Muscle mass/upping calories?

vismal wrote: »

cosmo_momo wrote: »

Hello everybody It's been quite some time since I've been super active on this site. My summer consisted of a really intense research project and my living situation was less than ideal so I was not so concerned about losing weight. I managed to maintain my weight quite easily and now that I'm settled into my new apartment, I am able to focus on losing weight again.

I have a few questions regarding my calorie intake. So my project this summer involved a lot of labor out on the farm 7 days a week and I have developed a lot more muscle than I had before. My biceps are more defined and I have "new" muscles that I've never even seen on myself before. I have started lifting at my new apartment 3 days a week and doing cardio 2 days a week. Last night I set myself as "lightly active" on my profile settings. I guess what my question is, is should I set it to "active" and eat more calories than I feel I should be. I am very much in the mindset that we need to eat to fuel our bodies and I have become genuinely more hungry this week since I've been back on track. Obviously it's common sense that I need to just play around with my diet and see what works for me, but I was just curious if anyone has similar experience with this. I know you can't build muscle easily while eating in a deficit, but right now I'm using lifting as a tool to help lose weight.

Side note: On the days I lift weights I am generally more active because I walk to more classes and I always make sure to get in at LEAST 10,000 steps by the end of the day (usually finishing them out on the treadmill to warm up/cool down when I lift). On days I do cardio I don't worry about getting all the steps in. I DO NOT eat back my exercise calories.

TL;DR: is this new muscle mass enough to justify eating more calories while maintaining a lifting schedule so that I do not lose the muscle?

What are your current goals? If you wish to lose fat then you need to eat less calories than you burn in a day. You can set your starting calories where you want and then adjust them based on results. Where you start really doesn't matter. Just pick a reasonable number and if you lose weight, keep that number. If after a few weeks you do not lose weight, reduce calories. To ensure you maintain your lean mass eat enough protein and continue with the lifting. You may need to lower volume (sets/reps) and frequency (times per week) at the gym but do not lower intensity (weight on the bar).

vismal wrote: »

cosmo_momo wrote: »

vismal wrote: »

cosmo_momo wrote: »

Hello everybody It's been quite some time since I've been super active on this site. My summer consisted of a really intense research project and my living situation was less than ideal so I was not so concerned about losing weight. I managed to maintain my weight quite easily and now that I'm settled into my new apartment, I am able to focus on losing weight again.

I have a few questions regarding my calorie intake. So my project this summer involved a lot of labor out on the farm 7 days a week and I have developed a lot more muscle than I had before. My biceps are more defined and I have "new" muscles that I've never even seen on myself before. I have started lifting at my new apartment 3 days a week and doing cardio 2 days a week. Last night I set myself as "lightly active" on my profile settings. I guess what my question is, is should I set it to "active" and eat more calories than I feel I should be. I am very much in the mindset that we need to eat to fuel our bodies and I have become genuinely more hungry this week since I've been back on track. Obviously it's common sense that I need to just play around with my diet and see what works for me, but I was just curious if anyone has similar experience with this. I know you can't build muscle easily while eating in a deficit, but right now I'm using lifting as a tool to help lose weight.

Side note: On the days I lift weights I am generally more active because I walk to more classes and I always make sure to get in at LEAST 10,000 steps by the end of the day (usually finishing them out on the treadmill to warm up/cool down when I lift). On days I do cardio I don't worry about getting all the steps in. I DO NOT eat back my exercise calories.

TL;DR: is this new muscle mass enough to justify eating more calories while maintaining a lifting schedule so that I do not lose the muscle?

What are your current goals? If you wish to lose fat then you need to eat less calories than you burn in a day. You can set your starting calories where you want and then adjust them based on results. Where you start really doesn't matter. Just pick a reasonable number and if you lose weight, keep that number. If after a few weeks you do not lose weight, reduce calories. To ensure you maintain your lean mass eat enough protein and continue with the lifting. You may need to lower volume (sets/reps) and frequency (times per week) at the gym but do not lower intensity (weight on the bar).

My current goals are to continue to lose weight. I have lost 15lbs so far. I really only have maybe 10 more pounds I want to lose. I was eating ~1,500 calories a day not working out and I was very unfit. So I guess my main concern is that I feel that I should be eating more than that because I have more lean mass than I did previously. Obviously it wouldn't be a 500 calorie addition, but would setting my activity level higher help account for that, as well as staying active? Do you think lifting 3 days a week is too often? Right now I set the weights so that by the time I'm finishing up my set, I have a hard time getting those last few reps completed. So, challenging, but not impossible. (I'm a newbie lifter lol)

3 days seems fine. As for calories, again, just pick a starting number and adjust them based on results.