Looking for input (calorie diet?)

M

mzy

New member
Hello!

My story:
I'm a 23 year old male, 6'4, currently 290 and I'm looking to lose weight (again). I don't look extremely overweight really, maybe it's because I have a large frame, but still, I'm not happy about it.

In 2006 I managed to lose over 60 lbs to get to 245 and I looked decent at that weight. The method I used was similar to any low-carb diet - but I had a few of my own twists in it. Unforunately, I let the weight slip on again and, although I could probably sit here and try to list all kinds of excuses for it, it's completely my fault. I understood what I needed to do to keep it off, and I just chose to eat like a mad man again.

However, I have made several attempts at doing this diet again and haven't made it past three weeks. I find myself losing maybe 20lbs and then either plateauing, cutting out too much and slowing my metabolism wayyy down, and then I just start eating everything again because I feel like the diet won't work for me. Then of course, eating all kinds of stuff with a slowed metabolism is just bad news.

I really don't remember how I got this diet to work for me so well the first time, but I know that I just can't get it right anymore. SO.... I've started looking into low-calorie dieting and I'm having a bit of trouble understanding it.

I input my information into several BMR calculators and tried finding my daily caloric needs and it's really all confusing to me and I don't know why. I don't think I'm an idiot, but I'm really hoping someone on here may have a better understanding and may be able to decipher what it is I need to do to cut out the right amount of calories to lose weight most efficiently.

(....and what is especially tough for me is -- finding out how exercise plays into this. For example: If I plan to exercise everynight, cardio for 30-45 minutes how does this tie into how many calories I should intake.....does it change or stay the same? No exercise, less calorie intake? AND--would it make a difference WHERE I get my calories....for instance -- if I eat a home cooked meal with veggies and nutritional food to get my max calories, or if I eat, let's say a Big Mac to get my max calories?)

Male
6'4
290
I am willing to cut out the max calories possible to lose most weight efficiently and I am open to several ideas.

Thank you for taking the time in reading my thread! It was a long one haha.

Take care!
 
oh, ps. Not that I'm planning on getting my calories from Big Macs or any fast food for that matter, I'm just curious --

thanks again.
 
On most BMR calculators it should give you the option to put your activity level in. If it doesn't, that usually means it gives you your BMR while resting...basically the amount of calories you burn just for being alive. The more exercise, the more calories you will burn. Unfortunately I am not sure how many exactly, but I am sure there's people around here who can give you a rough idea.

As for where the calories come from...in terms of weight loss, it doesn't matter. As long as you put less calories into your body than you burn, it doesn't matter where the calories come from. If you burn 2000 calories per day, and eat 1500 calories worth of chocolate per day and nothing else, you will end up losing weight. Of course you will also be starving hungry and end up severely malnourished in a short amount of time, but in theory, it would work.

In practice, you want to eat as healthy as possible and make the best out of the calories that you allow yourself for the day. It works a lot better in the long run! ;)
 
Most people will lose weight on between 8 and 12 times their weight in pounds depending on how much exercise you do.

If you plan to do a fair bit - I would start on 12 * 290 (or 11 * if not planning to do so much). Try that for a week or two and see how you go. If you dont lose drop the cals down a bit...

At the same time log your food and exercise into to see your actual calorie balance. This would help to indicate the level for you to eat to lose weight...

You will also see the nutritional breakdown of your food in fitday.

Read the nutrition section and formulate your targets for the different nutrients and try to hit those.

You will lose weight if your calories are right - whether you eat healthy food or rubbish. You will be a lot healthier if you eat healthy food. You will lose weight at a better rate if you eat healthy food (a number of nutrients enhance weight loss if you hit the right targets).

Examples
calcium 1000mg
protein 1g per lb of lean body weight
benefits have been shown by eating 2 eggs...
 
Yes, what Omega said! :)

To explain the calorie thing a bit further (if you're interested). Most calorie calculations are based on the Harris Benedict equation, which is fairly complicated and I"ll be happy to post it here if you want to try figuring it. :) But it can (for most people, unless they're extremely overweight or extremely underweight) be averaged out to between 14-16 calories per pound of weight to MAINTAIN current body weight (assuming you're moderately active - i.e. working out 3x a week for 30 minutes or something similar).

So for you at 290 lbs, your maintenance calories shoudl be somewhere around 4350 (290 * 15).

To lose weight at a healthy and safe rate, you should cut that by about 30%. So for you a healthy "dieting" number would be 3045 (4350 * 70%).

(Which, if you use Omega's figure of 11 cals per pound, you come up with 3145 - same principle.)

As Omega said, you can lose weight eating that much in junk each day, but it won't necessarily be healthy loss. And some people find that they hit stalls and plateaus if their nutrition isn't good. And some people have different food sensitivities that change the balance of their weight loss.

As she said, if you hit certain nutritional balances, you'll see better weight loss (i.e. more fat, less muscle, and more efficient use of food).

There are some good sticky posts on both exercise and nutrition on the boards - check them out. :)
 
Very cool. Thank you all for your help. I will try this method out then!

My only question would be, and we can base this off of the 290*11 method,is - is there anyway I could see a projected weight loss?

I mean, seeing a projection of where -- 290*11 and no exercise -- would bring me and how long (and I know they would be rough estimates because the weight loss could vary depending on many factors, but looking at any estimate would be interesting to see I think). I'm thinking of using the goal of 245 or 240.
 
With no exercise at all, your maintenance calories will probably be lower than the 15* figure, which will slow your weight loss.

So figure, say:
13*290 = 3770 maintenance calories
11*290 = 3190 weight loss calories
That means you'll be burning 580 calories per day towards your weight loss.

If 1 lb = 3500 calories, that means it'll take you 6 days to lose 1 lb. (3500 / 580).
So based on that, about a year to lose 50 lbs (about a 1lb per week).

Of course that doesn't take into account water weight or anything like that, which might skew the scales.

But again, you can make that more efficient and make sure that you're losing more fat and less muscle if you add exercise into the equation.
 
Very much appreciated. You've been very helpful!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top