Common Question

[NumeroUno]

If you are cutting and you already eat clean food. Do you really have to cut down that much on food intake, or just throw in cardio? If you do 30 minutes a day, 5 times a week while still lifting intensly, do you have to cut back to 2000 calories? Supposedly to maintain my weight I have to eat 3700 calories a day, they said don't go below 2800 minimum. Can you eat that much and still burn fat?

p.s. Whats the point in doing cardio? Couldn't you just eat less calories and get the same affect?
-Daniel

[karmazon]

Exercise induced calorie deficit is much better than diet induced one(if you get a deficit through diet you will lose muscle, if you get a deficit through exercise you won't). If your maintenance calorie level is 3700 I'd suggest getting 3200 for cutting purposes. You can do something like eat 200 calories less, than burn another 300 by cardio & weight lifting.

[spartan300]

in over 70 shows during my lifetime and never did one minute of cardio!

[Brute Force]

If you are cutting and you already eat clean food. Do you really have to cut down that much on food intake, or just throw in cardio? If you do 30 minutes a day, 5 times a week while still lifting intensly, do you have to cut back to 2000 calories? Supposedly to maintain my weight I have to eat 3700 calories a day, they said don't go below 2800 minimum. Can you eat that much and still burn fat?

p.s. Whats the point in doing cardio? Couldn't you just eat less calories and get the same affect?
-Daniel

I wouldn't cut down a lot of calories too fast. I employ a more gradual approach. I'm an advocate of drinking green tea and doing cardio for the purpose of being able to eat more! You gotta eat big to get big.

You can eat a lot and still lose weight. I would recommend my post on the BruteForce diet. It can be tweaked to meet your goals.