Can strong women lose fat eating higher calories?

schminnie

Question: can a woman who is stronger than average from heavy weight training lose fat eating more calories than MFP would recommend? Does having more muscle really allow for a higher caloric intake?
I'm no power lifter, but I am 5'3, 145lbs, 27 years old, and can squat my own body weight and deadlift more. MFP recommends 1440 calories, which seems low to me... am I in denial? I sure do love to eat big, but I'd like to knock off a good 20 lbs. Thank you to anyone who takes the time to respond!

astronomicals

no. strength doesnt burn calories and having more muscle doesn't make a difference.

Muscle tissue has been observed to burn roughly seven to ten calories per pound per day, compared to two to three calories per pound per day for fat. Therefore, if you "replace" a pound of fat with a pound of muscle, you can expect to burn only approximately four to six more calories a day.

If I put on 20 pounds of muscle and look absolutely jacked it will only allow me to eat maybe 80 more calories.... its not even worth mentioning

astronomicals

if i were you id start at a higher number and slowly dial in til you get a healthy rate of fat loss

Francl27

Strength isn't the same as muscle mass. You can be strong but have average muscle mass.

editorgrrl

You lose weight by eating at a deficit. With 20 lb. to go, set your deficit to .5 lb. per week and be patient.

Read this: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants

SezxyStef

Question: can a woman who is stronger than average from heavy weight training lose fat eating more calories than MFP would recommend? Does having more muscle really allow for a higher caloric intake?
I'm no power lifter, but I am 5'3, 145lbs, 27 years old, and can squat my own body weight and deadlift more. MFP recommends 1440 calories, which seems low to me... am I in denial? I sure do love to eat big, but I'd like to knock off a good 20 lbs. Thank you to anyone who takes the time to respond!

As a lifter 1440 calories is not enough...normally with MFP what you need to do is log your exercise calories under cardio (for weight lifting it's there too) and eat back those calories. Surprisingly enough the weight lifting calories are low...

There is no way I burn 274 calories lifting for 75-90mins...

You are not in denial...I eat on average 1700 calories a day and I lose on average 0.66 lbs a week.

So you have two options atm...log your weight training in the cardio section and eat back those caloires or at least 75% of them, or move to TDEE -15-20%.

SunofaBeach14

Question: can a woman who is stronger than average from heavy weight training lose fat eating more calories than MFP would recommend? Does having more muscle really allow for a higher caloric intake?
I'm no power lifter, but I am 5'3, 145lbs, 27 years old, and can squat my own body weight and deadlift more. MFP recommends 1440 calories, which seems low to me... am I in denial? I sure do love to eat big, but I'd like to knock off a good 20 lbs. Thank you to anyone who takes the time to respond!

Yes to the bolded part. Calorie calculators are based on population averages and will not be perfectly accurate for everyone. You have to find your own TDEE through carefully tracking your calories and weight gain/loss.

Sarauk2sf

Muscle is more metabolically active than fat - but the amount is not that much - less than 10 calories per pound.

That being said, the act of repairing muscle does burn extra calories.

Also, as has already been said, strength does not necessarily = muscle mass (although muscle mass helps with strength).

ETA: what did you set it to lose per week and what activity level did you give?

BusyRaeNOTBusty

I lose at about 2000 calories a day, but I'm 5'9" and 160lbs.

MFP seems to under estimate for a lot of people, and yes the amount of calories it tells you depends on the activity level you tell it, and on the amount of weight you want to lose. So if you tell it sedentary and 2lbs a week it will give you a really low number.

JDubIsShrinking

In short... yes.
MFP seems to underestimate caloric goals for active people. MFP tells me that I should be somewhere around 1450, but I reset my goals based on BMR/TDEE (check out iifym.com). I eat anywhere between 1600-1800 calories daily - depending on activity level - and consistently lose fat. In fact, since I started lifting heavy, the only way I will lose is if I make sure to eat closer to 1800.

strawberrygashes

Calorie intake is a total personal thing and differs so much from person to person, it all boils down to tracking food and then adjusting it until you are achieving what it is you want. Mfp also drastically under estimates for me too. I am just under 5ft (about 4 ft 11 and 3 quarters, to be exact), I'm between 107-109lb and 27 years old. I maintain my weight on roughly 1900 calories a day. According to mfp, I should be gaining a lot of weight, but I don't. I was on 1700-1800, and I kept losing weight, so I adjusted and have been at 1900 for a couple months now.

I lift 5x a week and chuck in the odd run when I can (sometimes only once a fortnight, although I try to do it more than that)

I do think my metabolism is quite high because I also have days of iifym. I don't eat just eat clean, I wouldn't keep that up. Just mess around with your calories but remember not to go too low. Going too low will also zap energy (I can't function on few calories, makes me so tired)

h7463

Hi! I also lift pretty heavy. I'm 5'5", currently 135 lbs, 16.5% BF, and currently cutting. As a serious lifter, your calorie intake depends on you goal. It is difficult to gain or maintain lean muscle mass on a calorie deficit. You need to feed the muscles keep them or to make them grow. Also, it is difficult (for me personally, impossible) to eat more and cut fat at the same time. Right now, I'm on 1500 calories, and I only eat back the calories that I burn in my workouts up to my BMR of about 1200-1300 calories. If I'm not hungry, I won't even eat that much. My macros are at carbs 30 %, fat 25 %, and protein 45 %. I always train with a heart rate monitor, and burn between 300 and 500 calories in 60-90 min sessions. So far, it's working. I'm now hoping, that all I'm losing is the fat, not muscle...
You might want to have your body fat checked, and some measurements taken. This way, you can better evaluate your progress. I had to overcome my urge to step on the scale, because the way I train, it won't make my weight go down much, but I'm still shrinking...according to my jeans...
Good luck!

geekyjock76

What did you set your activity level and weekly weight loss goal as?

Do you know your bf percentage? If so, you can calculate your TDEE and eat between 10% to 15% below that for a few weeks to see what happens. If you are consistently losing about 0.5 lb per week, then you know you're assuming a deficit of 250 calories below actual TDEE. When I plug in your numbers, and assume moderate activity with 22% body fat, I get a TDEE of just under 2300 calories. You could try between 1950 to 2070 calories and consistently use a digital food scale while honestly logging all food intake.

As Sara mentioned: The more muscle mass you have, as well as the training frequency, intensity and volume, will dictate how much energy is required to recover after workouts. If you have above-average muscle mass and a high training frequency, intensity and volume, you'll need a greater amount of energy.

Lastly, I know your goal is to lose 20 lbs, but your upper body seems quite lean. You may want to see how your physique looks by reducing fat mass and dropping less overall weight.

schminnie

Thank you for the reply! I read similar info about muscle burning very few extra cals, but all of the research surrounding seemed a bit hazy and reductionist to me.
I set my weight loss goal to 1lb./week but upped cals to about 1550 for .8lb./week. Activity was lightly active.

Sarauk2sf

Thank you for the reply! I read similar info about muscle burning very few extra cals, but all of the research surrounding seemed a bit hazy and reductionist to me.
I set my weight loss goal to 1lb./week but upped cals to about 1550 for .8lb./week. Activity was lightly active.

If you are using MFP to set your goals, this assumes no exercise. You should eat some of that back.

However, the best way to gauge the appropriate levels to lose fat is to monitor the trends with your weight. If you are losing a bit too slow, eat a bit less. If you are losing a bit too fast (or are having performance issues), eat a bit more.