Finding it difficult to believe Exercise Burn calculations
Aaron_K123
Posts: 7,122 Member
Hey all. I'm currently on a diet aiming to lose 1 - 1.5 pound a week under a bit of a time crunch. I fully realize this is counter to the idea of small incremental changes and focusing on building better habits for long term success in health and fitness but there it is just going to put that out there I have a timing I'd like to hit before moving on to maintenance and building up those habits.
That said I'm 6' tall, 185 pounds 25% BF looking to get down to about 155-160 pounds 15% BF without losing muscle. My BMR is calculated at about 1800 and I am aiming for about 1800 calories a day. I have a desk job so fairly sedentary so I figure that puts my NEAT at about 2300 according to these calculators. So yeah was aiming for 2300-1800 = 700 calorie deficit per day.
My approach includes daily exercise alternating days of cardio (50 min aerobics + 5 min core) and strength training (40 min full body weight training) with sunday as a rest day. I endevour to eat back my exercise calories but I tend to low-ball the estimates because it is hard for me to believe I am burning as much as some of these calculators or my heart rate monitor says.
That brings me to my question.
My heartrate monitor informs me that my cardio routine has my HRM at about 165-180 BPM for 40 min and burns 700 calories. Apparently my lifting routine for 40 min burns 400 calories. I went for a 12 mile walk at about 3.5mph day and apparently burned 1200 calories. I used a pedometer and found that on average I walk about 6 miles a day just walking around so apparently that would be close to 600 calories (call it 500 since its not sustained walking).
I add this up and it gets silly. 2300 NEAT + 700 for cardio + 500 for walking around and you are at a TDEE of 3500. Even if I considered the exercise to be half those values its still a TDEE of 2900. When I was eating back my calories I was eating an extra 300 on top of the 1800 so I was getting 2100. If the 2900 number is accurate that is still a huge 800 cal deficit daily and if the 3500 value is closer then we are talking 1400 calorie deficit a day which is nuts.
Been at this about 2 months and over that time have tended to err towards eating lower calories so my average intake is probably closer to 1800 gross per day over that period because although there are days I eat 2200 gross there are other days I ate1500 gross.
The numbers seem to be telling me to eat more but yet I have plenty of energy, I'm not hungry (I know this doesn't mean much but I'm saying it anyways), I am making gains in strength from the weight training (not saying muscle gains, just strength gains) and during this time my weight hasn't gone down by all that much (about 4 pounds maybe) but I have gone down a belt notch.
So yeah, I feel like calculators and HRMs and spreadsheets are telling me I am at to large of a deficit and should eat more and yet my body seems to be telling me I am doing fine and if anything am losing fat at a slower than expected, and therefore reasonable, pace (I realize 2 months is not that long to be able to tell for sure).
So I am torn. Do I eat more even though I have this deadline in mind for getting myself back to being lean or do I stick it out since I feel fine and see where I end up another two months down the line? My Diary is open although I have only used MFP for the last 18 days of that 2 months (I was logging separately before).
That said I'm 6' tall, 185 pounds 25% BF looking to get down to about 155-160 pounds 15% BF without losing muscle. My BMR is calculated at about 1800 and I am aiming for about 1800 calories a day. I have a desk job so fairly sedentary so I figure that puts my NEAT at about 2300 according to these calculators. So yeah was aiming for 2300-1800 = 700 calorie deficit per day.
My approach includes daily exercise alternating days of cardio (50 min aerobics + 5 min core) and strength training (40 min full body weight training) with sunday as a rest day. I endevour to eat back my exercise calories but I tend to low-ball the estimates because it is hard for me to believe I am burning as much as some of these calculators or my heart rate monitor says.
That brings me to my question.
My heartrate monitor informs me that my cardio routine has my HRM at about 165-180 BPM for 40 min and burns 700 calories. Apparently my lifting routine for 40 min burns 400 calories. I went for a 12 mile walk at about 3.5mph day and apparently burned 1200 calories. I used a pedometer and found that on average I walk about 6 miles a day just walking around so apparently that would be close to 600 calories (call it 500 since its not sustained walking).
