Doctari wrote: May I give my 2 cents?
Firstly, if you drop your BF% below 3%, you are DEAD - no matter who says what - period!
There is a very good formula by which dietician work out your needed calory intake. It is called the Harris-Benedict Formula and is as follows:
For men:66,5 + (13,8 x total body weight in kg's)
+ ( 5 x lenght in cm)
- (6,8 x age in years)
= total Kcal MAINTENANCE/24h
For women: 655,1 + (9,6 x total body weight in kg's) + (1,8 x length in cm) - (4,7 x age in years) = total kCal maintenance
Now, if you are doing just weight training for ± one hour per day, you multiply this total with factor of 1,3.
If aerobics is added to this workout of about 30 min, then x 1,4, but if marathon athlete type training, then x 1,5.
THIS IS TO MAINTAIN YOUR BODY WEIGHT!!!
Now, if your want to cut BF%, you can do one of two things. Firstly, you can do the maths and get your total kCals. Then eat 200 kCals LESS than that / 24h, no matter how long you do this - you WILL see results. As you will see later, the scenario changes if you prep for a show and there is a time limitation.
Or secondly, you put your desired weight into the formula and still do the rest of the maths, ie x by whatever factor...
Then you need to know the following:
1 gram prot = 1 gram carbs = 4,184 kCals
1 gram fat = 9,2 kCals.
OK, lets play around!
Mr X weighs 100kg's, 35 years old, 1,80 meters tall. He trains 5 x per week for 60 min intensive resistance training. He has BF% measured at gym by someone who does this regularly and accurately = 12%. Mr X wants to decrease his BF% to 8% over the next twelve weeks, without sacrificing too much muscle or doint too much aerobic work.
Here goes:
Mr X = 66,5+(13,8x100)=(5 x 180)-(6,8x35)
= 2108,5 kCals
Multiply by factor of 1,3
= 2741,5 kCals
OK, he has 88kg of muscle and skeletal bones, and 12 kg's of fat. So we need to loose 4000grams of fat and hopefully gain some muscle. That means 4000 x 9,2 kCals = 36800 ikCals in 84 days, which equates to 438 kCals per day.
Now, he has two choices - either he eats less, or he starts doing some aerobic work, burning up that 440 odd kCalories.
Lets assume his a lazy bugger - doesn't want to cycle or step.
Then his total for the day should be = 2741 - 438 = ± 2300 kCals.
Now, in most cases to loose the fat, BUT to maintain as much muscle as possible, you must take in more prot than carbs and moderate amount of good fats.Here a good ratio is :
prot = 50%, thus 1150 kCal divided by 4,184 = 275 gram of prot.
carbs = 30%, thus 690 kCals divided by 4,184 = 165 grams
fats = 20%, thus 460 kCals divided by 9,2 = 50 grams.
Soooo, Mr X should be taking 275gr prot/165gr carbs/50gr fats per 24 hours for THREE consecutive days. On the forth day, he takes in as follows: 1/3 of the usual prot = 92gr and 50 gr of fat. That = 845 kCals. The rest of his 2300 kCals , namely 1455 kCals or 348grs all come from carbs. Then, after day forth, he returns to the cycle of 3 days low carbs/high prot and one day high carbs/low prot, continuosly repeating this.
Very important!! You need TWO CHEAT MEALS per week, preferably 72 hours apart.
Nothing is cast in stone and each diet response is highly individualised - some dudes respond to high carbs and others don't. But in general, the bigger chaps usually respond better to the high/prot/low carb cycle thingy.
I know this thread is old. Just wanted to confirm the numbers on a carbon cycling as stipulated by doctari
Or is this the case where you have reduced calories too much to burn muscle. I do not get this part.
And another it's the concept of 2 cheat meals per week 72 hours apart. Can someone please explain that.
