Having a hard time hitting daily protein and calorie deficit

Hello!

First of all, thanks for all the incredible content.

I had been running your free beginner prescription and recently bought your beginner template on Memorial Day sale, loving it so far!

Some stats: I’m Brazilian so I use the metric system. Sorry about that!

Male
29 years old
109 kg
30% bodyfat
not sure about waist circumference but way above maximum recommended threshold
1.75m height

I have a few questions if you could be so kind!

I have been trying to stay under 2087 calories a day, which is what the NIDDK calculator says I should be at in order to get to 90 kg in 180 days (I set this goal at random), but I have been having a hard time getting my 200g of protein a day under this calorie cap. I usually end the day at 150-160 g protein with 100-150 calories left, which means that the “only” way I could get it would be through whey protein, but I always take whey in the morning and afternoon, wouldn’t a third dose be too much?

Does this 2087 calories limit seem reasonable? It seems widely different from the “to be a beast” article in which the “fluffy novice” was eating 3100 calories a day. He was 34 years old, 240 lbs (same weight as me) and 6 ft tall (taller than me, but not that much) and 35% bodyfat (more than me).

My doctor said I was insulin resistant (based on last check up exams, took them in April/2020) - which he said could be reversed if I lose weight - and that I should lose weight (which I’m trying to), he said I already had slightly high creatinine, CPK and urea (1,03 mg/dL, 206 U/L and 51 mg/dL, respectively), and - although he encourages the use of creatine for people who do resistance training - in my case he thought I should wait until I lost some weight and improved those markers (and the insulin resistance), would you agree with this opinion?

Sorry for the long text, and thanks in advance for all the help!

Daniel,

Thanks for the post. A few thoughts here:

  1. 150-160g of protein is totally fine. If you want to eat more protein, I’d make your protein doses bigger rather than increase the frequency.

  2. As far as the appropriateness of the calorie intake, how’s your weight loss going? That’d be a better metric than some random numbers on the internet.

  3. I don’t think it matters if you take creatine or not with respect to health so I’m not sure why your doctor has that opinion to be honest.

-Jordan

Hey doc, thanks for the reply!

To be honest my weight loss is going slowly, but steadily, so I guess I can’t really up the calorie amount a day.

As for your take on creatine, do you believe someone with the characteristics I described above could take creatine without further health concerns?

No, I wouldn’t worry about creatine causing health problems at all.

Thank you for the answers, Doc!