cutting calories to loss fat?

[go4gold]

I am just wondering how effective is basing your diet off of your caloric intake. I plan to cut roughly 500 cals a day from my basic metabolic rate. that should be about 3500cals a week minus. on top of the diet, burn close to 3500cals more a week through exercise and cardio. My goal is to lose about 20lbs of fat, average 1.5-2.0lbs of fat loss per week. This will be a 12 week diet and excercise plan, after that, will increase my caloric intake to hopefully fit my excercise routine and daily living. I am just looking for critique of my diet. But is this reasonable, and would droping more calories help me lose more fat or interfer with proper weight loss? Any input would be appreciated. I am very excited to start and I am hoping for great results. I am wondering how well others have done with this and how effective it was. diet is as followed, there will be some changes with the different types of food, but should be close to what i figured out below and workout 4 days a week:

Diet
Cardio 45min early in morning

Meal #1
Egg whites, 1-½ cup oatmeal-
P-37g/ F-8g/ C-40g

Workout

Meal #2
PWO-
P-46g/ F-0g/ C-90g

Meal #3
Veggies, Tuna or Chicken-
P-37g/ F-20g/ C-5g

Meal #4
Protein Shake
P-46g/ F-0g/ C-0g

Meal #5
Veggies, Red Meat or Chicken or fish
P-60g/ F-20g/ C-5g

Meal #6
Protein Shake
P-23g/ F-0g/ C-0g

Total- P-249g- 996 cals
F-48g- 432 cals
C-140g- 560 cals
Total Cals- 1988 cals

Stats- 29 yrs old, 165lbs, 5'6". I am guessing 17-19%BF

Goal- after 12 weeks, 150- 155lbs and about 5-8%
I am getting back into lifing again after a long few years off from really training, I know I will start to gain weight at the begining( i always do when starting back up), but main goal is to drop the roughly 20lbs of actual fat. I never had to realy diet until now, Have some unwanted fat and I am older. Never had to trim up really until now, I used to alway be very trim, danm school and screwed up work schedules. Now i have the schedule and time to do it. Wish me luck and again, and input would be appreciated.

[novastepp]

well i will tell you that it seems you have things in good order. cutting based on calories is how i do it. but you want to start at a level that isn't too low. try the -500 for 2 whole weeks with the diet and cardio, and see if you don't lose a couple pounds. keep it going until you don't lose a pound for a whole week. then maybe drop another 300. also, your diet looks good, but i would like to address two things. first, what is your PWO? if it is a shake, i don't see the need for one in meal 4. make that chicken/tuna and veggies again. i know shakes are convenient, but i wouldn't advise one before bed. they are usually rapidly digested. i would recommend some cottage cheese for the casein protein, and maybe some almonds, or some all natural peanut butter, or another lean protein source. also, your body uses more energy breaking down whole foods then it does a shake. but i would definitiely eat something else before bed. if that throws your cals off a tad, you could knock .5 cups off of that oatmeal offering and settle for 1 cup.

[go4gold]

Thanks for the input, one concern is the breakdown of muscle, but I figure with my excercise routine, that should save that and hopefully break down nothing but fat. I will try and subsetuite the forth meal with actual food, but it will be hard considering I work a swing shift and that can make eating actual food difficult at times, but it is just to keep protein up pretty much. For the Bed time, how much almonds should I eat per say, that sounds like a good idea? And with the continuing of dropping caloirs over time. are you saying that my body will adjust to the new calorie intake, and this is why you need to decrease your calorie over time and not right off the bat so your body doesn't adjust?

[novastepp]

well you never want to guess low on calories. keep all the muscle you can when cutting, thats why you start high. you can think of your calorie needs in terms of your weight. when you start losing weight, you should lower your cals slightly with weight loss, just to continue the process. as far as the almonds and that last meal. if you are eating another lean protein source with the almonds you could try eating just a big handful, basically around 30 nuts, thats about 180 cals. and don't worry about the breakdown of muscle, that is pretty overemphasized. eating what you're eating, when you're eating it, for your size you will keep your muscle. you may even find you need to drop the cals slightly to begin with. judge it after two weeks.

[go4gold]

thanks for info, greatly appreciated

[PopTart09]

no problem