Stupid diet/calorie/exercise question....

[Burning_Inside]

OK I have a question..Need something clarified..

OK, lets say my maintenace caloric daily intake is 2000 cals. Now If i do a cardio workout that will equal out to 500 cals burned, that means im going to be losing weight, which is the desired effect i'm going for here...

Now , if i replenish those lost calories, will I still be burning fat?

I've read a few threads on all of these boards recently, and my brains clouded with these responses, cause really no one on here is 100% sure of anything it seems, and it's confusing me. Anyway, some say that you have to make sure you replenish those calories. But that wouldn't make sense to me. Explain anyone? Clarify?

 

[Rudee34]

I could get into a long winded explanation backing up my answer, but I'll just say "yes" and leave it at that.

I've been asked that question many times. I don't consider it a "stupid" question at all.

 

[MS]

Ummm I'm not sure I understand the question. Of course you will still be burning fat. Whether or not you LOSE fat depends entirely on whether or not you create an overall calorie deficit OR convert the fat to muscle (aka weight training).

 

[Burning_Inside]

OK, so then if my maintenance cals is 2k a day, and im burning at least 500 cals a day on cardio, how many calories should i be eating daily for maximum fatloss? 2k? 2500?

 

[MS]

OK I understand the question now. If you eat 2000 cals per day then you should lose about a pound a week. Does that answer your ???

 

[Burning_Inside]

ok now ms, can you explain your formula for that? I like to know the why's and how's.

 

[Rudee34]

Burning_Inside

Don't forget to take into account the residual effect of strength training/cardio. i.e. you calculated that you burned 500 calories while peforming the exercise, but did you factor in that:

a. Metabolism is elevated for a brief period of time -post workout; thus additional calories are burned.

b. Increases in lean muscle mass through strength training increase metabolism.

If you don't account for this additional post workout expenditure/increase in lean muscle mass, then the equation of calories in minus calories out doesn't compute. Don't forget that eating itself increases metabolism, thus you will be expending calories to ingest calories.

 

[MS]

Well I'm assuming that the 2500 cals maintenance includes the fact that you're already weight training and eating lots of small meals each day, and the only thing you're changing is the addition of 500 cals worth of cardio. The post cardio expenditure of calories is negligible for men (unless you're doing maximal interval sprints) so that means that you will be creating a daily calorie deficit of 500 cals (plus or minus a few calories). There are ~3500 cals in a pound of fat, so it will take 7 days to burn off 3500 cals at a 500 per day deficit.

 

[Burning_Inside]

ok, now MS, if maintenance is 2000 cals a day, and im burning 500 cals a day with cardio, then should i actually eat 2500 cals to make up for that defacit like some say or is that defeating the purpose?

 

[MS]

No, do not eat the extra calories. I'm also assuming when you say maintenence that you mean Active maintenence (before cardio) NOT resting maintenance. So eat 2000 calories and burn an extra 500 cals on cardio to lose a pound per week. Of course this only works in theory. If you're using one of those cardio machines to calculate your calories burned, the number it gives you may not reflect the actual calories that YOU burned. And of course no one burns exactly the same number of calories every day. So we are talking in theory here.