Daily Caloric Intake

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krusty23

New Member
Hello all,

I just started on my first reduced calory diet. I calculated my calory requirements based on my bmr and activity and it's supposed to be 2900 kcals.

My question: By what percentage do you reduce your caloric intake in order to loose weight most efficiently?

By efficiently is not necessarily meant fastest but first and foremost with the minimum amount of muscle tissue loss.

thanks in advance
 
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(krusty23 @ Sep. 03 2006,05:10)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">My question: By what percentage do you reduce your caloric intake in order to loose weight most efficiently?</div>
I kind of like this formula for calories that I found on t-nation.  

Formula

I didn't pay attention to the carb cycling part of it, because there is too much debate over that stuff, it's a very convoluted issue.   Everyone says something different.
 
The general rule is about 500 cals below maintainance, though I've never seen any research to back that up. The idea is if the cals drop too much your metabolism slows down, and you lose too much muscle. Don't know where they came up with 500 but its worked for people in the past.
 
Theres 3500 calories in a pound of fat, so the idea is a 500 calorie deficit every day in a perfect world leads to 1lb fat loss per week.
People with more bodyfat can create a bigger deficit with less risk of losing muscle...closer you get to your target weight the harder it will be to hold onto muscle though so depends on your starting level of bf% really.
 
also note that under a diet you WILL lose lean body mass, there is nothing you can do about it.

BUT that doesnt mean you are losing muscle.
 
Thanks guys. That was really helpful.

I read that article, which stevejones linked -ty- and it said i should cut my calories by 20% when trying to loose fat. My activity-modified BMR being at 2900 kcals, that would mean a cut by about 580 kcals, pretty much close to the rule of thumb of cutting by 500 kcals.

However i still have some open questions, i can't really figure out:

1. Is the above reduction by 580 kcals sound?

1.1) there is still some doubt in my mind about the formulas for figuring out the BMR, that is the one in the &quot;eating for size&quot; article on this page and the one linked to above: They do not take into consideration the body fat percentage.
Is that detrimental to their validity or is the lesser need of calories that comes with a higher body fat percentage neglectible?

I weigh about 200 lbs and have a body fat percentage of 17.5 (yeah i know it's bad, i'm trying to do something about it
biggrin.gif
). Does that still leave me with 2900 kcals to maintain, and 2320 kcals to cut my weight?

2.) the linked article (when leaving the carb-cycling thing out) proposes to consume 1.5 g of protein per pound of bodyweight, 1.25 g of carbs per pound of bodyweight and the rest of needed calories filled up by fat when dieting. Is that sound? Or maybe it's not worth the hassle of counting out the different macro-nutrients, when you're eating kind of balanced and wholesome?

2.1) In my case that would mean consuming 302 g of protein, 251 g of carbs and 12 g of fat daily when dieting. Is that sound (particularily the part about only consuming 12g of fat, isn't that quite impossible)?

2.2) the article proposes to have 6 meals a day, the daily fat and protein intake evenly split between the meals. As for carbs it suggests to consume 25% in the morning, 50% immediately post-workout, and 25% in a meal 60-90 min post-workout. Is that sound?

2.2.1) Especially the 50% post-workout seem to be quite brutal: 125g? 125 g of simple carbs? complex carbs? a mixture of both? really doesn't matter? At times i drank a liter of skimmed chocolate milk (5% sugar), augmented with whey post-workout: 692 kcals, 55 g protein, 101 g carbs, 6 g fat, but dropped it since the carbs seemed awfully high. Following the article, i should still add 24 g of carbs to that (dextrose?)? Can this be true: you should consume 50% of your daily carbs post-workout?

2.2.1.1) Ok, they suggested drinking some kind of wheigt gainer 1 part protein to 2 parts simple sugars, and then filling up the rest of the carbs by eating rice.
That would in my case mean ingesting 82 g of simple sugars and 43.5 g of carbs from rice. Is that sound? Is the complex carb immediately post-workout worth the hassle of bringing 50 g of rice in a tupperware box to the gym? Or does it suffice with eg. the chocolate milk from 2.2.1 plus 24 g of dextrose?

3.) Aaron: What kind of lean mass do you loose when doing hst and dieting at the same time?

Advice would be appreciated (most importantly on the main points, less importantly on the subpoints).

Cheers.
 
I weigh about 200 lbs and have a body fat percentage of 17.5 (yeah i know it's bad, i'm trying to do something about it ). Does that still leave me with 2900 kcals to maintain, and 2320 kcals to cut my weight? --yes



The calorie computation is working well for me on HST.   In the past 4 weeks my waist has gone from 36&quot; to 34.75&quot;, which is no great feat, but it's slowly going down and I am keeping my strength up better than I did the last time I dieted.  I only do cardio when I feel like it.  So, sometimes I do it twice a day and other times I don't do it at all (usually on my last days of a cycle where I need to conserve energy for heavy weights).  I completely ignored all the stuff about carbs and fats.  I've had non workout days where almost all my calories were from protein and fats (nuts), and almost zero carbs.  Then, workout days where I've only had carbs and proteins.  I've also mixed cabs and fats...done everything.  

So, I wouldn't stress too much about all the ratios right now, just get the calories and protein straight and stick with that for at least one month.  See what happens.
 
I agree with Steve - just worry about getting in the protein and hitting your calorie goal. After all, I don't really see how you could eat only 12 grams of fat a day. Most protein sources are going to give you more than that anyway. I only watch my carb and fat ratios when I'm doing a diet that requires I manipulate those, but at your bodyfat level, just cutting back calories and keeping protein high is sufficient.
 
i agree with the advice posted so far. you have to walk before you can run.

keep the pro between 1-1.5 per lb, lift heavy, run a cal deficit of around 500 thru diet and/or exer. and stick with it (keep the cheating to a minimum) for a while. at 17.5 % you will lose wgt (fat) while maint. a good bit of your muscle.

other diet strategies such as macro manipulation (especially carbs) etc. certainly work and you should continue to look into them but its not necess. to build the perfect diet when just starting out. see how your body responds to the basics mentioned above then fold in carb manipl. etc as you get closer to your goal and progress slows.

the trouble i see with the diet you were quoting is all the variables. if things dont work out exactly the way you want them to what will be the cause? cals, fats, carbs, pwo meal, sugar, protien. i think you see where im going.

keep it simple to start and add on as your exper., knowledge and progress grows.

good luck
 
thanks again, guys. i hope you would be saying something like that: keep it simple, keep the proteins up, total kcals down. i really don't feel like having to do laboratory work in order to feed myself... yet.

But you know, as soon as you start reading, you get bad conscience about not doing enough...
 
awesome link..

I was wondering why there wasn't a stickied thread about the different formulas and rules on handling your diet, basically similar to what is in that thread, but with more of a HST scientific approach (or verification).

would love a good recap of all the doctrine regarding a good diet both cutting and bulking.

S.
 
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