Barbell thoughts on following program during cut.

[Ege]

I am only almost sure about one thing. A man with the level of strength you have and with weight and height, consuming 1700 calories and losing only one pound a week…. Shows that something is wrong with your calculation.

I am 51 years old, less strong, shorter, lighter, leaner (~16% bf) and losing 2 pounds a week with a higher than 2000 Calories diet. I don’t know how high because I go to a dietitian and she calculated, I did not ask, am just looking the amount of food I am eating, I would estimate it is around 2200 Calories.

If some body corrects me I am more than happy. And I can ask my calorie count to my dietitian in two weeks if you want.

You might be eating sth that you don’t know how high it is calories. It might be innocent looking nuts, or innocent looking anything that has a high level of fat or sugar.

 

[silveraw]

consuming 1700 calories and losing only one pound a week…. Shows that something is wrong with your calculation.

Meh, if it works reliably, it works.

Many things can go wrong with counting calories. Usually it is consuming a lot more than you think. If setting the bar at 1700 gets the appropriate weight loss it is probably accounting for some miscounting or another variable.

Also for reference, I'm taller, younger, and bigger than you. If I want to reliably lose 2lbs a week I need to go down to around 1800 calories.

 

[John K]

I am only almost sure about one thing. A man with the level of strength you have and with weight and height, consuming 1700 calories and losing only one pound a week…. Shows that something is wrong with your calculation.

I am 51 years old, less strong, shorter, lighter, leaner (~16% bf) and losing 2 pounds a week with a higher than 2000 Calories diet. I don’t know how high because I go to a dietitian and she calculated, I did not ask, am just looking the amount of food I am eating, I would estimate it is around 2200 Calories.

If some body corrects me I am more than happy. And I can ask my calorie count to my dietitian in two weeks if you want.

You might be eating sth that you don’t know how high it is calories. It might be innocent looking nuts, or innocent looking anything that has a high level of fat or sugar.

I would generally agree with you, but metabolic rate can vary like 500 calories plus or minus for any given body. So if you take someone and do the whole calorie calculator thing-a-ma-gig and you get 3000 calories to maintain weight, that can be anywhere between 2500 and 3500. This can have huge effects on weight changes - if you think 2500 calories puts you at a 500 calorie deficit but it really only puts you at "maintaining," you'll have very frustrating results until you drop another 500 calories. Now, at a scant 2000 calories, you are only losing weight as quickly as you thought you "should" be losing at 2500.

 

[John K]

Meh, if it works reliably, it works.

Many things can go wrong with counting calories. Usually it is consuming a lot more than you think. If setting the bar at 1700 gets the appropriate weight loss it is probably accounting for some miscounting or another variable.

Also for reference, I'm taller, younger, and bigger than you. If I want to reliably lose 2lbs a week I need to go down to around 1800 calories.

Agreed. It ultimately doesn't matter if you count calories "correctly" as long as the way you count them is consistent. You might think you're only eating 1800 calories but in reality you're eating 2500 calories - it doesn't really matter, as long as you are consistent.

 

[Anna C]

Agreed. It ultimately doesn't matter if you count calories "correctly" as long as the way you count them is consistent. You might think you're only eating 1800 calories but in reality you're eating 2500 calories - it doesn't really matter, as long as you are consistent.

That's a really good observation. This can also be leveraged if you don't mind eating the same thing every day. I once heard a recommendation (apologies, forgot the source) to eat the exact same breakfast and lunch every day, then variety for dinner. Or just eat the same breakfast every day for half that benefit. Anyway, for those who like to do that, you can calculate exactly the calories of that meal and then that makes it easy - you know exactly how much you're getting every day. Cronometer is a great app that allows for saving meals and logging them as one item that way. You can also build recopies, scan labels, etc. A food scale with grams is really useful.