Opinion on Calorie Intake

Shaky44

My stats:
Age: 51
Weight: 289
Height: 73.5"
BMR: 2452 (according to Scooby's site)

Activity level: Stronglifts workout 3x/week, Elliptical 30 minutes 7x/week, Walk roughly 1.5 miles / day, plus usually one other active event per week (such as going out dancing).

I've been eating just over 2500 calories / day for six months and I've dropped 81 lbs, averaging over 3 lbs / week. This makes sense because my TDEE (moderate activity level) would have calculated to roughly 4000 calories / day, so my "cut" was 1500 calories / day (4000 - 2500 = 1500), which comes out to 3 lbs / week.

Now that I'm doing stronglifts (4 weeks now), I'm starting to feel like maybe I'm not taking in enough calories. The elliptical gives me 3.5 hours / week of activity and the lifting probably adds 2.5 - 3 hours, plus the miscellaneous walking and other activity. I still count myself as being at moderate activity level, which calculates out to a TDEE of 3800 calories / day expended. If I bump myself up to "strenuous" activity level, my TDEE goes to over 4200 calories / day expended.

Obviously, for someone my size, losing weight needs to be the priority - and I'm reluctant to make any changes to a program that is still working (I've been dropping 2 lbs / week since I started stronglifts). Still, I'm starting to think that I might be further ahead going to 3000 calories / day to support my level of activity. Any opinions on this?

P.S. Sorry for the long post. Many thanks in advance to anyone who gives their thoughts.

cajuntank

Just making a statement based on personal experience, but I might drop a few sessions of elliptical a week instead of adjusting calories. Since you are in a calorie deficit, your cortisol levels are elevated which slows metabolism. If you exercise, you stress the body more which in turn raises cortisol levels. There comes a point where too much stress on the body causes your metabolism to adjust lower and you get to a point of plateau of calorie intake and exercise that would have normally caused weight loss, so you drop your calories lower and exercise more which just exacerbates the problem. Due to the amount of weight left to lose, 2-3 lbs a week is still ok, but the leaner you get, you want to make sure that number stays closer to 2lbs a week till you get down to about 25% BF give or take, then adjust down to 1.5lbs a week, etc...

When you get to really heavy weight on your squat and deadlifts, those elliptical workouts will probably be a real problem... I know in my situation, I was doing treadmill for about 30-40 minutes 2-3 times a week on my non-weight days, and based on my daily calorie intake and squat and deadlifts performance, those cardio sessions were hurting my weight lifting performance, so I dropped them for a while. Your weight lifting is more important in the scheme of weight loss to help reduce the loss of lean body mass than cardio, so treat weight lifting with priority.

Shaky44

So, if I eliminate three of my elliptical workouts, should I still increase my calorie intake? Or am I fine at 2500?

cajuntank

I'd probably take it slower than that (maybe 1-2 less sessions to begin with, see how you feel after a week or two, then re-assess). The only real issue at hand is losing weight too fast as you could be losing muscle along with fat and your body not recovering enough to handle your weight training due to the extra cardio. Again, 2-3 lbs a week is still ok at your current weight, but you will want to get that number closer to the 2lbs a week as your body fat % decreases. With all of the cardio you are doing, your body is burning calories for sure, and you early enough into the program where the weights are really light (unless you started with more than the bar), so not a lot of energy expenditure is happening yet from the weight lifting side. When the weights start getting heavy, then that's when the real fun begins and your muscles will want to recover. If you are not eating enough or their are other stresses on the body like cardio, then you will have a hard time recovering for the next workout. I'm not saying don't do any cardio and I'm not saying you need to raise your calories as from what I initially glean, it look like you probably do. From the numbers I ran and based on your exercise, you probably need to be eating closer to 3000 calories a day. But I am by no means the expert on that. The best place to get that assessed is this group...

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/forums/show/10067-eat-train-progress-

Those guys are awesome at doing that.

Shaky44

Thanks for your thoughts. I did start with more than the bar (didn't read up thoroughly enough), so it's starting to get a little more challenging. I will check out that other group right now. Thanks again.

MrGonzo05

You are doing well. Congrats. I suggest to reduce the elliptical to 3 to 4 times per week. Each day is not needed. SL will become a challenging workout, as the weights get heavy.

mheebner

Great thread ! I am facing all the same issues with a big calorie deficit, SL 5x5 progressions, and running on my 'off' days. I was running into two main problems. I am getting into some heavier weights and I feel am not recovering enough with the deficit and running on my in between days, I can feel it already in my squats. The second issue, and OP this might start happening to you, is hitting the 'wall'. After so many days of lifting/cardio you just plain run out of energy. Motivation becomes a real issue, and your energy level will be terrible. I always need to take a day or two off everything to get back to feeling normal (or as normal as can be).

I decided to up my calories, and I am reducing the running to once or twice a week only. As I progress farther in SL, I will probably go to one day running.

cajuntank

My standpoint is its your diet that dictates your weight loss. Lifting weights and cardio are there to assist (notice I used the word assist and not dictate). Strength training while burning some calories, does more in the preservation of existing muscle and thus should be treated as primary of the assists. Cardio burns calories and is good for heart health, but should be treated as secondary in your weight loss. Where it becomes an issue is when cardio starts to interfere with ones recovery of the primary assist or causes issues with the diet. Again, your diet dictates your loss and if you did no strength training, you would end up "skinny fat" because along with fat you lost muscle. If you dieted and just did cardio, you would lose faster, but a lot of that loss would be again... fat and muscle, it would just happen faster. Now, if you retain that calorie burning muscle through strength training, lose weight via diet, and actually put on a little muscle (yes it can be done for a while in the obese, newbie weight lifter, and say someone returning to weight lifting after a long period has passed), that's just more muscle to help burn calories. So anything that impedes those two functions (diet and strength) has to be evaluated (as there still might be the need of some cardio for heart health, or you just want to eat more to make the cardio a wash). Hope that made sense...been a long work day.

Shaky44

I talked to a dietician about this issue - my insurance company enrolled me in a special program that gives me access to this help - and she also recommended that I decrease my cardio, while maintaining my calorie goal. My current plan is to do cardio 5-6 days / week and keep the 3x / week strength training. I'm going to keep my calorie goal where it is, but not be too hard on myself if I eat a little more (up to 500 cals / day - which would bring me up to 3000 calories). It's only been a few days, but I haven't felt the need to go over yet.

I'm definitely worried about getting to the point where motivation becomes an issue, although I'm not there yet. I'm really focused on getting to 270 lbs in early January (which would be 100 lbs lost on MFP since late April). I'll still be overweight by any standard, but I may "take a breather" at that point and go into maintenance mode. By that time, I'm sure the strength training will be pretty damned serious and it will be nice to be eating maintenance-level calories.

I'm thinking about having body composition testing done in January, just to see what my BF% really is, along with getting an estimated BMR. At some point in time, I'd like to formulate a real target for weight loss. So far it's just been to lose a lot of weight.I'd like to have something more concrete to shoot for.