Should I increase even though I'm lightly active?

nic2561

I am researching this like crazy. I met with a nutritionist a couple of weeks ago who confirmed that I should be eating 1200 calories and told me not to eat back exercise cals. I went to her because I was struggling to do that but thought "ok, this must be the way". I am 5'4" and 138 and she tested my RMR to be about 1440. At the time, I was doing cardio 3-4 times a week for 30-45 minutes. I'm ending my second week with NROLWFW and have decided to cut way back on cardio for the time being because I just haven't been enjoying it and it makes going to the gym feel like a chore. I'm psyched about lifting and love how I feel afterwards and the fact that the time absolutely flies by during my routine. Now since it's the first stage, I'm not doing an insane amount of lifting (I'm new to lifting and don't have a lot of lean mass with 30% body fat and I'm lifting Monday, Wednesday and Friday with a bit of cardio on the weekend) so even though I've been sore I'm nervous to increase calories because I'm scared I'm just not doing enough to warrant that. Just this week I decided to try eating 14-1500 cals on lifting days and 12-1300 on non lifting days. I tried to do 1300 max all last week and ended up binging on Saturday- but not too bad as my daily total was still about 2000-2100 calories.

My question, after all this blabbering, is does increasing calories work even if you aren't doing a lot of exercising? I'm fine with sticking to this small increase for now but the calculations I've done after reading posts on this board have me a little above that number. And the guide in NROLWFW has me above as well.

I have major food log envy of the people in this group...

31prvrbs

Your nutritionist told you to eat 1200 cals, even though your RMR tested at 1440? That is boggling my mind. Did she say why?

The amount of exercising that you're doing is more than sufficient to warrant the cals. I only lift Mon, Wed, Fri. and do a little bit of cardio, as well. I eat 1900+ cals for a deficit. I don't like cardio either, so I had to figure out a way to reach my goals with little to none of it.

Lifting weight will completely change your body composition, but you will definitely need sufficient cals for the job. I hate to go against the advice of your nutritionist, however her recommendation is quite scary. For personal training certification, obviously, we only "dabble" in nutrition, not "major" in it, but we touch on it enough to understand how eating correlates to workouts (as that is our avenue of focus, changing body composition via eating & exercise)

Increasing cals works for anyone who is getting out of bed every day and moving around, yet eating below the required amount of cals to do so.

Your RMR (RESTing Metabolic Rate) is the "minimum" cals you need AT REST. IMHO, there is absolutely no way those same cals can provide for anything outside of sleep. As soon as you stand up, your body has no nutrition left to do the things that you are requiring of it. So, in turn, it will shut down some other function to make up for it. Your body has to "budget" the cals that you provide it, especially when there aren't enough. When you are on a budget, it only makes sense for the most expensive items to be reduced or removed from the budget. Your muscles are one of those items. Muscle are a very "costly" resource to maintain, and your body will break them down first to "conserve," then other bodily functions will begin to suffer.

Often PTs and Nutritionists are taught that we should never allow a client to eat "below 1200 cals." Unfortunately, it seems that this # is just becoming a catchphrase in the fitness industry, and just being tossed at clients unnecessarily. This saddens me to no end...

The fact that you're binging is telling me that your body is not getting what it needs to perform at a proper level. I would absolutely recommend upping your cals.

Kiki

nic2561

OK I have the sheet she gave me now- my RMR is 1426 and she said that in order to lose weight I need to consume less calories than my body needs...so she has my maintenance at 1426-1852. I'm thinking that was a big ol' waste of money. Last week I felt so tired. I'm just so scared of gaining even more weight but I don't want to get back into a binge cycle either and I don't want to pump all this iron for nothing

Thanks so much for your response!! I will definitely make sure to not go below my RMR and fill up on more healthy calories.