Can I decrease body fat % without decreasing caloric intake?
JuliaH728
Posts: 39 Member
I'm 5'8, weight between 125-127 lbs. I think I'm currently around 25% body fat. I'd like to lower that so my muscles are more visible. Is this possible without lowering caloric intake? I eat 1300-1800 cal/day. I'm also a marathoner running 4 times a week and cross training(biking or swimming) 2-3 times a week.
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Replies
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Why do you think you're 25% BF?
You eat a really low calorie amount for the amount of exercise you do. How are you measuring your intake?
If you're looking for recomp start doing a progressive resistance programme
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At your height, weight and stated activity level your TDEE should be closer to 2200-2400
If you want to recomp you should be eating at maintenance, but I get the impression if you haven't been losing weight or getting immensely fatigued that your calorie intake is not actually as low as you think it is1 -
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I'm 5'8 and 119 pounds looking to gain muscle as well. I eat around 2000 or more cals a day. I just started weight training and I already feel stronger!good luck1
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Why do you think you're 25% BF?
You eat a really low calorie amount for the amount of exercise you do. How are you measuring your intake?
If you're looking for recomp start doing a progressive resistance programme
Well the body fat estimate is not super precise. Ive just looked at pictures and compared. I just search the food on this app. So eggs for bfast is like 120 cals for 2 eggs, and a 100 Cal English muffin. My usual lunches are snacks like pb crackers (180 cals) and rice cakes (80 cals) or rolled lunch meat and cheese(200 is cals). Dinner is usually a chicken breast and rice or pasta and steamed veggies. Occasionally I'll eat at restaurants and eat way more cals and some days I'm hungrier than others (long run days for sure)0 -
Yes you can. If you want to keep eating the same amount of food as now, you can create the deficit you need by simply increasing your running or other exercise. Either increase the frequency or distance or both.0
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JuliaHujar wrote: »Why do you think you're 25% BF?
You eat a really low calorie amount for the amount of exercise you do. How are you measuring your intake?
If you're looking for recomp start doing a progressive resistance programme
Well the body fat estimate is not super precise. Ive just looked at pictures and compared. I just search the food on this app. So eggs for bfast is like 120 cals for 2 eggs, and a 100 Cal English muffin. My usual lunches are snacks like pb crackers (180 cals) and rice cakes (80 cals) or rolled lunch meat and cheese(200 is cals). Dinner is usually a chicken breast and rice or pasta and steamed veggies. Occasionally I'll eat at restaurants and eat way more cals and some days I'm hungrier than others (long run days for sure)
How much weight have you lost over the last 6 weeks eating like this?1 -
None. I lost like 8 pounds from January to march, but I haven't really been trying to lose weight.0
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I'm a teacher so my summer schedule is slightly different also, this month I've been eating late breakfast of cereal at like 11 and then pb crackers or a different light snack. And then the same kind of dinner. Since I eat a late breakfast I'm not hungry for a real lunch most days0
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JuliaHujar wrote: »None. I lost like 8 pounds from January to march, but I haven't really been trying to lose weight.
Then I'll warrant that your calorie estimate is massively out
Which isn't an issue but you will need to maintain this level of intake and exercise your entire life because you are at maintenance
That said I feel like I've answered your question by saying recomp but not given you any more info. Do you know what progressive resistance is?
There's a recomposition thread in the maintaining board you might be interested in
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10177803/recomposition-maintaining-weight-while-losing-fat/p10 -
Why do you think you're 25% BF?
You eat a really low calorie amount for the amount of exercise you do. How are you measuring your intake?
If you're looking for recomp start doing a progressive resistance programme
Can I do recomp while marathoning? I have a friend who is really into lifting (she does like body competitions) and she said I probably couldn't keep muscle mass when running that much.0 -
JuliaHujar wrote: »Why do you think you're 25% BF?
You eat a really low calorie amount for the amount of exercise you do. How are you measuring your intake?
If you're looking for recomp start doing a progressive resistance programme
Can I do recomp while marathoning? I have a friend who is really into lifting (she does like body competitions) and she said I probably couldn't keep muscle mass when running that much.
Running isn't the issue.
Replacing the calories is.
People who are trying to add muscle tend to cut cardio because to gain muscle you need to eat extra calories. Cardio adds even more calories to eat which can make it difficult.
Conversely, cardio doesn't burn muscles unless you are not eating enough. Then yes, it will be harder to keep muscle mass.
So yes, you can do it, but you need to eat an appropriate calorie intake. To do that, you need to figure out what you are really eating now.0 -
Based on your description we can take as a given that your estimation of calories is just a general estimation. Which is fine since you don't particularly want to lose weight.
IF in general your weight is staying about the same... then in general you are maintaining your weight. It does sound, to be honest, as if you are in some sort of deficit where you're slowly losing weight.
You can always plug in your weight into an app such as happy scale or a web site such as www.weightgrapher.com (or trendweight.com using a freely available to anyone fitbit.com account) to keep track of whether you are generally maintaining or losing or gaining weight.
Having said that you can increase muscle mass at any point of time. Muscle mass gains are faster at a caloric surplus, slightly slower at "maintenance', slightly slower still at a slight caloric deficit, and there would be debate if they are possible at a large caloric deficit (it would depend on available fat and whether you are engaging in the particular strength building activity for the first time or not).
Sleep lots. Eat some extra protein to around 0.8g per lb of body weight at target weight... and have fun!
