Stick with it the way it is or change?
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Desmonema
Posts: 175 Member
Hi there people!! First of all I wanted to say that I LOVE this group and because of you here I finally lost the fear of eating more!! It is great!! I started eating more beginning of May. Here's all you need to know (and you can see my diary as well).
I'm 5'4'' and about 127/128 lbs at the moment. My BMR is supposed to be 1367 and TDEE 2118. I am usually working out 6 days a week, with two runs of about 50 mins during the week and one long one on Sunday. The other days I do about 20 to 30 min of HIIT exercises (bodyrock) + a bit of sculpting (abs, legs, arms... mostly weighted exercises) and on my rest day I usually do one hour of Callanetics (similar to Pilates or Bar-Method). So far so good.
What I did is setting my daily goal to 1400 and eat all my exercise calories back. This brings my to about 1500 to about 1700 most days, sometimes more when I do long runs.
And here it comes now: I am trying to lower my bodyfat and make those muscles (that I really have) much more visible. But nothing happened so far... I gained about 2 to 3 lbs since I started on MFP and clothes are tight.
Before that I had a VERY long time of eating too few calories and training too hard along with that ( meaning more than a year).
What do you guys think now? Should I up my calories and still eat exercise calories back on top or just up them and not log exercise anymore? Exercise less?? I'm pretty unsure what to do and would like your opinions before I change anything!
Thanks in advance!!!
I'm 5'4'' and about 127/128 lbs at the moment. My BMR is supposed to be 1367 and TDEE 2118. I am usually working out 6 days a week, with two runs of about 50 mins during the week and one long one on Sunday. The other days I do about 20 to 30 min of HIIT exercises (bodyrock) + a bit of sculpting (abs, legs, arms... mostly weighted exercises) and on my rest day I usually do one hour of Callanetics (similar to Pilates or Bar-Method). So far so good.
What I did is setting my daily goal to 1400 and eat all my exercise calories back. This brings my to about 1500 to about 1700 most days, sometimes more when I do long runs.
And here it comes now: I am trying to lower my bodyfat and make those muscles (that I really have) much more visible. But nothing happened so far... I gained about 2 to 3 lbs since I started on MFP and clothes are tight.
Before that I had a VERY long time of eating too few calories and training too hard along with that ( meaning more than a year).
What do you guys think now? Should I up my calories and still eat exercise calories back on top or just up them and not log exercise anymore? Exercise less?? I'm pretty unsure what to do and would like your opinions before I change anything!
Thanks in advance!!!
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Replies
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I'm not the best source of info for this question since I'm still a relative beginner at this. Hopefully those that are at goal and focusing on building muscle will chime in soon, but I also wanted to give this a bump.
But I do know for the builders on here, the general consensus is that if you are trying to build muscle and start sculpting your body with an eye towards increasing Lean Body Mass and decreasing Body Fat....you gotta eat AT TDEE or sometimes higher.
If you go to the scooby calculator...
http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/
and enter all your info and state under Step 6 Select Goal that you want to...
Gain Muscle/Lose Fat - it will tell you to eat your TDEE. NO CUT.
If you tell it you just want to Gain Muscle it will tell you to eat 200 calories ABOVE your TDEE.
So bottom line is if you are really at this stage you will not be doing much of a cut at all. Maybe for you the next step would be a metobolic reset?
Anyway...hopefully the real experts will give you more concrete direction. Good luck!0 -
I think you need to eat more if you want your body to shed the fat. Right now it's holding onto it all because you've eaten too little for so long. Try eating at TDEE for a few weeks then take your cut. Do a small cut since you don't have much to lose. Reducing BF% when you are close to goal weight is challenging.0
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Seems like your eating too little, but the weight gain is going to happen and you need to give it time.. I believe most people try to stick with it for 6-8 weeks. I would Focus on one number for calories to eat back and not eat back exercise calories (unless its a crazy day with your workouts)..
And going into your workouts, I think you should sub some of those days your doing HIIT and running for more weight lifting.. if your focusing on losing body fat and getting toned and getting muscle definition, at your weight you need to start hitting the weights and shift your focus to that from cardio.
