I'm SOO confused!

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  • vwbug86
    vwbug86 Posts: 283 Member
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    I have been doing Stronglifts for 3 1/2 months & have been in a deficit the whole time. While I may not have GAINED muscle, I can tell you, I sure do FEEL and SEE muscle that I never noticed before! My weight loss has slowed way down since I started lifting, so don't get discouraged if that happens to you, too. I still do cardio and I eat back all my exercise calories. I don't give myself any calories for lifting. My question for the more experienced is; how do I transition to only/mostly lifting when I've been eating back my (cardio) exercise calories? I'm worried I'll be hungry on lifting days since I don't get extra calories for it.

    Many people switch to TDEE -20% or less (depending on how much you need to lose) for counting calories when their focus switches to strength training. As long as you exercise routinely you no longer have to worry about exercise calories. If you still want to track minutes of cardio you need to edit all of your burns to 1 calorie so it doesn't effect your macros.
  • caviggia
    caviggia Posts: 63 Member
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    Keep the calorie total the same, but increase your protein and decrease fat and carbs. It will keep your weight loss on track but allow muscle to grow. Eating right is key to changing body composition, not just the workout.

    Okay. So let me wrap this around my head. So my existing muscles will grow, just I will not gain new muscle on calorie deficit. But they will grow and be more shapelier or define?

    Just trying to understand this from my point of view.

    Thx ahead of time for answers.

    EDit: Like I see people are a thin but have nice looking "toned" legs, butt, etc, and did this while losing weight... is toning, "lifting your existing muscles" or providing more "definition" to existing muscles.
    Your existing muscle will become stronger but it will not grow larger. You may see an increase in size after lifting but that is just an increase of blood and water in the muscle and goes down after an hour or two.

    Okay so when I see before and after pictures of a person butt looking lifted and bigger and they didn't do a calorie surplus to gain it just squats, etc, what does that exactly mean? I'm so confused... Like what does the existing muscle do? That is my main focus is to tone or lift back area.

    Thank you again.
    Lifting in a deficit tightens the muscles. Those pics you see of the butt being lifted is from the muscle tightening. If they actually added inches to the area they did it by eating at a surplus while lifting. Lifting can change he shape of the muscle and make it sit higher and "perky" giving the illusion of larger measurements when in truth the inches have gone down.

    ^this 100% agree
  • ZB17
    ZB17 Posts: 92 Member
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    Thank you, everyone. =)
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,400 MFP Moderator
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    Benefits of weight lifting: maintains your metabolic rate, maintains or increases bone density, stronger, etc..


    Everyone touched on the benefits and process of weight lifting, but even if you were in a surprlus and gained weight, you would still lose inches as you would effectively lower your body fat %. Look at staci in her transformation.. it's a 20 lb difference from start to finish. At any point, do you see an increase in inches? While her latest results are a bit extreme for many women, it won't happen unless you are dedicated, eating tons of calories and powerlifting. Essentially, you can stop at any point you are happy. It takes years to get crazy results like this.


    http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2011/07/21/meet-staci-your-new-powerlifting-super-hero/

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