Weightlifting and Calorie Intake Question

dschassie

I am reaching out for advice, here is the deal:

Started this journey almost 17 months ago at 236 pounds, I am 5’4”. MFP set my daily calories to 1200. Stuck with the calorie allotment (didn’t care about macros) and did the elliptical at the gym 3-4 times a week, 40 minutes each time. I have MFP set to sedentary and log my exercise (I wear a HRM) and eat back most of those calories.

After losing the first 30 pounds, started Couch-to-5K. At this point, no more elliptical, just running, 4 times a week.

Once program was done, I was at a 60 pound weight loss and felt comfortable adding “light” weight lifting. Gym routine changed to weights 5 times a week and on 3 of those days I would add 20-30 minutes of jogging.

Being on MFP for so long, you learn a lot of things along the way, the most recent revelation has been "heavy lifting". So 7 weeks ago my gym routine changed once more, I now am in the gym 6 days a week for about 45-60 minutes of heavy lifting and my jogging is down to about once a week for an hour.

Another important focus shift has been on body fat percentage and macros.

Of course I'd like the scale to keep moving down as I’d ultimately like to lose another 15-20 pounds but I understand that body composition and body fat percentage will play a huge role in my physique as well.

So 7 weeks ago (at 145 pounds and about 26%BF) I started heavy lifting (I am doing bodybuilding.com Jamie Eason’s LiveFit) and changed my MFP macros. I shoot for 140-150 grams of protein a day, (so 50% of my daily calories from protein), and the remainder from fat and carbs, trying to keep my carbs pretty low though.

Here is where I need help, I am not sure what my daily calorie intake should be. I have found a lot of information online for women that are already at a great weight and simply want to drop body fat but I don’t know how to consolidate all of this info with still wanting to lose weight. I know 1200 is too low and although I am afraid to take it up, I know I need to. The weight lifting is going great, I am gaining muscle definition and dropping inches but have only lost 5 pounds over the last 7 weeks (and those were lost during the first 3 weeks, there has been no scale movement in last 3 weeks). How do you even know how much you burn during a 45 minute session? Wearing the HRM is uncomfortable and everything I have read says it’s useless for weightlifting anyways since it’s different than a cardio burn.

And, question Number 2, I love running and wonder if I increase my frequency, will it affect my weight lifting progress?

Sorry for the long post, I just wanted to provide as much background as possible. Thank you all!

run_shayna_run

Our starting point and end point are very similar. I've had plateaus for about 6 weeks in a row where I didn't lose lbs, but just keep pushing myself through it and then it was like one week BAM, a ton of lbs dropped off.

I do wear a heart rate monitor for most every training session, regardless if it's cardio or strength. Some times I'll take the watch off, but keep it close so that I still get the report by wearing the chest strap. It's the only sure way so tell at least within a reasonable amount of variance. I realize that you get after-burn by weight training, and I just chalk that up to extra credit. I usually let hunger be my guide. On days that I lift heavy (usually about 3-4 times per week), I'm hungrier and try to eat about 200 calories more back for an average of about 1400 calories. I average 400 calories burned per strength training session because I do interval training type things with little breaks in between. That is lower than some people who are serious into heavy lifting, but that is what gets me results. I don't feel starving and am losing between 1 - 2 lbs a week.

I am a runner at heart, so there's no way I'm giving up running. I still do it 2-3 times per week and train for races. I think your question there just depends on your ultimate goal and body chemistry. I'll get a little leaner in the summer when I'm running 4-5 times per week training for a race, but that doesn't bother me. I build muscle easily so I tend to do more cardio to keep from just going full Hulk. I know serious body builders that try and stay away from too much cardio, but those are the people that compete on stage. If that's not your goal than I think you'll be fine.

If you have the resources, you may consider talking to a nutritionist and/or personal trainer. I've done both and it has been very much worth it.

law1558

We seem to be at similar places in our fitness journey - I probably need to make the change to up'ing my protein intake to see better results from my weight-lifting. I'm curious - are you having a hard time hitting your 140-150 grams of daily protein intake?

I average close to 100 grams a day and that's not consistent but includes a post-work out shake that has 30 g of protein in one serving.

Will_Thrust_For_Candy

A lot of this is going to be trial and error. If what you have been doing is working then I would continue doing that providing that you feel good and your performance isn't suffering.

If you don't feel good (fatigued, hungry all the time) or your gym performance is suffering then you need to look at either incrementally increasing your calories or reducing your activity. At the end of the day, weight loss still boils down to calories in vs calories out.

One of the biggest mistakes I made was thinking that lifting burns *so much more* calories. It doesn't necessarily. I'm not saying it's not a good workout, but the burn lifting won't necessarily be the same as running or the elliptical. This is not an anti lifting statement, btw.....just look at my profile pic lol

50% protein might be high....but if your body is fine with it and you feel fine eating that much, then go for it. I know that for me once I hit over about 140g, my stomach goes nuts and it's not a good time.

