Noob looking to figure out calories..

So I've decided to attempt to change my life a bit in regards to weight loss, fitness and diet etc.

Ive never counted a calorie or cared what i ate in the past. but my metabolism has slowed and its showing. My question is how does it exactly work...

I've kinda learned that:


Just by being idle in an office job and doing nothing in the way of exercise an average male would burn 2500 calories throughout the day.

Now we'll say that person takes in 2500 calories a day with meals.

Is it as simple to say that this person wouldnt gain or lose weight? His weight would simply remain stagnant at whatever it was???

Conversely,

If I set my daily calorie intake to 2500.. (relatively healthy food) and I work out once doing weights in the morning burning 450 calls and one cardio at night burning 450 cals...am I to assume that ive burned 900 calories off of the 2500 calories of meals that ive taken in... And am I to assume I subtract the other 2500 calories from normal daily office activity? So total 3400 burned calories.

Is it that simple to just do the math and say that if I've burned 900 + 2500 = 3400 calories..yet took in 2500 calories through meals that at days end I would be -900 calories per day?

Now im told that there are 3500 calories in a lb. So in short by this example, It would take me approx 4 days to lose 1 lb.

Is it that simple to figure out weight loss?

And then If i keep the same work outs, but cut my caloric intake in half...could I assume that I could lose that 1 lb in 2 days?

Is this correct or am I way off with what Ive learned so far lol.

Thanks for the help

Quote:

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Originally Posted by brentspatriots

So I've decided to attempt to change my life a bit in regards to weight loss, fitness and diet etc.

Ive never counted a calorie or cared what i ate in the past. but my metabolism has slowed and its showing. My question is how does it exactly work...

I've kinda learned that:


Just by being idle in an office job and doing nothing in the way of exercise an average male would burn 2500 calories throughout the day.

Now we'll say that person takes in 2500 calories a day with meals.

Is it as simple to say that this person wouldnt gain or lose weight? His weight would simply remain stagnant at whatever it was???

Conversely,

If I set my daily calorie intake to 2500.. (relatively healthy food) and I work out once doing weights in the morning burning 450 calls and one cardio at night burning 450 cals...am I to assume that ive burned 900 calories off of the 2500 calories of meals that ive taken in... And am I to assume I subtract the other 2500 calories from normal daily office activity? So total 3400 burned calories.

Is it that simple to just do the math and say that if I've burned 900 + 2500 = 3400 calories..yet took in 2500 calories through meals that at days end I would be -900 calories per day?

Now im told that there are 3500 calories in a lb. So in short by this example, It would take me approx 4 days to lose 1 lb.

Is it that simple to figure out weight loss?

And then If i keep the same work outs, but cut my caloric intake in half...could I assume that I could lose that 1 lb in 2 days?

Is this correct or am I way off with what Ive learned so far lol.

Thanks for the help

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LOL, brent! If I burned 2500 calories from doing nothing all day, I'd be at 3% BF today! Easy as pie.

You need to eat less than you expend daily. A good starting formula to estimate your daily expenditure is LBM x 15. You would just go into a caloric deficit from there.

If im wrong about the 2500 calories per day burn, what is a more accurate number?

Because clearly we burn calaries every day by doing normal daily activities... I dont think im far off.

I dont know what you mean about "daily expenditure is LBM X 15" as I said, noob here, dont know about terminology and acronyms

2,500 cals may be your maintenance calories, but that is mostly through metabolism you only would have burned a few hundred through physical activity. But yes, that is the idea.

However, it isn't that simple, since your metabolism will slow when you cut out cals.
And there are 3,500 cals in a pound of FAT, not just any tissue.

Is this the "basal metabolic rate" that were talking about? basically what your body naturally burns per day? If so, over 2k per day would be the norm for an average 30 year old male, like myself. would it not?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bonaparte

2,500 cals may be your maintenance calories, but that is mostly through metabolism you only would have burned a few hundred through physical activity. But yes, that is the idea.

However, it isn't that simple, since your metabolism will slow when you cut out cals.
And there are 3,500 cals in a pound of FAT, not just any tissue.

