3 cutting questions

jay o. · Apr 15, 2012

How do I know I'm doing moderate intensity cardio and how many calories I'm truly burning? I've never truly known if I was doing moderate intensity...then again I'm not very experienced in the cardio department.

Also how long is it a good idea to run no carb days? Wouldn't you burn alot of muscle if you did it for days or weeks straight?

And how many of you eat more calories than you actually type out? For example...someone says their cutting and taking in 3030 calories, 400g protein, 200g carbs, 70g fats. But then you add in calories burnt from training + cardio...what are your calories at the end of the day then? 1500?? A little confused about this one..

Thanks for any help I can get guys.

Gunsmith · Apr 15, 2012

jay o. said:
How do I know I'm doing moderate intensity cardio and how many calories I'm truly burning? I've never truly known if I was doing moderate intensity...then again I'm not very experienced in the cardio department.
you guage this by your heart rate , 70-75% of max is moderate i would say , 80%+ is considered out of the fat burning zone and just for cardiovascular health but i think 2min bust of 85-90% max then 5 min cruise at 60% would work great for fat loss , like sprints.

Also how long is it a good idea to run no carb days? Wouldn't you burn alot of muscle if you did it for days or weeks straight?
carbs are not esential for muscle growth nor are they needed to maintain muscle providing your protein and fats are in order , you can run a no carb diet and gain muscle

And how many of you eat more calories than you actually type out? For example...someone says their cutting and taking in 3030 calories, 400g protein, 200g carbs, 70g fats. But then you add in calories burnt from training + cardio...what are your calories at the end of the day then? 1500?? A little confused about this one..
if you have extra calories at the end of the day then you are in a calorie surplus and going the wrong direction for fat loss. If your daily calorie requirments are say 3000 , thats enough for you to make your workouts and daily task and not lose any or gain any weight , now you cut your calories by 500 a day , you are in a calorie defecit , you are burning more calories a day that you take it , this will force the body to look else where for things to make energy from (fat) in theory you are in a 3500 calorie a week defecit , their are 3500 cals per pound of bodyfat so in theory you should lose a pound of fat a week. now tack on 45 min cardio to that which burns an aditional 500 cals now you are in a 1000 cal a day defecit hence cardio helping with fat loss.

Thanks for any help I can get guys.

I think you are way over thinking this and making it way harder than it needs to be.

jay o. · Apr 15, 2012

Gunsmith said:
I think you are way over thinking this and making it way harder than it needs to be.

Thanks for the reply brother. Actually I want this answered by anyone and I'm done... For example on training days with cardio Id need 4140 calories in order to hit a 1000 deficit for that day. I'm going for 1000 calorie deficits every day, so I'll hit 7000 each week to hit 2 lbs loss every week. BUT what I do NOT understand is the fact thats still a boatload of carbs and some fats. What do I do?? 4140 calories requires 2340 calories from carbs and fats! What the hell do I do about that? I need 4140 calories (training + cardio burns 1000 calories) for a 1000 deficit. But I also need to get my ratios to around 450g prot/100g carbs/70g fats. How do I do this?

befitwithme · Apr 15, 2012

everyone burns at a different rate, you cant rely on one thing, the best you can do is see where your weight is at then once you add or subtract how your body responds to that and go from there.

it drive me nuts when people think there is only one way.
people want me to write a diet for them but they have no idea what their doing for me to change something.

in order to for anyone to help you need to know where you're at to know where you want to go.

Gunsmith · Apr 15, 2012

first of all how fuckin big are you that 4100+ cals has you in a 1000 cal defect?!?

secondly , what exactly is it you are trying to accomplish?

jay o. · Apr 15, 2012

Gunsmith said:
first of all how fuckin big are you that 4100+ cals has you in a 1000 cal defect?!?

secondly , what exactly is it you are trying to accomplish?

Cutting currently..but also doing a recomp. I want to cut for a few weeks then do more of a recomp..gain some muscle but primarily lose fat. Ive never cut before so I'm sorry if I'm confusing you guys. I'm 230 pounds..my maintenance is 4140 calories so I'll eat that much, then am cardio + training later in the pm. That'll be about 1000 calories burned which will put me at 3140 calories which is 1000 less than maintenance leaving me at a 1000 deficit. Does that make sense? I'm trying..

Ironman2010 · Apr 15, 2012

jay o. said:
Cutting currently..but also doing a recomp. I want to cut for a few weeks then do more of a recomp..gain some muscle but primarily lose fat. Ive never cut before so I'm sorry if I'm confusing you guys. I'm 230 pounds..my maintenance is 4140 calories so I'll eat that much, then am cardio + training later in the pm. That'll be about 1000 calories burned which will put me at 3140 calories which is 1000 less than maintenance leaving me at a 1000 deficit. Does that make sense? I'm trying..

Trial and error brother

Run with a certain amount of cals for one week with a certain amount of cardio....end of the week stand on scales. Have you lost weight? yes = Continue....No = Tweak slightly

Some weeks you may not lose much some weeks you may lose a few, dont over complicate things

raw33man · Apr 15, 2012

You need around 3k calories to maintain 230 bro !

Are you an ectomorph ?

jay o. · Apr 15, 2012

Ironman2010 said:
Trial and error brother

Run with a certain amount of cals for one week with a certain amount of cardio....end of the week stand on scales. Have you lost weight? yes = Continue....No = Tweak slightly

Some weeks you may not lose much some weeks you may lose a few, dont over complicate things

Thanks man I appreciate the feedback..also could you or someone else have a read at my first reply? Im basically needing 4140 cals for a 1000 deficit. But that's still alot of carbs and some fats. Should I disreguard calories while cutting and just watch macros?? I want something like 450g prot/100g carbs/70g fats as I feel that'd be good for my body. But that's also 3.5-4.5 lb loss a week at that rate lol..

jay o. · Apr 15, 2012

raw33man said:
You need around 3k calories to maintain 230 bro !

Are you an ectomorph ?

Where'd you get that from brother? Im definitely a mesomorph and judging fat gain I think I've ate too many calories so you could be right about 3k maintenance..

raw33man · Apr 15, 2012

I'm 230 myself, but I maintain at 3k calories easily, even 2800 on a bad day... but quality food, no junk

Gunsmith · Apr 15, 2012

I would start at 3000 cals , run that for 2 weeks and see what happens then adjust ONE thing and see what that does then make another adjustment , if you go jacking things around to quickly and to often you will never figure out what adjustments did what.

I am a bit of a meso/endomorph and I'm carb sensitive so I limit my carbs
I prefer to use a 50P-30C-20F ratio. Get your carbs in the first part of the day say the first 4 meals with reduced fat then your last 2-3 meals have more fats and low to no carbs

so shoot for somthing like 375g protein , 200g carbs , 90g Fat
run that for 2 weeks , if fat loss slow make an adjustment , say drop 50g carbs and replace with protein

unless you are on a shit load of gear , HGH and T3 you arn't gonna lose much if anything eating 4000+ cake a day