Weight loss/muscle build & Low Carb High protein diet

jonathanclough
jonathanclough Posts: 20 Member
edited September 2017 in Health and Weight Loss
I'm 32, 5'6", 152 when started 1 week ago (148.4) as of this morning. My calorie intake is 1600 with 20% carbs (81g) 45% protein (181g) 35% fat (63g).

I have my fitbit synced with myfitnesspal to log my steps and track calories burned. I also have a smart scale that syncs my weight to myfitnesspal (which I do first thing in the morning for most accurate reading). In 1 week I've lost a little over 4 lbs. I also go to the gym monday-friday and try to average 200 reps throughout the workout and then finish with about 10 minutes of cardio at 7-9 mph. I also burn around 3500+ calories in a day.

Is this all logical or do I need to adjust things for burning fat and building the muscle
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Replies

  • CharlieBeansmomTracey
    CharlieBeansmomTracey Posts: 7,682 Member
    its hard to build muscle and burn fat at the same time. either do a recomp(eat at maintenance and find a progressive lifting program) or do a bulk and eat a surplus of calories.you are eating around the least a male should eat. so I would say thats probably around your BMR(what you burn by just being alive). also at your weight you should not be losing 4 lbs a week. even 2 lbs is too aggressive. set your calories to either maintain or gain weight. you can do cut and bulk cycles or a recomp which is really slow.

    to build a decent amount of muscle you need a surplus of calories, you will also gain some fat. the smaller the surplus though the least fat amount you will gain. so even just 250 calories over your maintenance calories will grow some muscle but that will take time too. Make sure you are getting enough protein but with low carb I dont know how much muscle you will build,as opposed to higher carbs
  • firelane324
    firelane324 Posts: 2 Member
    Your percentages look good, but like CharlieBeans said building muscle and losing fat at the same time is hard. A good route is to stick to a fat burning regimen until desired BF% reached, then bulk up by doing the 250 surplus. Then cut back down to desired. I think this is one way to do it... I'm still trying to figure this thing out myself, so we're in the same boat.
  • firelane324
    firelane324 Posts: 2 Member
    This all sounds easy in theory until the hunger sets in :D
  • jonathanclough
    jonathanclough Posts: 20 Member
    Today for instance...

    With my synced fitbit I burned 4200 calories. I reached my 1600 calories that I have set, and then it wants me to consume another 1500 for my burned. That's 3100 calories in a day, not happening. That's 386g protein, 172g carbs, 134g fat
  • Nony_Mouse
    Nony_Mouse Posts: 5,646 Member
    jonathanclough wrote: »
    Today for instance...

    With my synced fitbit I burned 4200 calories. I reached my 1600 calories that I have set, and then it wants me to consume another 1500 for my burned. That's 3100 calories in a day, not happening. That's 386g protein, 172g carbs, 134g fat

    This is why percentages aren't actually very useful. If you're wanting to retain lean body mass (as has been pointed out, very hard to build muscle when you're eating at a deficit), then you need to be eating 0.6 to 0.8 g of protein per lb of ideal body weight each day. Some people will say go for 1g per lb of body weight. Anything above that really isn't doing anything extra. Fats at 0.35-0.45g per lb (again, a minimum), hit those and the rest of your calories can fall wherever.

    Is there a particular reason you're wanting to do low carb?

    And you really do need to be eating those extra calories, the lose you posted for last week is far too aggressive, though likely includes some water weight. However, at your height you don't have a lot to lose (your stats are similar to mine, you're in the healthy weight range already), and a 1000 cal per day deficit is far too much. You will absolutely lose a heap of lean body mass if you keep that up.
  • jonathanclough
    jonathanclough Posts: 20 Member
    I'm a cook. I literally dont stop for 8 hours straight. Then I usually finish my workout with cardio so it tracks the run. But even lifting it will detect my heart rate and know that I'm burning calories without moving. It tracks heart rate and steps then uses the two to calculate the gym calories.
  • jonathanclough
    jonathanclough Posts: 20 Member
    My BMR is 1,924. That still means I burned an additional 2200 calories today. I consumed 1648 calories
  • CharlieBeansmomTracey
    CharlieBeansmomTracey Posts: 7,682 Member
    edited September 2017
    jonathanclough wrote: »
    I'm a cook. I literally dont stop for 8 hours straight. Then I usually finish my workout with cardio so it tracks the run. But even lifting it will detect my heart rate and know that I'm burning calories without moving. It tracks heart rate and steps then uses the two to calculate the gym calories.

    being a cook should be included in your activity level. so go to your settings and mark it as such(waitress would probably be in the category and as close to what you want,or even mail carrier). as for heart rate it has no bearing on calories burned really. as for burning calories not moving sure you will, even sitting on the couch burns calories. your steps will burn calories too. But go set your activity to (Its either lightly active or active not sure which one) and then go from there. Lifting still doesnt burn as many calories as your fitbit will say though thats the whole point.
  • Nony_Mouse
    Nony_Mouse Posts: 5,646 Member
    Also highly dubious of your calorie burn.

