Calorie Consumption on Weight Loss

SantryRed

Hi all,

At the start of summer I was weighing 13.5 stone and generally unhappy with my weight but have been back in the gym and am back in good shape and down to 12.5 stone. I'm concerned that I may not be eating enough (but I amn't getting hungry which is why I've kept it low):

Height: 6 ft
Current Weight: 175lb/79kg

Current daily take:

Breakfast: 3 rashers, 2 eggs, small bit of relish
Lunch/Dinner: 2 chicken fillets, veg, brown rice
Pre and Post gym/activity: Protein shake with milk

It gives me 1650 calories and a protein intake of 175g roughly. I may deviate slightly on Saturday and Sunday but it's rigid Monday to Friday. I'd do two weight sessions a week with three cardio sessions (spinning/5 a side/30-40km road cycle).

I have seen a change in my body composition with muscle definition increasing and top half of the abs are now visible, but I'm concerned I may be not eating enough. Should I up the calorie content slightly or is it ok as the protein intake is high?

I should say my main goal is for more muscle definition and loss of body fat.

Thanks in advance!

Cake Man

The only things I would say is are you getting enough calories in? Your TDEE is a bit above 3000cals so knocking ~500cals off that each day gives you about 2500cals to play with. 1650cals seems a bit low as it's nearly 1500cals below your TDEE. How are your energy levels? Some would say that is too much, especially given you're exercising around 5 times a week but maybe others could advise. I say that because I'm in a very similar situation to you in that I'm 75kg, my TDEE is about 3000cals and I currently take in about 1800-2000cals a day and I often question if I'm taking in enough. Would be interested to hear what others think. Like you, I don't really feel as if I "need" much more cals than that and I know if I had more to take in, it'd most likely be in the form of crisps, chocolate and biscuits in the evening!


Other suggestion is to maybe throw in another 1 or 2 weight sessions in place of a cardio. 2 cardio sessions a week is probably plenty and will help with the fat loss but maybe not so much with building muscle.

Rayne Wooney

It sounds like you are losing body fat but there isn't enough muscle built underneath to give a more defined look.

A 1200 deficit is far too much, your body needs food to grow muscle, I'd eat 2000 calories for a few weeks until you feel as if you are very lean, then push your calories up to maintenance for a week or two and then slowly work up to a calorie surplus of about 3300 whilst increasing weight training sessions to 3 or 4 a week preferably if possible. The scales will start to go up but muscle will be built at the same time, after 1-2 months or so of this you do the reverse ie go slowly back to maintenance calories and then a 500 calorie deficit to lose the fat to show the newly formed muscle. Essentially bulking up and then cutting the fat.

acc2016

At what point do you stop concentrating on weight/fat loss and more on muscle gain?

Do you aim for a certain body fat percentage or weight, or just until you see that your belly and love handles are hardly noticeable?

Rayne Wooney

It's more of a mental thing, because if you start to bulk up whilst still having a lot of body fat it will build up and some people will lose the determination to keep going if they are getting "fatter" in the mirror even though this is part of the process of building muscle and you'll eventually cut this fat off.

Get down to a point where you feel like you are very lean, everyone will know when that is personally, This will make the bulking aspect easier.

A 500 calorie surplus with enough protein, combined with training enough will build muscle but fat will accumulate too, you can only build around 0.5 pounds of muscle per week, so if you want to put on 5 pounds of muscle you'll have to follow this plan for 2 and a half months, then you cut off the unnecessary fat gained slowly, drastically dropping calories to shed the fat at this point will lead to losing muscle too, slowly work down to a 500 calorie deficit while still getting plenty of protein and training.

Alf Veedersane

acc2016 wrote: »

At what point do you stop concentrating on weight/fat loss and more on muscle gain?

Do you aim for a certain body fat percentage or weight, or just until you see that your belly and love handles are hardly noticeable?

Get down to 11-12% before starting to bulk (eat more for muscle gain) because any weight you do gain is more likely to be fat than muscle in the higher bodyfat % ranges

acc2016

Rayne Wooney wrote: »

It sounds like you are losing body fat but there isn't enough muscle built underneath to give a more defined look.

A 1200 deficit is far too much, your body needs food to grow muscle, I'd eat 2000 calories for a few weeks until you feel as if you are very lean, then push your calories up to maintenance for a week or two and then slowly work up to a calorie surplus of about 3300 whilst increasing weight training sessions to 3 or 4 a week preferably if possible. The scales will start to go up but muscle will be built at the same time, after 1-2 months or so of this you do the reverse ie go slowly back to maintenance calories and then a 500 calorie deficit to lose the fat to show the newly formed muscle. Essentially bulking up and then cutting the fat.

It's difficult to work out your exact deficit, food is measurable but then exercise intensity and calories burned could vary?? Would a heart rate monitor of some sort with a watch help to track calories burned in exercise?

I'm still on the road to being lean but would be nice to have more exacting figures.

Alf Veedersane

acc2016 wrote: »

It's difficult to work out your exact deficit, food is measurable but then exercise intensity and calories burned could vary?? Would a heart rate monitor of some sort with a watch help to track calories burned in exercise?

I'm still on the road to being lean but would be nice to have more exacting figures.

The problem is that calculating calories burned is even more fraught with difficulty than calories in food.

You can use calculations but I tend to use those with caution and would typically divide by a factor of at least 2. You're better off underestimating calories burned.

Given how active you are, if you're undereating, it will become apparent before long that you need more fuel.