I need a little advice: How many cals do I need?

[Bingemoose]

Hey guys, I started at orange theory fitness to get some hardcore cardio to help me lose weight and get my lungs into shape to start playing rugby again (hopefully). According to them I usually burn about ~1000 cal per workout. I don’t get much out of the weight lifting there and I want to do a full body three days a week on my own. I weigh 207 right now hoping to get to around 190. How much should I be eating to keep losing weight, but at the same time build a bit of muscle and keep some strength.

 

[snake]

The quick and dirty answer is a deficit of 500 calories a day for the next 4 months.1000 cals/ work out is a big number. I'd have to run non stop for an hour to burn that; and that's beyond my abilities.

The part about not getting much out of a work out; you mean as in muscle or burning calories?

 

[Ironwood]

3,500 calories is lb of fat. Like snake says 500 calorie daily deficit would take roughly 4 months. You need to figure out your resting metabolic rate. This is the amount of calories you burn daily without exercise. Based on your weight numbers, it is probably around 2,200 to 2,300 calories a day. If not already, start tracking your food religiously. Use a food tracking app. I like MyFitnessPal. Get a food scale. Macros are important for your goals too. Make sure you get enough protein. Probably need at least 180 grams a day.

 

[Jin]

I'm with Snake. There's a lot of people on this board that go after it pretty hard and my guess is most of them don't burn 1,000 calories in a workout.

 

[MrRippedZilla]

As a beginner to lifting, you can easily lose fat, build muscle & get stronger at the same time provided the caloric deficit isn't too big.

I'm not going to throw a bunch of random numbers at you. Find a TDEE calculator on Google (for the part that asks about energy expenditure, go 1 below what you really think it is) and then subtract, say, 20%. That's your calorie target.
Keep protein high - 2.4g/kg is my recommendation.

3,500 calories is lb of fat. Like snake says 500 calorie daily deficit would take roughly 4 months.

Sounds good on paper. Never plays out that way in reality (your never losing 100% fat). Good read on the topic if your interested in learning more:

 

[Bingemoose]

The quick and dirty answer is a deficit of 500 calories a day for the next 4 months.1000 cals/ work out is a big number. I'd have to run non stop for an hour to burn that; and that's beyond my abilities.

The part about not getting much out of a work out; you mean as in muscle or burning calories?

I feel like my arms, shoulders, back, etc aren’t getting as much of a workout. The majority of the program is running and rowing for about 45 minutes. With a little bit of low weight interval training. My legs are constantly sore but the rest of my body feels ~normal.

 

[Bingemoose]

The way I got that 1000 cal number was they hook you up to a heart rate monitor and keep you in certain zones. It’s orobably not acurate.