Hey Jordan, Austin, and others:
25 male, 6’0", 270 lbs, 38-ish inch waist with terrible CRF.
I have looked around quite a bit and tried to distill what I could from you all on what is the course of action to take as far as weight loss and conditioning to decrease comorbidity, but I need help condensing it all and making sense of it.
The 3 givens are: Resistance training is to remain a constant(of course) but slower gains, I must lose the fat in order to reduce mortality risk, and I must increase conditioning levels(CRF) in order to increase quality of living, longevity, and ease in activity.
At least that is what I have gleaned and I definitely feel the need in my day to day. My current fitness level and bmi is not the way to go.
Right now I am doing the Bridge v1.0, having come off of the Beginner Prescription for around 6 months, and then years of off and on SS before that. Lifts are improving a lot and that is great.
Squat: 255 x 4 x 8 RPE
Bench: 205 1 rep Max/ 190 x 4 x 8 RPE
Press: 105 x 5 x 8 RPE
Deadlift: 300 x 5 x 8 RPE
Barbell Row: 135 x 8 x 8 RPE
My diet that I have conceptualized (and failed to adhere to consistently) is as follows:
1600-1800 calories a day
Prioritizing 150-180g of protein
20-30g of fiber
keeping fats low
healthy carbs at a moderate amount
I know that you guys do not suggest counting exact calories( at least I do not think you do, IIRC) because it requires meticulous weighing and tracking. I am akin to doing just that when I follow. It is what I am used to, but it is exhausting. My resistance to not paying too much attention to calories and focusing on protein, fiber, and types of food is that I do not have self control. If I do not give myself more rigid guidelines, then I will fail much more often and will not being able to keep myself accountable. However, it is not like I am staying on top of it anyways…
With all that said, from what I know and what I have been doing(kind of) is implementing 30 minutes of 6 rpe cardio 3x/wk on a stationary bike or steep incline treadmill. The recommendations are 150-300 m of moderate activity a week and this is not cutting it. My desire is to be able to run again, run up stairs or help a brother move without being winded. I want to be able to perform athletically again(recreationally) and I am just not there. On top of that, I had a broken leg last summer, had surgery, and now my left knee tendons(patellar, acl, lcl), tibialis, and calf are all very weak. The increased weight does not help at all. So, I cannot really run, jump, or pivot on that leg without discomfort due to atrophy, weakness, and imbalance. The tissue is healthy in structure, just under developed now. I am working to change this recently by integrating the beginner program from Ben Patrick’s ATG Zero program(knees over toes). 3x/wk around 15 minutes. So I am unsure on what type of conditioning I should be training and if I should try to do low intensity walk/run intervals for running to just train ability again.
This weakness, my cardio/conditioning, and weight loss all go hand in hand and would love some advice on how to simplify it does to something that I can have confidence in its effectiveness. I just want to be healthy, in shape, get rid of that waist band flip(hah), and able to function properly. I understand that I could get coaching from you all, and I would love that, but being a grad student does not lend itself to much financial freedom haha.
Thank you for your help.