Yeah im on that course now myself towards the end of the year, i want to slowly gain. Ive just started in to week 2 of establishing my new maintenance cals before i ramp up. Im aiming for 11st / 70kg by the end of the year so 4kg gain.
*** Big Fat Weight Loss Thread ***
- Thread starter AndyCr15
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Yeap just a suggestion based on what I found.
Yeah some of the skinny sauces are really not nice, but the syrups are spot on
Years ago I used chromium+caffeine stacked to burn fat but i gound that caffeine messed up my sleep and diet.
Its less about fat burn and more about it being an appetite supressant, nothing wrong with a well timed cup of caffinated coffee. I have one when in the mornings just to help push out breakfast by a couple of hours.
Timing is whats going to screw your sleep with caffeine, I personally cant have a cup after 2pm-3pm without it having a negative affect on my sleep routine that night.
Coffee is my key tool in intermittent fasting, wouldn't be able to do it without.
Caffeine doesnt just come from coffee. Green tea / normal tea is an alternative, or even a caffeine powder supplment.
Man of Honour
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There's always diet/zero/sugar free calorie cola or energy drinks.
Both Aldi and Lidl do a sugar free energy drink (8 kcals per 250ml can) 75mg caffeine per 250ml for 36p. Cheaper than a pre workout supplement.
If you just want straight up cheap caffeine it doesn't get much cheaper than https://www.amazon.co.uk/BULK-POWDE...1-1-1890b328-3a40-4864-baa0-a8eddba1bf6a&th=1
I have a question. The ‘calories burned’ measurement on various bits of fitness equipment, eg bike, treadmill, elliptical - is it accurate?
Following on from that, if one had calculated that 1800 calories were to be consumed in a day, and they did 200 calories of exercise as measured on the aforementioned equipment, would they then be able to consume 200 kcal extra to break even?
A friend was explaining this to me and I thought surely it can’t be that simple?
Would the same measurement by a fitness tracker (e.g. Apple Watch, Fitbit) be more accurate and would the same principle apply?
Following on from that, if one had calculated that 1800 calories were to be consumed in a day, and they did 200 calories of exercise as measured on the aforementioned equipment, would they then be able to consume 200 kcal extra to break even?
A friend was explaining this to me and I thought surely it can’t be that simple?
Would the same measurement by a fitness tracker (e.g. Apple Watch, Fitbit) be more accurate and would the same principle apply?
They generally work of a formula which is probably fairly accurate as a rough guide. You enter your height/weight and it takes an estimation of the amount of energy it would take for that someone with those measurements to undertake the activity based on speed/elevation/effort. It'll be more accurate if you have a device capable of reading your heart rate. I would say a lot of devices probably overestimate which could potentially cause issues for people.
As for the second question, yes, if your maintenance calories are 1800 and you burn 200, then in theory your net calories would only be 1600. You can either take the extra calorie deficit for weight loss or eat more
And if you want to be a real pig and eat loads, then you do activities like this
They are inaccurate especially so for calories burned, and vary from tracker to tracker as well. There are numerous studies out there showing that the trackers are inaccurate for this metric.
Furthermore TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) calculations of how much calories you should be aiming for depending on goal should already factor in activity level which accounts for any activity you do each day, averaged over a week.
Meaning if you calculate you need 2300 calories to maintain based on light activity, and you want to be in a deficit, usually -500 for a steady cut, this ALREADY factors in all workouts / exercise you will be doing based on your choice of activity level. So if you do a gym workout, burn 200 cals (even if you only burned 150 for example) then eat those calories back, you've just ignored the fact your TDEE calculation already factored in the calories burned doing that workout!
Shockingly enough the fitness tracker apps even use these TDEE calculations when helping you set calorie targets, making the fact they show calories burn even worse, and then being inaccurate to boot.
Personally I think this information should only be used as a trend over time comparison to calories you track and eat and weight change based on goals.
Based on my personal experience, the majority of this year I've been eating at 1.7k cals, my daily calories burned averages between 2.6k-3k, this should have equated to weight loss in the region of 2lb per week, yet I've trended around 1.1lb per week. Had I eaten those extra 800-1k+ calories my fitness tracker is telling me I'm burning over my target I'm almost certain I would have put weight on!
That aligns more with my experience. For example, I put my details into MyFitnessPal which calculated a daily intake of 1500kcal to lose weight at the desired rate. This was based on my assessment of my activity level as ‘not very active’. This has previously worked (although not as fast as predicted) when my daily exercise wasn’t more than a leisurely walk.
I’ve now upped my regular activity level. Having done a short stint of cardio which the machine tells me was worth 300 calories, should I now eat 300 more to break even and still lose at the same rate?
I used to have a Fitbit which would tell me I had done 600-800 calories of exercise daily when I hadn’t exerted myself more than a few trips up the stairs, hence my scepticism and confusion!
I’ve now upped my regular activity level. Having done a short stint of cardio which the machine tells me was worth 300 calories, should I now eat 300 more to break even and still lose at the same rate?
I used to have a Fitbit which would tell me I had done 600-800 calories of exercise daily when I hadn’t exerted myself more than a few trips up the stairs, hence my scepticism and confusion!
I would highly doubt a short stint of cardio is even going to burn 300 cals, and likely this is over exaggerated as well.
This is entirely goal dependant, are you looking to lose weight still or maintain?? If you are looking to maintain and want to eat back what you think you've burned on top of what you consider is your activity level based on your TDEE calculations then I would do so VERY cautiously, like only eating back 50% max.
In terms of your fitbit it should be telling you your calories burned over the day, this isnt just from exercise its from all activity. Which is why even first thing in the morning you should be at a few hundred cals burned.
Man of Honour
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Based on my experience with smart watches they can vary massively based in the same exercise, so I generally assume they aren't accurate.
I generally walk 6km every morning, over the same route and at the same pace, within a minute or so anyway. Calories burned, according to my watch, can vary by 250 calories or more.
Not that I eat back calories burned exercising anyway.
Yeah, I thought 300 was a bit high. It was 25 mins on an elliptical cross trainer at varying speeds and intensities.
I need to lose another 4Kg to get to my goal, aiming for 0.5-1Kg per week. This rate has been fairly consistent at 1500kcal per day with effectively no exercise. I’m trying to understand what it should be with exercise factored in which is where I’m having trouble.
Thanks for your advice.
Entirely depends on your stats. Male, female, short, tall, general activity and workout routine, goal weight, current weight etc.
It’s hard to give any sort of answer on what’s right for you without a bit more detail. Even then it would just be general not overly specific tips.
Nevertheless I think I’ve got my answer in that the numbers from the machines and trackers are to be taken with a pinch of salt. I might go in at eating an additional half of the estimated calories for the exercise I otherwise wouldn’t be doing to see where that leaves me.
Right now it leaves me hungry but that’s all part of it
Thanks.
Right now it leaves me hungry but that’s all part of it
Thanks.