Exercise and calorie intake.

Waitwhat? · Mar 15, 2009

I'm a little confused and maybe one of you can help... I understand that if you want to lose weight.. clear and simple you need to move more and eat less.

Is there an easy formula (I'm horrible at math) that determines how many calories you'll need to work off via aerobic and anaerobic exercise based on your caloric intake? For example if your daily caloric intake is 1,800, how many calories will you need to burn in order to lose weight?

BasketLady · Mar 16, 2009

3,500 calories = 1 pound

So, if you want to lose weight, either dropping 500 calories per day, or working off 500 calories per day in a week will help you lose one pound (500 x 7 = 3500).

There are a ton of programs online that can tell you approximately how many calories you burn doing specific exercises (ie: FitDay - which can help with food logging/calories/nutrition and exercise diaries).

HTH and good luck.

Waitwhat? · Mar 16, 2009

Thanks for your help, Basketlady.

It's not really for me I just want to understand how it works so maybe I can help others.

I'm taking in approx 1,800 calories a day (6 small meals). I work out (weights) 3 days a week and run 30 minutes two times a week. My weight consistantly stays at 124 (I'm 5'7") and I think I eat pretty clean.

Does this sound about right? Is there anything you would change? My goal is lean body mass.

madmatty · Mar 17, 2009

how long is your weight training? what is the schedule like(ie: upper body one day, lower body the next)?

Try adding more days on strength training.
Also more aerobic/running time.(not a lot just a little to give you that extra edge to get more lean)
But I think overall its a good routine for where you are at.
Running/aerobic=burning calories that day.
resistance training= burning calories tomorrow.

fitslug · Mar 17, 2009

In the real world that we live in, caloric math is NEVER perfect. In our physiology class we did a bunch of calculations, then took on real world people and made them burn of a certain amount of calories everyday. We then checked back with them after a week... guess what? No one lost the exact theoretical amount.

That's not to say that some weren't close, but it still proves a point. IMO, stressing on counting calories everyday is not worth the time. Use it as a general guideline but nothing more.

Now as to your goal... you are pretty light for someone who's 5'7 (you are a dude right? if not, ignore what I'm about to say)

I'm 5'8 and my regular weight is 140. 135 if I'm off for a tumble competition.

Here's my suggestion, EAT MORE! If you are already used to eating 6 meals a day, that's perfect, just up the food intake in each meal. What food should you add? Protein in 3 of the meals, and carbs in the other 3.

If you really want to "count"... you should be hitting about 3000 squeaky clean calories everyday. Make sure your carbs are low-glycemic.

If you are having trouble, here's a few little tricks you can use:

One spoonful of peanut butter is about 200 calories.
One shot of olive oil will give you about 300 calories.

BAM! That's 500 calories that you instantly added to your day. Of course, don't have peanut butter and olive oil back to back.

Waitwhat? · Mar 17, 2009

I appreciate the replies. Nah, I'm female. My routine is as follows. Let me know if you'd change anything:

Mon- chest/back
Tues- 30 min or 300 calories of cardio/abs
Wedn- shoulders/Tri's/Bi's
Thurs- 30 min or 300 calories of cardio/abs
Friday- off
Sat- legs
Sun- off

Stretching everyday.

fitslug · Mar 17, 2009

Ahaha... ah I can be a douche at times. Im not sure why I only saw trees in your avatar before, but now I can clearly see you. Odd...

Btw, the routine looks good. Properly spread out and gives you decent recovery times. Post a meal plan or two, your nutrition needs to go hand in hand.

Waitwhat? · Mar 18, 2009

fitslug said:
Ahaha... ah I can be a douche at times. Im not sure why I only saw trees in your avatar before, but now I can clearly see you. Odd...

Btw, the routine looks good. Properly spread out and gives you decent recovery times. Post a meal plan or two, your nutrition needs to go hand in hand.

