nooby stronglifts 5x5 questions

Mistraal1981

Hi!!

I started this on Monday completely from scratch and I'm already addicted!

Some questions though that I'd appreciate help with;

Different websites peg a 40 minute weight session at very different calorie burns. The range I have seen have some sites say 90, some say 600! This makes tracking calories a nightmare! I know a hrm is useless for weightlifting so I wondered if anyone knows a more accurate calories burned figure.

I am also doing this to get strong and lose weight. Priority is lose weight. However, sites say that eating at a deficit will hamper my lifting. I was wondering how others balanced their deficit.

I am 5ft 3in and currently weigh 144lbs. My mfp setting to lose weight is 1200. (I don't want to get into the 1200 calorie debate, but you can see why I am keen to have a better idea of calories burned as I don't want to be going under this number)

martinel2099

Hi!!

I started this on Monday completely from scratch and I'm already addicted!

Some questions though that I'd appreciate help with;

Different websites peg a 40 minute weight session at very different calorie burns. The range I have seen have some sites say 90, some say 600! This makes tracking calories a nightmare! I know a hrm is useless for weightlifting so I wondered if anyone knows a more accurate calories burned figure.

I am also doing this to get strong and lose weight. Priority is lose weight. However, sites say that eating at a deficit will hamper my lifting. I was wondering how others balanced their deficit.

I am 5ft 3in and currently weigh 144lbs. My mfp setting to lose weight is 1200. (I don't want to get into the 1200 calorie debate, but you can see why I am keen to have a better idea of calories burned as I don't want to be going under this number)

As a personal preference, I don't trust the MFP listing so I essentially cut the time in half. The reason I don't trust it is because I spend time resting in between sets not doing anything. So if I work 50 minutes on strong lifts, I record it as 25 minutes. I'd rather estimate on the low side and just add more to my deficit rather than over-estimate and eat more than I should.

It's ok to do strong lifts 5x5 on a fat loss diet, in fact it's highly super highly recommended. The reason you lift heavy weights while on a fat loss diet is because you want to hold onto muscle mass. When on a fat loss diet you lose fat and muscle, it's unavoidable, however, with heavy lifting and consuming adequate amounts of protein (1gram to .8 grams per lb of body weight) you mitigate muscle loss. also, you will still notice strength gains in existing muscle, all the more reason to lift!

Also, 1,200 calories seems a bit too low, what did you set your lbs per week goal to be? The closer you get to your goal weight the harder it will be to shed the pounds, if you're trying for 2 lbs per week that's super aggressive, consider .5 to 1 lb per week. You want to hold onto that muscle, not lose it all by not eating.

martinel2099

Wanted to add the entry I use under Cardio on my fitness pal


Strength training (weight lifting, weight training) 25 minutes 137 Calories

I know that doesn't seem like a lot of calories, but that's ok. Weight loss is achieved in the kitchen, I workout to hold onto my muscle not necessarily to eat more food (though more calories helps)

Mistraal1981

Hi martinel2099. At my stats 1200 gives me a 1lb a week projected loss.

I like the idea of halving the workout time on mfp. Thank you.

martinel2099

Ok so I punched you into scooby's workshop's calorie burned estimator and looks like your daily burn is approx 1,330 with the assumption that you have a sitting job like I do. If you have a more active lifestyle then you'll need to adjust that number to compensate for that, like if you a mail delivery person or waiter you'd be doing a lot of walking thus more calories burnt.

107 to 135 is the normal weight for your height so I think you should push your weight loss goal down to .5 lbs per week. to lose half a lb of fat per week is 1750 (3500 divided by 2) is a calorie deficit of 250 calories per day, I'd shoot for 1/2 lb per week so make that 125 calories deficit per day (Sorry for all the maths!)

So in a nutt shell 1,200 per day works for you if you just sit around all day and do nothing. You'll need to add calories for additional exercise and etc as you don't want to net below 1,200.

TFaustino67

Calorie burn of 135-150 sounds like a good estimate.

Mistraal1981

Oh thank you for doing that martinel2099. I do have a very desk bound job so am "sedentary" unless I do specific exercise, so I guess 1200 isn't far off. I always made a point to eat back exercise calories, so having a guideline for weights is so useful. I added it to my database as you suggested.

