Enough cals or protein, first time lifter?

Behxo

So I am a 5'3" girl that currently weighs 177lbs, aiming to lose weight to get into 130's (depending on how much muscle I am happy with in the end) but to also have a good amount of muscle.

My bf is a muscle man and is going to be my own free, personal trainer lol ( In return I'm going to be cooking dinners, full of protein for both of us :] ) and today is the first day that I will be starting this new routine of having weights added to my regular weekday cardio. I skipped my elliptical cardio workout today due to having to run errands but plan doing chest workouts tonight.

My workout plan consists of:
Mon- Afternoon: Elliptical -- Evening: Chest Workout
Tues- Afternoon: Elliptical
Weds- Afternoon: Elliptical -- Evening: Back Workout
Thurs- Afternoon: Elliptical
Fri- Afternoon: Elliptical -- Evening: Legs Workout
Sat & Sun- Rest days

So I noticed that when you enter in strength training into your diary, you don't get additional calories added to your daily intake... but don't you burn a decent amount of calories if you're lifting? I entered in my diary for the day and already -9g for protein so figured I wouldn't need to eat a quest bar (21g) before or after tonights chest workout, especially since the bars are 190 cals and I have about 50 cals left for the day. I'm a noob at strength since I'm usually into just cardio lol.

I'm just trying to figure out the delicate balance I guess, I have no experience with lifting.

TR0berts

You need to add your strength training time into the Cardiovascular section of your exercise diary. Many people believe the Calories given by MFP to be too high, so just keep an eye on things and manually adjust those Calories, as necessary.

Behxo

TR0berts wrote: »

You need to add your strength training time into the Cardiovascular section of your exercise diary. Many people believe the Calories given by MFP to be too high, so just keep an eye on things and manually adjust those Calories, as necessary.

ah okay, yea I have a Polar FT4 heart rate monitor so I'm gonna start using that then. Thanks!

TR0berts

NO!!! HRMs are notoriously bad at giving strength training Calories, as they are designed for steady state cardio, such as your elliptical.

Behxo

TR0berts wrote: »

NO!!! HRMs are notoriously bad at giving strength training Calories, as they are designed for steady state cardio, such as your elliptical.

eep, err, okay then.

AmberSpamber

I use my HRM when I strength train.... It keeps up with the change in pace just fine

CharlieBeansmomTracey

I would give weight lifting,especially if they are heavy weights,100-150 calories per hr(at your current weight its possible it would be more).it may be a lower estimate but its better to underestimate burns than over estimate them.why are you only working chest,back and legs? you also have arms(biceps,triceps,shoulders),glutes,abs,etc.I would find a progressive lifting program such as 5x5 strong lifts,strong curves,etc

sijomial

Strength training is (unfortunately) quite a low calorie burn - just enter the duration under the CV part of your diary for a very rough estimate.
Don't use your HRM calorie guestimate as it will horrendously exaggerate your calorie burn.

By the way that workout is very, very unlikely to be optimal for a beginner, your workout needs and your "muscle man BF" training needs are completely different and so should be your programs.

Enough protein for someone lifting in a deficit is commonly given as around 1g per lb of estimated lean body mass.

Enough calories would be the calorie level that you can adhere too, avoids you feeling drained/lethargic/hungry and results in an appropriate rate of loss over an extended period of time. The slower the rate of loss the easier to stick to but the downside is it takes longer. Your choice!

Behxo

CharlieBeansmomTracey wrote: »

I would give weight lifting,especially if they are heavy weights,100-150 calories per hr(at your current weight its possible it would be more).it may be a lower estimate but its better to underestimate burns than over estimate them.why are you only working chest,back and legs? you also have arms(biceps,triceps,shoulders),glutes,abs,etc.I would find a progressive lifting program such as 5x5 strong lifts,strong curves,etc

Well I asked my bf just to give me just the general areas we would be working on on certain days so that I could just mark it off on my calendar, he didn't go into detail as to what our program would be like just yet. He has been doing this kind of stuff for a long time now, he's pretty built so I trust him to point me in the right direction lol but thank you

Behxo

sijomial wrote: »

Strength training is (unfortunately) quite a low calorie burn - just enter the duration under the CV part of your diary for a very rough estimate.
Don't use your HRM calorie guestimate as it will horrendously exaggerate your calorie burn.

