Recomposition: Maintaining weight while losing fat
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Kerryatoon wrote: »The bold is what i am confused about. Why at such a high deficit?
A cut is when you eat at a deficit. You are cutting body fat down.
I am not sure the science on question 2 outside of newbie gains I wouldn't think so.
Again not a science person so no idea.
@sunflowerhippi I just switched from MFP 1200/day cals (-2lb/week goal) to using TDEE. I calculated my TDEE usng my actual data (weight loss and calories eaten) over a 10 week period and came up with at TDEE of 1842.
At a 25% deficit that would put me at 1382. MFP says that will give me 1lb/week loss. Quite honestly I'm struggling with the change in mindset of eating more.. I'm also still tweaking to reduce fats and increase protein so I meet my protein macros without going over my calories. I often will eat under my cal goals anyway because I'm scared to go up to the 1390.
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Nah I get the mindset change. It takes a while to get used to the idea of eating more and that you will still lose weight and body fat while doing it. (This is my second time around due to pregnancy haha)
I would rather lose slower and keep firm skin then to drop to fast and end up with looser skin in the end. I am having that problem this time due to 30lbs in 1 month when my daughter was born. As much as it blows to see the scale go slower it is a better long term goal and more sustainable. Anytime I go up in calories as I get closer to maintenance I find that I go up a bit on the scales but then it settles back down and then drops lower. You just have to go with the flow on the scale and make sure that long term it is going down.
Also I know for me reducing fats made it harder to reach protein because I like red meats and cheese both of which are higher in fat but high protein also. This obviously depends on your style of foods and what you like to eat but I find lowering carbs just happens when I aim to meat my protein.1 -
@sunflowerhippi Thanks! I'll keep that in mind as I watch the trend over the next few weeks. I'm having the same problem with finding LEAN proteins. I love red meat, nuts and cheese.. do you use protein powder at all? I'm considering it since I have yet to meet my protein goals since calculating @1g/lb LBM.0
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LOL! @sunflowerhippi "when I aim to meat my protein." Well said!2
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Hey all! Great thread here. Wanted to jump in and get some feedback. Just wondering when you all decided to finally make the jump to recomposition? I've lost from 240 to 165ish (bounce between 165 and 167), and still currently in a slight deficit.
It's hard for me to estimate my own body fat, as I think I have a skewed image of what I look like. I'll post my current pic here to help, but want to make sure I'm at a point where recomp is appropriate.
A bit about me:
M, 26 years old
5' 9.33", weight like I said above 165 pounds.
Waist measurement: 32", give or take a 1/2 cm
During my deficit, I really only ran and did cardio. I haven't touched a weight in years. Which is one of the reasons I'm wanting to start a recomp.
Hope you all can help and point me in the right direction, whether it's time to start the recomp or if I should cut a few more pounds first. And if you have a BF% estimate for me that would be great too!
Wow! Can't wait to see your gains when you start lifting. It should be awesome!
Congrats on your loss and progress so far! 0 -
Kerryatoon wrote: »@sunflowerhippi Thanks! I'll keep that in mind as I watch the trend over the next few weeks. I'm having the same problem with finding LEAN proteins. I love red meat, nuts and cheese.. do you use protein powder at all? I'm considering it since I have yet to meet my protein goals since calculating @1g/lb LBM.
I do. Normally as a mid day sweet snack to tide me over till dinner. I work till 6:30pm so I eat a very late dinner by the time I get home and get the baby to sleep for the night. I added you to my friends list if you want to accept. I have an open diary to friends.1 -
KarenHatch1 wrote: »LOL! @sunflowerhippi "when I aim to meat my protein." Well said!
That was so not me, haha talk to text did good for that pun.
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@Kerryatoon - wow - you were eating what is considered bare minimum for just nutrients for average sedentary woman just for safety.
You should really think about trying to get more than minimum results from all your hard work by keeping the deficit reasonable. And a level appropriate for a man.
I'd throw out your math for estimating your TDEE based on weight loss when eating that little - you likely lost LBM and muscle mass doing no lifting - and that means the 3500 cal/lb is invalid - as muscle not rebuilt only supplies about 600 cal/lb from the amino acids. Ya - easier to lose a lb of muscle than a lb of fat as far as calories is concerned.