Haha, no problem. Below is a typical day and I probably lack a little more protein but I don't eat a lot of meat (just fish) and I have a hard time digesting most protein shakes. I think I eat pretty clean and have cut out all most sugar and saturated fats. Take a look and let me know if there is anything any of you would do different.

2 cups of coffee, Splenda, 1 tbs sugar free hazelnut creamer.
Breakfast- slice wheat toast, 3 eggs (2 being whites), banana
Snack- slice of 2% cheese and Creme of wheat or oatmeal
Lunch- Natural PB sandwich on wheat, 1/4 cup of Kashi granola crunch sprinkled on top, handful of raw calloflower/broccoli/carrots, diet coke
Snack- navel orange and handful of almonds
pre- weight workout- oatmeal sprinkled with cinnamon
post workout- glass of chocolate milk within 30 min of working out
Dinner within an hour after workiing out- seafood, cooked veggies, brown rice, sweet potatoe or quinoa.

fitslug · Mar 18, 2009

Waitwhat? said:
Haha, no problem. Below is a typical day and I probably lack a little more protein but I don't eat a lot of meat (just fish) and I have a hard time digesting most protein shakes. I think I eat pretty clean and have cut out all most sugar and saturated fats. Take a look and let me know if there is anything any of you would do different.

2 cups of coffee, Splenda, 1 tbs sugar free hazelnut creamer.
Breakfast- slice wheat toast, 3 eggs (2 being whites), banana
Snack- slice of 2% cheese and Creme of wheat or oatmeal
Lunch- Natural PB sandwich on wheat, 1/4 cup of Kashi granola crunch sprinkled on top, handful of raw calloflower/broccoli/carrots, diet coke
Snack- navel orange and handful of almonds
pre- weight workout- oatmeal sprinkled with cinnamon
post workout- glass of chocolate milk within 30 min of working out
Dinner within an hour after workiing out- seafood, cooked veggies, brown rice, sweet potatoe or quinoa.

1. Get rid of diet coke, and get rid of splenda. Replace your sugar substitutes with stevia. You can find my post on stevia here:

2. If you really want to have 2 cups of coffee, spread them out through your day. one cup in the morning and one in the evening. Ideally... switch to green tea in the morning and coffee in the evening. I've started to drink black, and not to copy any slogan here but... I'm lovin' it!

3. Get rid of the toast and instead add an apple in the mornings.

4. You really need to take in a high protein shake after you're workouts. If you cant digest it properly, invest in digestion pills. These pills should include: Protease, Lipase, amylase, Lactase, Amyloglucosidase, Sucrase & Maltase.

You take 1 or 2 along with your protein shake and it helps you break down and digest proteins properly. Alternatively, it also helps break down carbs and fats, but it seems you can digest those no problem.

5. Add some flaxseeds to your oatmeal. Or take some Omega 3-6-9's in the morning.

Those are some of the things off the top off my head that "I" would change. All this may seem like a lot but I want you to know, your meal plan is actually pretty decent, these are just minor changes that will truly polish it off to near perfection in my opinion... what ever the hell that means

Waitwhat? · Mar 19, 2009

fitslug said:
1. Get rid of diet coke, and get rid of splenda. Replace your sugar substitutes with stevia. You can find my post on stevia here:

2. If you really want to have 2 cups of coffee, spread them out through your day. one cup in the morning and one in the evening. Ideally... switch to green tea in the morning and coffee in the evening. I've started to drink black, and not to copy any slogan here but... I'm lovin' it!

3. Get rid of the toast and instead add an apple in the mornings.

4. You really need to take in a high protein shake after you're workouts. If you cant digest it properly, invest in digestion pills. These pills should include: Protease, Lipase, amylase, Lactase, Amyloglucosidase, Sucrase & Maltase.

You take 1 or 2 along with your protein shake and it helps you break down and digest proteins properly. Alternatively, it also helps break down carbs and fats, but it seems you can digest those no problem.