I add this up and it gets silly. 2300 NEAT + 700 for cardio + 500 for walking around and you are at a TDEE of 3500. Even if I considered the exercise to be half those values its still a TDEE of 2900. When I was eating back my calories I was eating an extra 300 on top of the 1800 so I was getting 2100. If the 2900 number is accurate that is still a huge 800 cal deficit daily and if the 3500 value is closer then we are talking 1400 calorie deficit a day which is nuts.
Been at this about 2 months and over that time have tended to err towards eating lower calories so my average intake is probably closer to 1800 gross per day over that period because although there are days I eat 2200 gross there are other days I ate1500 gross.
The numbers seem to be telling me to eat more but yet I have plenty of energy, I'm not hungry (I know this doesn't mean much but I'm saying it anyways), I am making gains in strength from the weight training (not saying muscle gains, just strength gains) and during this time my weight hasn't gone down by all that much (about 4 pounds maybe) but I have gone down a belt notch.
So yeah, I feel like calculators and HRMs and spreadsheets are telling me I am at to large of a deficit and should eat more and yet my body seems to be telling me I am doing fine and if anything am losing fat at a slower than expected, and therefore reasonable, pace (I realize 2 months is not that long to be able to tell for sure).
So I am torn. Do I eat more even though I have this deadline in mind for getting myself back to being lean or do I stick it out since I feel fine and see where I end up another two months down the line? My Diary is open although I have only used MFP for the last 18 days of that 2 months (I was logging separately before).
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ok so youre 6' tall, why on earth do you want to be 155lbs???? That's a bit crazy. I'm a woman, but my husband is 6' and used to weigh 170-175lb and I would never want him to get that thin again. Hes about 190 now and at a perfect weight and build.0
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Okay, there's a lot of information here, and I can't answer all of it. The one thing I can say with a fair amount of confidence though is that you should NOT be set at sedentary. Included in your NEAT is not just your job, but the rest of life too. If you walk 6 miles a day on average, more or less every day, that's at least lightly active. From that alone, your calories should be higher.
The HRM is great for cardio, not good for strength training. It's only accurate for steady state cardio because it's based on an estimate of VO2 max and calorie burn. I'm not going to pretend to know math. So the strength training burns you're getting are almost certainly wrong. I don't know what people suggest for counting them, or if they should be counted.
Seriously though, you're not sedentary :noway:
Edit: To answer your question, yes, you want to eat more. Particularly if you're aiming to do a reasonable deficit, which it seems like you are.0 -
I have this issue too where i dunno if my hrm is overestimating my burns or not. I found this website http://www.shapesense.com/fitness-exercise/calculators/heart-rate-based-calorie-burn-calculator.aspx i just plug in the required info from my hrm and it spits out a gross calorie burn, then i convert it to a net calorie burn and that is what i log on mfp. Other people use their hrm calories burned figures just fine, so maybe we're just overly conscious. Btw i have a polar ft40
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This isn't related to your exercise burn calories, but are you sure that all of your entries are correct in terms of the amount of calories? I saw a few entries that said like "homemade" or you logged "one serving". Did you create those yourself or grab it from the database? A lot of things in the database that are logged under homemade or just list one serving as opposed to grams/ounces/lbs/etc. are really inaccurate and can really throw your calorie limit off, especially if you log them multiple times a week.
Edit: Also, HRM aren't good at estimating strength training or HIIT. They work best for steady-state exercises. Lastly, remember that heart rate monitors tell you the amount of calories that you burned exercising in addition to the amount of calories that you burned just being alive. Say you sat on the couch for an hour. Just sitting there, being alive, you "burned" (fake number) 100 calories. Now say that you go run for an hour and your HRM says that you burned 500 calories. 100 calories of those 500 are what you would have burned anyway and are part of your BMR.0 -
ok so youre 6' tall, why on earth do you want to be 155lbs???? That's a bit crazy. I'm a woman, but my husband is 6' and used to weigh 170-175lb and I would never want him to get that thin again. Hes about 190 now and at a perfect weight and build.