I am glad others reckon your figure to be about right.

Now I just need to nail my form and there will be no stopping me!!

martinel2099

Cool stuff good luck! There's lots of good youtube videos I find myself watching again and again just to make sure I have the right form.

ScottHermanFitness has a great channel for how to properly perform lifts

Feeding Fitness - This is from MFP community member Vismal, great youtube channel for diet+nutrition advice. Very smart guy.

_lyndseybrooke_

Hi martinel2099. At my stats 1200 gives me a 1lb a week projected loss.

Wrong. A 33 year old female that is 5'3" 144 lbs getting 1-3 hours of exercise per week needs about 1500 calories per day to lose a pound a week.

Lifting at 1200 calories per day. What a joke. Don't expect to gain much strength doing that.

If you don't fuel your body (fuel = food), then it won't perform like it should.

erickirb

Hi martinel2099. At my stats 1200 gives me a 1lb a week projected loss.

Wrong. A 33 year old female that is 5'3" 144 lbs getting 1-3 hours of exercise per week needs about 1500 calories per day to lose a pound a week.

Lifting at 1200 calories per day. What a joke. Don't expect to gain much strength doing that.

If you don't fuel your body (fuel = food), then it won't perform like it should.

your numbers are based on TDEE. If she set your goal to lose 0.5lbs/week she would get 250 more/day, plus what she burns from exercise which would be 1450 on non workout days and like 1600 on workout days, so it would be about the same as 1500 everyday.

If you enter appropriate goals in MFP and eat back exercise calories TDEE and NEAT + exercise cals will be almost the same at the end of the week.

OP, log strength training in the cardio section for the duration and eat those back. Either no or at most, when you get to your last 15lbs, I would suggest changing your goal to 0.5lbs/week.

rachelrb85

Hi!!

I started this on Monday completely from scratch and I'm already addicted!

Some questions though that I'd appreciate help with;

Different websites peg a 40 minute weight session at very different calorie burns. The range I have seen have some sites say 90, some say 600! This makes tracking calories a nightmare! I know a hrm is useless for weightlifting so I wondered if anyone knows a more accurate calories burned figure.

I am also doing this to get strong and lose weight. Priority is lose weight. However, sites say that eating at a deficit will hamper my lifting. I was wondering how others balanced their deficit.

I am 5ft 3in and currently weigh 144lbs. My mfp setting to lose weight is 1200. (I don't want to get into the 1200 calorie debate, but you can see why I am keen to have a better idea of calories burned as I don't want to be going under this number)

You don't want to get into a debate on 1200 calories, as in you don't want to raise your calories??
At 5'3" 144 lbs and doing SL 5x5 you need to eat more than 1200 calories. You cannot eat below your BMR and expect to get good lifting results. Your body needs fuel.

I'm an inch taller than you and was losing weight at 1500 being sedentary. Add your strength workouts, you can easily lose weight eating 1600-1800 calories. You want to balance your deficit with lifting? Eat TDEE less 10-15% while lifting. And be patient. You'll see results.

martinel2099

deleted response

_lyndseybrooke_

Hi martinel2099. At my stats 1200 gives me a 1lb a week projected loss.

Wrong. A 33 year old female that is 5'3" 144 lbs getting 1-3 hours of exercise per week needs about 1500 calories per day to lose a pound a week.

Lifting at 1200 calories per day. What a joke. Don't expect to gain much strength doing that.

If you don't fuel your body (fuel = food), then it won't perform like it should.

your numbers are based on TDEE. If she set your goal to lose 0.5lbs/week she would get 250 more/day, plus what she burns from exercise which would be 1450 on non workout days and like 1600 on workout days, so it would be about the same as 1500 everyday.

If you enter appropriate goals in MFP and eat back exercise calories TDEE and NEAT + exercise cals will be almost the same at the end of the week.

OP, log strength training in the cardio section for the duration and eat those back. Either no or at most, when you get to your last 15lbs, I would suggest changing your goal to 0.5lbs/week.

