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2005/12/29, 11:30 PM
There's 3500 kcal (or cal) to a pound. So you'd have to burn 7,000 kcal on top of your weekly calorie intake to lose two pounds a week (which I've heard is a good weightloss target).
Here's my figures:
2000 cal intake daily, 14000 cal intake weekly.
That means if I want to lose two pounds in a week, I'd have to burn 21,000 calories in a week.
That's an average of 3,000 cal a day to burn (or 500 a day on three rest days, 3,300 cal a day on workout days).
Now I know that 3,300 cal to burn a day in a gym seems awfully high to target. Is it?
I also know that you burn calories doing other things - in rest after workout, sleeping, digesting food (one thing I found out is that drinking cold water burns calories because the body has to warm it up to body temperature before it can use it), walking (I think every step burns 1/10 of a calorie. To burn a pound, you'll need to take 35,000 steps), etc.
How do you take into consideration how many calories you burn when you're not working out when you're trying to keep a record?
For someone at 145 lbs and aiming to lose 2 pounds a week on a 2,000 calories per day intake, weight training 4 days a week, HIIT cardio twice a week, and yoga and stretching daily, what would be a good target for "calorie-counting" in the gym?
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2005/12/29, 11:43 PM
Exclude the 500cal-resting day thing. According to http://www.stevenscreek.com/goodies/calories.shtml , my basal metabolic rate (resting) is 1420 calories a day, my typical daily activities (excluding exercise) burn 426 calories, and assuming that I burn 3 calories/hour/pound at yoga, another 217 calories, so I burn about 2000 calories a day on a rest day.
Interesting.
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2005/12/29, 11:44 PM
So does that mean I only have to shoot for 1000-1300 calories in the gym?
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2005/12/30, 12:30 AM
O_o, I think your figures are WAY off. I hope you haven't done anything like you said you have. You say you need to take in 2000 calories a day to maintain your body weight. That is probably a good estimate. However, to lose 2 lbs per week you would only have to reduce this daily number by 1000. This means around 1000 calories per day. You are however going to want to get to this number slowly if you have been muscle building like you say you have etc. etc. Here is the great thing about weight training and cardio. An intense session of weight training usually burns around 500-600 calories depending on the person. Cardio should be easy to figure your machines should tell you. That means on days you workout you can consume that many more calories... i.e. you normally should be taking in 1000 calories to lose 2 lbs per week ( I would seriously consider just losing one pound per week, not many people can do 1000 calorie diets without completely being starved... in this case you would just take in 1500 calories per day. ) If you go the one pound route, then you could pretty much take in your maintenace on days that you have heavy workouts and still probably lose that pound a week. Slow and steady wins the race.
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2005/12/30, 12:39 AM
Sorry, I did not read your above post, replace my 2000 I mentioned with your must up to date number. Then again, it could always be wrong. Never hurts to have a starting place though, be sure to monitor your results. A large part of your success in any weight training or diet regime consists of knowing the right foods to eat, as well as the right amounts. Monitor your results and know how much you should be taking in, and you will have fought half the battle.
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2005/12/30, 12:57 AM
Actually, I'm going down to 2,000. I have no idea what I'm at now, but I'm assuming 2,500 with light exercise (stretching, hatha yoga, running for an hour in the morning before breakfast ). My weight flunctuates between 140-145lbs. I'd like to lose about 20 pounds and then maintain the weight. I do well maintaining weight with my current regiment (running, yoga, walking to class - I have impressive leg muscles, but rather poor upper body strength).
I'm not new to working out - I currently have a broken food, but I will be out of the cast by mid January. I'm using this time to plan workouts (I'd be able to stick to them more if I have a plan instead of going into the gym blindly which I have been doing since I graduated high school). In high school, I was in marching band/drumline. My fitness instructor couldn't believe that I could march for over an hour with a 70lb drum on my shoulders and still have poor upper body strength. I lost 30 pounds and maintained a weight of 120-125lbs all throughout marching band. I weight trained, marched, ran, did HIIT cardio, and some yoga (mostly stretching techniques to prevent injury). However, since I graduated, I haven't had the same workout routines as I did in high school, and gained 20 pounds in 9 months. :(
I doubt I could live on 1000 calories without going into starvation mode. I want to keep my metabolism up.
Here are some more of my figures based on 145lb woman:
Running for one hour at 5/mph - 552 calories burned.
Hatha yoga for one hour - 192 calories burned.
Moderate weight lifting for one hour - 414 calories burned.
Total: approx. 1158 calories burned in one day, excluding BMR.
That's right in my ballpark with my math.
I know to lose weight you need a calorie deficit, but I didn't think that always meant cutting 1000-1500 calories out of your diet at a time. Thought it could mean to burn more calories than you take in. Burned > Intake. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
Mind you, I am still cutting my calories, but also introducing weight training into the picture. And it is also my understanding that weight training will also increase my BMR, so its a double bonuse for burning calories.
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2005/12/30, 12:59 AM
Er. Broken foot, not food.
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2005/12/30, 01:07 AM
As far as cardio machines, I hardly use them, except for the bike with I do interval training (mostly on days I don't do weight lifting - I doubt I could perform as well after being tired and achy from weight lifting). I run better when not on a treadmill, I take the stairs every day (most of my classes are on the second floors of buildings, including my dorm room), I swim when we have a lifeguard at the pool. I prefer to get my cardio not from the machines.
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