I'm small framed. How do I look in my profile pic because that was taken 3 years ago when I weighed 155 pounds.0 -
oh and forgot to add, you say you are working to build strength, you will put on a bit LBS while if your aiming for muscles, also I'm no expert but I do know when you strength train you need more calories to build muscle. For a woman its recommended to eat atleast 1800 calories while streghth training, you probably need more. and I agree, you aren't sedentary, might want to change it to atleast lightly active. Other than that, looks like your getting a good amount of protein so hurray for that, I would just reevaluate goals and focus more on building the muscles you hope to build rather than the scale.0
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I don't believe HRMs are good for calculating calorie burn except for during cardio. I've always heard that you don't burn much more during strength training than your normal BMR + regular daily activity burn. So personally I'd disregard those calories.
The pedometer & HRM also probably incorporate your BMR into their calorie burn estimates. Your burn X calories at rest, and you burn (X + Y) calories during activity. So there is probably double counting going on there as well. For example based on my BMR I burn a little oer 1 calorie per minute when sleeping. If I use a HRM and it shows I burn an average of 10 calories per minute while running, its instead of the BMR calories, not in addition to.
I can't really speak as to your goal. Though looking to lose weight while not losing muscle and wanting to do it quickly: seem to be goals that contradict each other.0 -
ok so youre 6' tall, why on earth do you want to be 155lbs???? That's a bit crazy. I'm a woman, but my husband is 6' and used to weigh 170-175lb and I would never want him to get that thin again. Hes about 190 now and at a perfect weight and build.
I'm small framed. How do I look in my profile pic because that was taken 3 years ago when I weighed 155 pounds.
gotcha, ya I thought that was a current pic and was thinking why would you want to lose 25 more lbs lol. BEST OF LUCK TO YOU! Oh and I agree with what everyone else is saying out HRMS, I only use mine when I do cardio exercises. I don't eat back half my calories and seems to be working.0 -
Okay, there's a lot of information here, and I can't answer all of it. The one thing I can say with a fair amount of confidence though is that you should NOT be set at sedentary. Included in your NEAT is not just your job, but the rest of life too. If you walk 6 miles a day on average, more or less every day, that's at least lightly active. From that alone, your calories should be higher.
The HRM is great for cardio, not good for strength training. It's only accurate for steady state cardio because it's based on an estimate of VO2 max and calorie burn. I'm not going to pretend to know math. So the strength training burns you're getting are almost certainly wrong. I don't know what people suggest for counting them, or if they should be counted.
Seriously though, you're not sedentary :noway:
Edit: To answer your question, yes, you want to eat more. Particularly if you're aiming to do a reasonable deficit, which it seems like you are.
Well perhaps I am using my terminology wrong but what I was doing was taking my 6 miles of walking I do every day (my commute to work plus just walking around the office) and counting that as exercise. My NEAT therefore was just the very light activity of sitting at a desk and typing essentially. 2300 for that + the 500 for walking (if that is to be believed) + whatever workout I perform.
Whether I call myself sedentary and a NEAT of 2300 and then add 500 for all the walking I do or I call myself lightly active and a NEAT of 2800 with the walking wrapped into that I think is semantic.0 -
ok so youre 6' tall, why on earth do you want to be 155lbs???? That's a bit crazy. I'm a woman, but my husband is 6' and used to weigh 170-175lb and I would never want him to get that thin again. Hes about 190 now and at a perfect weight and build.
I'm small framed. How do I look in my profile pic because that was taken 3 years ago when I weighed 155 pounds.
gotcha, ya I thought that was a current pic and was thinking why would you want to lose 25 more lbs lol. BEST OF LUCK TO YOU! Oh and I agree with what everyone else is saying out HRMS, I only use mine when I do cardio exercises. I don't eat back half my calories and seems to be working.