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I see...so by my example, am I on the right track for losing weight by maintaining a 2500 calorie intake per day diet as well as 2 workouts per day...

or should I be cutting down to more like 1500 calories per day in order to actually see results.

Also its interesting you said that my metabolism will slow when taking in less calories per day.. I recently quit smoking. and I think that will slow metabolism as well, so I guess its ssafe to say i have another obstacle?

Hi brentspatriots,

This is how I am calculating my caloric intake for maintenance levels. I am using the Katch-McArdle formula. Different websites reefer to the value you get as either RMR (Resting Metabolic Rate) or BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) but it is the same thing.

My weight: 72.2Kg

Body fat: 10%

Formula Lean Body Mass: (Weight x (100-(Body Fat)))/100

((72.2 x (100-10))/100 = 64.98

Formula: BMR = 370 + (21.6 x Lean Body Mass(kg))

370 + (21.6 x 64.98) = 1773.57

This mean that if I were to never get out of bed, not even to go to the bathroom simply being alive will cost me 1773.57 calories per day. In order for this to be correct I will now add a value for activity multiplier which is simply a way to add calories for you moving around, working, and going to the gym. I am adding 1.55 which means I am moderately active. This value is called total daily energy expenditure (TDEE) and for me this is 1773.57 x 1.55 = 2749.0304.

There are many places online that will calculate this for you automatically.

Hope this is helpful!

~T

very helpful tarmyg thanks, ya I used the website formula and it says i have a bmr of 2165. I have no idea what my BF is, the cheap scale I have at home says its 29% which is quite disgusting. Ive definately packed on a few recently hence the diet now. Im 6' 224 lbs when I weighed in 2 days ago. Down to 221 today. I need to get to under 200 I think to lose this belly and get trimmed down again.

Im trying to take in 1500 cals per day now with 1 or 2 workouts daily and some help from clen.

as opposed to about 6000 cals a day and no work outs before I started this diet. lol...which is what got me into this mess over the last few months! gross

hey brent i suggest u figure out ur bf%.. u will want it to track ur progress and itll help u figure out how many cals to eat. IMO 1500 is too few for a 224lb guy.

id also suggest u lay off the clen for awhile as it does have some health risks and if u have been sitting on ur butt for the most part eating whatever food u enjoy, simply cleaning up ur diet and moving should get the fat coming off u.. u should find u dont need the clen. i have managed to cut to single digit bf% without it.

posting a pic would be a good way for us to ballpark your bf% :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by --->>405<<---

hey brent i suggest u figure out ur bf%.. u will want it to track ur progress and itll help u figure out how many cals to eat. IMO 1500 is too few for a 224lb guy.

id also suggest u lay off the clen for awhile as it does have some health risks and if u have been sitting on ur butt for the most part eating whatever food u enjoy, simply cleaning up ur diet and moving should get the fat coming off u.. u should find u dont need the clen. i have managed to cut to single digit bf% without it.

posting a pic would be a good way for us to ballpark your bf% :)

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^^agree^^ listen to the man!

THanks for the tips 405. Im actually very interested in knowing what calories I should be taking in a day. I really have no idea for my physical makeup. Is there any way to actually figure out my BF% easily? Like i said, the scale I bought says its 29 but i know its probably inaccurate.

I dont think im ready to throw a pic up. But im not totally so far gone that its an issue. Although my body isnt as flat and tight as it was a few years ago, I can still throw on nearly 100 lbs and walk 13km no problem. Being in the infantry I can push myself much further than my body would suggest lol. But about 6 months ago i moved to an office job on base and I cant depend on the field excercises to keep me fit.

If it helps describe me, I think my natural weight is 190-200. Which tells you im a good 20-25 lbs overweight. Thin frame, but added junk food weight. I dont know if that helps. Just saying ive always been pretty thin growing up.

