Confused about how much to eat...

olive_26
olive_26 Posts: 14 Member
in Getting Started
I am a 24 year old female who is 5' 7" and 139lbs. I'm in week 6 of Strong Lifts 5x5 and loving every second of it, I've never been this strong before and it's just increasing every time I go :smile: .

The problem is I can't quite work out how much I should be eating. I am wanting to get to about 19% body fat (I'm about 21%) and try and keep the muscle I already have (not a huge amount, but it's enough for now). I have done several TDEE calculators and they gave me numbers between 1900 and 2100 calories a day. I'm good at logging my food and I make sure I get enough protein.

Before I started SL I was maintaining my weight at about 1950 calories a day. My question is this: should I be eating at maintenance, deficit, or surplus if my goal is to stay around the same weight, stripping off some of the fat but trying to keep the muscle?

I hope that makes sense....

Replies

  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,267 Member
    Eat at maitenance...if you are willing to put in the time...body recomp means you are lifting heavy, eating at maitenance and what happens is you lose fat and gain muscle....but very very slowly.
  • olive_26
    olive_26 Posts: 14 Member
    Thanks :smile:. I'm willing to put in the time, I just want to make sure I'm not wasting time by doing the wrong thing!
  • RHachicho
    RHachicho Posts: 1,115 Member
    My understanding is that the lower body fat% you go the harder it is to achieve recomp. Since your body really wants to keep that fat. From what I hear your body fat% is on the low side for a woman. I'm no expert but I think you may have to diet quite severely to lower body fat% at this point. I don't really know why you would want to either but it's not my call to make :)
  • olive_26
    olive_26 Posts: 14 Member
    My body is kinda ... squishy. I'm not fat, but there is no definition anywhere on my frame. I'm not looking to do anything dangerous, I know that it's very important to have some fat. I just don't want to look squishy any more.

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