I totally understand why the 6' 155 pounds thing threw you off, honestly when I was exercising before and got myself to that weight it threw me off too, made me have to face facts that I'm actually a pretty small guy when it comes to my frame. I looked and felt good at that weight though. More importantly at that body composition which was about 15% BF, I don't actually care about what my scale weight is just my bodyfat comp.
If you click my profile I have another picture there of my back as it looks currently and you can see I have some chunk to lose. Really most of the chunk is in my belly fat but I didn't really want to post a front facing picture to the internet.0 -
This isn't related to your exercise burn calories, but are you sure that all of your entries are correct in terms of the amount of calories? I saw a few entries that said like "homemade" or you logged "one serving". Did you create those yourself or grab it from the database? A lot of things in the database that are logged under homemade or just list one serving as opposed to grams/ounces/lbs/etc. are really inaccurate and can really throw your calorie limit off, especially if you log them multiple times a week.
Edit: Also, HRM aren't good at estimating strength training or HIIT. They work best for steady-state exercises. Lastly, remember that heart rate monitors tell you the amount of calories that you burned exercising in addition to the amount of calories that you burned just being alive. Say you sat on the couch for an hour. Just sitting there, being alive, you "burned" (fake number) 100 calories. Now say that you go run for an hour and your HRM says that you burned 500 calories. 100 calories of those 500 are what you would have burned anyway and are part of your BMR.
Yeah I knew that about the BMR being included which is part of the reason I low-balled the numbers. Although that said if my BMR is 1800 over 24 hours then my BMR for 50 minutes is under 100 calories so doesn't make a huge difference.
The "1 serving" stuff like chicken lentils was homemade from very basic ingredients (basically chicken breast and lentils with some tomato sauce) so that is pretty accurate. I do occasionally have meal out like some sushi where I am guessing at the calories but assuming that I am not HUGELY off. Most of my days though are with simple whole foods that are pretty easily tracked.0 -
oh and forgot to add, you say you are working to build strength, you will put on a bit LBS while if your aiming for muscles, also I'm no expert but I do know when you strength train you need more calories to build muscle. For a woman its recommended to eat atleast 1800 calories while streghth training, you probably need more. and I agree, you aren't sedentary, might want to change it to atleast lightly active. Other than that, looks like your getting a good amount of protein so hurray for that, I would just reevaluate goals and focus more on building the muscles you hope to build rather than the scale.
I don't expect to gain any muscle while doing this since I am at a strong caloric deficit. The point of the weight lifting is to retain what muscle I have. One can gain strength by training the muscle one has without putting on additional muscle mass so when I referred to strength gains I was thinking in terms of that, not in terms of adding muscle.
Once I lose the fat I will probably look to putting on an extra 10 pounds of muscle or so over the longterm (years)0 -
I can't really speak as to your goal. Though looking to lose weight while not losing muscle and wanting to do it quickly: seem to be goals that contradict each other.
That would be my concern in a nutshell. I have about 5 months to lose the fat but I'll say I'd rather keep the muscle and lose less fat than lose all the fat and drop 5 pounds of muscle on top of it.0 -
Aaron - you answer a lot of these questions for others on the boards. What would you say to them? I think you know the answer and you just don't like it.0
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Okay, there's a lot of information here, and I can't answer all of it. The one thing I can say with a fair amount of confidence though is that you should NOT be set at sedentary. Included in your NEAT is not just your job, but the rest of life too. If you walk 6 miles a day on average, more or less every day, that's at least lightly active. From that alone, your calories should be higher.
The HRM is great for cardio, not good for strength training. It's only accurate for steady state cardio because it's based on an estimate of VO2 max and calorie burn. I'm not going to pretend to know math. So the strength training burns you're getting are almost certainly wrong. I don't know what people suggest for counting them, or if they should be counted.
Seriously though, you're not sedentary :noway:
Edit: To answer your question, yes, you want to eat more. Particularly if you're aiming to do a reasonable deficit, which it seems like you are.
