# Finding out my intake to lose weight



## countrygurl318 (Aug 29, 2014)

Hi everybody I'm having a very, very hard time figuring out what I need to take in to lose weight! It has been a true struggle! I've hired two trainers and one had me eating as much as a bodybuilder and about who had gave me a major cut down to 1500-1400calories. I am somewhat active. I do circuit training and will be starting weights soon. But I don't see a change in my weight in about a month and I eat super clean! If anybody can help me I'll really appreciate it because this has been a struggle! So far I've been trying to take in 

1800-1850 calories a day. 
Carbs: 60-80
Protein: 220-230
Fat: 60-70

If anybody thinks this needs to change or be adjusted I'm all open for opinions! (I'm not trying to be skinny! I'm trying to tone down bf% and my upper body. Then build up muscle)

Stats 
21
5'8
226lbs 
Yes I'm female 
31-32bf%


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## countrygurl318 (Aug 29, 2014)

And is cardio my only options?


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## jSalud (Aug 29, 2014)

Add some simple weight training in there. Cardio has diminished returns over a long period of time and your weight loss will slow to a halt after your body gets used to cardio unless you continually increase it over time. Muscle on the other hand constantly requires more energy in the form of calories to maintain.


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## PillarofBalance (Aug 29, 2014)

http://www.ugbodybuilding.com/threads/3794-Understanding-BMR-vs-TDEE


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## Spongy (Aug 29, 2014)

Can you post up your diet?


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## woodswise (Aug 29, 2014)

Hey Countrygirl.

Cardio is not your only option, but it helps.  If I were in your situation (and I wasn't that far from where you are, a couple years ago), I would focus on building up a base of muscle first, by doing a clean bulk with a goal of staying the same weight and re-comping, or gaining a few lbs over a few months.  The reason you want muscle, is because the more muscle you have, the more energy you burn, and the better you look when the fat comes off.  Then, after 6 months to a year of building up a good base of muscle, I would start cutting.  I would probably do some moderate to high intensity aerobics during all of this, whether bulking or cutting.

Some people lose fat by increasing the intensity of their weight training, and that is a good idea, but others, like you or me, need some cardio to lose the fat, weight lifting and dieting are not enough.  

One thing you want to avoid, is eating too few calories each day.  This is because your body will think you are starving and will store fat and cut muscle because if you were starving the fat would help survive longer, whereas muscle would only burn more energy and thus result in starvation faster.

There are metabolic calculators for determining how much kcalories you should eat each day.   Do a search online and see if you can find one and use it to determine your maintenance Kcals.   As for macros (i.e. macronutrients or carbohydrates, protein and fat), it depends whether you are going to diet on carbs or without carbs.  A good rule of thumb is to eat 1 to 1.5 grams of protein for each lb of lean bodymass you have on your frame.  If dieting on carbs, be sure your fat consumption is at or below 100g per day.  Then, take your protein and multiply by 4Kcals per gram so you know how many Kcalories of protein you are getting each day, and take the grams of fat and multiply by 9 for the kcals of fat you are eating.  Carbs are 4Kcal per g, so you can subtract the Kcals from protein and fat from your total Kcals per day, and you will know how many Kcals need to come from carbs.  Divide this by 4, and that is how many grams you need to eat of carbs to meet your daily caloric needs.  

I hope this helps, and let me know if you have any questions.  I'll be happy to spend some more time with you on this if you want, and to give you more information, or to explain this better if you are confused (I would be) by my post here.


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## Rumpy (Aug 29, 2014)

I merged your two threads into one


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## jennerrator (Aug 29, 2014)

I think WW hit this one out of the park


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## woodswise (Aug 29, 2014)

For putting on muscle, you should eat at or above your maintenance Kcals.  The metabolic calculator will give you a rough idea how much to eat each day, then when you hit that goal consistently for a couple of weeks you can watch your weight to see if you are gaining, losing or staying the same, which will help you dial your Kcals in until you are gaining slightly.  while you are at a high %bf, I would aim for 1 lb every other week on average and no more than 1 lb per week of weight gain.  Take it nice and slow.

For cutting fat (and by the way you will also lose water and some muscle) you eat 250 to 500 Kcals below maintenance each day.  Again, when you consistently hit that goal you will know after a couple weeks, whether you are cutting too fast or too slow and you can adjust up or down until you are losing 1 to 2 lbs per week.  The first few weeks you will lose more weight as the glycogen levels in your body are reduced and you lose water weight.  So don't be surprised if you lose 10 lbs in a couple weeks, then your weight loss slows to a snail's pace.  After the initial few weeks if you are losing 1 lb per week you are doing good, and 2 lbs per week would be ideal.  Don't forget if you lose weight faster you will be losing that hard earned muscle and slowing your metabolism accordingly.

I have found that for every lb of bodyweight I lose (after the initial few weeks) I am losing about half a lb of fat and half a lb of lean bodymass.   This was while losing about 2 lbs per week of weight.  If you speed this up you could lose even more muscle, which would be very bad.  So keep your fat loss to an average of 1 to 2 lbs per week and you'll do fine.

Also, over time weight loss gets harder.  There are things you can do to counter this.  

Refeed days help boost your metabolism and make the diet more tolerable over the long haul.  On these, I eat at my maintenance Kcals.  I have a refeed day once per month, and sometimes twice per month.

Re-calculating your maintenance calories is necessary over time.  As you lose weight, you lose bodymass, including fat and muscle.  As a result you end up needing fewer Kcals to maintain your bodyweight.  So as your bodyweight decreases, you need to cut even more kcals to lose weight.   I started out (55 lbs heavier than I am now) cutting in January at 3200 Kcals per day, and lowered that to 2800 a few months later, and again to 2400 a few months after, and again to 2000, and eventually 1900.  My fat loss stopped at that time, so I increased my Kcals and now I am losing weight at 2400 Kcals at the lightest bodyweight I have been at in over 10 years.

Coming off the diet for a period of time to re-boost your metabolism is a good bet if you have dieted down and decreased your Kcals and your weight loss has stopped or slowed to nearly nothing.  In this case I would take a month or so off, then go back on the diet.

Something I have wanted to mention is how do you keep track of all the food you are eating?  I use a food log known as fitday.com.  Some people use other food logs.  The most important step in all of this is logging your food, and keeping your diet consistent from day to day, so you can see how your body is reacting, and make the necessary adjustments.  This means you measure everything you eat and log it into the food log.  I have a food scale that works real good.  When I can't use a food scale, I make my best guess.   Without measuring and logging your food, you won't know whether you are eating the same Kcals (especially if your diet consists of a good variety from day to day) day in and day out.  And without that consistency, it will be much harder to get your diet dialed in over the long haul.  If you do nothing else, I recommend a food log and eating consistent from day to day and making adjustments according to your goals and whether you are going in the right direction.

I could write volumes about this and have written some good articles in the past.  Maybe I can post them up on here and give you a link.

Good luck and keep us posted!


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