ChaLean Extreme recommends such low calories!
bellabrite
Posts: 89 Member
I am doing ChaLea Extreme and love it. The one thing that really bothers me is that they guidebook says I should eat 1200 calories a day. Why are her suggestions so low, even when she states in her blog, etc., that you should make sure to eat enough and not create too large of a deficit?
I have a fitbit. Including exercise, I burn an average of 2100 calories a day. Since upping my cals about 9 weeks ago (and also starting Chalean) I have stayed essentially the same size -- if anything I've gained half a size, but before that I was eating only 1200 (for about 8 weeks) and had lost half a size.
I'm getting ready to do my cut in a couple weeks, and I will start with 10%, which means I will be eating about 1850 per day.
I think ChaLean has so many great things to teach -- I just don't understand how she can recommend a VLC.
The difference between her rec and the rec in "new rules" is gigantic!
I have a fitbit. Including exercise, I burn an average of 2100 calories a day. Since upping my cals about 9 weeks ago (and also starting Chalean) I have stayed essentially the same size -- if anything I've gained half a size, but before that I was eating only 1200 (for about 8 weeks) and had lost half a size.
I'm getting ready to do my cut in a couple weeks, and I will start with 10%, which means I will be eating about 1850 per day.
I think ChaLean has so many great things to teach -- I just don't understand how she can recommend a VLC.
The difference between her rec and the rec in "new rules" is gigantic!
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Replies
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The problem with most commercial programs is that they need to show drastic results because that is what their customers expect. If they don't lose big they will complain the the program sucked and didn't work, even if it really is a good program.
I just started Jillian Michaels' Body Revolution, which also comes with a low cal diet. I'm choosing to do it the "right" way and will continue to eat 1550-2000 calories per day.0 -
Funny thing is that if you go to the Beachbody.com site and plug your numbers to see how much you should be eating, it would probably give you around 1700 - 18000
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I was curious about that, so I tried to use the BeachBody calculator, but it's limited in the kind of activity it lets you select. ChaLean Extreme is not listed, but their other programs are. So I chose "PowerHalfHour" (whatever that is), and I got:
to maintain: 2029
to lose: 1529
when I chose NO activity I got:
maintain: 1629
lose: 1129
I am 5'7, 150lbs
So in either case they are recommending a 500 calorie deficit, and are not paying attention to percentages at all. In the first case, that is a 25% drop. In the second case, it is a 31% drop! And anyone eating that number of calories would of course lose muscle and be starving themselves.
I get what you are saying about commercial programs needing to succeed. It's sad -- I feel like ultimately this guideline would backfire!0 -
Did you go here?
I see Chalean Extreme as one of the programs.
I put my age and 150 as the weight. My heigh is 5'4 and this is what I got. I think as you said a 500 deficit is baked in to lose weight.
To Reach Your Goal: 1383 Maintain weight: 1883
http://www.teambeachbody.com/eat-smart/nutrition-tools/caloric-needs0 -
i just went to this link (after having to sign up for an account)...and it recommended 1058 to reach my goals! wow! i am currently 137 and would like to get down to around 125 (didn't even input goal weight). interesting!0
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I guess I was signed in with my account when I went to check.0
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Ok, I signed up for an account and was able to choose "ChaLean." These are the numbers I got:
1398 to lose
1898 to maintain (so this is actually much closer to my 2100)
The "lose" number still seems too low for me. I will stick to EM2WL !!0 -
I'm doing the CXL program too and I don't follow her calorie plan at all. I think it's way too low, esp on the days I do the lifting, I'm very hungry and would probably starve on only 1500 calories! I eat at least 1900-2100 calories every day!!!0
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Ok, I signed up for an account and was able to choose "ChaLean." These are the numbers I got:
1398 to lose
1898 to maintain (so this is actually much closer to my 2100)
The "lose" number still seems too low for me. I will stick to EM2WL !!
Good choice!0 -
I have CLX and did 2 rounds of it back in 2010, but as a newbie I stuck with the 1400 calories that was recommended and did not see good results! I have been worried about trying it ever since because I don't want to put all that work in and get dismal results again! I am hoping to start it again after my break week and hopefully with higher calories i will see better results.0
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Good luck! I bet it will make a difference.
In the first rounds, did you feel like you gained muscle but didn't lose enough fat? Just curious!0 -
Thanks for sharing the link for this....I am doing CLX but never really looked around the site to find these tools.
For me, it gave me 1198 to lose weight & 1948 to maintain...I will definitely NOT be going by their recommendations to lose weight...I usually eat around 1850 daily but one lifting days closer to my TDEE of 2200. I want to build muscle not lose it with such low cals.0 -
I felt like I got smaller but I didn't see the muscle gains like I had hoped! I did do a lot of cardio as well so I was losing some scale weight, but I thinks lot of it was muscle.0
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I felt like I got smaller but I didn't see the muscle gains like I had hoped! I did do a lot of cardio as well so I was losing some scale weight, but I thinks lot of it was muscle.
You should try P90X if you want to see some muscle gains. A pic I have in my gallery showing my back in a black sport's bra shows the result of P90X on my back muscles.0
