Calories In vs Out

It is very difficult to determine with accuracy how many calories you consume and how many calories you burn. Personally, I don't bother to even try. I eat a variety of foods to make sure I'm getting enough vitamins, minerals, proteins, carbohydrates and fats. I keep a rough eye on my weight just to make sure I keep myself light enough to keep speed up on the bike and run. I keep a rough eye on my body fat by measuring my skin thickness at my stomach just to ensure my weight comes from muscle and not from fat.

If I burn up more calories than I take in, it doesn't affect my efficiency because I have energy stores and I know I have enough nutrients to supply all my body functions.

Good luck.

Hi There...

Congrats on your efforts, I wish you the best... a few thoughts I would share



This is indeed tough to get exactly right as calories estimate for both food and exercise vary -- but the good news is you don't actually need it to be exactly right, you just need keep track of what you are eating and exercising using some sort of application (e.g. myfitnesspal which is free) and then measure your weight on a weekly basis (same time of day, etc.) and adjust as you go... you can then vary your diet and workouts to hit your goals...I would look at this on a week by week basis since there are day to day fluctuation that are tough to account for


I've heard celery takes more energy to digest than contains, but sadly I'm not sure there are any foods that do so -- my experience with weight loss stuff was that if there was anything that truly worked (beyond diet and exercise) we would all know about



Ahh.. now this is key, since you are working out and dieting you could (in theory) be converting trading 2lbs of fat for 2lbs of muscle, so while you would weigh the same you would notice the difference in terms of body measurements (waist size, neck size, etc.) -- the best way to know this is to get one of the scales that will display both weight and body fat -- there are some instruction on how to use them (time of day, hydration level, etc) that you'll need to follow but they are pretty accurate

I hope I can shed some light on the subject!

As far as quantity of calories goes, I really don't think that there is much benefit in counting calories, but here's the formula if you must know:

Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) x Physical Activity Level (PAL) = Daily Caloric Needs (DCN)

Your BMR is calculated by multiplying your body weight in kg x 22 (for women, 24 for men) (alternatively, multiply your body weight in pounds x 9.97).

Your PAL is calculated by determining your level of fitness as a multiplier (since you work out 6 days a week I would put you in the 1.5-1.6 range as being very active).

For example:

A 55 kg woman who is very active would have a DCN of 1815 (55x22x1.5)

Now, there is a bunch of things that go in to determining weight loss alongside your very active lifestyle, that I don't think it's worthwhile to necessarily count calories versus determine the quality of fuel you're taking in - to help aide in your training, to aide in recovery, to keep your muscle and to lose extra body fat.

If it were simply a caloric number you wanted (let's use 1800 as an example) you could eat 3 big macs and one small fries and hit that number (1830 as per mcd Canadian site), but does that sound right to you? I hope that it doesn't!

On the other hand, do you care how many calories you get from broccoli? I don't think I'll ever hear the words "stop eating those vegetables" ever.

Why?

The quality of the food you're consuming plays a much more important role (IMO) in the quality of your life - in those aspects that I mentioned: training, recovery, etc.

With so many different diet plans available these days (I use the word diet in the sense that whatever you put in your mouth on a daily basis is your diet, not a short term food plan you intend to stop at some point) like vegan, paleo, slow carb, etc I don't want to get into too much detail about what you should be eating, but any healthy food choice begins with a conscious decision.

To answer your very last point about weight loss, your muscles are made up of protein. If you restrict your protein intake and get too far into a caloric deficit your body will start to convert your muscles into energy so you can survive.

If you want to send me a PM Id be more than happy to help further!