Calories in and out question with exercise

[TheSmokey]

Hi everybody,

So I'm slightly overweight (6'1" male, 214 lbs, 40 years old soon enough) and decided it's time to do something about it. I've been doing martial arts and kickboxing for a long time, but haven't watched what I eat at all. I bought a Fitbit Charge and have been tracking everything I eat/do for the last week and a half. I've chosen a slightly aggresive calorie schedule (750 deficit a day). Here's the crux of my question.

Every day I meet (usually slightly exceed) my goal. But Monday and Wednesday my wife and I do kickboxing (45 minutes, I log it as Cardio Kickboxing in the Fitbit app). On those days, when I get home from work, I have little time to eat and grab a peanut butter sandwich and off we go. I drink water when there, and have a Gatorade when I get home and some type of light snack (nuts or something similar). On those two days my calorie differential is between -1300 and -1600 (mostly depending on what I snack on when I get home). All other days I maintain about -800 (slightly more than my target of -750). Is this bad? Should I eat more those two days, or any day that I work out and burn well over the -750?

Thanks for any insight.

[Gaffney · Accepted solution]

I would say thats fine, you aren't going to get any medical issues going -1600 calories a few times per week, atleast for a few months while you are cutting.

If your intake and burn varies quite a bit daily, you might want to focus more on your weekly values instead. However personally I like to stay consistent.

[TheSmokey]

Thanks very much for the reply!

[whome]

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@TheSmokey wrote:

Hi everybody,

So I'm slightly overweight (6'1" male, 214 lbs, 40 years old soon enough) and decided it's time to do something about it. I've been doing martial arts and kickboxing for a long time, but haven't watched what I eat at all. I bought a Fitbit Charge and have been tracking everything I eat/do for the last week and a half. I've chosen a slightly aggresive calorie schedule (750 deficit a day). Here's the crux of my question.

Every day I meet (usually slightly exceed) my goal. But Monday and Wednesday my wife and I do kickboxing (45 minutes, I log it as Cardio Kickboxing in the Fitbit app). On those days, when I get home from work, I have little time to eat and grab a peanut butter sandwich and off we go. I drink water when there, and have a Gatorade when I get home and some type of light snack (nuts or something similar). On those two days my calorie differential is between -1300 and -1600 (mostly depending on what I snack on when I get home). All other days I maintain about -800 (slightly more than my target of -750). Is this bad? Should I eat more those two days, or any day that I work out and burn well over the -750?

Thanks for any insight

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@TheSmokey I have a couple thoughts here for you, Smokey. I am sure they are worth at least as much as I am getting paid to share them, lol. 

First - You don't mention a goal. In terms of how much do you want to lose and how quickly do you want to get it done? Are you just slimming down to look good for something specific and how soon? Or are you looking to adjust your life a little bit to start taking control of your diet a liitle bit more and that sort thing? Because you are setting your self a pretty big deficit there IMHO, especially if you want to get the maximum return for the investment you are making in exercise. To build more muscle you need a calorie excess to provide the material to build that muscle with, namely protein. To preserve what   muscle you start with while in a calorie restricted diet, you need to work out and provide a proper amount of quality protein in your diet. It will make it more difficult to get as much protein as you need if you aren't eating enough total calories. 

Which gets me to thought number two. Calorie restriction as a percent of total calories burnt. I don't know just how far you can go down that road without causing more stress on your body than is really reasonable. You would need to be burning 3,000 calories a day in order for that 750 deficit to be only 25%. And 25% seems like a pretty big deficit to me. Every day? And an even bigger deficit some of those days? Sounds pretty harsh to me.

Allow me to suggest that you look for posts by @Heybales on this subject, he seems to know the details of the process better than I. But from what I can follow, apparently some amount of your weight loss is going to be some of your muscle unless you take steps to prevent that loss. His answer is resistance training, weights and such. 

 The great thing about exercise while dieting is that it allows you to maintain a reasonable calorie deficit while not having to deprive yourself at the dinner table too much.

 If you drop the weight too quickly by limiting your intake too severely, what will you do when you get to your goal? Indulge yourself and put some of those pounds back on?

Good luck, but I think you could take it easier on yourself and enjoy the trip a little bit more. The couple of days with the big deficit shouldn't hurt you too much as long as you provide adequate recovery time following the extra stress. IMHO of course. 

[Heybales]

Dittos.

For what appears probably 30 lbs to go to a healthy 184 lbs, that 750 cal deficit is pushing it.

As a male, you may luck out, are hormones can help us. Then again plenty have not lucked out with big deficits.

500 would really be more reasonable until last 10 lbs, then 250 cal deficit at that point.

As mentioned, you'll get more out of your workouts, and when doing hard workouts, who wants to basically waste a portion of them because recovery is slower and repair isn't as good from undereating.

And that workout is not really resistance training the type to keep all the muscles.

Your body breaks down muscle every day, without enough calories and protein in a big deficit diet, the least used muscle is the first not built back up. So gone.

Auto-protect mechanism, causes body to slow down metabolism somewhat, and helps reduce what you burn, so the deficit really isn't that great anymore.

It's easier to lose muscle than build it back. Typical diet is 20% LBM loss, some of that being muscle mass. Typical meaning not enough protein, big deficit, not enough strength training.

[TheSmokey]

Hi

Thanks fort the great replies. I'll answer a couple of your questions here to let you know what I'm looking for.

I do kickboxing as a general way to maintain at least what I currently am. I tend not to think about what I eat very much. If at all, honestly. I am not training for strength. If anything I'd love to have better cardio. Strength is not necessarily a concern.

I have my black belt in jiu-jitsu, which I earned back in 2008 when I was about 180. Honestly it's gotten tough to keep doing because of knee and back issues which I attribute mostly to weight.

At the end of the day, I just want to eat better and toss some pounds.

Really appreciate all the great advice. You guys rock!

TheSmokey

[Heybales]

You want those pounds to be muscle though that you toss?

You want better support for those knees and that back, even when the weight drops?

Then how much you eat should be of concern.

You'll at least want to maintain the strength you got now I'd hope.

And unless you are turning pro in some endurance cardio sport where performance means money, getting rid of extra muscle usually isn't a good idea for the long run. It's the number one reason people's metabolism lowers as they age, less active, lose muscle. Less muscle, now want to move less usually, very bad cycle to get in to.

At least the kickboxing can help those muscles.

[dancefoxtrot]

smokey

No need for empty calories of Gatorade. Eat healthy lean protein & veggies. I agree about dropping your deficit to 500 cals a day. You want to eat like you care about your organs and muscles. 

Happy journey,

Barb

[josephz2va]

I've never met that goal and had a deficit of -1600 cals with a sturdy drop of 1-5 pounds as long as I concentrated on avoiding the bad quality. Thing that you want to be careful with is the quality of your calories consumed in order to lose not the weight but also the body fat composition. Like ditching cop donuts and sugary snacks. Consuming the right quality of foods like Eat To Build Lean Muscle.

PB sandwich doesn't have sufficient quality unless it's PB2. You're ingesting Processed Peanuts, and 25 Grams of Sugar. Nor does a bag of trail mix which has 4,000 calories and a crapload of sugar. Eating the right kinds of quality will help in not just adjusting your weight but also body fat.