How many calories

Japresto1979

Hey I just read Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle and plan to start the program this Monday

The book is very clear about almost everything but I do have one question even if it's a stupid one

Let's say for simplicity's sake, I need 3,000 calories a day to maintain my current weight

And for a 2 lb/wk weight loss I need 2,500. Easy enough

Now let's say I lift weights and burn 500 calories

So if I ate 2500 per the plan for that 2 lb loss but then burned 500 I really only ate the equivalent of 2000 calories so do I need to eat another 500 to offset that?

4legsRbetterthan2

Hey I just read Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle and plan to start the program this Monday

The book is very clear about almost everything but I do have one question even if it's a stupid one

Let's say for simplicity's sake, I need 3,000 calories a day to maintain my current weight

And for a 2 lb/wk weight loss I need 2,500. Easy enough

Now let's say I lift weights and burn 500 calories

So if I ate 2500 per the plan for that 2 lb loss but then burned 500 I really only ate the equivalent of 2000 calories so do I need to eat another 500 to offset that?

Well for starters you need a 1000 cal deficit per day to lose 2 lbs a week. 2 lbs = 7000 calories.

With your example yes, you want to eat back exercise calories. Otherwise you are creating an even bigger deficit by working out.

How much weight do you need to lose? 2lbs/week is fairly aggressive if you don't have a large goal. Bigger deficits lead to more muscle mass lost.

DeguelloTex

Bigger deficits lead to more muscle mass lost.

Can.

terbusha

Figuring out your ideal calorie goal can be tricky. Calculators are a good place to start, but they make assumptions that may not be true about you. It depends on the state of your metabolism. What I do and what I recommend to people is to eat at a calorie level that allows you to drop 1-2 lbs/week. This assumes an average calorie burn from you getting in all of your workouts. This will be different for everyone, so you'll have to do some trial and error to figure it out. I'd start ~1800 cal/day. Hit this goal, along with your macros and getting in your workouts, for a week. If you lose 1-2 lbs, you're good to go. If you lose too much, increase your intake and repeat. If you don't lose enough, reduce your intake a bit and repeat. After a few weeks, you'll figure out what works for you in your situation.

Allan

MinnieInMaine

Depends on how you calculate maintenance calories (aka TDEE). Most of these calculators include exercise so you wouldn't eat exercise calories back as the average estimated burn is already figured in to your daily needs.

And, as said above, you'd need a 1000 calorie deficit per day to lose 2 pound per week. When going by TDEE, most folks just use a percentage deficit - typically 20%.

For your example, assuming exercise is included in maintenance, TDEE-20% would be 2400.

voodoocupcake

Technically, yes. That would be correct, but building muscle is more of an art then a science. You have to pay attention to the kind of calories you're eating as well as then number. The body uses carbs, fats an proteins in different ways. If you bur 500 calories lifting weights (that's a lot of lifting!) you will want lots of protein to repair the muscles you just broke down in your workout rather than carbohydrates.
Rather than doing a lot of math, try sticking to your 2,500 calories per day and see what happens. Then you can make changes from there according to how your body works. Just make sure you don't eat a lot of empty calories from sugar and alcohol. Of course, you won't get the result you want if you do that. Make every calorie count.

Japresto1979

Thanks everybody. That's helpful