Help me lose weight and get in shape!

[Slanman]

I posted this in the wrong section before I think, so let's try again.

I know there are probably tons of topics like this one coming up, but I couldn't find one like my case so I figured I'd make my own.

I'm 23 years old, 6'0 and now 190 lbs. I've been researching lately how I can quickly lose body fat/weight so I can start playing soccer again. I played from ages 3-21, then while playing for my college team, I hurt my knee and quit playing.

Since then, I've been pretty lazy. I went from 160lbs starting college to 200lbs currently. I'd like to get back down to 170lbs in the next few months if possible, so I can join a team in the spring time to begin playing again.

I've been doing a Keto diet for the past week, and already dropped 10lbs (I'm at 190 now). I'm not sure how much of it is water weight compared to fat, but I can tell by looking in the mirror I'm already getting slimmer. The problem is, I know I won't be able to keep the diet up forever. I'm going to try to do it for 1-2 months and see where I'm at, since I hear the weight loss slows greatly after a few weeks. I'm not looking to get huge and muscular, rather lean and fit. Since I started the diet, I've been doing cardio 6 days a week (riding stationary bike on a decent resistance for as long as I can, usually 4 miles), and doing pushups, crunches, and basic exercises. I have a gym at my apartment with a bunch of stationary weight machines, along with a free weight room. I have never really lifted weights before, so I have no idea where to begin with that. I would really prefer a basic weight lifting regime for maybe a week or two to get used to lifting, then get more into it.

So this is what I'm here for:
1). Is my Keto diet worth doing for a while? I hear once you stop, you gain weight back. I'm not too concerned with the weight, rather the fat.
2). What kind of workout routine should I do as a "soccer player"? At the moment I'm most concerned with cardio. Will that help me lose weight, or do I NEED to weight lift also? (never been a big fan of weight lifting lol)
3). Can I ever look like this? (my dream goal!) http : // i.imgur . com / g4TsQ . jpg
4). Is it possible to be in good physical shape in 4 months? I'm going on vacation in mid April, so I need to be ready by then.
5). I'm currently around 23-24% body fat, how do I get to 10% or less?

[SuffolkPunch]

So this is what I'm here for:
1). Is my Keto diet worth doing for a while? I hear once you stop, you gain weight back. I'm not too concerned with the weight, rather the fat.
2). What kind of workout routine should I do as a "soccer player"? At the moment I'm most concerned with cardio. Will that help me lose weight, or do I NEED to weight lift also? (never been a big fan of weight lifting lol)
3). Can I ever look like this? (my dream goal!) http : // i.imgur . com / g4TsQ . jpg
4). Is it possible to be in good physical shape in 4 months? I'm going on vacation in mid April, so I need to be ready by then.
5). I'm currently around 23-24% body fat, how do I get to 10% or less?

1. No. Keto places unnecessary restrictions on your diet. Why make it harder for yourself when there is no payoff? If you get your macros right, you should have enough fat and protein and can still eat carbs.

2. Mark Rippetoes Starting Strength

3. Gain muscle, lose bodyfat. Genetics will determine if you look like your goal in the end or not.

4. It's possible to improve but not worthwhile goal is accomplished this quickly.

5. Consume less calories than you expend. Make sure you get enough fat and protein (Consult the nutrition forum sticky threads) and do weight training around 3x a week.

[duff527]

How long does it take you to do 4 miles on the stationary bike? Does your bike give you a rough idea of calories burned? I know they're far from perfect, just trying to get an idea of your level of effort. 4 miles at a good pace on a bike probably only takes about 10-15 minutes unless you've really got the resistance cranked up.

Maybe switch to a HIIT routine on the bike to get more out of it.

[Slanman]

How long does it take you to do 4 miles on the stationary bike? Does your bike give you a rough idea of calories burned? I know they're far from perfect, just trying to get an idea of your level of effort. 4 miles at a good pace on a bike probably only takes about 10-15 minutes unless you've really got the resistance cranked up.

Maybe switch to a HIIT routine on the bike to get more out of it.

