Too much excercise?

[Mcgee99]

My goal
I'm 6'3'' and 215 lbs trying to cut down to 170 then rebuild with muscle back up to 200. I'm trying to really focus on losing fat not muscle right now.

My diet
So far, I'm eating about 1500 calories a day consisting of eggs and grilled salmon for breakfeast, a protien bar and some raw vegetables for lunch and black beans and rice for dinner. I also drink about a gallon of water throughout the day and diet green tea whenever I get the munchies.

My routine
Every day I've been doing abou 1hr and a half of cardio. I get on a stationary bike and get my heart rate to about 160 and try and keep it there for 45mins. Then I take a brief break and do another 45 mins. According to the machine readout I'm burning appx 1000 calories when I do this routine.

I'm worried that my diet/routine will actually make me weaker and my goal harder to accomplish in the long run.

Its been a week now and I'm half way into week 2. My questions are at what is a good balance for calories consumed/calories burned if I want to lose fat but maintain muscle? Can I still eat a lot if I make sure to burn as much of it as I can? And lastly, how do I build muscle without gaining fat?

 

[Steve]

My goal
I'm 6'3'' and 215 lbs trying to cut down to 170 then rebuild with muscle back up to 200. I'm trying to really focus on losing fat not muscle right now.

30 lbs of muscle is a lot of "building." I hope you have your expectations set correctly. Impossible? Certainly not. But realize that you lose fat faster than you build muscle.

My diet
So far, I'm eating about 1500 calories a day

I thought muscle maintenance was of primary concern to you?

If so, you are going about this completely wrong. Your cals are set much to low. What made you choose 1500 cals? 7 calories per pound is not conducive to maintaining muscle in my book.

consisting of eggs and grilled salmon for breakfeast, a protien bar and some raw vegetables for lunch and black beans and rice for dinner. I also drink about a gallon of water throughout the day and diet green tea whenever I get the munchies.

Again, cals are too low. Do you know what your macronutrient breakdown is on a given day? Protein requirements go up on a diet. I also like to bump up EFAs which you seem to be short on. No protein at dinner?

My routine
Every day I've been doing abou 1hr and a half of cardio. I get on a stationary bike and get my heart rate to about 160 and try and keep it there for 45mins. Then I take a brief break and do another 45 mins. According to the machine readout I'm burning appx 1000 calories when I do this routine.

So not only are you eating far too low, calorically speaking... but you are also adding to this giant deficit by burning insane amounts of calories every single day.

This isn't good.

Again, this is about the farthest thing from optimal you could possibly be doing if muscle maintenance is of primary importance.

Its been a week now and I'm half way into week 2. My questions are at what is a good balance for calories consumed/calories burned if I want to lose fat but maintain muscle?

The opposite of what you are doing, haha.

I don't mean to be so blunt, but it's the truth. I would recommend something like 12 cals per pound as my original starting point for a caloric deficit. Monitor results (weight AND measurements) and modify/adapt as necessary. Jumping right into an enormous deficit is NOT the answer, especially being someone with your stature.

Can I still eat a lot if I make sure to burn as much of it as I can?

A deficit is created/established by reducing your energy intake (calories), increasing your energy expenditure, or a combination of the both. In my experience, it doesn't really matter where you fall on the spectrum. However, a combination of the two have always been optimal for me.

Also, management of fatigue is a huge issue that most people overlook. Your body is not a machine that can you can keep "the throttle pegged to the floor 24/7." You need to let it rest.

And lastly, how do I build muscle without gaining fat?

You don't.

I mean, it is inevitable that you are going to gain SOME fat while you are "bulking" just as it is inevitable that you are going to lose some muscle while "cutting."

How much of each really depends.

It depends on the structure of your diet. What does it consist of? How many calories? Etc.

It also depends on your genetics. Some people gain more fat than muscle in a hypercaloric state. Others experience the opposite.

The secret lies in getting your macros right, second to getting your cals right. Bulking is not a ticket to eat everything in sight.

 

[Mcgee99]

Thanks for the reply. To clarify, I'm not bulking up yet. Right now I'm losing fat, or at least trying to. Are you sure its that big of a caloric deficit? I've been maintaining weight in the past on a 2500 calorie diet and moderate excercise. I figured if a pound of fat has 3500 calories in it and I wanted to lose 45 pounds of fat in around 3.5 months then I should maintain a caloric deficit of 1500 calories a day. Thats assuming all the time spent not excercising totals out to about 2000 calories burned. I really don't know how a person accurately calculates how many calories they are burning throughout the day. I also figured if I'm excercising and eating protien that would at least reduce the rate the body breaks down muscle since the muscle is being put to work. I know not to fast and that excercise is going to be the real key to changing my body composition.

Regarding protien and efas; the salmon, eggs and protien bar account for about 70 grams of protien and the salmon really accounts for all the polyunsaturated fat I'll get in a day. I'm not sure exactly how much polyunsaturated fat I'm getting total but the serving I eat has about 13 grams of fat. This is non-smoked and cooked in a grill by the way.

After reading your reply, I tried something different yesterday and today and I'm going to go through with it for the rest of this week to see what happens. I added more calories to my diet in the form of chicken, fat free beef jerky (bringing the protien total up to about 180) and more raw fruits/vegetables but also added a weight routine to my work out to burn more calories. Yesterday I ate about 2200 calories and did 45 mins of heavy weight training (by heavy I mean weight that keeps me in the 6-4 rep per set range) and then did the 1.5 hrs of cardio. According to some internet calculator 45 mins of heavy weight training should be around 4 hundred calories so if I'm to believe all these readouts and calculators and what not then I burned about 1400 calories.

When I woke up this morning I was way hungry and have been throughout the day. Does that indicate increase in metabolism or is my body tempting me to eat more to stop me losing weight? Whats a more accurate formula or whatever for determining how many calories you burn in a day?

 

[Liquid1]

You can't do that amount of exercise and then cut back like that. As time progresses you will be constantly hungry and will get weaker with every passing day. Some athletes consume 6000-8000 calories per day just to MAINTAIN their weight. I do about an hour of vigorous cardio per day and consume 3,000 calories and am still losing 2 lbs. a week. I eat loads of carbs and don't have to worry about ice-cream, chocolate or other occasional snacks, makes no difference.

Maximum healthy weight loss is 2 lbs. per week, after that you are burning muscle or losing water.

 

[Steve]

Maximum healthy weight loss is 2 lbs. per week, after that you are burning muscle or losing water.

Not exactly.

This is a very dependent number. The bigger you are the more weight you can lose from fat.

 

[tonymcclellan]

You went from 2500 cals with moderate exercise to 1500 cals and extreme exercise. See how that is a problem. You should have only changed one at a time. Increase your exercise but eat the same, or vice versa. See how your body reacts.

Plus read the diet recommendations by Steve.