I need some fitness/nutrition advice!
sguzma21
Posts: 10 Member
I'm 18 years old, female, 5'1, 130 lb, about 25-27% body fat (rough estimate). In the past 6 months, I have been working on developing muscle and strength with bodyweight and free weight exercises. I have gained about 15 pounds of muscle and fat. I am a LOT stronger and more muscular than when I started, but because I haven't stayed away from sweets and processed food, there's too much fat on my body to see definition without having to flex.
Right now my goal is to get down to about 20% bodyfat. I'm considering doing a mini cut for a month to try to lose fat quickly, but I know that to prevent muscle loss I will have to track my calories and macros, and I can't figure them out. I have tried calculating what my calories and macros should be to get into a reasonable deficit, but the different websites all say very different things. I did get about 1300 calories as my maintenance calories, but it just seems so low! When I track my calories I get around 1,200-1,400 a day, and I'm super surprised at how little food I'm eating. I do get cravings later in the day which I heard was a sign of under eating, but It just doesn't add up to me, plus I've always had a sweet tooth and it could just be that. I feel like I eat a lot! Maybe I should start weighing my food instead of eyeballing to track. I don't get how I could gain muscle if I were eating that low.
Anyway, My question is whether I should do a mini cut for a month, or switch to a mesocycle where I do a surplus on training days and go into a deficit on off days. I heard it would be less likely for me to lose muscle this way.
Also, should I bother counting calories or should I just intuitively eat? I got to about 22% bodyfat in my sophomore year by intuitively eating and cutting out processed foods with regular exercise.
I think I'm possibly making everything too complicated, but please let me know what you think I should do. I just want to get really fit.
Right now my goal is to get down to about 20% bodyfat. I'm considering doing a mini cut for a month to try to lose fat quickly, but I know that to prevent muscle loss I will have to track my calories and macros, and I can't figure them out. I have tried calculating what my calories and macros should be to get into a reasonable deficit, but the different websites all say very different things. I did get about 1300 calories as my maintenance calories, but it just seems so low! When I track my calories I get around 1,200-1,400 a day, and I'm super surprised at how little food I'm eating. I do get cravings later in the day which I heard was a sign of under eating, but It just doesn't add up to me, plus I've always had a sweet tooth and it could just be that. I feel like I eat a lot! Maybe I should start weighing my food instead of eyeballing to track. I don't get how I could gain muscle if I were eating that low.
Anyway, My question is whether I should do a mini cut for a month, or switch to a mesocycle where I do a surplus on training days and go into a deficit on off days. I heard it would be less likely for me to lose muscle this way.
Also, should I bother counting calories or should I just intuitively eat? I got to about 22% bodyfat in my sophomore year by intuitively eating and cutting out processed foods with regular exercise.
I think I'm possibly making everything too complicated, but please let me know what you think I should do. I just want to get really fit.
3
Replies
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You sound like me! However I’m a lot older! I’ve struggled to lose weight but I know it’s because I go on a binge cycle. I’m currently 27% fat and 9stone trying to get to nearer 8st. The issue with me is I go from one diet to another then binge! Today I have decided for the first to set my calories at 1200 on MFP and eat ALL my exercise calories back. I’m hoping that will stop me from giving up. I joined Les Mills on demand I’m currently averaging 9 hours a week workouts. I think this is more realistic than setting calories too low that in the long term you can’t live with.2
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OP, I'm hoping someone will answer who can direct you to the body recomp section, but I'm quite sure the advice from more experienced people will be to not try doing anything 'quickly'. I'm also quite sure that you need to ensure you're getting enough protein.
1300 as maintenance calories definitely seems low though. I'm a lot older than you, but I'm 5'1 (and a bit) and now weigh 112lb. I switched to maintenance just as lock-down started and I get 1340 a day, so I'd expect your maintenance to be a little higher (maybe 1400 or 1450). However, any weight loss you try to achieve, at this point, will only happen very very slowly. MFP will only set a target of 1200 as that's the minimum recommended for females, so your deficit will only be around 200 calories a day. You're not going to lose much per week and nor should you try to lose any faster. 1200 really is the minimum you should be eating.
And that is 1200 calories NET. So, if you're exercising, you should be eating additional calories to fuel that exercise.
