This might be a dumb question but just to clarify

FitnessFreak1821

Yes , I know I need 2000 cals to maintain but I still want to lose weight so went down to 1500. I work out 30-45 mins three to four times a week adding weights every other day so like twice a week. Other two days are cardio. Trying to eat more protein as well. Thanks everyone for clarifying. I was never really into working out so this is all new really so I'm trying to learn all this.

heybales

XoXashleighXoX wrote: »

Yes , I know I need 2000 cals to maintain but I still want to lose weight so went down to 1500. I work out 30-45 mins three to four times a week adding weights every other day so like twice a week. Other two days are cardio. Trying to eat more protein as well. Thanks everyone for clarifying. I was never really into working out so this is all new really so I'm trying to learn all this.

So as many pointed out - that's really an unreasonable deficit at this point with only 9 lbs to go to healthy weight.
Your body will fight whatever positives you are trying to cause and will adapt.

250 deficit.

And that means logging a best estimate of exercise and NOT making the deficit bigger - so you eat the new goal that MFP gives you.

Forget building muscle in any meaningful way - you just need to keep what you've got so that when the last amounts of fat are gone - something will be there to see.

mmapags

heybales wrote: »

XoXashleighXoX wrote: »

Yes , I know I need 2000 cals to maintain but I still want to lose weight so went down to 1500. I work out 30-45 mins three to four times a week adding weights every other day so like twice a week. Other two days are cardio. Trying to eat more protein as well. Thanks everyone for clarifying. I was never really into working out so this is all new really so I'm trying to learn all this.

So as many pointed out - that's really an unreasonable deficit at this point with only 9 lbs to go to healthy weight.
Your body will fight whatever positives you are trying to cause and will adapt.

250 deficit.

And that means logging a best estimate of exercise and NOT making the deficit bigger - so you eat the new goal that MFP gives you.

Forget building muscle in any meaningful way - you just need to keep what you've got so that when the last amounts of fat are gone - something will be there to see.

All of this ^^. Your deficit is too aggressive for the amount you have left to lose and your goal of muscle preservation/ development.

FitnessFreak1821

heybales wrote: »

XoXashleighXoX wrote: »

Yes , I know I need 2000 cals to maintain but I still want to lose weight so went down to 1500. I work out 30-45 mins three to four times a week adding weights every other day so like twice a week. Other two days are cardio. Trying to eat more protein as well. Thanks everyone for clarifying. I was never really into working out so this is all new really so I'm trying to learn all this.

So as many pointed out - that's really an unreasonable deficit at this point with only 9 lbs to go to healthy weight.
Your body will fight whatever positives you are trying to cause and will adapt.

250 deficit.

And that means logging a best estimate of exercise and NOT making the deficit bigger - so you eat the new goal that MFP gives you.

Forget building muscle in any meaningful way - you just need to keep what you've got so that when the last amounts of fat are gone - something will be there to see.

Ok so I should be basically eating calories to maintain and just work out to burn 250 calories to lose and build muscle at the same time.

mmapags

XoXashleighXoX wrote: »

heybales wrote: »

XoXashleighXoX wrote: »

Yes , I know I need 2000 cals to maintain but I still want to lose weight so went down to 1500. I work out 30-45 mins three to four times a week adding weights every other day so like twice a week. Other two days are cardio. Trying to eat more protein as well. Thanks everyone for clarifying. I was never really into working out so this is all new really so I'm trying to learn all this.

So as many pointed out - that's really an unreasonable deficit at this point with only 9 lbs to go to healthy weight.
Your body will fight whatever positives you are trying to cause and will adapt.

250 deficit.

And that means logging a best estimate of exercise and NOT making the deficit bigger - so you eat the new goal that MFP gives you.

Forget building muscle in any meaningful way - you just need to keep what you've got so that when the last amounts of fat are gone - something will be there to see.

Ok so I should be basically eating calories to maintain and just work out to burn 250 calories to lose and build muscle at the same time.

Understand that you will build very little muscle in a deficit. The lower your deficit the more muscle preservation along with the slim possibility of gaining a little.

Losing fat and building muscle work a little at odds with each other. If I'm you, my hope in to preserve as much muscle as is possible and lose the rest of the fat. Then, eat in an equally small surplus and work on gaining muscle.

DancingMoosie

Are you running a progressive lifting program? You haven't really addressed this piece except to say you add weights every other day. What exactly is "adding weights"?

heybales

XoXashleighXoX wrote: »

heybales wrote: »

XoXashleighXoX wrote: »

Yes , I know I need 2000 cals to maintain but I still want to lose weight so went down to 1500. I work out 30-45 mins three to four times a week adding weights every other day so like twice a week. Other two days are cardio. Trying to eat more protein as well. Thanks everyone for clarifying. I was never really into working out so this is all new really so I'm trying to learn all this.

So as many pointed out - that's really an unreasonable deficit at this point with only 9 lbs to go to healthy weight.
Your body will fight whatever positives you are trying to cause and will adapt.

