February Q and A
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SideSteel
Posts: 11,068 Member
Got any general questions? Feel free to post them in this thread!
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Replies
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Hello
I need some advices for my calorie settings and workout routine in relation to my current goal... would it be ok to ask that here? 0 -
I'd like to know if I'm taking the right approach, generally. I'm 5'8" currently at 155 looking to lean down. I'm consuming TDEE - 20% with a focus on high protein intake vers. Fat. Meanwhile I'm exercising 6 days a week alternating b/w SL 5x5 and endurance training for triathlon.
I'm expecting to drop inches and fat % over time while getting stronger with weights. I'm okay with a bit of lean mass loss during the deficit. Once at a size I'm happy with looking in a mirror, I'm planning on moving to a slight bulk to build muscle.
Are my expectations correct?0 -
niniundlapin wrote: »Hello I need some advices for my calorie settings and workout routine in relation to my current goal... would it be ok to ask that here?
You can ask anything you want, but it really depends on how much depth the question requires.
For example I will not be doing program design for people or doing an entire work up to pinpoint exact nutrient intake but you can certainly ask anything and hopefully I can point you in the right direction.
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niniundlapin wrote: »Hello I need some advices for my calorie settings and workout routine in relation to my current goal... would it be ok to ask that here?
You can ask anything you want, but it really depends on how much depth the question requires.
For example I will not be doing program design for people or doing an entire work up to pinpoint exact nutrient intake but you can certainly ask anything and hopefully I can point you in the right direction.
Thank you so much @SideSteel ! I guess I'll try to describe as detailed as possible and yes, a general direction is certainly helpful and I'm very grateful for that!
I'm a 30 yo female (166 cm/ 5'5.4") and currently weigh around 53.2-53.8 kg (117-118 lb). There are two major things I'd like to see from my diet & workout routine: drop my weight a little bit (about 1-2 kg, or 2.2-4.4 lb, to reach around 52 kg) and also my body fat %. I've stopped using the number I saw on scale for bf% but just evaluate that with my measurements (also see if I can feel less fat/more obvious muscle texture under my skin). I did have some tiny success since I started using MFP to log my food about 7.5 months ago. My weight and measurements have been dropping slowly in the first 2-3 months (around September to late November of 2015) but this seems to slow down even more now. I did assessed my overall diet and workout routine and try to see what I should or should not keep doing in order to reach my current goal.
=Diet Setting=
I roughly calculated how I spend my hours in a typical weekday: around 7.5-8 hours for sleep, around 13 hours for "sitting" (including relaxing time and work time at this point), about 2 hours for cooking and light housework, and about 30-50 min for the workout (major additional calorie burn). Numbers for weekends are a little bit different depend on my plan. By comparing the result from website like this (as well as other similar ones)
http://www.health-calc.com/diet/energy-expenditure-advanced
I'd think the amount MFP recommended is quite reasonable. If I change my goal to maintenance on MFP, the recommended daily calorie would be around 1700 kcal/day, which is about the net number from that website after exercise.
As a result, I set my activity level at "lightly active" instead of "sedentary" since the daily intake recommendation for this category sounds more reasonable (1460 kcal for a 0.25 kg/week weight-loss pace). I've tried the one for sedentary before but I'm sure it's too low for me (around 1250 kcal. I felt hangry more often & had no energy to exercise).
Here's a comparison of my calorie intake over the past few months based on the change of my daytime activities (mainly workout).
=Initial assessment=
It seems like I have an average of 110-120 kcal deficit per day (estimated weekly deficit divided by 7) from September to November, and that would result in a net intake around 1250-1350 kcal. In December, I noticed that I'd constantly fight with the desire of eating more because I felt hungry more often during the colder days (Thanksgiving and Christmas are not traditional holidays for me, so I didn't get to experience the flood of goodies coming in to my house). My workout routine during that period of time was a combination of everything (30min/day, 5-6x/week; mainly P90X3 with one or two additional 30-min cardio programs from Les Mills On Demand). I wasn't sure about the actual calorie burn from those workout but I've noticed the weight-loss has slowed down (1.5-2 kg lost in the summer/ early fall but weight kind of stayed there till the end of the year). I did feel less fat & more obvious muscle texture under my skin. Measurement-wise, no obvious change everywhere else except my waist. It's not a lot but a 0.8 cm lost is significant for me.
