Can someone be my "personal trainer" for a minute?

sguzma21

I'm 18 years old, female, 5'1, 130 lb, about 25-27% body fat (rough estimate). In the past 6 months, I have been working on developing muscle and strength with bodyweight and free weight exercises. I have gained about 15 pounds of muscle and fat. I am a LOT stronger and more muscular than when I started, but because I haven't stayed away from sweets and processed food, there's too much fat on my body to see definition without having to flex.
Right now my goal is to get down to about 20% bodyfat. I'm considering doing a mini cut for a month to try to lose fat quickly, but I know that to prevent muscle loss I will have to track my calories and macros, and I can't figure them out. I have tried calculating what my calories and macros should be to get into a reasonable deficit, but the different websites all say very different things. I did get about 1300 calories as my maintenance calories, but it just seems so low! When I track my calories I get around 1,200-1,400 a day, and I'm super surprised at how little food I'm eating. I do get cravings later in the day which I heard was a sign of under eating, but It just doesn't add up to me, plus I've always had a sweet tooth and it could just be that. I feel like I eat a lot! Maybe I should start weighing my food instead of eyeballing to track. I don't get how I could gain muscle if I were eating that low.
Anyway, My question is whether I should do a mini cut for a month, or switch to a mesocycle where I do a surplus on training days and go into a deficit on off days. I heard it would be less likely for me to lose muscle this way.
Also, should I bother counting calories or should I just intuitively eat? I got to about 22% bodyfat in my sophomore year by intuitively eating and cutting out processed foods with regular exercise.
I think I'm possibly making everything too complicated, but please let me know what you think I should do. I just want to get really fit.

Mithridites

The number is low because you’re relatively short and close to ideal weight. As someone who is active, you will earn extra calories every time you work out. You should eat back around 50-75% of those exercise calories, thus upping your daily calorie allowance.

sguzma21

@Mithridites
I follow a nutritionist who talks a lot about petite fitness, she says that around 1600 calories are ideal. I hear a lot of different things and it confuses me a LOT. But good to know that I need to eat back some of my calories burnt! I was not doing that at all or even logging my exercise in MFP, I'm afraid It won't be accurate & that it'll tell me to eat too many calories or too few..
But thanks for your response, it helped a lot! )

Chieflrg

Very nuanced reply with the info given.

Sites will have different calorie suggestions. There isn't a 100% guarantee of calorie estimate because you are individual not a robot. They are to get you in the ball park. But if you are eyeballing servings, allowing for some variance 8s more than reasonable.

Eyeballing servings is perfectly fine if your body weight is trending towards your goal. If not, then adjust your eye balls or using a food scale might be needed especially once we get to lower body fat percentage.

Nothing wrong with cutting quickly if you can adhere to it and you there is no issues with recovery for training/life.

Generally speaking I would have you targeted at 135-140g of protien if you are carnivorous from the info you have stated. Fat about 50g to start and fill with carbs or what helps you adhere/recover.

If you are trained, not obese, and are in a calorie deficit, expecting to experience hypertrophy isn't realistic. Not only that, you want to "retain" and "gain" muscles while in a caloric deficit. Somewhat counterdicting for the goal of cutting body weight/fat.

How you achieve a caloric deficit is really up to you on how you can adhere to it. I usually have people just eat relatively the same calories on average a day and adjust if needed.

You should have plenty of data, which isn't stated in your post. I suggest disecting it and decide from your history what is the best course for you to adhere as you have the most useful info.