According to Fitday and www.ultimatedietsecrets.com, a man my size (70", 203lbs, light work, regular exercise 4-5 times a week of 45-60) should burn about 3300 calories a day. When I stick to my low carb diet WOE I struggle to get 2500 per day. Usually I hit 1700-2000. As I do resistance training and cardio, I'm wondering if I am at risk of catabolising to much muscle tissue by undereating 1,000 calories or more per day.

My goal is to drop body fat while saving as much muscle as possible. My next measurement day is coming soon so maybe I will see something happening one way or the other in that regard, but if any of you have experience with this problem, please advise and offer your opinions.

Thanks all
AL

p.s. I've taken to adding whole fat milk and string cheese as snacks throughout the day to get to 2300-2500. Any comments welcome here also. My carbs usually come in under 80 gms, consisting of around 10-14% of total calories consumed.

can you post your typical day of eating broken into meals? what are the ratios of f/p/c in %? how much fibre in g?

what do your workouts look like?

i dont think its the calories you have to worry about- its more the protien and fat that should be a concern. make sure you're consuming enough of these so that your body is burning the protien and fat versus your lean muscle mass.

cals ALWAYS matter.

Thanks for your replies. Here goes:

typical day is 50-56% fat/10-14% carbs/20-30% protein. Calorie breakdown is as on prior post, about 2000-2500.

Breakfast: usually 3-4 string cheese, 1/2 an apple, mug of coffee with heavy cream. Couple days a week 2 eggs / 6-8 pieces of bacon. Sometimes 12 oz. tea w/ 1 pack sweet n low

Lunch: always around 6-8 oz of meat (fajita, chicken, sausage, etc) with 1/2 cup beans OR couple slices tomato, an ounce or two of some kind of cheese. 12 oz tea w/ 1 pack sweet n low

After workout EAS Carb Sense, about 150 kcal, 2 grams CHO, 25 grams PRO.

Snack: couple more string cheese / or q pc 100% whole wheat bread 1 tbs peanut butter / and 1 pint whole milk. Will also do 1 cup whole milk after dinner as a snack before bed.

Dinner: another 6-8 oz meat, more tea, maybe another 1/2 cup beans or 1/2 cup broccoli, etc.

My old workouts were weights (45 minutes, 2-3 bodyparts per day, supersets, no breaks between other than to change weights) and cardio the next day for 45 minutes, usually with a 20# weight vest, walk / sprints.

Past week and a half doing 45 minutes hard core calisthenics, sometimes adding an additional 30 min of jump rope / cals morning or night. Take one day off every 4-5 days.


PS somethings that we don't normally count as carbs, such as sweet n low or tea, come out with them in Fitday so thats from where I get my figures. And I always try to over estimate a bit the food I eat and underestimate my workout calories to offset our normal tendency to do just the opposite!

Sorry this post is so long!

By the way, I've lost almost 2 lbs in the past week or so but my bodyfat went up by 1%. I'm not sure how to interpret this other than that I lost some lean mass. Your thoughts?

AL2015,
I am also struggling to get to the 2300 calories I need a day. I am 6'1" 186 24 . I would like to hit my 2300calories but since I have been doing the fitday record of my daily intake have found to get only 1000 avg a day. I am stalled currently ~ 186, and have been for the last 2 weeks. I was givin the advice to use some flakseed oil in salad to up my calories, and also maybee some ready made shakes from gnc. Hopefully there is an easier way.

I've heard that BF measurements can fluctuate during the day, just like weight - did you have it done at the same time, and was it calipers or electric?

I measure my body fat % and weight every morning, soon as I get up, on a Tanita scale. So the BF is electrically measured.

It gets even weirder. Today's weight was the same (201.8) but the body fat dropped by 3 points. If it keeps fluctuating that badly I will have to assume that the scale is already messed up.

Weird.... My BF scales (not Tanita, just cheap ones) stopped working ages ago.... they just give an error message when I try to do BF but they do weight ok. I tried changing the batteries and stuff but looks like they're just broken.

I now just plan on doing BF at the electric one at the gym, but it does height and weight as well and seemed to tell me I was taller than I am or something.... oh well!

tanitas are useless for anything but tracking changes really. i would go by caliper readings mostly but the readings can vary depending on subcutaneous water, who is doing the readings (make sure it's the same person every time and someone who knows how to use them).

the diet stuff i'll have to comment on later... i haven't forgotten

Your post workout shake should be DOUBLE what it is now ...

That's at first glance.

Adding in flax oil will boost cals and help your fat loss efforts ... Maybe add in some CLA too ... Increase your protein portions slowly until your cals are in line.

Tanita's are unreliable. Calipers/scale/tape measure will tell you if you are going the right way.

Thanks for the tips everyone.

Yes, I'm aware that the scales aren't 100% accurate for BF measurement, I was using it merely to track progress, e.g. am I losing BF or not. So far it had corresponded easily with what I saw on the scale, as % of lbs and everything. We'll see what the readings do over the next few days.

I take flaxseed oil tabs but not the oil itself. I bumped up the cals a little with the dairy products, but I will look around for ways to add the oil in.

Thanks again everyone.

p.s. Im the only one around here who can use calipers for bodyfat and haven't figured out how to do it on my self yet.

The cheapy accumeasure digitals use 3 sites ... pectoral, thigh, and abdominal. Easy enough to do yourself.

Trainerdan,
Thanks for the suggestion to up my protein intake after my workout. I added an extra shake yesterday and I believe it made a difference in the way I felt and the way I recovered. Felt much better 2 hours later than I am accustomed to.

Re: the accumeasure, do you feel it is more accurate than Tanita or other BF scales, since it still uses electronic bioimpedence?

Thanks again.
AL