Need help for newbie

[godspeed1913]

HI there everyone,First of all i would like to say thank you for viewing my question thread.

My main goal now is to lose body fat and build muscle.I have read quite some articles and so far what i understand is that i could either bulk up or cut. So to bulk up ,i need to consume more calories than my body needs per day or consume less to lose bodyfat.

So my question is,If let's say for example i need 2500 calories a day to maintain my weight and i burn 500 calories doing cardio and working out in the gym and consume 3000 calories....

So if i consume 500 more calories than needed to maintain my weight and did both cardio and muscle building exercises,what would actually i be doing? lose fat,build muscle,tone my muscles? I'm confused...

Calories needed to maintain weight:2500
Calories burned:500
Calories consumed:3000

Hope i am not confusing anyone out here and hope to get an answer regarding this so that i could start and plan my workouts and calories intake to build muscle and lose bodyfat,Thank you

[ironwill2008]

Calories needed to maintain weight:2500
Calories burned:500
Calories consumed:3000

The calories required to maintain your weight should already include "Calories Burned." Outside of a clinic or lab, there's no accurate way to measure calorie burn from a single event, so it's useless to try to use it to figure your daily baseline.

Review your requirements using the information in this thread; it will use your daily activity level (including any cardio you may be doing) to figure your proper macro amounts dependent on your goal (losing fat or building muscle):
Emma-Leigh's calorie/macro thread: http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showth...hp?t=121703981








You can also use the 'organic' method to find your maintenance level; record/weigh everything you eat for a week, total the calories, and divide by 7. If your weight stayed the same at the end of that week, you now know your daily calorie maintenance. Eat at a surplus of this number to build muscle, and at a deficit to lose fat.

[senorsuave]

You will be gaining approximately 1 pound per week as an excess or deficit of 3500 calories equates to 1 pound.

When bulking you aren't putting on straight muscle though. No one can achieve 100% efficiency of excess calories being used to build muscle - so some of the weight you gain will be fat. However, you can try to limit this by eating clean and making sure to do your cardio in a heart rate range where fat will be the primary substrate used for energy.

Hope that helps some.

[godspeed1913]

Thank you for the prompt reply guys,Ok i guess i should start training to lose my body fat first,so if i were to consume less calories than i need and did cardio and carry weights at the gym,would i be building any muscle or tone my muscle or would i be only losing bodyfat? Thank you

[godspeed1913]

Sorry i forgot to mention that my goal is to get ripped and have nice muscle definition, i don't really like to bulk up and look huge.

[ironwill2008]

Thank you for the prompt reply guys,Ok i guess i should start training to lose my body fat first,so if i were to consume less calories than i need and did cardio and carry weights at the gym,would i be building any muscle or tone my muscle or would i be only losing bodyfat? Thank you

Calorie deficit = lose body fat

Calorie surplus = build muscle

.. i don't really like to bulk up and look huge.

I wouldn't worry too much about ^^^^ this; it's not that easy to "look huge."

[trev71]

My main goal now is to lose body fat and build muscle.

Sorry i forgot to mention that my goal is to get ripped and have nice muscle definition, i don't really like to bulk up and look huge.

Clear goal, lets not make it more conveluted.

Losing body fat, fantastic thread to follow 'Losing Fat for Noobs' in the .. you guessed it, Losing Fat section of these boards.
Here: http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showth...hp?t=129247741

There are 3 associated rules:
1) Caloric Deficit
2) Work out with weights 3+ times per week
3) 1gram of protien per lb of lean body mass (lbm)

The rules, are clearly described and questioned answered in that thread. It is easy to understand.. harder to live by.

You can build muscle while losing fat especially if your in a higher body fat % (IE: not at 12% ish). At some point in your 'cut' however, gains will become harder as you dip into lower body fat %.

My thoughts:
1) Set a body fat % goal.
2) Work the weights, HARD, increasing weight whenever possible
3) Protein.. protein.. protein.. (keep in mind protein shakes have calories too... )

When you hit your goal, adjust workout/diet and move on.

READ THE FORUMS.

[godspeed1913]

Thank you for this information. I was looking around the lose fat section. Real nice info,but i have one last question before i could plan my workout and diet.

How do i figure out my daily calorie intake? I mean as of now...i don't exercise at all(mostly just sitting on my comp everyday and at work) and i'm going to be training 3 times a week and also do cardio.

Using an online calculator this was the results i got:
sedentary: 2144
moderately active: 2573

So which of either one of this results should i follow from for my calorie deficit? should i follow from sedentary's result as of now i don't exercise at all or from moderately active as that's what i would soon be doing?

[ironwill2008]

How do i figure out my daily calorie intake?

Re-read post #2.

[godspeed1913]

Hi ironwill ,post 2 was for maintain weight and now what i'm asking is to deficit calorie intake to lose weight. And i don't understand what it means by should already include calories burned.

What does that mean? So i should follow the results from moderately active: 2573 ?

I'm getting confused

[trev71]

sedentary: 2144
moderately active: 2573

So which of either one of this results should i follow from for my calorie deficit? should i follow from sedentary's result as of now i don't exercise at all or from moderately active as that's what i would soon be doing?

Some of this is guesswork.

Shoot for 2300 as maintenance, and then drop that by 500 for a deficit. See how that goes for a couple of 'WEEKS', this isn't a day to day thing, it's week by week.

So you want to target roughly 1800 calories in, daily.

Now, you need to get an idea of your body fat % so that you can calculate your lean body mass, keeping in mind you need to intake 1 gram of protein per lb of lean body mass. This is hard to do without a protein supplement/shake or 3... heh.

If after a couple of weeks your not losing adjust, increase the deficit.

When I did my loss (20ish lbs from Jan through March), I used sedentary as a rule of measure as I sit for my job. I did not account for my gym exercise, so I was shooting for, roughly 1800 daily... worked fine for me.. /shrug.

[godspeed1913]

Some of this is guesswork.

Shoot for 2300 as maintenance, and then drop that by 500 for a deficit. See how that goes for a couple of 'WEEKS', this isn't a day to day thing, it's week by week.

So you want to target roughly 1800 calories in, daily.

Now, you need to get an idea of your body fat % so that you can calculate your lean body mass, keeping in mind you need to intake 1 gram of protein per lb of lean body mass. This is hard to do without a protein supplement/shake or 3... heh.

If after a couple of weeks your not losing adjust, increase the deficit.

When I did my loss (20ish lbs from Jan through March), I used sedentary as a rule of measure as I sit for my job. I did not account for my gym exercise, so I was shooting for, roughly 1800 daily... worked fine for me.. /shrug.

Thank you for the help.

I think i finally understand what my calorie intake should be.

Using the results for sedentary of :2144

i will deficit 500 calories and so my intake per day would be about 1650(rounded off)

And i also understand by doing workouts at gym and exercises i would be burning up even more calories than the 500 calorie deficit.

I also have the whey protein so all i have to do now is find out my lean body mass to find out the amount of protein i need to include.

Hope i got it right ...Thank you

[burnandlift]

HI there everyone,First of all i would like to say thank you for viewing my question thread.

My main goal now is to lose body fat and build muscle.

join the club brah