Where to Start with Calories...

So everyone on this forum has been beyond helpful. I have one final item that is missing to complete my entire plan to lower my body fat percentage. After looking into carb cycling, g-flux, and the v-diet, I have concluded through research and all your help, that just a simple caloric deficit will do, along side a mix of average to low carb days depending on if I am working out.

My question here is where to start with calories. I eat around 2400 cals a day. That is based on my RMR, but I don’t think the RMR would be a good estimator, at least I don’t trust it. If anyone has either an idea or an explanation on where to base your caloric intake on, that would be awesome. If anyone needs the info,

6’1"
215
14-17% fat

My ultimate goal is to get down to 200. My current cardio is a mix of tennis/biking, steady state cardio, and 3 days of HIIT training. Thanks in advance guys.

Did you factor in your career work and or lifestyle into your RMR?

yeah, that number sounds petty low for someone already over 200 lbs and 6ft tall. Figure out how much you really need,and then apply everything else you mentioned. Sounds like you’re going in the right direction.

S

If RMR is what I think it is how do you work it out?

[quote]The1andOnly wrote:
If RMR is what I think it is how do you work it out?[/quote]

http://www.shapeup.org/interactive/rmr1.php

you’re 20% with 2400 calories at 6’1?

i hope this is a joke

Definitely not joking. I eat about 2400 calories a day but seem to be stuck like chuck at 214-215. I workout 4 days a week and cardio work is mentioned already.

Cut 250 calories from your normal caloric intake and continue at that level until you no longer lose fat.

What does your workout look like. I’d think 2400 calories would be sufficient if your workouts were intense and you were doing some cardio. I’m not trying to accuse you of not working hard enough, it’s just sounds a little off to me. I’m 6ft 33 y/o It takes me about 3500-4000 to maintain 230 lbs with ZERO cardio.

How much protein, fat and carbs does this 2400 comprise of?

Made up of

200-300 grams of protein
130-240 grams of carbs
35-65 grams of fat

I can’t give exacts because it all depends on if I am working out.

I break workouts down to a 4 day split with cardio on days off ad some post workout cardio once a week.
I was also wondering if maybe the fact I am not eating enough is slowing down my metabolism.

My weight just remains the same. I was also thinking it may be because I am putting on muscle so it is balancing out.

more sleep.
more good fish oils.
more water.

when i cut and i hit a plateau i have done these 3 and without changing much of my calories (actually probably taking in a bit more calories with the fish oils) and i have started losing fat again. especially the water and the sleep. when i added an extra 2 hours of sleep a day and bumped the water up to 3 gallons a day fat was melting off.

Yeah I am at 1.5 gallons a day, guess I should bump that one up along with rest, rest has always been a big issue. I struggle to get 8 hours some days. The fish oils, I have 9 grams of a day along with 3-5 grams of CLA

I usually start with, like, a million, then work my way up from there.

[quote]Core627 wrote:
Yeah I am at 1.5 gallons a day, guess I should bump that one up along with rest, rest has always been a big issue. I struggle to get 8 hours some days. The fish oils, I have 9 grams of a day along with 3-5 grams of CLA[/quote]

1.5 gallons is more then enough water. I didn’t even come close to taking that much in last time I dropped 25 lbs in 3 months the last time I cut. Keep the protein closer to 300 and maybe drop the carbs a bit and see what happens.

What everyone else said is all good and well with upping omega 3’s, sleep, water etc. etc.

I also think that a timed carb approach might suit you better in this case. Cycling carbs with the low amount of fat in calories you suggested might by difficult to set up and maintain. I know I like to simplify my diet as much as possible to have less room for error if something comes up in everyday life.

A timed carb diet:

Say Monday you wake up and have say 6 eggs some bacon and spinach and zero carbs.

Second meal you would have some kind of meat and some green veggies again-again only carbs are from green veggies.

Third meal would be a chicken/beef or tuna salad with mayo. no carbs

Fourth meal can by some whey and an apple IF it is your Pre Workout Meal.

Post workout you would have a pwo shake/ meal containing lots of protein AND simple carbs

Dinner will be 1-2 hours later and agian you can have a little carbs with protein and some green veggies.

Before bed you can drink whey and EVOO or some cheese or whatever as long as it is Protein and fat and zero carbs.

On weekends you consume a little less protein and lots of carbs with moderate fat to do a Carb refeed a la Anabolic Diet.

On non workout days you do morning steady state cardio on an empty stomach and zero carbs for the rest of the day.

Now the name of the diet says it all-you time your carb intake to when it is most needed and least likely to become fat-Pre and Post workout (pre workout is optional for many don’t need pre workout carbs-I’m one)

Carbs replenish glycogen levels needed to perform in the gym. They are needed constantly and thus I prefer this diet to a full keto where you go 5 Days without carbs-performance just drops off to much by thursdays.

This diet allows one to still perform in the gym(keep making strength gains) and lose a decent amount of fat.

The upside is also that one can eat more, because of the less carbs. I would start at say 3600Kcals if I look at your BW and work from there-either increasing a bit if strength goes down drastically or lowering if weight stays the same. 250Kcals a day is a good start to make adjustments with for a START and then one can fine tune. Just remember that strength should be maintained at the least or go up a bit or else you are losing
muscle. 3600 is just a STARTING point and can vary drastically from person to person-it is not a rule or something.

Fat loss wil always by an experiment the first time around-one has to learn how your OWN body performs and make tiny adjustment along the way.

Diets with low fat high protein and high carbs in a calorie deficit usually result in good losses in scale weight, but with many people almost half of it will be muscle as well. You get exceptions where people can eat lots of carbs and still rip up and lose very little muscle-like Jay Cutler, but almost no-one is that lucky and they HAVE to go low carb.