Can I decrease body fat % without decreasing caloric intake?

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JuliaH728
JuliaH728 Posts: 39 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I'm 5'8, weight between 125-127 lbs. I think I'm currently around 25% body fat. I'd like to lower that so my muscles are more visible. Is this possible without lowering caloric intake? I eat 1300-1800 cal/day. I'm also a marathoner running 4 times a week and cross training(biking or swimming) 2-3 times a week.
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  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
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    Why do you think you're 25% BF?

    You eat a really low calorie amount for the amount of exercise you do. How are you measuring your intake?

    If you're looking for recomp start doing a progressive resistance programme


  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
    edited July 2016
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    At your height, weight and stated activity level your TDEE should be closer to 2200-2400

    If you want to recomp you should be eating at maintenance, but I get the impression if you haven't been losing weight or getting immensely fatigued that your calorie intake is not actually as low as you think it is
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
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    Sued0nim wrote: »
    Why do you think you're 25% BF?

    You eat a really low calorie amount for the amount of exercise you do. How are you measuring your intake?

    If you're looking for recomp start doing a progressive resistance programme


    All of this
  • annie_858
    annie_858 Posts: 80 Member
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    I'm 5'8 and 119 pounds looking to gain muscle as well. I eat around 2000 or more cals a day. I just started weight training and I already feel stronger!good luck
  • JuliaH728
    JuliaH728 Posts: 39 Member
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    Sued0nim wrote: »
    Why do you think you're 25% BF?

    You eat a really low calorie amount for the amount of exercise you do. How are you measuring your intake?

    If you're looking for recomp start doing a progressive resistance programme


    Well the body fat estimate is not super precise. Ive just looked at pictures and compared. I just search the food on this app. So eggs for bfast is like 120 cals for 2 eggs, and a 100 Cal English muffin. My usual lunches are snacks like pb crackers (180 cals) and rice cakes (80 cals) or rolled lunch meat and cheese(200 is cals). Dinner is usually a chicken breast and rice or pasta and steamed veggies. Occasionally I'll eat at restaurants and eat way more cals and some days I'm hungrier than others (long run days for sure)
  • Traveler120
    Traveler120 Posts: 712 Member
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    Yes you can. If you want to keep eating the same amount of food as now, you can create the deficit you need by simply increasing your running or other exercise. Either increase the frequency or distance or both.
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
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    JuliaHujar wrote: »
    Sued0nim wrote: »
    Why do you think you're 25% BF?

    You eat a really low calorie amount for the amount of exercise you do. How are you measuring your intake?

    If you're looking for recomp start doing a progressive resistance programme


    Well the body fat estimate is not super precise. Ive just looked at pictures and compared. I just search the food on this app. So eggs for bfast is like 120 cals for 2 eggs, and a 100 Cal English muffin. My usual lunches are snacks like pb crackers (180 cals) and rice cakes (80 cals) or rolled lunch meat and cheese(200 is cals). Dinner is usually a chicken breast and rice or pasta and steamed veggies. Occasionally I'll eat at restaurants and eat way more cals and some days I'm hungrier than others (long run days for sure)

    How much weight have you lost over the last 6 weeks eating like this?
  • JuliaH728
    JuliaH728 Posts: 39 Member
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    None. I lost like 8 pounds from January to march, but I haven't really been trying to lose weight.
  • JuliaH728
    JuliaH728 Posts: 39 Member
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    I'm a teacher so my summer schedule is slightly different also, this month I've been eating late breakfast of cereal at like 11 and then pb crackers or a different light snack. And then the same kind of dinner. Since I eat a late breakfast I'm not hungry for a real lunch most days
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
    edited July 2016
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    JuliaHujar wrote: »
    None. I lost like 8 pounds from January to march, but I haven't really been trying to lose weight.

    Then I'll warrant that your calorie estimate is massively out

    Which isn't an issue but you will need to maintain this level of intake and exercise your entire life because you are at maintenance

    That said I feel like I've answered your question by saying recomp but not given you any more info. Do you know what progressive resistance is?

    There's a recomposition thread in the maintaining board you might be interested in

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10177803/recomposition-maintaining-weight-while-losing-fat/p1
  • JuliaH728
    JuliaH728 Posts: 39 Member
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    Sued0nim wrote: »
    Why do you think you're 25% BF?

    You eat a really low calorie amount for the amount of exercise you do. How are you measuring your intake?

    If you're looking for recomp start doing a progressive resistance programme


    Can I do recomp while marathoning? I have a friend who is really into lifting (she does like body competitions) and she said I probably couldn't keep muscle mass when running that much.
  • 3dogsrunning
    3dogsrunning Posts: 27,167 Member
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    JuliaHujar wrote: »
    Sued0nim wrote: »
    Why do you think you're 25% BF?

