Net Calories......?

Fit_to_Fight

I am a very active person, Staff Sergeant in the US Army, and I work out twice a day and sometimes three times a day; including morning Army PT, lunchtime weight lifting, and evening cardio. I set my goal at 3,000 net calories a day, and I've been under with the exception of a cheat day lol. I went from being 223lbs down to 195lbs on sheer hard workouts, but now I want to key in on my diet so that I can trim down and lean out my body mass. I am 18% body fat right now and I want to get down to aroud 13-15% by summer. Do you think 3,000 net calories is too much or too little? Thanks everyone.

holmesmd

Take a look at fat2fitradio.com. They have a host of great resources and tools to help you set your goal. The short of it is to figure out what your BMR is and have your net calories equal your BMR. Many people eat a little under their BMR for net calories to compensate for MFP/Fitbit/HRM's exercise databases being off but it's really all about what your body feels/how it responds.

Start Here -->
Go to F2F's ideal body weight calculator here: http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/ibw/
Then to their BMR calculator here, using the number from above: http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/bmr/
Also, check out their podcast on Losing Fat and Gaining Muscle: http://www.fat2fitradio.com/2011/06/fat-2-fit-128-gain-muscle-lose-fat/


For more reading:
Check out this post: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12
Here: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/819055-setting-your-calorie-and-macro-targets
And here: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/512956-tdee-what-is-it-and-why-you-should-not-eat-below-your-bmr

The information is repetitive in those articles but doesn't hurt to really solidify it in your head. Bodybuilding.com is also a *great* resource but you have to sort through the I'm a real athlete posts and the my-muscles-are-just-for-show folks.

Good luck!