If MFP has her at 1200 net calories to lose 1 lb/week and TDEE has her at 1500 total calories to lose 1 lb/week, then that means she's burning 300 calories per day with exercise. That's not the case if she's just lifting 40 min/day 3x/week. If she's looking for a range of calorie burn so she knows what to eat back, those numbers won't help her. Let's say she estimates a 120 calorie burn during each workout and she eats all of them back. She'd be eating too little by about 350 calories per day when averaged out over the week, according to TDEE.

Why not just keep it simple, eat 1500 calories per day (or 10,500 per week), and don't worry about how much you're burning? If OP sticks to a workout routine, it takes the guesswork out of it.

martinel2099

Hi martinel2099. At my stats 1200 gives me a 1lb a week projected loss.

Wrong. A 33 year old female that is 5'3" 144 lbs getting 1-3 hours of exercise per week needs about 1500 calories per day to lose a pound a week.

Lifting at 1200 calories per day. What a joke. Don't expect to gain much strength doing that.

If you don't fuel your body (fuel = food), then it won't perform like it should.

your numbers are based on TDEE. If she set your goal to lose 0.5lbs/week she would get 250 more/day, plus what she burns from exercise which would be 1450 on non workout days and like 1600 on workout days, so it would be about the same as 1500 everyday.

If you enter appropriate goals in MFP and eat back exercise calories TDEE and NEAT + exercise cals will be almost the same at the end of the week.

OP, log strength training in the cardio section for the duration and eat those back. Either no or at most, when you get to your last 15lbs, I would suggest changing your goal to 0.5lbs/week.

If MFP has her at 1200 net calories to lose 1 lb/week and TDEE has her at 1500 total calories to lose 1 lb/week, then that means she's burning 300 calories per day with exercise. That's not the case if she's just lifting 40 min/day 3x/week. If she's looking for a range of calorie burn so she knows what to eat back, those numbers won't help her. Let's say she estimates a 120 calorie burn during each workout and she eats all of them back. She'd be eating too little by about 350 calories per day when averaged out over the week, according to TDEE.

Why not just keep it simple, eat 1500 calories per day (or 10,500 per week), and don't worry about how much you're burning? If OP sticks to a workout routine, it takes the guesswork out of it.

Lyndsey makes a great point and this is definitely effective if you are decently consistent with your workout routine week to week. At the end of the day all calorie estimates are just that, estimates and TDEE is a good way to go for the long term.

Currently I calculate my calorie goal based on being a couch potatoe and eat back exercise calories, but eventually i do plan to switch the the TDEE method. One major disadvantage of eating back exercise calories is you associate going to the gym with eating food (not a healthy relationship with food or the gym) and you have potential to log more calories than you actually burn at the gym and over-eat.

Mistraal1981

I am a little embarrassed to admit that I never really understood TFEE and preferred the simplicity of following how mfp is set up. However, I totally understand the point that I need fuel if I'm going to improve strength, that's why I was asking so I could make sure I ate.

Would it actually be better if I just ate 1500 and didn't log any exercise as suggested? I think I struggle to wrap my head around how accurate that would be, or if it makes no odds.

On a side note; I had my goal set to lose 0.5lb a while ago but saw no progress at all for ages (I always stick to changes for 6 weeks before I decide if its working for me). I started looking at different entries for the same thing and the calorie estimates could vary by up to 300 calories. When looking to lose so little there isn't really much room for variations like that and I think that's why I didn't lose, so I raised my goal to 1lb a week.

rachelrb85

I am a little embarrassed to admit that I never really understood TFEE and preferred the simplicity of following how mfp is set up. However, I totally understand the point that I need fuel if I'm going to improve strength, that's why I was asking so I could make sure I ate.

Would it actually be better if I just ate 1500 and didn't log any exercise? I think I struggle to wrap my head around how accurate that would be, or if it makes no odds.