5. Add some flaxseeds to your oatmeal. Or take some Omega 3-6-9's in the morning.

Those are some of the things off the top off my head that "I" would change. All this may seem like a lot but I want you to know, your meal plan is actually pretty decent, these are just minor changes that will truly polish it off to near perfection in my opinion... what ever the hell that means

Wow....glad I asked! I will def try Stevia. And the diet soda is actually Diet rootbeer that has 0 calories and 0 sugar and I only have 1 glass a day- it can't be that bad.

Why do you say an apple instead of one peice of toast? Because of the insulin spike? Wouldn't I get that with the banana? Or is 3 peices of whole wheat bread (all before 1:00) too much in a day? One last question- do you recommend a brand of protein that I can get for my post workout? Something that tastes good that won't fill me up too much before dinner which will be eaten shortly after. Thanks again for all of your suggestions.

Oldspice · Mar 19, 2009

Waitwhat? said:
Wow....glad I asked! I will def try Stevia. And the diet soda is actually Diet rootbeer that has 0 calories and 0 sugar and I only have 1 glass a day- it can't be that bad.

Why do you say an apple instead of one piece of toast? Because of the insulin spike? Wouldn't I get that with the banana? Or is 3 pieces of whole wheat bread (all before 1:00) too much in a day? One last question- do you recommend a brand of protein that I can get for my post workout? Something that tastes good that won't fill me up too much before dinner which will be eaten shortly after. Thanks again for all of your suggestions.

Most likely the reason why he suggest to stay away from diet soda is because of the aspartame that's in it. It's terrible for your health and leads to plenty of problems. People have also claimed weight gain, but i don't believe this. One a day shouldn't be bad...They claim it causes weight gain because aspartame apparently makes you more hungry and causes you to want to eat more...Hence more calories and leads to weight gain...The soda itself will not make you heavier, but all the health issues caused by diet soda makes people weary. Here is a link that explains side effects of aspartame. (Diet soda)

Wheat toast is fine in the morning...If you like it, eat it...Stay away from white bread and white pasta. Try to eat whole grains like your doing. Just eat your wheat bread early and not after 4:00pm. This will help you burn it off throughout the day. Carbs are energy, so it's nice to have them...Basically, if you run a calorie deficit, you will lose weight...Just be smart about it like you are and stay away from sugar.

For your post workout shake get 100% pure whey protein. You can add a banana to the shake after workouts. (This would be optimal) Try to avoid any fats after a workout. (This is why your milk was a bad choice) Your body will go after the fat first, not protein. So, it's always good to have a simple sugar with high protein, little to no fats...Then, a couple hours later eat a meal with some good carbs in it...Not a ton, but enough to get you going. If you don't want the carbs, don't eat them...But, i think it's always good to eat a little. At least eat 100g of carbs a day...(For your weight)

Waitwhat? · Mar 19, 2009

Appreciate your help...

I'll get 100% Whey Protein this weekend for my post workouts. I've read on this forum that everyone seems to like Optimum Nutrition. I'll give that one a try.

Oldspice · Mar 19, 2009

By the way, it looks like this.

No problem, your making a good choice. =)

Waitwhat? · Mar 19, 2009

The only thing that I can see being a problem..

When I walk home from the gym at 5:30 pm and have a protein shake within a half hour of working out- I'm not going to have the appetite for dinner. I don't eat ANYTHING past 7:00 pm. So you see what I have to deal with.

evan · Mar 19, 2009

Waitwhat? said:
I don't eat ANYTHING past 7:00 pm.

Why not? Are you running on the assumption that you won't burn off anything you eat at night?

Plus, if I mix protein with milk, that'll fill me up, so if I drink a protein shake before a meal, I mix with water. I find that to be much less filling.

Karky · Mar 19, 2009

fitslug said:
In the real world that we live in, caloric math is NEVER perfect. In our physiology class we did a bunch of calculations, then took on real world people and made them burn of a certain amount of calories everyday. We then checked back with them after a week... guess what? No one lost the exact theoretical amount.