However, it doesn't sound like you're trying to lose weight if you want to target fat loss. Enter your stats in to the MFP guided set up (Home - Goals), select Maintain current weight - and eat the calories MFP suggests. Log your exercise and eat those calories too. Then focus on body recomp exercise.
@Mandy72CM, per my answer to your other post - take a look at what rate of weight loss you selected in the MFP set up. Also, think about whether you selected 1200 or whether you entered your stats to MFP and it suggested 1200. There's potentially a big difference. If you repeatedly diet and then binge, it's more likely to happen if you're restricting yourself too aggressively. You shouldn't be aiming to lose more than 1% of your body weight per week and if you're only looking to only lose less than a stone, you shouldn't have a rate selected that is faster than 0.5lb a week. If you adjust your MFP set up, see how many calories it gives you as a baseline and eat that many plus your exercise cals. Also, you don't need to exercise to lose weight, you just need to eat less than you are expending. So if you don't enjoy doing 9 hours of workout a week,don't do it.6 -
Look up the thread: anyone cuting after bulk. You will find help there1
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I'm 18 years old, female, 5'1, 130 lb, about 25-27% body fat (rough estimate). In the past 6 months, I have been working on developing muscle and strength with bodyweight and free weight exercises. I have gained about 15 pounds of muscle and fat. I am a LOT stronger and more muscular than when I started, but because I haven't stayed away from sweets and processed food, there's too much fat on my body to see definition without having to flex.
Right now my goal is to get down to about 20% bodyfat. I'm considering doing a mini cut for a month to try to lose fat quickly, but I know that to prevent muscle loss I will have to track my calories and macros, and I can't figure them out. I have tried calculating what my calories and macros should be to get into a reasonable deficit, but the different websites all say very different things. I did get about 1300 calories as my maintenance calories, but it just seems so low! When I track my calories I get around 1,200-1,400 a day, and I'm super surprised at how little food I'm eating. I do get cravings later in the day which I heard was a sign of under eating, but It just doesn't add up to me, plus I've always had a sweet tooth and it could just be that. I feel like I eat a lot! Maybe I should start weighing my food instead of eyeballing to track. I don't get how I could gain muscle if I were eating that low.
Anyway, My question is whether I should do a mini cut for a month, or switch to a mesocycle where I do a surplus on training days and go into a deficit on off days. I heard it wo calould be less likely for me to lose muscle this way.
Also, should I bother counting calories or should I just intuitively eat? I got to about 22% bodyfat in my sophomore year by intuitively eating and cutting out processed foods with regular exercise.
I think I'm possibly making everything too complicated, but please let me know what you think I should do. I just want to get really fit.
FWIW, 1300 sounds low to me, too. Calculators estimate mine higher than that at the same weight, close BF% (mid 20s, as I'm 4" taller). I usually get estimates at sedentary at around 1400-1500, without inputting BF%, and I'm a mere 46 years older than you are.
Do you have calorie estimates and scale weights from while you were gaining? That ought to give you a clue at experientially calculating maintenance.
Are you sure 1300 isn't your estimated BMR (basal metabolic rate, basically the amount you'd burn in a coma)?
When I put your data (including a BF% guess of 27%) into Sailrabbit, which is a multiformula BMR/TDEE calculator, the various formulas estimate your BMR at 1300-1531, and your TDEE at sedentary (which you aren't) at 1558-1837.4 -
@AnnPT77
Oh, I got confused with BMR and maintenance calories. 1300 was my apparent BMR. Thank you for taking the time to calculate my actual BMR and TDEE. Those numbers make a lot more sense! I had the feeling that the calculators I was using were too simple. I don't have calorie estimates from when I was gaining, I was intuitive eating but I started at 115 and gained about 2.5 pounds per month.
Thanks again for your input, it's much appreciated!1 -
@Strudders67
I meant 1300 as my BMR, not maintenance calories. Too bad I can't edit my original post!
You're right, I need to be patient when it comes to losing fat. I'm just an impatient person lol! I definitely don't want to drop my calories to anywhere near 1200, I really want to keep my metabolism as high as possible. Also, I never thought that I had to eat back my burned calories! That makes a lot of sense. I'll make sure to track my calories more precisely.
