Jump to content

Shred It! follower: Need help determining daily calorie total


Recommended Posts

I just purchased Shred It! and am still confused about how many calories to be eating. Here's my story:

 

I am 39 years old, female, 5'6" tall. I had an electronic body composition test done at a gym recently and discovered that I am 225 lb. scale weight , 130 lb. lean body weight. I need to lose about 65 lbs. fat. I used an online calculator to determine my BMR, and that's 1792. Harris Benedict calculator says 2150 calories required based on current activity level.

 

I have tried every single diet in the book, including very low calorie ones (800-1000 cals/day -- FAIL!), so my instinct is to always cut calories drastically. This obviously has led to me to a very bad place though. Maybe I'm just missing it in the book, but I can't find where it says how many calories to cut. I'm ready to dive into Robert Cheeke's program but want to know how many calories I should eat for fat loss. Can anyone help?

 

Thank you!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey JD!

 

Welcome to vegan bodybuilding!

 

I have not read Robert Cheeke's new book, but I have read his detailed post from 2015:

http://www.veganbodybuilding.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=37270

 

You're off to a good start! Knowing your calorie requirements is important... but not as important as you might think. That's because it's very difficult to accurately measure how much energy you burn off. No matter how hard you try, you will either over-estimate or under-estimate. So use your calorie estimate as a starting point, and then adjust your estimate based on your results.

 

Start by rounding off the numbers so they are easier to remember: BMR = 1800; Required calories = 2100.

 

My recommendation is that you not go below 1800 calories. A balanced diet (like the one Robert recommends) with 1800 calories will provide all the vitamins and minerals you need to be healthy. Going below this will (possibly) throw your system out of whack and make improvement difficult.

 

If you need 2100 calories each day and you are only eating 1800, then you will lose around 1/2 pound per week. Weigh yourself after a couple of weeks. If you have not lost as much as you expected to, start to increase the amount of exercise you're doing. Start by walking 15 minutes per day. Then 20 minutes. Then 30. When you see your weight start to drop, you'll have a much better idea of how many calories and how much exercise you need to balance each other.

 

Use exercise to create a calorie deficit, rather than cutting nutrients!

 

But keep in mind, the body that you have right now is the result of your lifestyle. If you want a different body, you must change your lifestyle. If you think of 'diet' as a temporary change to lose a dozen pounds before summer, so you can then go back to your old habits... then you'll be right back here next winter, with the same old lifestyle and the same old body!

 

If you want to be healthy, then you need to think long-range! The habits you build right now will pay you back when you're in your 50s! Trust me.

 

Best of luck! And keep us posted on your progress!

 

Cheers,

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...