Conditioning/Weight loss programming clarity

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.

Thanothan,

Thanks for the post and kudos to you for taking action. A few thoughts here:

  1. I agree that both RT and AT would be beneficial for not only supporting weight loss, but also weight-independent health benefits
  2. I think the RT portion of the bridge is relatively fine, but the AT is lacking as it was designed to be a “bridge” from LP to other programs
  3. The AT portion from the beginner program would be sufficient to meet the physical activity guidelines. You do not need to run to do this and in fact, I do not recommend running to those who have not been running a lot recently. Rather, walking, cycling, rowing, etc. would all be fine modes of AT
  4. I do not think your history of a broken leg requires specific rehab at this point and if it did, I would not feel comfortable recommending the “ATG Zero” program for that
  5. Your energy intake goal of 1600-1800 is too low for long-term adherence. I’d be aiming for 2600 or so and see how you do when actually hitting that vs. missing 1600-1800. I’d also bump your fiber goal up. -Jordan

Thank you Jordan for the help! Very much appreciated.
For further clarification, the beginner prescription had a max of 30 min 6-7 RPE LISS plus 6500 steps per day. Is the taking the steps into account (i.e. going for walks) that are accounting for the difference? I have seen in other posts that your desire is that people would be more active and get above the 150-300 min/wk. Out of curiosity, isn’t more activity someone in my shape should try and adhere to? My gut tells me, “I should do everything I can.” Maybe this is partly the fault of the internet, but my mind cannot help but remember the David Goggins mentality haha.

As far as the left leg goes, without specific training to address the weaknesses, in what ways can I expect it to get better and back to normal?

The training program is sufficient to address any residual weaknesses you have from a remote injury that is not overtly symptomatic.

For the physical activity guidelines, I do not think there are weight loss benefits to exceeding this. Further, if your cardiorespiratory fitness is not well developed already, doing a very high volume of that is unlikely to help you get better any faster.

Is it just that their are diminishing returns at a certain threshold of cardio for those at different levels of fitness? As in, in order to burn more and more calories by activity, you would have to increase effort produced at a greater than linear rate?
Also, although I am planning an doing the excercises mentioned(cycling, rowing, walking etc.) a friend wanted to start swimming with me for cardio. How does this compare to other forms of AT? My thoughts would that it would be “better for the joints” but greater in intensity and muscle fatigue. I see the benefit, but matching that with strength training leaves me questioning the effect it would have on lifts and whether it is really any better (or worse) than other forms of AT.

I don’t think exercise performed consistently over a long time really increases energy expenditure. I would not be using exercise to “burn Calories” for weight loss, as I do not think that is how it works.

It’s not better for the joints insofar as injury risk, pain, etc. If you are unaccustomed to swimming, it will cost more from a fatigue standpoint compared to an equal volume of another mode you’re more familiar with.

I think it’s more important that you engage in this sort of activity - especially one you prefer and are able to do regularly- rather than pick any particular mode.

Yeah that makes much more sense. I tried the swimming just because, and I had little to no energy to lift afterwards. Unless I plan on performing in some kind of swimming activity(unlikely) this definitely is not the move.

Thank you so much for you help, Jordan.