Saturday, February 11, 2023

First time cutting - seeking advice with a few questions

Hey LoseIt,

I'll try keep it simple.

Context: 27 M / CW: 84kg (~185lb) / ~ 5'8.

Activity: Go to gym 4x a week (hypertrophy Upper-Lower type split ; used to do a focus on powerlifting but have since moved).

Dieting: I made a commitment to start cutting (downloading MFP and tracking 'most' of my food) around 3 weeks ago; so say 22-Jan-2023. I believe my weight prior to this was anywhere from 85-87kg (coming from the new year festive season), but most likely within the 86-87kg region - unfortunately I didn't have a concrete measuring.

I didn't really bother testing out my TDEE and just jumped straight into a 2k calorie intake from that Jan date. The reason why is because I recall i used to track around 2-2.5k cals on a previous weight loss log history. Nonetheless, I think it seems to have some results as I'm in the 84kg region (uppers and unders) from a year high of 86-87kg (to be conservative).

I know that water weight and hormones due to dieting skews the game a bit, so a lot of these numbers may need to be taken with some skepticism.

Q1) Any real dramas with just starting at a ~2k caloric intake? I gather that the scale and gym performance will be the tell-tale sign if it's genuinely too low. Given that it has been 3 weeks and the scale hasn't severely dropped too much, then I presume it's a nice rough start. The caveat is if it starts to stall (which leads to my next question), then am I at risk of already having a somewhat low caloric intake for a 85kg male?

Q2) During this 3 week process, I find the scale oscillates a lot - some days are higher and then lower. I understand that we should be tracking a 7-day moving average (which I have), however I had thought most of the fluctuations after the onset would have largely stabilised and I'd see consistent loss. The alternative is how long do I give myself to allow for the 'Woosh' effect? Say I am on the right path and will it just suddenly come later with a sharp drop ? (which is what today's 84kg felt like as I used to be closer to the 85kg region).

Q3) The reason why I said 'most' foods were being tracked was that I sort of omit the low cal greens. Things like lettuce etc. However, if I tend to eat A LOT of them, then I'll guesstimate an aggregate weight of that lettuce (As an example) and log it in. But for big carbs and big meats, I'll obviously track them as they'll be the real heavy hitters in accumulating calories. I usually stop around 1.8k cals to account for oils and other condiments (I eat in an asian household where I usually have some of my mum's cooking, but for most meats I will cook and track myself). As such, this gives around a 10% buffer for oils/condiments etc. Noting that we don't typically eat thick condiments anyway - instead opt for things like soy sauce, etc.

Q4) My goal is to lose 10kg (~22lbs), but i also have a self imposed deadline around mid-May in terms of timing. So my goal is to try shed a reasonable amount of weight until May but not lose too much muscle - perhaps just a slow and steady approach works best [would likely result in 2lb loss a month] ? And as such, the amount of weight loss in itself is just arbitrary?

Thank you

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