Diet and PWO shake

[DAN13L]

Howdy folks.

I have a question. Currently I am about 5'10, and weight 193 lb. (88kg). Three years ago, I was 264 lb (120kg). After three years of heavy lifting and gradually improving my diet, I have managed to go from a size 42 waist down to a size 36 waist. But, as you can imagine, I am still unhappy with my weight.

Now, I know instantly that the stock response will be to track on fitday or at least break up my macro's for you all to analyze, but with my current lifestyle, that is impossible. I am a university student, and the food there is all junk so I try to either have a larger breakfast and not eat until I get home or try to eat clean at uni. Try being the operative word. Also, when I am at work I have to eat whatever is on the menu. I have no control over this whatsoever.

Now, my weight with my current diet has been stable. So, in order to drop a little bit more to reach my goal of 175 lb, I figure I need to restrict my calories just a little bit more. So, considering my current PWOshake consists of 28g protein and 55g dextrose, I imagine that by not consuming my PWO shake, I should go from maintenance to caloric deficit.

I realise I won't put on as much mass as I am now, but the most important thing given the fact that summer starts next month is that I cut down :D.

So, ultimately what I'd like to know is if this plan of mine could just possibly work?

Thanks in advance

-Danny

[jdeity]

sounds like if that shake is enough to cause a deficit it will work. I'd bet that you won't find that to work.

Also, 'use fitday' isn't a stock response like 'supplement xyz is garbage' is. Anyone who is serious about gaining muscle or losing fat typically needs to track calories. Fitday is just an easy way of doing that. You coudl do it on paper if you want, but either way if you have a vague impression of your calories / macro breakdown, it makes things harder. Also, i just posted a thread on this in general discussion recently, but you should knwo that many people are kind of surprised upon starting fitday, so that should tell you that even in peopel who think they're tracking decently (which you're not even doing as evidenced by your withholding of any rough macro breakdown or calorie count), there is still surprise. I can only imagine how far off you could be if you're not even keeping rough tabs on food.

You lost a ton, and that is great. But it typically is easier to lose in the beginning, and you may find you need to get a little more disciplined now and begin using fitday/notepad to track, even just rough tracking. Also, and don't take this the wrong way, but you need to get out of that mindset that your schedule doesn't allow this or that. If you think the majority of posters in these boards just lift and eat, you'd be dead wrong. In fact, i find that this board seems to have a higher than average % of people who are ambitious. I know many people who work full time ON TOP OF school, and still train and eat very religiously. It can be a pain, but i'm gonna go on a limb and promise you that it can be done with your schedule, you just need to find out how. And if a job forces you to eat certain things, despite how untrue that sounds, maybe you should reconsider your work, or use fitday and base your calories/macros around what you know they'll make you eat.

best of luck.

[reloaded]

As much as this university student uses the internet, it's very easy to use Fitday. And I even work 45+ hours. Just enter your stuff in while checking your email at the end of the night and see where that leads you. University food is crap, so I'd invest in cheap alternatives including oatmeal, peanut butter, MRP or protein powder etc.

If you have time to check your email multiple times a day and/or answer several cell phones calls daily (as most college students do) you can easily load your daily foods in Fitday. I mean, multitasking is kind of a way of life in college anyway.

If your PWO shake has that many calories in it, it may help you go into a caloric deficit. I'd recommend keeping the PWO shake and eat less of the other meals to balance out the calories and keep the same deficit.

[dissipate]

basically, it's how bad you want it...
tracking calories and eating clean are a pain in the ass but are pretty important, especially if one wants the best results in the shortest time.

reloaded's suggestion on buying oats, PB etc is good. if you aren't allowed to cook there, cans of tuna will work for protein.