I'm 34, 5' 11", 196 lbs. with roughly 16% BF and have been trying to "cut" over the last 8 weeks or so. I generally workout 3-4 times/week and do cardio 3-4 times/week. I've trolled through websites here and there trying to find my daily caloric intake requirements for cutting with little luck. My diet typically is a 40/40/20 carbs, protein, & healthy fats. I've never counted calories 'til AM offered the "Diet Tracker" and I usually take anywhere from 2500-3000 calories on a daily basis according to this tool.
I'm told to take up to 1.5 gms of protein/lb. of body weight (to build/maintain muscle) which would equal approx. 300 gms. of protein. By the 40/40/20 rule, this would also mean 300 gms. of carbs and 67 gms of fat for a total of 3000 calories. I haven't found one site or formula saying that 3000 cal./day is a cutting diet. I'm pretty confused and any/all help would be appreciated.
those tools you speak of only give you a somewhat accurate place to start as far as total caloric intake. YOU need to determine your maintenance calories by trial and error, and then cut about 500 calories from your daily intake to loose somwhere around 1lb per week. I recommend you look into cycling your carbs so as not to be consistently depleting your body of calories thus causing a metabolic downregulation and total diet failure. I stick to medium/low days. For example I eat:
1.5g protein/lb LBM, and 1.5g carbs/lb LBM with fats only coming from meats and supplements like EFAs and fish oils.--this is a training day.
On no training days or HIIT days, I shift the balance to 2g protein/lb LBM and 1.0g carb/lb LBM also getting fats from the meats (chicken) and from supplements like EFAs omega 3's etc.
its a simple concept and it lets calories fluctuate during the week, provides plenty of protein, and brings about a slow, steady fat loss, while helping to maintain/boost your metabolic rate.
the # of carbs are always higher in my pre and post training meals, the rest of the day is constant, and I cut out carbs before bed.
since I do not work out on one of the days; sunday or saturday (neither HIIT or weights) I typically drop carbs even lower maybe to .5g/lb LBM, and increase protein intake to make up for the loss. This will deplete glycogen....
If I do this saturday, then I will either eat at my 'training day' level on sunday or further increase the carbs and drop the protein to allow for glycogen uptake.
some argue (John Berardi is one) that its best to high carb on off days so as to cause glycogen supercomensation and provide fuel for the next days workout, but I havent tried this. I feel that eatign low-no carbs on a training day will just keep me from having energy for the gym.
many people recommend the ketogenic diet, and although it may work for some, I just dont see it as healthy....i could be wrong. Also...its fair to take advice from people who look closer to what you 'want' to look like. I mean everyone is individual but its not too often you hear of pro's using ketogenic principles. (drugs aside)
