Set on maintenance and then stay under?

sengalissa

Hi
I lost 35lbs and gained some muscle in the past year. I am very happy with my body but want to keep improving. In particular, those saddlebags look ridiculous next to athletic legs and a strong curves bootie
I keep going back and forth between "I should eat more to lift better and my hody will change" and "saddlebags are fat so I must eat at deficit". Since I change my mind too often, I do not see results. My lifts don't get better but I lose fat only if I starve myself. So sick of those last 5lbs!!!
I can do two weeks on 1400 but then I binge for two days.
So I thought of ways to back off and thought I should set MFP on maintenance (like 1850 for 5'4" and 125lbs, SAHM of young kids so rather active but not very active) and then decide every day how much I can cut out and stay under. I am tired of restricting myself but if I stop logging I will overeat...

Thoughts?

girlviernes

Sounds good to me. I would encourage you to accept those last 5 lbs. It's easy to want to make everything perfect but it's not really the route to happiness. I would suggest switching to fitness goals now!

psuLemon

Whats more important to you? And is your actual maintenance 1850?

sengalissa

psulemon wrote: »

Whats more important to you? And is your actual maintenance 1850?

Don't know my real maintenance calories. I lift 4x/week so even if I knew my calories I would not know my exercise calories anyway.
I guess maintenace is higher but I want to be conservative.

Liftng4Lis

WTG on 35 pounds! Maintenance for awhile sounds good, so give it at least a month and continue to lift.

psuLemon

sengalissa wrote: »

psulemon wrote: »

Whats more important to you? And is your actual maintenance 1850?

Don't know my real maintenance calories. I lift 4x/week so even if I knew my calories I would not know my exercise calories anyway.
I guess maintenace is higher but I want to be conservative.

Why not try 1800 (total) for 4 to 6 weeks to see if you lose. If you do, add another 100 to 200 calories. I would probably think maintenance or just below would be ideal. Just make sure you are doing a solid weight training program.

sengalissa

psulemon wrote: »

Whats more important to you? And is your actual maintenance 1850?

I don't know. That's probably why I run into this all the time!

arditarose

I'm actually doing the exact same thing right now. I just can't decide what I want. My body fat is too high to bulk, but I'm not eating enough to progress with my lifts as much as I want. At the same time I only have about 5 pounds I want to lose. I have an itty bitty deficit so when I mess up I end up being at maintenance anyway. What am I even doing? Crossing my fingers for recomp results? I'm going to follow your thread

sengalissa

arditarose wrote: »

I'm actually doing the exact same thing right now. I just can't decide what I want. My body fat is too high to bulk, but I'm not eating enough to progress with my lifts as much as I want. At the same time I only have about 5 pounds I want to lose. I have an itty bitty deficit so when I mess up I end up being at maintenance anyway. What am I even doing? Crossing my fingers for recomp results? I'm going to follow your thread

So glad to hear it's not only me! I feel so stupid right now!
I tried bulking for three weeks. My lifts got better but my pants got tighter and I could not take it. So I went to a deficit again.
I guess I could do some lean gains style calorie cycling... Maybe maintenance on lifting days and slight deficit on rest days? I think I could do that. Hope I would not be spinning my wheels though.
Plus I also want to wean myself from counting/saving calories. There must be a way to eat healthy without gaining and getting into bad habits.