Hey Jordan,
I’ve just finished listening to podcasts 175 & 176 with Austin where you spoke about determining calorie intake. First off, I thought they were brilliant! However, I do have a few questions I hope you could clear up.
I’ll start by giving some background information. I’m currently 24 years old, 190cm, 227lbs with a 35inch waist coming towards the end (due to waist size) of an unintentional bulk where I started at 200lbs, 32.5inch waist back in October 2021. I’m happy with the gainzz I’ve made in this time, but now wanna take some fat off (crazy right? most people do this before summer starts, not as it’s about to end).
I didn’t track calories during this bulk. I’ve had a really negative relationship with this in the past where I felt it literally consumed my life, so I decided to be free but also sensible, ensuring that my diet consisted of all the foods and dietary patterns you mentioned at the end of the podcast 80% of the time, the other 20% went towards meals out and holidays etc.
I understand I’ll need to be eating less than I am right now in order to lose fat, but in my head there’s no simple or consistent way of doing that without tracking. Simply reducing the quantities of the carbs I’m eating now sounds reasonable, however wouldn’t this only work if my meals were the exact same everyday?
TL;DR for someone who is within a healthy weight and waist range, eats > 1.6g/kg protein, eats 30g+ fibre/day, as much fruit and veg as possible, minimises processed foods, but wants to take some inches off their waist to begin bulking again, what methods can be used that aren’t tracking calories? Is it possible that if I decide I want to cut, I’ll make subconscious decisions that will put me in a deficit over time? Or will I need to actively be restricting myself in some way?
Thanks!