Weight Training question

endermako
endermako Posts: 785 Member
edited November 2024 in Health and Weight Loss
How much weight training should I do a week to preserve as much muscle mass as possible?
Some stats for me:

30 yr old female
5'4
169.8lbs
Goal weight is 140lbs (for now)

I currently have this TDEE according to Polar 2183 daily cal average for March
I"m eating 1350 cals daily

My deficit should be about 1.7lbs a week but i'm losing 2.4 so i'm pretty sure a chunk of that is muscle mass. I currently do 5x speed walking a week for cardio and weight train 3x a week.

Replies

  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    edited March 2018
    Run a beginner program...most of them are full body 3x per week with an emphasis on compound movements.

    When my wife got back into lifting, she did New Rules of Lifting for Women which is a good read in general...the program is pretty good but gets a bit convoluted in the end IMO.

    If you're losing too quickly, adjust your calories up.
  • MichelleSilverleaf
    MichelleSilverleaf Posts: 2,027 Member
    You may want to up your calories, and eat back some of your exercise calories. It seems like your exercise is fine, the daily calories you're eating may be more of the problem.
  • endermako
    endermako Posts: 785 Member
    How many calories should I go up to?
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    firecat1987 wrote: »
    How many calories should I go up to?

    How long have you been dieting? Initial weight loss is typically faster for the first few weeks to a month due to water weight losses as well as less waste in your system from less food.

    If you haven't been dieting very long, you might want to take a wait and see approach and see if it levels out...
  • MegaMooseEsq
    MegaMooseEsq Posts: 3,118 Member
    edited March 2018
    If you're losing 2.4 pounds a week regularly, that's a deficit of 1200 a day, which is pretty big. It's generally recommended not to lose more than 1% of your body weight per week in order to retain muscle mass, so for you that'd be about 1.7 pounds a week (ETA: I see in your post that's your goal - seems like a good one!). [edited again because my math was off]
  • endermako
    endermako Posts: 785 Member
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    firecat1987 wrote: »
    How many calories should I go up to?

    How long have you been dieting? Initial weight loss is typically faster for the first few weeks to a month due to water weight losses as well as less waste in your system from less food.

    If you haven't been dieting very long, you might want to take a wait and see approach and see if it levels out...

    Since late January
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    edited March 2018
    firecat1987 wrote: »
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    firecat1987 wrote: »
    How many calories should I go up to?

    How long have you been dieting? Initial weight loss is typically faster for the first few weeks to a month due to water weight losses as well as less waste in your system from less food.

    If you haven't been dieting very long, you might want to take a wait and see approach and see if it levels out...

    Since late January

    Have you been eating exercise calories back as intended by MFP? Your rate of loss relative to your desired rate of loss indicates that you should be eating about 350 calories more per day...if you're not eating back exercise calories, you're creating a deficit that is larger than you intended.

    Your exercise could easily be those 350 or so calories.
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,120 Member
    firecat1987 wrote: »
    How many calories should I go up to?

    The difference between your stated desired weight loss (1.7 lbs a week) and your actual weight loss (2.4 lbs a week) is .7 lbs a week, which works out to a theoretical 350 kcal a day of "excess" deficit. Try adding 350 kcal a day to your current 1350, for a total of 1700, and see what happens. Don't overreact to an initial bump in weight when you make the change which is not uncommon and which would be water, not fat.
  • endermako
    endermako Posts: 785 Member
    lynn_glenmont wrote: »
    firecat1987 wrote: »
    How many calories should I go up to?

    The difference between your stated desired weight loss (1.7 lbs a week) and your actual weight loss (2.4 lbs a week) is .7 lbs a week, which works out to a theoretical 350 kcal a day of "excess" deficit. Try adding 350 kcal a day to your current 1350, for a total of 1700, and see what happens. Don't overreact to an initial bump in weight when you make the change which is not uncommon and which would be water, not fat.

    I think I'll go slow and bump it up 100 cal a day per week up to 1700 instead so that there is no big bloat from it. I want to do this safely and not freak myself out :)
  • endermako
    endermako Posts: 785 Member
    MegaMooseEsq wrote: »
    If you're losing 2.4 pounds a week regularly, that's a deficit of 1200 a day, which is pretty big. It's generally recommended not to lose more than 1% of your body weight per week in order to retain muscle mass, so for you that'd be about 1.7 pounds a week (ETA: I see in your post that's your goal - seems like a good one!). [edited again because my math was off]

    Thanks! I'll try to eat some calories back, It's been a while since I was active so I thought I'd have a lot less cals to work with.
  • Cherimoose
    Cherimoose Posts: 5,208 Member
    firecat1987 wrote: »
    How much weight training should I do a week to preserve as much muscle mass as possible?

    Follow any of the programs in the pinned post that's in the Fitness forum.
    If what you do gets easy, make it more challenging. :+1:
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