First of all, what Fitbit do you have? There is a big difference between the calories burned between those that do not have heart rate monitor.
1500 cals is pretty low a day is pretty low, even a 5' 8" that's below the recommend minimum calories for most men.
First of all forget what your friend is doing. Two twin brothers who eat the same amount may not have the same weight loss or gain. There is more to weight gain or loss than just how many calories you eat. Fitness level, body fat %, overall health, job stress, heart strength, cardio fitness, etc. Regardless of what people would like to think everyone is different.
Take a look at me. In the last 4 weeks, much to my huge surprise... On a 1800 calorie diet, 18% protein diet, I have lost 9 lbs, and gained 5 lbs of muscle in the last 4 weeks. I have no clue how I did that beside all the exercise I've been getting. I've regained over half the muscle I've lost since February when I first started tracking fat %. Besides an increase in exercise, and getting off my beta blocker, I've made no changes that I'm aware of.
Most would say that putting on muscle in a calorie deficit diet is hard. Myself included. I'm not eating high protein diet either. So adding 5 lbs in 4 weeks has completely surprised me.
Another issue for you might be the type of exercise you are doing. Assuming you have a fitbit with a heart rate monitor, it's going to estimate your calories of weight lifting based solely on your heart rate. If you have a unusually high heart rate, that estimate could be quite wrong. Weight lifting stresses the heart, but does not have much of a cardio benefit. So over time your heart rate won't go down, unlike it does with cardio exercise.
So let's do the math. Your BMR is 1624. That's how many calories you burn in a day if just laid in bed all day, and breathed. Right off the bat your 1500 calorie diet is too low for maintaining your weight. If you did nothing each day, you would lose weight. So you definately need to increase your calories eaten.
Unless you are stressing different muscle groups each day, weight lifting everyday is not recommended. Simply because your muscles need time to heal between exercise days. A high protein diet will help with the muscle tears you do when you lift weights. And an hour is a lot for most people. So unless you are trying to get super lean, and super strong, you are probably over doing it. You are young so you get the age boast for healing, but if you were 10 years older, you'd probably hurt yourself.
You BMI is only 20.7. To be completely honest you are at the bottom of the normal weight range. I'd bet your fat % is under 14%. You are quite lean.
Only you can judge yourself, but I think you are already lean enough, so you definately do not need to lose anymore weight.
So is 2700 high, probaby is the answer. Really depends on your other activity. And with such a low fat percentage, and high muscle %, your body is going to burn a lot more calories than someone with 5% more body fat. You are probably in remarkable shape. Well done. Keep it up for life, and you will live a lot longer than most.
So you are going to have to have play it by ear. I'd slowly increase your calories to around 2300. Eating more protein if possible to increase your strength, and muscle repair after working out. Then watch your weight. You might see an initial jump in your weight, don't freak out. You've been starving your body of calories. Any increase increase might drive your fat % up a little as your body tries to replace fat you have lost. That's normal. You'll have to just do trial and error to find your balance point.
If you have access to a Aria, or other device to monitor your fat %, do that. This will let you see if your fat % is changing, and your lean muscle mass. Visit Trendweight.com, and connect it your fitbit account. This site let's you look at your weight, fat %, fat mass, and muscle mass over time.
If you see your weight falling, increase your calories 100 per day until it is stable. The leaner you get the more you will need to eat. So don't assume that no change for 3 months that you have your diet "set". So keep visiting trendweight and keep an eye on it.
If you see your weight going up, BUT your fat % is falling, then you are gaining muscle and losing fat. Chances are you would need to increase your the calories in your diet. But you can only get your fat % so low before it's too low.
Bottomline there is no easy answer on how much you need to eat. You are going to have to experiement on your diet and see what the results are. And you will have to keep make changes based on you fitness level.
But you definately need to eat more than 1500 calories a day....
John | Texas,USA | Surge | Aria | Blaze | Windows | iPhone | Always consult with a doctor regarding all medical issues. Keep active!!!
