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Approaching GW, Revamping Diet Plan

Mr_Knight
Mr_Knight Posts: 9,532 Member
edited February 8 in Food and Nutrition
Top to bottom, I've now lost over 70 pounds, and am at the point where the standard method says 2 lbs/week is no longer possible without screwing up lean body mass or extreme exercise levels. But I'm an impatient geek :tongue: and it seems to me that I still have sufficient fat stores to keep the strong momentum. Here's my plan, based on what I think is pretty solid research on human metabolism.

This is for a male, BW = 240, BF% = 30

Maximal caloric extraction from fat stores (conservative):
-> 240 * 0.3 * 25 = 1822 calories/day

Protein requirement:
-> 1 g/LBM-lb -> 1 * 240 * (100 - BF%)/100 = 170g
-> 170 * 4 = 680 calories from protein

Fat requirement:
-> 0.3 g/LBM-lb -> 0.3 * 240 * (100 - BF%)/100 = 72g
-> 72 * 9 = 656 calories from fat

Carbohydrate requirement:
-> 60g (to eliminate use of amino acids for gluconeogenesis)
-> 60 * 4 = 240 calories from carbs

Total Baseline Daily Caloric Intake = (680 + 656 + 240) = 1576 calories/day

Maximal supported TDEE = 1822 (from fat stores) + 1576 (ingested) = 3400 calories/day

Current BMR (measured) = 2050
Current NEAT (calculated from data) = 750
Current average daily exercise burn = 600

Current average TDEE = 2050 + 750 + 600 = 3400

One more complication - daily exercise burn varies between 0 and 1500. On days where it goes above 600, the excess needs to eaten back as (primarily) carbohydrates. This is to preserve LBM and minimize use of ingested protein for fuel. Plus allow for rapid replenishing of glycogen stores, because bonking would be very very bad.

As an example - in the morning I am going on a 10km run, which will burn about 1100 calories. 1100 - 600 = 500 calories, which is 125 extra carb grams. I run or cycle that kind of volume 3 times a week, which works out to an extra 50-60 carb-grams/day, on average.

OK, I lied, that wasn't the last complication. There is an assumption that cardio exercise won't be going above the lactate threshold. On days it does, there should also be an increase in carb intake, but that is bloody hard to quantify and will have to be determined empirically using the "I feel like ****, need more Snickers!" metric.

If nothing else this should be an interesting experiment - wish me luck!

Replies

  • jpanguluri
    jpanguluri Posts: 9 Member
    Good luck! I hope you post "progress reports." And thanks for providing all your calculations...it is helpful to me also.
  • emirror
    emirror Posts: 842 Member
    Good luck! I'm interested to see how this goes! :-)
This discussion has been closed.