Testosterone & Calorie Restriction

Nutrition
1

Need some help.

I created a diet and exercise routine…and it failed to deliver…please help me answer why.

Her details:
Female: 28ish
WEight: 69kg
BMR: 1,800kcal/day (maintanance)
Other: Diabetic, Low free testosterone. Her free testosterone was measured to be 0.1. Her doctor advised she go off the pill immediately.

We had a 12 week period to lose weight. As her BMR was 1,800 I reduced her daily calorie intake to 1,200kcal which she adhered to religously with protein and complex carb. All souces I have read state a 500kcal deficit per day is recommended for weight loss and will not adversely impact metabolism. Her daily calorie intake is also still within the ACSM’s guidlines of not resticting below 1200kcal for women. Her fat intake was mainly incidental from protein sources (not planned).

As we had a 12 week period (competition) to lose weight and i could not further calorie restrict I advised 6days per week alternate weights and cardio (HR above 140BPM) where she burn roughly 500kcal per cardio session and 172kcal weights. This comes to a total deficit of 1000kcal per day (500kcal diet deficit, 500kcal exercise deficit). All my textbooks indicate that a 1000kcal deficit is a reasonable and healthy deficit and is certainly required if you are aiming to lose 2pounds per week.

She stuck to my program to the letter. her fitness skyrocketed and she lost 3kilo’s in the first 4 weeks. she then gained 1kilo and decided to up her cardio to two sessions per day for a total defict of around 1,400/1,500kcal. We then went through the rest of the program stagnant losing 300gram, gaining 100gram and so forth. When she upped the cardio I asked her to up her calorie intake to at least 1,300-1,400kcal to compensate but this had no real imact at all.

Can any nutritionists out there advise if i did something wrong here and if so what? My maths and textbooks indicates:
a) a 500kcal reduction in diet is appropriate from BMR
b) over 1,200kcal per day is suitable
c) 500kcal per day exercise is not too much
d) a 1000kcal deficit via diet and exercise should yeild a 2pound pers week loss and is completely suitable.

she at no stage felt ill, lethargic or drained. Her fitness is excellent and HR recovery from interval style training has dramatically improved. Everything I can see tells me She should be losing. Yet i can’t deny her results are not what i anticipated. Am i doing something wrong here? Notes from another post seem to feel the calorie restriction was to extreme? How would her testosterone have affected her fat loss?

Really looking for some educated help here guys.

2

When calories drop below the BMR, the body will enter starvation mode, and greatly burn off alot of muscle.

You’re supposed to take off a 500kcal reduction from the maintenance level calories (in her case probably 2300, maybe a little bit higher) No one should be dieting below BMR level. BMR=BASAL metabolic rate. You should never be eating less than that on any given day.

A calorie is not a calorie. I suggest some calorie cycling one or two days per week. The lowest I’d go on the calories is 1800 for her, and maybe one or two days out of the week (maybe one on sunday and one on wednesday), I’d bump up the calories to maintenance level (2300-2400). You don’t need to restrict calories from diet that strictly AND burn off 1000 calories a day from exercise. The body will burn muscle at an alarming rate (believe me, it happened to me, and I learned my lesson).

So I would suggest:
==5-6 days of 1800-1900 calories
==1-2 days of 2300-2400 Calories
==A reduction in carbs, and in increase in fat intake. This will be your biggest factor in weight loss.

3

[quote]Kamran114 wrote:
a 500kcal reduction in diet is appropriate from BMR

When calories drop below the BMR, the body will enter starvation mode, and greatly burn off alot of muscle.

You’re supposed to take off a 500kcal reduction from the maintenance level calories (in her case probably 2300, maybe a little bit higher) No one should be dieting below BMR level. BMR=BASAL metabolic rate. You should never be eating less than that on any given day.

A calorie is not a calorie. I suggest some calorie cycling one or two days per week. The lowest I’d go on the calories is 1800 for her, and maybe one or two days out of the week (maybe one on sunday and one on wednesday), I’d bump up the calories to maintenance level (2300-2400). You don’t need to restrict calories from diet that strictly AND burn off 1000 calories a day from exercise. The body will burn muscle at an alarming rate (believe me, it happened to me, and I learned my lesson).

So I would suggest:
==5-6 days of 1800-1900 calories
==1-2 days of 2300-2400 Calories
==A reduction in carbs, and in increase in fat intake. This will be your biggest factor in weight loss.
[/quote]

Thanks for the input Kamran114. Yes perhaps I should clarify my message somewhat. I agree that the Basal Metabolic Rate is the energy your body uses to fullfill its requirements at rest. What I had actually calculated as 1,800 for her was her TDEE (total daily energy expenditure).

I used the “Harris-Benedict formula”. this calculates BMR and then allows you to enter a activity multiplyer into the equation. As this is her TDEE it should theoretically be her “maintanance” calorie intake (the amount of calories to neither gain nor lose) I made my reductions from there. I have yet to check my maths on the equation itself which i plan to do this afternoon sometime.

Nonthless the more I look at it the more i think the calorie restriction may have been too high. the ACSM recommends that calories not drop below 1,200kcal per day and while I adhered to this from an intake point of view they must mean that it shouldnt drop to below 1,200 after exercise is into entered into the equation. This means that based on her T.D.E.E of 1,800kcal per day I can only hope to acheive a 600kcal deficit per day (around 500gram loss per week).

I have asked her to resume calorie intake at 1,800kcal until I adjust our routine to suit. I must say though in my studies (i’m a Personal Trainer) this stuff never came up and is not listed in my books. If anyone has any good internet references for me to learn more it would be greatly appreciated. This is my first foray into actually offering a calorific targets rather than generic nutritional advice and i would like to be better prepared for her and other future clients.

Appreciate the help.

4

post this on the musclewithattitude.com site. you will get a great response there!

5

[quote]Pilgrim192 wrote:
post this on the musclewithattitude.com site. you will get a great response there!
[/quote]

Thanks Pilrim192 i posted my question on this site (i didnt know it existed) Had a look at some of your posts as well to see if i could return the favour but D-wood and lifting girl have given you some pretty solid advice regarding your program. All the best and cheers for your help.

6

I popped the lady in question on the scales again today. since beginning the program 13weeks ago she has nonethless lost 5.3kilos (about 10.5 pounds). She is happy with the result. I had been more concerned with the fact that my maths said we should have lost more than this according to her calorie restriction/ energy expenditure from TDEE. Another post had a really good calorie restrcition guideline i hadnt come across before at:

www.mindandmuscle.net/articles/lyle_mcdonald/maximum_fatloss?page=0%2C0

Check it out if your interested. Simply put it talked about maximum allowed calorie restriction that wouldnt cause a drop in lean body mass (muscle). The basis for the calorie restriction created was actually the amount of fat mass. It was an interesting read you might enjoy. Your opinions on the article would also be appreciated.

7

Great article! Quick summary : Each pound of body fat can be mobilized to provide 31kcal energy per day, so multiply that by your fat mass to determine the maximum caloric defecit you can sustain without muscle loss.

8

I think you’re overlooking the fact this chick is diabetic. Weight loss and insulin manipulation (via carb cycling, etc.) work in completely different ways and much much slower. 1lb a week would be a lot for a diabetic. For those who say there is no difference- try being diabetic like I am.