=Second assessment=
Now it's about 1.5-2 months after my first assessment (made in late December of 2015). My MFP suggested daily calories is about the same (1460 kcal). I did eat back a little bit more workout calories (but still maintain 70-115 kcal daily deficit) for the past two months due to a change to my workout routine. Starting from late December of 2105, I did a slow transition to go from a P90X3-Lean schedule (more cardio & less weight training) to a modified ICF 5x5 as a result of reading lots of successful female lifters' stories (lift heavy while eating at deficit). During the scheduled lifting days (3x/week), I can only use heavy dumbbells (a set of Bowflex 552) due to the space of house & my budget to invest further for barbell/plates, which means the weight I'm using might not be heavy enough to be called "heavy-lifting." I also add a 30-min session of strength training (Body Pump from Les Mills On Demand) before ICF as warm-up. During the non-lifting days, I usually do the cardio programs from Les Mills (Body Combat/ Grit) for 30-50 min. So the overall weekly workout time is increased compared to September-December. Over the past 6 weeks, I do feel increase in muscle strength and I'm slowly switching to heavier dumbbells. Other than that, there' no major change in my weight nor measurements.
Now I'm just not sure if what I've been doing for the past 1.5-2 months is a good plan to proceed in order to achieve my goal. At the moment, I'd be happy if I can keep my current muscle mass while losing a little bit more fat (so not going into recomp mode but cut?). I also thought about looking into local gyms in order to get access to barbells so I can do a real 5x5, but since I haven't gone to max of my Bowflex maybe I should keep staying at home for a while (my upper body is really weak & there's still space for improvement)? It's also possible that my goal is unrealistic, but it's not impossible since it's not a dramatic change to my current status..?! (I always think I'd probably be 52-ish kg if I can find a way to be leaner)
I'd appreciate any thought/suggestion and will put more info if I didn't make it clear.
Thanks for reading!
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I'd like to know if I'm taking the right approach, generally. I'm 5'8" currently at 155 looking to lean down. I'm consuming TDEE - 20% with a focus on high protein intake vers. Fat. Meanwhile I'm exercising 6 days a week alternating b/w SL 5x5 and endurance training for triathlon.
I'm expecting to drop inches and fat % over time while getting stronger with weights. I'm okay with a bit of lean mass loss during the deficit. Once at a size I'm happy with looking in a mirror, I'm planning on moving to a slight bulk to build muscle.
Are my expectations correct?
Seems reasonable to me.0 -
niniundlapin wrote: »niniundlapin wrote: »Hello I need some advices for my calorie settings and workout routine in relation to my current goal... would it be ok to ask that here?
You can ask anything you want, but it really depends on how much depth the question requires.
For example I will not be doing program design for people or doing an entire work up to pinpoint exact nutrient intake but you can certainly ask anything and hopefully I can point you in the right direction.
Thank you so much @SideSteel ! I guess I'll try to describe as detailed as possible and yes, a general direction is certainly helpful and I'm very grateful for that!
I'm a 30 yo female (166 cm/ 5'5.4") and currently weigh around 53.2-53.8 kg (117-118 lb). There are two major things I'd like to see from my diet & workout routine: drop my weight a little bit (about 1-2 kg, or 2.2-4.4 lb, to reach around 52 kg) and also my body fat %. I've stopped using the number I saw on scale for bf% but just evaluate that with my measurements (also see if I can feel less fat/more obvious muscle texture under my skin). I did have some tiny success since I started using MFP to log my food about 7.5 months ago. My weight and measurements have been dropping slowly in the first 2-3 months (around September to late November of 2015) but this seems to slow down even more now. I did assessed my overall diet and workout routine and try to see what I should or should not keep doing in order to reach my current goal.
