Hi Folks,

New guy here and starting to post questions, so here's another:

I'm 190 lbs and it is recommended I consume 1900 caloires a day (weight x 10) if I want to loose weight.

According to FitDay.com my excercise calories burned is 521 calories for the day.

So, should I consume 1900 calories a day or 2421 (1900 calories + 521 calories burned) calrories a day?

My goal is weight loss of a pound or two a week.

Thank you!

10x may work for some people, not others. It is only a starting point. If you want to get precise, figure out how many calories you maintain your weight at. It may be 10x your body weight, but it is probably a bit higher - it just varies. Then, create a deficit of about 500 calories per day to drop one pound of fat per week.

So, let's say you maintain your weight at 1900. If you are burning 500 calories a day in exercise, great, eat 1900. If you are burning only 200 calories, then I would eat 1600 and if you are burning 700 calories then eat 2100 calories. Basically, you want to balance between nutrition and exercise for optimal fat loss.

Jeremy

Okay, I will add a question to this thread. Mybodycomp.com estimates my daily caloric needs at 2900 and my resting metabolic rate at 1800 calories/day. So, is the 2900 my maintenance level (I don't weigh 290 lbs)? I am currently getting 1900-2200 daily. Am I shooting myself in the foot here?

I am active with 3 days cardio, 2 lifting and whatever activity I can find. I'm currently 181.5 lbs and 5'11.5" (17.9%BF). I would like to be 10%BF in about 8 weeks.

Again, all of these formulas and estimates should be taken with a grain of salt. I am 210 pounds, but I must eat around 1600 calories to cut, as my metabolic rate is around 2200 when you factor in all things. I have a friend, however, who is 180 pounds and he consumes 2900 calories per day to CUT. So those equations might be starting points, they aren't the law.

The only real way to know your actual metabolism is to track your calories and energy expenditure for a week along with your weight changes, and monitor the difference, OR to use software that does this, like DietPower.

If your maintenance is listed at 2900, then that is the estimate of what you would maintain at. Your resting metabolic rate is a theoretical number - it is what you would burn if you were a vegetable and did not move or think all day long. The daily requirement is an estimate based on the fact that you DO move, of what it would take, but it is, at best, a guess.

So what DO you need? Again, who knows? Are you losing 1 pound per week? If so, you are eating, on average, 500 calories below your maintenance when you include exercise. In other words, to maintain, you would add 500 calories back in and maintain the same level of exercise. To lose faster, you would drop maybe 250 calories of food and then add another 250 calories of exercise to lose another pound per week. But you are also chasing a moving target - your metabolism will slow down, etc, which is why zig-zagging calories and increasing exercise before you decrease calories is the optimal way to drop fat.

Jeremy

Last week, I dropped from 183 to 181.5 and went from 19.6%BF to 17.9%, so I am making progress. But, I see so much fluctuation, that has to be H20, and it's making me crazy. This morning, 184. I drank 1.25 gallons of water trying to get rid of any retained water. I don't do much salt. If today was my regular measurment day, I would have taken two steps back. I can't really tell if I am losing or not. (Not true, I was 192 about 8 weeks ago and I have been adapting the techniques discussed here for the past 2 weeks.) Weight is not the issue as much as BF, but today (measuring) my BF would have been up, too. Maybe, I didn't weigh 181.5, maybe I was just dehydrated even though I drink 1+ gallons a day.

Yesterday I ate 2300 calories and rode my bike for 1:24 at an average pace of 17 mph (medium paced for the group I ride with), which should have burned around 1000 calories (by several different calculators). I do this several days a week, while limiting my intake as posted before. I think I should be seeing more progress than I am. I'm getting frustrated. :mad: It's so simple, yet so complicated.

BTW: The Harris Benedict method gives me almost the same BMR.

10x may work for some people, not others. It is only a starting point. If you want to get precise, figure out how many calories you maintain your weight at. It may be 10x your body weight, but it is probably a bit higher - it just varies. Then, create a deficit of about 500 calories per day to drop one pound of fat per week.

So, let's say you maintain your weight at 1900. If you are burning 500 calories a day in exercise, great, eat 1900. If you are burning only 200 calories, then I would eat 1600 and if you are burning 700 calories then eat 2100 calories. Basically, you want to balance between nutrition and exercise for optimal fat loss.

Jeremy

Thank you so much for that great information. It really puts things into perspective. As do your additional comment below.

Just clear something up for me and I'll try not to ask anymore questions, is the 10xbodyweight an estimation of the calories needed to maintain or to lose weight?

I've been using that as a target for weight loss by trying to stay 1000 calories below the 2900 estimate from mybodycomp. If it is for maintenance, I don't think I could sustain my activities on 900 calories a day, or 1400 for that matter.

Just clear something up for me and I'll try not to ask anymore questions, is the 10xbodyweight an estimation of the calories needed to maintain or to lose weight?

I've been using that as a target for weight loss by trying to stay 1000 calories below the 2900 estimate from mybodycomp. If it is for maintenance, I don't think I could sustain my activities on 900 calories a day, or 1400 for that matter.

The 10x your body weight is simply a suggestion. It's really 10-12x and I usually find that 12x is much more appropriate. 10x your body weight can really be too low if you are training hard 5-6 days per week. The way I like to figure out how many calories to average per day is by calculating my [BMR * Activity - 7000] / 7 and that's how many cals I should average for each day of the week to lose 2 pounds per week.

So, you are saying that 10-12x would be my maintenance level although my activity level may dictate that I would require more?

Oh wait, I get it. If I take my bmr and manipulate it (active= bmr x 1.55) and do the subtraction, yadda, yadda, yadda....my cutting number just works out to be about the same as my bmr. Herein lies my confusion. (blonde moment)

Thanks for the clarification.