"burn more calories than you consume" cutting question

[jcsickz]

i am doing my first cutting cycle and I have spent hours reading stuff people have said about it, and the basic consensus seems to be to burn more calories than you consume and you will become cut

now if my diet consists of monstly chicken, tuna, and proetin shakes, that would put me around 2100 (estimation) calories a day, and my HIIT cardio thing I am doing now only has me burning about 150

does this mean that I have to burn 2100 calories every day on a cardio machine?

[RobRob]

You'd have to be doing cardio for 5 hours to burn that many calories. I think the calculation for basal metabolism is bodyweight X 10. So throw you bodyweght figure in the equation and you have how many calories you burn just from living each day. Aim to consumne less calories than that number to lose weight.

[jcsickz]

ok so i weigh 186 right now so less than 1860 a day? what about cardio?

[Cardinal]

jcsickz...I am not intending this as a flame but I think you should really do a lot more nutritional research before you decide to go on a cutting cycle.

An all meat diet such as you listed will not get you anywhere. In fact it is quite harmful not to include portions of the other key macronutrients, viz. carbs and fats. You don't want to burn protein as your primary energy source.

[RonJ73]

Ok...jcsickz...

At 186lbs, your body will burn roughly 1860 calories a day while doing pretty much nothing at all. This is just your regular metabolic functions. Your heart beating. Breathing. Digestion. Generating heat. That sort of thing.

Your body NEEDS veggies. Plain and simple. Preferably fiberous green ones like Broccoli or Spinach. Even on the most strict low carb, high protein diets, there is ALWAYS veggies included. Make sure you include them.

Post your typical day's diet plan and we'll figure out something for you. Are you trying to do keto or 40/40/20 or something?

[musmar]

I agree with Ron in the above post. Your body burns calories in order to keep all the bodily functions working day after day. Breathing, resting, walking, thinking, digesting food, they all burn calories. There are a few formulas that can estimate how many calories your body burns for all those functions. If you want to gain muscle, you increase your calories to create a calorie surplus. If you want to lose fat, you decrease your calories to create a calorie deficit. Note that its not always good to lower your calories when you are trying to lose fat because you will lose muscle too and wont recover as well. If i were you i would eat more healthy foods, increase my protein intake and try to increase my exercise intensity in order to burn more calories. You will notice a big difference.

[jcsickz]

an average day's meals : (i go to bed around 5 am and wake up around 1pm usually)

keep in mind this is the diet i have been using for bulking (just came off super one plus cycle @ min dosage) ; also, I have tons of protein bars that I got from walmart on clearance, ranging from regular powerbars (9g protein, 20g sugar, 45g carbs) to met-rx protein plus (31g protein, 2g sugar, and 29g carb) ; also please note that i am usually eating the higher protein, lower carb and sugar ones

2:30 pm - two chicken patty burgers on white or wheat bread with ketchup and lowfat mayo and dill relish

4:30 pm - random protein bar

6:30 pm - 10 to 12 oz of sirloin steak, cup of cut corn (my fave veggie)

8:30 pm - free weights (hiit cardio 3-4 times a week)

9:30 pm - one serving n-large 2, banana, two tablespoons of smuckers all natural peanut butter, skim milk, glutamine, creatine

2:30 am - either 2 chicken burgers(same as above) or a half cup of turkey chili eaten with tortilla chips

5:00 am - random protein bar to help me fall asleep

[RonJ73]

Gotcha...lets see...how about something like this...modify to taste and you'll have to alter portions to match the macronutrient breakdown I mentioned before...

If you get up at 1pm, you'll want your first meal pretty much as soon as you get up. Within reason...

2:00pm: Bowl of FiberOne Cereal with Skim Milk. 2 Whole Eggs, however you want them cooked. I prefer scrambled because it's easy.

4:00pm: Protein Shake, some veggie sticks (Broccoli, Celery)

6:30pm: Very lean meat, like flank steak or chicken. Unfortunately corn isn't a good veggie. Green beans, broccoli, spinach. Stick to the green things. If you're craving bread, have the meat on toasted wheat bread. Do not have white bread.

9:30pm: (post workout) : Whey Shake 30g with Dextrose 30g.