=Diet Setting=
I roughly calculated how I spend my hours in a typical weekday: around 7.5-8 hours for sleep, around 13 hours for "sitting" (including relaxing time and work time at this point), about 2 hours for cooking and light housework, and about 30-50 min for the workout (major additional calorie burn). Numbers for weekends are a little bit different depend on my plan. By comparing the result from website like this (as well as other similar ones)
http://www.health-calc.com/diet/energy-expenditure-advanced
I'd think the amount MFP recommended is quite reasonable. If I change my goal to maintenance on MFP, the recommended daily calorie would be around 1700 kcal/day, which is about the net number from that website after exercise.
As a result, I set my activity level at "lightly active" instead of "sedentary" since the daily intake recommendation for this category sounds more reasonable (1460 kcal for a 0.25 kg/week weight-loss pace). I've tried the one for sedentary before but I'm sure it's too low for me (around 1250 kcal. I felt hangry more often & had no energy to exercise).
Here's a comparison of my calorie intake over the past few months based on the change of my daytime activities (mainly workout).
=Initial assessment=
It seems like I have an average of 110-120 kcal deficit per day (estimated weekly deficit divided by 7) from September to November, and that would result in a net intake around 1250-1350 kcal. In December, I noticed that I'd constantly fight with the desire of eating more because I felt hungry more often during the colder days (Thanksgiving and Christmas are not traditional holidays for me, so I didn't get to experience the flood of goodies coming in to my house). My workout routine during that period of time was a combination of everything (30min/day, 5-6x/week; mainly P90X3 with one or two additional 30-min cardio programs from Les Mills On Demand). I wasn't sure about the actual calorie burn from those workout but I've noticed the weight-loss has slowed down (1.5-2 kg lost in the summer/ early fall but weight kind of stayed there till the end of the year). I did feel less fat & more obvious muscle texture under my skin. Measurement-wise, no obvious change everywhere else except my waist. It's not a lot but a 0.8 cm lost is significant for me.
=Second assessment=
Now it's about 1.5-2 months after my first assessment (made in late December of 2015). My MFP suggested daily calories is about the same (1460 kcal). I did eat back a little bit more workout calories (but still maintain 70-115 kcal daily deficit) for the past two months due to a change to my workout routine. Starting from late December of 2105, I did a slow transition to go from a P90X3-Lean schedule (more cardio & less weight training) to a modified ICF 5x5 as a result of reading lots of successful female lifters' stories (lift heavy while eating at deficit). During the scheduled lifting days (3x/week), I can only use heavy dumbbells (a set of Bowflex 552) due to the space of house & my budget to invest further for barbell/plates, which means the weight I'm using might not be heavy enough to be called "heavy-lifting." I also add a 30-min session of strength training (Body Pump from Les Mills On Demand) before ICF as warm-up. During the non-lifting days, I usually do the cardio programs from Les Mills (Body Combat/ Grit) for 30-50 min. So the overall weekly workout time is increased compared to September-December. Over the past 6 weeks, I do feel increase in muscle strength and I'm slowly switching to heavier dumbbells. Other than that, there' no major change in my weight nor measurements.
Now I'm just not sure if what I've been doing for the past 1.5-2 months is a good plan to proceed in order to achieve my goal. At the moment, I'd be happy if I can keep my current muscle mass while losing a little bit more fat (so not going into recomp mode but cut?). I also thought about looking into local gyms in order to get access to barbells so I can do a real 5x5, but since I haven't gone to max of my Bowflex maybe I should keep staying at home for a while (my upper body is really weak & there's still space for improvement)? It's also possible that my goal is unrealistic, but it's not impossible since it's not a dramatic change to my current status..?! (I always think I'd probably be 52-ish kg if I can find a way to be leaner)
I'd appreciate any thought/suggestion and will put more info if I didn't make it clear.
Thanks for reading!
Would you be able to give me a short and numbered list of questions to help me sort the above out?0 -
niniundlapin wrote: »niniundlapin wrote: »Hello I need some advices for my calorie settings and workout routine in relation to my current goal... would it be ok to ask that here?
You can ask anything you want, but it really depends on how much depth the question requires.
For example I will not be doing program design for people or doing an entire work up to pinpoint exact nutrient intake but you can certainly ask anything and hopefully I can point you in the right direction.
