calories when lifting

how many calories should i be EATING?
i've been at 1900-that's with lifting and running about 6 miles 4 times a week.
i'm just interested in losing fat (not really weight).
5'6
130-135 ish
workout at least 5 days a week

any advice?

Hey dude we have matching toilet pictures ahh!

how many calories should i be EATING?
i've been at about 2000-that's with lifting and running about 6 miles 4 times a week.
i'm just interested in losing fat (not really weight).
5'6
130-135 ish
workout at least 5 days a week

any advice?

I don't understand your post. You run 6 miles 4 times a week... and "workout" 5 days a week? Does this mean you lift 5 days a week in addition to running that much? If you are serious about lifting, that is not nearly enough recovery time for your muscles. Essentially, you could be burning muscle along with fat doing this much cardio PLUS lifting that often. Just doesn't make sense.

how many calories should i be EATING?
i've been at about 2000-that's with lifting and running about 6 miles 4 times a week.
i'm just interested in losing fat (not really weight).
5'6
130-135 ish
workout at least 5 days a week

any advice?

I'm around your weight, much older, a little shorter, and somewhat less active than you are, and I eat about 2300 a day to maintain (though I'm still getting leaner). I run 3x a week (between 10-15 miles a week) and lift heavy 3x a week (stronglifts).

You should be able to eat as much or more than I am.

It sounds like you're eating right around the correct amount of calories, assuming the 2,000 cal number in your OP. I wouldn't go below 1,800 calories / day unless you want to jeopardize losing muscle. Where you look as lean as you do, you may want to eat *more* in order to let your body know that it can let go of what little fat you have without it thinking there's a scarcity of food. Just make small adjustments of 100 cals or so either way from that 2,000 and see how things go. Look for a trend of two or three weeks before making any further adjustments.

how many calories should i be EATING?
i've been at about 2000-that's with lifting and running about 6 miles 4 times a week.
i'm just interested in losing fat (not really weight).
5'6
130-135 ish
workout at least 5 days a week

any advice?

You could choose a small deficit. (~250 below maintenance) This way the calories should be high enough to keep strength gains progressing, your muscle mass maintained, while still losing fat / weight. Personally, this is the option that I would choose if you still have fat you want to lose.

You could also choose maintenance though, in which you may be able to recomp your body (losing fat while gaining a little muscle) but this will be quite a slow process. IMO you'd be better off going in a small deficit, and if you want to gain muscle from lifting, focusing on that at another time, (either before or after the fat loss) by having a small calorie surplus.

I'm no expert on this stuff, but from my understanding, its difficult to combine strength training and excessive amounts of cardio. I might get reamed for this or you might hate the idea entirely, but I would suggest running less often. Maybe only run twice a week on non-workout days.

I hardly think that ~6/week could be considered excessive. It actually sounds like a pretty good blend to me.

6 miles? 4 times a week? Running?

Did you read the post. Her TDEE on those days has to be like 3000+ calories. Deep deficits require a use of fat stores and protein stores... protein stores are muscle. It's counter-productive if you are lifting.

I'm getting conflicting advice here....hmmm...

Thanks everyone

LorinaLynn is legit listen to her

^^^ This

If you are serious about lifting and you are already at a healthy weight, then you should not be eating at a deficit while lifting.

I'm no expert on this stuff, but from my understanding, its difficult to combine strength training and excessive amounts of cardio. I might get reamed for this or you might hate the idea entirely, but I would suggest running less often. Maybe only run twice a week on non-workout days.

I hardly think that ~6/week could be considered excessive. It actually sounds like a pretty good blend to me.

6 miles? 4 times a week? Running?

Did you read the post. Her TDEE on those days has to be like 3000+ calories. Deep deficits require a use of fat stores and protein stores... protein stores are muscle. It's counter-productive if you are lifting.

Maybe not 3000. For a 45 minute (approx. 4 1/2 mile) run, I burn about 400 cals . I'm probably older and shorter so my numbers may be lower, but there is no way that will take your TDEE to 3000, unless you have a fairly active non-exercise day. Be careful! You don't want to starve your muscles, but don't over estimate either!

Well I'm much taller and larger than the OP so I'm making some big assumptions about her calorie burns, but everything I have read about gaining muscle recommended moderate cardio to avoid over-training. I don't consider running 6 miles/4 times a week to be moderate cardio.

Isecond the notion to check out "In place of a roadmap" and play with this website for caloric needs based on goals (you don't have to do the split- it gives you the info you're looking for regardless)

http://www.1percentedge.com/ifcalc/

I'm no expert on this stuff, but from my understanding, its difficult to combine strength training and excessive amounts of cardio. I might get reamed for this or you might hate the idea entirely, but I would suggest running less often. Maybe only run twice a week on non-workout days.

I hardly think that ~6/week could be considered excessive. It actually sounds like a pretty good blend to me.

6 miles? 4 times a week? Running?

Did you read the post. Her TDEE on those days has to be like 3000+ calories. Deep deficits require a use of fat stores and protein stores... protein stores are muscle. It's counter-productive if you are lifting.

I may have misunderstood her post. I read it as a total of six miles / week. Not 6 miles 4 times a week. In the latter case, yes, that might would likely be detrimental to muscle gains unless she ate more.

Everything I've read indicates that any workout that goes beyond 60 minutes starts to show diminishing returns, so it would be best to focus on the lifting and keep the cardio minimal.

find your Total Daily Energy Expenditure here http://www.fitnessfrog.com/calculators/tdee-calculator.html
and add 500-1000 calories to it