When just starting a 200 lb weight loss, what is the ideal amount of calories that I should burn during my workout sessions. I was on here last week and discussed with a few of you that a 3100g calorie intake a day would be ideal but now I need to know how many times a week should I workout and what is a good calorie burn number for each workout? Also just starting such a big weight loss project should I be just doing a vigorous cardio workout or cardio and weight lifting?
When just starting a 200 lb weight loss......
- Thread starter DougH
- Start date
KaraCooks
New member
Can't answer any of those questions w/out knowing more about you. 
What do you currently weigh?
How tall are you?
What do you current eat on a daily basis?
What type of exercise are you doing now?
Are there any types of exercise that your health or weight might prohibit you from doing?
Give us more info about YOU and we can probably give some advice and suggestions.
What do you currently weigh?
How tall are you?
What do you current eat on a daily basis?
What type of exercise are you doing now?
Are there any types of exercise that your health or weight might prohibit you from doing?
Give us more info about YOU and we can probably give some advice and suggestions.
Ok sorry Kara.
I currently weigh 380 and my goal weight is 180, I am 5'-10", I have no physical problems and no health problems, weirdly I am very healthy as far as blood pressure and sugar and etc.... I just recently started this diet last week and actually you had given me the advice of eating 3100 calories and 200 grams of protein to start out. I have just been doing some walking around my block right now. My questions are:
Should I be doing weight lifting as well as cardio?
How many calories per workout should I be burning?
What should be my fat intake per day?
What should be my carb intake per day?
I currently weigh 380 and my goal weight is 180, I am 5'-10", I have no physical problems and no health problems, weirdly I am very healthy as far as blood pressure and sugar and etc.... I just recently started this diet last week and actually you had given me the advice of eating 3100 calories and 200 grams of protein to start out. I have just been doing some walking around my block right now. My questions are:
Should I be doing weight lifting as well as cardio?
How many calories per workout should I be burning?
What should be my fat intake per day?
What should be my carb intake per day?
KaraCooks
New member
Yes. WEight lifting will help maintain your muscle mass and cardio will help burn additional calories. Combining them is the most effective way to lose weight.
There's no "should" here. How many calories you burn is how many calories you burn. It all depends on how high your heart rate gets and how much you exert yourself. Dont' worry about burning calories during exercise. Just eat healthy amounts of food (as you said above - about 3000 calories) and exercise. Getting too obsessive about counting what calories you burn can be counter productive.
There is, again, no "should" here. STart with protein - make sure you're getting sufficient protein. Keep your fats to around 25% of your overall calories. And then let the carbs fall where they may. It's better to focus on proper amounts of protein and fats, and make sure that the carbs you're getting are healthy whole-grain complex carbs ... the rest is just details.
KaraCooks
New member
Yup... what Jericho said.
Your body NEEDS healthy fats. 20-25% is what you should be consuming. Obviously as your weight goes down, 25% will be less and less in terms of a hard number.
But yes, they need to be healthy fats - olive oil, omega3 and omega6 fats, salmon, avocado, peanuts, almonds, etc.
Edited ... 775g is not 25% of 3100 calories. You're confusing calories and grams. Figure that each 1g of fat is about 9 cals. if 25% of your 3100 cals is 775 calories, then 775 calories divided by 9 = 86g of fat.
Your body NEEDS healthy fats. 20-25% is what you should be consuming. Obviously as your weight goes down, 25% will be less and less in terms of a hard number.
But yes, they need to be healthy fats - olive oil, omega3 and omega6 fats, salmon, avocado, peanuts, almonds, etc.
Edited ... 775g is not 25% of 3100 calories. You're confusing calories and grams. Figure that each 1g of fat is about 9 cals. if 25% of your 3100 cals is 775 calories, then 775 calories divided by 9 = 86g of fat.
Last edited:
patsfan
New member
a helpful online tool I use is Fitwatch.com (the free membership). I have my daily calorie intake entered, and then I chose how I wanted those calories divvied up (for me, it's 30% protein, 30% fat and 40% carbs). I also use this app as my food diary, entering everything I eat, and it's so helpful! I can look in the afternoon and see where I'm lacking the most (usually protein and fat for me!) and base my dinner choice on filling in the deficiencies. There are several sites like this on the web, and I would be lost diet-wise without it!
More questions.....if my daily caloric level should be 3100 as we mentioned before, is it bad if I only eat 2500 or should I try to eat closer to 3100 just starting out on this diet? Also, we mentioned that my protein intake should be around 200g but today I only had roughly 130g, should I try to bring these two things up while holding down my fat intake which should be 86g however I tallied 114g for today which is bad!!
