Do we really have to eat what we burn?

jo_escolano
jo_escolano Posts: 19 Member
edited November 17 in Food and Nutrition
I'm trying to lose body fat. I've joined Ferrells' 10 week program of alternating kickboxing (3 days)and resistance training (3 days). They calculated that I need to eat approx. 91g of protein a day and 130g carbs a day. I am trying to get my carbs from healthy foods but I can never reach these numbers. I understand I need it for performance but is it necessary to eat what I burn to lose body fat? Also, I've been shopping around for good Protein Shakes. Any suggestions? I like so far GNC Lean 25 and Muscle Milk.

Replies

  • sandryc79
    sandryc79 Posts: 250 Member
    More necessary to reduce muscle loss, you will also lose body fat either way, it is just how much of the weight loss is muscle that is impacted.
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
    Depends.............

    How big is your deficit? How much weight do you need to lose?

    MFP as designed gives you a deficit BEFORE exercise, that way people who can't/won't exercise....still lose weight. Eating calories back ideally gets you back to square one.

    Here's the thing, really large deficits for people who are merely overweight make it hard for your body to support existing lean muscle. You are strength training and getting protein....that helps. But not giving your body enough fuel over all will also encourage fat+muscle loss.

    The closer you get to goal....the more important it becomes to eat enough.
  • dieselbyte
    dieselbyte Posts: 733 Member
    What is your current total caloric intake? How did you achieve that number? BMR or TDEE?

    Getting carbs from "healthy" foods won't make you lose weight any better than if all your carbs came from sour patch kids (nutrition and satiety aside, of course). Calories in vs out for weight loss/maintenance/gain. To lose weight, take in less calories than you burn. This can be achieved through diet, exercise, or both. If you are eating a deficit according to BMR, exercise will put you in a further negative. For performance and health reasons, you should aim to eat some of those exercise calories back. Too aggressive of a deficit can pose problems down the line (and since you do resistance training, you'd probably want to spare as much muscle as possible). If you calculated your deficit according to TDEE, than no, you wouldn't eat exercise calories back, as this is already estimated into your goals.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    Learning to fuel your fitness and body in general is kind of important...you can either use MFP's method of accounting for exercise (after the fact when you log it) or utilize the TDEE method whereby you include an estimate of your exercise in your activity level and thus an estimate of those calories would be included in your goal.

    Either way, learning to fuel your body and your activity is important regardless of your weight control goals.
  • jo_escolano
    jo_escolano Posts: 19 Member
    edited April 2015
    My BMR is 1334 cal/day and my TDEE is 2009 cal/day. I'm currently drinking a protein shake that has 7g carb and 15g of protein 100 cal per serving, I drink this breakfast and lunch. Lately I drink Muscle Milk after workout. I weigh 153lbs, 5"2, age 37, female, 36.5% body fat. Most days my calorie intake is between 1000 to 1500.

    I use http://iifym.com/iifym-calculator/ to calculate. It says for fat loss it requires 1595 cal/day and when I choose aggressive 20% fat loss goal, the IIFYM recommends a Nutrition Plan of 0.8g of protein per lb of lean mass, 0.40g of fat per lb of lean mass.

    Should I use Ketogenic (Atkins)? The options are Textbook, Body Builder, Zone Diet, Low Fat, Low Carb, Ketogenic, or enter your own Ratio. What is the best for body fat loss?

    If I take the IIFYM recommended this is what I get, Carbs 233.6g per day, Protein 77.7g, Fat 38.9g, fiber 31-38g. The carbs are awfully high. Appreciate your advise.
  • pmm3437
    pmm3437 Posts: 529 Member
    It's not necessary to eat anything to lose body fat.

    It is necessary to eat properly to maintain a healthy system while doing so.
    All these numbers being thrown at you are SUGGESTIONS and RECOMMENDATIONS, based on science, health, and experience.

    If your short on a macro target by 5-10% occasionally, your not gonna die or turn into a toad. If your short frequently, or excessively, you can cause problems.

    Considering the amount of carbs. that are in just about everything, it shouldn't be hard to meet that goal. Eat some bread or pasta, have some OJ or beans, you'll get there fast. Same thing for protein, you just have to pick the right foods.

    Carbs and protein are about 4 cals/g ... so what they are proposing is only ~ 900 calories. Since you shouldn't be eating < 1500 calories without medical supervision, there is no reason you cant achieve those macros fairly easily.
  • joejccva71
    joejccva71 Posts: 2,985 Member
    pmm3437 wrote: »
    Since you shouldn't be eating < 1500 calories without medical supervision, there is no reason you cant achieve those macros fairly easily.

    Um, what?

    Care to explain what you mean?
  • barbecuesauce
    barbecuesauce Posts: 1,771 Member
    jo_escolano wrote: »
    My BMR is 1334 cal/day and my TDEE is 2009 cal/day. I'm currently drinking a protein shake that has 7g carb and 15g of protein 100 cal per serving, I drink this breakfast and lunch. Lately I drink Muscle Milk after workout. I weigh 153lbs, 5"2, age 37, female, 36.5% body fat. Most days my calorie intake is between 1000 to 1500.