2:00am: 2 Chicken breasts, cut up on a nice lettuce or baby spinach salad with cucumbers, tomatoes, fat free dressing. Baby spinach salads are also very tasty with a can of tuna.

5:00am: Cottage Cheese, fat free. It digests nice and slowly and will feed your body while you sleep.

[jcsickz]

thanks bro, i think i could swing that diet plan

few quick questions

1. should i stop taking creatine and/or glutamine?

2. where do they sell dextrose

again, thanks alot, i will hit up the grocery this weekend and stock up

[RonJ73]

1) Not necessarily. I don't have a lot of experience with either, so I can't say for certian, but as I understand it, they will assist in preserving mass.

2) GNC, I think. Although Gatorade will work, a 16oz bottle of gatorade has 30g of carbs, most of which is Glucose of which Dextrose is a natural form.

[Ziesmann]

Originally posted by RobRob
You'd have to be doing cardio for 5 hours to burn that many calories.

That's not entirely true. I've been doing cardio 3-4 days per week for about 10 weeks now and am VERY good at going VERY high intensity (while maintaining a healthy heart rate I should add).

My current record (set yesterday actually, which I'm hoping to repeat tomorow morning) is 1713 calories in 1 hour, 35 minutes of cardio. My goal is to do 1750 (half pound) in 1.5 hours, though when I get up as high as I am the increases in my cardio fitness are really slow and I don't know if I'll ever reach that goal.

My question is related. People say that to lose weight you need to eat 10x your body weight (pounds) and do cardio. Now if I'm eating 2300 calories of food but burning 1700 calories in cardio, how is that different than eating only 600 calories and doing no cardio? Is it just because of the fact that I get some basic nutrients - proteins, carbs, nucleic acids and such - that my body needs for maintenance, rather than the energy I get from them that is important?

Thanks for any advice.

[DefiKojiro]

The difference between eating 2300 calories and 600 calories is with cardio one will burn fat and the the won't. Care to guess which one will burn fat? ... the 2300 calories. If you eat too few calories your body will become scared that it is being starved and it will hold onto fat because your body stores fat as both an energy supply and a thermal layer. When you are not intaking calories instead of burning fat your body will resort to protein and will fuel off your muscle supply. Doing this for a while is gonna make you one weak bitch and your metabolism will be so slow your weight loss will stop. You are eating 2300 calories a day but this is probably what your active metabolic rate is using. When you add the cardio that you are doing, 1750 or so (btw. that is a **** load, I do 45 mins and burn 650 and that's alot) you are burning that 1750 of almost pure fat and on top of that you have an increased metabolism for the next few hours. Lets say that is a 500 calorie increase in metabolic rate. Than you are at a deficit of about 2250 calories a day or just short of 2/3 of a pound. This would be about 4.3 lbs a week which is a large amount and would surely have quite a bit of muscle loss in in.

Hope this helps

[RonJ73]

Originally posted by Ziesmann
That's not entirely true. I've been doing cardio 3-4 days per week for about 10 weeks now and am VERY good at going VERY high intensity (while maintaining a healthy heart rate I should add).

My current record (set yesterday actually, which I'm hoping to repeat tomorow morning) is 1713 calories in 1 hour, 35 minutes of cardio. My goal is to do 1750 (half pound) in 1.5 hours, though when I get up as high as I am the increases in my cardio fitness are really slow and I don't know if I'll ever reach that goal.

My question is related. People say that to lose weight you need to eat 10x your body weight (pounds) and do cardio. Now if I'm eating 2300 calories of food but burning 1700 calories in cardio, how is that different than eating only 600 calories and doing no cardio? Is it just because of the fact that I get some basic nutrients - proteins, carbs, nucleic acids and such - that my body needs for maintenance, rather than the energy I get from them that is important?

Thanks for any advice.

That's just crazy. Holy crap.

I think I'll set some nice realistic goals.

[musmar]

bump

[jcsickz]

Ron, I tried the Fiberone cereal with skim milk with the two eggs, but I really cant stand milk with my cereal or milk in general (unless it is in a protein shake)... I think the cereal tastes ok dry though...

i know, its weird, but whats a way to get around this? is the milk in the creal that important? can I get around it?