Home Q&A Wednesday Q&A Wednesday: How Do I Calculate The Calories I Should Cut?

Q&A Wednesday: How Do I Calculate The Calories I Should Cut?

by Erika Nicole Kendall

Honestly, like I said in the clip… I just wanted an excuse to wear my RiRi Woo.

bgg2wl

A girl always needs a nice shade of red for the lips, man. Always.

What questions do y’all have? I know we’ve discussed calorie cutting before, and I might not’ve been as clear as I normally like to be, so let me know what questions you’ve got.

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11 comments

megan May 8, 2013 - 11:22 PM

You are so awesome. Thank you, thank you a million for all the all the wise support you continually offer! Each day is new, and that’s how I keep on keepin on to be who I’m gonna be. Thank you.

Samantha May 9, 2013 - 10:11 PM

Hi Erika! I love your blog and youtube channel!! So i’ve been struggling with this weight loss thing and after this video I think I understand why. My BMR is about 2300 cal/day and i’ve been restricting myself to about 1000 cal/day and exercising but i have not seen the progress i anticipated and i guess that’s because my body thinks its starving. My question is how do I manage get in 2000/cal day eating veggies, lean meat and fruit? It seems i would have to be eating all day!

Erika Nicole Kendall May 10, 2013 - 11:50 PM

Healthy forms of fats, allowing yourself treats, lots of options. I’m a big fan of avocado, nuts, fruit, oils. Great ways to get the calories up.

Daphney May 10, 2013 - 6:00 AM

What are your thoughts on detox? Do you have one that you recommend?

Erika Nicole Kendall May 10, 2013 - 11:46 PM
Bex July 3, 2013 - 4:58 AM

Have you heard of the concept of Colin different food groups when you eat, not eating certain groups together (or within a certain amount of time together) limiting meals to well planned combinations of one to two groups ? I’m not sure what to think of this bec some of the biology in theory makes sense to me, realistically and intuitively I’m not sure how I actually feel about it though. I have a friend who swears by it, but I’m not really one to get caught up in what people swear by unless they really te science behind it. Do you have any information on whether that is a good method or way to change eating habits , and if its effective ? I think the idea is something to the effect of, your body uses excess polysaccharides (I may have some of this mixed up help lol) for energy before it uses excess lipids , before it finally chooses protein if there isn’t enough of the other two. So the idea being you can direct your body by trying to have excess fats burned more efficiently. This may or may not be related to the idea I’ve also heard from some people, about working out when you first get up on an empty or relatively empty stomach. (So supposedly you immediately start burning fat instead of wasting some/all of the calorie burn on the breakfast you just ate). I’m asking bec I’m not sure if any of that is a healthy attitude or way to go about it, not sure if I even have the biology straight. Any insights?

Erika Nicole Kendall July 11, 2013 - 10:41 AM

Carb cycling? I think that the average non-competing person has WAY more problems with their daily fitness habits, that thinking that they need *carb cycling* to fix them instead of simply changing the way they eat and changing how active they are is a far more logical step.

Carb cycling is simply low-carb living in a way that allows people to have their binge moments. It’s spreading an average value of carbs across three days in a way that allots for a day of suffering, and a day of “joy.” For someone who hardly knows how to ear in a way that’d maintain a certain weight, this is pointless and a waste of time.

I also think that the idea of cardio on an empty stomach is kinda silly. You can slough through cardio on an empty stomach and burn a little fat, or you can fuel for your cardio properly and burn way more calories.

Bex July 3, 2013 - 5:00 AM

*cycling not Colin lol

Bex July 14, 2013 - 11:25 PM

Okay thanks for your input! Thanks for doing what you do! 🙂

Kaleah May 22, 2015 - 6:04 AM

So i have a question about how you can maintain/build muscle with a 10,500 deficit. My current trainer has me on a 3lb/wk loss and a 1450 calorie intake. I know that’s lower than my bmr and I’m assuming we’ll go up in calories soon, but I’m wondering is stuff like protein shakes supposed to be helping the prevention of burning muscle?

I’m trying to trust his process but I’m hungry all the time and cranky. He says I’m not getting enough water (I might get 64 oz and he wants me to hit 130 oz) and that’s likely what’s causing that feeling, but after watching your video, now I’m like wait… We might need to have another conversation. I want to build muscle and lose fat and not be hungry all the time, but will that be possible with 1450 calories a day and burning 1000 in workouts (I wear a HRM and walk in the morning and hit the gym in the afternoon). And to be honest, I’m eating closer to 1750 cause I’m so hungry. From watching this it sounds like no, but maybe I don’t have all the info?

Erika Nicole Kendall May 24, 2015 - 11:54 AM

You cannot simultaneously build muscle and lose fat on a deficit like that. All you can do is lose and hope that you don’t lose any muscle, hence the high protein and the strength training.

Any training routine that interferes with your work life and your ability to function daily should be approached with extreme caution. If your trainer cannot adjust your regimen to accommodate your daily life, and the nutrition plan is so bad that you’re actively cheating on it because it’s unbearable, tell the trainer you’re unwilling to do it and that it needs to change.

You are not beholden to what amounts to a bad training plan. Your trainer should be knowledgeable enough that they can modify the plan for you and, if they can’t, you are well within your right to fire them. It’s literally the nature of the beast.

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