    I use http://iifym.com/iifym-calculator/ to calculate. It says for fat loss it requires 1595 cal/day and when I choose aggressive 20% fat loss goal, the IIFYM recommends a Nutrition Plan of 0.8g of protein per lb of lean mass, 0.40g of fat per lb of lean mass.

    Should I use Ketogenic (Atkins)? The options are Textbook, Body Builder, Zone Diet, Low Fat, Low Carb, Ketogenic, or enter your own Ratio. What is the best for body fat loss?

    If I take the IIFYM recommended this is what I get, Carbs 233.6g per day, Protein 77.7g, Fat 38.9g, fiber 31-38g. The carbs are awfully high. Appreciate your advise.

    With only 91 g of protein required, you should be able to get that from food (unless you're veg). I eat a salad with chicken almost every day and exceed your protein requirement. I also eat whole cans of tuna--20 g protein, 90 calories--pretty frequently. I am usually under 1500 calories too.

    I would not go as low as 77 grams of protein--you want to preserve your muscle mass. You're going to lose some muscle anyway.

    Also, keto and Atkins are not the same thing. But as for specific diet, I follow the lean-proteins-and-veggies-that-are-on-sale diet and have lost 54 pounds to date.
  • jo_escolano
    jo_escolano Posts: 19 Member
    Wow!! 54lb that's awesome! Good job! When you say lean-proteins-and-veggies-that-are-on-sale diet, is that a program?
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 49,024 Member
    If you are using the TDEE formula, you DON'T eat back calories since exercise is part of that formula.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
    9285851.png
  • barbecuesauce
    barbecuesauce Posts: 1,771 Member
    jo_escolano wrote: »
    Wow!! 54lb that's awesome! Good job! When you say lean-proteins-and-veggies-that-are-on-sale diet, is that a program?

    Thanks! And no, I just buy whatever is on sale/in season, along with staples like eggs/lettuce/beans/potatoes/bags of frozen veggies/cheese. And I sneak in a little junk food almost every day. Maybe you like structure more than me, but I find programs hard to follow.
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,267 Member
    barbecuesauce wrote: »
    jo_escolano wrote: »
    My BMR is 1334 cal/day and my TDEE is 2009 cal/day. I'm currently drinking a protein shake that has 7g carb and 15g of protein 100 cal per serving, I drink this breakfast and lunch. Lately I drink Muscle Milk after workout. I weigh 153lbs, 5"2, age 37, female, 36.5% body fat. Most days my calorie intake is between 1000 to 1500.

    I use http://iifym.com/iifym-calculator/ to calculate. It says for fat loss it requires 1595 cal/day and when I choose aggressive 20% fat loss goal, the IIFYM recommends a Nutrition Plan of 0.8g of protein per lb of lean mass, 0.40g of fat per lb of lean mass.

    Should I use Ketogenic (Atkins)? The options are Textbook, Body Builder, Zone Diet, Low Fat, Low Carb, Ketogenic, or enter your own Ratio. What is the best for body fat loss?

    If I take the IIFYM recommended this is what I get, Carbs 233.6g per day, Protein 77.7g, Fat 38.9g, fiber 31-38g. The carbs are awfully high. Appreciate your advise.

    With only 91 g of protein required, you should be able to get that from food (unless you're veg). I eat a salad with chicken almost every day and exceed your protein requirement. I also eat whole cans of tuna--20 g protein, 90 calories--pretty frequently. I am usually under 1500 calories too.

    I would not go as low as 77 grams of protein--you want to preserve your muscle mass. You're going to lose some muscle anyway.

    Also, keto and Atkins are not the same thing. But as for specific diet, I follow the lean-proteins-and-veggies-that-are-on-sale diet and have lost 54 pounds to date.

    this is what I did too...

    lots of fish/seafood (shrimp is great) buy chicken breast when it goes on sale (5 or 6 packages) and no I am not in the states so it's about 8$ for 4 when it's on sale...
  • jo_escolano
    jo_escolano Posts: 19 Member
    barbecuesauce wrote: »
    jo_escolano wrote: »
    I would not go as low as 77 grams of protein--you want to preserve your muscle mass. You're going to lose some muscle anyway.

    Also, keto and Atkins are not the same thing. But as for specific diet, I follow the lean-proteins-and-veggies-that-are-on-sale diet and have lost 54 pounds to date.

    Yeah Keto and Atkins was a typo. I was going to say, which should I go Keto vs Atkins? but I've been doing protein shakes, veggies, minimum on the bread and pasta, so maybe I'm doing ok, except for my carb. I can't seem to get carbs in unless I have bread / pasta / potato. I suck at being structured, but I do get pretty busy so I like the convenience of having frozen servings of veggies and a packet of protein. I also sneak in junk food, usually just a taste or two satisfies my curiosity (as if I didn't know what velvet cake or cheetos taste like).
  • jo_escolano
    jo_escolano Posts: 19 Member
    Thanks for all the advise!!! I know the macros are just suggestions and the key is deficit. So will keep plugging away and just do my best...

    Still shopping for protein shakes. Anyone knows a good one that will help in body fat loss?
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