And with only 10 lbs left - you'd really benefit from only a 250 cal deficit if using MFP style, or 15% if using TDEE style.
And whatever tables you use for TDEE - be aware they only talk about exercise in their rough 5 ranges, if you are more active than 45 hr weekly deskjob commute, like you have kids - then you bump up to Lightly Active just for that. Exercise is even more than.0 -
@heybales Thank you for all the information. I do want to benefit from my hard work! Definitely!! I went to your page and used your excel spreadsheets to calculate my TDEE & TDEG. The results were very close for my TDEG: 1635 & 1616 (@10% deficit). I am concerned that I lost LBM during my 1200 loss period as I wasn't lifting and my loss was fairly rapid. So I suspect you are right about my TDEE Calculations.. My calculation was 1390 vs. your sheets 1795. That's a 400/cal difference! Since it is such a large difference I think I will try the low end @ 1616 TDEG. I am willing to try this and will be looking at the details on how to set up my MFP but I'm freaking out a bit about it..
It seems crazy!!! I am already struggling to reach 1390 daily. I can't imagine eating enough to reach 1616!!! I feel like I'm eating when I'm not hungry and struggling to finish my meals that I'm calculating. I have noticed I'm more hungry on lifting days but not starving. I've already started to eat more frequent "small" meals throughout the day in an attempt to get in more calories.. but I just can't wrap my brain around the amount of VOLUME I need to consume to reach my cal goals. Am I that off that I've been starving myself? Can this be right?! Sorry I don't mean to be critical, I'm just baffled.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP!!!!0 -
Your body can adjust hunger levels when undereating, and not be hungry.
You feeling full, and your body being fully fed for level of activity - are 2 different things.
That's why the advice to listen to your body rarely works - unless you truly understand all the reasons why the signals could be wrong.
Shoot - most people are trying to lose weight exactly because they did listen to hunger signals.
I'd suggest give your body a stress break from the diet - slowly work your way up to what potential TDEE could be.
So for a week, eat 100 cal daily extra. Next week, 100 more daily. until you reach no diet for a week or two.
That will also help you figure out where to put the calories.
Remember fat is good for you. Excess of anything is not. So don't buy only non/low fat stuff. More fat will take care of the volume problem. Ya, eating 100 more calories of cauliflower would be very difficult. A half serving of peanut butter weight - not so much.
You'll be shocked as you eat more, likely are more active daily whether you notice it or not, workouts improve - and you actually get more hungry eating more and more.
Any diet is really just extended starving from body's viewpoint. How much before it tries to adapt to prevent it is the question.
And I'd wager your body was adapting depending on how long in diet to that extreme.
Shoot, while moving up in calories, you just may discover that the transformation of the body to good workouts is causing a better effect than losing 10 more lbs would be - and then you'll be doing exactly what this topic is talking about.
Or you could do that minor deficit and finish it off at the same time.1 -
@heybales Your reasoning is sound.. I can't argue with that. I'm sure my body has adapted to it.. I remember 1200 cals being a major challenge in the beginning. I appreciate you speaking up on this as well as @sunflowerhippi, I know it wasn't necessarily the original topic of this thread. The more I look at other people's diaries, specifically people that are achieving what I want to in weightlifting, I see that their cals are all much closer to the higher TDEG I calculated. I'll work on it slowly and see how my workouts come along. I'm definitely less attached to my "goal weight" and may possibly be closer to my ideal weight than I think, what I really want is more muscle and lower BF% = RECOMP! Thank you so much!0
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Following and bumping up0
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Hi everyone. I'm trying to Sort through all of the posts on here to figure his whole recomp thing out. I started with a trainer last week. I'm 5'8.5" and between 169 and 171 currently. I started this whole thing to lose Weight after having my daughter and am down 76 pounds now. I have another 10-15 to go, but I am pretty sure I'm in more need of a recomp. So, here I am.
