Fears about weight lifting

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redhead1910
redhead1910 Posts: 304 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Now that I am at a healthy weight it is time for me to start building muscle. I know it is almost impossible to gain muscle while eating on a calorie deficit. But for 2 years my life has rotated around eating 1300-1500 calories. I need someone to reassure me that eating 1800 calories and focusing on weights instead of cardio will not make me fat again!

I'm 5'5 and 135 lbs btw.

Please help me :cry:
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Replies

  • islandgirl76_
    islandgirl76_ Posts: 86 Member
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    Congratulations on your weight loss! I am doing the same thing, eating at TDEE for the month of June, strength training and eating lots of protein. Just remember that quality counts when you are trying to build muscle. You can't just eat a bunch of junk.
  • redhead1910
    redhead1910 Posts: 304 Member
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    Yeah I am definetly not into junk food. I'm just afraid instead og losing body fat over the next month I'm just going to get heavy again.
  • JisatsuHoshi
    JisatsuHoshi Posts: 421 Member
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    Research carb cycle diet. Except limit the high carb days to once a week. Stick to mainly low carb days and no carb days while keeping proteins high.
  • Iron_Lotus
    Iron_Lotus Posts: 2,295 Member
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    You are going to look sexy! Eat and lift dont worry you wont get fat.
  • ItsCasey
    ItsCasey Posts: 4,022 Member
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    I'm smaller than you are. I eat 1800 calories per day, I lift heavy, I don't do any traditional cardio, and I am losing half a pound per week.

    And for others reading this, there is no need to wait until you are at a healthy weight to start thinking about muscle. Lift heavy now, and eat lots of protein.

    ETA: Don't listen to the low-carb stuff. Eat at least 1 g of protein per pound of lean body mass. Take your body weight, divide it by 3, and eat that many grams of fat (at a minimum). Get the rest of your calories from whatever you want. Seriously, WHATEVER you want ... "good" carbs, evil carbs, more fat, more protein. It's your choice. My diary is open if you need ideas. I eat like a Viking.
  • waldo56
    waldo56 Posts: 1,861 Member
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    If you maintain control over your diet, there is nothing to worry about.

    To build muscle you have to be in a calorie surplus, fat gain is a necessary evil. The fear of fat gain is the primary impediment to successful muscle building.

    Cutting is a relatively painless process afterwards.

    What made you fat in the first place was lack of control. Eating a surplus for muscle gain is controlled. When it comes time to cut, you you enter from a controlled state and also have an exit strategy in-place; cutting is very different than "losing weight" in that regards. Plus it doesn't really take all that long unless you go crazy while gaining.

    Much of people's seriously messed up dieting/nutritional POV comes from losing only, never experienceing the other side. Because everything that happens when losing also happens in reverse. You will get sick of overeating every day. You will experience weight plateaus where the damn scale won't budge.
  • Mama_Jag
    Mama_Jag Posts: 474 Member
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    Great idea, and I think you will love it. Just stay off the scale.
  • Mama_Jag
    Mama_Jag Posts: 474 Member
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    At this point, train for a look, not a weight.
  • JisatsuHoshi
    JisatsuHoshi Posts: 421 Member
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    I'm smaller than you are. I eat 1800 calories per day, I lift heavy, I don't do any traditional cardio, and I am losing half a pound per week.

    And for others reading this, there is no need to wait until you are at a healthy weight to start thinking about muscle. Lift heavy now, and eat lots of protein.

    ^this. I was gaining weight/strength and losing body fat at the same time. Had to decrease the amount of cardio I was doing per week. Only ate 300 cals above maintenance though. Muscke growth was slow but wanted to make sure I wasnt adding too much body fat back on.
  • waldo56
    waldo56 Posts: 1,861 Member
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    Great idea, and I think you will love it. Just stay off the scale.

    Stay off the scale when bulking? What?

    That is terrible advice. You need to know that the scale is going up and you need to be sure it isn't going up to fast.
  • Achrya
    Achrya Posts: 16,913 Member
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    I'm smaller than you are. I eat 1800 calories per day, I lift heavy, I don't do any traditional cardio, and I am losing half a pound per week.

    And for others reading this, there is no need to wait until you are at a healthy weight to start thinking about muscle. Lift heavy now, and eat lots of protein.

    ETA: Don't listen to the low-carb stuff. Eat at least 1 g of protein per pound of lean body mass. Take your body weight, divide it by 3, and eat that many grams of fat (at a minimum). Get the rest of your calories from whatever you want. Seriously, WHATEVER you want ... "good" carbs, evil carbs, more fat, more protein. It's your choice. My diary is open if you need ideas. I eat like a Viking.

