5'2 young female, working out 5x, not eating enough to lose weight?!

How are you working out your calories? Are you weighing everything with a food scale to ensure accurate calorie counting?

wolfegr1403 wrote: »

Alright I need help. I got my fancy new Fitbit which I adore because it tracks my activity level throughout the day. I do Jillian Michaels Body Revolution (circuit training) 3-4 times a week, between that and my day to day activity, I burn around 2,000 calories a day. I was testing a 500 calorie deficit, but I keep coming up short. I want to keep building muscle, but honestly sometimes I'm just not hungry enough to meet my goal!

I'm a little confused. Are you trying to lose weight or add muscle?

It is pretty difficult to do both unless you are a newbie with a lot of existing body fat, a good structured progressive weight lifting program, and sufficient protein in your diet. Helps to be young and have some testosterone too.

So are you eating less than your calorie goal and think that is causing you to not lose?

Or trying to hit a calorie goal and annoyed that you aren't hitting a surplus to build muscle because you can't get enough food in?

Or is your issue that you think you are eating at too large a deficit to lose weight, like your in some sort of starvation mode?

If your deficit is too large your going to lose weight.

Do you weigh all you food to make sure your logging is accurate?

I want to build muscle. And I have built some, but I'm still trying to lose some fat. I do know that more muscle burns fat.

Set your protein and fat higher than your carb macros, then. Like, 40% protein, 35% fat, 25% carb. Eat at a deficit of 500 calories a day. If you want to keep/gain muscle while losing fat, you will have to keep your protein intake high. Almost a gram of protein per pound of body weight on you.

As far as your workouts, you say you burn 2000+ calories a day - I'm assuming you mean 2,000 total (like 1,500 base rate + 500 exercise). Regarding exercise calorie burn, calorie burn estimates can be way off, especially the higher you get. Most people tend to only "count" 25-75% of the calories their apps "say" they burned.

But, all that said, it sounds like you just can't get yourself to eat enough to get to your 500-calorie deficit. Try foods like peanut butter, almond butter, and actually just peanuts and almonds. Those are small portions that pack a lot of calories, as well as good protein and fats. You could also just drink your calories with protein shakes and "Boost" or "Ensure" shakes from the store, which can be anywhere from 100-350 calories each, depending on which one you buy.

if you are only eating 1500 you arent going to build muscle(aside from some small newbie gains if you are new to lifting). muscle is built eating above maintenance(which means a surplus). how do you know you built some muscle? if you are eating less then your maintenance then you are in a deficit and wont gain muscle.also being female ,one you eat enough to build muscle you will gain muscle slowly being female. also muscle does burn more calories and fat but not as much as you would think.