Thanks for your input!0 -
@Mandy72CM Woww I can relate to that. The main reason why I have so much fat to lose is that I go one week without any sugar, then the next I completely regress! People keep mentioning "eating calories back" but I don't know how to calculate how many calories I burn during exercise, I vary intensity often.
good luck with your fitness journey!1 -
You can get an estimate of calories burned by logging your exercises.1
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@Mandy72CM Woww I can relate to that. The main reason why I have so much fat to lose is that I go one week without any sugar, then the next I completely regress! People keep mentioning "eating calories back" but I don't know how to calculate how many calories I burn during exercise, I vary intensity often.
good luck with your fitness journey!
Honestly, intensity isn't a big enough difference to make a difference mathematically, in most cases. Intensity causes more fatigue quickly after an certain point, but calorie expenditure doesn't vary at the same dramatic rate. Rowing machine workouts I do at the extreme of my intensity ability are much more fatiguing than those at a more moderate intensity, but the calorie burn is only a moderate bit higher. (This is from a machine with respected power metering as the basis for the estimates, BTW.)
On top of that, most of us regular people are only doing a few hundred calories of exercise a day, and maybe not even every day. If I go moderately hard for an hour, I maybe get a realistic 400ish calories. Even if that's off by 100, eating 100 "too many" doesn't even wipe out a 250-calorie (half a pound a week, so slow) deficit, and if losing a pound a week and exercising daily, I lose 0.8 pounds that week, instead of a whole pound. I can tolerate that for the 4-6 weeks it takes to dial in my actual loss rate and adjust, set off against the potential for ignoring a true 400 expenditure and losing faster, maybe fast enough to create health risk and hit a wall with energy/strength.
Unless someone's way off the scale in estimating exercise, or doing very unusually large amounts of exercise, the numeric potential of the error is not all that meaningful in the big picture.
Some exercises can be estimated pretty well purely based on distance (running, walking) without even considering speed. Others can benefit from speed/pace metrics. Others you can get a reasonable estimate with a heart rate monitor or fitness tracker (steady state moderate cardio type stuff is its wheelhouse). For some/many things, the MFP METS-based method is adequate. If you start a thread asking about how best to estimate your specific forms of exercise, experienced people will help you with ideas.
If you're going through a cycle where you're only able to hold on for a week without sugar**, then regress the next week, your body may simply be telling you to eat a little more, and maybe more carbs specifically. A little less aggressive approach - eating back that exercise, say? - might actually give you a reliable consistent weight loss rate, instead of an up/down seesaw. (** Going completely without sugar is optional in the first place, BTW. Maybe eat more fruit with some of those exercise calories? Or heck, even have the occasional cookie, ice cream or chocolate within calories . . . it'll be fine.).
BTW: One exercise calorie estimate that's guaranteed to be wrong: Zero.
Best wishes!7 -
Strudders67 wrote: »OP, I'm hoping someone will answer who can direct you to the body recomp section, but I'm quite sure the advice from more experienced people will be to not try doing anything 'quickly'. I'm also quite sure that you need to ensure you're getting enough protein.
1300 as maintenance calories definitely seems low though. I'm a lot older than you, but I'm 5'1 (and a bit) and now weigh 112lb. I switched to maintenance just as lock-down started and I get 1340 a day, so I'd expect your maintenance to be a little higher (maybe 1400 or 1450). However, any weight loss you try to achieve, at this point, will only happen very very slowly. MFP will only set a target of 1200 as that's the minimum recommended for females, so your deficit will only be around 200 calories a day. You're not going to lose much per week and nor should you try to lose any faster. 1200 really is the minimum you should be eating.
And that is 1200 calories NET. So, if you're exercising, you should be eating additional calories to fuel that exercise.
However, it doesn't sound like you're trying to lose weight if you want to target fat loss. Enter your stats in to the MFP guided set up (Home - Goals), select Maintain current weight - and eat the calories MFP suggests. Log your exercise and eat those calories too. Then focus on body recomp exercise.
@Mandy72CM, per my answer to your other post - take a look at what rate of weight loss you selected in the MFP set up. Also, think about whether you selected 1200 or whether you entered your stats to MFP and it suggested 1200. There's potentially a big difference. If you repeatedly diet and then binge, it's more likely to happen if you're restricting yourself too aggressively. You shouldn't be aiming to lose more than 1% of your body weight per week and if you're only looking to only lose less than a stone, you shouldn't have a rate selected that is faster than 0.5lb a week. If you adjust your MFP set up, see how many calories it gives you as a baseline and eat that many plus your exercise cals. Also, you don't need to exercise to lose weight, you just need to eat less than you are expending. So if you don't enjoy doing 9 hours of workout a week,don't do it.Strudders67 wrote: »OP, I'm hoping someone will answer who can direct you to the body recomp section, but I'm quite sure the advice from more experienced people will be to not try doing anything 'quickly'. I'm also quite sure that you need to ensure you're getting enough protein.