    You eat a really low calorie amount for the amount of exercise you do. How are you measuring your intake?

    If you're looking for recomp start doing a progressive resistance programme


    Can I do recomp while marathoning? I have a friend who is really into lifting (she does like body competitions) and she said I probably couldn't keep muscle mass when running that much.

    Running isn't the issue.
    Replacing the calories is.
    People who are trying to add muscle tend to cut cardio because to gain muscle you need to eat extra calories. Cardio adds even more calories to eat which can make it difficult.

    Conversely, cardio doesn't burn muscles unless you are not eating enough. Then yes, it will be harder to keep muscle mass.

    So yes, you can do it, but you need to eat an appropriate calorie intake. To do that, you need to figure out what you are really eating now.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,940 Member
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    Based on your description we can take as a given that your estimation of calories is just a general estimation. Which is fine since you don't particularly want to lose weight.

    IF in general your weight is staying about the same... then in general you are maintaining your weight. It does sound, to be honest, as if you are in some sort of deficit where you're slowly losing weight.

    You can always plug in your weight into an app such as happy scale or a web site such as www.weightgrapher.com (or trendweight.com using a freely available to anyone fitbit.com account) to keep track of whether you are generally maintaining or losing or gaining weight.

    Having said that you can increase muscle mass at any point of time. Muscle mass gains are faster at a caloric surplus, slightly slower at "maintenance', slightly slower still at a slight caloric deficit, and there would be debate if they are possible at a large caloric deficit (it would depend on available fat and whether you are engaging in the particular strength building activity for the first time or not).

    Sleep lots. Eat some extra protein to around 0.8g per lb of body weight at target weight... and have fun!

    If you under-eat, over-run, and don't strength train it is quite possible that you will lose weight consisting of both fat and lean mass.

    As to the rest of it look through @Sued0nim 's links :smile:
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
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    OP I don't think you are 25% body fat at 5"8 and 125lbs. I'm 5'8 and 147lbs and around 25-27% body fat, the absolute lowest I'll go is 143lbs, as anything under that and I start to look skin and bone.
  • jgubdlach
    jgubdlach Posts: 19 Member
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    Being you're a marathon runner and the type of intense activity you do you should be at a higher caloric intake and possibly reducing your running and focus more on strength training to aid in fat loss. The more lean mass we build the more calories we burn at rest,during exercise and when sleeping/recovery.
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
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    jgubdlach wrote: »
    Being you're a marathon runner and the type of intense activity you do you should be at a higher caloric intake and possibly reducing your running and focus more on strength training to aid in fat loss. The more lean mass we build the more calories we burn at rest,during exercise and when sleeping/recovery.

    While that's true it's often massively overstated ...actually it's only an extra 4 calories per lb of muscle per 24 HR period at rest, a pound of muscle burns 6 calories a day and a pound of fat burns about 2 calories
  • SaliDale
    SaliDale Posts: 18 Member
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    Simple answer. Exercise more.
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
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    SaliDale wrote: »
    Simple answer. Exercise more.

    Unfortunately if you look at the details in the OP and read the thread exercise more isn't the simple answer @SaliDale
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
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    Looking at your picture, I highly doubt you're 25% body fat.

    Something's just not making sense though, you'd be way underweight if you truly ate 1300-1800 calories a day. My guess is that you're eating more than you think.
  • RoxieDawn
    RoxieDawn Posts: 15,488 Member
    edited July 2016
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    1300 to 1800 is pretty broad number of calories to eat every day. So if you really eat 1300 for 4 days and 1800 for 3 days, how many calories does this give you at the end of the week and of course the entering in if your exercise calorie burns? Are you in a deficit at any point during the week? This sounds like you would be.. I understand you could be eating 1300 one day, 1500 one day, 1450 on day, etc..

    So I would say, get a consistence number of calories to eat for your maintenance and eat those everyday. If your training for marathons requires special dietary structure, then of course factor that in. But find your TDEE that includes the running. Next find you a weightlifting program and try to interject this program this into your running training and cross training.

    I do lift and run on the same days so I actually exercise twice a day. I account for my calories burned through running and fuel properly to run and lift. I cut my running miles a lot when I am not actually training for races.

    You can do this, it takes some math on your part and it may take a couple to three weeks to get the final numbers to work out, but the one key is to make sure that if you stay around maintenance calories, which will allow you to recomp. And protein is very important as well.

    If you really want to do this right, cut back on the running and cross training some.

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