I started with a personal trainer last week. I've been doing Jillian Michaels workouts, Bob Harper workouts, kickboxing, spinning, etc. a lot of cardio with weights and body resistance but my trainer said I need to start the weight training. My MFP is currently set to lose 1lb per week. I've always had it set to that. That means it says 1630 calories per day, which I know is too low for a body recomp. I've upped my protein intake a lot, but I am just at a loss for figuring out this whole TDEE thing and amount of protein I really actually need, etc. getting out of the mindset of eating so little in calories and eating more is a huge transition and I'd like some guidance from any of you! Kind of lost. Thank you in advance!0 -
ereckless82 wrote: »Hi everyone. I'm trying to Sort through all of the posts on here to figure his whole recomp thing out. I started with a trainer last week. I'm 5'8.5" and between 169 and 171 currently. I started this whole thing to lose Weight after having my daughter and am down 76 pounds now. I have another 10-15 to go, but I am pretty sure I'm in more need of a recomp. So, here I am.
I started with a personal trainer last week. I've been doing Jillian Michaels workouts, Bob Harper workouts, kickboxing, spinning, etc. a lot of cardio with weights and body resistance but my trainer said I need to start the weight training. My MFP is currently set to lose 1lb per week. I've always had it set to that. That means it says 1630 calories per day, which I know is too low for a body recomp. I've upped my protein intake a lot, but I am just at a loss for figuring out this whole TDEE thing and amount of protein I really actually need, etc. getting out of the mindset of eating so little in calories and eating more is a huge transition and I'd like some guidance from any of you! Kind of lost. Thank you in advance!
You might want to rethink the 1 lb per week deficit. You only have 10-15 pounds to go and it sounds like you are asking a lot from your body with the workouts. Consider changing your goal to 0.5 lbs a week so that you can properly fuel your workouts.
http://www.sailrabbit.com/bmr/ This is a TDEE calculator (This calculator includes several different methods - you will notice there may be a bit of a difference between them. I would just take an average between the methods - try it out and adjust your calories up or down as needed). Basically TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) is the average daily calorie usage. You would not be adding in your exercise every day. If you spend roughly the same amount of time working out every week it may be more helpful to use than using MFP's method of calculating calories (where you are adding your exercise calories in every day).
I would eat 0.8-1.0 gr of protein x your body weight. Eat 0.4 gr of fat x your body weight. You can treat protein and fat as minimum goals - it is fine to be over. The rest would go to carbs.1 -
Just here to learn! Very interesting information!0
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Interesting. I've been close to maintenance for about two years now, and I've done as much as I think can expect. I'm dieting down now. Here to follow.0
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ereckless82 wrote: »Hi everyone. I'm trying to Sort through all of the posts on here to figure his whole recomp thing out. I started with a trainer last week. I'm 5'8.5" and between 169 and 171 currently. I started this whole thing to lose Weight after having my daughter and am down 76 pounds now. I have another 10-15 to go, but I am pretty sure I'm in more need of a recomp. So, here I am.
I started with a personal trainer last week. I've been doing Jillian Michaels workouts, Bob Harper workouts, kickboxing, spinning, etc. a lot of cardio with weights and body resistance but my trainer said I need to start the weight training. My MFP is currently set to lose 1lb per week. I've always had it set to that. That means it says 1630 calories per day, which I know is too low for a body recomp. I've upped my protein intake a lot, but I am just at a loss for figuring out this whole TDEE thing and amount of protein I really actually need, etc. getting out of the mindset of eating so little in calories and eating more is a huge transition and I'd like some guidance from any of you! Kind of lost. Thank you in advance!
You might want to rethink the 1 lb per week deficit. You only have 10-15 pounds to go and it sounds like you are asking a lot from your body with the workouts. Consider changing your goal to 0.5 lbs a week so that you can properly fuel your workouts.
http://www.sailrabbit.com/bmr/ This is a TDEE calculator (This calculator includes several different methods - you will notice there may be a bit of a difference between them. I would just take an average between the methods - try it out and adjust your calories up or down as needed). Basically TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) is the average daily calorie usage. You would not be adding in your exercise every day. If you spend roughly the same amount of time working out every week it may be more helpful to use than using MFP's method of calculating calories (where you are adding your exercise calories in every day).
I would eat 0.8-1.0 gr of protein x your body weight. Eat 0.4 gr of fat x your body weight. You can treat protein and fat as minimum goals - it is fine to be over. The rest would go to carbs.
Yeah....you could switch to losing .5/wk (which really would be better)....lose the remaining weight slower....while gradually transitioning to maintenance/starting a recomp.
