I'm pretty sedentary (student, coding) with a BMR of about 1700, and my TDEE is quite low without exercise. I eat at maintenance level (1800 kcal), and then create my deficit through exercise, burning a total between 2200-2300 daily.
So, for those who run a typical 500 calorie deficit and prefer to create it through exercise, what do you do? My difficulty is burning the required amount on a consistent, daily basis, mainly because so much cardio involves the legs.
For example yesterday I went for a 3 mile walk and later in the day did 30 mins of jump rope. Today my legs were wasted so I opted to use my arms and chop wood with a splitting axe for two hours.
One of my favorite ways to burn them is just to go for a long walk, like over 6 miles. That usually burns around 500 calories if you do it in under 2 hours. It's so easy going, however not very time efficient.
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[–] dirkgently 0 points 4 points 4 points (+4|-0) ago (edited ago)
you trying to loose weight? if so just cut out 250 more calories and then burn 250 or cut 400 and burn 100. You don't have to burn them, you can just not eat them.
edit: and to answer your question, running about 2-3 miles plus some bodyweight training. can get close to that 500
[–] voatkick [S] ago
Yeah, I'm about 15-16% b.f. and I want to get down to ~10% I think. I know eating less is an option but I already get somewhat hungry during the day @ 1800 so I'd rather not cut my intake any more unless I absolutely will have to. I hope I can go all the way down at 1800. The math says I should be able to but we will see in reality I guess.
[–] dirkgently 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
What is your weight height? I have somewhere in the same range of body fat % but it's thrown off by my gut. I have like nothing through most of my body but it concentrates it my face and gut. I lift 5 days a week and and medium active the rest of the week, My maintenance level is about 2000, right now I am taking in 1200-1500 calories a day right now and I'm losing body fat. I will say that i have noticed that no matter what the calories are, if I eat carbs, I can not loose body fat. Maybe because I'm not running currently but that's just my experience.
Also when I was really shedding fat I ate like 800-1000 cal a day and you learn to be hungry, its pretty easy once you get over that first week. I almost look at it like the feeling of hunger is really my body digesting its own fat and that is a good thing.