T Nation

CUTTING: Am I eating enough?

Supplements and Nutrition
#1

Im 5’7-5’8 prolly around 218 right now. I eat a little over 1900 calories a day. I believe my BMR is 2100 or 2200 and this is from a nutrionist office not an online calculator. On M/W/F I do a circuit training workout, 5 exercises, 4 sets of 8-12 reps.

Then 15 minutes of HITT after, 2 min slow 1 min hard. On T/TH/S I do around 35-45 minutes of cardio keeping my heart rate around 55-75%. I had a big cheat day friday and checked this week and havent really lost anything.

I dont know if I can go by this because I just started the new lifting program last week after only doing cardio for 2-3 weeks. I dont know if I need to eat a little more or cut down on the cardio?

#2

I don’t like eating below your BMR, because you don’t need too. Your BMR is how many calories you burn just being alive everyday. Factor in moving around all day, exercising, and eating… You end up burning alot more than your BMR. Eating less than your BMR will just slow down your metabolism IME. I would eat at your BMR, 2,100-2,200 cals daily and stay active. Focus on progression with your training. For example, look to do 5 sets in a week or two. Then maybe add an additional exercise. I would save the cardio (the off day cardio)until you hit a wall. With all the cardio your doing now (plus the under eating, which puts you at a huge deficit), what will you do when fat loss stalls? Thats just my opinion. Good luck.

#3

I just saw this was posted twice, sorry about that. Im going to bump the calories up to 2200 and cut the off day cardio to sunday and keep the circuit training and HITT this week and see how it goes. Thanks for the help, great advice

#4

Im in a cutting phase as well right now. You should be doing at least 3 days or more of cardio which it looks like you are. You should also be going easy on the carbs. Replace meals that are going to have high carbs with meal that are going to have high protein. This will help you to add more muscle weight. As for cheat days try to avoid them. If anything maybe a cheat meal. Its not good to throw your diet to shit on one day. Also you should be eating every 2-3 hours. This will help to keep your metabolism high. For breakfast get in a bigger meal. Eggs, Yogurt, Fruit. Then eat like fruit or a protein bar before lunch. Then eat chicken breast and a salad for lunch. After lunch have a protein bar or a serving of fruit/nuts. Then have like a steak/Chicken with a serving of rice and a serving of vegtables. Then before bed have a light snack light low fat pudding or low fat jello. This will work to help you cut up just avoid the carbs and avoid the cheat days.

#5

for the cheat day, I was moving between towns and it was a cheat meal but an over the top cheat meal, but usually if I have a cheat meal, its to avoid burnout and I check calories and make sure I dont eat over my mark. I eat carbs when I wake up and after I workout, after that it is pretty much all protein. My macros are around 60 p/30 c/10 f. I do eat every two hours. Im just afraid Im burning to many calories by doing lifting and so much cardio and putting my body in to starvation mode.

#6

for the cheat day, I was moving between towns and it was a cheat meal but an over the top cheat meal, but usually if I have a cheat meal, its to avoid burnout and I check calories and make sure I dont eat over my mark. I eat carbs when I wake up and after I workout, after that it is pretty much all protein. My macros are around 60 p/30 c/10 f. I do eat every two hours. Im just afraid Im burning to many calories by doing lifting and so much cardio and putting my body in to starvation mode.

#7

And I also dont know by the scale if theres some muscle because I just started lifting again for the firt time in a month or two so idk

#8

[quote]monstere316 wrote:
Im 5’7-5’8 prolly around 218 right now. I eat a little over 1900 calories a day. I believe my BMR is 2100 or 2200 and this is from a nutrionist office not an online calculator. On M/W/F I do a circuit training workout, 5 exercises, 4 sets of 8-12 reps.

Then 15 minutes of HITT after, 2 min slow 1 min hard. On T/TH/S I do around 35-45 minutes of cardio keeping my heart rate around 55-75%. I had a big cheat day friday and checked this week and havent really lost anything.

I dont know if I can go by this because I just started the new lifting program last week after only doing cardio for 2-3 weeks. I dont know if I need to eat a little more or cut down on the cardio?[/quote]

Saw that you’re trying to condense to one thread.

You should really think about changing your workout routine to a full body routine, the metabolic effect is significant and it will be much better as a beginner for priming your body for strength gains down the road.

If you can, I would also change one of those low intensity cardio days to a 1-2 hour strenuous uphill hike or something of that nature, awesome stuff.

And seriously, put the scale on a back burner. Your weight is going to fluctuate a lot in the early stages of serious body recomposition. Judge your progress by how your clothes fit, how you look in the mirror, the comments you’ll start to hear from people who know you etc., use the scale as an infrequent bench mark if anything.