NROLFW - light or moderate?

bethad5

started NROLFW this week - two workouts in, woo! I've gone from 5 65-minute cardio sessions to the only cardio I'm doing being HIIT warmup. yesterday I went to the gym and there was a woman on the elliptical my entire workout (aka, like I used to be) and it was such an eye-opening moment. i never want to go back to that! i can't even IMAGINE doing that!

anyways. i'm currently going by the book's calculation for maintenance, which puts me at 2100 on nonworkout days and 2350 on workout days. two days ago was my first 'nonworkout day' after lifting and i was STARVING. yesterday (a lifting day) i was just exhausted and ended up falling asleep on the couch about a half hour before i'd planned to go work out. and i had gotten 8+ hours of sleep the night before, so i shouldn't have been so tired...

i'm not sure what to do. during reset i was eating 2655 because i was in the strenuous category. but just adding up the time spent doing NROLFW puts me into the light activity category on scooby because it's under 3 hours a week. my TDEE for moderate would be 2385. my TDEE for light activity is 2116. this, of course, is all for maintenance.

...what should I do?

HeidiHoMom

If your total hours of working out, including HIIT falls in the light category then that is what you should be eating.

autumnk921

Hey Beth!! How long are your workouts and how many days? I know you said it adds up to light though but just wanted to see. Also, I am not a NROLW but I have good friends who do & I do CLX. I know that a whole lot of us aren't as hungry on lifting days as we are on resting days and it seems weird to eat more on the days you lift but once you get into this routine I think that your body would start getting used to it once it has time to adjust to the new way of eating and the routine...I know at first it is tough but it is like this for any new thing that we try. (Just remember how hard it was to eat at TDEE at first b/c we felt like we were stuffed and now we can't imagine not...lol) It takes time just be patient. Don't forget that b/c you are starting a new routine (lifting) you may see an initial gain of a couple pounds or so which is just water weight and it will level out)

Also, if you don't fit neatly into one activity level or another then you can always do an average of light and moderate for a few weeks and see how that works...If you start losing weight somehow then you will need to tweak your numbers & the same for if you start gaining. Make sense? I hope this helps you some but still let me know your schedule a little. Thanks. :flowerforyou:

I hope some others also answer this for you b/c I don't do the NROLW.

bethad5

well, so far with HIIT warmup, warmup stretches, and actual lifting, both workouts i've done this week have taken an hour, so if the third one also takes an hour, that'd put me at 3 hours for the week. my boyfriend is doing it with me, so my rest periods are a little longer than 60 seconds (we switch off) - but sometimes rest periods are even longer just because i have to wait for someone else to get away from the equipment i need, which is pretty much inevitable.

my TDEE for light is only 2116, which is similar to what the book gives me on non workout days... can't imagine eating that low everyday

holleysings

For me, the book's calculations are too low to be sustainable. I plan on eating at the strenuous level for fat loss using the calculator from the book once I go back to a cut. Since I have a fitbit, I know that the book's numbers are off for me. (I burn 2200-2400 on a "rest" day, so the 2100 for maintenance it gives me is WRONG!) Just play around with it!

meggyh20

I agree with taking the average of light and moderate. I just calculated my light and moderate TDEE on Scooby and compared to my Fitbit daily average for the last week. My activity level is pretty much identical to yours.

Mod TDEE = 2522
Light TDEE = 2237
Average of mod/light = 2379.5

Actual average = 2363 via fitbit
15% cut using fitbit number = 2008.55
I am really eating at about 20% cut right now because I was stalled at 15%. I plan to take breaks every six weeks or so and eat TDEE. My body seems to get used to things pretty easily but part of my stall was gaining a lot of muscle mass from new rules.

juicemoogan

calculating my hours of working out based on doing mostly new rules for a while and averaging my weeks - i am in the light category.

if you are doing only new rules and not much else.. i would go light.. if you have a few days of group classes, running or cardio in there as well, i would go moderate.

Raynn1

Stage 1?
I think I averaged about 40 minutes for stage one. However I was also running twice a week so I was above the 3 hours for moderate level. The further you get into the program though, the longer the days can take. Stage 3 I was averaging about 60-70 mins a session.. But Stage 4 A droped me back to about 45...
If you can, maybe add in one or two days of walking or HIIT in addition to your NROL to keep you squarely in the moderate category.

HeidiHoMom

I take the average between light and moderate as well because I fall into the middle too.

bethad5

For me, the book's calculations are too low to be sustainable. I plan on eating at the strenuous level for fat loss using the calculator from the book once I go back to a cut. Since I have a fitbit, I know that the book's numbers are off for me. (I burn 2200-2400 on a "rest" day, so the 2100 for maintenance it gives me is WRONG!) Just play around with it!

I think I'm going to stick it out for a couple weeks (like the book recommends) and see what my weight is a month in. I haven't weighed myself since I started lifting, kinda nervous what the scale's gonna say

ps- saw on your profile that you're from STL! I'm in Maplewood