By the way that workout is very, very unlikely to be optimal for a beginner, your workout needs and your "muscle man BF" training needs are completely different and so should be your programs.

Enough protein for someone lifting in a deficit is commonly given as around 1g per lb of estimated lean body mass.

Enough calories would be the calorie level that you can adhere too, avoids you feeling drained/lethargic/hungry and results in an appropriate rate of loss over an extended period of time. The slower the rate of loss the easier to stick to but the downside is it takes longer. Your choice!

Awesome, thank you! Yea we won't be following the exact same thing, I'm just asking him for help because I don't know the first thing about it, I just want to be pointed in the right direction and it'd be a fun thing to do together.

TR0berts

CharlieBeansmomTracey wrote: »

I would give weight lifting,especially if they are heavy weights,100-150 calories per hr(at your current weight its possible it would be more).it may be a lower estimate but its better to underestimate burns than over estimate them.why are you only working chest,back and legs? you also have arms(biceps,triceps,shoulders),glutes,abs,etc.I would find a progressive lifting program such as 5x5 strong lifts,strong curves,etc

It's listed as Chest/Back/Legs, but that's just another way of saying Push/Pull/Legs, which is fairly common. Your triceps and shoulders are worked on Push/Chest day. Your biceps are worked on Pull/Back day. Glutes are worked on Leg day.

sijomial

and it'd be a fun thing to do together.

And that is really, really important and what will keep you going back for more.
The "perfect" workout that's not done doesn't get you anywhere of course.
Have fun.

Behxo

sijomial wrote: »

and it'd be a fun thing to do together.

And that is really, really important and what will keep you going back for more.
The "perfect" workout that's not done doesn't get you anywhere of course.
Have fun.

I agree, thanks again :]

rybo

Behxo wrote: »

CharlieBeansmomTracey wrote: »

I would give weight lifting,especially if they are heavy weights,100-150 calories per hr(at your current weight its possible it would be more).it may be a lower estimate but its better to underestimate burns than over estimate them.why are you only working chest,back and legs? you also have arms(biceps,triceps,shoulders),glutes,abs,etc.I would find a progressive lifting program such as 5x5 strong lifts,strong curves,etc

Well I asked my bf just to give me just the general areas we would be working on on certain days so that I could just mark it off on my calendar, he didn't go into detail as to what our program would be like just yet. He has been doing this kind of stuff for a long time now, he's pretty built so I trust him to point me in the right direction lol but thank you

It's great he's helping you, but...as a complete beginner you would be best served not doing body part splits. Full body is recommended, at most an upper/lower split. I too was once very built and had been lifting for many years...it didn't mean I knew what was optimal for a complete beginner(or even myself for that matter) It certainly isn't going to the end of the world if you do follow that type of split, but it's not optimal for someone in your position. That's all.

not_a_runner

I'm not sure I understand what the question is, but I guess I'll give my feedback. Basically agree with the above.
HRMs are not very accurate for strength training. I often get a burn of 1000+ calories, if I ate that back I would gain weight very quickly.
I agree that body part splits are not ideal for a beginner. I would consider myself an intermediate and I try to hit every muscle group and least twice per week, recover just fine.
I like to keep protein about 1g/lb of lean mass.
Hard to give feedback on calories without knowing your activity level. If you are going to be doing the same lifting/cardio routine every week you may want to just find your TDEE (lots of online calculators out there to help you establish a baseline), subtract 500, and not worry about logging exercise.