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2003/04/04, 11:40 AM
Good morning all! I am 26, currently with a BMI of 29. I am 5'6" tall. I am looking to get back to my pre-baby weight somewhere between 120-130 lbs (about 50-60 lbs. to lose).
I've begun a 60 minute a day cardio workout plan & a little bit of weight training about 5 days a week. I do my cardio 6-7 days a week. I am eating well, mainly lean meats, fruits, veggies, a little cereal & bread, eggs, milk & cheese. A downfall of mine is regular soda, which I allow myself only one glass a day ( I cannot stand diet pop). I drink very little alcohol. I am counting my calories, but how much is too much? I would like to lose about 3 lbs. a week. With an hour of cardio a day, how much should I be worried about my calorie intake? I have noticed a difference now where I am hungrier & even feel weak, tired & shaky when I don't get enough to eat, but I'm still scared I'm getting more calories than I'm burning off. Can anyone help me figure this out?
Thanks,
Kelley
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2003/04/04, 11:49 AM
Here is the response that was posted to a similar question earlier this week that I found really helpful:
This might help a little. I hope it does.
The way to lose fat, very simply, is to FOCUS ON THE DEFICIT. You won't lose fat by exercising more if you let your caloric intake creep higher. You won't lose fat by restricting your calories if you're skipping workouts. The goal is to create a deliberate and well-controlled caloric deficit between the energy you take in and the energy that you burn. You do that by planning carefully, keeping accurate records, and maintaining discipline.
Your daily "caloric deficit" depends on all sorts of factors, including your height, weight, lean mass, gender, workout intensity, and portion sizes. It's unlikely for anybody to get the deficit beyond about 1500 calories a day by working out harder or eating less, because you'll either interfere with proper recovery, or throw yourself into a fasting state. If you're following effective workouts and specifically targeting fat loss and muscle tone/gain, it is not unreasonable to target fat loss of as much as 1 to 2 lbs a week for women, and as much as 2 - 3 lbs a week for men. Unless you score basketball points by throwing the ball downward, it's very difficult (and generally unadvisable) to lose more than about 3 pounds of fat per week.
When you're eating 5 or 6 times a day instead of 3, your meals had better be much smaller than they used to be. As a rule of thumb, it's generally advised to target between 8-10 calories per pound of weight, if you're shooting for fat loss, and up to 15 calories per pound of weight if you're shooting for muscle gain. The problem is that fat itself is metabolically inactive, so it's better to base your intake on lean weight rather than scale weight. If you want a quick rule of thumb, I prefer the following: shoot for 10-12 calories per pound of lean weight if your main goal is fat loss, and about 15-17 calories per pound of lean weight if your main goal is muscle gain without fat loss. Now, 10 calories per lean pound is almost certainly below your Base Metabolic Rate (see below), so you shouldn't go with less than 10 even if you're aggressively targeting fat loss. .
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