That's not to say that some weren't close, but it still proves a point. IMO, stressing on counting calories everyday is not worth the time. Use it as a general guideline but nothing more.

Now as to your goal... you are pretty light for someone who's 5'7 (you are a dude right? if not, ignore what I'm about to say)

I'm 5'8 and my regular weight is 140. 135 if I'm off for a tumble competition.

Here's my suggestion, EAT MORE! If you are already used to eating 6 meals a day, that's perfect, just up the food intake in each meal. What food should you add? Protein in 3 of the meals, and carbs in the other 3.

If you really want to "count"... you should be hitting about 3000 squeaky clean calories everyday. Make sure your carbs are low-glycemic.

If you are having trouble, here's a few little tricks you can use:

One spoonful of peanut butter is about 200 calories.
One shot of olive oil will give you about 300 calories.

BAM! That's 500 calories that you instantly added to your day. Of course, don't have peanut butter and olive oil back to back.

I think if you actually burned EXACTLY 3500 cals of fat (this is important, since if you burn any muscle here, the number would be different) over a week (compared with maintenance, of course), you'd lose 1lbs, the thing with the real world is that it is impossible to know your exact maintenance and the exact amount of cals you're taking in. Now ofcourse, when measuring weight, you'd have to take glycogen, water retention, etc into account. But with everything being the same, and the only thing different that week was that you burned 3500 cals of fat, then you'd lose very close to 1lbs (I won't say exactly, since I bet there could be some biological variations of how many calories there are in 1lb of fat)
Of course, a situation like this will never ever in a fantazillion years actually happen

I find counting calories very helpful. I have full control if I want to gain or lose weight. If I want to lose weight I lower the cals until I lose about 0.5-1kg a week, and then I keep it there. Let's say that's 2500 cals. It's then very easy to just hit 2500 cals a day instead of some being above and some below, as it would be if I didn't count. Now, of course, this is on paper, I don't know exactly how much I take in since then I'd have to lab test every piece of food myself, but it does make it easier to stay on track with bulking and cutting.

Waitwhat? · Mar 19, 2009

evan said:
Why not? Are you running on the assumption that you won't burn off anything you eat at night?

Plus, if I mix protein with milk, that'll fill me up, so if I drink a protein shake before a meal, I mix with water. I find that to be much less filling.

No, not at all. I'm just not hungry. That's when I basically just drink water.

Oldspice · Mar 19, 2009

Waitwhat? said:
No, not at all. I'm just not hungry. That's when I basically just drink water.

This is a problem that you don't want to eat after your workout...I mean, not a huge problem, but very odd. How are you even managing to get enough calories in, if your not technically eating past 4:30? I assume your in the gym by 4:00-4:30 and walk home...Having the shake around 5:30 and not being hungry...Which means you haven't eaten since about 3:30ish...Not only does this not make sense, it doesn't seem to healthy, does it?

Then, you sleep...Let say you get up at 8:00 the next morning. This means you haven't eaten for over 16 hours...Hopefully your eating a big breakfast...

If your not hungry, make yourself eat. Their is no reason you shouldn't be hungry after lifting weights...Your body needs the fuel after the workout and eating is the best way. The protein shake is just something to help the recovery period, but isn't considered a meal.

If your not hungry, simply eat something small like a chicken salad. That's perfect for dinner. Have some cottage cheese, just get something in your body. As you keep doing this, hopefully you will start to get hungry after the gym. Have some peanuts. They tend to make you more hungry and are good for you...

Keep in mind, i'm "assuming" your not getting enough calories. If you've already had 2000 calories by 3:30, then eating a lot at night isn't a good idea. But, you shouldn't be that high by 3:30 anyway. The idea is small portions 5-6 times a day. I don't see how your doing this if you don't eat after you workout....

