girls who lift heavy, need to lose last 5 pounds

kelseyhere

Hi all, I need to lose 5 more pounds of fat as quickly as possible (and I'm looking for you to tell me I'm crazy or this is unhealthy, just looking for honest answers). So really, I don't care if the number goes up on the scale, I just need to lose inches and fat.

For the past couple months I was lifting 1-2 times a week, doing cardio 2-3 times a week, and yoga once a week. My lifting routine is about 1-hour, full-body, fairly heavy weights. Cardio is 25-45 minutes of running, kick boxing or something similar. I've been eating maintenance (1630), eating back all my exercise cals and maintaining nicely at 135 pounds (I'm 5' 6"), even with some bad weekend binges (cookies and beer, mostly).

But now, things have changed I need to get serious. Starting on Monday I stopped the binges, I quit drinking, and cu tcalories to 1500 a day, not eating exercise calories. My calories are "clean"- lean meats, fruits, veggies, healthy fats, very small amount of processed foods. With this low of calories honestly I have no energy and can't focus at work, I know it's affecting me mentally, but the weight still needs to come off, so, what do I do? I know I could lose the weight drastically reducing calories and sleeping all the time, but I'd rather do it by continuing to exercise so I don't get "skinny fat". My question is realistically, how many calories should I be eating to lose? I don't want to be eating back exercise calories because I wasn't losing weight doing that, but again like I said I feel exhausted. Should I just stop doing cardio and focus completely on heavy lifting? I'm just starting this this week, so I know that just by eating "cleaner" some of the fat will come off (before anywhere from 200-600 of my 1630 calories would be dessert- now it's protein packed foods and veggies), but I'm still unsure of how much I should eat.

Any help you can offer is appreciated, thanks!

Swissmiss

It looks like you are doing a great job of doing exercising. Congrats. I love reading all that you are doing.

MFP has set up how many calories you should be consuming. They do this by your stats. This should have you losing 1 to 2 pounds a week. So, in 2 1/2 weeks you should meet your goal.

It is good that you are looking more to inches lost and the feel of your clothes. That is a better indicator as to how you are doing.

I don't see where you should have any trouble. Good idea to delete desserts from your diet.

jsapninz

If you want to lose fat and not muscle then you DO need to eat at a defecit to lose weight AND exercise (just like you are doing) so your body won't cut your muscle as much as fat. So you are doing it right, but you are apparently doing it too drastically since you are experiencing unhealthy side affects.


Therefore, since you do burn so many cals working out, what I think would be better for you is to set a defecit goal that you KNOW is healthy, like 1 lb a week. I know you said you don't care about the scale but by using a 1 lb per week goal you are aiming for healthy weight loss so you aren't losing too drastically and having unhealthy side affects like you are now. Since you are at a healthy range already 1 lb per week is PLENTY drastic. Don't make it too hard on yourself or you WILL break from the pressure. So 1 lb/week is a 500 cal a day cut from your maintenance AND THEN eat back all or most of your cals burned so you MAINTAIN just your 500 cal cut (that part is very important). Now, my assumptions all ASSUME that you burn on average at least 370 cals a day because if you aren't, then I don't know why your cal cut from 1630 to 1500 is so difficult for you (because then your cut ALREADY would be about 500 cals), other than you just aren't used to eating at a cut.

I hope you have a HRM so you are accurate in your burns.

Therefore, if I were you I would set my net goal at 1,130 and eat back your exercise cals so you are grossing more cals in than that but still maintaining your 500 cal cut (so, assuming you are burning 400 cals a day your gross cals in would be 1,530, but you still have your 500 cal cut). With this goal and exercising you should then lose 1 lb of mostly fat a week. And you are right to cut out your cheating days/binges. Rely on healthy, calorie sparse foods like vegetables, fruit, and whole grains to get your cals so that you stay full and aren't tempted.

Remember, the biggest impact is going to be time. :ohwell: Changes over time add up, so I know you are in a hurry but patience is going to be your biggest challenge.

Good luck! :flowerforyou:

kelseyhere

Thanks for the response! This was so helpful.

jsapninz- the way you explained the deficit it makes so much sense. I've been having trouble wrapping myself around the numbers. I'm going to try your suggestions, go for the 500 cal deficit, and eat back exercise calories. We'll give it two weeks and see if that works, then adjust from there.

jsapninz

Thanks for the response! This was so helpful.

jsapninz- the way you explained the deficit it makes so much sense. I've been having trouble wrapping myself around the numbers. I'm going to try your suggestions, go for the 500 cal deficit, and eat back exercise calories. We'll give it two weeks and see if that works, then adjust from there.

You are welcome. Feel free to message me if you would like more help, I am a number cruncher. I'm sure you will do great!

Shannonpurple

If you are really tired make sure you are drinking all your water and getting all your protein for the day.