For all you guys wanting to gain muscle, size, etc.

[dieselboy]

Re: For all you guys wanting to gain muscle, size, etc.

edit: Also how has the Guerilla Cardio Workout been going for most people here?

I gave up on the Guerilla after I joined my gym.

Well, an update from before.

I am now at 180 lbs. So, up five pounds from my first day, and up 15-20 pounds from the weight I lost after the first few weeks.

[Lintyfresh85]

Re: For all you guys wanting to gain muscle, size, etc.

so I've been trying to figure this out for a while now... hope you guys could help.

I'm overweight... I get it, but I've been exercising for three weeks now with good results on the treadmill. I think I'm burning too many calories though.

What I want to know is what is the right amount I should be eating? I keep looking it up, and the number seems awfully high for me to eat each day. I realize partially the reason I am probably overweight is that I don't eat enough to begin with and thus my body stores most of my food as fat.

So, since on an average day I exercise off 1,000 calories a day and I'm weighing in at about 220, with an overall goal of 175 I was wondering what the numbers of calories is I can eat. I always hear if you eat 500 less then you should after a week you lose a pound... but that doesn't help if you can't get an accurate level of what normal should be... especially for someone like myself who seems to have no metabolism such as myself. On average I eat about 1500 calories a day, which I hear is the minimum anyone should eat.

BTW my average routine is 4.0 miles a day on the treadmill with a incline of around 9 or 10 that burns at my current weight about 1050 calories. I also do 5 sets of 10 reps with 15 pound dumbbells on things like bicep curls and other upper body exercises. I only do push ups for the chest region... but I only do them every other day treating it like a weight lifting exercise.

I don't want any advice on how to change my routine, I just need to know if I need to eat more.

[stewaat]

Re: For all you guys wanting to gain muscle, size, etc.

You need to eat smaller meals spread out through the day. That's my best piece of advice. Remember you burn calories doing nothing as well. You should just listen to your body. If you're hungry, eat.

[Lintyfresh85]

Re: For all you guys wanting to gain muscle, size, etc.

it's not that. I'm not a hungry person, but I refuse to believe I need to eat 2500-2800 calories a day just to maintain!

[stewaat]

Re: For all you guys wanting to gain muscle, size, etc.

The thing about eating consistently throughout the day is that it does in fact speed up your metabolism. Despite eating more calories you will burn more and in the long run you will lose more weight.

[pfunk880]

Re: For all you guys wanting to gain muscle, size, etc.

so I've been trying to figure this out for a while now... hope you guys could help.

I'm overweight... I get it, but I've been exercising for three weeks now with good results on the treadmill. I think I'm burning too many calories though.

What I want to know is what is the right amount I should be eating? I keep looking it up, and the number seems awfully high for me to eat each day. I realize partially the reason I am probably overweight is that I don't eat enough to begin with and thus my body stores most of my food as fat.

So, since on an average day I exercise off 1,000 calories a day and I'm weighing in at about 220, with an overall goal of 175 I was wondering what the numbers of calories is I can eat. I always hear if you eat 500 less then you should after a week you lose a pound... but that doesn't help if you can't get an accurate level of what normal should be... especially for someone like myself who seems to have no metabolism such as myself. On average I eat about 1500 calories a day, which I hear is the minimum anyone should eat.

BTW my average routine is 4.0 miles a day on the treadmill with a incline of around 9 or 10 that burns at my current weight about 1050 calories. I also do 5 sets of 10 reps with 15 pound dumbbells on things like bicep curls and other upper body exercises. I only do push ups for the chest region... but I only do them every other day treating it like a weight lifting exercise.

I don't want any advice on how to change my routine, I just need to know if I need to eat more.

You definitely need to eat more.

The general rule I use for losing fat is 500 less per day than 15 times your bodyweight:
So for you it would be 220*15-500-2800.
Try that for a week or two and see what kind of results you get. And break that 2800 into 5-6 small meals as others have mentioned. If it's not working for you, adjust 100-200 in either direction. 500 is not a hard and fast rule, but it should work out to 1-2 pounds of fat lost per week (healthy range) for most people.

