Questions about Calorie Deficit and Exercise

Dreaj79

Does it matter how big of a deficit I create with exercise if I have over 100 pounds to lose? I eat 1500 calories a day most days. I don't eat back my exercise calories, but I do take a high calorie day on Sunday where I go up to 2000 calories. According to my HRM, when I work out for an hour i burn almost 800 calories. I do a combination of circuit training and cardio. I've been listening to a lot of Jilian Michaels' podcasts from her Sunday radio show and they have been very informative. She suggests that you do 5 hours a week of exercise and I'm wondering if I will be creating too great a deficit for the calories I am eating if I do that. I am new to this site but I have been exercising consitently for about 5 months. Once I put the 1500 calories with my exercise program, I started to drop weight and I'm hoping that will continue. What do you guys think? should I stick with my 30 min 5 day a week workouts or go with the 60 min recommendations? Do you think this will create too big a deficit and cause my weight loss to stall or kick it into overdrive and get my weight down faster? I know I didn't put it all on at once, so I don't expect it gone overnight, but I want to get the most out of my time at the gym. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Dreaj79

Does it matter how big of a deficit I create with exercise if I have over 100 pounds to lose? I eat 1500 calories a day most days. I don't eat back my exercise calories, but I do take a high calorie day on Sunday where I go up to 2000 calories. According to my HRM, when I work out for an hour i burn almost 800 calories. I do a combination of circuit training and cardio. I've been listening to a lot of Jilian Michaels' podcasts from her Sunday radio show and they have been very informative. She suggests that you do 5 hours a week of exercise and I'm wondering if I will be creating too great a deficit for the calories I am eating if I do that. I am new to this site but I have been exercising consitently for about 5 months. Once I put the 1500 calories with my exercise program, I started to drop weight and I'm hoping that will continue. What do you guys think? should I stick with my 30 min 5 day a week workouts or go with the 60 min recommendations? Do you think this will create too big a deficit and cause my weight loss to stall or kick it into overdrive and get my weight down faster? I know I didn't put it all on at once, so I don't expect it gone overnight, but I want to get the most out of my time at the gym. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

dclarsh

Unless you plan on eating some of those exercise calories back, I would suggest that you go see your doctor before you begin such an ambitious plan. At that rate, you would dip below an average of 1000 net calories per day. This can be dangerous without a doctor's supervision.

If you stay above a net calorie mark of 1200 calories, you will probably be fine, as long as you are in relatively good physical condition (no chronic medical problems like hbp or diabetes). But I would also suggest that if you plan on working out for 5 hours a week, and you currenly do 2.5 hours a week, work up slowly, adding a half hour per week until you get where you want to be. You'll be more likely to want to keep it up if you aren't feeling like a dead horse someone keeps beating.

Dreaj79

Thanks for your advice!