losing weight

[fLum0x]

how many calories do you work off on an average day?

for example, lets say you work off 1000 calories a day. I try to burn 750 calories in the gym during lunch every day. I probably eat around 2000-2200 calories a day. That totals 1750 calories when i eat 2000. Is this a good ratio? What ratio of calories consumed compared to calories worked off should I strive for to lose weight? I tone my muscles off and on because i am specifically training for a race and i am trying to cut some weight before hand.

give me your opinions please

 

[BlancoNino]

You should burn more than you eat.

/thread

 

[AgentJean]

You should do half burn half reduction.

So if you want to get rid of 1000 cal per day. Burn 500, reduce food intake by 500.
Have fun eating rabbit food.

 

[edro]

A normal person burns about 2000 calories a day by simply living (depending on activity and muscle mass).

3500 Calories is approximately 1lb of Fat. If you want to lose 2lbs a week, you need to consume 1000 calories per day, than you do now.

Like Agent Jean said, you can eat 500 less and burn 500 more.

 

[Cristatus]

If you're supposed to burn more than you eat, why not just stop eating?

I'm serious. Apart from the fact that you'll die, it doesn't make sense in theory.

 

[fLum0x]

Originally posted by: edro
A normal person burns about 2000 calories a day by simply living (depending on activity and muscle mass).

3500 Calories is approximately 1lb of Fat. If you want to lose 2lbs a week, you need to consume 1000 calories per day, than you do now.

Like Agent Jean said, you can eat 500 less and burn 500 more.

well if this is true, i burn around 2750 calories a day and intake a max of 2200. This means i am burning ~500 a day...so 1lb a week?

 

[BlancoNino]

Originally posted by: logic1485
If you're supposed to burn more than you eat, why not just stop eating?

I'm serious. Apart from the fact that you'll die, it doesn't make sense in theory.

Because your body needs nutrients.

 

[CycloWizard]

Generally, you should only create a calorie deficit (consumption - intake) of about 300-500 calories per day. This prevents your body from going into starvation mode and burning off muscle instead of fat. You can look up your baseline calorie-burning rate through Google, then add your workout total to get your total burn per day. The hard part is tracking what you're eating.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Hmm, I wonder how many calories I burned on my commute this morning. I ride about 10 miles one way to work and do about 750' of climbing. My average speed this morning was 15.5mph. Usually, I can average about 17mph on my ride home. I didn't have my heart rate monitor on today though so I don't know how many calories I burned.

 

[oboeguy]

Lance's coach, Chris Carmichael, suggests a caloric deficit of 500 calories per day, IIRC. 1000 sounds like too much.

 

[fLum0x]

didn't someone mention that you could track what you eat and it did the calories and everything for you online? or atleast you could track it that way. just an idea that i remember hearing at some point

 

[fLum0x]

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus
Hmm, I wonder how many calories I burned on my commute this morning. I ride about 10 miles one way to work and do about 750' of climbing. My average speed this morning was 15.5mph. Usually, I can average about 17mph on my ride home. I didn't have my heart rate monitor on today though so I don't know how many calories I burned.

if i ride during lunch, i put some resistance on and i try to go 16 mph average. 6 miles equals 1 mile for me running. Both are ~180 calories. So if this is true, you burn about

300 x 2 = 600 calories per day. that is just something quick in my head to give you an idea.

 

[Descartes]

Use Fit Day to track your calories. Monitor your weight over a few weeks. If you gain a pound or so a week cut back 500 calories; if you lose a pound or so a week maintain. The idea is to have a surplus/deficit of ~500 calories depending on your goals.

Don't look for average caloric intake. Find out your caloric needs and go from there. You can start with the BMR (Google it) for more information.

 

[Tencntraze]

Fit Day is also helpful in that you can track Protein/Fat/Carb ratios; generally, for weight loss, a 40/30/30 ratio is what you should strive for, roughly, and try to limit the carbs late in the day. While you're at it, make sure that the sources of food that you're eating are wholesome too; eating 2000 calories of crap is not the same as 2000 calories of whole-grains, good fats, and such, even if the macronutrient ratios are the same.

 

[SludgeFactory]

A deficit of 1000/day gives you the standard "expert" recommended max of 2 lbs/week, but that's a pretty generic number. The fatter you are, the bigger a deficit you can get away with and not lose significant muscle. If you're fat enough (big-time morbidly obese) you can be effectively starved for a long time under medical supervision. Generally the leaner you get, the less aggressive you should be with the deficit. It all depends on your bodyfat %, you need to adjust your deficit as you lean out. You can also vary the deficit day by day or on the weekend, zigzagging to play what few tricks you can on your hormones.

Another thing to keep in mind in creating your deficit is that when you start creeping much below 1200 cal/day intake, you run into trouble getting enough essential nutrients. This is more of a problem for women/smaller people who tend to be pushing the limits of how little food one can consume in a day.