The bike I have is really weird. It's a total piece of crap I got free from somewhere lol. The fastest I've ever been able to go on it is 11 MPH, and that's all out "sprint". According to the timer thing on it, I'm going steady at 7 MPH, so it takes 35-40 minutes. Changing the resistance on it doesn't do anything to the speed. Normally on a bike if you put it into a higher gear, it will be tougher but you will go a lot faster. Not the case with this one. It will be tougher, but the speed, distance, and calories burned on the monitor act as if it's on the easiest resistance. It also says I've only burned 100 calories, which I don't find to be true either. I put it into the app myfitnesspal and it says anywhere from 300-400 calories burned which seems more likely. I'll go to the gym and put in the same amount of effort and do a mile in like 3 minutes. So I'm not too concerned with all of that though. My heart rate gets up to about 140 and I sweat a little so I'm getting a work out I guess.

I was also going to start doing HIIT today. I was thinking 30 second intervals for 20 minutes, or maybe a little longer if I'm able to.

[Slanman]

bump

[FalseShadow]

1. No. Keto places unnecessary restrictions on your diet. Why make it harder for yourself when there is no payoff? If you get your macros right, you should have enough fat and protein and can still eat carbs.

2. Mark Rippetoes Starting Strength

3. Gain muscle, lose bodyfat. Genetics will determine if you look like your goal in the end or not.

4. It's possible to improve but not worthwhile goal is accomplished this quickly.

5. Consume less calories than you expend. Make sure you get enough fat and protein (Consult the nutrition forum sticky threads) and do weight training around 3x a week.

I'm not sure how he can recommend this as the number 1 rule in SS is to eat more. Rippetoe wants people with abs to lose them and to gain weight, and most issues that arise during the program will be met with people telling you you need to eat more. This program is well known for being a bad choice if you are trying to lose weight. With that being said he has way more posts and rep than me so he may well have a reason why I am wrong. I can tell you I gained a lot of fat and not a lot of strength on SS though I only did it for 3 months.

I agree with him on everything else though. You want to lose weight it is extremely simple. Eat fewer calories. First find what you maintenance level of calories is. Then eat 500 calories less than that per day. If you have an iPhone or similar download the Myfitnesspal app. It practically loses the weight for you.

If you want to lift while losing weight to maintain or increase muscle, do allpro's beginner routine. Unlike SS this routine has a proven track record with dozens of people losing a tone of weight doing it. It is well known to be a great routine to cut on. You will gain strength if you are a beginner. You will maintain or maybe even increase your muscle size while you lose fat.

If you want to lose weight
1 Find your maintenance
2 Use myfitnesspal and
3 Do the routine called Allpro's Simple Beginner routine

If you do the three steps above weight loss is literally guaranteed. I say again it is guaranteed that you will lose weight if you do those three things. the weight will stay off unless you start eating more.

[Slanman]

I'm not sure how he can recommend this as the number 1 rule in SS is to eat more. Rippetoe wants people with abs to lose them and to gain weight, and most issues that arise during the program will be met with people telling you you need to eat more. This program is well known for being a bad choice if you are trying to lose weight. With that being said he has way more posts and rep than me so he may well have a reason why I am wrong. I can tell you I gained a lot of fat and not a lot of strength on SS though I only did it for 3 months.

I agree with him on everything else though. You want to lose weight it is extremely simple. Eat fewer calories. First find what you maintenance level of calories is. Then eat 500 calories less than that per day. If you have an iPhone or similar download the Myfitnesspal app. It practically loses the weight for you.

If you want to lift while losing weight to maintain or increase muscle, do allpro's beginner routine. Unlike SS this routine has a proven track record with dozens of people losing a tone of weight doing it. It is well known to be a great routine to cut on. You will gain strength if you are a beginner. You will maintain or maybe even increase your muscle size while you lose fat.

If you want to lose weight
1 Find your maintenance
2 Use myfitnesspal and
3 Do the routine called Allpro's Simple Beginner routine

If you do the three steps above weight loss is literally guaranteed. I say again it is guaranteed that you will lose weight if you do those three things. the weight will stay off unless you start eating more.

how do i find my maintenance?

and what about the calories i burn through exercise? do i need to replace some of those? i got a heart rate monitor today and did my workout ive been doing the past couple days and its showing ive been burning 750+ calories every day.

