Right Decision ?

bblue656
bblue656 Posts: 159 Member
in Motivation and Support
Okay, So I am just curious whether or not i'm choosing the right thing to do.
Its going to explain this, its hard for me to write whats in my head on the computer screen so bare with me. So for the last six months I have been going to the gym 6 days a week, counting calories, eating raw fruit and veggies and doing everything the right way. The workout i would stick too would be 45-60 of cardio, no weight lifting. The workout I switched to is 45 minutes of cardio and 15 minutes of weight lifting, switching weight lifting days and switching machines to do cardio on. I also switched my Base Calorie Intake from 1700 to 1400. Usually at the gym during the week i burn anywhere from 600 - 800 calories and on the weekend its a little over 1000. The past 3 weeks i have been on a plateau. I haven't budged. I started out at 303 lbs and now i'm stuck at 257-259 - it fluctuates. It's good that i am not gaining, but i need to lose 71 more lbs before im at the doctors ideal weight. My realistic goal is to be 200 lbs. So what i have been doing recently is burning those calories, then eating most of them back. So what I think i should do is instead of eating all of them back, i will cut them in half and only eat half back. That should break the plateau considering i literally changed everything? Opinions would be awesome! And I would love more friends on here :)


Thanks in advance!

Replies

  • T0M_K
    T0M_K Posts: 7,526 Member
    edited October 2016
    sounds like a very logical approach. I would add that if you aren't, you should be weighing your food. be absolutely sure you are logging all you food intake...everything that goes in your mouth gets weighed and logged. try that for a month. see how it goes.

    Some say when you start lifting weights, you could possibly hold some water?...i think. i'm not sure but others will toss in their two cents and tell you the same things over and over and over and over and over.
  • SueInAz
    SueInAz Posts: 6,592 Member
    edited October 2016
    How are you verifying your calorie intake and calorie burns in the gym? Are you using a kitchen scale for food and a heart rate monitor in the gym? If not, I'd look at getting a kitchen scale and the very least and make sure your logging is completely accurate. Studies have shown that even when we try our very best to log absolutely everything we eat correctly that we miss things.

    MFP overinflates calorie burns and the calories shown in machine are usually averages and can be off. A heart rate monitor gives a better indicator of actual calories burned for steady state cardio only. Don't give yourself more than a few calories for weight lifting, which doesn't burn much.

    Eating back fewer of your exercise calories is a good way to correct for those kinds of things if you aren't able to use more precise tools.
  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,562 Member
    What are you doing and how are you determining your calories burned? Those are very high amounts, even at your size.

    In addition, you'll want to make sure you tighten up your logging. A food scale like @SueInAz suggested is a great idea. Also make sure the entries you use are correct and you don't log anything that's "homemade" or "generic" out of the database.
  • Adc7225
    Adc7225 Posts: 1,318 Member
    Excellent idea, eating back only half of the exercise calories. I started that way, eating no more than half of my exercise calories - using the calories estimates from MFP and Gym equipment and eventually moving on to using a Fitbit to estimate calorie burn. It will happen but it takes time.

    Also, don't forget to take measurements and photos these are as important as the scale because sometimes the scale needs a time-out!!!
  • Guitarman1994
    Guitarman1994 Posts: 45 Member
    50/50 your weights and cardio. The more lean muscle you gain... the more fat you will burn at rest. It will take you a good month to see the results as far as lifting weights.. but after that you will start burning fat off like crazy!
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    Guitarman1994 wrote: »
    50/50 your weights and cardio. The more lean muscle you gain... the more fat you will burn at rest. It will take you a good month to see the results as far as lifting weights.. but after that you will start burning fat off like crazy!
    @Guitarman1994
    Erm, not really - the first bold part is technically true but the second part is a dreadful exaggeration.
    Muscle is actually a very low consumer of calories at rest (about 6 / day/ lb).