224 lbs on thursday, 219 today (saturday). I hear what your saying about the clen but 5 lbs in 3 days is a great start...before i hit that wall. My issue is ive been working out too hard im so soar. Can barely walk after my leg workout on thursday! I guess water will help repair these pathetic muscles? lol

Attachment 139939

Not sure if this pic worked, but If you can see it my body resembles the 20-22% BF guy...

Sad day in brentville :( lol

220lbs 22%bf

220 x .78 = 171.6lbs LBM

171.6 x 15 = 2574cals (rough starting maintenance)

id start at 2200cals 40/40/20 pro/carb/fat

2200cals
220g pro
220g carbs
49g fat

lets see u post a diet hitting these macros. u should see results from this based on what u have told me. once u stall we can adjust ur macro split giving u more protein and less carbs.. i would drop the clen for now. clen does better for guys who are already lean and struggling to lose stubborn fat. once u get into single digits bf% it becomes a LOT harder to lose fat.. this is when clen can be useful. u do NOT need clen..

5lbs in 5 days?? not fat pal! maybe a pound or even 2 possibly but the rest is water i almost guarantee you. dont let that fool u. clen can be hard on the heart as well, and since ur out oif shape and trying to get back into it i suggest putting it down until u really need it (which u do not right now)..

read these:
Cutting:
http://forums.steroid.com/nutrition-...1-cutting.html

Bulking:
http://forums.steroid.com/nutrition-...ulking***.html

read them both to get a well rounded and complete view of diet. afterwards i suggest posting ur own proposed diet for review. be sure to include total cals and macros as well as meal times and workout times. once u get ur diet ironed out we can address cardio and training.

awesome 405. Here is the following diet for the last 4 days:

Day 1: (tuesday)

breakfast (08:00) - raisin bran cereal and 1 50mcg clen dose 15 minutes later.

09:00 - Light weight high rep lifting work out.

Lunch (12:00) - garden salad with 2 tblpn italian dressing, 2 peperettes, small iced cappuccino, chicken noodle soup 10oz, and 1 more 50 mcg clen dose

4:00 snack - 2 X peperettes

5:00 - cardio workout burned 480 cals

Dinner - 2 X plain chicken breast, cup of basmati rice, drizzled with soy sauce, and a freezee for desert.

Total daily calories: 2130
Total cals burned: 700
Total clen dosage: 100 mcg

Day 2 - Wednesday:

Breakfast - raisin bran cereal, and 2 X 50 mcg clen dose, 1 small iced cap

lunch - chicken shwarma, 2 X 50 mcg clen dose

snack - apple

Dinner - pizza X 4 slices (dirty pizza hut)

After dinner workout - cardio burning approx 450 cals

Total calories taken in: 2443
Total calories burned: 450
Total clen dosage: 200 mcg

Day 3 - Thursday:

Breakfast - raisin bran cereal, 2 X 50mcg clen dose

09:00 heavy weight lift

lunch - chicken shwarma

Dinner - low fat sheppards pie, melba toast

Total calories takin in: 1080
Total calories burned: no idea about how many cals burned in a weight lifting workout.
Total clen dosage: 200 mcg

Day 4 - Friday:

Breakfast - kellogs special K, small coffee, 2 X 50mcg clen dose

Lunch - Subway (turkey breast on flat bread)

Dinner - chicken stir fry with half cup brown rice and veggies.

Desert - half cup of rasberry sorbet.

Total calories taken in: 1400
No work out.
Total clen dosage: 100

Today I've had an egg white omellette with melbstoast and a coffee so far. Bike ride to come before lunch...

Hope this gives you an idea of if im moving in a positive direction or not.