I've been eating around 1800 calories each day. That's all im hungry for most of the time, and I drink over 100 oz of water a day.
I burn let's say...2200 calories a day just being alive and moving, then 750 from exercise. That's 2950 calories being burned while taking in around 1800. Is that really bad, or am i doing the math or w/e wrong?

[FalseShadow]

how do i find my maintenance?

and what about the calories i burn through exercise? do i need to replace some of those? i got a heart rate monitor today and did my workout ive been doing the past couple days and its showing ive been burning 750+ calories every day.

I've been eating around 1800 calories each day. That's all im hungry for most of the time, and I drink over 100 oz of water a day.
I burn let's say...2200 calories a day just being alive and moving, then 750 from exercise. That's 2950 calories being burned while taking in around 1800. Is that really bad, or am i doing the math or w/e wrong?

Yes you are doing something wrong. How tall are you and how much do you weigh? 6' 0" 190lbs? Put that in your info under your name, it will help others help you. Your maintenance is somewhere near 2750 calories. If you are active and doing lots of cardio you willl burn a few hundred calories more than this, probably. It depends on how much activity you do. How long was your cardio session? Did you do your 4 miles like you say you usually do?

If you keep doing what you are doing it will probably not end well. You are at too much of a caloric deficit in my opinion. The reason people gain back weight when they do what you're doing is because they starved themselves for a few weeks or months and then their bodies freaked out when they stopped and added on a ton of fat. They added a bunch of fat because they burned off a ton of muscle during the diet and lowered their maintenance level. So even if you go back to eating at your pre-diet maintenance you will now be gaining weight because you don't have the muscle to burn those calories. Their body is probably also storing as much fat as possible so they don't starve to death next time they try that ridiculous deficit.

You don't need the cardio if your only goal is to lose fat. If this is the case it's a waste of time. Cardio IS great to stay in shape though, so if you want to play soccer or want the cardio in then keep it. If you keep the cardio and you are really burning like 750 cals on that per day, just eat 2200 calories per day starting now. Be as accurate as you can without it being a huge inconvenience. You will need myfitnesspal for this.

Eat at 2200 cals per week and keep up your cardio. Keep checking the scale. Check it every day in the morning after you pee. You urine and crap can easily weigh a few pounds. Water loss from sweat ect., food intake and scale fluctuations will also change your read weight by a few pounds. Basically your weight will change a lot during the day. This does not matter, all that matters is what you weigh after every week. Lets try to have you lose 1lb of weight per week. Lets make tomorrow day 1. What is tomorrow wednesday? So every wednesday you can make a note of your weight. Ideally every wednesday you will weigh 1lb less than the wednesday before. If you weigh the same decrease your daily calories by 200. If you weigh 2 pounds less increase your daily calories by about 200.

If you weigh 190 now at 25% you have about 48lbs of fat. If your goal is to be at 10% fat, the easiest way to do this is to drop down to about 16lbs of fat. If you only lose fat and don't gain muscle you need to lose about 32 pounds of fat. If you do this the way I wrote it will take you 48 weeks and you WILL get there. If you try to lose fat faster you will be able to, but that loss will result in some amount of muscle loss as well. Perhaps you could try to adjust the numbers to you lose 2lbs a week for the first 5 weeks. That means in just over one month you will be 30% to your goal. If you want to gain strength and muscle while you do this you will definitely need to lift weights. Do alpros for this.


IN SHORT:

Losing 10lbs per week at your fat level is way to much and you will be losing a lot of muscle if you keep this up.

You need a scale
You need to count calories
Try to lose weight gradually but slower
If you lose 1lb a week you probably won't lose much muscle
If you want to gain muscle you need to lift - do allpros

[FalseShadow]

You find your maintenance by looking at something like Myfitnesspal and putting in your height and weight. This is an estimate, but if you have an average lifestyle it is usually very close. If you want to find exact maintenance you must weigh yourself in the morning, in your pj's after you pee, then take this number (2750 I think for you) and eat exactly 2750 calories per day. Weigh yourself every week. If you increase in weight your maintenance is below 2750, if you decrease in weight it is above 2750. The longer you do this the more accurate it is and the more you can hone in on your maintenance. Since you are trying to lose weight though you should try to just lose 1 lb a week and hone in on that number and eat that instead of your maintenance.

