Over thinking everything........net an experts advise!

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nolliabed

New member
I have been over thinking everything and it is driving me crazy. I started a food log a month ago at Fitday.com. I am 210 pounds, 41 year old male and I'm 65 inches tall. I want to get down to 175.

I cut my calories down to about 1500 to 1600 and people all over seem to be giving there own "expert" advise about how many calories I should be taking in to lose weight. Most are saying I am not eating enough cals. I am weight training 3 times a week. And I just bought a treadmill. I just started walking on it 30 mins. a day on the days when I’m not weight training.

Seriously, how many calories should I be taking in to lose about 1 to 2 pounds a week? Please tell me how many cals. I should be eating a day and why you think that.
I have also joined another forum and it’s mostly body builders and they have so many people on that site with opinions that vary greatly. Too much for me to understand anything.
Thanks.
 
Ok, let's assume no exercise (I think it's a good way to base it to start). 240 x 12 = 2880. To lose 2 pounds a week, you need to take in 1880. With exercise, you will lose more.

Those are just rule of thumbs because it will not be perfect for you. Everyone is different. It's a guideline. I am positive if you are weight training and walking AND cutting calories to 1500-1800 you will lose those 1-2 pounds a week. With the strength training, you will gain muscle so don't get discourage if it fluxes.
 
Jericho said:
Ok, let's assume no exercise (I think it's a good way to base it to start). 240 x 12 = 2880. To lose 2 pounds a week, you need to take in 1880. With exercise, you will lose more.

Those are just rule of thumbs because it will not be perfect for you. Everyone is different. It's a guideline. I am positive if you are weight training and walking AND cutting calories to 1500-1800 you will lose those 1-2 pounds a week. With the strength training, you will gain muscle so don't get discourage if it fluxes.
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I am at 210. Why did you multiply 240 x 12? Also, is 1500 too low. Alot of people seem to think so. Thanks again for your time.
 
It is just a bit of rule of thumb I read on the forum. Personally, there are tons of other sites with calorie calculators.

As far as 1500? I think with what you plan, I would go with the 1800 actually. 1500 from your normal calorie intake with the working out is too much of a defict I think. If you go that hard, you will fine it harder to do maintain.
 
Jericho said:
It is just a bit of rule of thumb I read on the forum. Personally, there are tons of other sites with calorie calculators.

As far as 1500? I think with what you plan, I would go with the 1800 actually. 1500 from your normal calorie intake with the working out is too much of a defict I think. If you go that hard, you will fine it harder to do maintain.
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It actually is hard to maintain 1500 cals. a day. Especially on the days when I workout with weights. I didn't know how I was going to keep that up. thanks for your time and I will adjust my cals and see what happens. Using all those BMR calculators is very confusing for first timers like myself. Doing the math isn't hard; it's knowing what to do with the number is the hard part. If that makes any sense.
 
nolliabed said:
It actually is hard to maintain 1500 cals. a day. Especially on the days when I workout with weights. I didn't know how I was going to keep that up. thanks for your time and I will adjust my cals and see what happens. Using all those BMR calculators is very confusing for first timers like myself. Doing the math isn't hard; it's knowing what to do with the number is the hard part. If that makes any sense.
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You have to consider this too, when you do intense workouts you actually loss way more cals than just normal workouts.

So if people just work out without doing any cardio before and after at least they should sweat a bit with intense workouts.
 
nolliabed said:
I have been over thinking everything and it is driving me crazy. I started a food log a month ago at Fitday.com. I am 210 pounds, 41 year old male and I'm 65 inches tall. I want to get down to 175.

I cut my calories down to about 1500 to 1600 I am weight training 3 times a week. And I just bought a treadmill. I just started walking on it 30 mins. a day on the days when I’m not weight training.
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I am 61 inches tall and weigh 120-123 pounds and am middle aged female. I maintain on 1500-1700 kcals / day and lose on 1200 kcal / day. I do 30-40 mins of moderate intensity cardio 5-6 days per week and weight train 5-6 days. When I put muscle mass on I can drop my weight as long as I eat 1500 kcals / day (composition of macro nutrients doesn't matter). When I lose muscle mass my weight stays the same (120-123) but I eat less (don't know exactly how much).

You are a male who weighs 210 pounds and is 5'6" tall. The BMR calculation of weight x 12 is a quick estimate. The average male burns between 10-14 kcals / pound when sedentary. The 12 is simply the median. Based on this incredibly simple calculation your BMR is approx. 2520 kcals / day. So, if you have a 500 kcal deficit /day you will accumulate a 3500 kcal weekly deficit in the calories in calories out equation (one pound per week potential weight loss). Let's take your goal weight BMR: 175 x 12 = 2100 kcal/ day. I would venture a guess that at this caloric level and 3-4 days / week of 30-45 mins of moderate intensity cardio work and 3 days / week weight training you should lose about 1-2 pounds per week (if not more) once you start losing.

Remember BMR calculations do not take into account activity levels. You did not get to 210 on 2520 kcals/ day. You got there with closer to 2800kcals/day. On the good news front you are 41 years old and you can still burn more fat faster than a woman your same age height and weight.
 
Yep, you are overthinking. Weigh yourself and see how much you lost. If more than one or two pounds a week, increase calories. If less, decrease.
 
Maybe not overthinking, but listening to too many people.

Bottom line is this: Your BMR is your basal metabolic rate That's the amount of calories you burn if you do nothing but lie in bed and breathe. You can figure your BMR using the Harris Benedict equation, which is this for men: 66 + (13.7 x weight in kilos) + (5 x height in centimetres) - (6.8 x age in years)

To figure out your maintenance calories (i.e. the calories you need to eat to stay the same weight, you multiply your BMR by a figure based on your overall activity. In general it's going to be somewhere between 1.3 and 1.5 for someone who works out 3x a week or so.

