Increase exercise or decrease calories?
Antd420
Posts: 161 Member
I have 9 pounds left to lose, I already lost 46. These last 9 pounds just aren't budging, should I increase my exercise or decrease my calories? I'm at 1800 calories right now.
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Replies
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How much are you working out now?0
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Assuming everything else stays the same... it won't matter. The end result will be the same either way.1
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Whichever one you are willing to maintain long-term.1
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Which ever one you find easier. If you take in less than you burn you will lose.
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DancingMoosie wrote: »How much are you working out now?
90 min weight training and 60 min cardio 5 days a week. I don't want to lose muscle which is why I'm asking.0 -
Thanks for the comments0
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You do both strength and cardio each day, 5 days a week? Or one each, alternate days, and 2 rest days? Personally, either way sounds like you have enough exercise and adding more could lead to overuse injuries or burn out. You could add something easier one day a week, like swimming or yoga, or just take a walk to stay active. I would look closer at your food diary. At 1800 calories, you should still be losing.2
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DancingMoosie wrote: »How much are you working out now?
90 min weight training and 60 min cardio 5 days a week. I don't want to lose muscle which is why I'm asking.
I'd suggest reducing calories or increase cardio. You might want to keep a closer eye on sugar and fat intake, too, and adjust that instead of calories.
Also, how much water are you taking in on a daily basis? Make sure you're at 8-10 cups a day, or you might be retaining water.1 -
DancingMoosie wrote: »You do both strength and cardio each day, 5 days a week? Or one each, alternate days, and 2 rest days? Personally, either way sounds like you have enough exercise and adding more could lead to overuse injuries or burn out. You could add something easier one day a week, like swimming or yoga, or just take a walk to stay active. I would look closer at your food diary. At 1800 calories, you should still be losing.
My thoughts exactly.
Assuming your logging is reasonably accurate and that 1800 cals is pretty close to 1800 cals, you should still be losing.
If you're both lifting and cardio-ing 5 days per week, you might want to consider dropping the volume and increasing the intensity a bit if muscle preservation is your focus while you continue to drop weight. That sounds like a ton of exercise on minimal cals to me.
That said, I'm doing something similar, so WTF do I know???1 -
I vote for increase exercise
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Eat to lose weight. Exercise to eat more. Ha!1 -
I would have you increase your calories by 250 and just increase the INTENSITY of your exercise.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
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Well ! You have to take in less calories and burn more .. So lower your calorie count to 1600 ..1
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DancingMoosie wrote: »How much are you working out now?
90 min weight training and 60 min cardio 5 days a week. I don't want to lose muscle which is why I'm asking.
Any weight training over 60 minutes is pointless in my opinion. After an hour, you are not getting any real benefit. Unless you are taking long breaks.0 -
DancingMoosie wrote: »You do both strength and cardio each day, 5 days a week? Or one each, alternate days, and 2 rest days? Personally, either way sounds like you have enough exercise and adding more could lead to overuse injuries or burn out. You could add something easier one day a week, like swimming or yoga, or just take a walk to stay active. I would look closer at your food diary. At 1800 calories, you should still be losing.
I do both 5 days a week0 -
I would up the intensity of my cardio work.
I'm an avid cycling enthusiast and have primarily done endurance type events and thus a lot of endurance riding...slogging out miles and long hours on the bike. This summer I signed up for a time trial series which is a whole new realm of cycling for me so instead of spending an hour plus on my bike and slogging out 80-100 miles per week, I'm going out for shorter but much higher intensity rides to train for my races...I've dropped about 5 Lbs in the past month and that's really the only change I've had...wasn't really trying to drop weight, but now that I have I realize I'm actually at a better riding/racing weight now.3 -
DancingMoosie wrote: »How much are you working out now?
90 min weight training and 60 min cardio 5 days a week. I don't want to lose muscle which is why I'm asking.
I'd suggest reducing calories or increase cardio. You might want to keep a closer eye on sugar and fat intake, too, and adjust that instead of calories.
