Hard to believe I need just 2000 calories to maintain?

[kintana]

I am 5'11 and usually between 96 KG and 97 KG and semi active male.

My best competition weight was 91 KG but I look good and move well at 96. I decided to drop some weight to get back down to 91 KG. I went to a nutrionist (my gf) and IFBB PRO or something champion. I told her my goals which was stay at 91 KG.

I work out about 2 times per day, usually 35 to 50 mins of weight lifting body building split and 1 hour of MMA/Grappling/Muay Thai every day. I train usually 5 to 6 days per week. We all know sometimes grappling is not that much exertion.

So my GF gave me a diet plan when I was 94 KG , and it was 2500 KCAL a day to lose weight. Very clean and I stuck to it. Yet each week I kept putting on weight some muscle some fat.

After about 3 weeks I was at 98 KG. So she brought me down to 2300. I still stayed roughly at the same weight. After we went down to 2000 KCAL and I still maintained 96 to 97.

So we went to a extreme and I started eating 1500 to 1700 KCAL per day, just under 250 grams of protein(which was hard to do) and I started to lose weight, down to 93 in about 2.5 weeks.

My fitness GF started saying I must have been cheating because I should eat 3000 KCAL to maintain and 2300 I should drop a lot. I honestly said you think I would eat extra at 1000 calories but not eat extra at 1500 while you were not looking, and the weight is now coming off.

I have always been on the heavier side with muscle, yet I am not surprised due to slow metabolism that I can lose weight at 1500 and maintain at 2000. My family is a big one with wide midsections so at 91 I look pretty good with abs showing. And I do agree 1500 is low but it works for me.

So is it so weird that I need 2000 KCAL a day with my workout schedule?

 

[NoSmilez]

I don't think you are cheating but you might be underestimating your caloric intake. Do you weigh your food and count oil?

 

[kahiljabroni]

Yeh it's pretty depressing to learn. Mine is somewhere around the same... maybe even lower now because ive been intermittent fasting for so long. I know when I stick to 15-1600 for a bit I drop weight. That means no booz... no snacks... it's no way to live

 

[biscuitsbrah]

Grappling is a shit load of exertion and you have 10-12 workouts a week?

Something not adding up

 

[MT5]

I ain't a nutritionist or anything and I have never kept as close track as you. But honestly I dont find that odd. The amount of food I need to eat to lose weight is generally tiny.

 

[Renard]

Yeah that's very weird. You sure you tracked all condiments, sauces, cream in your coffee, oils, nuts, etc? It can add up quickly. As you say though, it's unlikely that you added 1000 calories in condiments without realizing. It's possible you miscalculate normal foods though. Weigh everything because the nutrition labels and apps are often misleading. For example the internet says a medium potato is 100 calories, but when you weigh one you find out a typical potato is actually 200-300 calories. There are hundreds of foods like that. Manufacturers also seem keen on downplaying calories on their labels, for example a bag of chips will say X chips equals Y grams equals Z calories, but when you weigh them you find out each chip is heavier than stated and you get to eat less chips to get to that number of calories. It's also possible you lost fat but gained muscle mass, making the number on the scale misleading. How long did you try the higher calories? If it was only for a short time, the lack of weight loss could also be a fluke due to weight fluctuations or body recomposition.

There was a study on The Biggest Loser contestants which found that they had much lower basal metabolic rates than other people of the same size. It was outside of the scope of the study to find out what caused it. A lot of people speculated that this was result of the extreme diet/exercise regime on the biggest loser causing a low metabolism. There's another interpretation though: that the contestants in large already had a low metabolism and that's what drove them to be extremely obese in the first place. So it's not impossible to have a shitty BMR to start off with, but I would eliminate other factors before reaching that conclusion.

 

[1rawdog]

Definitely prudent to suspect some type of miscalculating going on here but there is always that chance that you are metabolically outside the norm. Maybe macro nutrient ratios or meal timing are very important for you personally
@Renard and others make good points, I would add relying on info from crowd sourced apps is the biggest mistake I see. If you are using one verify all the items you use or create your own. Be careful about which items you use cooked vs raw weight on. For example rice gains weight and steak loses weight when cooked. I'd suggest using raw weight for those if you are trying to determine exact calories.

How exactly do you go about measuring and counting?

 

[1rawdog]

f*cking losers who don't follow up on threads they start when people make the effort to help them...

wasted keystrokes i know

 

[kintana]

I don't think you are cheating but you might be underestimating your caloric intake. Do you weigh your food and count oil?

Yes i do. Every morning I use Fat Secrets and plan my meals. I weigh everything, I didn't even eat out.

At most I put two tablespoons of olive oil a day. I do not drink Coffee, just tea with Sweet and Low. 0 Kcal or Sugar Free energy drinks.

I have heard some podcasts were they say that calories in package labels can be incorrect. So it is possible that is throwing my numbers off

 

[kintana]

Grappling is a shit load of exertion and you have 10-12 workouts a week?

Something not adding up

I disagree it depends on how tough your rolls are. Most in my school are white and blue belts. I am a black belt with 12 years of training so I do not feel like need to exert a lot of energy. I play more technical game.

When I roll with the few black belts we have it is usually just 2 to 3 times a week. Yes those rolls are tough but I am in super good cardio shape. I am never the first to get tired.

But if you ask me if I am struggling to survive a typical grappling work out (Jiu Jitsu) to be clear,I am fine. If you think it about it it is about 10 min warm up, 20 to 30 mins technique, maybe 10 to 20 mins of specific sparring and 30 mins of sparring with blue belts. So not that heart rate intensive

Wrestling is tough but i only do that once a week.