KaraCooks
New member
Doug -
Here's the thing - ideally you want to eat as many calories as you can while still eating few enough to trigger weight loss. Why? Well ... when you reduce calories, your body adapts to the fewer calories - it's called metabolic adaptation. Now, when you reduce drastically, you're still going to lose weight - the so-called "starvation response" doesn't happen as fast or as intensely as most people think it does. But, your metabolism still adapts and slows when you reduce intake, which will eventually start to slow your weight loss.
So ideally you want to reduce what you eat, while eating as much as you can in order to keep your metabolism as high as you can. Make sense?
Also keep in mind that as you lose weight, you'll need less food - it's just common sense that someone who weighs 300 lbs needs more food than someone who weighs 250. My rule of thumb is that every time I lose about 10% of my weight, I readjust my calories accordingly.
As far as the other stuff the protein and so forth - protein is the most important macro here - it will help you to skew the weight loss more towards fat and less towards muscle. But overall, all the figures are estimates, so don't freak if you're up or down on individual days. It's the trend and average over a few days that counts.
For example, my lean body mass is about 113 lbs, so I should be eating around 113g of protein per day. Yesterday I got 124g. Day before I only got 102g. I don't freak out about it on a day-to-day basis, as long as over the long haul, I average around 115g.
Same with fats. Today you may have gotten 115g, but tomorrow you may only get 70g. Just keep an eye on things and make sure that you're not exceeding EVERY day ... eat for the long haul view and not obsessing from meal to meal or day to day.
Hope that helps!
Here's the thing - ideally you want to eat as many calories as you can while still eating few enough to trigger weight loss. Why? Well ... when you reduce calories, your body adapts to the fewer calories - it's called metabolic adaptation. Now, when you reduce drastically, you're still going to lose weight - the so-called "starvation response" doesn't happen as fast or as intensely as most people think it does. But, your metabolism still adapts and slows when you reduce intake, which will eventually start to slow your weight loss.
So ideally you want to reduce what you eat, while eating as much as you can in order to keep your metabolism as high as you can. Make sense?
Also keep in mind that as you lose weight, you'll need less food - it's just common sense that someone who weighs 300 lbs needs more food than someone who weighs 250. My rule of thumb is that every time I lose about 10% of my weight, I readjust my calories accordingly.
As far as the other stuff the protein and so forth - protein is the most important macro here - it will help you to skew the weight loss more towards fat and less towards muscle. But overall, all the figures are estimates, so don't freak if you're up or down on individual days. It's the trend and average over a few days that counts.
For example, my lean body mass is about 113 lbs, so I should be eating around 113g of protein per day. Yesterday I got 124g. Day before I only got 102g. I don't freak out about it on a day-to-day basis, as long as over the long haul, I average around 115g.
Same with fats. Today you may have gotten 115g, but tomorrow you may only get 70g. Just keep an eye on things and make sure that you're not exceeding EVERY day ... eat for the long haul view and not obsessing from meal to meal or day to day.
Hope that helps!
Well everything's been going good this week so far, I've been eating @7am, 9:30am, 12pm, 2:30pm, 5pm & 7:30pm, however, today I missed my 2:30 pm snack which doesn't make me happy, I was stuck in a meeting! I am eating my 5 pm meal now as it is 5pm here. My question is, how bad is it if I skip a snack here and there do to work? I am pretty sure I am just supposed to forget about that snack and move forward, right?
KaraCooks
New member
There's no magic to eating at certain times. Skipping snacks or meals is only given a bad rap because most people overeat to compensate - either unconsciously or out of hunger or as an attempt to "make up" for the missed food.
If you find yourself hungry later tonight, you can "move" the snack to a later time. Or you can just skip it and call it good.
If you find yourself hungry later tonight, you can "move" the snack to a later time. Or you can just skip it and call it good.
Kara or anyone,
My maximum daily intake numbers are 3100 calories, 86g of fat, and 200g of protein as we have previously discussed. I know that I am supposed to lower these numbers as I lose weight but how do I know when it is time to lower these numbers, how many pounds do I need to lose to lower the numbers and how much do I lower the numbers by?
My maximum daily intake numbers are 3100 calories, 86g of fat, and 200g of protein as we have previously discussed. I know that I am supposed to lower these numbers as I lose weight but how do I know when it is time to lower these numbers, how many pounds do I need to lose to lower the numbers and how much do I lower the numbers by?