If you were...

5'11" & 191 at age 40 with a 34" waist and wanted to quickly (2 months) be around 175 with a 32" waist with much less fat... what would you do? All of my fat is upper body. My legs are solid due to my Tai Chi practice.

Currently I eat fairly well but can still improve. Definitely much better than I used to, but not as disciplined as I was two years ago. I have a soft spot for booze, (beer, wine and liquor) as well as sweets. Obviously I need to cut that out. Aside from that I eat:

Breakfast every day, consisting either of oatmeal with fruit and nuts, good cereal with fruit and nuts and almond milk, or a smoothie using fat free Fage yogurt, fruit and juice or fruit and protein bar with almond milk.

Lunch is usually brown rice with black beans and fish, chicken or turkey. Vegetables also appear from time to time depending on Colombiana's cooking mood.

Dinner is generally the same as lunch, but sometimes is a nice salad with chicken or fish.

I eat a snack in between meals (two a day). Snacks are usually a granola bar or fat free yogurt or a good hanful or nuts / trail mix.

My fitness level has deteriorated this winter pretty poorly and I'm having trouble getting myself back where I was.

Currently I practice Tai Chi two hours twice a week and one additional hour once a week. I plan on adding another 2-3 hours / week minimum here now that the weather has improved. This will help with calorie burning as well as flexibility, and core & leg strength.

I am trying to get my lazy ass out of bed at 5AM every day to hit my real fitness routine which gives me 60-90 minutes every weekday morning. Part of me wants to utilize two of these sessions per week to practice my Tai Chi, and the other 3 for further fitness.

I do not want to be a hulk monster. I want to be fit, thin, with low body fat, flexible and fast with high stamina.

My best workouts when I hit my 5AM wake up goal consist of, a one mile jog/walk, 3 sets of dips at max reps (8 -10), 2 sets of kettleball swings at 50 reps, 2 sets of upright waist turns at 50 reps, 2 sets of waist turns bent over at 50 reps, 2 sets of standard crunches at 30 reps, 2 sets of oblique crunches at max reps usually around 25, 2 sets of leg raises(?) at 10 reps, 30 - 60 second plank. I will often include some jump rope in which I do 200 reps twice.

I did this workout last week for the first time in 4+ months and it nearly crushed me. This morning I just jogged/walked 2 miles.

What would you do different / better?

Any feedback would be much appreciated.

If you want to lose weight eat less food at current levels of energy expenditure, or eat the same and increase energy expenditure. Or you can eat less AND increase energy expenditure to accelerate weight loss.

For an ambitious weight loss goal like that you'll need to start count calories and eat at a daily 1000 kcal deficit. Lots of lean meat, veggies and walks (or jogs) will help. And don't drink calories.

Eating at a 1000 kcal deficit is pretty tough but doable. You'll lose muscle, but it seems like you don't care about that anyway.

Well, its not that I dont care about muscle, Im just not interested in being some super ripped dude. So im not going to start crushing out sick weight lifting regimens to put on bulk. Lean muscle Im good with. Im most concerned about shape, not so much the number associated with my weight. I used 175 because about 1 year ago I was down to 177 and that size for me was solid. A little more muscle wouldnt hurt. I dont care what my weight is if i can rock a 40 to 42 slim fit jacket with size 32 pants.

So again, what would you do? Just eat less and burn more? Any specific exercises you would do that would target shrinking your waist?

I'd read the FAQ sticky.

1. Use IIFYM Calc to find your total daily energy expenditure (athlete formula, no exercise setting).
2. Select "aggressive" or "reckless" under fat loss setting
3. Sign up to myfitnesspal and track EVERYTHING you consume, booze included. Hit daily calorie target.
4. Profit.

Any exercise you do is a bonus to your weight loss. The occaisional cheat meal, not day or weekend, is acceptable if you hit the rest of your targets.

I already told you what I'd do. If you want to lose weight at the rate you're targeting you're going to lose muscle. Nothing wrong with that, I ate at a >1000 kcal deficit for 1.5 months last year. If losing weight fast is important you can compensate by putting on muscle later.

You can't target the fat around your waist and the fat around your waist is usually last to go, you'll just have to eat at a big calorie deficit during those months to get rid of it. Walks and jogs help burning calories. Lean meats and veggies help with satiety/compliance. Your current diet seems pretty reasonable, but it's low on veggies and don't go crazy with the nuts, because they're high in calories.

But step 1 is to calculate your TDEE (there are calculators online) and start counting your calories (MyFitnessPal is an online tool that might help).

quite a few misconceptions in here, please read the FAQ thoroughly.

Also, there is some evidence that consuming a lot of protein while maintaining a caloric deficit will help preserve muscle. How much protein? There is a lot of debate about that, and some varying estimates tossed around.

I'm shooting for .75 grams daily per pound of target body weight as recommended by Josh Hillis and Dan John in their book, "Fat Loss Happens on Monday."

So for you, about 135 grams of protein per day.

Other people will likely recommend more than that.

TDEE = 1620

Seems like you did something wrong in that calc.

You probably did the calculation correctly but that number isn't your TDEE, it's your recommended daily intake. Sounds pretty good, if you eat 1,620 kcal daily and add a reasonable amount of exercise you should be able to hit your target.

Correct. My TDEE is 2136. For reckless fat loss my reco intake is 1620 with no exercise.