Well perhaps I am using my terminology wrong but what I was doing was taking my 6 miles of walking I do every day (my commute to work plus just walking around the office) and counting that as exercise. My NEAT therefore was just the very light activity of sitting at a desk and typing essentially. 2300 for that + the 500 for walking (if that is to be believed) + whatever workout I perform.
Whether I call myself sedentary and a NEAT of 2300 and then add 500 for all the walking I do or I call myself lightly active and a NEAT of 2800 with the walking wrapped into that I think is semantic.
Semantic, true. However, it's usually easier to not have to micro-manage your calories burns that you do every day, particularly since you mentioned that you don't do it consecutively. Anyways, you seem to have a good idea of how much you burn on a regular basis, and you seem to feel that you're at more of a deficit than you've currently planned.
Even though you have a deadline, you mentioned that things seem to be going slow. That seems to happen to a lot of people when they're not eating as much as they should be for their activity. If you're grossing an average of 1800 calories a day, but you're exercising 600-1200 calories worth a day (taking the half and max of what you gave), that's a net of 400-1200 calories. You're 6' tall and that's not enough, particularly if you want to keep muscle. Eat more food. There's actually a good chance that you'll do better at losing weight because your body will have the proper fuel and nutrition to do what it needs to do, and you'll look better when you get to your goal.0 -
I can't really speak as to your goal. Though looking to lose weight while not losing muscle and wanting to do it quickly: seem to be goals that contradict each other.
That would be my concern in a nutshell. I have about 5 months to lose the fat but I'll say I'd rather keep the muscle and lose less fat than lose all the fat and drop 5 pounds of muscle on top of it.
Why are you putting time limits on it? I know you say your body fat is pretty high, but in your picture (from when you were at your goal weight) looks like you have little lean mass. I think you should eat close to your TDEE (which is easily around 2600) and get on a great hypertrophy program. You look under trained enough that you could make progress that way.0 -
I can't really speak as to your goal. Though looking to lose weight while not losing muscle and wanting to do it quickly: seem to be goals that contradict each other.
That would be my concern in a nutshell. I have about 5 months to lose the fat but I'll say I'd rather keep the muscle and lose less fat than lose all the fat and drop 5 pounds of muscle on top of it.
Why are you putting time limits on it? I know you say your body fat is pretty high, but in your picture (from when you were at your goal weight) looks like you have little lean mass. I think you should eat close to your TDEE (which is easily around 2600) and get on a great hypertrophy program. You look under trained enough that you could make progress that way.
Have an event that I'm preparing for where I would like to look my best and I feel some guilt associated with having let myself go as far as I have over the last 3 years.
I know I can lose the fat this way because I have in the past so its where my comfort zone lies. I do have a low lean mass (135 pounds from what I estimate) that is both because I am small framed (genuinely, not just an excuse) and I am likely undertrained. My thought was I would lose the unsightly fat while weighttraining full body for muscle maintenance and then after getting down to the 15% bodyfat range switch to a more aggressive heavy lifting routine, 5x5 with deadlifts squats pull-ups etc coupled with a caloric surplus to put on some muscle.
I guess the reason I am not doing what you suggest with the 2600 hypertrophy program is because I have no personal experience with that. What I am currently doing I have a decent notion of where I'll end up in 5 months because I've done it before, with something like that I don't know. Its embarrassing for me to admit the vanity of wanting to make sure the fat is gone in 5 months but if I'm to be honest that is my motivation right now.0 -
Okay, there's a lot of information here, and I can't answer all of it. The one thing I can say with a fair amount of confidence though is that you should NOT be set at sedentary. Included in your NEAT is not just your job, but the rest of life too. If you walk 6 miles a day on average, more or less every day, that's at least lightly active. From that alone, your calories should be higher.
The HRM is great for cardio, not good for strength training. It's only accurate for steady state cardio because it's based on an estimate of VO2 max and calorie burn. I'm not going to pretend to know math. So the strength training burns you're getting are almost certainly wrong. I don't know what people suggest for counting them, or if they should be counted.