I would say to create as much of the deficit as you reasonably can from exercise, and eat clean. Establishing a routine of physical activity and paying attention to your diet but not being a slave to it seems to me to be the best way to go for long term results.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Originally posted by: fLum0x

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus
Hmm, I wonder how many calories I burned on my commute this morning. I ride about 10 miles one way to work and do about 750' of climbing. My average speed this morning was 15.5mph. Usually, I can average about 17mph on my ride home. I didn't have my heart rate monitor on today though so I don't know how many calories I burned.

if i ride during lunch, i put some resistance on and i try to go 16 mph average. 6 miles equals 1 mile for me running. Both are ~180 calories. So if this is true, you burn about

300 x 2 = 600 calories per day. that is just something quick in my head to give you an idea.

My heart rate is typically between 130-150 with short busrts up to the mid 160s (I'm old, my max HR is probably 175). I rode 43 miles on Sunday with about 2100' of climbing.

 

[RichUK]

This is what I have heard and I don?t know if it is true.

When your stomach is empty and you have that hunger sensation, if prolonged then you go into some sort of starvation mode, which lowers your metabolism to conserve energy. Basically a normal bodily function that comes into play if you are actually being starved.

But if you drink a lot of water especially to prevent this sensation of hunger, then you can fool your body into thinking that your stomach is always full and thus never feel hungry. All while your body maintains its metabolism whilst burning off fat instead of calories consumed through the day.

Obviously you need to eat, but you can considerably lower the amount you eat and thus burn off a lot more by just drinking a lot of water.

 

[Tencntraze]

Originally posted by: RichUK
This is what I have heard and I don?t know if it is true.

When your stomach is empty and you have that hunger sensation, if prolonged then you go into some sort of starvation mode, which lowers your metabolism to conserve energy. Basically a normal bodily function that comes into play if you are actually being starved.

But if you drink a lot of water especially to prevent this sensation of hunger, then you can fool your body into thinking that your stomach is always full and thus never feel hungry. All while your body maintains its metabolism whilst burning off fat instead of calories consumed through the day.

Obviously you need to eat, but you can considerably lower the amount you eat and thus burn off a lot more by just drinking a lot of water.

I think this is more of a combination of the myth that one can mistake hunger for thirst and the fact that drinking ice-cold water can slightly boost your metabolism since your body needs to expend energy to bring that water to your internal temperature. I can't imagine that your metabolism would otherwise be effected; in fact, you should eat as often as you can, breaking up the meals into smaller meals such that you're eating 5-6 times a day so that you can avoid an insulin spike, and prevent your metabolism from slowing down.

 

[Legend]

It's easy to say consume less, but the human body is far more complex than that. What types of foods, how many calories, types/amount of exercise and several other factors determine your metabolism and results. Simply cutting calories may put your body in the frequently mentioned "starvation mode" and you'll get nowhere and feel like sh1t trying. Or worse, you could lose muscle tissue, lowering your metabolism, get no gains, give up, and then gain even more fat.

 

[Legend]

I recommend that you spend a few hours reading some of these articles:

http://www.t-nation.com/findArticle.do?article=05-078-diet

Rarely will you get good advice on these forums.

 

[eakers]

you can go here http://caloriesperhour.com/ and calculate your BMR or RMR. This will tell you how many cals per day you use up just being alive. Then you can use activity calculators and see how much you burn when exercising. You can track how many cals you eat by using fitday or other calorie counting websites.

You should usually aim to eat 200-500 below your BMR and then exercise to create a larger deficit.

 

[RollWave]

Originally posted by: edro
A normal person burns about 2000 calories a day by simply living (depending on activity and muscle mass).

3500 Calories is approximately 1lb of Fat. If you want to lose 2lbs a week, you need to consume 1000 calories per day, than you do now.

Like Agent Jean said, you can eat 500 less and burn 500 more.

This isnt necessarily true. People that are far beyond their jormal equilibrium weight will lose weight just by lowering intake EVEN if they dont burn all that they eat because they are just that obese.

 

[FrustratedUser]

 

[AgentJean]

Originally posted by: logic1485
If you're supposed to burn more than you eat, why not just stop eating?

I'm serious. Apart from the fact that you'll die, it doesn't make sense in theory.

Your blood sugar levels will get out of wack and you'll get very sick as a result.

 

[Koing]

Your training for a race so your weight isn't too much of a factor unless your well out of training fitness. You don't want to weigh too little remember! That will f0ck with your athletical performance!

I dropped 4kg ~ 8.8lbs in the past 5 weeks. Nothing special, ate smaller portions, but most importantly upped my training as I was coming off an injury so that 'artificially' inflated my weigh somewhat I figure. Past 2 and a half weeks I have been a lot more active then my office job though. Summer camp with kids, 3 activites a day or whole day activities and I do all the sports one so I have been whooping in the exercise and training as per usual for olympic style weightlifting = drop weight. I eat a lot of fruit and that helps to keep me full also. 3-4 apples a day, bananas, pears, peaches, oranges, mangos, strawberry's etc. Eat a lot of them. Lots of good vitamins and minerals and plenty of 'fibre' to fill you up and keep you from eating 'poorer' foods. Drink lots of water also.

What distance do you run? Just eat smaller meals and taper off for the race. Depending on what distance you run you don't want to drop too much weight too soon. You want it for the long haul soo you can keep it off and increase your track times.

The quoted figure is 2500 calories for a man and 2000 calories for a woman. This is to just sustain oneself.

Try interval sprints and you will drop weight better this way if you have never done them.

Koing