Losing fat while gaining strength (not muscle mass necessarily)--calorie deficit or maintenance?

njsa95

Hey all,
I'm a 5ft1 girl weighing 49kg.in Feb to august my training was endurance-focused as i was preparing for a marathon (I literally never worked out before feb).now having conpleted that, im moving on to gymnastic/calisthenic strength training.

I have dual goals of reducing body fat (im currently at 23%, and i just want to be rid of the jiggly bits and actually look good naked, if you get me?) while gaining the strength i need to be able to do advanced calisthenics like muscle-ups and front levers. My training program is expert-approved and I workout 5 to 6 days a week, sometimes 7.
However, the nutrition aspect confuses me.a sports advisor calculated my intake to be at at least 1600 if im working put the amount i am;but my goal is also to reduce fat and as far as i understand, you can only lose fat in a calorie deficit.
My sports advisor says that i would already be eating at deficit for my activity level and that the composition of my macros was why i wasnt losing fat/toning up--i was eating too little protein,not enough carbs and too much fat apparently.
However my maintenance if put in a calculator should be about 1450..and i have seen stories where eating more resulted in the person visibly body fat and looking more toned even though their weight stated the same--but im not convinced that this will happen to me ad find it hard to meet the 1600 asked by my nutritionist (along with the macros) instead of the 1400 that i hv been eating (and not losing weight) at.
Can anyone give me any advice where to go frm here?should i just trust the process?

njsa95

Just to add, by the way, my sports advisor/nutritionist talks about refeeding..raising my metabolism and maintenance calories by incremental increases to the amounts i eat every few days.

Sued0nim

If you are are strength training with a decent progressive resistance programme then 7 days a week is wholly inadvisable. You need rest days they are a vital part of training

That said yes at maintenance you can build strength and muscle but it is slow and demands your training and nutrition is en pointe. You must be getting adequate protein

Your calorie intake will be estimated on calculators based on your activity and workout schedule (strength training does not burn huge amounts) but you should use bio feedback over time (6-8 weeks) to get accurate numbers

Refeeding is a valid approach for leptin depletion but I wouldn't trust a "nutritionist" as far as I could throw one (thanks to a good training programme that would be a fair few metres )

xvolution

He might be right about the distribution of macros, especially in the protein category. How many grams of protein do you have a day? A widely used formula to calculate how much protein to eat per day is [0.8 x ideal body weight] to help minimize muscle loss, more if you plan to build muscle or strength.

And just like Sued said, you need to give your muscles time to rest after lift/resistance training days. Each muscle group usually needs 24-48 hours of recovery time, which is why it's not recommended to do two arm sessions in a row [If you have to exercise every day, it would be more beneficial to do upper body one day, lower body the next, then core the third day. This gives the upper body that full 48 hours recovery time].

Michael190lbs

I think for the most part strength has to do with the weight of the person (if they train)!! When I was 290 I could bench 405 three times now that I'm 180 I can bench 300 four times. Throughout my 35 years of lifting my bench has always correlated with my weight typically 110-130 more than I weight. Just a thought.. I agree protein fat and carbs need to be consumed in an addiquate manner to gain muscle size.