[Slanman]

Yes you are doing something wrong. How tall are you and how much do you weigh? 6' 0" 190lbs? Put that in your info under your name, it will help others help you. Your maintenance is somewhere near 2750 calories. If you are active and doing lots of cardio you willl burn a few hundred calories more than this, probably. It depends on how much activity you do. How long was your cardio session? Did you do your 4 miles like you say you usually do?

If you keep doing what you are doing it will probably not end well. You are at too much of a caloric deficit in my opinion. The reason people gain back weight when they do what you're doing is because they starved themselves for a few weeks or months and then their bodies freaked out when they stopped and added on a ton of fat. They added a bunch of fat because they burned off a ton of muscle during the diet and lowered their maintenance level. So even if you go back to eating at your pre-diet maintenance you will now be gaining weight because you don't have the muscle to burn those calories. Their body is probably also storing as much fat as possible so they don't starve to death next time they try that ridiculous deficit.

You don't need the cardio if your only goal is to lose fat. If this is the case it's a waste of time. Cardio IS great to stay in shape though, so if you want to play soccer or want the cardio in then keep it. If you keep the cardio and you are really burning like 750 cals on that per day, just eat 2200 calories per day starting now. Be as accurate as you can without it being a huge inconvenience. You will need myfitnesspal for this.

Eat at 2200 cals per week and keep up your cardio. Keep checking the scale. Check it every day in the morning after you pee. You urine and crap can easily weigh a few pounds. Water loss from sweat ect., food intake and scale fluctuations will also change your read weight by a few pounds. Basically your weight will change a lot during the day. This does not matter, all that matters is what you weigh after every week. Lets try to have you lose 1lb of weight per week. Lets make tomorrow day 1. What is tomorrow wednesday? So every wednesday you can make a note of your weight. Ideally every wednesday you will weigh 1lb less than the wednesday before. If you weigh the same decrease your daily calories by 200. If you weigh 2 pounds less increase your daily calories by about 200.

If you weigh 190 now at 25% you have about 48lbs of fat. If your goal is to be at 10% fat, the easiest way to do this is to drop down to about 16lbs of fat. If you only lose fat and don't gain muscle you need to lose about 32 pounds of fat. If you do this the way I wrote it will take you 48 weeks and you WILL get there. If you try to lose fat faster you will be able to, but that loss will result in some amount of muscle loss as well. Perhaps you could try to adjust the numbers to you lose 2lbs a week for the first 5 weeks. That means in just over one month you will be 30% to your goal. If you want to gain strength and muscle while you do this you will definitely need to lift weights. Do alpros for this.


IN SHORT:

Losing 10lbs per week at your fat level is way to much and you will be losing a lot of muscle if you keep this up.

You need a scale
You need to count calories
Try to lose weight gradually but slower
If you lose 1lb a week you probably won't lose much muscle
If you want to gain muscle you need to lift - do allpros

Thanks for the response. I didn't see a place to enter height along with weight. But yes 6'0''

So I guess in the long run, this diet is a bad idea? I can't possibly eat 2700 calories a day. I'm hardly hungry enough for what I've been eating as it is. I feel fine, and I like the quick results I'm seeing. Although from what I've read, I've probably only lost 1 pound of fat and the rest water weight.

My workout tonight was 52 minutes total. I did 20 minutes of HIIT, 20 minutes of steady biking, keeping my heart rate around 165. It ended up being more than 4 miles. The display on my bike is messed up so it randomly shuts off. Then I finished off doing pushups, crunches, bridges for as long as I could. But I got a heart monitor today, so I'll be tracking everything with that.

My goals are to lose all this extra fat AND be in shape to play soccer (running 90 minutes), so I definitely need cardio. I track all my food on myfitnesspal. I usually eat eggs, ham, bacon, salad, cheese, olive oil, avocados and sometimes 1 scoop protein powder w/water if I have a few carbs to spare. I usually just eat when I'm hungry, and stop when I'm full. I think I gained so much weight because I was pretty inactive, and I LOVE sushi and chinese food!