Then you multiply that figure by 70% to figure out how many calories you need to eat to lose weight at a safe and reasonable rate.

OR

You can take what works out to be an estimate of that and multiply your current body weight by 10-12 and that will give you the figure of what to eat to lose weight w/out going through all the complex calculations. If you do them both, you'll find out that they come out within a few calories of each other.

So just multiply your current weight by, say, 11, and start eating that many calories. If you're losing weight, then keep doing it. If you're not losing weight, then drop down to 10 calories per pound. There's no absolute magic number and everyone has to figure it out for themselves.
 
Nolliabed, I haven't been registered long enough to send you a PM reply. But, maybe I can answer it here. Research has found that protein helps to maintain muscle mass on calorie restricted diets, helps maintain blood sugar levels in typ 2 diabetics, and increases satiety. Satiety is the length of time between meals. The recommended level of protein is around 0.8 gr/pound. So, when you are trying to restrict calories sometimes you get hungry. Protein levels at approximately 1 - 1.5 grams per pound of body weight have been found to inhibit hunger. However, that said each person is different. For example I do not do well on diet of less than 40-45% carbs. This means I have to drop fat levels (1 grm of fat = approx 9 calories) which means less satiety so I bump protein up. (Protein has about 4 calories per gram.) Others can drop those carbs down to 100 grams per day and eat higher protein and fat levels. So, yes macro nutrients can play a role in calorie restriction. Does that help?

Also; sometimes you can perform other movements that do not impact an injury thus keeping your activity level up.
 
Yes and no. My question specificly was if I keep my total calorie count below my BMR, will I still have = success losing weight regardless of how much protein or carbs or fat I eat? Sorry if I didn't ask the question clearly enough. I just read so much about macros and people saying you have to eat "x" amount of protein vs. carbs to lose fat. My thinking is if you stay under you daily calorie limit, you should lose weight. Yes protein will help you keep muscle, but so many people are putting allot of energy into the % of carbs, protein and fat and I see allot saying that if they take in "x" amount of carbs, they can't lose weight. I don't think it's that complicated. I think it's a matter of cals. in vs. cals. out. Burn more cals. than you take in and you will lose weight. Do you agree with this? I am fairly new to this. Only 2 months in to my new life style, but from what I've read, I can't help but Over think. Everyone has their own theory. Just wanted to hear what you had to say. Thanks and have a great day.
 
Yes and no. My question specificly was if I keep my total calorie count below my BMR, will I still have = success losing weight regardless of how much protein or carbs or fat I eat
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Sure.

Will you be healthy and fit? Probably not.

First of all, you still seem to be confused about teh difference between BMR and maintenance calories.

BMR is BASE Metabolic Rate. It's the amount of calories you burn if you lie in bed and breathe. Your BMR doesn't account for the number of calories you need to live your life - to get up, to go to work, to wash the dishes, to take a shower, etc. You don't want to subtract from your BMR, you want to subtract from your maintenance calories. If you subtract from your BMR, you're going too low. Subtract from your maintenance.

Second of all, sure you'll continue to lose weight if you just cut calories. You could eat 1500 of french fries and candy and lose weight. Would it be healthy? No. Would you lose a lot more lean muscle than if you ate proper amounts of protein and healthy fats? Yes.

So I guess it depends on how you define "Success". Losing weight w/out paying attention to nutrition and so losing muscle mass and becoming skinny but flabby? To me that's not success. But ... that's not a call I can make for anyone else but me.
 
There is a reason I asked that. I don't plan on getting skinny and flabby. I do workout with weights and it's keeping me toned. But I can't seem to be able to eat 1 to 1.5 grams of protien per lb. of body weight without going over my cal. limit. I would have to eat almost all protien to do that and I need my carbs to give me energy. And I eat good carbs. I don't want you to think I'm eating icecream and french fries.
P.S. I thought my BMR was my maintance cals were the same. I told you I was new at this.
 
I understand your confusion! When I work with new clients I ask them to only think about portion control. Eat what you always eat just eat smaller portions. I love oatmeal choc. chip cookies. I would have two a day. Each cookie was at least 3" in diameter, no little cookies for me. I would eat one in the AM and one in the late afternoon. I cut down to one cookie cut in half. One half for morn and one for afternoon I kept halving my cookie until I quit them all together. As Garfield says: "Diet is the word die with a T at the end." Quit counting calories and just use portion control. This way it becomes a lifestyle and you don't have to think about it. Once the weight is where you want it then you can obsess on the minutia that we professionals like to obsess over:willy_nilly:
 
It's true, it's very hard to maintain protein levels without neglecting carbs. I usually eat my breakfast as my main carb meal: oatmeal with protien powder and blueberries, my lunch is a wheat rap with chicken, and my supper is usually fish, or chicken, or some kind of red meat. I also have another protien shake.

My estimate is that im consuming around 150 grams of protien a day, while still being on a deficit diet. Getting a 1 gram per pound or higher isn't really that vital, i'm still gaining muscle, and not losing any.

Remember a few things: Your body WILL go to fat for energy. It's also not a bad idea to consume foods with a higher glycemic index AFTER a workout to make sure that you don't energy crash.

Generally though, you don't need alot of carbs, especially if you're already overweight. But Carbs do aid the protein synthesis process. Everyone is different, don't be so sure that you can't get by without lower levels of carbs unless you try it.
 
nolliabed said:
I have been over thinking everything and it is driving me crazy. I started a food log a month ago at Fitday.com. I am 210 pounds, 41 year old male and I'm 65 inches tall. I want to get down to 175.
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:eek2:...inches?
 
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