Seriously though, you're not sedentary :noway:
Edit: To answer your question, yes, you want to eat more. Particularly if you're aiming to do a reasonable deficit, which it seems like you are.
Well perhaps I am using my terminology wrong but what I was doing was taking my 6 miles of walking I do every day (my commute to work plus just walking around the office) and counting that as exercise. My NEAT therefore was just the very light activity of sitting at a desk and typing essentially. 2300 for that + the 500 for walking (if that is to be believed) + whatever workout I perform.
Whether I call myself sedentary and a NEAT of 2300 and then add 500 for all the walking I do or I call myself lightly active and a NEAT of 2800 with the walking wrapped into that I think is semantic.
Semantic, true. However, it's usually easier to not have to micro-manage your calories burns that you do every day, particularly since you mentioned that you don't do it consecutively. Anyways, you seem to have a good idea of how much you burn on a regular basis, and you seem to feel that you're at more of a deficit than you've currently planned.
Even though you have a deadline, you mentioned that things seem to be going slow. That seems to happen to a lot of people when they're not eating as much as they should be for their activity. If you're grossing an average of 1800 calories a day, but you're exercising 600-1200 calories worth a day (taking the half and max of what you gave), that's a net of 400-1200 calories. You're 6' tall and that's not enough, particularly if you want to keep muscle. Eat more food. There's actually a good chance that you'll do better at losing weight because your body will have the proper fuel and nutrition to do what it needs to do, and you'll look better when you get to your goal.
That is all fair. I actually had a similar notion about two weeks ago and brought it up similarly in the forum then. At that point my MFP goal was set to 1500. After discussion I raised that to 1800 and now I'm eating back calories to the point where most days I'm grossing something like 2100. The reason I said that over the 2 months I averaged 1800 is because if you take the 2100 I'm eating now and the 1500 I was eating then then it averages to that 1800.
So in a way consider that now I am eating about 2100 a day. So the question is I guess should I bump that up even more? Keep in mind I'm not looking to put on muscle right now I would just like to get down to a fit bodyfat level. I can move on to a muscle building program where I eat at surplus after in my mind. This is not a diet and quit plan this is the start to get my fat gone and then move on to other aspects of my fitness.0 -
Have an event that I'm preparing for where I would like to look my best and I feel some guilt associated with having let myself go as far as I have over the last 3 years.
I know I can lose the fat this way because I have in the past so its where my comfort zone lies. I do have a low lean mass (135 pounds from what I estimate) that is both because I am small framed (genuinely, not just an excuse) and I am likely undertrained. My thought was I would lose the unsightly fat while weighttraining full body for muscle maintenance and then after getting down to the 15% bodyfat range switch to a more aggressive heavy lifting routine, 5x5 with deadlifts squats pull-ups etc coupled with a caloric surplus to put on some muscle.
I guess the reason I am not doing what you suggest with the 2600 hypertrophy program is because I have no personal experience with that. What I am currently doing I have a decent notion of where I'll end up in 5 months because I've done it before, with something like that I don't know. Its embarrassing for me to admit the vanity of wanting to make sure the fat is gone in 5 months but if I'm to be honest that is my motivation right now.
A 5x5 routine isn't going to help you add lean mass. You'll gain strength, but not much in the way of size (myfibril vs sarcoplasmic hypertrophy). You want a true hypertrophy program and you can follow hypertrophy while cutting (programs like PHAT or PHUL or HST). Find your TDEE, subract 20% and forget calorie burns from exercise (that's part of your TDEE).0 -
I think you would tell anyone else to up their intake to keep a realistic caloric deficit and to be patient and to aim for realistic expectations.
So, uh, ^ that.
Try upping your calories by 200 per day for 3-4 weeks. You've got the time to give that a real shot without derailing your progress too much. You know what happens when you undereat for your TDEE. Put it together and listen to your own advice to others.0 -
I think you would tell anyone else to up their intake to keep a realistic caloric deficit and to be patient and to aim for realistic expectations.
