250lbs 6ft trying to lose weight and gain muscle how many calories should I take in?

HI btw just joined, forgive me my grammer and spelling aren't the best and this might be kinda long.

So I am 6 feet tall 250 pounds I joined planet fitness about 3 months back the staff at my gym is very unhelpful so I have been going it alone with pretty mixed results.

I have lost about 10 pounds total weight, my running has gotten alot better my legs have gotten a little stronger but my upper body and core are about the same, perhaps a little bit weaker in some ways.

I think part of my problem is my diet, I don't eat much meat just fish. I mostly eat pasta, pizza breads and chips. I take in anywhere from 3000-4000 calories a day pretty much the only protein I get comes from cheese and milk. I would like to make a structured diet taking in enough to increase muscle mass and not to much that I can not lose weight. I know 4k calories is to much.

I have been going to the gym 2-3 times a week which isn't enough and I have to admit I feel great on the days I go to the gym so I am going to boost it up to 5 times a week. So looking for how many calories I should take in. how much protein when should I eat? I have heard you should eat right before you work out, right after, so a little confused there.

Also as fish is the only kind of meat I eat and due to mercury concerns whats a good source for getting non meat protein? whey protein shakes? soy protein?


thanks
 
AWESOME work so far man! Just always remember your WHY! Why do you want to lose that weight. One thing that will really help you is if you ramp up your water intake. It well help flush toxins out and aid in the fat loss process. I do however, from all my experience, caution you on basing your weight loss solution strictly around calories. This can become a very dangerous situation for many reason. If we wanted to base EVERYTHING about weight loss and weight gain around calories, it could look a little like this. If you were looking to gain weight and build muscle, if it WAS all about calories, then technically you could eat big macs and whoppers all day long, since they have your calories and your protein in them (meat and cheese) when in all actuality we know how bad they are for us. Let's look at the opposite side of things, if you want to lose weight, and you buy into the low cal no cal foods on the market......You might end up losing weight, but many of the products out there will make you nutrient deficient.
You might be surprised but keeping up on your fish intake will be the best idea if you are concerned about eating "animal protein" you can stick with high fat fish like salmon, tuna, and trout. If you stick to wild caught fish you should be ok. Avoid whey protein shakes. ALSO, protein IS important as it builds muscle, but most people are on a protein OVERLOAD, the amounts one needs to ingest are actually quite smaller than you would think, and you can get them from more natural sources. Excess protein build up in the body WILL get stored as fat.
Typically, things more natural to our bodies, ie: green beans, spinach, kale, collard greens, mustard greens, broccoli, asparagus, tomato, lemons, limes, grapefruit, avocado, romaine lettuce, mixed greens, cucumbers, peppers, etc. are NATURALLY low in calories BUT still provide your body with an amazing amount of nutrients to fuel your body and fat loss.
I REALLY want to give you a huge thumbs up on your action to lose the weight man, that is truly awesome. What are your workouts looking like? from start to finish? Give me an example and I will see if I can help you out with that!
I hope you found this useful, keep on kicking butt and remember your WHY!
 
hi, my why is heart disease, I lost my father way to early and i would like to be there as long as possible for my kids. I made a thread with my workout plan too but a quick overview would be I do 45 minutes cardio, 30 minutes running treadmill 5 minutes cooldown once I finish my workout I hop on a stairclimber for 15 minutes. for my workout I have pretty much been doing the same thing every time I go. I try to do 4 upperbody and 4 lower body exercises like dumbell press then machine leg squat- fly machine- calf raises- tricept pull down- thigh abduction/induction- lat pull down- leg extension. I try to do 10 reps every time.

so how much protein do you think I need? I don't eat fish every day. also you said to avoid whey protein why is that? lol I get manic tired energy at times and when I finished my post last night I went to a 24 hr walmart and got a thing of whey protein, is it bad for you? or just a waste of money.

thanks.
 
whey protein is essentially "milk plasma" it's pretty much the bottom of barrel of cheese, get scraped out, dehydrated and flavored. it's considered good by most people because it's an ISOLATED protein, meaning they isolate all the protein out of it and that's just about all there is too this. well the process itself is dangerous, along with the fact it's highly toxic and congestive to the body. IF you are eating a properly balanced diet, you should be getting enough protein already. You can get lots of healthy fats from plant based sources that are easily absorbed into the body. yes, protein does build lean muscle, but not excess protein which causes the body to store it as fat. clean healthy blood is VERY important to the gaining and lasting of lean healthy muscle and a fat free body. you get this by eating clean, and lots of water.
if you need specific help on workouts and cardio routines and more specific nutrition guidelines send me a private message and i will gladly help you.
Keep up the good work staying motivated, i hope you can be there for your kids as long as allowed and being able to be active with them. there is nothing worse than the "arm chair" parent as i call them that can not be active with kids. i think it's very special you use the past experiences you have had to fuel your goals. it's very important to remember your WHY day in and day out! PUT IT ON YOUR MIRROR, COMPUTER SCREEN! ANYWHERE YOU SEE IT OR FREQUENT! Fridge, Wallet, you will always be reminded when you are making a decision. Hope to hear back from you!
 
It's not my intention to start a debate with TheTrainingOne but the information that he provides is so far from the truth that it's dangerous. Please Google some of your questions and you'll find that Protein isolate is a pure form of protein and easily digested and assimilated by your body. You'll also find articles that suggests how much protein, fat and carbs you should consume in a day. If you are coming up short on the protein side, you'll also find many references to protein shakes as an excellent source of supplemental protein.

I know that everyone is entiltled to their opinion but it's a shame to disseminated such mis-information.
 
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