What are you eating during the week?

[basicsacademy]

I have been hitting the gym hard for 4-5 months but still struggling to look better.
I know diet has a lot to do with it, so I’m trying to see what everyone is eating while at work. I currently eat about 1400-1700 calories a day. I am a 38m, 5’9 and about 167lbs

I do snack on sweets a tiny bit (a small size candy bar or a donut here and there) but do not drink soda or alcohol.

Edited calories but still sounds like I am under my needed calories. I’ve been trying to lose stomach fat as that’s the one area that I seem to still have trouble with. I just want abs hahaha

 

[lnjblessings]

@basicsacademy

I eat about 1000-1200 calories a day.

That would put almost every man at your weight in a serious deficit. Are you loosing significant weight every week? If not, your grossly underestimating your caloric intake.

 

[chris_mil]

@lnjblessings It would put almost every woman at a deficit too. 1200 is thought to be the bare minimum.

 

[jc4us]

@lnjblessings Yeah, I'm near that same height and weight. I could lose 2lb a week eating 1200cal!

 

[totalfloor]

@jc4us I did about 1200-1400 kcal for a month in October last year. Lost 4kg (~9lbs). And that's with a weekly cheat day including beer, pizza, crisps, McD on the way home and all the "do not touch" stuff you can think of.

Working out 4-5 times a week, 1200kcal will put me in a daily deficit of ~1500kcal -> 2lb down every 5 days.

Hmm... After mathing that out (a cheat day nullifying a single days 1500 deficit) that would put my cheat days north of 5000 kcal. That's a good solid cheat day

 

[dawn16]

@basicsacademy At 167 lbs, there is very little chance you have been both “hitting the gym hard” and eating ~1200 calories per day for such a long period of time.

If you’re really eating that little, you are drastically underfueling your workouts and as a result you probably aren’t seeing much progress.

On the other hand, if you’re truly working out hard and able to progressively overload, I’m guessing you’re drastically underestimating your caloric intake. If you’re not down to weigh-and-track granularity with your diet monitoring, this is the more likely scenario.

I’m 36f, 5’8”, 128lbs and I’m eating in excess of 2000 calories/100g protein per day just to keep up with my training.

 

[basicsacademy]

@dawn16 Also I learned from this post that my 60-70 of protein is far too low

 

[sunnyday67]

@dawn16 Do you mind sharing your routine?

 

[dawn16]

@sunnyday67 Hi, I don’t want to derail OP’s thread, but if you check my profile, I wrote about my routine in my most recent progress post for this sub.

 

[suzy999]

@dawn16 Hey I checked out your profile. My wife is 36 5'7.

When we started dating she was 130. She has been trying to get back into fitness but it's hard with a kid (and what it does to your body). She also has a tendency to just not eat, which eventually causes binging and gets discouraging. I'm definitely going to show her the post talking about your diet and how you can get super fit without starving yourself.

You look great! Keep up the good work!!

 

[dawn16]

@suzy999 Thanks! Honestly, I don't think it's possible to get "super fit" and starve yourself. You can get super thin that way, but not fit.

Relying on a large calorie deficit alone keeps the body on a hamster wheel of restriction. It actually makes your body's metabolism less efficient over time, meaning the dieter is resigned to constantly under-eating in order to keep their goal weight. They are then inevitably faced with the choice of enjoying food again but gaining back the weight; or continuing to miserably starve themselves. Both options are bad.

But by fueling properly and working on building muscle, we can turn our bodies into more efficient machines that are capable of burning more calories, just by existing -- even at a resting state. That allows us to be much more flexible with our caloric intake and not panic just because we enjoyed a couple slices of pizza at a party or some ice cream at a BBQ.

It's so much more sustainable, but not only that; it's healthier. I wish your wife the best.

 

[basicsacademy]

@dawn16 When I say I’ve been hitting the gym hard, I go to the gym 3x a week for an hour. I run 3miles each gym day before lifting and then do 4 sets of 10 reps for about 5 different exercises and then 50-75 sit ups each day as well.