So, uh, ^ that.
Try upping your calories by 200 per day for 3-4 weeks. You've got the time to give that a real shot without derailing your progress too much. You know what happens when you undereat for your TDEE. Put it together and listen to your own advice to others.
Hmmm....hard to argue with myself I guess. Not sure what my disconnect is between viewing my own experience and what I would tell others. One has the real fear of failure associated with it I suppose. What I am doing now I can sustain so upping my calories is based on this nebulous and hypothetical calculation not based on what my body feels. You are right though, I would tell someone in a similar situation to take it slow and not risk their muscle and/or fitness for quick gains in fat loss.0 -
Have an event that I'm preparing for where I would like to look my best and I feel some guilt associated with having let myself go as far as I have over the last 3 years.
I know I can lose the fat this way because I have in the past so its where my comfort zone lies. I do have a low lean mass (135 pounds from what I estimate) that is both because I am small framed (genuinely, not just an excuse) and I am likely undertrained. My thought was I would lose the unsightly fat while weighttraining full body for muscle maintenance and then after getting down to the 15% bodyfat range switch to a more aggressive heavy lifting routine, 5x5 with deadlifts squats pull-ups etc coupled with a caloric surplus to put on some muscle.
I guess the reason I am not doing what you suggest with the 2600 hypertrophy program is because I have no personal experience with that. What I am currently doing I have a decent notion of where I'll end up in 5 months because I've done it before, with something like that I don't know. Its embarrassing for me to admit the vanity of wanting to make sure the fat is gone in 5 months but if I'm to be honest that is my motivation right now.
A 5x5 routine isn't going to help you add lean mass. You'll gain strength, but not much in the way of size (myfibril vs sarcoplasmic hypertrophy). You want a true hypertrophy program and you can follow hypertrophy while cutting (programs like PHAT or PHUL or HST). Find your TDEE, subract 20% and forget calorie burns from exercise (that's part of your TDEE).
So you are of the opinion that it is possible to put on muscle at a caloric deficit? That seems to run counter to the "common sense" wisdom of many of those who post on this forum regularly. I am not saying that you are wrong and they are right, clearly from your progress you know what you are doing at least when it comes to your own body. I was just wondering if you can clarify that you are saying it is possible to put on muscle and cut to low body fat at the same time.0 -
So you are of the opinion that it is possible to put on muscle at a caloric deficit? That seems to run counter to the "common sense" wisdom of many of those who post on this forum regularly. I am not saying that you are wrong and they are right, clearly from your progress you know what you are doing at least when it comes to your own body. I was just wondering if you can clarify that you are saying it is possible to put on muscle and cut to low body fat at the same time.
You meet one of the criteria for people who can put on lean mass in a calorie deficit. You are under trained. As long as you are not severely under eating you could add some lean mass. Wouldn't be a lot, but make sure to train hard and eat lots of protein.0 -
So you are of the opinion that it is possible to put on muscle at a caloric deficit? That seems to run counter to the "common sense" wisdom of many of those who post on this forum regularly. I am not saying that you are wrong and they are right, clearly from your progress you know what you are doing at least when it comes to your own body. I was just wondering if you can clarify that you are saying it is possible to put on muscle and cut to low body fat at the same time.
You meet one of the criteria for people who can put on lean mass in a calorie deficit. You are under trained. As long as you are not severely under eating you could add some lean mass. Wouldn't be a lot, but make sure to train hard and eat lots of protein.
So bottom line, eat more...make sure I get plenty of protein (already doing that percentage wise) and follow a hypotrophy style program with intensity to kill two birds with one stone, lose fat and put on lean muscle.
My goals are both aesthetics and endurance, I care little about strength in terms of "how much ya bench" but I do realize for aesthetics some muscle is a good thing. I assume I can keep with my cardio for endurance as long as I eat those calories back?0
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