What's a good calorie margin/spread when starting to exercise again?
I'm looking to lose about 10 pounds by July 1. CC has given me the average number of calories I should consume each day--according to my "lifestyle"--to reach my target at this time.
BUT... I've recently started working out again and burning 400 - 750 calories per workout (3-4 days per week). Thus the spread/margin between my calories taken in and those burned has grown. Obviously I need to increase my food intake to remain healthy but I still want to drop this weight.
Sooooo my question is: By how many calories should my food intake and my calories burned differ? Should I maintain the 500 calorie deficit CC told me I should follow to reach my goal? Or...? What's healthy? What's too many to be over (as in more burned than eaten)?
On an average day, CC calculated I burn around 2150 calories and should eat about 1650 to reach my goal. So should I maintain the 500 calorie deficit? Or...?
I`d eat my sedentary maintenance amout on days I worked out, and keep the deficit only on my rest days.
You want to eat about 500 fewer calories than you burned (ACTUALLY BURNED, not sedentary level lifestyle). If you enter your exercise in the activities log it will show you roughly what you are actually burning. Eating too little will cause you metabolism to shut down and you will CEASE to lose weight (sorry about the "shouting", but it seems that a lot of people are ignorant about this and it's dangerous...feeds eating disorders). If you want to lose weight, you MUST eat enough.
Incidently, unless you are on the heavy side, 10 lbs in a month is a pretty aggressive amount of weight to try to lose. Shoot for 1-2lbs a week. It sounds awfully slow and tedious, I know, but studies show that slow (SAFE) weight loss is far more likely to be permenant weight loss, whereas people who try to drop large amounts really quickly tend to put it back on and then some.
It`s 10 lbs in 2 months, as far as I can see, and that sounds perfectly reasonable.
Although fittygirl, keep in mind that as you work out you will also build some muscle, so losing 10 lbs of fat may reflect on the scale as only a 8 lbs total loss, for instance. You can also focus on inches or on what your body looks like and how your clothes feel. :)
So basically I should always maintain the 500 calorie difference between food in and calories burned in a day...? Is that right? So if I'm like 800 calories off that is perhaps too much...? And 100 is not enough...? (Exercise makes me hungry--but also makes me crave better/more healthy foods.)
I am shooting for 10lbs in two months...but so far it's not jumping off so well. :) My boyfriend comes home from work and I'll eat in one meal with him what I've eaten the rest of the entire day....
I know the numbers on a scale don't always show progress. I just want to get back to feeling good in my own skin--and be able to get into my jeans again.
:)
From what I've read the highest safe deficit you can have is 1000, as long as that doesnt drop your calorie intake below 1200. Still, having a deficit that high on a regular basis is not recomended. Also if you do want to have a deficit greater then 500 its recomended you work to that slowly, so if you exercise makes your deficit 900 eat an extra 300 calories of food first, then 200, and so on, if you really would like to lose faster.
3500 = 1 pound
500 deficit x 7 days p/week = 3500
Cool. That's the easiest thing I've seen/heard.
