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Nutrition Any former skinny fat guys out there

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IMayAgainKnowChris

IMayAgainKnowChris

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Background: I’m a 35 year old 5’8” 81kg male. Medium build. Was 97kg when I started back into the IF keto diet about 2 months ago (usually 18/6. Sometimes I only eat one meal a day). Lost some serious weight fast while doing keto (only steak and eggs a lot of days). Been doing Simple and Sinister for about 2 months and am getting good results as far as I can tell. Using the 24kg. Ordered a 32 even though I would guess I can only do 2HS with it. Probably not for 10’s.

Even when I was 215 I still wore a medium shirt and 34 waist. I’m in a 32 now. I never really got BIG and most of my weight gain has always been in my love handles/butt/thighs. I looked the best when I was about 75kg. Didn’t have any love handles at all.

I’d say on average I eat about 1200-1800 cal. Mostly Steak. The only carbs I really get are from when I take whey protein (4g per shake) when I can’t get in that afternoon steak. I think my BMR is something like 2300kcal.

Assuming that I’m going to stick to S and S, eat mostly steak and eggs (I’m open to adjusting caloric intake) is there any other tools that I can put in my kit to help tone up these love handles/chub/optimize recovery and muscle gain? I am curious it’s even possible for me to get LEAN again after gaining like 50lbs for 2-3 years.

TL;DR: IF, keto, simple and sinister... what else for body recomp? Or just give it time?
 
natewhite39 said:
In my experience hydration, adequate sleep and some type of stress management (ie. box breathing) are the big 3 for positive body comp results. Training is clearly important, but over the course of a typical week you are spending way more time on the other 3.
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Man. This sounds silly. But I really don’t pay much attention to drinking that much water. I DEFINITELY drink less than I should probably. Would make sense if that could help out more. Will work on that. Sleep sort of is what it is with a 3 month old but I’ve been getting 6 good restful hours and hitting the am practice again and that seems to be going well enough. Any links to box breathing help?
 
Guess I should add that I probably drink about 30oz of coffee a day. I could probably cut back on that.

I forgot to mention that when I was in fairly good shape a few years ago I got a body fat analysis done and I had <20% body fat (I wanna day it was like 15) on my shoulders, chest and some other places. But my waist was like 25 or 30% if I remember correctly. Does that sound like it could be a stress/cortisol issue?
 
Seems like you are on the right track with many of your strategies.
Sleep and stress management are indeed important; but yes also challenging with a newborn...
Hydration like @natewhite39 said is pretty important.

Plus be patient...
And because I’m an endurance guy... I can’t let you off the hook without recommending some LED locomotive training. Running maybe?
 
offwidth said:
Seems like you are on the right track with many of your strategies.
Sleep and stress management are indeed important; but yes also challenging with a newborn...
Hydration like @natewhite39 said is pretty important.

Plus be patient...
And because I’m an endurance guy... I can’t let you off the hook without recommending some LED locomotive training. Running maybe?
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Do you mean LSD? I googled LED and all I got were lights to wear on your back. Haha. Say I did run, any sort of time/distance/intensity recommendations? I honestly never considered running this time around. I always thought if it as a Sub optimal way to burn calories when I could always just eat less. Hate to ask a stupid question but you think that could help tone me up?
 
Not sure how helpful this will be but I've been finding Huel meal replacement shakes very useful (other brands are available, of course). Full disclosure: I'm a skinny guy and haven't been using these to control my body composition but it's an easy way to make at least one of your day's meals nutritionally-balanced and calorically-restricted (two scoops mixed with 500ml water is around 400 kCal).

It's really helpful if you have a hard time getting a decent breakfast in or if you have a tendency to eat junkfood at lunch time when you're at work etc. It's not a panacea by any means, nor is it particularly exciting, but it might be a useful tool. A guy I used to work with had meal replacement shakes for lunch every day and saved himself a bunch of money and ate a lot less junk that most everyone else in that place.

natewhite39 said:
stress management (ie. box breathing)
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Not heard of that. I might have to look into it.
 
IMayAgainKnowChris said:
Do you mean LSD? I googled LED and all I got were lights to wear on your back. Haha. Say I did run, any sort of time/distance/intensity recommendations? I honestly never considered running this time around. I always thought if it as a Sub optimal way to burn calories when I could always just eat less. Hate to ask a stupid question but you think that could help tone me up?
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Dropping 16kg in 2 months is no joke. Should be nice not carrying that around all day. Like the other gents said, water intake important. .5 to 1 oz per pound of body weight per day as a baseline. Jogging at an easy pace , 180-age is good for building mitochondria, which is good for increasing metabolism. A crap diet ( you in the past ) will pack pounds around torso, and visceral fat ( around organs ). Box breathing, inhale 4 sec through nose, hold 4 sec, exhale through pursed lips for 4 sec. pause for 4 sec. 4-4-4-4 box. Try walking for 60 sec then jogging 60 sec for 20 minutes total.

FYI on water intake: Don't drown/poison yourself (hyponatremia). This time of year in Phx. I can take in 2 gal. ( 200lbs bw) no problem. I also supplement with Celtic sea salt. Ask @offwidth how much he takes in this time of year on a 6 hr bike ride. Start with the .5, and salt your steak, unless that is an issue.
 
