I have a question that I am sure you have all seen a thousand times.
I am unsure of how many calories I am supposed to be taking in, in order to lose a couple pounds and tone/cut up.
According to what I hav figured out, in order to loose weight at 25 yrs. old. 5' 1'' and 120 pounds with a very active lifestyle I should be consuming 1,386 calories a day.
However, that is where I am lost, is that before or after working out!? I consumed that many calories and then went to training and ran two miles and burned over 800 calories. Therefore my ending calories for the day was...586?? That doesn't sound right.
Am I supposed to eat back what I burn in order to lose weight?
Calories
- Thread starter moulette
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CrazyMonkey
New member
If you burn off 800 cals, you should be eating a that back. It doesn't take into account the extent of your activeness. This doesn't mean add is and take in 2100+ calories a day, but add a little extra (like good carbs and protein) after your workouts. After a hard beating like that, your body will be begging for fuel and when there is nothing in your stomach, it will go for body fat, but also your muscle tone, and thats not good.
Maybe look into a recovery shake type thing. Optimum Nutrition makes something called 2:1:1 Recovery. I love this stuff. Its only an extra 300 or so calories (when mixed with 10oz skim milk) but that will give you the needed nutrients after a hard workout. You will get 55gr of carbs, 17 gr of protein, and only 0.5gr of fat!
So you are saying, that 1387 is my total at the end of the day before working out. So if total is 1387- 800 (for workout)=587. So if its 587 then I should be eating back the calories I burnt. So when I go to bed at night my calories are 1387. I dont understand the whole deficient thing. Thank you for your help I am a little new at all of this calorie counting thing!
Or becuase all of you have way more experience with this than I, just tell me what I need
This is my life, Teach everyday untill 2:00 then training every night for 2 hours, with running on the side every other day!
CrazyMonkey
New member
Exactly, you got it. That 1387 cals is called your 'maintenance calories'. This is what your body needs every day to maintain your current weight. So when you burn off 800 calories, you are left with the 587 for maintenance calories which is far too low. So really, your target calorie goal is closer to 2100-2200 for those intense workout days.
built_tough
New member
here is another trick. if you really really want to lose a couple of pounds in a short ammount of time. and i mean in about 48 hours. all you have to do is this...
get some iso pure zero protein. drink it in the morning, drink another one 2 hours later, being that it's probably lunch time. then 2 hours later eat a can of tuna. then 2 hours later another shake, then go to the gym, workout, and drink another shake. you just had maybe a 1000 calories and 0 carbs for the day. I GURANTEE YOU , THAT BY THE TIME YOU WAKE UP IN THE MORNING, YOU WILL BE DOWN 1.5-2LBS. another 24 hours later if you do the same thing, you could be down 3 lbs more or so. its a very hard diet which i am currently on because unlike you, i need to shed about 15-20lbs to achieve my goal of hopefully 7-8%bf. i will be using this same diet for 8 very long weeks. but it works. when i started messing around with this a few weeks ago. i was about 201. in 5 days i went down to just under 190. so that should speak for itself how much carbs impact weight loss 
increasing your caloric intake to allow for additional calories burned, will actually aid fat loss, if you starve yourself, your bodys natural response after a short while without the aid if drugs is to store fat, as it thinks its in a phase of starvation and opts to store fat as fuel for later, it will not build muscle cause that would be counter productive for the body, after all muscle burns calories (fuel) when its needed most....
little and often with exercise is key...
built_tough
New member
right. but what i suggested does not require starving. you are literally putting something your stomach every 2 hours, regardless if its a shake or some solid food.
built_tough
New member
read this...
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/fat-loss-greg-plitts-12-laws-of-lean.html?mcid=facetraining
proved my point