Calorie intake

[gward84]

Hi, I know I've asked this before but it seems too high although it could be fine. I'm 6ft5 and weigh 278lbs. On days when I walk / run combined I can burn just over 4000 cals. So if I want to lose 2lbs a week and have a -1000 cals deficit a day I have to / can eat 3000 cals a day?? Seems a lot. What if I only easy say 2500 a day therefore have a -1500 deficit? Is that bad?
Even on days I don't run I can burn 3700 cals just doing my 10k steps, again 2700 cals to eat seems high ?

Any advice?
Thanks for your help guys

[A_Lurker · Accepted solution]

Pick a number and compare your results.  I run ~1000 calorie deficit.  I aim to end the day at 3500 calories burned and I eat 2500 calories.  I've had a fairly sustained ~ 2lb/week loss on that.  I did decide that I'd stop eating at 2500 no matter the burned calories and it seems to be working.  If I get to a point where it doesn't work for more than a couple of weeks in a row I'll adjust.

So let's say you burn 3700-4000 calories a day.  Just pick a number/deficit and stick with it.  Say something like:  I'm going to eat no more than 2750 each day.  That gives you a 1000 calorie deficit on your lower burning days, and more than 1000 on your higher burning days.  As you lose weight your lower burning days might only be 3500 calories... so eat 2500 then.  Oh, and although I don't follow this 100% myself - try and make as many of those calories whole foods, not junk food.  Think... almonds or cashews instead of potato chips.  

See what happens after say 3 or 4 weeks of doing this, then make adjustments.  Lots of people, especially those of us who are heavier, don't understand how many calories they actually burn - especially once they start getting more active.  85+ pounds ago I could burn 4000 calories a day without even getting to 10,000 steps.  Now to make sure I get to 3500 calories a day I usually have to do 15,000 (still haven't ramped up my cardio - that's my next step).  Weight loss, learning better habits isn't an overnight thing.  Do something for 3-4 weeks, then adjust based on results.

Oddly enough we were having this conversation today at work.  You make decisions based on facts, results, etc.  When we adjust a process the worst possibly reason is because we think it is going to work.  We do trials, measure the inputs/outputs/results - then if it doesn't work, we do something else.

[gward84]

Thanks for your advice. Some great suggestions in there. Think I'll stop eating at around 2600 because the minimum I burn a day is around 3600 cals a day and tha n anything on top is a bonus.

Thanks again, and good luck with your goals

[A_Lurker]

No problems, good luck with your goals as well.  In a way you're lucky.  Being male and tall you don't have as far to go and when you're there you can maintain at a much higher calorie count with less effort.  Now that I'm home I read your post a little more.  You didn't add your age, but you can put your information into here:

http://www.fat2fittools.com/tools/bmr/

Add your goal weight and it will give you an idea of where you should be eating to lose weight.  With your height your BMR will be much higher than mine.  To use myself as an example - I'm female, 50 and 272 this morning.  My next goal is 250 lbs.  It tells me that my BMR is1905 calories, and if I'm lightly active that I should eat 2489 to lose weight.  That's why I'm a fairly big fan of this calculator.  I'm using my Fitbit to track calories burned as well (so I don't overeat if I'm less active).  My weight loss is pretty much consistent with an average loss of 2 lbs/week.

A lot of people would say that 2500 calories is too much to diet on, but it's actually perfect at the moment.  I have to actually make sure that I eat enough.  On a 'diet' this is not a bad way to be.  The reason I'm happy with the weight loss is that since I bought a new scale in June I've actually managed to gain lean mass while losing weight.  I don't want to sacrifice too much with a faster loss as I'll have to work harder to gain my lean mass back.

[JohnRi]

I've been off the site for a while.  Moving, new job...  But there used to be a guy on here Shipo.  He was extremely active everyday.  Burned around 4000-5000 calories a day.  Ate like 4000 to 5000 calories a day to maintain his weight.  His concept was he like to eat, and he was extemely active for work, and he also ran. 

It is extremely difficult for us to believe that we need to eat so many calories to keep up being active.  But that is case sometimes.  Like Lurker, when I first started out, walking to my mailbox and back burned 500 calories.  Well that's an exaggeration, but you get the point.  Now to burn 500 calories I have to walk for 30 minutes, or right my bike for 30-40 minutes. 

I was 288 lbs and 6'0".  And I used to burn 4000 calories without much effort.  Today, 88 lbs lighter, I have to exercise 2-3 hours to get to 4000 calories. 

Here is the down side to burning too many calories, and having a too high deficit...  Loose skin, and probable muscle loss.  When you lose weight too fast, you skin does not have time to shrink.  The faster you lose it, the more likely you will end up with loose skin.  Even thinks, including myself, that losing 3-4 lbs a week is a good thing.  It's not.  I had to start lifting weights about six months ago so that I could bulk up to hide the loose skin.  But that only works in certain places.

The other issue is when you eat way too few calories, your body can decide you are in a famine situation, and burn muscle instead of fat.  Worse, it can hold onto any fat you do eat, and burn just muscle.  This is where a scale like the Aria comes in handy.

When I first started out, I was burning around 1500 to 2000 more calories than I was eating.  Back then I was always chasing calories at the end of the day.  I was eating 2200 this day, 2500 that day, 2900 the next, 2100 the next...  Everyday was different depending on my activity level.  I was losing 2-4 lbs a week...

In Feb 2016, I decided to just eat 1800 calories a day, everyday.  It was a lot easier to manage my diet that way.  At the time I was buring around 2800-3200 calories a day.  So I maintained my 1-2 lbs weight loss until June.  I also managed to maintain most of my muscle mass.  But in June I noticed something I was expecting.  I has around 230 then, and my fat % started to rise.  It was time to reduce my deficit to 750.  And so I increased my diet to around 2000.  I was now burning around 2700 calories most days...

My fat % started to drop again...  But that only last until July-August.  When I had to change to a 500 calorie deficit. 

I'm still eating around a 500 deficit.  And I'm down to 88 lbs now.  I still have 12 more to lose before I hit a normal weight.  And then 10 more after that is my final goal.  Soon I'll have to switch to a 250 calorie deficit as my fat % is being very stubborn, and not moving much.  I was moving for about 6 weeks, so my exercise program went out the door.  I lost 7 lbs of muscle in six weeks.  Slowly rebuilding that. 

So the old saying, Slow and Steady wins the race.  Well that applies to weight loss.  I started losing weight in August 2015.  15 months later, I'm down 88 lbs.  It will be another six months or so before I get down from the 196 I am now to around 170ish. 

It takes time, don't be in a hurry.  Liston to your body.  Today when I burn a ton of calories, and I don't eat enough that day, I feel it the next day.  Watch your fat %.  And be patient.  It took you years to gain weight.  Guess what it will take you months to years to lose it.

Good luck and stay active.

[A_Lurker]

Hey @JohnRi - nice to see you back again.    Like you, I'm trying to maintain as much of my muscle mass as possible - tougher for women to build it up later on.  That's actually the one thing that I'm happiest about, that I'm managing to increast my lean mass slightly as I go.  We all know the scales aren't entirely accurate, but the trend is still up which is what I'm looking at.