Since I've only been on the diet for about a week now, would I be losing muscle already? That seems kinda quick. So I guess I'm not as concerned with my actual weight as I am with how I look. If I weigh 180, but I have some muscle showing and a pretty low fat %, I'd be happy. Maybe I'm going about this the wrong way. Can I lose muscle while lifting? I have no problem going to my gym to do some lifting, I'll just need to figure out what the heck I'm doing. In my "dream goal" picture from my OP, the guy weighs about 185.

I posted something similar like this on another forum, and everyone said the diet was a bad idea, but no one will tell me why. But they are mostly a bunch of trolls, so who knows. I guess if you guys here think it's a bad idea, I'll keep doing it until all the food I bought is gone, then I'll slowly work some carbs in and get on a normal eating routine. All the stuff I'm eating now is pretty low in carbs and high in fat. That's probably why I haven't been reaching my daily calorie goal. I'll have about 5 eggs, 4-8 oz of ham/few strips of bacon, olive oil for calories and fat.

[SuffolkPunch]

Eating a lot on SS obviously is going to help muscle gain but it is not essential. If you are going to use it to cut, you can expect to stall more often but this doesn't matter, just reset and continue. These cycles are just ways of dealing with overreaching. Just because they are called a "stall" doesn't mean you have failed.

There is no special reason why SS in particular needs you to fat-bulk. All the talk around the amount of food consumed is mainly targeted at the skinny teens who are always claiming that they can't gain weight no matter what they do.

[Slanman]

Last bump!

I think I might stop this diet even though it seems to be going so well. I'm just worried about the after effects if I were to stick with it for a while then try to stop.
So maybe getting out after a week will do less harm. I've been seeing how tough it can be to stop, and if you don't do it right you will gain a lot of fat back.
So I'll slowly introduce some carbs over the next week, and hopefully I won't get a massive weight gain.

[FalseShadow]

I already wrote several paragraphs why your diet is bad and why you will probably fail on it. I'm sure if you aren't lifting you are losing muscle already. The muscle you have lost won't be much at all though since you've only been on it a week. If you have no appetite why are you doing this diet with no carbs? Just eat a normal amount of carbs which will keep your energy up and they are much higher in calories than protein but less than all the fat you are eating. You're probably having trouble eating a normal amount because all you eat is heavy fatty foods.


For the record I tried the paleo diet for a month. People claimed it gave you so much energy and made you feel awesome. It was basically a no carb diet with no dairy or legumes. So pretty much just meat fat and vegetables. It didn't make me feel any better at all, was a pain to eat any amount of calories on and was expensive as hell.

[Slanman]

I already wrote several paragraphs why your diet is bad and why you will probably fail on it. I'm sure if you aren't lifting you are losing muscle already. The muscle you have lost won't be much at all though since you've only been on it a week. If you have no appetite why are you doing this diet with no carbs? Just eat a normal amount of carbs which will keep your energy up and they are much higher in calories than protein but less than all the fat you are eating. You're probably having trouble eating a normal amount because all you eat is heavy fatty foods.


For the record I tried the paleo diet for a month. People claimed it gave you so much energy and made you feel awesome. It was basically a no carb diet with no dairy or legumes. So pretty much just meat fat and vegetables. It didn't make me feel any better at all, was a pain to eat any amount of calories on and was expensive as hell.

Yeah, I'm stopping it. I've slowly started adding in some carbs the past few days. Since I was only doing it a little over a week, it shouldn't take too long to get back to normal I'd imagine.
Do I need to be on a caloric deficit if I'm working out? I wouldn't think so, but I wasn't exactly sure. Also, how did you come up with the 2700 cal maintenance? I've been looking at different calculators and that seems extremely high. The highest I've seen for my height/weight/age is around 2300.

I'm going to start allpros beginners routine in about a week. I'm doing a clinical study Monday - Thursday, so I can't work out during that time. And it wouldn't make much sense to do it for 1-2 days now then stop.

So I'm thinking I'll do this for my workout.

M-W-F: Allpros lifting, followed by 20 minutes or so of cardio
T-T-S: Cardio - HIIT, basic riding, jump rope and maybe some soccer stuff
Sunday: Rest day.

Does this seem like a good starting schedule?