 

[kintana]

Yeah that's very weird. You sure you tracked all condiments, sauces, cream in your coffee, oils, nuts, etc? It can add up quickly. As you say though, it's unlikely that you added 1000 calories in condiments without realizing. It's possible you miscalculate normal foods though. Weigh everything because the nutrition labels and apps are often misleading. For example the internet says a medium potato is 100 calories, but when you weigh one you find out a typical potato is actually 200-300 calories. There are hundreds of foods like that. Manufacturers also seem keen on downplaying calories on their labels, for example a bag of chips will say X chips equals Y grams equals Z calories, but when you weigh them you find out each chip is heavier than stated and you get to eat less chips to get to that number of calories. It's also possible you lost fat but gained muscle mass, making the number on the scale misleading. How long did you try the higher calories? If it was only for a short time, the lack of weight loss could also be a fluke due to weight fluctuations or body recomposition.

There was a study on The Biggest Loser contestants which found that they had much lower basal metabolic rates than other people of the same size. It was outside of the scope of the study to find out what caused it. A lot of people speculated that this was result of the extreme diet/exercise regime on the biggest loser causing a low metabolism. There's another interpretation though: that the contestants in large already had a low metabolism and that's what drove them to be extremely obese in the first place. So it's not impossible to have a shitty BMR to start off with, but I would eliminate other factors before reaching that conclusion.

The labelling is what I am looking at now. I thought those numbers are somewhat accurate but I noticed the same thing with a medium potato.

Only condiment I use is this sugar free BBQ sauce and never more than 1 table spoon which according to the label is 10 calories.

I am thinking that the nutritional info online or labels can be very off. So I now am just buying non package goods and using a website that seems to track pretty accurate calories.

 

[kintana]

f*cking losers who don't follow up on threads they start when people make the effort to help them...

wasted keystrokes i know

Sorry bro, I had a competition so had to make it.

Got down to 91 KG on 1500 a day

 

[1rawdog]

meh

 

[biscuitsbrah]

I disagree it depends on how tough your rolls are. Most in my school are white and blue belts. I am a black belt with 12 years of training so I do not feel like need to exert a lot of injury. I play more technical game.

When I roll with the few black belts we have it is usually just 2 to 3 times a week. Yes those rolls are tough but I am in super good cardio shape. I am never the first to get tired.

But if you ask me if I am struggling to survive a typical grappling work out (Jiu Jitsu) to be clear,I am fine. If you think it about it it is about 10 min warm up, 20 to 30 mins technique, maybe 10 to 20 mins of specific sparring and 30 mins of sparring with blue belts. So not that heart rate intensive

Wrestling is tough but i only do that once a week.

Never mind I figured it was no gi

 

[bean88]

That does seem low, I’m 5’11 and 75kg/165lbs at the moment and I slowly dropped to this weight from 82kg fairly recently eating around 2000-2200 cals a day. I have to maintain a decent amount of daily activity (~600 cals minimum through walking/jogging/weight lifting with some higher expenditure days)

If I was barely moving I’d expect to have to drop to 1600 cals a day

For what it’s worth my nutritionist / bb friend always seems to massively exaggerate what I would be able to lose weight eating and tells me to start at 2800 cals, which I’d expect to gain weight on

 

[chimpoehurricane]

I am 5'11 and usually between 96 KG and 97 KG and semi active male.

My best competition weight was 91 KG but I look good and move well at 96. I decided to drop some weight to get back down to 91 KG. I went to a nutrionist (my gf) and IFBB PRO or something champion. I told her my goals which was stay at 91 KG.

I work out about 2 times per day, usually 35 to 50 mins of weight lifting body building split and 1 hour of MMA/Grappling/Muay Thai every day. I train usually 5 to 6 days per week. We all know sometimes grappling is not that much exertion.

So my GF gave me a diet plan when I was 94 KG , and it was 2500 KCAL a day to lose weight. Very clean and I stuck to it. Yet each week I kept putting on weight some muscle some fat.

After about 3 weeks I was at 98 KG. So she brought me down to 2300. I still stayed roughly at the same weight. After we went down to 2000 KCAL and I still maintained 96 to 97.

So we went to a extreme and I started eating 1500 to 1700 KCAL per day, just under 250 grams of protein(which was hard to do) and I started to lose weight, down to 93 in about 2.5 weeks.

My fitness GF started saying I must have been cheating because I should eat 3000 KCAL to maintain and 2300 I should drop a lot. I honestly said you think I would eat extra at 1000 calories but not eat extra at 1500 while you were not looking, and the weight is now coming off.

I have always been on the heavier side with muscle, yet I am not surprised due to slow metabolism that I can lose weight at 1500 and maintain at 2000. My family is a big one with wide midsections so at 91 I look pretty good with abs showing. And I do agree 1500 is low but it works for me.

So is it so weird that I need 2000 KCAL a day with my workout schedule?

That's great. You can do like 23&me and get that transcribed for you. Know your best foods to dirt on and training too.

 

[Trabaho]

Maybe it's your metabolism. We are genetically unique.

Our bodies are labs not math equations.

Calories are a relative thing. Like a guideline.

Some people absobr more some less. Some burn more some less.

So genetics.

I'm sure 2 people of the same height weight and activity level. Will not react identical to the same amount of calories. We are biologically individual.

 

[Tayski]

Counting calories is a drain and hard to do accurately.

Just eat healthy foods in good quantities and avoid all the bad stuff.