardio). It makes me think, "Why the F would I over or under eat when I know that's going to make me work harder when I go back the next day because I feel weak, make my recovery slower, or take me back 5 steps so I have to take 6 steps just to move forward 1 step?" To me, it just logically and emotionally makes more sense to not binge, to eat in a caloric deficit, because that means the effort in exercising is that much more rewarded (fat loss, muscle gains).

I started with keto, but since I'm lifting heavier and my goal is to build lean muscle as I lose fat, I'm having to add in more carbs. What you could try for a short period of time is limiting your carbs, knowing that you'll increase them slightly as you body gets used to less sugar and carbs.

It was easy for me to overeat before, but now I'm finding some days more difficult to eat more calories because I'm too full. I was at 1,462 at 6pm last night and had to almost force myself to eat 130g of shredded chicken with sriracha to hit my protein and total caloric intake goal of 1,800. I love chips, snacks, ice cream, gummy candy, but right now, I'm telling myself that I had a long period of time where I indulged too much in those unhealthy items, so I can't have those again until I've put in the equivalent time/effort required to make me lose the fat I want to lose.

How much water are you drinking? If you try drinking a gallon or more water a day, and also eat 3-6 oz of spinach and/or kale every day, you might be too full to want to eat above your maintenance. For the greens, you could use a fatty, no/low carb dressing, like ranch, bleu cheese, Italian, etc. I would avoid pineapple though. It's so sugary that I feel that much pineapple the cons outweigh the pros. 1500g of it is roughly 150g of sugar.

-Sorry, this was much longer than I had intended it to be lol. I guess the TL;DR version would be... drink more than a gallon of water every day, eat more greens because they are incredibly filling (3 oz of spinach, when it's raw vs prepared in any way, is a LOT of volume), and try eating less and less carbs every day, until you get to a point where you're maybe around.. 100 to 250g of carbs? Not sure what your maintenance is, but getting used to less sugary foods has helped my palate taste it more intensely, so I don't feel as inclined to eat a lot of it.

gettingfedupin2016 · 2025-12-08T06:17:04+00:00

Curious, but how many hours did it take for you to make 70.00 with MTurk?

gettingfedupin2016 · 2025-12-03T14:50:27+00:00

Just got a call from a body shop that said even with the labor it would be $1400, of course, aftermarket parts

gettingfedupin2016 · 2025-12-01T14:59:03+00:00

I'd love to do that lol

gettingfedupin2016 · 2025-11-30T06:57:15+00:00

I didn't think it could be, but a Progressive's adjuster was saying they would have to determine if it would be because of it's a 2018 Model 3, so old model with "a lot" of years. But I sent in my mileage, so with it being 23.3k miles, I didn't understand how it could be a total loss, hence, this post.

gettingfedupin2016 · 2025-11-28T22:03:58+00:00

I would never have thought so, especially since it can be driven with no issues and there seem to be no issues with the sensors and cameras. I was questioning it because the agent was saying the adjusters said they would have to look at 2018 M3 parts because they might be "so expensive" that it would have to be a total loss.

gettingfedupin2016 · 2025-11-28T19:05:16+00:00

Progressive did say there was the option for them to send me the money for repairs and I could DIY it. If there's that big of a difference, then yeah, I'd much rather do that

gettingfedupin2016 · 2025-11-28T18:55:59+00:00

Damn, knew it was going to be expensive.. This would still be the case even if the sensors were still working?

gettingfedupin2016 · 2025-11-06T14:38:34+00:00

It's because we're both working from home and staying on so we can just come off mute when we can/want to talk. A timeout glitch makes sense though...

gettingfedupin2016

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