    It's actually using your muscles that is the big burner of energy.

    http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/research-review/dissecting-the-energy-needs-of-the-body-research-review.html/
  • Guitarman1994
    Guitarman1994 Posts: 45 Member
    1 pound of lean muscle will burn 50 calories/day at rest! Add 5 pounds of lean muscle and thats 250 colors/day and so on. Of course you will burn calories working out too but just lifting weights doesn't burn that much unless you are doing HIIT! That's where the calorie burn comes from lifting... has to be more high intensity training!
  • StealthHealth
    StealthHealth Posts: 2,417 Member
    Guitarman1994 wrote: »
    1 pound of lean muscle will burn 50 calories/day at rest! Add 5 pounds of lean muscle and thats 250 colors/day and so on. Of course you will burn calories working out too but just lifting weights doesn't burn that much unless you are doing HIIT! That's where the calorie burn comes from lifting... has to be more high intensity training!

    I would love it if that were the case but I was under the impression that it was in the region of 6-10 cals?
  • StealthHealth
    StealthHealth Posts: 2,417 Member
    Guitarman1994 wrote: »
    1 pound of lean muscle will burn 50 calories/day at rest! Add 5 pounds of lean muscle and thats 250 colors/day and so on. Of course you will burn calories working out too but just lifting weights doesn't burn that much unless you are doing HIIT! That's where the calorie burn comes from lifting... has to be more high intensity training!

    I've not got the time, or inclination to find peer reviewed science but a quick google seems for confirm that 50 cals per day is fantasy:

    http://www.askmen.com/sports/bodybuilding_900/960_popular-metabolism-myths-part-1.html

    I'd say that the 6 cals per day of additional muscle (or 4 if you're replacing fat, lb for lb) is more in line with my own experience.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    edited October 2016
    Guitarman1994 wrote: »
    1 pound of lean muscle will burn 50 calories/day at rest! Add 5 pounds of lean muscle and thats 250 colors/day and so on. Of course you will burn calories working out too but just lifting weights doesn't burn that much unless you are doing HIIT! That's where the calorie burn comes from lifting... has to be more high intensity training!

    Nope, your numbers are way out - I would be eating 4000 / day if they were true.
    Read the linked article.

    And long duration LISS also burns lots of calories, it doesn't have to be high intensity exercise.
  • StealthHealth
    StealthHealth Posts: 2,417 Member
    OP - I think your approach of eating back half is sound. You can worry yourself into an early grave about what the numbers mean and what in theory you should be able to eat based on a calorie burn but at the end of the day it you're just juggling a whole bunch of variables, estimates, and assumptions. Whatever method you use, if the fat is coming off at a reasonable rate - you're doing something right. If it's not - move more or eat less.
  • bblue656
    bblue656 Posts: 159 Member
    Thanks everyone ! :)
  • SwoleyRoller
    SwoleyRoller Posts: 652 Member
    As stated, be sure to verify your calorie counts are legit!

    Is there a specific reason you're wanting to do more cardio than lifting? I'm all for lifting, and will always recommend it over more cardio. But if there are reasons, you can work with it. Have you tried some HIIT training? So you can get both?
  • bblue656
    bblue656 Posts: 159 Member
    I just tend to gravitate more to cardio because i am mainly trying to lose weight. ill lose weight then tone.
  • SwoleyRoller
    SwoleyRoller Posts: 652 Member
    edited October 2016
    If you want to stick to cardio based workouts, have you look into HIIT such as sprints, burpees, ect? Make sure the calories are right, or else nothing will work, but as long as that's on point, as long as you burn more than you consume you'll lose weight.

    What sort of cardio do you do? Biking? running? I love a rower when it comes to cardio, if you have access to one.

    Sorry, edited it a little. It seemed a bit rude before, and I wasn't trying to be!
  • Spliner1969
    Spliner1969 Posts: 3,233 Member
    I see nothing wrong with your exercise regimen, maybe you're simply retaining more water because of the new lifting routines. Keep it up, but don't expect a lot of muscle gain while in a deficit. Last year when in a pretty hefty deficit I tried progressive lifting heavy and managed to do nothing but hurt myself pretty frequently because there just wasn't enough calories to build new muscle/strength yet I was adding weight. Instead, keep the weight moderate or light and do more reps. Keep your protein levels up and stay in your deficit.
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    bblue656 wrote: »
    I just tend to gravitate more to cardio because i am mainly trying to lose weight. ill lose weight then tone.

    Stick with doing resistance work as well... you want to maintain as much muscle as possible while you're losing weight. You'll look better once you lose the fat!

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