Hello. I am 5'10" tall and 200-205pounds. According to a machine my body fat is 18-19% and BMR is  2100-2200kCAL.

I have a desk job we can say. I do work out 5 times a week; 1 day bootcamp, 4 days bodybuilding with abs (total12min- HIIT-like four exercises) and 10min cardio each day.

I try to take 200gr of protein everyday. Carbs and fats i have not tracked. I just try to eat healthy and around 2200-2500kCAL daily. My aim was to lose fat.

1-2 months ago, when i was eating between 2500-3000kCAL, i started to gain weight. So, i tried to lower it a little.

My arms, shoulders, chest got bigger by 2-3cm (aprrox. 1inch) within four months. But, no change in belly fat :) I measure these areas everymonth to see my progress.

What should i be doing wrong? Am i not tracking total calories right? Should i calculate carbs and fats strictly as well? Or, should my calori intake change? Or, workout change?

Hey man! Alright I´ll comment a few things and try to make a few suggestions:

1. You´re good working out 5 times a week, personally my favorite number. More than that and I don´t feel rested enough.

2. Since your aim is to shed fat you gotta lower your calories progressively, since dropping them drastically is usually not a good thing for your body & health. For this to be possible you definitely have to track your calories/macros, otherwise you end up flying blind so this includes carbs (1 gram=4 cals) and fats (1 gram=9 cals).

If you started gaining weight instead of dropping it slowly, you might´ve been underestimating your calories. Once you track everything, you can start by cutting carbs down here and there at the "least important" times of the day and keep most of the remaining ones around your workout (pre and post), while keeping protein at 1.5g per lb (this is gonna be 300 grams based on 200lbs, 100g more than your current so compensate the increase of calories by reducing carbs even further).

So basically you can start with: High protein, moderate fat (from healthy sources), moderate low carb (don´t bring them down all at once or you might stall quick, crash or lose muscle mass with it). Then progressively switch the moderate-low carbs to low carbs (keeping most around workout) to cut down even further.

A good idea is usually to adjust the diet before touching your cardio, if you then need to raise cardio time then go for it.

From what you state I´d say your workout seems to be good so it´s your calorie tracking.

Good luck!

A.

Great advice from @andrei25!

@CiWorld if you want to see the best results, you have to track everything my friend. I'm not saying you have to weigh everything out if you don't want to, but you need to at least be able to learn to eyeball things so that you can track your protein, carbs and fats.

Have you also used the calculator on the @mealplan page to get some numbers for your macros? It sounds like you know more or less what you need to be eating.. but if you only think you were eating 2500-3000 calories, but you weren't tracking properly, you could have been eating a lot more than that, and now your deficit might be way too high.

Also, I'm a little confused.. you said 1-2 months ago you were gaining weight, so you lowered your intake.. but have you not seen any results in the last 2 months? Is that what you want help with, to actually get into a proper deficit to see weight loss? If you could clarify that please, that would be great 😊 

Also, before you do get into fixing your macros (if you are stuck in a plateau), then you need to track a few normal days of eating for the next couple of days so you know what you're actually getting daily now. That way we will have an easier time suggesting what to do next.

Hope that all makes sense!

@andrei25 @Scott_Herman thanks both for your great advices.

Definitely i gotta track carbs as well. "Eyeballing" can be deceptive :) I favor more on the carbs side i think :)

I have one question mark. According to @mealplan, i should take 2800kCAL (200-250gr of protein and enough carbs-fats) for fat loss. Isn't it much? Maybe, i should track my change (photo and measuring) and change meals according to that. Taking only bathroom scale into consideration is not enough maybe. Photos and measuring are more helpful i think.

No problem man!

Don´t we all favor more on the carbs side? lol

Ok so you got that down with the @mealplan app, but I would follow Scott´s advice on tracking a few days of your usual food intake and see if it was more or less than you thought and adjust macros from there.

I don´t measure myself frequently but it is a good thing to do, but photos I do take usually twice a month and an everyday mirror check. Remember weighing yourself in the scale first thing in the morning after a bathroom trip lol

Also thanks @Scott_Herman for the words!

A.

Yeah so anything from the @mealplan page is just a starting point. But for now, for you at least, you need to figure out roughly what you're already getting. This is because you know you're not losing weight with your current diet, because you've been trialling with it for basically the last 2 months judging by your first post.

For example, if you find that you're actually getting say 3300 calories already, then it would make sense to cut on 2800. But if you're getting 2800 already, then maybe you need about 2500 to cut.

Can you just confirm that's your goal though please? Because your profile says gain muscle.. but your first post said that when you think you were eating 2500-3000 calories, you then reduce it because you were gaining weight.. so you want to lose weight/lose fat now, right?

I have uploaded some photos. (Mostly unprepared spontaneous)

My aim is to lose fat for the next couple months. So that i can see my results at least 😄 my belly fat precedes the rest of my body

OK awesome! So judging from your photos, I would say that you are probably around 20%, but you definitely have some good muscle mass just waiting to be revealed fully!

So now it's a matter of figuring out the macros and calories you're CURRENTLY getting, and then we'll try reducing them by about 250-500 to put you in a deficit, because you've been maintaining with your current numbers.

That will just mean over the next 2 or 3 days, try to track what you typically eat and get at least some averages for your daily intake. How does that sound?

Hello @Scott_Herman. Now, it's been more than a month since we talked. And the progress:

-For the last 3 weeks, i've written down everything i ate and calculated total calorie intake. My protein intake is a little over 200gr daily. Some days more, some days less. Each week, i lost 1kg. My daily intake was around 2500kCAL. I feel better and before mirror i look better :)

Now, i will try 2800kCAL daily intake and see if i am losing weight. (no change in protein intake.) Because, i dont want to take less calorie which would put me into a plateu earlier.

But, i have one question in my mind. While calculating protein intake, i consider every protein from every source; such as yogurt-cheese-oat meal-beans etc. Is it wrong? Should i consider only protein from red meat, chicken, fish, turkey and eggs? (If it is, my daily average protein intake is 180-183gr in a weekly basis.)

Congrats on the progress @CiWorld! Losing 1kg per week is really good!! That is pretty fast weight loss so yeah, you can probably afford 2700-2800 calories to still be losing weight at a slightly slower rate.

Protein intake sounds good.. what are your carbs and fats like?

And you are on the right path with tracking your protein - you definitely want to track protein from all sources (that includes things like peanut butter, oats, rice, which all have probably at least 5g protein per typical serving). Same with carbs and fat - track all your foods for their entire macronutrient count.