Also, keep this in mind. Whatever calories you burn at the gym, you need to subtract from your diet. For instance, if your eating 1800 calories a day, go to the gym and burn 300 on the treadmill, you need to add 300 calories to 1800 making that 2100 for the day...Otherwise, it's 1800-300 giving you 1500 calories total...The idea is not to starve yourself, but lose fat in a healthy way.

I see many people who eat 1500 calories a day and go on a treadmill untill it says they have burned 600 calories...This is not a way of doing things...Your physique will end up looking terrible. I've made this mistake...I'm a male and used to run 5 miles everyday and eat 2000 calories...Terrible

Waitwhat? · Mar 19, 2009

Oldspice said:
This is a problem that you don't want to eat after your workout...I mean, not a huge problem, but very odd. How are you even managing to get enough calories in, if your not technically eating past 4:30? I assume your in the gym by 4:00-4:30 and walk home...Having the shake around 5:30 and not being hungry...Which means you haven't eaten since about 3:30ish...Not only does this not make sense, it doesn't seem to healthy, does it?

Then, you sleep...Let say you get up at 8:00 the next morning. This means you haven't eaten for over 16 hours...Hopefully your eating a big breakfast...

If your not hungry, make yourself eat. Their is no reason you shouldn't be hungry after lifting weights...Your body needs the fuel after the workout and eating is the best way. The protein shake is just something to help the recovery period, but isn't considered a meal.

If your not hungry, simply eat something small like a chicken salad. That's perfect for dinner. Have some cottage cheese, just get something in your body. As you keep doing this, hopefully you will start to get hungry after the gym. Have some peanuts. They tend to make you more hungry and are good for you...

Keep in mind, i'm "assuming" your not getting enough calories. If you've already had 2000 calories by 3:30, then eating a lot at night isn't a good idea. But, you shouldn't be that high by 3:30 anyway. The idea is small portions 5-6 times a day. I don't see how your doing this if you don't eat after you workout....

Also, keep this in mind. Whatever calories you burn at the gym, you need to subtract from your diet. For instance, if your eating 1800 calories a day, go to the gym and burn 300 on the treadmill, you need to add 300 calories to 1800 making that 2100 for the day...Otherwise, it's 1800-300 giving you 1500 calories total...The idea is not to starve yourself, but lose fat in a healthy way.

I see many people who eat 1500 calories a day and go on a treadmill untill it says they have burned 600 calories...This is not a way of doing things...Your physique will end up looking terrible. I've made this mistake...I'm a male and used to run 5 miles everyday and eat 2000 calories...Terrible

Here's what happens Oldspice, I eat 6 meals a day. On the days that I lift- I always eat a bowl of oatmeal within an hour of working out for my complex carb. Workout for about an hour. Come back and I'll start having a protein shake (for recovery) and force myself to then eat a balanced meal. Oh I'll do it- I was just saying that the problem is I'm not that hungry. I'm fortunate because I don't necessarily eat for taste- I eat because I have to.

Oldspice · Mar 20, 2009

Waitwhat? said:
Here's what happens Oldspice, I eat 6 meals a day. On the days that I lift- I always eat a bowl of oatmeal within an hour of working out for my complex carb. Workout for about an hour. Come back and I'll start having a protein shake (for recovery) and force myself to then eat a balanced meal. Oh I'll do it- I was just saying that the problem is I'm not that hungry. I'm fortunate because I don't necessarily eat for taste- I eat because I have to.

I thought you clearly said you didn't eat after working out and strictly not after 7:00 because your not hungry?

I mean, it's good that you don't have food cravings and it's also good you eat because you have to...This means you should eat healthy, because it really doesn't matter to you...Rather than being that person who eats cookies and McDonald's all day, lol

Just have the whey protein shake after you workout and a balanced meal a little after that. As long as you keep the calories under maintenance, you will lose fat off your body. The concept is to just do it slowly so you lose less muscle. Although, i don't think you'll really lose much, if any...Unless you start eating 1000 calories a day...Please don't do this, lol.

You seem to have the concept down already and your meal plan wasn't bad.