question about cutting

[thebob]

i read diesel's cutting guide and he says never to go below 1600 calories per day

quite honestly i don't know jackshlt about cutting or bulking, but what's so bad about going below 1600 calories?

for ex. today i had a small bowl of wheaties (w/skim milk), nothing for lunch besides like half a bottle of gatorade, and 2 slices of pizza+a salad (no dressing) for supper. Also drinking a fair amound of water.

btw i dont have access to weights right now so im just doing push-ups, crunchies, and some cardio (only the short maximum-effort kind he recommended) for the time being (hopefully this will change soon, but for now...).

i'm 5'11" 185lbs right now(not sure what my bf% is), and doing this i've been losing 2-3 pounds a day and my muscles seem to be getting harder (not huge obviously, but cutting takes priority over bulking right now for me anyway).

 

[Industry]

I shouldn't even take the time to answer this but I'm taking a break from studying so here it goes.

Have you ever looked at some of the kids from 3rd world countries and wondered why they are so fat if they are starving all the time? Welll this is why.....

When your body doesn't get enough food it instinctively goes into storage mode. What this means is that if you don't eat enough food them what you do take in will be stored as fat. You will lose muscle and become a blob of wasted life on the couch. There is never any need to go below 1600 calories, ever. Just watch your food intake, lift harder than ever before and take your supplements.



- Industry

 

[italostud]

Well, 1600 is just an arbitrary number. It all depends on your body. But for your size, shooting for 1600-2000 cals a day probably isn't a bad idea. Try to cycle your cals, meaning, do 2000 for a couple of days, 1600 for another couple days, then 1800. Mix it up. Have a cheat day a week to keep your sanity. Lift in a HIIT style and do lots of cardio.

BTW, NOBODY loses 2-3 pounds of fat per day. It's most likely water, fat and muscle. You only want to lose fat. So don't drop the cals to low.

 

[Neo]

1600 is just a suggestion, what you should be doing is finding the amount of calories it takes for you to maintain your weight. (how many calories so you dont gain or lose weight), then if you're cutting, drop this by 100 calories, and keep it at that for a couple of weeks, if you aren't losing weight, drop it a bit more.
The numbers arent set in stone, there's no 1 number fits all.