How many claories should I be eating when lifting?

rachietuk

Monday I will start lifting heavy - well heavier than I have been.
I will increase weight and decrease reps.

My stats -
5ft 6 in
178lb
Female

I lift 4 days a week followed by cardio ofr 30-40 mins
1 day a week cardio for 60 mins

I have been reading alot about lifting and calories needed.

MFP gives me 1340 calories per day, (1lb a week loss), I also eat back my exercise calories. I average around 1600-1800 calories per day.

My question/thoughts are this.......

I am unsure of how many calories I should be eating when I start to lift more weight. I am scared I will eat too many or too few.
I know the scale may not change too much, I will measure body fat and measure body parts to track my progress.

I am thinking of staying around 1800 and see what happens.
Any advice?

thanks

SideSteel

Over the past ~8 weeks at your current intake, what has your total change in weight been?

What are your carbs/fats/protein intake in grams (not percent) on average?

rachietuk

Over the last 8 weeks I have only lost 2lbs and 1.5 inches from my waist. However over the last 8 weeks I was not really living a healthy lifestlye.
The last 4 weeks have been different. I started going to the gym regually and eating healthy, watching my calories, trying to eat more protein. This is all new to me, I have been a cardio slave for too long and always avioded any weight machine or the big boy weight section of the gym.
My husband moved me onto this routine of weights 4 weeks ago.

Mutant13

No don't lift! You will get bulky!
If you want to use weights pick up very light ones and do 30-50 reps. Also elliptical one hour every day!!

But seriously, congrats on deciding to start lifting heavy. Future you will love you for it.

Your calorie intake when lifting will depend on your goals. Do you still have much weight to lose?

rachietuk

I would like to lose about 30 lbs, however I am more concerned about bady fat and my size rather than a number on the scale.
I am overweight, and my bodyfat is high.

Mutant13

Okay cool.

I'm not an expert and won't know what will work best for you personally, but I would reccomend that you eat your a small deficit of your TDEE until you've lost most of the mass that you want, and then switch to maintenance cals.

Mutant13

Also you can calculate strength training in your cardio on MFP, but that's not really accurate. I normally write off a full hour of lifting as 30mins as a very rough guide

rachietuk

Thanks

WhoButME28

rachietuk,

Great decision to incorporate weight training into your routine. You can definitely lose weight with just cardio and clean eating but once you start using weights you'll kick start fat loss to another level. Remember: adding muscle to your body is better than relying solely on cardio to lose fat.

Naturally, women have no where near the amount of testosterone as men do hence the chances of women getting huge off lifting weights is slim to none.

Good luck!

SideSteel

I wouldn't expect a massive difference in total energy expenditure when you start increasing load. It's still a good idea, so you should do it, but I wouldn't expect this change alone to result in any considerable difference to total energy cost.

As such, I'd base your decision on energy intake around your results and not around your decision to increase training load.

I'd set your intake as follows and monitor progress over the next four weeks. Adjust based on results. Once again, this is just my opinion:

1600 calories (this is the lower end of the range you listed)
130p
55f
145c

This is going to look on the low end based on your stats but I'm considering your previous results into this as well.


EDIT: Keep in mind --- I don't think that staying at 1800 is necessarily a "bad" decision. If you wanted to stay there for a few more weeks and if your results aren't going at your expected pace, reduce to the above values, I don't see anything wrong with that approach.

Indygirl_81

Check out the New Rules for Lifting for Women.... It addresses a lot of questions including eating/lifting.

rachietuk

Thanks everyone
I just ordered NRFLFW

Serenitypath

I agree with SideSteel. On days that I lift, I warm-up for 20 min on a treadmill before lifting. My all-out cardio sessions are separate. I'm not a professional or expert, but this is what has worked for me:

EVERY day, without exception, I start with a protein shake. I use whey protein, with a low carb count (currently, 24 g of protein to 4 g of carbs)

Some protein in EVERY meal.

AFTER lifting, I have a protein shake right away. I'm rarely sore since muscles are getting the protein they need to recover. I've not bulked up at all--just lost body fat. After 13 months of lifting and cardio, I have dropped 3 pants/2 dress sizes=22 pounds. Body fat down by 5%

My other secrets with food: measure instead of estimate portions, allow myself 2 "cheats" per week, and find substitutes for things I enjoy (plain greek yogurt instead of sour cream //black bean brownies// salsa instead of salad dressing // caramel apple spice tea in place of whatever sweet thing// you get the idea)

Trust your body. Discipline, not diet ;-)

kdiamond

I wouldn't expect a massive difference in total energy expenditure when you start increasing load. It's still a good idea, so you should do it, but I wouldn't expect this change alone to result in any considerable difference to total energy cost.

As such, I'd base your decision on energy intake around your results and not around your decision to increase training load.

I'd set your intake as follows and monitor progress over the next four weeks. Adjust based on results. Once again, this is just my opinion:

1600 calories (this is the lower end of the range you listed)
130p
55f
145c

This is going to look on the low end based on your stats but I'm considering your previous results into this as well.


EDIT: Keep in mind --- I don't think that staying at 1800 is necessarily a "bad" decision. If you wanted to stay there for a few more weeks and if your results aren't going at your expected pace, reduce to the above values, I don't see anything wrong with that approach.

^^ I agree with this.