Calories, Fats, Protiens.. Oh my!
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Mikej77
Posts: 112
Hello all! So I wanted to touch base and ask some of the ladies doing SL5x5 what you think would work best when it comes to diet while doing SL5x5. I am asking this for both myself and my wife, but primarily for my wife. I was recently advise by a very active member on the strong lifts inner circle to increase my calories while doing SL5x5 as my first goal is to increase strength. I understand that it is possible to decrease body fat% and increase strength. For me, I was eating at a deficit for the last 50ish days. I was also doing SL5x5 on monday wed and friday. I started very low (empty bar) due to a weak back. I have increased the weight every workout and accomplished some good gains. Just changing my eating habits and being more active overall I have seen results. My body weight dropped maybe 5 pounds, but I have lost a few inches off my belly. Yesterday I was trying to stay under my previous calorie goal of 1900 per day. By the time I got home, I was exhausted and famished. I felt almost lathargic and decided I needed to lay down.
After taking a short nap, I woke up to extreme hunger. I decided I was not going to log my dinner calories but worse I missed my first 5x5 workout. I plan to make up the workout today and I have increased my calorie goal by almost 1000. I have no trouble eating good foods. I pay attention to macros, but do not stress over it. I love veggies and fruits and eat plenty of meats. I feel 100% better today as I have already eaten a decent amount of fruits and a nice lunch. I feel less stressed worrying about getting a dinner in that is under 500 calories so I have a deficit.
I took this problem to a member over at the SL inner circle and he is the one who recomended that I increase calories and continue to eat whole foods. In the past I was not changing my calories even when I did a SL5x5 workout. I am not sure if it was the diet or maybe not enough sleep. Over the past month I have gone to bed much earlier and fell asleep easier, but I wake up without an alarm much earlier then I did before paying attention to my health.
So my questions here are the following, does anyone here, eat to maintain body weight while increaseing strength but decreasing body fat %? My wife is floating around 145lbs and wants to build muscle so her back is stronger, but she also wants to decrease body fat %. I think her daily goal is around 1500 calories, is this too low for her?
After taking a short nap, I woke up to extreme hunger. I decided I was not going to log my dinner calories but worse I missed my first 5x5 workout. I plan to make up the workout today and I have increased my calorie goal by almost 1000. I have no trouble eating good foods. I pay attention to macros, but do not stress over it. I love veggies and fruits and eat plenty of meats. I feel 100% better today as I have already eaten a decent amount of fruits and a nice lunch. I feel less stressed worrying about getting a dinner in that is under 500 calories so I have a deficit.
I took this problem to a member over at the SL inner circle and he is the one who recomended that I increase calories and continue to eat whole foods. In the past I was not changing my calories even when I did a SL5x5 workout. I am not sure if it was the diet or maybe not enough sleep. Over the past month I have gone to bed much earlier and fell asleep easier, but I wake up without an alarm much earlier then I did before paying attention to my health.
So my questions here are the following, does anyone here, eat to maintain body weight while increaseing strength but decreasing body fat %? My wife is floating around 145lbs and wants to build muscle so her back is stronger, but she also wants to decrease body fat %. I think her daily goal is around 1500 calories, is this too low for her?
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Replies
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have a look in the useful links thread, there's one to a calculator. Work out your TDEE then take something -modest- off that eg 10%. You won't gain strength as fast as if you are eating to excess, but it won't weaken you too much.
Decent protein and well balanced diet, the Eat, Train, Progress guys are great if you need specifics but you need 4 weeks of weighing, measuring and tracking everything first!0 -
Thank you so much for the replies http://www.health-calc.com/diet/energy-expenditure-advanced
is awesome as I can adjust it for days I work out and days I just walk. I hope to God this is accurate!0 -
Yah I am just going to see how each day goes, continue to log and watch my performance. I am not at my max potential yet but could be close. I been reading up on BMR and TDEE and I am a number cruncher, I like to min max when it comes to things. I have found that all TDEE calculators that are online are rough estimates, the only way to know your true TDEE is to count calories for x amount of weeks, and see if you drop weight. So I decided to use the law of averages and used 10 different online TDEE calculators and averaged them all up to see what my caloric needs are. Going to stick with this and see where I am after the 12th week.0
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I'd also lean towards having the same target whether it is a workout day or not, I'm often not as hungry on a lifting day as I am the day after, and you have to fuel your muscle recovery too. So maybe even it out over the week? It would make it simpler to count as well!0
