Anyone else doing a reset?

katykat79

So, I have dabbled with EM2wl before, but never really committed. I think I am ready but I am so nervous about actually gaining weight. On purpose.

Right now, I am a 5'8", 151lb female, body fat around 24. According to wrist measurement, I have a small frame, but I tend to think it is more medium. I have never done really low calorie diet for any long period of time, but with a TDEE of around 2700, I wonder if my 1700-1800 target was still pretty low. I am quite active: run 15 Miles week, lift 4xweek, spin a few times a week, too.

My goal weight is around 140 and I was actually there in January of this year, but then I started to train for a half marathon and I just gained weight. I thought I was eating enough. Somewhere around 2500 a day, but in retrospect, I wonder. I think my body was stressed by the 60ish miles a week and held on to every blessed calorie. The weight I gained was not muscle either. The day after the race, I was 156. I cut way back on calories (1600-1800) and took a break from running, but continued to lift. Nothing. Then I tried some nutritional ketosis, still eating about 1800, and I lost some water weight, but I have been unable to break the 150 plateau. And that diet wrecked my stomach.

Right now, I lift heavy 4xweek, run 10-15 miles/ week, and a spin class or two. I am a SAHM to a three year old boy. Based on the most recent spread sheet @heybales posted, my tdee is around 2700.

I am ready to focus on recomposition, really building muscle and dropping fat. For me, committing to an exercise is easy, but I am a chronic dieter, always tweaking and changing. And obsessing. A lot. About weight. My fear is that seeing the scale go up will be too much.

Anyone with some words of encouragement? Has this worked for you? Anyone in the midst of a reset? Let's be friends!

wannabf1t

Welcome! You are very active, and if you're TDEE is 2700 your intake of 1700-1800 seems pretty low! I'm no expert but if you want to recomp I would drop some of the cardio or if you really enjoy it then the spinning classes maybe. I thought about running a half in November and backed off. The training is too intense and I felt it was contraproductive doing so much cardio and lifting weights. So i picked the weights instead.
I'm in the middle of a reset as well, going on week 10. Start increasing cals gradually and be patient. It is a scary thing to see the scale go up but it is only temporary.

heybales

I'll say with 11 lbs to go from 151 to 140, a deficit around 1000 was indeed extreme.

If you can get the calorie level up there - or if not possible the exercising level down more - you'll have no idea how strong your workouts could be.

A body under stress, and specifically slowing down to deal with an extreme deficit stress - isn't about to make many body improvements that require even more energy to build and maintain.

With that little to lose and that much cardio, 10% is good.

Now - if that running is at recovery level for purpose of aerobic endurance training, then that may not be so bad.
But even with a HRM with alarm at lower HR, I could barely make Spin classes recovery level - so that's got to be intense.

You might look at your workout weekly schedule too, and think about the fact the body needs time to rest to recover and repair.
Unless specific purpose of exercise is merely to burn more calories so you can eat more - exercise if done right tears the body down.
It's the rest for recovery and repair that builds it back up, if diet supports it even stronger.

Rest after a good lifting session is easily 24-48 hrs before hitting the same muscles.
But if the cardio the day before causes enough fatigue - you aren't getting a good workout.

So like if you attempted leg day after spin day - bad arrangement, not lifting as heavy as you could not fatigued.
Or hard spin class after leg day - killing the repair process - wasting the lifting session.

So just confirm your weekly schedule supports rest, and being able to do a workout fully recovered.
Because even eating at maintenance, while it does help some, won't remove the fact of bad recovery.

katykat79

wannabf1t wrote: »

Welcome! You are very active, and if you're TDEE is 2700 your intake of 1700-1800 seems pretty low! I'm no expert but if you want to recomp I would drop some of the cardio or if you really enjoy it then the spinning classes maybe. I thought about running a half in November and backed off. The training is too intense and I felt it was contraproductive doing so much cardio and lifting weights. So i picked the weights instead.
I'm in the middle of a reset as well, going on week 10. Start increasing cals gradually and be patient. It is a scary thing to see the scale go up but it is only temporary.

Thank you for the nice note and for,the friend request. I do love running....I enjoy it, but running that much to train for a big race made me soft. I found this article and it made so much sense, so I cut down on running a lot: https://www.t-nation.com/training/final-nail-in-the-cardio-coffin

I like weights too, so that is where I will focus.

How is your reset going? How long are you going to do?

katykat79

heybales wrote: »

I'll say with 11 lbs to go from 151 to 140, a deficit around 1000 was indeed extreme.

If you can get the calorie level up there - or if not possible the exercising level down more - you'll have no idea how strong your workouts could be.

A body under stress, and specifically slowing down to deal with an extreme deficit stress - isn't about to make many body improvements that require even more energy to build and maintain.

With that little to lose and that much cardio, 10% is good.

Now - if that running is at recovery level for purpose of aerobic endurance training, then that may not be so bad.
But even with a HRM with alarm at lower HR, I could barely make Spin classes recovery level - so that's got to be intense.

You might look at your workout weekly schedule too, and think about the fact the body needs time to rest to recover and repair.
Unless specific purpose of exercise is merely to burn more calories so you can eat more - exercise if done right tears the body down.
It's the rest for recovery and repair that builds it back up, if diet supports it even stronger.

Rest after a good lifting session is easily 24-48 hrs before hitting the same muscles.
But if the cardio the day before causes enough fatigue - you aren't getting a good workout.

So like if you attempted leg day after spin day - bad arrangement, not lifting as heavy as you could not fatigued.
Or hard spin class after leg day - killing the repair process - wasting the lifting session.

So just confirm your weekly schedule supports rest, and being able to do a workout fully recovered.
Because even eating at maintenance, while it does help some, won't remove the fact of bad recovery.

Wow, thank you for the response; that was great advice . I do follow the maffetone method for my cardio. I keep my HR aerobic (below 140) for both running and spin. For some reason, spin never gets my heart rate up that much....I must not be adding enough tension.

I will be aware of timing of workouts and getting adequate rest.

heybales

Ok, that makes the cardio addition not nearly as bad then - because the reason for that method is specifically to not make it stressful, and have excellent recovery.

I did that for awhile, but couldn't apply to the bike, not enough low gearing even for Kansas. But I still apply the principles.

So that the day after lifting is indeed recovery run, not a problem unless it was just a very long workout, then it might effect the next day lifting same muscles.

Indeed on Spin, gotta back off the tension - may not be able to follow the program for standing and sprinting, ect - but you can always make it your own.

Great job making it work.