That’s my version of hitting the gym hard. Maybe it’s not as hard as I thought?

I’ve also been trying to stay in a deficit so that would lose weight but my weight stays pretty much exactly the same

After googling my typical meals I am actually closer to 1400-1700 depending on if I have a candy bar or not

Hope that helps clear things up

 

[mrsmac0324]

@basicsacademy It looks you are just guesstimating your protein intake and calories if you’re listing 1000-1200 and then 1400-1700.

TDEE calculator has you around 2000 cals/day for maintenance.

Your weight loss/gain over your last 4/5 months will tell you if you’ve been eating in excess/with a deficit to those 2000 cals/day

You may also be just winging your gym routine. What program are you on? After 4-5 months, you should have seen noticeable performance gains.

To be fit, you have to put in the work - and “hitting the gym hard” is more than just sets/reps. You say that you don’t want to be huge - that’s not something you just stumble into.

You can’t target stomach fat - you need to lose overall body fat. It tends to be the last area to go.

 

[jaxxyy]

@dawn16 How much protein are you eating?

 

[johntn]

@basicsacademy I'm 60M 150lbs, easily eat double those calories, and am always hungry. I couldn't function on 1000

 

[petermg49]

@basicsacademy I’m wondering if you’re eating enough. I lift weights 4x/week (upper/lower split) and get 10k steps in per day, more if possible. I’m 145 lbs, I maintain weight at 1700-1900 cals/day, try to get 100g of protein per day. I do not think I would have the energy to train eating only 1000-1200/cals per day. Do you feel good and energetic at that amount of food?

Rule of thumb I read to lose weight at a moderate pace and still be able to train effectively is to eat 12 cal per pound at your ideal body weight.

So if you wanted to weigh 160 lbs, the math would be 12 x 160 = 1920 cals/day. Then make that a range so you have a little flex: 1850-1950/day.

I realize this response doesn’t actually answer your question of “what do you eat”. Sorry for the run around, I’ll come back and answer later with the info you asked for.

 

[sunnyday67]

@petermg49 Given how muscles weigh more, how does one decide what would their ideal weight be?

 

[petermg49]

@sunnyday67 I think it is personal to you. If I was overweight and was like, ok I have fat that I want to lose and I wanted to lose 10 pounds to see if I was happy with that version of myself, then I would weigh myself, subtract 10 pounds, then multiply that by 12 (that’s the formula I mentioned above) and I would try eating that many calories for 2 weeks to see if I lost any weight. If I lose weight, then I just keep going as long as I want or until I’m 10 lbs lighter. If I don’t lose weight or I stop losing weight, I either lower the calorie total by 100 calories or increase my movement to create more of a deficit.

I don’t think there is an ideal weight for a person. It’s more of how you want to look. But to determine a calorie deficit for a weight loss situation, you have to plug in some numbers. So taking your best guess at a goal weight helps you do that math so you can start. In my experience, once people start weight lifting they realize they will weigh more than they originally expected when they have their “ideal” body.

Also, you don’t have to calculate the deficit based on your end weight. If you think you want to lose 100 lbs, you can calculate your deficit based the weight you will be after losing 50 lbs. and then when you get to that milestone, you recalculate your deficit based on your new goal weight. This keeps it all reasonable and sustainable instead of too extreme.

 

[elakhim]

@petermg49 I haven't heard that 12 cal per lb rough calculation before. Interesting, thanks. Does it work for men and women? Does it work for bulking and cutting?

 

[dreamharp]

@elakhim I use a similar formula.

• 8-12 calories per lb of current bodyweight for a deficit
• 12-16 calories for maintenance
• 16 - 18 calories for a lean bulk.

For a deficit, I start at the higher number and adjust down based on two weeks of consistency. It works well for me. I also target 0.8+ grams of protein within that calorie target. This has helped me go from 240 to 160ish.