Re:
CMD, You're wrong on calories burned by muscle and fat. Resting muscle adds little TO NO calorie burning factor to the overall equation, I don't care if you're 5lbs or 50lbs of muscle more. ACTIVE muscle burns more. HOWEVER, fat person, say 250, and a muscle-bound person at 200, who burns more? The 250 pound fat guy, because he carries more weight. 60-80% of the body's calorie needs come from internal organs, survival, cellular regeneration. The other 20% or so is comprised of what you do. Obviously if you're very active, you can swing that equation to 40% is burned via activity/muscle/fat, but on a daily non active basis, stagnant muscle doesn't require the mythical 50 calories per pound per day that most people tell you to eat.
Now...even if someone could give you 1 specific number, it doesn't happen. Not unless you live life in a vaccuum. Energy needs fluctuate hourly based on activity, what you've eaten, stress, health, age, body composition, etc. Even if a calculator could say "eat this number", it's not definitive, and you'll stress yourself out trying to hit that mark so perfectly you'll give up. Instead...let's build from ground up, and realize What body we have now, is the result of what we think and who we are. Fat people are fat, because they have fat beliefs and they are "fat-minded". Meaning...they don't believe they can be skinny, or that it's pain to achieve it. They don't have athletic or healthy habits. Rather, when they get time to cheat, they really cheat, although they do not deserve to cheat b/c they are not the one's who are putting any work into their bodies.
That said, build a foundation.
-Focus on carrying water around. Not only does it fill you up, and the body is 70% water, but it also works by neutralizing the acidity of our daily lives, adding a Homestatic factor that enables the body to LIVE CLEANLY despite our polluted environment and foods.
-No juices, unless they're natural. Forget ANYTHING with excito-toxins like Aspartame or MSG's. I don't care if studies prove nobody has died from them...chemicals are not meant for the body, even if it can handle it. Chemicals require the body to divert resources FROM muscle building and fat burning to cleansing. Also, forget High Fructose Corn Syrup, or any syrups. Juices are ok, maybe once a day, but in reality, they lose the best part of the juice, which is the fiber and fruits, and often the full vitamins and enzymes.
-Eat fruits. A diet only built on pure whole grains, healthy fats and protein is boring, and unhealthy. Good, fresh fruit has a CLEAN and LIVELY feeling. Eat them. Eat them as your cheat snack. Eat them with breakfast.
-Eat vegetables. Some provide vitamins and enzymes, as well as preventative health benefits from heart disease and cancer. Also, they keep your intestines and colon cleaner (not 100% clean), but scraping and dragging the track on the way out.
-Get fiber. You should be regular. If you're eating 6 meals, and barely dropping trow once a day, something is up. All that consumption, and nothing to show for it? Fiber comes in to fill you up, and clean you out. Get it from PURE whole grains.
-Be Ready to pay more to be healthier. The reason food is cheap is because it's MADE CHEAPLY. If you want to eat whole grain bread, it may cost double, but it's better than consuming it period. If you had the choice, buy something else. Don't buy poisons that compound over time.
-Try a detox/cleansing program. There's many on it and the health benefits go back centuries. Get a book, follow a program for a day or a week.
-Consume 4-6 meals per day. Some may do more. But a constant flow of nutrients is preferable to 1 gigantic meal. Or even 3 gigantic meals. 3 gigantic meals trigger hormonal responses that tell us to shut down because we're feeding. Hence why you get tired during Thanksgiving. That dates back to early cave man times when they'd hunt and hunt, and then eat tons of food at once. Most of that was stored then, and the caveman would rest because the hunt was over. We're not hunting now, so the body can be fed more regularly and consistently. We don't need big meals all at once, unless you want to be sleep throughout your day.
-Realize ACTIVITY is the best measure to lose fat and alter composition. Weight training to preserve muscle, cardio to enhance recovery, stamina, and cardiovascular benefits. Even if you're super skinny...do cardio, just eat MORE to compensate. You can be healthy in the heart AND eat more, too. It's better to eat 500 calories more if running is your thing, and have good stamina and be able to climb a flight of stairs or 10 without getting winded, than NOT having those 500 calories. Plus, you gimp your ability to recover by localizing the lactic acid and other waste products from lifting. Moderate day after activity stretches the muscles and gets the waste products flowing when they otherwise may stagnate.
IMO, muscle without any ability to survive, thrive, live, and actually be functional is a WASTE of time. Tons of guys at my gym do roids, it's evident, because most of them do piddly weights, such as squat machines, instead of the real thing, or bicep curls all day. Or some do squats wrong, where they stop too far above the knee joint and put much pressure on the knee joint itself. When you stop above the knee joint intentionally, your knee joint is acting as the lifting lever. However, read starting strength, and the hips are meant to go up and down, and actually "bounce" at the bottom of the lift. There's no intentional positioning of the body in a squat, just a movement that follows a specific structure.
Moving on...
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Judge calorie intake by what the scale says. If you're losing BF%, then keep doing what you're doing. If you're losing weight but no BF%, then switch something. Increase protein. There's no way to lose BF without losing muscle. Muscle gained is in a 1:3 Ratio, meaning 1lb of muscle for 3lbs of fat. And consquently, 3lbs of fat lost for 1lb of muscle lost. But that's a small price to pay for looking better and is negligible IF you are active.
Look around the internet to get an average number that's ok. Going extreme with activity and calorie cutting will shut down weightloss. Period. Try aiming for 250 calories cut from your total calorie maintenance, and 250 calories of activity, for 500 per day, and 1lb per week. At that rate it should be around 1lb of fat, and even some water weight as you'll have less carbs stored, therefore less water stored. You won't be starving, and you won't be a hamster on a wheel. It won't even feel like a program, but you'll be 500 calories under. Do more if you're seeing no progress. Cut back if it's muscle being loss. Try to judge yourself over 2weeks, since 1 week is too finite to measure anything accurately. One week measurements can be taken just to see how you change and later...but I wouldn't guage a program that way.
I would do 3 days of lifting, 3 days of activity, be it cardio, sports, basketball, yoga, whatever. Make sure you stretch EVERYDAY.
Get the fitness mentality, and all else will come inline.
Look online for a calorie counter, but you don't necessarily want to eat for what you are, but what you WANT TO BE.
A-Unit