If you under-eat, over-run, and don't strength train it is quite possible that you will lose weight consisting of both fat and lean mass.
As to the rest of it look through @Sued0nim 's links
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OP I don't think you are 25% body fat at 5"8 and 125lbs. I'm 5'8 and 147lbs and around 25-27% body fat, the absolute lowest I'll go is 143lbs, as anything under that and I start to look skin and bone.0
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Being you're a marathon runner and the type of intense activity you do you should be at a higher caloric intake and possibly reducing your running and focus more on strength training to aid in fat loss. The more lean mass we build the more calories we burn at rest,during exercise and when sleeping/recovery.0
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Being you're a marathon runner and the type of intense activity you do you should be at a higher caloric intake and possibly reducing your running and focus more on strength training to aid in fat loss. The more lean mass we build the more calories we burn at rest,during exercise and when sleeping/recovery.
While that's true it's often massively overstated ...actually it's only an extra 4 calories per lb of muscle per 24 HR period at rest, a pound of muscle burns 6 calories a day and a pound of fat burns about 2 calories
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Simple answer. Exercise more.0
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Looking at your picture, I highly doubt you're 25% body fat.
Something's just not making sense though, you'd be way underweight if you truly ate 1300-1800 calories a day. My guess is that you're eating more than you think.0 -
1300 to 1800 is pretty broad number of calories to eat every day. So if you really eat 1300 for 4 days and 1800 for 3 days, how many calories does this give you at the end of the week and of course the entering in if your exercise calorie burns? Are you in a deficit at any point during the week? This sounds like you would be.. I understand you could be eating 1300 one day, 1500 one day, 1450 on day, etc..
So I would say, get a consistence number of calories to eat for your maintenance and eat those everyday. If your training for marathons requires special dietary structure, then of course factor that in. But find your TDEE that includes the running. Next find you a weightlifting program and try to interject this program this into your running training and cross training.
I do lift and run on the same days so I actually exercise twice a day. I account for my calories burned through running and fuel properly to run and lift. I cut my running miles a lot when I am not actually training for races.
You can do this, it takes some math on your part and it may take a couple to three weeks to get the final numbers to work out, but the one key is to make sure that if you stay around maintenance calories, which will allow you to recomp. And protein is very important as well.
If you really want to do this right, cut back on the running and cross training some.0 -
So it's clear my caloric intake isn't accurate, but the main point is that I like the amount I eat and that's what I don't want to change. I can add weight training more intensely to my training (I was doing like 30-40 mins 2x week) and I'm gonna try to keep track of the amount of protein I eat bc I doubt I'm eating enough. I'm fairly certain my body fat is not below 25% based on images I've seen and compared with.
That recomp board was interesting, but after reading online it seems like calorie cycling is really important and idk if I have the dedication to do that. It would also be hard since I would be lifting and running on the same days bc I'm not willing to decrease the amount of running I do. (I've got a coach and a whole training program)
I read a little bit about progressive resistance and is the jist just to increase weight over time? @Sued0nim0 -
Calorie cycling is really not important, eating sufficient calories and protein is or you may start to fail on your training / lose more weight.
Yes at it's most effective it is about increasing weight over time (but also could be on intensity or reps)
- look at some of the progressive programmes like stronglifts 5x5 or starting strength (both free and googlable) for a good idea - there's also fierce 5 on bodybuilding.com which is a pretty decent beginner's programme.
I do think though if you are in a proper marathon training programme for marathon it may be a little much to also manage ... I'd talk to your coach tbh0 -
Yes. Exercise to build muscle, your metabolism & shape will change. You still should know/make sure you are eating enough to maintain0
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OP, why not just give this "experiment" a try based on what/how many calories you eat now. Why not add a lifting program into your running regime and see if it will work for you? You can always tweak the process or even drop weight training if it does not suit you to change the calories?
What I may do with my training (running and/or lifting) may never suit another.. Since you will NOT drop training miles, you old have the option to try it out..
Calorie cycling is not needed. Personally I would NOT change my dietary structure for the running aspect at all since this is your primary goal.
edited to throw this in there: Have you ever thought that strength training can also help your running? Well if you are willing to consider that part, talk to your coach about it, perhaps you two can actually work out a plan to do both, but tweak the calories a little bit and assure that adequate protein in in your diet..0 -
JuliaHujar wrote: »So it's clear my caloric intake isn't accurate, but the main point is that I like the amount I eat and that's what I don't want to change. I can add weight training more intensely to my training (I was doing like 30-40 mins 2x week) and I'm gonna try to keep track of the amount of protein I eat bc I doubt I'm eating enough. I'm fairly certain my body fat is not below 25% based on images I've seen and compared with.
That recomp board was interesting, but after reading online it seems like calorie cycling is really important and idk if I have the dedication to do that. It would also be hard since I would be lifting and running on the same days bc I'm not willing to decrease the amount of running I do. (I've got a coach and a whole training program)
I read a little bit about progressive resistance and is the jist just to increase weight over time? @Sued0nim
What advice has your running coach given?0 -
@TavistockToad @RoxieDawn
My coach has me weight training 1-2 days a week with a focus on endurance in the muscles (lower weight more reps). I have been doing a full body routine with 15 reps 3 sets of all exercises.0 -
You may be interested in this http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/strength-training-for-runners-how-to-do-it-right.html0
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