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IMayAgainKnowChris said:
Do you mean LSD? I googled LED and all I got were lights to wear on your back. Haha. Say I did run, any sort of time/distance/intensity recommendations? I honestly never considered running this time around. I always thought if it as a Sub optimal way to burn calories when I could always just eat less. Hate to ask a stupid question but you think that could help tone me up?
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LED = Long Easy Distance
LSD = Long Slow Distance
The thing is that ‘easy‘ doesn’t need to be ‘slow’...

There are plenty of threads on this forum that discuss this type of running.
The main thing for a ‘beginner’ is to ease into it, and to run at a Zone R or Zone 1 heart rate. You will see the term MAF. That will work too.
And it is indeed a sub-optimal way to burn calories compared to doing so in the kitchen. But it is good for you, and your heart, and is a great compliment to S&S.
 
offwidth said:
LED = Long Easy Distance
LSD = Long Slow Distance
The thing is that ‘easy‘ doesn’t need to be ‘slow’...

There are plenty of threads on this forum that discuss this type of running.
The main thing for a ‘beginner’ is to ease into it, and to run at a Zone R or Zone 1 heart rate. You will see the term MAF. That will work too.
And it is indeed a sub-optimal way to burn calories compared to doing so in the kitchen. But it is good for you, and your heart, and is a great compliment to S&S.
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Thanks so much! Very grateful for this forum.
 
Give it time and keep doing what you are doing. You didn't gain it overnight, so you won't lose it overnight.

Personally I like flexible intermittent fasting: At least 12 hours, often 14-16 hours. Once or twice per week I don't care. And I also like my potatoes, but then again I do not have a six-pack.
 
It appears to me that you are eating too little for your goals, now that you have lost the easy weight. If you read the Leangains method, you'll find that for a guy your size, the maximum caloric deficit is of about 600 calories if you dont want loss of muscle.

That book is great and is very much aligned with your way of eating. It calls a high protein diet, done 8/16.

I know it sounds counterintuitive to eat more, but your goal is to lose fat and get stronger, not to lose weight.

If you keep doing what you are doing and increase food a bit, you'll be at 75 kg and working with the 32 kg in six months to a year, I bet.
 
Oscar said:
It appears to me that you are eating too little for your goals, now that you have lost the easy weight. If you read the Leangains method, you'll find that for a guy your size, the maximum caloric deficit is of about 600 calories if you dont want loss of muscle.

That book is great and is very much aligned with your way of eating. It calls a high protein diet, done 8/16.

I know it sounds counterintuitive to eat more, but your goal is to lose fat and get stronger, not to lose weight.

If you keep doing what you are doing and increase food a bit, you'll be at 75 kg and working with the 32 kg in six months to a year, I bet.
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Thanks. I definitely think I could stand to eat another 1/2lb of ribeye a day and still do fine. It’s just so hard to eat that much sometimes. That’s 1 1/2-2lb a day. And that would put me at probably 1500kcal or so. It’s a joke to me that people eat steak as like a “treat”. Haha. It’s just the grind for me these days. God bless my wife for being so understand with this.

And you nailed it. I don’t need to lose weight. Just want to lose body fat. I’d be happy at 200lbs if it was lean muscle mass. I am committed to sticking to S and S to really see what It can do for me. And I need the minimalism and simplicity of the routine. It’s already done wonders for my posture and body comp already. Broader shoulders. For arms getting solid. Big thanks to @natewhite39 for his help along the way. Everyone responding on here means the world to those of us who really take the StrongFirst to heart. Not that other people’s opinions aren’t valid or important. But I feel like on here we all kind of “get” what each other is doing.

Might not be the best place to ask this but instead of staring a new thread... Anyone notice bigger biceps and a more pronounced chest from the swings and getups? A very unexpected surprise. Although, I wonder if those areas are getting worked because of poor form, ha.
 
IMayAgainKnowChris said:
Might not be the best place to ask this but instead of staring a new thread... Anyone notice bigger biceps and a more pronounced chest from the swings and getups? A very unexpected surprise. Although, I wonder if those areas are getting worked because of poor form, ha.
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haha, same here. The advantages of being a beginner :D
 
S&S seems like a solid plan for Keto IF. I followed such a diet a couple years ago, lost a lot of weight, felt pretty good, but my BB lifts all suffered. I stuck with it for a good 4-5 months before adding carbs back in, which resulted in my lifts improving again. But everyone is different and I'm glad it's working out for you and your goals.

I've seen elsewhere on the forums where individuals mention practicing snatches and seeing their pull-ups improve as well. I'm sure there's something to it.

I second @offwidth with the LED recommendation. If time's an issue, some people do well with 10 min brisk walks after meals. A good dose of low intensity activity should help you lean out a bit more.

I'm no nutrition expert, but I think 1200 is a bit low, but 1800 seems to be about right for fat loss. TDEE - 500 kcal.

EDIT: on a further note: ribeye steak daily... now that's something to aspire to!
 
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