EDIT: By the way, just to qualify myself, I've been doing this since late July and have dropped from 175 to 165 so I do have some idea of what I'm talking about.

Also, I just noticed that you are definitely expending more effort on the treadmill than me, so you may even want to bump the calories up a bit if you find that 2800 isn't getting you results.

Any questions, feel free to ask.

[Lintyfresh85]

Re: For all you guys wanting to gain muscle, size, etc.

thanks for the info. Tomorrow I'm going to start trying to eat a lot more calories but also get my protein levels up close to 1:1. Cardio is a biotch, but I think in the end it'll definitely pay off in the end.

[oakfan162]

Re: For all you guys wanting to gain muscle, size, etc.

thanks for the info. Tomorrow I'm going to start trying to eat a lot more calories but also get my protein levels up close to 1:1. Cardio is a biotch, but I think in the end it'll definitely pay off in the end.

You'll get used to it. lol.
My trick is to download podcasts and listen to them while I run. It keeps me thinking and makes the time pass faster than music. IMO.

[USF11]

Re: For all you guys wanting to gain muscle, size, etc.

thanks for the info. Tomorrow I'm going to start trying to eat a lot more calories but also get my protein levels up close to 1:1. Cardio is a biotch, but I think in the end it'll definitely pay off in the end.

Eat protein at 1:1 level is damn near impossible to do over a long period of time.

[ODogg]

Re: For all you guys wanting to gain muscle, size, etc.

You definitely need to eat more.

The general rule I use for losing fat is 500 less per day than 15 times your bodyweight:

That's way too many calories. That formula needs to be 1000 less than 15 times your body weight, not 500. I'm 250 and according to this I should eat about 3300 calories a day? I'm doing 1700 calories and losing weight but slowly. I've lost about 40 pounds to date on this plan. And yes I do work out.

[pfunk880]

Re: For all you guys wanting to gain muscle, size, etc.

That's way too many calories. That formula needs to be 1000 less than 15 times your body weight, not 500. I'm 250 and according to this I should eat about 3300 calories a day? I'm doing 1700 calories and losing weight but slowly. I've lost about 40 pounds to date on this plan. And yes I do work out.

So you've gone from 290 to 250? Over what period of time?

40 lbs is great but I'd be concerned that you are losing muscle as well as fat. I'm eating about 2000 cals a day right now and losing and like I said, I'm only at 165.

[Dispatch]

Re: For all you guys wanting to gain muscle, size, etc.

Use this formula to figure out how many calories you should be eating a day.

66 + (6.3 x body weight in lbs.) + (12.9 x height in inches) - (6.8 x age in years)

This gives you your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR)
Now that you know your BMR, multiply your BMR by your activity multiplier from below:

Activity Multiplier
Sedentary = BMR X 1.2 (little or no exercise, desk job)
Lightly active = BMR X 1.375 (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/wk)
Mod. active = BMR X 1.55 (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/wk)
Very active = BMR X 1.725 (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days/wk)
Extr. active = BMR X 1.9 (hard daily exercise/sports & physical job

[Lintyfresh85]

Re: For all you guys wanting to gain muscle, size, etc.

still even with that it says I should be eating 2661.96 calories a day. I just can't do that!

[Dispatch]

Re: For all you guys wanting to gain muscle, size, etc.

You need to slowly work your way up to that then. I weigh 125 lbs and I have to eat around 2000 calories a day to maintain that.

You need to speed up your matabolism if you want to lose wait. It might seem wrong that your eating so much but thats how much your body needs to function properly. For your size only eating 1500 calories a day is terrible, your matabolism is probaly crawling.

[loccdogg26]

Re: For all you guys wanting to gain muscle, size, etc.

how about the skinny dudes that need to gain weight? I weight about 145 and would like to be in the 195-215 range but the thing is I run about 10 miles a day 4 days a week. I also have some of the worst eating habits known to man.