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You might want to rethink the 1 lb per week deficit. You only have 10-15 pounds to go and it sounds like you are asking a lot from your body with the workouts. Consider changing your goal to 0.5 lbs a week so that you can properly fuel your workouts.
http://www.sailrabbit.com/bmr/ This is a TDEE calculator (This calculator includes several different methods - you will notice there may be a bit of a difference between them. I would just take an average between the methods - try it out and adjust your calories up or down as needed). Basically TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) is the average daily calorie usage. You would not be adding in your exercise every day. If you spend roughly the same amount of time working out every week it may be more helpful to use than using MFP's method of calculating calories (where you are adding your exercise calories in every day).
I would eat 0.8-1.0 gr of protein x your body weight. Eat 0.4 gr of fat x your body weight. You can treat protein and fat as minimum goals - it is fine to be over. The rest would go to carbs.
Yeah....you could switch to losing .5/wk (which really would be better)....lose the remaining weight slower....while gradually transitioning to maintenance/starting a recomp.
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Ive been thinking about changing to the .5lbs, which seems much more reasonable. Thanks so much for the advice! I'll start working on figuring this out tomorrow so I might be back with more questions! Although, I am curious. are you always supposed to Eat to your TDEE + exercise calories?0 -
ereckless82 wrote: »
You might want to rethink the 1 lb per week deficit. You only have 10-15 pounds to go and it sounds like you are asking a lot from your body with the workouts. Consider changing your goal to 0.5 lbs a week so that you can properly fuel your workouts.
http://www.sailrabbit.com/bmr/ This is a TDEE calculator (This calculator includes several different methods - you will notice there may be a bit of a difference between them. I would just take an average between the methods - try it out and adjust your calories up or down as needed). Basically TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) is the average daily calorie usage. You would not be adding in your exercise every day. If you spend roughly the same amount of time working out every week it may be more helpful to use than using MFP's method of calculating calories (where you are adding your exercise calories in every day).
I would eat 0.8-1.0 gr of protein x your body weight. Eat 0.4 gr of fat x your body weight. You can treat protein and fat as minimum goals - it is fine to be over. The rest would go to carbs.
Yeah....you could switch to losing .5/wk (which really would be better)....lose the remaining weight slower....while gradually transitioning to maintenance/starting a recomp.
Ive been thinking about changing to the .5lbs, which seems much more reasonable. Thanks so much for the advice! I'll start working on figuring this out tomorrow so I might be back with more questions! Although, I am curious. are you always supposed to Eat to your TDEE + exercise calories?[/quote]
NOOOO.
TDEE by definition (Total Daily Energy Expend) includes exercise - as such you take a deficit from that and then eat back exercise - you'd likely have no deficit.
The MFP method you were doing though, included NO exercise in that base goal 1630 - which would only be eaten on days of, well, no exercise - so you wouldn't be eating that low very often - if you followed the program correctly.
But the average weekly TDEE method includes your planned exercise, then you take deficit - and eat that daily.
It does NOT work well if your workouts are iffy and commonly missed. You'd likely end up with no deficit.
You'd only eat more if you did a workout not originally included in your weekly estimate.
Same deal if you miss a planned workout - drop 100 calories that day. If you make it up another day - eat an extra 100.2 -
NOOOO.
TDEE by definition (Total Daily Energy Expend) includes exercise - as such you take a deficit from that and then eat back exercise - you'd likely have no deficit.
The MFP method you were doing though, included NO exercise in that base goal 1630 - which would only be eaten on days of, well, no exercise - so you wouldn't be eating that low very often - if you followed the program correctly.
But the average weekly TDEE method includes your planned exercise, then you take deficit - and eat that daily.
It does NOT work well if your workouts are iffy and commonly missed. You'd likely end up with no deficit.
You'd only eat more if you did a workout not originally included in your weekly estimate.
Same deal if you miss a planned workout - drop 100 calories that day. If you make it up another day - eat an extra 100.
Click into heybales' profile, he has a spreadsheet for Just TDEE, it has helped a large number of people, it is free and easy to follow. Just do that and you will be fine.0 -
Something I've been wondering about recomping. Is calorie cycling really necessary? What happens if you just eat at maintenance every day?0
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