Thank you so much @SideSteel ! I guess I'll try to describe as detailed as possible and yes, a general direction is certainly helpful and I'm very grateful for that!
I'm a 30 yo female (166 cm/ 5'5.4") and currently weigh around 53.2-53.8 kg (117-118 lb). There are two major things I'd like to see from my diet & workout routine: drop my weight a little bit (about 1-2 kg, or 2.2-4.4 lb, to reach around 52 kg) and also my body fat %. I've stopped using the number I saw on scale for bf% but just evaluate that with my measurements (also see if I can feel less fat/more obvious muscle texture under my skin). I did have some tiny success since I started using MFP to log my food about 7.5 months ago. My weight and measurements have been dropping slowly in the first 2-3 months (around September to late November of 2015) but this seems to slow down even more now. I did assessed my overall diet and workout routine and try to see what I should or should not keep doing in order to reach my current goal.
=Diet Setting=
I roughly calculated how I spend my hours in a typical weekday: around 7.5-8 hours for sleep, around 13 hours for "sitting" (including relaxing time and work time at this point), about 2 hours for cooking and light housework, and about 30-50 min for the workout (major additional calorie burn). Numbers for weekends are a little bit different depend on my plan. By comparing the result from website like this (as well as other similar ones)
http://www.health-calc.com/diet/energy-expenditure-advanced
I'd think the amount MFP recommended is quite reasonable. If I change my goal to maintenance on MFP, the recommended daily calorie would be around 1700 kcal/day, which is about the net number from that website after exercise.
As a result, I set my activity level at "lightly active" instead of "sedentary" since the daily intake recommendation for this category sounds more reasonable (1460 kcal for a 0.25 kg/week weight-loss pace). I've tried the one for sedentary before but I'm sure it's too low for me (around 1250 kcal. I felt hangry more often & had no energy to exercise).
Here's a comparison of my calorie intake over the past few months based on the change of my daytime activities (mainly workout).
=Initial assessment=
It seems like I have an average of 110-120 kcal deficit per day (estimated weekly deficit divided by 7) from September to November, and that would result in a net intake around 1250-1350 kcal. In December, I noticed that I'd constantly fight with the desire of eating more because I felt hungry more often during the colder days (Thanksgiving and Christmas are not traditional holidays for me, so I didn't get to experience the flood of goodies coming in to my house). My workout routine during that period of time was a combination of everything (30min/day, 5-6x/week; mainly P90X3 with one or two additional 30-min cardio programs from Les Mills On Demand). I wasn't sure about the actual calorie burn from those workout but I've noticed the weight-loss has slowed down (1.5-2 kg lost in the summer/ early fall but weight kind of stayed there till the end of the year). I did feel less fat & more obvious muscle texture under my skin. Measurement-wise, no obvious change everywhere else except my waist. It's not a lot but a 0.8 cm lost is significant for me.
=Second assessment=
Now it's about 1.5-2 months after my first assessment (made in late December of 2015). My MFP suggested daily calories is about the same (1460 kcal). I did eat back a little bit more workout calories (but still maintain 70-115 kcal daily deficit) for the past two months due to a change to my workout routine. Starting from late December of 2105, I did a slow transition to go from a P90X3-Lean schedule (more cardio & less weight training) to a modified ICF 5x5 as a result of reading lots of successful female lifters' stories (lift heavy while eating at deficit). During the scheduled lifting days (3x/week), I can only use heavy dumbbells (a set of Bowflex 552) due to the space of house & my budget to invest further for barbell/plates, which means the weight I'm using might not be heavy enough to be called "heavy-lifting." I also add a 30-min session of strength training (Body Pump from Les Mills On Demand) before ICF as warm-up. During the non-lifting days, I usually do the cardio programs from Les Mills (Body Combat/ Grit) for 30-50 min. So the overall weekly workout time is increased compared to September-December. Over the past 6 weeks, I do feel increase in muscle strength and I'm slowly switching to heavier dumbbells. Other than that, there' no major change in my weight nor measurements.
