How many calories do you guys eat on average a day while cutting?

[RBtrucking4]

I am a 6'4 male weigh about 215 lbs, up until yesterday i just would guess as to how many calories I ate a day but yesterday I actually took the time to add it all up, and it was a bit more than I had hoped for.

It turned out to be 2,650 calories a day but I do exercise a lot more than most people. I run 9 miles a day, and weight lift 5 days a week spending at least an hour and a half at the gym. I have read that when running someone of my size would burn roughly 135 calories per mile, that is about 1,215 calories for my 9 mile run that I do 6 days a week, sometimes 7 if I have the time.

My question is do you guys think this amount of calories can work? Truthfully I really don't want to drop the calories at all considering I am already usually starving all day! It is all clean calories from lean meats, vegetables and some fruit. The trouble is I can't tell if I am losing weight anymore, it's hard to tell when looking in the mirror when you see yourself every day. All I know is that I went from about 320 lbs to being able to see my top and middle abs, (just working on that last lower part.

I have been told to avoid scales because truthfully they drive me crazy because when you are burning fat and trying to gain muscle sometimes the scale wont change for a while, and it makes you think your wasting time. What do you guys think? I am definitely at the final stages where there isn't a whole lot left to lose at all I just want to make sure I am still on the right track.

One final question I have is what do you guys think of cheat meals? Lately I have been doing every week but for the first week it will be something small like a bowl of ice cream after dinner but then the second week will be one meal consisting of whatever I want which is usually a pizza and a good amount of ice cream just one meal until I am full, and then that's it. I alternate between the big and the small cheat meal every other week.

So thank you all for reading, and please let me know what you think.

 

[rustilldown]

You are under eating big time. I should rephrase .. Firstly awesome work on dropping the weight! But someone at your height and weight with that much activity probably needs more fuel now, especially if trying to build muscle. Eating low calories for a long period of time will slow your metabolism, how do you generally feel after a big cheat? More energetic? Lift heavier the next day or run faster?

 

[RBtrucking4]

You are under eating big time. I should rephrase .. Firstly awesome work on dropping the weight! But someone at your height and weight with that much activity probably needs more fuel now, especially if trying to build muscle. Eating low calories for a long period of time will slow your metabolism, how do you generally feel after a big cheat? More energetic? Lift heavier the next day or run faster?

Actually YES I do feel a lot better after my cheat meal's I run faster and lift a lot heavier like you stated! This is the whole reason I started having cheat meals every week is because I started just feeling really tired, and low energy after a while.

I always thought though that as long as you feel hungry all the time that means your metabolism is working really fast. If I am wrong please let me know, as I am no expert by any means.

Also how many calories do you think I should be eating a day? Gaining muscle is a priority, but I would say to reach my weight loss goal of being completely ripped and losing that last lower stomach fat would be number 1 priority. Also thanks for the congrats, it means a lot!

 

[RickRock13]

There are many online calculators and methods to determine a ballpark figure for your maintenance calories (calories needed to maintain current weight), but I just simply use bodyweight in lbs x 15. That should give you a ballpark figure of maintenance. I usually go 500-750 calories below maintenance daily for cutting and about the same over for bulking.

Hunger is not a good indicator of metabolism at all either. After being in a caloric deficit over a long length of time your metabolism will start slowing. This process happens much faster with the more activity and bigger your deficit is. That's why incorporating things like cheat meals or higher carb refeeds once per twice per week can be beneficial to keep your metabolism from slowing too much while cutting. It is important not to let cheat meals turn into binging cheat days either. Just bring your calories up to about maintenance on those days and figure in your cheat meals.

 

[quadsbrah]

180 lbs 2700 cals... And light cardio daily

Sent from my SGH-I896 using EliteFitness

 

[RBtrucking4]

There are many online calculators and methods to determine a ballpark figure for your maintenance calories (calories needed to maintain current weight), but I just simply use bodyweight in lbs x 15. That should give you a ballpark figure of maintenance. I usually go 500-750 calories below maintenance daily for cutting and about the same over for bulking.

Hunger is not a good indicator of metabolism at all either. After being in a caloric deficit over a long length of time your metabolism will start slowing. This process happens much faster with the more activity and bigger your deficit is. That's why incorporating things like cheat meals or higher carb refeeds once per twice per week can be beneficial to keep your metabolism from slowing too much while cutting. It is important not to let cheat meals turn into binging cheat days either. Just bring your calories up to about maintenance on those days and figure in your cheat meals.

Thank you very much for your input! Here is a question I have always wondered about. Alright so right now I am eating exactly 2679 calories a day and during my run in my calculation I burn 1,215 calories thats not even counting what I burn at the gym. So with just what I burn from running would that mean that I am getting 1,464 calories a day? Are you supposed to minus what you burn on your workout from what you eat? If that's the case I should be eating WAY more!

 

[rustilldown]

Thank you very much for your input! Here is a question I have always wondered about. Alright so right now I am eating exactly 2679 calories a day and during my run in my calculation I burn 1,215 calories thats not even counting what I burn at the gym. So with just what I burn from running would that mean that I am getting 1,464 calories a day? Are you supposed to minus what you burn on your workout from what you eat? If that's the case I should be eating WAY more!

