Adding weight training and still lose weight ?

you're right...1300 calories is not near enough! 1500 is bare min for a man. I'm down 80 plus and sitting at 197 lbs, 6'1" , age 54 and exercise every day rotating between cardio and weight training and consume around 1900 calories BEFORE exercise. I eat back all my exercise calories. I plan on upping that base of 1900 even more.

You will get stronger with strength training but will not put on any appreciable muscle mass when eating at a deficit. People don't get big by accident. Depending on your height and current weight 1800 cal may just be your maintenance. It becomes a bit of trial and error. All I can really suggest is match closely for weight gain and adjust accordingly (depending on the intensity of your workouts it's not unusual to see fluctuations of several pounds as your body stores water as part of the recovery process).

... 1300 calories is NOT ENOUGH to keep you going. How fast are you losing weight at 1300 calories? 1300 calories is not sustainable for a person of your stature. It's potentially very unsafe, especially considering the fact that from your profile image, it looks like you have a fairly physical job, that potentially burns that 1300 calories down to a REALLY unsafe deficit.

Even at a sedentary office job, eating a NET calorie goal of 1500 calories/day would have you losing nearly 2 lbs per week. The TDEE for a man your size just sitting around behind a desk and never working out is 2400 calories. At 230 lbs, I don't see you needing to lose more than 40 or so lbs, so you should probably consider eating 2000 net calories per day for a loss rate of a pound a week and that STILL means you need to eat back exercise calories.

Has a doctor TOLD YOU that there's something special and peculiar about your metabolism? I have PLENTY of conditions that should be affecting mine, from thyroid disorder to anemia, and all the prescriptions to prove it, but NONE OF THEM are slowing my metabolism down that much. I'm 5'4, 158 lbs and losing a pound or so a week eating 1800 calories.

Tighten up your logging. Weigh your food so that you know without a shadow of a doubt how many calories you're eating. If you're drastically different from what is predicted by TDEE or NEAT calorie calculations for weight loss, see a doctor and get the underlying medical condition that is causing the problem treated. Starving yourself to death is not going to resolve the underlying problem, and honestly, it's much easier to know what the problem is and take your meds, rather than struggling when you don't have to.

Now, you "could" watch them line up to disagree with the above and rant, or you could realize that if you're burning more than you're taking in, you lose weight.
And exercise.is better way to lose weight than simply not eating (youll lose weight, but not the weight you want to lose).

Go with trial and error. Up your calories by a few hundred. See how you feel. If it works, then stay there. If not, then adjust up or down depending on your goal and how you feel.

I'm going to jump in on this thread with a very DIFFERENT opinion. First off, i'm not recommending what i'm doing, I know its against the vast majority of medical advice.

I'm 6'6" starting weight of around 335-350 last December, currently at 238, with really starting in late march at 335 with counting/monitoring progress and a slower burn rate of 1-2.5 a week and a goal of 225 by end of year which i'm hoping to hit sooner. I've been sustaining a notable amount of weight loss as you can see by these numbers. The last couple months i've been in the 3-4+lb loss a week range and have been seeing minor gains strength training.

No one here is wrong in saying you will see way better progress at maintenance or small bulk calorie counts BUT it's about priority. Can you add strength training while maintaining a deficit? My experience has been yes. I started with all body weight exercises and recently added a few more. I've been for a couple months now doing sit ups, pushups, squats, planks and recently added pull up program (still working on that success mark here with a negatives program) and bench press and bar curl. I'm seeing progress across the board.

Will progress be exponentially improved upon switching to a small bulk or maintenance count or even .5lb a week loss, yes. But it's about priority for me. I will hit this goal weight hell or high water first, since thats my primary marker post. I'm eating at a deficit against a 2lb a week calorie count and not eating back in for exercise. I'm finding my daily is regularly 1200-1600 with some days close to 2000 before exercise. My calculated 2lb a week rate is 2010ish. All that rambling said the reality is I'm finding small gains in strength training which is good enough for me for the next handful of weeks until I hit goal weight.

Pick your priority and focus on it while working on the other goal. If weight loss is your goal continue cutting and start strength training anyway, just don't expect major gains. If strength is the goal go to a calorie count that will sustain good strength progress and monitor weight loss and adjust on the fly for it. Thats my worthless .02c when accounting for the "this guys an idiot and his personal experience don't matter" tax thats about to come from the rest of the replies LOL!

EDIT: Also adding in that I do agree with other posters, you're not eating 1300 calories and not losing weight at your height and weight numbers. Even with your 3500 cheat day weekly thats still only 1615 average daily. That's well in weight loss range.

jeffjeff85 wrote: »

Now, you "could" watch them line up to disagree with the above and rant, or you could realize that if you're burning more than you're taking in, you lose weight.
And exercise.is better way to lose weight than simply not eating (youll lose weight, but not the weight you want to lose).

I rest my case .... 8 'disagree' that if you burn more calories than you consume you will lose weight. And that's people who claim to track calories 😂

FlexJackson wrote: »

Justin_7272 wrote: »

FlexJackson wrote: »

Justin_7272 wrote: »

FlexJackson wrote: »

I don't want to bump them up to high because my body likes to aggressively store any extra calories I consume as fat and I have a slow metabolism so I have had to be aggressive on my body to lose weight as I'm sure alot of guys reading this see me say I eat 1300 calories and day and say "wtf" lol.

To be blunt, this doesn't make sense scientifically; "aggressively storing fat" is not a thing, and slow metabolism is a common excuse. You're likely eating more than you think.

To try to answer your question, 2lbs of muscle is the accepted max a male can grow in a month. If you have adequate protein (at least 1g/lean body mass) you should aim for around 4lbs/month max with the understanding you're going to gain some fat when bulking.

I've been tracking my meals and calories for the pass 4 years so I know for a fact that I'm not eating more than I think. I don't know about "Scientifically" but people's bodies are not the same and one person's body could like to hold on to days more than someone else's indefinitely.

Are you weighing your food? I expect not.

People's bodies are the same in that 3500 calories is a pound. You're not special and you don't "hold on" more than anyone else.

I didn't think it was a big deal to weigh my food, until I did. It's a common mistake to underestimate intake and overestimate caloric burn. Seriously, no big deal.

The worst you can do is lie to yourself about it, then blame it on scientificly-debunked theories (e.g. low metabolism, aggressively storing fat).

If you've been tracking for 4 years, believe you're at a defecit, and are struggling to lose weight at 1300 calories, 6'2" 230lbs you are eating FAR more than 1300 calories. You need to seriously reevaluate.

Come on man. I'm not lying to myself about anything. I've lost 90lbs. I know my body at this point. I started weight my food very early in starting my weight loss. Not a single calories goes into my body without me know. I know my body at this point. I don't struggle at all to lose weight at 1300 calories. It's just when I do 1500 I just don't drop any weight. Would be cool if you actually answered the question of a good calorie count for muscle growth and maintaining it like I originally asked.

Are you currently losing less than half a pound a week? That is the only way you would not lose any weight on 1500 a day, considering that would raise your total weekly calorie intake by 1200 calories, which is about a third of a pound. My guess is you are losing more than 0.35 pounds a week, so going to 1500 doesn't make you stop losing weight. You could see a short term water weight stall, but that doesn't have anything to do with fat loss.