OPINIONS PLEASE - Food and Exercise Advice

Jamie2007

The thoughts in my head - WARNING - this could be jibberish!

My goal: To maintain muscle mass while cutting body fat. I am looking for a strong yet lean physique.


So today, I get up at 4 am and drink 1/2 of a smoothie made with 2 oz. Chobani, 1/2 cup fruit, and 1/4 scoop protein powder (about 150 calories). I head to the gym and do a 65 minute leg workout (which shows a calorie burn of 420 on my HRM). I typically never track calories for strength workouts but this workout was pretty intense so I did just out of curiosity.

Then I filled 2 20 oz. bottles with water and climbed on the stairs for 90 minutes (which shows a calorie burn of 850).

This sets my total calorie burn (according to the HRM) to 1270 calories.

I have my net calories set at 1500 and I NEVER eat ALL my calories burned back. Silly, but, what I do is if my HRM is set to general I eat 1/4 of my calories back, if it is set to my foot pod I eat half back. I have done this for the past 6 weeks and have consistently maintained my 115 pounds.

Today at lunch time I will walk 3 miles at about a 4mph pace. This will burn another 180 calories according to my HRM with food pod activated.

That gives me a total calorie burn (according to the HRM) of 1450 calories for the day.

So I took the 420 + 850 for a total of = 1270 /2 /2 = 317 Calories to eat back.

Then the 180 from my walk with foot pod activated = 180 /2 = 90 Calories to eat back.

317 + 90 = 407 Calories to eat back.

This will put me at a total of 1907 calories for the day (Excluding subtracting off the exercise).

My first question: should I be counting weight training calories?

My second question is: why does my body fat percentage seem to be coming off at a SNAILS pace when I am literally working my *kitten* off. The food I am eating day in and day out (excluding 1 cheat day a week) is super clean!

I know so many people will have so many different opinions about this, but what I really want to know is: Does anyone see any RED flags? Anything that is GLARING that I should be doing differently?

I have been at this for four months now, and I have seen positive results, but just not as quickly as I see some other people making them. It’s kind of frustrating. Thanks for taking the time to read!

sophjakesmom

bump

Klamber26

When you get to a low body fat percentage, which from your pic I assume you already have, things get tricky. Your body simply does not have the fat supplies anymore to fuel you. You are exercising way too much and eating way too little. With so much cardio you are destroying some of the work you've put into building muscle.

A good idea: take the number of pounds of body fat you currently have and multiply it by 33. This is the maximum calorie deficit a day you can create without losing lean body mass. As you get lower and lower, you will have to increase calories, but by doing this you can insure that nearly all of the weight you are losing is fat and not muscle.

If I were you I would lower my cardio to 45 min max, eat suggested calories, and concentrate on lifting as heavy as possible.

Don't worry about eating back calories or any of that crap. Estimate (with exercise) your total calorie burn per day, then subtract the deficit and every day shoot for that number regardless of if you exercise that day or not.

Hope all that was clear. I know you don't want to be told that you have to eat more and exercise less, but remember that slow and steady always wins the race.

SweetDorothySweat

It sounds to me like you aren't eating enough. HOWEVER, if you are slowly reducing fat and maintaining your weight, these signs say that you are eating enough. I know that if your net calories aren't over 800, then you will not lose weight, however you will lose fat slowly.
What I THINK you are supposed to do is take your maintenance calories and add roughly the amount of calories burned from exercise, and reduce it by 20% to LOSE weight. From what I understand, it is hard, almost impossible, at a low body fat % to reduce fat WHILE maintaining muscle, you are bound to lose muscle is what they say,(which is why people do ketogenic cycling and reeats and take breaks on training etc) however, I have continually gained muscle while losing fat, so I feel I have disproved this! hahah Victory!
I am 115 also, but I am still flabby and want to lose the fat on my stomach. I have started experimenting with my caloric intake and found out that my maintenance is on the lower end of what it could be. It isn't 1840, it is more like 1380. So I reduce by 20% and eat around 1104 a day plus my exercise calories, without reducing the exercise by 20%, not sure how it is working, I need to give it more time. Here is a link though to figure out your maintenance, I recommend using the 12cal/lb because I gained when I used what I thought was correct, being 14-15/lb. Also, this article says it figures in one hour of exercise, but I do not take that into consideration, as I get exercise at work all day. You can skim through to the numbers part in the 9th paragraph if you want http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/how-to-estimate-maintenance-caloric-intake.html

Next, if I were you I would figure out my macronutrients (how much protein, carbs and fat) I increased the fat a little on mine. On this one, the numbers don't start until the next page, so go to the bottom and hit part 2.
http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/the-fundamentals-of-fat-loss-diets-part-1.html

Only red flag I see is this:
1450cal exercise + 1380cal maintenance = 2830cal/day reduce by 20% - 566 = 2244cal/day and you are eating 1500/day or less. You may be undereating by quite a bit, believe it or not, eating more could help you lose weight and tone up quicker.

Hope this helps. Good luck, I look forward to seeing how you shape up. It's nice that we are the same size, I can use you as a reference point sort of.

JenAiMarres

absolutely no red flags!!! you are on fire girl!!!

Clean eating & weight training...you cant go wrong!