That doesnt even sound that bad or unhealthy man... 2500 cal dinner/feast and then some cardio n weights?!im surprised you got so lean on that. 2500 is kind of a lot for a natty guy. Im not natty and anything over 2600 is like pure water/fat gain for me.
Realistically though, you seemed to under estimate cals, you were likely 1800, and then 800 workout expenditure. Btw, how do u determine accurate calories burned from workout ?
lol, dude i lost 10 lbs on 3500-4000 cals a day post refeed... lots more cardio tho. i couldn't force feed myself to weigh past 260 back in the day. to get past 250 i had to get up to 6500 cals a day. the difference between us probably comes down to DNA, who knows.
most days i got about 2200-2300. i definitely had every symptom of long term energy restriciton... reduced body temperature, varicose veins, edema, chills, dysphoria, extreme weakness, food obsession, bradycardia, hypotension, low t3/t4, etc. etc. etc.
i didn't really accurately track calories burned from exercise. usually i did 500-800 according to the treadmill's computer. tacked on another 200 or so for the weights and sometimes i walked home, another 300 (100 per mile). for walking, biking, and stuff like that i just looked at various online calculators and took an average.
in the real world, there's no way to estimate energy expenditure with much precision... you just gotta benchmark and track changes over time.
i underestimated calories ONE TIME in that thread, as i was specifically trying to slacken my OCD tracking tendencies, and you never let me forget it.
i guarantee you, no one on getbig was a more compulsive tracker than me during the period i lost weight. i obsessively weighed and counted EVERYTHING, down the last stick of gum or gram of condiment.