I see what your saying about the clen...Are you saying it wont work for me to burn off the fat when in the 20% BF range?? Or it isnt healhty to take while im not in the middle of a workout regiment? Maybe I should lay off until I lose the first 10 - 15 lbs...

i have no idea what ur diet consists of since u didnt post total macros.. (protein, carbs, fat)...

also the raisin bran is mainly sugar and not a good choice.

subway NOT good choice..

chicken schwarma?? as in gyro?? thats what it sounds like. not having ur macros i speculate ur diet is NOT where it needs to be. i would even go as far as to say your diet sucks for fat loss and u need to scrap it and re-do the entire thing.

read the stickies and come up with a proposed diet and be sure to total all macros and cals..

i gave u a split i suggest u use it. if u dont like 40/40/20 u could go 50/30/20 but i think u should save that for down the road.

as far as ur clen goes here is the deal: think of cutting body fat as a long term goal that requires tools to accomplish it. there are many different tools u can use. some tools are good to use the entire time and others are specific to where u are in ur cut.

one example of this would be a caloric deficit. this is something u can use the entire time ur cutting body fat.

another would be low carbs. u would not want to start using this (when u have a long way to go such as cutting from 20%+ bf like you are) until a standard deficit stops working.

yet another would be cycling carbs. you would want to save this until the lower carb approach stopped working.

another is cardio. cardio can be used throughout a cut.

clenbuterol is also a tool. this is something u sAVE until the end when ur trying to get into single digit body fat and u have exhausted all other tools and ur fat loss has stalled and u need a little bit of a push to break through what would more than likely be your final plateau.

plateau: this is a phenomena that typically occurs as ur body makes adaptations to compensate for ur dietary approach. your body does not want u to get lean as it perceives low body fat as a potential threat to preservation. this is what makes dieting so challenging in that the leaner u get the harder it is to "trick" or manipulate your body into letting the fat go. the tools i mentioned aboive are some of which u can use at certain times to break thru these plateaus. at certain levels of leanness even these tools have a hard time working, this is where drugs (such as clenbuterol) come into play.

do u understand now why it is premature and unnecessary as well as unwise to use clenbuterol right now?? if you start your diet out throwing a bunch of "tools" at your fat loss u will have less room for tweaking down the road as u encounter plateaus.

the simple bottom line is at 20%body fat you can lose fat easily.. u do NOT NEED clen..

Quote:

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Originally Posted by --->>405<<---

i have no idea what ur diet consists of since u didnt post total macros.. (protein, carbs, fat)...

also the raisin bran is mainly sugar and not a good choice.

subway NOT good choice..

chicken schwarma?? as in gyro?? thats what it sounds like. not having ur macros i speculate ur diet is NOT where it needs to be. i would even go as far as to say your diet sucks for fat loss and u need to scrap it and re-do the entire thing.

read the stickies and come up with a proposed diet and be sure to total all macros and cals..

i gave u a split i suggest u use it. if u dont like 40/40/20 u could go 50/30/20 but i think u should save that for down the road.

as far as ur clen goes here is the deal: think of cutting body fat as a long term goal that requires tools to accomplish it. there are many different tools u can use. some tools are good to use the entire time and others are specific to where u are in ur cut.

one example of this would be a caloric deficit. this is something u can use the entire time ur cutting body fat.

another would be low carbs. u would not want to start using this (when u have a long way to go such as cutting from 20%+ bf like you are) until a standard deficit stops working.

yet another would be cycling carbs. you would want to save this until the lower carb approach stopped working.

another is cardio. cardio can be used throughout a cut.

clenbuterol is also a tool. this is something u sAVE until the end when ur trying to get into single digit body fat and u have exhausted all other tools and ur fat loss has stalled and u need a little bit of a push to break through what would more than likely be your final plateau.

plateau: this is a phenomena that typically occurs as ur body makes adaptations to compensate for ur dietary approach. your body does not want u to get lean as it perceives low body fat as a potential threat to preservation. this is what makes dieting so challenging in that the leaner u get the harder it is to "trick" or manipulate your body into letting the fat go. the tools i mentioned aboive are some of which u can use at certain times to break thru these plateaus. at certain levels of leanness even these tools have a hard time working, this is where drugs (such as clenbuterol) come into play.

do u understand now why it is premature and unnecessary as well as unwise to use clenbuterol right now?? if you start your diet out throwing a bunch of "tools" at your fat loss u will have less room for tweaking down the road as u encounter plateaus.

the simple bottom line is at 20%body fat you can lose fat easily.. u do NOT NEED clen..

