Strong curves: Eat more or eat less!?

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Eglf_88
Eglf_88 Posts: 6 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Hey everyone,

I have just started Strong Curves but have been in the gym for about three months. Before that I was losing, going from about 132lbs to 117ish now. I am 5'3.5 and my goal is to lose more fat and gain/maintain muscle. Training wise, I'm doing the beginner program 4x a week. No other real exercise besides my 10k steps a day and the odd hockey game/training every week or so.

I am confused about eating though. For the last few months I have been maintaining on 1300-1400 a day with pretty reckless weekends. Although my weight has been stable, I've seen some definite improvements in physique, more definition for sure.

My question now is, since I'm not actively losing on my 'deficit' calories (noting the lack of weekend calorie data is pretty lacking here) and want to really ramp up my training in pursuit of my physique goals, am I better to just hit a recomp hard with maintenance calories all week (around 1650) or continue to try for a deficit? I am scared to eat more since I don't seem to be losing (I don't have a lot to lose...) but think I may as well work for muscle gains if I'm going to eat too much anyway!

Anyone have any tips? Right now I'm spinning my wheels going up and down and around!

Replies

  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
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    you're eating at maintenance - you can tell because you're not tracking your calories

    that's a good position for recomping if that's what you want to do

    I would double check you're getting adequate protein though

    depends what your actual goal is - because maintain muscle and build muscle are not the same thing and don't really have the same approach

    so decide what you want to do first cos your OP isn't clear
  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
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    You are at a good weight. I'd suggest eating at maintenance. I had good, noticeable, results with SC while eating at maintenance. I keep up with many of the exercises while cutting and while I continue to get stronger during those times, it is only when eating at maintenance or more that I have visual improvements.
  • Eglf_88
    Eglf_88 Posts: 6 Member
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    I am tracking religiously during the week but you're right, no point doing that and not tracking weekends, I need data to work out what my maintenance calories are.

    My Fitbit suggests I burn around 2000 cals a day and more on weekends (2200-2500). I suppose I'm panicking unnecessarily thinking my maintenance is lower than what my calculated TDEE would suggest, about 1650. It does seem scary though that I'm out-eating my weekly deficit and my activity calories just on weekends!

    During the week I try and eat at least 80-90g of protein per day so I am confident on that at least.

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