1lb fat = 3500 calories, so for 1/lb a week of fat loss you need a 500 calorie/day deficit. Obviously your workouts can lead to a much great deficit than this, however assuming that your respiratory quotient lands you burning about 50/50 fat/carbs during your workouts then if you don’t get in enough carbs your body will breakdown protein via gluconeogenesis to create the carbs it needs. Taking in too few carbs will increase the % fat burned during the workouts, but will also result in increased MPB, in this case think of the carb intake as a protein sparing tool. There are some merits to ketosis for this reason but that is a very lengthy discussion in itself.
If we arrive at 520 calories from protein, 600 calories from carbs, and 580 calories from fat to get to the 1700 you indicated and if you do 1000 calories of exercise, replacing 500 calories burned with 125 grams of carbs this would leave you with a 500 calorie deficit, in theory anyway, which leads to a 1lb loss per week. I say in theory because studies show exercise calories don’t seem to result in as much fat loss as anticipated but researchers aren’t sure why. There is a belief that NEAT (non-exercise activity thermogenesis) is lower on days you work out accounting for the less than expected fat loss, however a study I saw in the last few weeks seems to show that isn’t the case.
My recommendation for a starting point on the macro breakdown is 0.8g/lb protein, 0.3g/lb fat(minimum) and 150g/day carbs, + 50% of exercise related calories as carbs, so an example day would look like…
BMR = 1700
Workout=1000
Total Expended calories = 2700
Protein = 164*0.8=131 grams = 524 calories
Fat = 164*0.35 = 57grams = 513 calories
Carbs = 150g+125g=250 grams = 1100 calories
524+513+1100=2137-2700 = -563 calories/day.
This should result right around 1lb/week. A few more things to think about…
1.There is consideration but nothing official to drop the calories in protein from 4 down to the 3-3.2 range due to the fact it has such a high TEF(Thermogenic Effect of Food), so this may result in slightly greater deficit than calculated.
2.The 50% carb burn rate is an assumption, the greater training age you have the more power you can generate from fat and thus burn more fat at a given heart rate. You may need less carbs than this depending on how aerobically fit you are, it is just a good starting point if you don’t know you RQ (most people including me don’t).
3. Don’t forget to adjust the numbers as you lose weight.
4. Calorie burn calculated is just an estimate. I’ve seen a lot of mass-marketed program grotesquely over-estimate calories burned, and even the better ones we are likely using are still just estimating.
5. Water weight can vary drastically from day-day, and is primarily driven by carb consumption, both glycogen repletion as well as inflammation. If you’re consistent day-day with carb intake the fluctuations will level out, but binging for a day can add pounds of water weight, so don’t let these fluctuations distract you when you step on the scale if you ate a higher than usual amount of carbs in the last 24 hours.
You can certainly lose more weight by upping the amount of workouts or decreasing carbs. I would start out with the above and then experiment with the carb #’s if you want some additional loss. As long as you feel good, are maintaining strength or getting stronger while dropping weight you are getting things right. If you start having mood swings and feeling weak (not just workout wise, but in general) then I’d look at upping your fat intake. I have been between 1500-2000 calories a day from workouts and haven’t been hitting the 50% carb mark and am doing fine, but all my workouts thus far have been Z2 so my carb burn during workouts is pretty low. I can tell I am staying right on the edge of going into ketosis so for me that means I am just about where I want to be.
At this point the only number I really pay a lot of attention to each day is the protein number, I eat plenty of eggs and avocados and take fish oil every day so that fats are taken care of and just adjust my carb intake as needed to make sure the scale is moving in the right direction. My carb intake will go up once I start doing more intense workouts and I shift out of my weight loss phase.
Once you enter a weight maintenance phase up your fats primarily as this drives the productions of the hormones we need, with some tweaks to carbs primarily timed around workouts. Carbs are definitely beneficial for performance, but in an acute sense, while fat is beneficial for performance in a chronic sense due to improved hormonal profile.
Hope this answers your question.
Edit: Should have been 150grams/day of carbs for starting point, I mistyped it as 125...
If we arrive at 520 calories from protein, 600 calories from carbs, and 580 calories from fat to get to the 1700 you indicated and if you do 1000 calories of exercise, replacing 500 calories burned with 125 grams of carbs this would leave you with a 500 calorie deficit, in theory anyway, which leads to a 1lb loss per week. I say in theory because studies show exercise calories don’t seem to result in as much fat loss as anticipated but researchers aren’t sure why. There is a belief that NEAT (non-exercise activity thermogenesis) is lower on days you work out accounting for the less than expected fat loss, however a study I saw in the last few weeks seems to show that isn’t the case.
My recommendation for a starting point on the macro breakdown is 0.8g/lb protein, 0.3g/lb fat(minimum) and 150g/day carbs, + 50% of exercise related calories as carbs, so an example day would look like…
BMR = 1700
Workout=1000
Total Expended calories = 2700
Protein = 164*0.8=131 grams = 524 calories
Fat = 164*0.35 = 57grams = 513 calories
Carbs = 150g+125g=250 grams = 1100 calories
524+513+1100=2137-2700 = -563 calories/day.
This should result right around 1lb/week. A few more things to think about…
1.There is consideration but nothing official to drop the calories in protein from 4 down to the 3-3.2 range due to the fact it has such a high TEF(Thermogenic Effect of Food), so this may result in slightly greater deficit than calculated.
2.The 50% carb burn rate is an assumption, the greater training age you have the more power you can generate from fat and thus burn more fat at a given heart rate. You may need less carbs than this depending on how aerobically fit you are, it is just a good starting point if you don’t know you RQ (most people including me don’t).
3. Don’t forget to adjust the numbers as you lose weight.
4. Calorie burn calculated is just an estimate. I’ve seen a lot of mass-marketed program grotesquely over-estimate calories burned, and even the better ones we are likely using are still just estimating.
5. Water weight can vary drastically from day-day, and is primarily driven by carb consumption, both glycogen repletion as well as inflammation. If you’re consistent day-day with carb intake the fluctuations will level out, but binging for a day can add pounds of water weight, so don’t let these fluctuations distract you when you step on the scale if you ate a higher than usual amount of carbs in the last 24 hours.
You can certainly lose more weight by upping the amount of workouts or decreasing carbs. I would start out with the above and then experiment with the carb #’s if you want some additional loss. As long as you feel good, are maintaining strength or getting stronger while dropping weight you are getting things right. If you start having mood swings and feeling weak (not just workout wise, but in general) then I’d look at upping your fat intake. I have been between 1500-2000 calories a day from workouts and haven’t been hitting the 50% carb mark and am doing fine, but all my workouts thus far have been Z2 so my carb burn during workouts is pretty low. I can tell I am staying right on the edge of going into ketosis so for me that means I am just about where I want to be.
At this point the only number I really pay a lot of attention to each day is the protein number, I eat plenty of eggs and avocados and take fish oil every day so that fats are taken care of and just adjust my carb intake as needed to make sure the scale is moving in the right direction. My carb intake will go up once I start doing more intense workouts and I shift out of my weight loss phase.
Once you enter a weight maintenance phase up your fats primarily as this drives the productions of the hormones we need, with some tweaks to carbs primarily timed around workouts. Carbs are definitely beneficial for performance, but in an acute sense, while fat is beneficial for performance in a chronic sense due to improved hormonal profile.
Hope this answers your question.
Edit: Should have been 150grams/day of carbs for starting point, I mistyped it as 125...