If your new to the whole weight scene (besides your sculpting days where you may/may not use weights) there are alot of people on here that are doing that new weight lifting for woman and really enjoy it.. you may want to read that, or watch some videos to get a general idea on form and function of the weights.. and now to be the bad guy, you need to start doing whole body weight training as well.. don't focus on one part (we all love abs, arms) but to get that BF% down you need to use all muscle groups (chest, legs, back, arms, abs, gluts, shoulders).. hope this helps.0 -
So the essence would be for me then to eat my TDEE of 2100 now for a while and then lower it only a little bit (maybe 1900) after that? And no eating back exercise cals then. So I should set MFP daily goal to 2100/1900 and just not log exercise, or how are you doing it?0
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OH and one more question to be sure about the numbers: the way I exercise right now, would you call that moderately active (3-5 hrs of moderate exercise per week) or what is that?0
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Hello? Someone??0
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It sounds like you are very active, not moderate.
Maybe ure body dont get enough time to recover. Id take a full day or two of rest and youd still be moderate then.0 -
Hi I am in the same boat as you not much to lose weight wise but want to lower my BF%. I raised my calorie intake to TDEE 6 days ago and have lost another lb where for a month I had actually gained 3 lbs after being at my cut for 3 months. I say raise your calories to TDEE, set MFP to that don't log exercise and just eat at TDEE for a few weeks and then do a small cut like maybe 5%.
Edit: To say yes I think you are at moderate activity.0 -
Honestly, you may go a really long time without ever needing a cut if you are going to be eating at TDEE and lifting. The more muscle you build, the more calories you will burn all the time, and since you are already close to goal weight, I would say forget about the number and give your body plenty of fuel to build that muscle you want.0
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Alright then, this all points in one direction and I'll do it RIGHT NOW. Cals up to 2100 and see what happens!! Thank you all... I 'll have a snack now... ;o)!0
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Alright then, this all points in one direction and I'll do it RIGHT NOW. Cals up to 2100 and see what happens!! Thank you all... I 'll have a snack now... ;o)!
Do not fear the gain as your muscles enjoy being fueled and store up some glycogen! For every g of stored glycogen you will retain 3g of water. I just did an experiment eating at TDEE for 2 weeks and I gained 4.5 lbs. I started my cut 2 days ago and it's all gone.0 -
I don't have anything helpful to add but just had a question. The Callanetics that you do, is that a video from the 80s?0
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Alright then, this all points in one direction and I'll do it RIGHT NOW. Cals up to 2100 and see what happens!! Thank you all... I 'll have a snack now... ;o)!
Sounds like a good idea!!
Hi fellow bodyrocker
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I don't have anything helpful to add but just had a question. The Callanetics that you do, is that a video from the 80s?
Yep, Callanetics is from the 80's... very funny clothing and styling in the videos, but it is essentially nothing else as they sell today as the Bar-Method. It is really strenous, even though there's no jumping or lifting involved and gives you very nice muscle-tone and stabilizes your core immensely! Give it a try... helps a lot with stretching the whole body especially when you do a lot of other workouts.0 -
Alright then, this all points in one direction and I'll do it RIGHT NOW. Cals up to 2100 and see what happens!! Thank you all... I 'll have a snack now... ;o)!
Sounds like a good idea!!
Hi fellow bodyrocker
Yes, still rockin'!!! And I'll keep going. Pretty curious what's going to happen if I keep up my exercise regime and just change the calories. Will keep you all posted!0 -
I don't have anything helpful to add but just had a question. The Callanetics that you do, is that a video from the 80s?
Yep, Callanetics is from the 80's... very funny clothing and styling in the videos, but it is essentially nothing else as they sell today as the Bar-Method. It is really strenous, even though there's no jumping or lifting involved and gives you very nice muscle-tone and stabilizes your core immensely! Give it a try... helps a lot with stretching the whole body especially when you do a lot of other workouts.
My mom had the same video and my sister and I would do it it with her when we were little. :happy: I ended up with the VHS but don't have a VCR. I did it a lot when I was in highschool and really liked it (corny as it seems now). I'll look into the Bar-Method.0
