I use the paid version of the myfitnesspal app. The calorie and macro tracking is killer, and the weight tracking graph is super useful. I also love the ‘nutrition’ menu selection where you can view daily and average weekly calories a lot. The exercise and step tracking stuff is a joke, as is the ‘if every day was like today in 5 weeks you’d weigh’ thing.
You’ll also need a (≈$30) kitchen scale, and some tsp, tbsp, and measuring cups until you can eyeball it. (3 years in to daily tracking and still weigh food but eyeball tablespoons)
Keep training and cardio consistent week to week, set your macros and the protein and fat are set in stone. Modulate calories with carbs. If hitting protein is hard on a deficit suppliment with whey shakes but keep whole food, fiber, and veggies high. Drink 1gal or more water a day, get your sleep.
Experiment with different calorie ceilings. Track 4-6 week periods, never less than 2. Find a calorie that keeps you losing around a pound a week- you’ll need discipline but you’ll still have energy for a full life & training. Or go back and forth from 1.5ish lb/week and .75ish lbs/week to keep from feeling fatigued by the diet.
If you stall or it starts going slower drop cals by 1-200 and give it a few weeks, see what happens. Diet adaptation is small but real, and as a smaller dude you’ll need less fuel.
If you do all this shit then when periods of stagnation happen you can just trust the process and keep the system working. Sometimes fat mobilizes in blocks then leaves suddenly. Diet culture calls this a ‘whoosh’ effect, when the scale doesn’t move then all the sudden drops 3lbs or more.
On that topic also it’s fine to weigh in every morning- pee then step on and log it. But realize that weight is a cluster and exists in a 3-5lb cluster, and daily weight is influenced by training inflammation, sodium intake and water weight, and gut/digestion volume. But mostly water.
Another trab newb’s fall into is that on cycle you will gain water weight. It can be an estrogen side- bloating and moon face, or it can be in all the right places making your muscles full and poppin’. Tren is the best at that- rapid aesthetic weight gain where you look bigger and leaner, but after any cycle ends you’ll shed the water and find out what happened to your actual physique.
As far as cutting goes, TRT or a slightly higher test cruise plus reta if it helps is all you need along with training to retain or even gain muscle while cutting from higher bodyfat. All the flashy cutting compounds fuck you up more than equivalent calorie intake drops, unless you’re show lean.
If you want to cycle like a fat powerlifter that’s fine just realize it will stall your cut and require more e2 management since fat aromatizes, plus you can gain lean mass but won’t see it like you would if you were lean. Stay away from orals as a beginner they are specialized not because they’re soo dangerous but because they don’t grow muscle as much and mostly offer temporary strength and training benefits along with shitty bloodwork and sometimes e2 management.
Good luck!