Calorie counting

[willhub]

Well I need to get my bodyfat lower, and if I'm lighter I'll climb hills much better apparently, and apparently the reason I get cramps in my calves is because the blood may struggle to get through slightly as a result of my legs being too large possibly.

Apparently I've already gone over my daily allowance of fat intake for the day

I had 2 egg on 2 wholemeal toast this morning, very minimal amount of butter, used no oil to cook the eggs, I had 2 small sausages that totalled 100g, all I've got for dinner in 125g of flapjack, but that should be enough as it apparently totals 579 calories, guess this is unhealthy flapjack

I cycled into uni today, it's only 2.2 miles, but I did not feel starved this morning, but I can see the effects of a reduction in something, I felt a bit weak, or empty in a way, this causes my vision to go slightly odd, as in, seems to let in a bit too much light and a bit grainy and loose perception of speed slightly, I think it's a form of "bonking" that you should get on long rides when you're low on sugar?

 

[Mr-White]

I'm tired, I'm Hungary all the time, and I can't think properly and get dizzy. Perhaps I was not eating too much in the first place, maybe it's something else.

I was always hungry, once I increase my calories I actually started losing more body fat.

MW

 

[Skillmister]

Sounds like you are eating far far less than you should be.

 

[willhub]

I'm sure I used to eat loads more and I never lost weight.

I used to make pasta bake and eat half of the pan of it the night before a 70 mile ride, and I used to eat lots of cake too, I probably had loads of calories then.

It seems really confusing.

 

[Skillmister]

Do the sensible thing and actually work it out

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18299646

Considering you can work out how many calories you roughly burn cycling i'd leave the cycling out of the activity calculation and just go BMR*1.3 or something. Then you can total in the cycling later

Put it this way, i sit at a desk all day every day except for 1 hour of gym 4 days a week and ~40 mins walking twice a week, and i'm losing weight on 2500 cals.

 

[Jonny69]

You can't starve yourself, particularly if you're going a lot of aerobic exercise. You simply DO need the calories or your energy reserves will deplete and you're going to start wasting muscle. You NEED carbohydrates for that sort of exercise so you can't go cutting it back. If you're greying out then you're blood sugar must be dropping way too low because you're hungry. You definitely do not want to lose muscle mass on your legs unless you look like Arnie below the belt and Skeletor above.

Sounds to me like you're eating low quality calories. The mocha is high in calories and low in useful energy. Sausages, supermarket bacon and mushy peas isn't going to keep you going very long, when you should be bulking a meal out with pasta, rice or potatoes.

I cycle around 8 miles a day, fairly intensely, and need around 3300 calories a day or I start to flag. Then, add some weekend activities into the mix and I have to eat even more. I don't think you're eating enough and what you are eating isn't good enough.

 

[Jimbo Mahoney]

With regards to calorie counting and losing body fat, here is my advice from experience:

1) By all means use calorie estimates to gather a starting point but the most important thing is to use your weight as an indication as to whether your calorie intake is too high or too low.

2) Eat xxxx calories for a week, weigh yourself and change the calories to suit. If you have lost 1lb, keep the calories the same for the next week and repeat.

3) If you are not losing weight, reduce calories a little (5 - 10%) for the next week. i.e. constantly adjust the calories depending on what's happening on the scales.

4) Remember that your weight will naturally go up and down a little, so don't worry about a single week. I would treat 6 weeks as the minimum time to truly judge whether it's working or not.

5) Protein - this is much more important on a calorie deficit than when trying to gain muscle. On a calorie deficit, your body will obviously be burning its own tissue to survive. In order to avoid it eating into lean tissue, it's important to eat plenty of protein and ideally, add resistance exerise to your regime. In my opinion, resistance exercise is superior for fat loss than aerobic.

6) Protein would be the main macronutrient to emphasise and carbs would be the main macronutrient to reduce (assuming you are doing resistance exercise - Jonny69 is correct that you may need more carbs if you choose aerobic exercise). I never got much success from aerobic (running). The only way I managed to get lean (6 pack, veins in arms and shoulders etc) was from weights, low calories and high protein.

Hope this helps! I've had excellent results from counting calories, constantly adjusting them to suit my goals and keeping protein intake high. Counting calories can be a pain, so to make my life easier, I adopted the infamous LeanGains approach (google) - it makes it SO much more convenient than worrying about preparing 6 meals a day or whatever.

Good luck!