Now I'm just not sure if what I've been doing for the past 1.5-2 months is a good plan to proceed in order to achieve my goal. At the moment, I'd be happy if I can keep my current muscle mass while losing a little bit more fat (so not going into recomp mode but cut?). I also thought about looking into local gyms in order to get access to barbells so I can do a real 5x5, but since I haven't gone to max of my Bowflex maybe I should keep staying at home for a while (my upper body is really weak & there's still space for improvement)? It's also possible that my goal is unrealistic, but it's not impossible since it's not a dramatic change to my current status..?! (I always think I'd probably be 52-ish kg if I can find a way to be leaner)
I'd appreciate any thought/suggestion and will put more info if I didn't make it clear.
Thanks for reading!
Would you be able to give me a short and numbered list of questions to help me sort the above out?
Sure. Sorry... that was like my nearly 6 months of self-murmuring and I should have thought about that before I post it...
I'd like to ask if under my current situation, a 30 yo female, 5'5.4" (166 cm) & 117-118 lb (around 53.5 kg)
- with an estimated BMR 1260 but TDEE between 1420 (evaluated from previous 3-months of weight-loss) and lower 1600s (most websites). Only one website estimated around 2030.
- with the goal of still losing inches & fat-loss without losing current muscle mass
that it looks like I'm heading towards the right direction (or not) by
1) calorie intake of 1520 when I work harder but around 1380 without working out (MFP suggests 1460 with expectation of 0.25kg/wk loss)
2) having an average workout time of 45-60 min/day and 5-6 days/week
3) alternating ICF 5x5 (currently modified with dumbbells) and intense cardio (kick-boxing and interval training-type of workouts)
I had small success losing 1-1.5kg & 0.8cm on my waist following the same calorie intake/expense plan (TDEE-15%) 3.5 months ago but nothing has changed since December. Six weeks ago, I decided to increase both workout time & intensity as well as calorie intake (sometimes up to additional 80-90 kcal). Would this plan & my expectation sound reasonable..?0 -
This is one of those scenarios where the answer isn't going to be amazing but I believe it's correct.
You won't know until you try.
Here's how I'd approach that --
Evaluate change in average body-weight. Compare average weight week 1 to average weight week 2, etc -- if you see it slowly trending downwards, you're good.
Monitor gym performance and recovery. You should still see performance improvements although they might be slow/etc.
Monitor how you feel.
The greatest thing you can do is be observant and objective (this is the hard part). Results should guide you towards making the right decisions.
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Any recommendations on a good dumbbell program? Currently, I am doing German Body Comp (btw, great routine), but I like to ensure I am fully knowledge to move on to my next program (and consequently, build up this list for others). I have tendinititis in both of my arms and barbell routines seem to make it flare quite often, even while keeping it relatively light.0
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This is one of those scenarios where the answer isn't going to be amazing but I believe it's correct.
You won't know until you try.
Here's how I'd approach that --
Evaluate change in average body-weight. Compare average weight week 1 to average weight week 2, etc -- if you see it slowly trending downwards, you're good.
Monitor gym performance and recovery. You should still see performance improvements although they might be slow/etc.
Monitor how you feel.
The greatest thing you can do is be observant and objective (this is the hard part). Results should guide you towards making the right decisions.
Thanks! This is very practical (and like you said, not easy) and directly points out what I need. I'll work on the record (make it more detailed and periodic rather than random entries of measurement) and hopefully to have some clues.0 -
Any recommendations on a good dumbbell program? Currently, I am doing German Body Comp (btw, great routine), but I like to ensure I am fully knowledge to move on to my next program (and consequently, build up this list for others). I have tendinititis in both of my arms and barbell routines seem to make it flare quite often, even while keeping it relatively light.
Honestly I've not looked at any DB specific routines but as long as you're training the entire body with adequate volume and intensity there's no reason you can't do very well with DBs.
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Any recommendations on a good dumbbell program? Currently, I am doing German Body Comp (btw, great routine), but I like to ensure I am fully knowledge to move on to my next program (and consequently, build up this list for others). I have tendinititis in both of my arms and barbell routines seem to make it flare quite often, even while keeping it relatively light.
Honestly I've not looked at any DB specific routines but as long as you're training the entire body with adequate volume and intensity there's no reason you can't do very well with DBs.
