Is this too little calories?

[Mada_]

I am 20, 6'1, and weigh 75kg.

I want to get a bit leaner, and do calisthenics + Hatha yoga for exercise.

My job is also very laborous and work close to full time.

 

I did a calculator that determined 2126 calories is a good intake for me to lose 0.9% bodyweight per week. 

This seems pretty low to me.

[Yarco]

If your goal is to lose weight rapidly, then no, not at all. Losing 2 lbs a week or less is pretty healthy and sustainable. 0.9% of your body weight is like 1.45 lbs a week.

Give it a try and if you're feeling weak or unwell then you can always up your calories by 500 or so and see how you feel. It will just slow down weight loss progress.

When I'm trying to lose weight I aim for 1,000 - 1,500 calories a day, although I'm 5'6" and have a sedentary job.

People do 24, 48, 72 hour fasts where they eat 0 calories for multiple days. Depends how long you plan to do it for and how sustainable you want it to be.

[Leo Gura]

Counting calories is silly. Just eat less than you normally would.

[SQAAD]

@Mada_

3 hours ago, Mada_ said:

I am 20, 6'1, and weigh 75kg.

I want to get a bit leaner, and do calisthenics + Hatha yoga for exercise.

My job is also very laborous and work close to full time.

 

I did a calculator that determined 2126 calories is a good intake for me to lose 0.9% bodyweight per week. 

This seems pretty low to me.

It's on the low side but not too low. It depends on how fast you wanna lose the weight. 

I was taking 1500 calories at one point and I was a lot heavier than you. 

Counting calories is not silly because it can teach how many calories each food has. I was shocked when I discovered how many calories are found in fats for example. 

But it's not sustainable to be counting calories forever. It is only worth it for couple of months until you get a good sense how many calories are in each meal. 

After that you should understand when you are over eating or not. 

[Anon212]

Bro, you are 6 1 and only 75kg? Sounds like you are very skinny to me! Why are you trying to get leaner? You will naturally look leaner by putting on muscle. It will accentuate your body features.

 

Seriously, I am the same height as you and weigh 95kg but I do have very low levels of myostatin and a lot of muscle.

 

What exactly are you trying to get at here? What are your goals? I know that BMI is considered a fad but it may be useful for you to look at this scale. Maybe even look at the fat free mass index scale. That's much better. 

 

 

 

 

[Anon212]

@Leo Gura It's not silly. It's very damn useful. But more so for bodybuilders, athletes, powerlifters etc... 

 

It can definitely be useful for the general folk too especially if they are an ectomorph as this individual seems to be.

[aurum]

@Mada_ I wouldn’t bother counting calories. I got obsessed with doing that in college, really just isn’t necessary.

There are far, far better ways to lose weight.

For instance, what’s your eating window? Are you regularly fasting and eating low glycemic foods? How about practicing heat / cold exposure? Functional breathing patterns?

If you’ve got all that down, you’ll never have to worry about counting calories or your weight again.

[StarStruck]

Just build your metabolism by eating healthy. Afterwards you can eat what you want and still burn it all off.

[BipolarGrowth]

On 1/14/2022 at 11:52 PM, Leo Gura said:

Counting calories is silly. Just eat less than you normally would.

Can a mod give this user a warning for misinformation please? ?

2,100 calories per day is not that low. As long as you’re not getting too much of your calories from fat, you shouldn’t be too hungry. Eating food high in fat is bad for trying to lose weight as fat is more calorie dense than protein and carbs. Fat is 9 calories per gram whereas carbs and protein are 4 calories per gram. This means you can eat over twice the amount of food made of carbs or protein and feel fuller while still consuming less calories than something which is made of fat. 

Eating less without quantifying how much you are eating is laughable. If you want anywhere close to the best results, counting calories and protein is a minimum requirement at least until you actually have a solid idea of how much you’re consuming and have the ability to eye ball somewhat accurately. If you want to half ass things, you can just exercise and try to “eat less” and get some results, but this is going to waste time and effort. It is far better to spend an extra 10 minutes of your day tracking your nutrition (which actually leads to healthier eating habits on its own) than it is to wait months longer for the same results. 
 

A very simple calculation of maintenance calories is BW in lb. X 15 = your calories needed to maintain your weight. This is based on being fairly active. With your activity level, you might have a bit higher maintenance calories than this calculation will produce. You’d be at 2,475 calories based on this calculation. I work out 3x per week and work about 35 hours per week while being on my feet the entire time I’m clocked in at work. 
 

I calculated my actual maintenance calories based on my weight loss progress and the amount of calories consumed which were tracked meticulously for that period, and the simple calculation I gave above was within 50-100 calories of my true maintenance needs. 
 

A 400 calorie deficit is ideal in most cases. A more aggressive deficit than that will result in more muscle mass loss and often leads to people giving up on losing weight as they are simply too hungry to want to stick with their new diet. This is not good as building muscle takes far more time and effort than losing fat. Make sure to get at least .8-1g of protein per lb. of body weight if you’re trying to lose weight and retain as much muscle as possible. Your calisthenics training should be applying progressive overload (more reps each week put simply) in order to keep the muscle you have or gain a small amount of muscle while in a caloric deficit. 
 

With apps like MyFitnessPal out nowadays, there’s really no excuse to not count calories if you want to transform your physique. It’s pretty damn convenient. 

Edited June 23, 2022 by BipolarGrowth