Using A BB Plan to get started.

[beccbecc]

Hey guys, I'm new to lifting, doing that thing most people do & sticking to cardio to burn fat! Which obviously didn't really work well as now although I'm slimmer, I have a lot of body fat.

Anyway, I'm 18yo & am about 62kg. I was having a look around bb.com & found the plans, are they any good for a starting point? I was going to use the Jamie Eason 12 Week Burning the Fat Program.

I've also read through the thread Calculating Calorie and Macronutrient Needs and have read that most calorie calculators are pretty inaccurate.

So instead I used the calories per unit of weight estimation which came back 1612 calories for my body weight at a sedenary lifestyle. So if I take into account the 20-30% you subtract to lose weight I get about 1289.6 calories a day.

But I have recently joined a gym, I'm going in to get my bf% calculated so I have a proper starting point. And a more accurate way of calculating my caloric needs (so I have read).

So if I was to do weight training 4x and cardio 1x a week my activity level would go up to light to moderate activity 3-5 x a week with moderately active lifestyles, which brings the calories up to 1922. Minus the 20% to lose weight. Would bring me up to 1537.6 calories a day.

So based on that my macro's should be (Instead of going for Eason's suggestion of 40:40:20 I decided to instead calculate what MY body needed):
(Based on strength training)
PROTEIN: 99.2g
CARBS: 145.7g
(Based on high bodyfat)
FAT: 62g

So really am I accurate in my calculations?

[terracotta]

How tall are you? I'll give you advice assuming you are of average height ATM.

Calorie calculators are fine as a starting point, but it is trial and error that will get you to the right level. Always err on the side of eating more. I'd personally suggest starting at 1800 calories seeing if you can lose on that first. Then if your fat loss slows down, you have somewhere to go with lower calories. At your current weight, expect no more than 2-4 pounds of fat loss a month.

[beccbecc]

How tall are you? I'll give you advice assuming you are of average height ATM.

Calorie calculators are fine as a starting point, but it is trial and error that will get you to the right level. Always err on the side of eating more. I'd personally suggest starting at 1800 calories seeing if you can lose on that first. Then if your fat loss slows down, you have somewhere to go with lower calories. At your current weight, expect no more than 2-4 pounds of fat loss a month.

I'm about 158cm atm.

[terracotta]

Okay. For weight training 4x/week, and cardio 1x/week, I suggest starting at 1800 calories for 1-2 weeks and measuring yourself in addition to weighing yourself. Then you can determine if you can lose fat on that much. Always try for higher calories! That number may work well IF you are lifting heavy and really challenging yourself - ie. using mostly compound movements, with lower reps (less than 12 a set).

[beccbecc]

Okay. For weight training 4x/week, and cardio 1x/week, I suggest starting at 1800 calories for 1-2 weeks and measuring yourself in addition to weighing yourself. Then you can determine if you can lose fat on that much. Always try for higher calories! That number may work well IF you are lifting heavy and really challenging yourself - ie. using mostly compound movements, with lower reps (less than 12 a set).

Thanks heaps for the advice. Yesterday I ate about 2000 calories and burn off about 800. While today I only got to about 1600 while working off 500.

When I went for my fitness assessment though wit my body fat and height it suggessted to maintain that I needed about 1500. Whic is obviously too low.