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Ya i've cut out the clen since yesterday. Guess I'll wait to see if i need it in the future.

I didnt post macros, because this is all new to me, Im barely learning what a calorie is let alone carbs, protein etc.

So I listed my 4 day diet assuming youd know right away. It seems you do since my diet "sucks" Guess i'll have to go back to the drawing board.

In all honesty, I figured eating healthy and working out is all I needed. And if this 4 day diet isnt healhy than im lost.

405 pretty much summed it up but I am not understanding why your taking 50mg clen one day and 100mg clen the next? What about weekends? Have you checked out the profile on Clenbuterol and instructions for HOW to cycle it because at this point you should drop the Clen use at once!

~T

Quote:

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Originally Posted by tarmyg

405 pretty much summed it up but I am not understanding why your taking 50mg clen one day and 100mg clen the next? What about weekends? Have you checked out the profile on Clenbuterol and instructions for HOW to cycle it because at this point you should drop the Clen use at once!

~T

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I rread up that a pyramid is the best thing to do with clen. But After I learned they were 50 mcg rather than 20mcg I cut it in half, hence why it was 200, than 100 mcg...

either way. I stopped taking since yesterday.

Gotta focus on diet...

Here is a link to my current cutting diet, maybe that will give you a good starting point?

Cutting Food Spreadsheet

excellent easy to understand diet tarmyg. Whats your height/weight/age?

Can I swap out bluberries with strawberries or grapes etc?

Im the worlds pickiest eater. So there are a few things I couldnt push myself to ingest there. Almond milk being one of them...But for the most part of your example, I think I could stomach it. How long have you been on that diet? How are the results?

and where are your workout(s) involved within this diet?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by brentspatriots

Ya i've cut out the clen since yesterday. Guess I'll wait to see if i need it in the future.

I didnt post macros, because this is all new to me, Im barely learning what a calorie is let alone carbs, protein etc.

So I listed my 4 day diet assuming youd know right away. It seems you do since my diet "sucks" Guess i'll have to go back to the drawing board.

In all honesty, I figured eating healthy and working out is all I needed. And if this 4 day diet isnt healhy than im lost.

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i suggest u read the stickies i posted above. there are examples of optimal food choices in the bulking sticky. ur not going to learn unless u do as we suggest...

copying someone elses diet is only going to get u so far, u need to learn how to build your own diet and why to make certain choices.. this way u will be independent as opposed to dependent..

im glad to see u dropped the clen.

read the stickies man.. then build a diet hitting the macros i suggested. get familiar with a calorie counting app such as my fitness pal.. hit the suggested macros with proper food choices (such as but not limited to whats listed in the bulking sticky) and post the diet for review. :)

You can swap out anything you like as long as you add in the values and see what the total becomes.

I am running a 5 (now a 6 day split since this week) day split based on Musclehacks THT5.1 (Google that if your interested).

You can see my progress here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/...UE&usp=sharing

You can swap out anything you like as long as you add in the values and see what the total becomes.

I am running a 5 (now a 6 day split since this week) day split based on Musclehacks THT5.1 (Google that if your interested).

You can see my progress here: Spreadsheet

Agreed there is a lot of info on the stickies...

Me and the wife went grocery shopping today buying nothing but healthy food. Fruits, veggies, chicken etc...eating the healhy food is the easy part...and now we are just realizing how involved it is to follow the macro template of 40/40/20. The prep work for every little meal is ludicrous.

There is no possible way for us to find the time to be counting and weighing food in order to have a simple lunch the next day. This forum seems to be body building rather than basic dieting. Good for you all that have the discipline to maintain exact numbers of fat, protein, carbs etc. It really is a life changing thing.

In all honesty its a part time job doing the math and staying so precise. Thanks for the help guys, but I think i'll try to eat generally healthy and work out. This forum may be a little out of my element. Thanks for the help, I learned a lot, just no way to dedicate this much time with our fast pace lives..

cheers

^^funny .. u think we have nothing else better to do all day but sit around weighing food? :lol:

good luck man.. im sure u can lose some fat by modifying ur diet..