Also, how much water are you taking in on a daily basis? Make sure you're at 8-10 cups a day, or you might be retaining water.
I'm drinking around a gallon a day.2 -
DancingMoosie wrote: »You do both strength and cardio each day, 5 days a week? Or one each, alternate days, and 2 rest days? Personally, either way sounds like you have enough exercise and adding more could lead to overuse injuries or burn out. You could add something easier one day a week, like swimming or yoga, or just take a walk to stay active. I would look closer at your food diary. At 1800 calories, you should still be losing.
My thoughts exactly.
Assuming your logging is reasonably accurate and that 1800 cals is pretty close to 1800 cals, you should still be losing.
If you're both lifting and cardio-ing 5 days per week, you might want to consider dropping the volume and increasing the intensity a bit if muscle preservation is your focus while you continue to drop weight. That sounds like a ton of exercise on minimal cals to me.
That said, I'm doing something similar, so WTF do I know???
Yeah it can get confusing.0 -
I find it much easier to get in some extra cardio or weights, than I do to eat less calories. More exercise makes more sense for me.0
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DancingMoosie wrote: »How much are you working out now?
90 min weight training and 60 min cardio 5 days a week. I don't want to lose muscle which is why I'm asking.
Any weight training over 60 minutes is pointless in my opinion. After an hour, you are not getting any real benefit. Unless you are taking long breaks.
Why aren't you getting any benefit after 60 min?0 -
Because you don't really burn a substantial amount of calories lifting to begin with, lifting is more about muscle growth...if you're looking to drop those last few, I'd suggest more cardio, less lifting.1
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Increase exercise intensity.
Try this: 10 burpees, 400m track run. Repeat 8+ times.
Total: 80 burpees with a 2mile run.0 -
JustMissTracy wrote: »Because you don't really burn a substantial amount of calories lifting to begin with, lifting is more about muscle growth...if you're looking to drop those last few, I'd suggest more cardio, less lifting.
I'll try this, it's gonna be hard for me though. I just love the feeling of lifting weights, I could do it for hours.1 -
Also, are you eating back your exercise calories? It could be that you are over-estimating your burn.0
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You might actually need more calories, not fewer, based upon your exercise level. If the body is starving, metabolism gears down and holds onto fat, so you might want to bump up for a few days, not down, and see where that gets you.0
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60 minutes of weight training isn't really explaining much. I could lift 5 lbs in a varying amout of lifts with not much work being done in that 60 minutes. Are you lifting at 75% of your 1 rep max for each lift and how many reps are you putting out as well as how long are your breaks in between? If you just started running, what cardio were you doing before? If I did the level of intensity of cardio four 60 minutes that I do for 40, I'd have a hard time walking afterwards. I do intervals of cardio where my heart rate gets up to a max of 175 and no less than 150. To me, any cardio lasting longer than around 45 minutes with high intensity will tend to start protein breakdown. It seems like you just need to up your intensity in the time you have allotted or you need to get stricter about tracking your calories. I found that the lower my body fat got, the stricter I had to get about tracking. Guesstimating weights and ignoring food additives (oils, butter, etc.) was a killer. It got to the point where I had to bake or steam everything and weight everything before and after cooking to ensure I was as accurate as possible to continue to see even the slightest change, as well as constitantly adjust my caloric goals. I don't know how professional fitness models do it. It becomes a full time job.2
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How long have you been stagnant? Could it just be you're putting on muscle mass/density at a similar rate you're losing fat? Not sure I'd change anything until you've been stagnant for a significant amount of time.......
BTW - this advice is worth exactly the amount you paid for it.....0 -
Really these types of questions are best answered by you when you are properly tracking some additional information.
Get a body fat caliber and take some measurements.
Weigh yourself
Get your lean body mass
Week 1. Reduce calories and maintain exercise
Check results
Week 2. Adjust off results
Check results
Week 3. Adjust off results
The scale does not tell enough information once you get closer to goal weight. You need more intense measuring.
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