calorie deficeit / female weight training

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  • karrielynn80
    karrielynn80 Posts: 395 Member
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    Since you're relatively new to strength training (right?) it's possible for you to gain muscle and lose fat. Think of it as a starting out bonus.. You'll probably be able to lean out more and gain a bit of muscle. You're right about muscle - it does often reduce the appearance of fat and make you firmer. Since what you're doing now is working decently I would carry on. Potentially consider increasing your protein and calories to encourage you body to hang on to muscle but keep at a deficit.

    Keep going and as you see what's happening you can adjust your body fat goals etc.

    Thanks!, i am new to lifting overall for the body. i bench pressed / competed as a youth - but it was not for fitness reasons so i didn't pay much attention to such logistics :)
  • catpow2
    catpow2 Posts: 206 Member
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    My fitness goal is also to just to reduce body fat. I'm also seeing some good results with what I've been doing (lifting 2-3x a week-- increasing weight and building strength as well as some cardio). There's so much conflicting info about BMR and TDEE that I really don't know what these are for me. I've calculated this using different websites recommended by MFP members but they give me different numbers--the only way to know for sure is to eat at a certain calorie level for a few weeks and see what happens. Slow and steady is the only way to go so I'm trying to eat just below what I think is maintenance, which is somewhere between 1600-2000, I think. So I eat 1600 and I'm continuing to get leaner very gradually but I don't think I've lost any weight, which is what I want. In order to keep losing fat, you want to create a small calorie deficit (10-15%)--depending on how tall you are 1200 might not be enough calories. But if what you're doing is giving you the results you want, keep at it. When you're close to a point where you've lost as much fat as you want then it seems like you could increase your calories--gradually so you can really figure out what your maintenance level is and eat at that.

    In terms of the belly--it's stubborn. Your diet has to be really, really strict to get cut abs--hard to do, but it can certainly be done. Good luck!
  • fittiephd
    fittiephd Posts: 608 Member
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    i don't feel weak or like my body needs it & i do sometimes go over my goal (maintaining good ratios) - i'm doing this as life style change so i don't want to have diet mindset & allow myself some leway within my diet but i want to make sure i'm not holding productivity up by continuing the calorie deficeit - i see many girls who are looking great, that are eating like 1500-2000 calories... you girls are who i am speaking to - did you wait to up your calories until you reached your body fat goal, or not?

    I eat 1900 plus exercise calories when I workout and I've been losing fat and inches still. No lbs lost though. I was pretty close to goal when I started lifting so I'm not sure but I DEF think you should be eating more than 1200 calories. I can't believe you can even lift on that little. Be careful.

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