Yes your maintenance based upon reaching your calorie goes including what you burn. So if your maintenance is 3000, and you burn 1400 doing cardio, then you need to be eating 4400 calories. And since you want to cut, subtract 500 from that so 3900 would be your cutting calories. This is just an example, you need to find your own maintenance

 

[RBtrucking4]

Yes your maintenance based upon reaching your calorie goes including what you burn. So if your maintenance is 3000, and you burn 1400 doing cardio, then you need to be eating 4400 calories. And since you want to cut, subtract 500 from that so 3900 would be your cutting calories. This is just an example, you need to find your own maintenance

Alright now you said the way I thought feeling hungry all the time was a way of knowing my metabolism was fast is wrong. What is a good way to determine if your metabolism is fast, is this something I should worry about or just focus on getting my macro's in check and the metabolism will fall into place?

 

[RBtrucking4]

I found a website that tells the maintanance level of calories per day

Calorie Counter - Free Online Diet Journal

This is it I don't know if any of you are familiar with it but if so could you let me know how accurate it is? Well it states that for maintanance my calories should be nearly 4000 a day according to how much I work out and my age and height and weight. So with that said to lose about a pound a week I would want to stay at around 3500 calories.

Just to be clear though the fact that right now I am eating way less than what I should be could be hindering my weight loss, is that correct? Also what other effects could this be having on me? I have noticed lately since I have started my 9 miles a day and the diet I am on now I am very irritable and just don't really feel like myself, kind of have trouble concentrating as well as I am a college student.

Again thank you very much for the input, it is much appreciated!

 

[rustilldown]

I found a website that tells the maintanance level of calories per day

Calorie Counter - Free Online Diet Journal

This is it I don't know if any of you are familiar with it but if so could you let me know how accurate it is? Well it states that for maintanance my calories should be nearly 4000 a day according to how much I work out and my age and height and weight. So with that said to lose about a pound a week I would want to stay at around 3500 calories.

Just to be clear though the fact that right now I am eating way less than what I should be could be hindering my weight loss, is that correct? Also what other effects could this be having on me? I have noticed lately since I have started my 9 miles a day and the diet I am on now I am very irritable and just don't really feel like myself, kind of have trouble concentrating as well as I am a college student.

Again thank you very much for the input, it is much appreciated!

Ok so if your maintainance is 4000 if you included your daily activities then yes you should be eating 3500 give or take. Don't worry about whether your metabolism is slow or not if you have no medical conditions it should just cal into place. Now when you bump yourself up to 3500 you may retain some water because your body isn't used to the excess calories. Don't let that scare you, if it does just blast some HIIT training to shed the water, but with you running that much I'm sure you will be fine. Side effects of under eating are mood swings, irritability, stalled metabolism, LOW TESTOSTERONE, and lethargy.

 

[RickRock13]

Yes, you have been significantly under eating for a pretty good amount of time and having a long 9 mile run on top of that without more fat loss is a pretty good indicator that your metabolism has slowed a lot. Bumping those calories up will bring your metabolism back up and over time and the fat loss should start back up again

 

[RBtrucking4]

Ok so if your maintainance is 4000 if you included your daily activities then yes you should be eating 3500 give or take. Don't worry about whether your metabolism is slow or not if you have no medical conditions it should just cal into place. Now when you bump yourself up to 3500 you may retain some water because your body isn't used to the excess calories. Don't let that scare you, if it does just blast some HIIT training to shed the water, but with you running that much I'm sure you will be fine. Side effects of under eating are mood swings, irritability, stalled metabolism, LOW TESTOSTERONE, and lethargy.

Alright thank you guys very much I am gonna make the changes immediately!

 

[RBtrucking4]

What are your thoughts on fasted cardio? I always do my cardio first thing in the morning before I eat anything as I have heard that is the best for maximum fat burn. What are your thoughts?

 

[quadsbrah]

Just a calorie estimate i use is this
Bulk - weight x 20

maintenace - weight x 15
....add in cardio ed and it.can be a slow cut

Serious cutting - weight x 10

just an estimate...

Sent from my SGH-I896 using EliteFitness

 

[rustilldown]

What are your thoughts on fasted cardio? I always do my cardio first thing in the morning before I eat anything as I have heard that is the best for maximum fat burn. What are your thoughts?

Save your fasted cardio ,
Sleep in longer, skip breakfast and fast until noon. More rest, still create the calorie difference by skipping breakfast and you increase your insulin sensitivity by fasting . ( I stole this from leangains.com ) but it's how I diet and stay lean all year round. And when carb cycling I save 75% of my carbs for post workout 6 pm. I'll fast from 930 pm - 130 pm the next day, eat a medium sized meal at 130, then 10 grams of bcaa pre workout (5pm) and another 10 during my workout then post workout meal at 630 pm, and another snack with more carbs around 9-930 pm

 

[RBtrucking4]

Save your fasted cardio ,
Sleep in longer, skip breakfast and fast until noon. More rest, still create the calorie difference by skipping breakfast and you increase your insulin sensitivity by fasting . ( I stole this from leangains.com ) but it's how I diet and stay lean all year round. And when carb cycling I save 75% of my carbs for post workout 6 pm. I'll fast from 930 pm - 130 pm the next day, eat a medium sized meal at 130, then 10 grams of bcaa pre workout (5pm) and another 10 during my workout then post workout meal at 630 pm, and another snack with more carbs around 9-930 pm

What do you think of protein shakes, are they necessary? I usually have one after my run, and after my weightlifting. I have done a lot of research on this and have heard a lot of mixed reviews but the more constant consensus seems to be that they are more important after weight training than cardio. What are your thoughts?