Diets & Weight Maintenance Support Group
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Hi... Curious about everyone's views are on cutting calories. I'm BIG into heavy weight lifting as my exercise (I do light cardio). As a general rule of thumb, I've always thought to cut about 500 calories a day from your diet plus exercise. I've been reading this book (The New Rules of Weight Lifting for Women) and its telling me to not cut my calories because my muscles need the fuel because of my heavy lifting. I just don't want to believe it! I workout *almost* everyday, but I still think I should be getting my calorie deficit from my diet AS WELL AS my exercise.... It might be silly, but I feel squeamish at the thought of regularly eating 2000 cal. I think the days I hardcore lift should be higher cal. days, but not everyday right? I aim to eat around 1300 on my off days and about 1800 on my lifting days.... Opinions?
I learned that it takes 3500 calories a week to drop a pound.
Good luck hope this helps.
There are plenty of calculator tools online, and some different methods but the Harris-Benedict method seems to come up alot.
See below:
Technically, there is no magic number of calories we should all eat each day to lose weight. While most people can lose weight eating around 1,500 calories, you can assess your own personal caloric needs with a little math.
Why Estimate Your Caloric Needs?
To estimate how many calories you should consume in order to maintain your weight, you'll need to do a little math. By using a simple formula called the Harris-Benedict principle, you can assess your basal metabolic rate -- also known as your BMR.
(Then, to lose weight, you'll need to cut calories or burn extra calories and shoot for a level lower than the results you get with this formula.)
Calculate Your BMR
Your BMR is the amount of energy your body needs to function. We use about 60% of the calories we consume each day for basic bodily functions such as breathing.
Other factors that influence your BMR are height, weight, age and sex.
Step one is to calculate your BMR with the following formula:
Women:
655 + (4.3 x weight in pounds) + (4.7 x height in inches) - (4.7 x age in years)
Men:
66 + (6.3 x weight in pounds) + (12.9 x height in inches) - (6.8 x age in years)
Please note that this formula applies only to adults.
Calculate Activity
Step two: In order to incorporate activity into your daily caloric needs, do the following calculation:
* If you are sedentary : BMR x 20 percent
* If you are lightly active: BMR x 30 percent
* If you are moderately active (You exercise most days a week.): BMR x 40 percent
* If you are very active (You exercise intensely on a daily basis or for prolonged periods.): BMR x 50 percent
* If you are extra active (You do hard labor or are in athletic training.): BMR x 60 percent
Add this number to your BMR.
The result of this formula will be the number of calories you can eat every day and maintain your current weightt. In order to lose weight, you'll need to take in fewer calories than this result.
As you lose weight, you can re-calculate the formula to assess your new BMR.
Once you have that number, it's a good general starting point.
That number is the amount of calories you need for your current weight and exercise level, just to stay where you are.
If you want to lose, then you should decrease that number in calories by no more than 500 less a day.
I prefer to calculate just the needs excluding exercise on sites like this one:
http://www.bodyforlife2.com/calorie_intake.htm
Then I always wear a heart rate monitor to measure the exact amount of calories I burn during my training workouts and spinning classes; no guessing that way, I know exactly what I have burned.
I do weight training 3 times a week, and spinning almost every day. I find the monitor very helpful, and you may also find the monitor takes the guessing out of the equation. You will know exactly what your intake should be - why guess that you will need 500 more calories when some days, it may be only 400. My sessions range from 450 to almost 600, depending on what is in my routine that day.
My daily intake will be based around my BMR but I will be sure to eat right after exercising to just below the calories I used. If my spinning class registered that I burned 325 calories, I'll be sure to eat less than that number right after the class.
So far i's worked for me. Just be sure to adjust your intake as you lose weight because your needs will decrease along with your weight. Remember, if you are lifting heavy weights, you may find that you are not getting lighter but are getting smaller in size. Be sure to feed your muscles.