Calories In, Calories Out

When you calculate a target calories per day to achieve a particular weight loss, is that 'gross' calories taken in or 'net' calories' after allowing for exercise.

For example, my target is 2030 calories per day. My food today came to 2200 calories but my activity added up to 938 calories so do I give myself a pat on the back or a kick in the backside?

On the same note, I've read that it's not healthy for a man to target below 1200 calories per day but is that before or after exercise?

It's not healthy for a man to go below 1500 calories/day before exercise (the 1200 number is for adult women; 1500 for adult men and teenage girls; 1800 for teenage boys).

And you give yourself a pat on the back.  The minimum calorie intakes are so you get enough nutrients for your body to function.  Assuming you have body fat to burn, that can be used to get the calories needed to exercise - as long as you don't ask your body to burn more than 1000 calories of fat per day (because it can't so it'll burn muscle instead).

As a man the minimum number of calories (as the above poster said) is 1500 cals, although this may be too low for you. To figure out your recommended number of cals, google bmr calculator and put in your stats. Your bmr is the number of cals your body would burn if you stayed in bed all day and is the number of cals that your body needs to run properly. It is recommended that you do not eat below this number because doing so will slow your metabolism and make it harder to lose weight.

Now that you know the minimum number of cals that you should be eating, you need to figure out how many cals you burn. At sedentary you burn your bmr x 1.2. Add to that number, the number of cals you burn through exercise and that is the total number of calories (estimated) that you burned that day.

Subtracting the number of cals that you ate from the number of calories that you burned, gives you your daily deficit. To lose a pound a week, you should aim to have a daily deficit of 500 cals because in theory you should lose a pound with a 3500 calorie deficit. It is also important to know that you should never have a daily deficit of more than 1000 cals, because this will cause the same effect that eating below your bmr will, your metabolism will slow and losing weight will be harder.

I hope I helped and didnt confuse you more. If you have any more questions, you can private message me!

Thanks Susie & Keb,  just what I wanted to hear

Couple of follow up questions:

Original Post by keb1984:

To lose a pound a week, you should aim to have a daily deficit of 500 cals because in theory you should lose a pound with a 3500 calorie deficit.

I've started a training and diet programme targeted to achieve a dietary weight loss of 1lb per week with a calorie deficit of 3500. The author of the programme recommends that instead of going for 500 calories per day, it's better to go for 750 calories per day for 6 days then overeat by 1000 calories on the seventh day in order to avoid my metabolism getting used to the lower calories and slowing down. Do you agree with that principle?

 In terms of the body getting used to a lower calorie intake and the metabolism slowing, again does this relate to the calories consumed or the calories less exercise?

Finally, as well as the target dietary loss, I'm targeting to lose another 1lb per week by burning off an additional 3500 calories per week through cardio exercise ad strength training, that brings me bang on a total average deficit of 1000 calories per day.

Does that sound reasonable - I'm 57 years old, 5'8" and weigh 214 lbs so my BMI is way over at 32.5

Original Post by martinharran:

Thanks Susie & Keb,  just what I wanted to hear

Couple of follow up questions:

Original Post by keb1984:

To lose a pound a week, you should aim to have a daily deficit of 500 cals because in theory you should lose a pound with a 3500 calorie deficit.

I've started a training and diet programme targeted to achieve a dietary weight loss of 1lb per week with a calorie deficit of 3500. The author of the programme recommends that instead of going for 500 calories per day, it's better to go for 750 calories per day for 6 days then overeat by 1000 calories on the seventh day in order to avoid my metabolism getting used to the lower calories and slowing down. Do you agree with that principle?

 In terms of the body getting used to a lower calorie intake and the metabolism slowing, again does this relate to the calories consumed or the calories less exercise?

Finally, as well as the target dietary loss, I'm targeting to lose another 1lb per week by burning off an additional 3500 calories per week through cardio exercise ad strength training, that brings me bang on a total average deficit of 1000 calories per day.

Does that sound reasonable - I'm 57 years old, 5'8" and weigh 214 lbs so my BMI is way over at 32.5

 

 There are many people who have had success with calorie cycling (having a deficit of 500-750 for awhile and then have a cheat day where they go over calories to keep their metabolism up). Yesterday, I had a cheat day and went over my calories by 500 cals!! I will let you know how it goes.

Some people do insist that your body does get used to eating a certain amount calories and exercise. So if you find that after awhile you are not losing as much, you can change up your exercise and number of calories you are eating for a little while and see if that helps.

However, you can easily go over a 500 cal deficit, as long as your daily deficit with exercise is never over 1000 calories. If you have a daily deficit of around 1000 cals everyday, you should be able to lose 2 lbs a week, with is the maximum amount you should lose in a healthy manner. Remember slow and steady wins the race!

And on a side note, when I started in January, I was 228 lbs at 5'3 and 24 years old female. I am now down to 174 lbs (30 more to go), so it can be done. Just be patient and stick to it. And this site is amazing for support. Good Luck.

Using your stats, I calculated your BMR to be 1875. This is the minimum that you should be eating.

So without exercise, you burn 2250. That alone gives you a deficit of 375 cals.