Am I not eating enough?

[fallenJWW]

I'm trying to lower my bodyfat to a relatively low % for the summer so I look good. I've asked a lot of people about my diet and they say I'm not eating enough. I eat 5-6 meals a day...3 hours apart on school days and 2-2.5 hours apart on weekends when I wake up later.

I do cardio 6x's a week for 30 minutes after I lift weights. I burn about 300 calories alone on cardio. My daily diet looks like this

1875 calories total
40-50 grams fat
140-170 grams carbs
200 grams protein

I am 5'7" 154 lbs looking to get down to about 145 so I can lower my body fat to low levels and reveal my abs better. Tips?

[fallenJWW]

bumppppp :/

[JayCoe]

I don't understand why people always post asking for tips on losing weight. This is a boxing forum, about boxers for people who box or want to box. Not having a go, it's just weird how I would say 1/8 or so topics on this part of the forum is somebody requiring weight loss tactics.

Doing cardio 6 x a week would require a decent calorie intake. I would suggest you increase your calorie intake or else you begin to use your glycogen as fuel which means you break down your muscle mass in order to survive. Ignore your weight, how many lbs you are is unimportant unless you need a fight weight. If you just want to look good you should aim to gain weight but decrease your body fat %, so don't watch the lbs, watch the B.F.%.

Maintain a heart rate of between 120-150 bpm. This is the optium amount for losing weight. Below this and you're warming your muscles up, above this and you're using your muscles more which decreases calorie loss but increases cardio' fitness and slightly muscle content.

[J_CON]

I'm trying to lower my bodyfat to a relatively low % for the summer so I look good. I've asked a lot of people about my diet and they say I'm not eating enough. I eat 5-6 meals a day...3 hours apart on school days and 2-2.5 hours apart on weekends when I wake up later.

I do cardio 6x's a week for 30 minutes after I lift weights. I burn about 300 calories alone on cardio. My daily diet looks like this

1875 calories total
40-50 grams fat
140-170 grams carbs
200 grams protein

I am 5'7" 154 lbs looking to get down to about 145 so I can lower my body fat to low levels and reveal my abs better. Tips?

1875 calories!? I have almost 4000, and im 5'11" 140 lb

[fallenJWW]

I dont know....I mean i've heard that in order to lose fat you need to eat anywehre from 12 to 13 x's your body weight

12 x 154 = 1848
13 x 154 = 2002

but other sites have said in order to maintain my current weight I need around 3000 calories, so deduct 500 from that would make it 2500 to lose fat

and #2, you said "If you just want to look good you should aim to gain weight but decrease your body fat %" I'm pretty sure the only way to gain weight is to EAT EAT and EAT and im pretty sure the only way to reduce body fat is to lower calorie intake by 500.........

I dont really care about my weight, but if im lowering my body fat %, my weight is going to decrease.......

[JayCoe]

I'm pretty sure the only way to gain weight is to EAT EAT and EAT and im pretty sure the only way to reduce body fat is to lower calorie intake by 500.........

You're doing what so many people do nowadays. They think more weight = fat, less weight = healthy. This is not the case. First of all, to maintain current bodyweight for a male you should eat between 2000-2500. So surely to lose weight all you have to do is decrease calorie intake right? No. This can mess with your bodies metabolism in which it can in fact re-adjust itself in order to ensure that more of what you eat is stored as fat because we are animals and our animalistic nature is, just like any other animal, to store food for when food is rare. To gain weight it's true that you need to consume more as your muscles need the resource to grow. However, ask yourself, what looks better? Being skinny or being toned? They do not = the same thing. Would you rather have an actual 6 pack or the scrawny "6 packs" which are the result of a lack of fat rather than muscle?

Whoever told you that in order to reduce body fat you need to decrease calorie intake needs a slap. Body fat can be burned off with cardio' work or light weight hit rep' resistance training. Look at athletes who have a B.F% of around 6-13% and eat up to 6,000 calories a day whilst training. So long as the food is reasonable and not high in fat, consuming a normal calorie intake whilst doing cardio' work is a healthy way to lose fat % and look better.

And to be honest, 6 x a week is over training, I would recommend 3-4 more tiring sessions.