a good question

[T-800]

say, for example, i do no exercise and need 2500 calories a day to maintain my LEAN body weight. since my lean body weight is my total weight minus my total fat, i want to keep all of my lean body weight.

if i eat 500 calories below my maintenance level calories based on lean body weight, won't that not be enough to sustain what i want to keep? since my lean body weight needs 2500 calories and they're only getting 2000, won't i lose 500 calories worth of lean weight? OR, will my body burn 500 calories of fat to maintain the 2500 needed for the lean weight?

if my body will not burn the 500 calories of fat to sustain my lean body weight, wouldn't it be better to eat 2500 calories and instead burn off 500 calories by running?

i ask this question because i want to lose about 5 lb of fat. i'm wondering if i should:

do about 500 calories worth of cardio and eat BELOW 2500 calories (2000, for example)

or

do about 500 calories worth of cardio and eat 2500 calories. if subtracting an extra 500 calories will not sustain my lean body weight, which i want to keep, why would i do it?

in summary, i'm wondering if it matters which way calories are burned. is there a difference between creating a caloric defecit by eating less calories or by exercise? will the amount of lean body weight lost (if any) be the same in both cases?

thank you

 

[T-800]

?

no one can answer this?

 

[Cuts]

I don't think there's a definitive answer for this type of question. Some guys (probably the more genetically blessed ones) swear that they can lean out by just reducing calories... i.e. they don't need to do any cardio. Other more endomorphic guys (like myself) don't have it so easy unfortunately. We probably have to do both--reduce cals and do cardio to burn that stubborn fat. As with so many other things with bodybuilding, you just have to experiment on yourself and see what works best for YOU. Good luck.

 

[T-800]

bump

 

[_jaap_]

from a purely fysiological point of view there is no diference between a deficit which stems from exercise or diet.

But like cuts said, for those of us which have crap genetics (why dint i cut in line a bit when they were handing them out ) it just doesnt seem enough to just cut cals from diet.

Anyway i would suggests doing both a little, no way near 500 tho start a lot lower, reduce mayb 100 cals from diet and burn 200 cals with cardio. Also make sure you are eating a good macro nutrient profile i.e. high prot, moderate carbs, moderate fat (poly unsaturated off course).