Woohoo! Day 6 of my first official cut, and finally the scale shows some progress! Every single morning, same time, same conditions, I was hopping on the scale and it would tell me 155.x at 20% BF. Yesterday, I had a really good workout, but ate more calories than I have all week :o. This morning however, the scale said 154.2 at 19%!! That's the first time the scale has ever told me 19% BF first thing in the morning! WOO HOO!! :claphigh:

Is aiming for a 1% BF reduction per week on a cut realistic?

I have no idea what my calorie needs are, I've just been guessing, and eating as healthy as I can. Yesterday I lifted a half hour longer than normal, and followed lifting with 10 minutes HIIT on a stationary bike. :bb:
But I ate about 2000 to 2100 calories. I'd been averaging about 1700 a day up til yesterday (however, 630 calories yesterday were protein shakes). :whistle:

Now, I'm a pretty small guy, 6.5" wrists just above the radius bump, 5'7.5", 154 @ 19% BF... Can anyone give me a calorie need estimate?

Do you have a picture of yourself that you can post? Given your stats, I think might prefer to see you eating a bit more and training consistently for a while.

Well, I've got pics in my journal that are a week or so old. I'll be taking my new pics for the start of the June 100 point challenge tomorrow. I'm on a cut right now because it seems all the most successful people on here started that way. I'm probably going to be pretty scrawny looking by the time I finish my cut... But I really want to get rid of this fat.

If my scale is correct, I have about 125 pounds of lean mass :o

It's going to depend on how active you are. How old you are. Plus how your own body acts.

Sounds like you've lost 1lb eating almost 10600 calories for six days. So if you add back the 3500 calories you lost that's 14100. Divide by six and you get 2350 for maintance.

Now check some of the calculators and see how that compares.

Someone mentioned "TDEE" in a post, and that help me find the formula. f I account for the activity, that formula puts me at 3135! That's just maintenance? Is a 1000-1500 calorie deficit too much?

I'm updating my journal here with pics, stats, and stuff as soon as I finish going over some posts.

I use the Katch-McArdle formula to figure out my BMR since it uses bf% rather then just your age, weight and height. Those scale things are not too accurate in terms of bf% calculation but I guess its fine for checking progress. Some scales say i'm 2% others say i'm 26% some say 14% so that's why I don't trust those things.

I've been using the same sharper image scale for a good 3-4 years now, and it has told me I've dropped 11% BF since my highest. However, at 165, it told me I was at 21%. Now, at 153, it says 20%! 12 pounds lost and only a 1% BF drop? :eek:

However, this is first thing in the morning weight. Towards the middle of the day, my weight will be around 153-154, and yet the scale will say 17% :confused:

And before going to bed, I'll be at 18%. So I've been going by the morning weight, but... Sheesh. Cutting is tough.

yeah your weight will fluctuate throughout the day due to water intake, food intake, etc. True weight is usually when you wake up after you pee. Weight really doesn't mean much especially if your a new lifter like i've been lifting for a little over a year now and the last 6 weeks I lost 2lbs but my bf% went down from 13% to 10% cuz i'm gaining muscle as well.

What's the usual timespan of regular lifting that brings a person out of the "new lifter" category? I know I'm still new, I'm just wondering when I'll "graduate".

That's a tough question it really depends but usually people reach intermediate lifting levels i would say maybe after 2-3 years of lifting? Some even after 1 but even at that level you'll still get some significant gains. Its only when you get to advanced levels is when plateaus are more common and you break records every few weeks to months or even years rather then every week or every workout. When I first started again after a two year break I did a routine that requires you to increase weight every workout which is perfect for a new lifter. After 9 weeks my progress dropped from increasing every workout to every week. Even after a year of training I still increase about 2.5% about every week or so on most of my lifts. I guess I made this more wordy then I should but to sum it up you don't want to graduate basically you want keep gaining like a newbie just don't lift like a newbie.

basically you want keep gaining like a newbie just don't lift like a newbie.

That makes sense :) I was just kind of wondering how long I can expect to enjoy my "rapid newbie gains".

i have a health-o-meter superduper electronic backlit scale that says i'm 16% bodyfat when my accu-measure caliper says i'm 11%.



the best thing you can possibly do to check bodyfat progress is buy the $15 caliper, and get the measuring tape.

when i get my crossfit trainer cert i'm gonna buy that super high tech one that JS himself uses. then i'll be good, lol.

i have a health-o-meter superduper electronic backlit scale that says i'm 16% bodyfat when my accu-measure caliper says i'm 11%.



the best thing you can possibly do to check bodyfat progress is buy the $15 caliper, and get the measuring tape.

when i get my crossfit trainer cert i'm gonna buy that super high tech one that JS himself uses. then i'll be good, lol.

That's encouraging, maybe I'm closer to my goals then I thought :)