I plugged in your stats, your BMR is 1421 and TDEE is 1954. TDEE less 20% is 1563. You would even lose weight at less than 10% which would be 1758. So 1500 isn't a bad starting point, but you can afford to eat more. Even at sedentary your TDEE is 1705, therefore less 10% would be 1535. So you could do 1500 and eat back exercise calories or do 1600-1700 and not eat back. You can also log your exercise as 1 calorie burned if you didn't want to eat back.

http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/

Mistraal1981

Thanks rachelrb85. There seems to be so many different numbers coming back at me from my basic stats when each kind mfp uses them. I find it confusing. Why would mfp set me so low then? Dont the sites all use the same formula?

erickirb

Thanks rachelrb85. There seems to be so many different numbers coming back at me from my basic stats when each kind mfp uses them. I find it confusing. Why would mfp set me so low then? Dont the sites all use the same formula?

because it is just spitting out what you put into it. MFP would have you lose more weight. Change your goal to 0.5lbs/week and when you factor in your workouts TDEE should be very close to MFP if you set the proper activity level and weight loss/week goal on each.

As an example say MFP gives you 1450 calories to lose 1 lb/week, and you plan on exercising 5x/week for an average of 400 cals per workout. well MFP will tell you to eat 1450 on the days you don't workout and 1850 on the days you do whereas a r TDEE calculator may tell you to eat 1700 everyday regardless if you workout.

So for the week MFP will have you eat 12,150 (1450*2+1850*5) whereas TDEE will have you eat 11,900 (1700*7) almost the same number of cals for the week (250 dif).

What many MFPers do is take the low 1450 and not eat back exercise calories which is wrong, if you are not eating them back then your daily activity level should reflect the higher burn with would be covered in the 1700/day above.

Mistraal1981

Thank you erickirb. I think what I am going to do is eat 1500 and not log any exercise and see how I go from there. Got the gym tonight and I'm using my lunch to look at videos on good form!!

_HeartsOnFire_

Here are a couple excellent groups on here that might be able to help too...

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/10118-eat-train-progress

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/4601-stronglifts-5x5-for-women



I'm 5'5" and was losing on 2000 calories a day. I love my exercise as 1 calorie burned.

randomtai

I have a BodyMedia FIT for my TDEE now, but before I bought one, I used Heybales' spreadsheet for calculating TDEE. Here is the link:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Amt7QBR9-c6MdGVTbGswLUUzUHNVVUlNSW9wZWloeUE#gid=14

Mistraal1981

Deleted duplicate post.

Mistraal1981

How much exercise do u do per week Heart on Fire?

_HeartsOnFire_

Stronglifts 3x a week...I backed off on how heavy I was lifting to add in cardio, kickboxing and work on form.

Right now I'm just focusing on running, I have a zombie run next month.

My goal is this...
SL 3x
Running 3x
Kickboxing 1x

3laine75

Hi martinel2099. At my stats 1200 gives me a 1lb a week projected loss.

Wrong. A 33 year old female that is 5'3" 144 lbs getting 1-3 hours of exercise per week needs about 1500 calories per day to lose a pound a week.

Lifting at 1200 calories per day. What a joke. Don't expect to gain much strength doing that.

If you don't fuel your body (fuel = food), then it won't perform like it should.

Everyone is different. At 5'3 eating back cals this sounds fine to me.

At 5'6, I made good strength gains at 1200 net for a good 6 months (0kg - 60kg squat, if I remember correctly).

OP when I was using the 'eat back' method, I just used the MFP entry for strength training in 'cardio'.

ETA: obviously, you can eat more but the constant 'you can't do that on x cals' gets old.

_HeartsOnFire_

Hi martinel2099. At my stats 1200 gives me a 1lb a week projected loss.

Wrong. A 33 year old female that is 5'3" 144 lbs getting 1-3 hours of exercise per week needs about 1500 calories per day to lose a pound a week.

Lifting at 1200 calories per day. What a joke. Don't expect to gain much strength doing that.

If you don't fuel your body (fuel = food), then it won't perform like it should.

Everyone is different. At 5'3 eating back cals this sounds fine to me.

At 5'6, I made good strength gains at 1200 net for a good 6 months (0kg - 60kg squat, if I remember correctly).

OP when I was using the 'eat back' method, I just used the MFP entry for strength training in 'cardio'.

ETA: obviously, you can eat more but the constant 'you can't do that on x cals' gets old.

But if you could lose weight and eat a little more than what's the problem?