Makes sense. Man this getting old crap is rough.0 -
If the drop in fitness I've noted just in the last two years is any indication, I am NOT looking forward to my late 40's... lol
But if the genetics of the men in my family hold sway, I'll still be a mighty octogenarian! (Hitting 90 may be a stretch, but I'm game to try...)0 -
Here's my question:
I've noticed my right knee collapses inwards when deadlifting, at both low weight and the current weight I'm working on. I thought it was psychological at first, thinking I'm gonna bump my knees on the way up so my knee would move out of the way, but now I'm thinking it's not and I actually can't avoid doing it (going to test that more next deadlift day). What is going on here? I don't have this issue squatting which I know is more common. I've been doing hip thrusts (over 200lbs), abductor machine(110lbs), all sorts of glute work, hamstring work, for close to a year now....is it my adductors that are weak or the inner quad muscle around the knee? My left leg does not have this problem. Do you know how I can go about fixing this? I read the article Bret Contreras wrote but it really only addresses how to fix the problem in a squat, not dead lifting. I also did a lot of googling and see some people on forums have this issue, but no real answers on what the problem is when dead lifting and how to fix it.0 -
tephanies1234 wrote: »Here's my question:
I've noticed my right knee collapses inwards when deadlifting, at both low weight and the current weight I'm working on. I thought it was psychological at first, thinking I'm gonna bump my knees on the way up so my knee would move out of the way, but now I'm thinking it's not and I actually can't avoid doing it (going to test that more next deadlift day). What is going on here? I don't have this issue squatting which I know is more common. I've been doing hip thrusts (over 200lbs), abductor machine(110lbs), all sorts of glute work, hamstring work, for close to a year now....is it my adductors that are weak or the inner quad muscle around the knee? My left leg does not have this problem. Do you know how I can go about fixing this? I read the article Bret Contreras wrote but it really only addresses how to fix the problem in a squat, not dead lifting. I also did a lot of googling and see some people on forums have this issue, but no real answers on what the problem is when dead lifting and how to fix it.
A video might help but my first inclination is to ask if you can turn your toes out at least a little bit? Getting that little bit of external hip rotation can make all the difference.0 -
tephanies1234 wrote: »Here's my question:
I've noticed my right knee collapses inwards when deadlifting, at both low weight and the current weight I'm working on. I thought it was psychological at first, thinking I'm gonna bump my knees on the way up so my knee would move out of the way, but now I'm thinking it's not and I actually can't avoid doing it (going to test that more next deadlift day). What is going on here? I don't have this issue squatting which I know is more common. I've been doing hip thrusts (over 200lbs), abductor machine(110lbs), all sorts of glute work, hamstring work, for close to a year now....is it my adductors that are weak or the inner quad muscle around the knee? My left leg does not have this problem. Do you know how I can go about fixing this? I read the article Bret Contreras wrote but it really only addresses how to fix the problem in a squat, not dead lifting. I also did a lot of googling and see some people on forums have this issue, but no real answers on what the problem is when dead lifting and how to fix it.
The BC article does a fairly good job addressing knee valgus, and can be applied to deadlifts as well. I would think that ankle mobility and vastus medialis issues wouldn't be as big of an issue on deads unless you have very odd leverages which would leave weak abductors/external rotators or tight adductors/internal rotators as your culprit. I would also video your squats to be absolutely sure you're not suffering any knee cave. I've never seen someone with knee valgus on deadlifts that didn't have it on squats.0 -
Update:
It was psychological. Completed deadlifts yesterday and focused on what my legs were doing for once and the right leg didn't twitch. Will keep watching in the upcoming weeks to see if the issue comes back. I think I was too focused on pulling my shoulders back and engaging lats due to a previous upper back issue, which is gone now too, and I completely haven't been thinking at all about what my legs are doing during the lift or my foot positions. No knee collapse in squats. Thanks!0 -
Avoiding knee issues is one of the reasons I switched to trap-bar deadlifts. (The biggest reason is keeping my back straighter, but knees was also a consideration.)0
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Maybe a March Q & A?0
