I want to make sure I'm giving my friend the right advice

kathleenjoyful

A girlfriend has started lifting and wants to increase her calories / eat the right amount of calories to build muscle. We've discussed Eat More To Weigh Less and she's read NROLFW and Starting Strength, and she's making sure she's hitting her protein goal. She is petite, but has a high body fat %, and is more interested in decreasing that % than the number on the scale. I will point her to the Scooby Calculator and heybales spreadsheet, and she has a Fibit which will hopefully help In calculating her TDEE.

I would probably tell her to eat at a small deficit like 10%, but wanted to make sure I'm not giving her completely the wrong advice! Or to eat at TDEE on days she lifts and a small deficit on other days? I'd love your thoughts. I'd like to direct her to this group for more specific advice in the future as she works on her goal, just wanted to make sure I don't put her on the wrong track to start.

jordymils

I would probably tell her to eat at a small deficit like 10%, but wanted to make sure I'm not giving her completely the wrong advice! Or to eat at TDEE on days she lifts and a small deficit on other days? I'd love your thoughts. I'd like to direct her to this group for more specific advice in the future as she works on her goal, just wanted to make sure I don't put her on the wrong track to start.

It sounds like she has all the right base info to begin with, so that's always a good start. As for the deficit, eating at TDEE etc it really depends on her goals.
Does she have a lot to lose? Does she want to lose fat and build muscle, or just lose fat and tone a little? How often is she training?

As for when to eat at deficit and when to eat at TDEE, the general guide is to at deficit for 4-6 weeks, and then TDEE for a week. Again, it depends on her goals and personal preference. Some people eat at deficit for 4 weeks and TDEE for 1 week, others eat at deficit for 8 weeks and TDEE for 2 weeks. The more she has to lose, the longer she can get away with eating at deficit without a 'diet break', but I wouldn't suggest going longer than a couple of months at most.

As for the deficit amount, as I said that depends on how much she has to lose. The idea with starting at 10% deficit is so that when you plateau there is more room to take a bigger cut without compromising your body/muscle mass to continue losing. That said, the more you have to lose, the bigger deficit she can take. It also depends on which advice she wants to go by.
For example, I finished my reset a couple of weeks ago and started at a 10% cut (as per EM2WL advice) and then put my updated info, including increased training, into the heybales spreadsheet and it suggested a 17.4% deficit because of my lifting to high cardio ratio. But also because almost all of my training is resistance (I do crossfit 7-8 times a week) there is less risk of losing muscle mass even when eating at a deficit. I also don't have THAT much left to lose, about 8-10kg, so as of today I am eating at a 15% deficit and will see how my body responds and then decide where to go based on that.

Otherwise, consistency is key so she should be eating at her deficit amount, whatever that is, every day regardless of if she is lifting or doing nothing. The only time that would change is if she misses a planned workout for whatever reason which would result in her overall weekly exercise being less, in which case she could eat 100 cal less on that specific day. The same goes for if she does an extra unplanned session, where she could eat 100 cal more on that day.

Part of this journey is figuring out which pieces of the information puzzle fit together and work for each of us, coz the same guideline isn't going to have the same effect or results for each of us, so tell her to be patient and persistent.
Hope that all makes sense

heybales

To above great advice, just keep in mind that the less of a deficit, the best response in body improvement with exercise.

Now, if she is starting stronglifts, she'll make progress for a decent while purely as newbie even in deficit, more so in minor deficit.

But if in a deficit, performance will plateau faster than if eating at maintenance, and of course faster than if eating in surplus (which isn't the goal right now obviously).

I'd suggest the same as above, start with that 10% deficit until she starts hitting those failures on the lifts at upper weight limits.

Then to see the best body improvement, go to maintenance or TDEE level. With max improvement to body at that eating level, max fat will be burned.

That's the best remedy for reaching the skinny fat state, where weight is decent, but BF% is higher than desired and noticeable.

kathleenjoyful

This is so helpful, thank you both! I'm going to link my friend to this thread. She's done her own reading and feels a small deficit like 10% is where she'll start too, so it's great to have that confirmed! I always appreciate the wisdom of this group.

jaeone

I hope you friend takes your advise and joins the group! Looking forward to meeting her!