    And to build strength and muscle, you need to be looking at progressive training, lifting heavy. Heavy weights at low reps is going to do a lot more for you than light weights at high reps.
  • CharlieBeansmomTracey
    CharlieBeansmomTracey Posts: 7,682 Member
    your activity level in mfp is without exercise, so dont count exercise as your activity,your activity is your daily job minus exercise you do outside of that job.
  • jonathanclough
    jonathanclough Posts: 20 Member
    CharlieBeansmomTracey wrote: »
    jonathanclough wrote: »
    I'm a cook. I literally dont stop for 8 hours straight. Then I usually finish my workout with cardio so it tracks the run. But even lifting it will detect my heart rate and know that I'm burning calories without moving. It tracks heart rate and steps then uses the two to calculate the gym calories.

    being a cook should be included in your activity level. so go to your settings and mark it as such(waitress would probably be in the category and as close to what you want,or even mail carrier). as for heart rate it has no bearing on calories burned really. as for burning calories not moving sure you will, even sitting on the couch burns calories. your steps will burn calories too. But go set your activity to (Its either lightly active or active not sure which one) and then go from there. Lifting still doesnt burn as many calories as your fitbit will say though thats the whole point.

    I already have done this. And I do low reps with heavy weight also. As far as .8g of protein per lbs, that's 118g. I'm at 180g right now
  • jonathanclough
    jonathanclough Posts: 20 Member
    CharlieBeansmomTracey wrote: »
    your activity level in mfp is without exercise, so dont count exercise as your activity,your activity is your daily job minus exercise you do outside of that job.

    Which is what it's set for. It's set as active like a food server
  • Nony_Mouse
    Nony_Mouse Posts: 5,646 Member
    Drop your weekly weight loss goal to 1 lb, 0.5 lb would be even better. You don't have a lot of weight to lose. You obviously have it set to 2 lb per week for MFP to only be giving you 1600 cals as a baseline. Goodbye, lean body mass. Kind of the opposite of what you want.
  • Nony_Mouse
    Nony_Mouse Posts: 5,646 Member
    jonathanclough wrote: »
    CharlieBeansmomTracey wrote: »
    jonathanclough wrote: »
    I'm a cook. I literally dont stop for 8 hours straight. Then I usually finish my workout with cardio so it tracks the run. But even lifting it will detect my heart rate and know that I'm burning calories without moving. It tracks heart rate and steps then uses the two to calculate the gym calories.

    being a cook should be included in your activity level. so go to your settings and mark it as such(waitress would probably be in the category and as close to what you want,or even mail carrier). as for heart rate it has no bearing on calories burned really. as for burning calories not moving sure you will, even sitting on the couch burns calories. your steps will burn calories too. But go set your activity to (Its either lightly active or active not sure which one) and then go from there. Lifting still doesnt burn as many calories as your fitbit will say though thats the whole point.

    I already have done this. And I do low reps with heavy weight also. As far as .8g of protein per lbs, that's 118g. I'm at 180g right now

    So eat 180g. Whatever. What I'm saying is that you don't need to go by percentage on that and end up with 386g. You're eating plenty of protein for what you're trying to achieve.
  • jonathanclough
    jonathanclough Posts: 20 Member
    Nony_Mouse wrote: »
    Drop your weekly weight loss goal to 1 lb, 0.5 lb would be even better. You don't have a lot of weight to lose. You obviously have it set to 2 lb per week for MFP to only be giving you 1600 cals as a baseline. Goodbye, lean body mass. Kind of the opposite of what you want.

    I did it to see what it changes. It's saying 285g of carbs and 114g of protein for .5 lbs day loss per week. Does that seem like a high number of carbs?
  • VintageFeline
    VintageFeline Posts: 6,771 Member
    Why don't you want to eat all of the calories you're supposed to? It makes no sense that you're punishing your body this hard and given you work in what I imagine is a hot environment, you're going to end up fainting on the job sooner rather than later if you keep this madness up.

    You are netting a minus number. You don't have enough calories to sustain normal bodily functions much less all the activity you do and it's not like you're 300lbs with enough fat stores to take up a lot of the slack.

    Eat more. If that means adding carbs to your day then do it, there's nothing wrong with carbs and they are an easy way to bring up the calories. Plus, they're awesome for fuelling workouts and are actually muscle sparing. And you have to look to the long term too, if you are so scared of eating a paltry 1600 calories what happens when you get to maintenance and have to eat 3000+?

    As for the strength training you are doing, sure you can retain (and build if eating at a surplus) doing high reps low weights but it's not the best use of time. I'd rather spend 45 minutes doing it as efficiently as possibly vs 2 hours to get enough reps with the high rep method.

    This thread is a great resource to find the training program that's the best fit for you:
    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10332083/which-lifting-program-is-the-best-for-you/p1
  • misnomer1
    misnomer1 Posts: 646 Member
    Your protein intake is unnecessarily high. 120-150gms should be enough.
  • misnomer1
    misnomer1 Posts: 646 Member
    jonathanclough wrote: »
    Nony_Mouse wrote: »
    Drop your weekly weight loss goal to 1 lb, 0.5 lb would be even better. You don't have a lot of weight to lose. You obviously have it set to 2 lb per week for MFP to only be giving you 1600 cals as a baseline. Goodbye, lean body mass. Kind of the opposite of what you want.

    I did it to see what it changes. It's saying 285g of carbs and 114g of protein for .5 lbs day loss per week. Does that seem like a high number of carbs?

    No.

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