Calorie counting and Cardio

[Johnnyyakuza]

Ok i'm 5'10 178lbs and looking at the whole calories based on your body weight i would say i need to take about 1700- 1900 calories a day to lose wieght. but if i'm doing cardio and weights almost every day.. then how much do you adjust those calories as i dont want to go too low?!

[oblivious]

bump

[Johnnyyakuza]

bump

[Pookinz]

How much cardio do you do? I think thats a big factor as well as weights.

[Vincento]

Could somebody please try and answer his question?

[Johnnyyakuza]

what i'm saying is if i think i burned off 400 calories on a machine in the gym, but the amount i'm supposed to eat to lose weight is around 1700 calories, does that mean i eat an extra 400 calories to keep it at the same level, or let them drop to technically 1300 calories? i dont understand. can someone clear it up for me. and seemingly a lot of other people! thanks for the bumps!

[Psychoholic]

I think at 178 lbs you should be eating about 2100 calories a day to maintain. (12 x weight), if you go under that then you are at a deficit.

Working out, lifting, and doing cardio will only benefit. 70% of a body is made in the kitchen, so do the cardio and lift, keep your calorie intake low and you'll be fine.

[taffer]

i dont like the whole 10x bodyweight rule, its very old and outdated, completly ineffective
i was say the figure is closer to 12-14x for cutting
check out this spreadsheet to work out how many calories you really need to take in
more importantly you should make sure you dont lose more than 1-2lbs a week, if you are losing more than this, increase calories, everyone is different

[oblivious]

Nice spreadsheet. Thanks for the link.

[Johnnyyakuza]

thanks for the link. Another question then. Should i be aiming for eating maintanence calories and getting into a deficit through cardio or having a deficit through what i eat and do cardio anyway.

[taffer]

its up to you, whatever works, personally i let my diet do the cardio for me, and i only do 15mins of HIIT a week (sometimes i go for walks, that hardly counts though) note:i also lift hard 4 times a week
im not sure how well your fat loss will go if you eat at maintenance and do 500calories of cardio, because cardio doesnt burn only fat, it also uses stored carbs, so its better to have a bit of a calorie deficit and do some cardio, dont forget weight training, the most important part of cutting!

[Psychoholic]

Wow what a great spreadsheet!

[taffer]

im glad everyone likes it, its very important to factor in activitiy, i mean top athletes usually consume like 7000calories a day just to sustain their weight(long distance cyclists/runners sometimes consume upwards of 10-12,000calories per day!) , if they ate 10x their bodyweight, they would probly shrivel up and die!

[StanPT]

what i'm saying is if i think i burned off 400 calories on a machine in the gym, but the amount i'm supposed to eat to lose weight is around 1700 calories, does that mean i eat an extra 400 calories to keep it at the same level, or let them drop to technically 1300 calories? i dont understand. can someone clear it up for me. and seemingly a lot of other people! thanks for the bumps!

Those machines are not accurate. People always say you burn less than on your machine. I disagree. I strap on a HRM and I burn more with the workload I produce. If I do a bike session for 20 minutes I always burn the same amount. With my HRM it dpends on what zone I'm in.

[StanPT]

thanks for the link. Another question then. Should i be aiming for eating maintanence calories and getting into a deficit through cardio or having a deficit through what i eat and do cardio anyway.

You take 15% off your calories I believe.

[Champ0512]

What it seems your worried about is your net calories. Dont worry to much about it just focus on your overall calorie intake. use the iifym calculator to get your macros and calories to lose weight and dont worry about eating more if you burn your just adding to you deficit which you want.