[FalseShadow]

Yeah, I'm stopping it. I've slowly started adding in some carbs the past few days. Since I was only doing it a little over a week, it shouldn't take too long to get back to normal I'd imagine.
Do I need to be on a caloric deficit if I'm working out? I wouldn't think so, but I wasn't exactly sure. Also, how did you come up with the 2700 cal maintenance? I've been looking at different calculators and that seems extremely high. The highest I've seen for my height/weight/age is around 2300.

I'm going to start allpros beginners routine in about a week. I'm doing a clinical study Monday - Thursday, so I can't work out during that time. And it wouldn't make much sense to do it for 1-2 days now then stop.

So I'm thinking I'll do this for my workout.

M-W-F: Allpros lifting, followed by 20 minutes or so of cardio
T-T-S: Cardio - HIIT, basic riding, jump rope and maybe some soccer stuff
Sunday: Rest day.

Does this seem like a good starting schedule?

What calculators are you looking at? A lot of them will give you a maintenance that will keep you at weight if you don't do any activity at all. Walking all day is going to burn several hundred calories that these calculators didn't take into account. I'm 5' 11" 165 pounds. I eat 3000 calories a day and don't do any cardio and I gain less than one pound per week.

Yes you still need to be on a caloric deficit even if you are working out. The deficit is the whole point because you said you want to lose the extra fat on your body. You can workout more than anyone else in the world and you won't lose weight if you aren't on a deficit. The more you workout though the more you can eat and still lose weight, because cardio will add to your deficit.

Personally if it were me I would do allpros MWF with cardio and abs on Tues Thurs. I would rest on Sat Sunday. You won't want to be doing any cardio after allpros in a few weeks. Trust me it takes everything out of you once you start lifting enough weight. It's always nice to have the weekened off so your whole life isn't about exercise. Your body will recover better with some time to rest than if you keep trying to run it into the ground. If you try to do this cardio schedule your strength and muscle will certainly suffer. If you don't get enough carbs you won't have any energy to lift. Just my advice based on some experience and a lot of research.

[Slanman]

What calculators are you looking at? A lot of them will give you a maintenance that will keep you at weight if you don't do any activity at all. Walking all day is going to burn several hundred calories that these calculators didn't take into account. I'm 5' 11" 165 pounds. I eat 3000 calories a day and don't do any cardio and I gain less than one pound per week.

Yes you still need to be on a caloric deficit even if you are working out. The deficit is the whole point because you said you want to lose the extra fat on your body. You can workout more than anyone else in the world and you won't lose weight if you aren't on a deficit. The more you workout though the more you can eat and still lose weight, because cardio will add to your deficit.

Personally if it were me I would do allpros MWF with cardio and abs on Tues Thurs. I would rest on Sat Sunday. You won't want to be doing any cardio after allpros in a few weeks. Trust me it takes everything out of you once you start lifting enough weight. It's always nice to have the weekened off so your whole life isn't about exercise. Your body will recover better with some time to rest than if you keep trying to run it into the ground. If you try to do this cardio schedule your strength and muscle will certainly suffer. If you don't get enough carbs you won't have any energy to lift. Just my advice based on some experience and a lot of research.

I just google'd like 6 different calculators because the 2700 you gave me seemed really high. So if I am on a 500 calorie deficit, and burn an additional 600 through working out, it doesn't put me at an 1100 calorie deficit? That's how I thought it was. Yesterday, I went out with some friends and we went rock climbing and I burned about 1700 calories.

I keep track of everything with myfitnesspal. I set my goal to 2000 calories a day. So yesterday, I burnt about 1700 calories. I ate a little extra because I thought I needed to make up for all the calories burned. So I ate 2500 calories. But it's showing my net calories as 847 and saying i need 1153 more for the day. That's what got me confused.

[SuffolkPunch]

lol calculators.

More trouble than they are worth. Just pick a sensible starting number and monitor your weight for a couple of weeks. Each time you reach 1lb lost, it means you ate 3500 less calories than you expended.

[Slanman]

lol calculators.

More trouble than they are worth. Just pick a sensible starting number and monitor your weight for a couple of weeks. Each time you reach 1lb lost, it means you ate 3500 less calories than you expended.

I'm new to all of this, so I don't know the best ways to do everything. I'm going to eat around 2000 calories a day and that should give me some weight loss.
But about the calories lost during exercise. If it's a lot, I don't need to make them up?

