A couple of newbie questions

sleepyjen

Hi there,

I've been lurking in this group and reading lots of threads over the past few days and yesterday started NROLW. I have a couple of questions I'd like some input on, if you could help.

I have the calorie chart that many of you link to here (http://maggiewang.com/2008/05/20/new-rules-of-lifting-for-women-di…) and have filled it out and yesterday ate to the "active" amount. I plan on running on some of my non-lift days and then eating to the "strenuous" amount, since I typically burn at least 500 calories. I suppose the alternative would be to eat to the "maintenance" amount and eat back my exercise calories. Which do you do? I think it's interesting that the maintenance level on the NROLW chart is less than my maintenance here on MFP by about 190 calories, but I digress…

Right now I actually can't run due to some kind of calf strain, so I'm a little concerned that the lunges on day 2 workout b might be a bit too high-impact. Does anyone ever swap the exercises by necessity? I was thinking about doing more of the step ups instead, at least for this week (I'm supposed to give it two weeks to heal, and since it still hurts, am taking it easy).

I think that's it. Hoping to be strong enough soon to actually lift the Olympic weight bar enough to do squats with it I used the lighter ez curl bar yesterday.


ETA: last question. For those of you who have completed the program, what do you do to maintain your muscle gains?

Thanks!
Jen

stef_monster

I'm still figuring out the calorie thing myself, so I'm not much help there. I wear a FitBit, which gives me a ballpark TDEE, and try (TRY being the operative word) to eat at the 250 calorie deficit for Fitbit's 'easy' weight loss plan, or TDEE -20%. I have a few days a week where I eat closer to maintenance, though.

As far as the exercises go, I swap them out all the time and have still seen great progress. I broke my pinky toe at the end of September and had to SIGNIFICANTLY modify Stages 4 & 5 so that I didn't aggravate it. Step ups are fantastic substitutes for lunges, especially if you have an adjustable step so you can make it as challenging as you need to. Static lunges or side lunges might also be less impact?

Best of luck!

sleepyjen

Using one online calculator, my TDEE-20% is the same as my maintenance calories/no exercise on the chart. Two others say my TDEE is a few hundred calories higher and thus TDEE-20% is inside 50 calories of what the spreadsheet suggests I consume for an "active" day--and is nearly exactly the number MFP says I should have to maintain. Fascinating how all of these calculators are different!