As for the running, you should have no problem sustaining short runs while lifting. They just have to be timed properly. I would say do 20-30 minutes after lifting and leave your rest days as rest days. If you want to train for a race or do a 10k or half program then you will have to switch your focus to running with lifting secondary. It's very very hard to do both do 100%, I would guess nearly impossible. When I train for endurance, I drop lifting down to 2x/week and lift basically to maintain rather than increase strength.

Hope this helps

law1558

Thanks for the resource -

Looks like I should be taking in approx 1700 calories to lose while working out. I need to up my protein!

BusyRaeNOTBusty

This is good:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/819055-setting-your-calorie-and-macro-targets

silverinc13

Once lifting becomes a big part of your exercising you'll have a lot more success with the TDEE method over the MFP+exercise calories way - simply because it's difficult to pinpoint just how many calories are burned from lifting. I definitely recommend going to scobby's workshop and calculating your TDEE and go with a slight deficit off that - 15% would be about right since you don't have that much more to lose. Don't stress so much about the number on the scale! Worry more about how you look and how your clothes fit. As your body fat % goes down you will look like you weigh less and go down in sizes even if you don't actually weigh less. Weight is just a number on a box, bodyfat is what makes you look good in a swimsuit!

dschassie

We seem to be at similar places in our fitness journey - I probably need to make the change to up'ing my protein intake to see better results from my weight-lifting. I'm curious - are you having a hard time hitting your 140-150 grams of daily protein intake?

I average close to 100 grams a day and that's not consistent but includes a post-work out shake that has 30 g of protein in one serving.

I also do protein shakes (30g per scoop) but load up on lots of chicken breast (even as a snack), peanut butter and greek yogurt

dschassie

A lot of this is going to be trial and error. If what you have been doing is working then I would continue doing that providing that you feel good and your performance isn't suffering.

If you don't feel good (fatigued, hungry all the time) or your gym performance is suffering then you need to look at either incrementally increasing your calories or reducing your activity. At the end of the day, weight loss still boils down to calories in vs calories out.

One of the biggest mistakes I made was thinking that lifting burns *so much more* calories. It doesn't necessarily. I'm not saying it's not a good workout, but the burn lifting won't necessarily be the same as running or the elliptical. This is not an anti lifting statement, btw.....just look at my profile pic lol

50% protein might be high....but if your body is fine with it and you feel fine eating that much, then go for it. I know that for me once I hit over about 140g, my stomach goes nuts and it's not a good time.

As for the running, you should have no problem sustaining short runs while lifting. They just have to be timed properly. I would say do 20-30 minutes after lifting and leave your rest days as rest days. If you want to train for a race or do a 10k or half program then you will have to switch your focus to running with lifting secondary. It's very very hard to do both do 100%, I would guess nearly impossible. When I train for endurance, I drop lifting down to 2x/week and lift basically to maintain rather than increase strength.

Hope this helps

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply, it was so helpful to read. I decided to up my calories and allow more carbs to have extra energy, been feeling really tired lately. Took my protein down to 130 grams, that's a number I am comfortable hitting! I know upping my cals will probably result in a temporary weight gain but I know my body needs it with all that weight lifting I'm doing!

Makoce

Some really good responses here!

dschassie

Thank you all so very much for your feedback. It's hard to change your mindset after 1.5 years but after reading all of your feedback and looking at the links you posted, I changed my approach to the TDEE method (already figuring in my workouts) and with a calculated deficit it resulted in me upping my calls by 300 per day. I know this will throw things off for a week or two but I am hoping after that I'll find a good rhythm.

Thanks again everyone!

Mercedespony

Wow. I was lost but now am found.
I could have written your initial post word for word, and I feel like I've been lost the last 6 weeks.
I've been wanting to lift heavier, bought the books and just can't figure out when to jump on.
Off to google/check out TDEE.

dschassie

Wow. I was lost but now am found.
I could have written your initial post word for word, and I feel like I've been lost the last 6 weeks.
I've been wanting to lift heavier, bought the books and just can't figure out when to jump on.
Off to google/check out TDEE.

So glad to hear I am not the only one that is facing this! I ended up checking my TDEE on this site: http://iifym.com/tdee-calculator/ with the Mifflin-St Jeor method. Since I work out 6 days a week, it came to a whopping 2,005 calories per day. (I am 5'4", 32 years old and weigh 140 pounds). I calculated a 25% deficit (about 500 calories) and set my new calorie goal to 1,500 per day. This gives me a weekly deficit of 3,500 calories which roughly should equal about 1lb weight loss per week. For my macros, I am going for 130 grams of protein (35%) 169 grams of carbs (45%) and 33 grams of fat (20%). The last 8 weeks I have been trying to go low carb but felt my energy levels going down and my crank-o-meter going up so I am happy to adjust the carbs in my macros but won't be upset if I come in under that

Mary407

Bump for later - looks like folks have posted a lot of good info here!