[SuffolkPunch]

I'm new to all of this, so I don't know the best ways to do everything. I'm going to eat around 2000 calories a day and that should give me some weight loss.
But about the calories lost during exercise. If it's a lot, I don't need to make them up?

There is nothing special about calories burned during exercise. You should only concern yourself with the overall daily defecit. Some people eat the same calories every day even if some days have more expenditure than others. Some try to compensate on a daily basis. This is simply a matter of preference as it makes no difference to body composition in the long run.

[FalseShadow]

I just google'd like 6 different calculators because the 2700 you gave me seemed really high. So if I am on a 500 calorie deficit, and burn an additional 600 through working out, it doesn't put me at an 1100 calorie deficit? That's how I thought it was. Yesterday, I went out with some friends and we went rock climbing and I burned about 1700 calories.

I keep track of everything with myfitnesspal. I set my goal to 2000 calories a day. So yesterday, I burnt about 1700 calories. I ate a little extra because I thought I needed to make up for all the calories burned. So I ate 2500 calories. But it's showing my net calories as 847 and saying i need 1153 more for the day. That's what got me confused.

Honestly, I'm really not sure how you are so confused here. It's simple math. If you set your calories to 2000 per day, and you eat 2500 you have consumed 2500 calories. If you then burn 1700 EXTRA calories climbing rocks, it would be like you laid on the couch all day and ate 800 calories. 2500-1700 = 800. Now since your maintenance is like 2500 and you basically only put in 800 calories, you have a NET LOSS of 1700 calories today. One pound of weight is about 3500 calories. 1700/3500 = about 1/2. You basically lost 1/2lb of weight today because you expended massive amounts of energy climbing on rocks and you didn't eat nearly enough to sustain the energy requirements for this exercise and your daily bodily functions.

If you do this all the time you will lose fat and muscle. Try to keep your protein up around at least 150 grams per day. This will help you rebuild muscle when you break down and keep your muscles up even when you lose fat.


I'll just repeat what I've been saying:

Figure out your maintenance and eat 500 calories below that. Adjust this depending on how your scale acts, so you lose 1lb of weight per week.
Eat 150 grams of protien per day
Do allpros MWF, cardio Tues Thurs
Profit

OK I just went to the very first site on google

http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm

How old are you and what is your job like? If you are my age and have a active job you will burn about 2600 calories per day acording to this site. If you are 10 years older and sit on your as all day at a desk besides when you workout your maintenance will be a few hundred calories lower.

Please put your age in your profile.

Do you have a scale? You need one.


I do not agree with Sofolk. He is right when he implies the actual number of your maintenance isn't that important. You just need to find what it is so that you can lose 1lb of fat a week, we really don't care what the number is we just need to know the number you need to lose 1lb per week. I believe he is wrong about the calculator though. Most people guesstimate way off the number of calories they eat. That's why you have all these skinny kids on here saying they have a "fast metabolism" making them "hard gainers" and no matter what they do they just can't gain weight. That's largely bull**** they just think they eat way more than they do because they don't actually look at the calories they eat on average.

The same is true for fat people. Go watch a fat person eat. They are the only ones (besides me on a bulk) who are consistently eating 2 burgers with fries and 4 candy bars in the break room. I can tell you just by the lunch in the fridge if the person is fat or not. But these people will swear they don't eat much and exercise and the weight "just won't come off". they are delusional. They also have not actually calculated the numbers of what they are eating and just guesstimate. Both these people have something in common. They are failing at their goal of changing how they look. Don't be like them, just get your numbers and follow them to success.

Losing fat is so much easier than gaining muscle you will not fail here. You will cut down and finally get that fat off your midsection so you can see some abs. Then you can start adding some real muscle if you dedicate to it.

You are already getting the hang of it by the way. You may have got confused by the calculator but you were correct to assume that when you burn a ton of calories you need to eat a bit more so you stay just under your calorie goal for the day. Since you have a good amount of body fat right now if you lose it a bit too fast in the beginning for the first week or two whil you figure out what your numbers should be don't worry it's not going to be a big deal. Also keep in mind once you drop 10 or 15 pounds you will have to start eating a bit less to keep dropping 1lb per week bc your maintenance will go down.

Hope this helps.