250 deficit.

And that means logging a best estimate of exercise and NOT making the deficit bigger - so you eat the new goal that MFP gives you.

Forget building muscle in any meaningful way - you just need to keep what you've got so that when the last amounts of fat are gone - something will be there to see.

Ok so I should be basically eating calories to maintain and just work out to burn 250 calories to lose and build muscle at the same time.

Just to straighten out a concept that a couple of your comments make it sound like is perhaps misunderstood.

Eating to maintain means you would eat what you burn in total - you would have to in order to maintain weight.

Therefore working out for 250 calories would have you eating more and there would be no eating less than you burn to lose fat, no weight loss.

So your mentioned method would not have you eating at maintenance, but you would be in a deficit by whatever amount your exercise caused.
Which for lifting could be the reasonable 250 abouts, but with cardio could be much more into unreasonable level - but your stated days can make that more reasonable.

The other part of this though - your base eating goal is based on YOUR selection of non-exercise daily activity level.
Obviously that is not a set level and each day varies, but did you select the correct level?
If you went low - you are causing more deficit there by underestimating what you actually do.

Did you select Sedentary because of a desk job?
Do you have kids, pets, or household that has you busy with duties evenings and weekends when not exercising?
Then not Sedentary, but Lightly-Active.

FitnessFreak1821

DancingMoosie wrote: »

Are you running a progressive lifting program? You haven't really addressed this piece except to say you add weights every other day. What exactly is "adding weights"?

Hiit cardio/strength work outs with 5 pound weights in each hand. What do you mean by progressive lifting program? Like increasing the weight every week that I use ? I don't really have all kinds of weights (just 5 pounds and I think I might have 10 pound weights) or a gym membership. I hate going to the gym lol I thought the lighter the weight the better for toning? Is it still possible with light weights?

DancingMoosie

XoXashleighXoX wrote: »

DancingMoosie wrote: »

Are you running a progressive lifting program? You haven't really addressed this piece except to say you add weights every other day. What exactly is "adding weights"?

Hiit cardio/strength work outs with 5 pound weights in each hand. What do you mean by progressive lifting program? Like increasing the weight every week that I use ? I don't really have all kinds of weights (just 5 pounds and I think I might have 10 pound weights) or a gym membership. I hate going to the gym lol I thought the lighter the weight the better for toning? Is it still possible with light weights?

This will then be the limiting factor to building muscle. You have to lift progressively(more weight/reps) in order to build. There are programs that use dumbbells or body weight progressively, but it's not as ideal as heavier weights. Check out the thread "which lifting program is best for you"

mmapags

XoXashleighXoX wrote: »

DancingMoosie wrote: »

Are you running a progressive lifting program? You haven't really addressed this piece except to say you add weights every other day. What exactly is "adding weights"?

Hiit cardio/strength work outs with 5 pound weights in each hand. What do you mean by progressive lifting program? Like increasing the weight every week that I use ? I don't really have all kinds of weights (just 5 pounds and I think I might have 10 pound weights) or a gym membership. I hate going to the gym lol I thought the lighter the weight the better for toning? Is it still possible with light weights?

To help clear up a couple of things for you, HIIT/ cardio don't really build muscle beyond a little conditioning at the beginning. 5 and 10 lb weight may help slightly at the beginning of training in an untrained subject but you are going to max out pretty quickly.

I'm not sure what you mean by lighter weights are "better for toning". There is no real definition of "toning". For some that means getting leaner. For some that means working muscles so that they are more visible. That would also require losing body fat for the muscles to be revealed. Lighter weights are not "better" for either scenario. At a certain point, all you would do is gain some muscle endurance but not any muscle mass.

To gain muscle mass, you need a program where you can progressively increase weights and work somewhere in a 6 to 12 rep range almost to failure. If you can do, say, 8 or 10 reps without strain, add another set. When you can do 12 reps with a certain weight without straining, time to add more weight.

You keep saying you want to gain muscle. To do that you have to train in a way that stimulated hypertrophy (muscle growth). You will max out very quickly with 5 and 10 b weights without having gained much muscle. And you are in a slight deficit. So, that is a factor that is not in your favor.

At a certain point, you will max out with either light weight or body weight training (something you should explore) and will need greater resistance to build muscle and need to be eating in such a way that facilitates that. Eg: maintenance at a minimum and preferably a slight surplus. Gaining muscle takes focus with the right nutrition, meaning adequate protein and calories, and the appropriate training program.

You will not accomplish much of that with your current approach. At a certain point, you will either need to get over your resistance to the gym or buy equipment to get the necessary resistance at home. Gaining muscle is just not that easy.

FitnessFreak1821

Thanks everyone for the information! I'll take it all into consideration

PAV8888

Given your stated goals and stated training methods the closest you're going to come to achieving your goal involves losing your remaining weight to goal with as small a deficit as possible. This will make your ratio of fat to lean mass lost as favorable as possible.