"Calories in" vs. "Calories out"

Hi guys

I’m really so confused about this whole “calories in” vs. “calories out” debate.
I’ve only recently got myself a Heart Rate Monitor and it caused me some serious doubt/confusion.

I really hope that there is one person out there who will be patient enough to read thru this and have an idea what the problem might be.

Let’s start with my stats first:

Weight: 88kg’s
Height: 1, 79
Age: 29
Fat %: no idea – guess between 14 & 18%
Male

Aim:
At this stage just to maintain body weight and loose some fat if possible.
(Just to stay active and enjoy exercising-I hope the results might follow)



In the past I’ve used a lot of these online “calories needed” calculators/tools and I’ve always been a bit skeptical about it.
On all of these calculators it usually tells me that I need around 2700 calories per day just to maintain my weight.


That is if I select no exercises or activities. So basically I just sleep and go to work then. I just presumed it to be inaccurate.
I just wanted to find out how much I should eat to keep my weight if I just continue with everyday life.



I do however work-out.
I do some vigorous weight training 4 times a week (90min – 120min) and some mornings I’ll even go for a 3-6 kilo jog.

During the past weeks I’ve been monitoring my “calories burned” on my new Polar watch and was I surprised/shocked.

On average I burn about 3300 calories during a 24hour period. On training days this jumps up to 4200 calories.


The part that confuses me is this:

Although I eat 6-7 meals a day I probably only average about 2000 calories a day.

Breakfast: 4 x whole eggs 2 x toast (whole-wheat)

Lunch: 150-200g chicken and rice

Dinner: 2 toast plus sardines/tuna/egg (whole-wheat)

I make my own biltong sticks so I snack on these through out the day: +/-300g (same n.v as 500g beef)

I also enjoy about 2-3 fruits during the day and a couple of slices of whole-wheat bread with Peanut butter.



According to my HRM my body uses up between 3300 and 4200 calories every single day!
I’m only filling it up with approximately 2000-2500 calories per day! (current diet)



How on earth is it possible for my body to maintain its muscles (and fat unfortunately!) and stay at roughly the same weight for most of the past 5years????

This is extremely confusing!!! Every time I read any nutritional or diet related article I’m bombarded with how much I should actually eat to stay healthy.
Now my latest fitness toy proofed it once again. I’m burning way more calories than I’m eating. I should really eat a lot more…Some days I even burn double than what I take in!!!


I’m failing to even get close to my maintenance dose of calories but yet I don’t have any resemblance to a Kenyan long distance runner.
I’m definitely not getting any stronger but I’m not becoming weaker either? Surely I should have been close to anorexic by now?

From what I read one will lose 1 kilo of bodyweight for every 7700 calories burned. Then surely I must whey something like 17kg’s by now????



Once again, I’m not really trying to bulk or cut – I’m happy with just maintaining my current weight and try to stay fit.
(at least for now)

i would like to share my experience.u sound like me.
i was having the same questions a while back. gymming 4 times a week,playing squash 4 times and even adding some obstacle courses in there,and during it all no progress.

since then the biggest change came with this site. i have now increased my calories and in the process dropped my body fat a lot. i have learned that not all calories were created equal,and that when u train hard for more than a hour your body will sacrifice muscle mass for energy. its an easies source than your fat and i think the major issue here. u are eating healthy,building them up but breaking them down again

ok well if u are eating 2000 calories on average and your are burning between 3500-4500 caloires on a daily basis you have sent your body into starvation and shut your metabolism down pretty much,also there is a major case of over training going on here if this is the real case and your body is doing everything it can to hold on to any energy you put in,also those heart rate monitors can over do the calories burned during a session/daily basis,i had one and it averaged 4200-5200 calories on a daily basis which is pretty much impossible for someone at my height and current LBM as well as activity level...

what you are going to need to do is increase calories for a while,get your metabolic rate back to normal,once this happens your body will come out of starvation,you will find when you do you will sleep better,better moods,more regular bowel movements,just a huge difference in endurance and energy levels really, and this will get you back to where you can start over again.

your body is a very adaptive organism,if you do to much with too little food it is going to adapt to this and think you are starving it,this is why i tell guys u dont need to cut calories down to next to nothing in order to loose fat!

Thanks m0lt3n and DJ...
I think the main reason why I never really increased my calories was because I've never really been able to get rid of this tube around my waste. No matter how hard I trained it just won't go away. It just never made sense to increase my calories if I've still got a bit of a beer belly. As mentioned before I never really lost any muscle mass while training this much either so I just always pushed harder and harder so that my abs might show someday.

I' always close to the 2g per kilo mark as far as protein goes but if what you're saying is true I believe I should probably ad some carbs to. Should I go al out or first ad say 500 cals per day for the first month or so? I'm thinking about adding 200g of oats, 2-3 potatoes (300g) and some brown rice.

Or do you feel that I should just skip straight to a 3500+ calorie diet? Man I really hope this will make a difference and that I don't just put on more fat.

DJ is the guy to help you with a diet.
In the meantime you can go through his stickies, starting with the dieting one in the dieting section.
Adding a few 100s kcal per day will also benefit you in the meantime. 6 meals, 6 with protein while first 3 is with carbs and last 3 is with good fats is a good template but you already seem to be halfway there on eating healthy. DJ helping you with a personalised diet is best way to go but he is no charity, the other way is teaching yourself and 80% of the results after a few weeks of studying the old threats in this forum

good luck bro

should be looking at a minimum of 1.5g of protein per LB of body weight,so take body weight x 2.2 then x 1.5 thats minimum...

go read dieting 101,i dont like too many carbs,so you can see there how i suggest dieting,its a sticky in the dieting and contest prep section.

Thanks DJ

I will check it out!