    This fine lady has the right idea. I just moved up to 1725 and am lifting heavy while weaving in some cardio videos and such on off days. I'm less concerned with weight and more concerned with how strong I feel and how my body is changing (Not much to report yet, but I feel amazing so who cares? I could stay this size forever, as long as I feel *this* good)

    Don't be afraid to eat more. Stick to your macros and fuel your body.
  • djeffreys10
    djeffreys10 Posts: 2,312 Member
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    http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2011/07/21/meet-staci-your-new-powerlifting-super-hero/
  • Mama_Jag
    Mama_Jag Posts: 474 Member
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    Great idea, and I think you will love it. Just stay off the scale.

    Stay off the scale when bulking? What?

    That is terrible advice. You need to know that the scale is going up and you need to be sure it isn't going up to fast.

    My bad, let me rephrase. She should not OBSESS over the scale, especially in the beginning. Weigh every week or two, not daily. Going from 1300-1500 calories to 1800 and lifting should not put on fat, but could cause an initial spike on the scale. When coming from a "weight loss" frame of mind, that can really be mentally challenging to see.
  • redhead1910
    redhead1910 Posts: 304 Member
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    What about eating back exercise calories?
  • LuckyLeprechaun
    LuckyLeprechaun Posts: 6,296 Member
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    Under "weight loss" mode, eating back exercise calories is productive, imho, for a variety of reasons.

    But it's much harder to estimate the calories burned while lifting.

    I have switched to eating at 1700 and NOT eating any additional calories on workout days, and I am liking the result.
    I still want to reduce body fat for about 7-10 more pounds, but I also want my muscles to get stronger and harder at the same time.

    I'm using the Stronglifts 5x5 program, and lifting 3x week. I run about 5 minutes or so on the trreadmill before I lift, to warm up my legs, and that's all the cardio I am doing.

    I've gone from 170 to 166 in the last 2 weeks.
  • Chavoworking
    Chavoworking Posts: 4 Member
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    Great idea, and I think you will love it. Just stay off the scale.

    +1
  • Warchortle
    Warchortle Posts: 2,197 Member
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    Learn more about body building and nutrition. You will never be afraid of calories if you know about energy balance.
  • redhead1910
    redhead1910 Posts: 304 Member
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    Lets hope I'm lifting heavy enough to make those calories worthwhile.
  • NovemberJune
    NovemberJune Posts: 2,525 Member
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    I've averaged 1950 calories/day over the past few months (until last week) and I haven't gotten fat. I've gone down a pants size and lost a few lbs. If after a few weeks you've gained weight, just go slightly lower on your calories and see what happens from there (unless you intend to gain).
  • neandermagnon
    neandermagnon Posts: 7,436 Member
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    Now that I am at a healthy weight it is time for me to start building muscle. I know it is almost impossible to gain muscle while eating on a calorie deficit. But for 2 years my life has rotated around eating 1300-1500 calories. I need someone to reassure me that eating 1800 calories and focusing on weights instead of cardio will not make me fat again!

    I'm 5'5 and 135 lbs btw.

    Please help me :cry:

    I'm 5'1" and 130lb, and I lose weight on 1850 cals/day (albeit very slowly!) I'm currently training and eating for strength gains, i.e. trying to gain weight slowly.

    You will probably find that you gain the first 5lb or so very quickly, because that will be your glycogen stores refilling (after eating at a deficit for a long time, they will most likely be quite depleted) - glycogen is stored with water so you gain a lot of scale weight with it BUT it's not fat. So don't freak out about it when it happens. It's a good thing, it should make your workouts move up a gear.

    After that weight gain is actually a lot harder than you'd think. In 5 weeks of basically eating as much as I want while ensuring I'm getting plenty of protein, healthy fat, healthy carbs, vitamins, minerals and fibre, while training for strength gains, I've gained just 1lb. My body fat percentage is still the same (I monitor it with callipers, circumference measurements and visual estimates, and I also go by how my clothes fit). I'm also going to think about whether I should be gaining weight a bit faster than that, because if so I'll have to start tracking for calories to make sure I'm eating enough to actually gain more weight.

    So really nothing to worry about, and I'd guess that you'll find you have to eat more than 1800 cals/day to gain weight. Maybe you'll maintain at that, or maybe you'll still be very slowly losing weight.

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