Deficit vs. eating to support strength training?

gweneddk

This is more of a vent than anything, but I guess I'm wondering if anyone else experiences this:

It seems like I can *either* eat at a deficit OR gain strength. When I eat at a deficit my performance in the gym goes to *kitten* and I am cranky and irritable. Then I decide strength is more important to me right now, so I start eating pretty much whatever the heck I want (which is a LOT of food usually) and I feel like a rockstar in the gym. My weight usually shoots up about 5 lbs right away when I start eating like this, then I might gain relatively slowly (0.25 lb/week) or maintain my weight.

I was eating 1450 calories/day for a period in the beginning of April (and didn't lose anything), and I estimate now that I'm eating at least 2100 calories per day and also maintaining my weight (which went up 5lbs when I started eating more then stabilized). It just doesn't make sense--it is impossible for 1450 and 2100 to both be maintenance levels of calories, right? So I go with the higher one that keeps me sane and keeps the strength gains coming. I know eventually I'll have to cut calories again to get leaner, but I'm just starting to get really distrustful of the math after all of this. Any words of wisdom from anyone?

jacksonpt

No, not likely. Chances are your estimates are off - inconsistent and/or inaccurate. Are you logging everything you eat/drink? Every bite? Are you weighing/measuring foods, or just eyeballing portion sizes?

gweneddk

No, not likely. Chances are your estimates are off - inconsistent and/or inaccurate. Are you logging everything you eat/drink? Every bite? Are you weighing/measuring foods, or just eyeballing portion sizes?

Really the only recent period that I was strict about logging and measuring absolutely everything 100% was April 3-11 and the 14-18. [I do sometimes eyeball my veggie servings because even if I am off by 50%, the calorie impact isn't that much.] I logged all through the last week of Feb into March at around 1600 cal/day, but there's some restaurant meals in there too which are always tough.

After the most recent stretch, I knew I couldn't maintain that low of a calorie level (1450), especially given there was no external motivation from the scale, so I decided to stop stressing about losing and wait until after my powerlifting meet to try again. It just seems crazy that I can be miserable and hungry all the time trying to stick to 1450 calories per day (and not lose weight) or eat 80% clean but be fully satisfied by my portions and eat a fair amount of treats (and not gain weight).

Sarauk2sf

Tagging.

I will comment in more detail - but maintenance is not static and changes with food intake - however, not that extremely. Water weight throws a spanner in the works a lot also when trying to gauge what our weight is doing.

I also hear you re strength and intake - it impacts me quite a lot. I think some people are more sensitive to it than others.

FromHereOnOut

following

Sarauk2sf

You need to give intake levels more time to see the impact on your weight - at least 4 weeks, sometimes longer. People are very individual in how they retain water. Some people retain at the beginning of a cut, but most drop water weight. Some people also start to retain water after being on a deficit for a while, but some do not. When upping calories, some people drop water weight, others do not.

However, when upping calories, your TDEE increases - it's a function of being more active (voluntary and involuntary) and your BMR increasing. It happens slowly though.

Anecdotal - my reverse engineered maintenance calories when on a cut are about 2,000 - 2,100 - at the end of a bulk they can be up to 2,500 - but this takes months.

gweneddk

You need to give intake levels more time to see the impact on your weight - at least 4 weeks, sometimes longer. People are very individual in how they retain water. Some people retain at the beginning of a cut, but most drop water weight. Some people also start to retain water after being on a deficit for a while, but some do not. When upping calories, some people drop water weight, others do not.

However, when upping calories, your TDEE increases - it's a function of being more active (voluntary and involuntary) and your BMR increasing. It happens slowly though.

Anecdotal - my reverse engineered maintenance calories when on a cut are about 2,000 - 2,100 - at the end of a bulk they can be up to 2,500 - but this takes months.

I agree entirely on the voluntary/involuntary movement--when I dropped my calories it was all I could do to do the bare minimum at the gym, get home and sit on the couch and go to bed early. Now I'm more likely to do impromptu prowler sprints after my bench workout, or spend 30 minutes pulling weeds out of my garden.

I had suspected that water weight might be playing a role, and I started taking my multi-vitamin again (the B vitamins have a diuretic effect). Since I started eating more and taking the vitamins, I'm feeling a lot less bloated/puffy. I think that I'm probably not truly in a maintenance calorie range and if I continue eating at this level I will slowly gain fat, so at this point I'm planning on cutting out ~200 calories per day which should be fairly easy, and then hopefully I'll be at a good maintenance level so I can make weight for the meet easily.

Sarauk2sf

Sounds like a plan!

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