1300 as maintenance calories definitely seems low though. I'm a lot older than you, but I'm 5'1 (and a bit) and now weigh 112lb. I switched to maintenance just as lock-down started and I get 1340 a day, so I'd expect your maintenance to be a little higher (maybe 1400 or 1450). However, any weight loss you try to achieve, at this point, will only happen very very slowly. MFP will only set a target of 1200 as that's the minimum recommended for females, so your deficit will only be around 200 calories a day. You're not going to lose much per week and nor should you try to lose any faster. 1200 really is the minimum you should be eating.
And that is 1200 calories NET. So, if you're exercising, you should be eating additional calories to fuel that exercise.
However, it doesn't sound like you're trying to lose weight if you want to target fat loss. Enter your stats in to the MFP guided set up (Home - Goals), select Maintain current weight - and eat the calories MFP suggests. Log your exercise and eat those calories too. Then focus on body recomp exercise.
@Mandy72CM, per my answer to your other post - take a look at what rate of weight loss you selected in the MFP set up. Also, think about whether you selected 1200 or whether you entered your stats to MFP and it suggested 1200. There's potentially a big difference. If you repeatedly diet and then binge, it's more likely to happen if you're restricting yourself too aggressively. You shouldn't be aiming to lose more than 1% of your body weight per week and if you're only looking to only lose less than a stone, you shouldn't have a rate selected that is faster than 0.5lb a week. If you adjust your MFP set up, see how many calories it gives you as a baseline and eat that many plus your exercise cals. Also, you don't need to exercise to lose weight, you just need to eat less than you are expending. So if you don't enjoy doing 9 hours of workout a week,don't do it.Strudders67 wrote: »OP, I'm hoping someone will answer who can direct you to the body recomp section, but I'm quite sure the advice from more experienced people will be to not try doing anything 'quickly'. I'm also quite sure that you need to ensure you're getting enough protein.
1300 as maintenance calories definitely seems low though. I'm a lot older than you, but I'm 5'1 (and a bit) and now weigh 112lb. I switched to maintenance just as lock-down started and I get 1340 a day, so I'd expect your maintenance to be a little higher (maybe 1400 or 1450). However, any weight loss you try to achieve, at this point, will only happen very very slowly. MFP will only set a target of 1200 as that's the minimum recommended for females, so your deficit will only be around 200 calories a day. You're not going to lose much per week and nor should you try to lose any faster. 1200 really is the minimum you should be eating.
And that is 1200 calories NET. So, if you're exercising, you should be eating additional calories to fuel that exercise.
However, it doesn't sound like you're trying to lose weight if you want to target fat loss. Enter your stats in to the MFP guided set up (Home - Goals), select Maintain current weight - and eat the calories MFP suggests. Log your exercise and eat those calories too. Then focus on body recomp exercise.
@Mandy72CM, per my answer to your other post - take a look at what rate of weight loss you selected in the MFP set up. Also, think about whether you selected 1200 or whether you entered your stats to MFP and it suggested 1200. There's potentially a big difference. If you repeatedly diet and then binge, it's more likely to happen if you're restricting yourself too aggressively. You shouldn't be aiming to lose more than 1% of your body weight per week and if you're only looking to only lose less than a stone, you shouldn't have a rate selected that is faster than 0.5lb a week. If you adjust your MFP set up, see how many calories it gives you as a baseline and eat that many plus your exercise cals. Also, you don't need to exercise to lose weight, you just need to eat less than you are expending. So if you don't enjoy doing 9 hours of workout a week,don't do it.
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Strudders67 wrote: »OP, I'm hoping someone will answer who can direct you to the body recomp section, but I'm quite sure the advice from more experienced people will be to not try doing anything 'quickly'. I'm also quite sure that you need to ensure you're getting enough protein.
1300 as maintenance calories definitely seems low though. I'm a lot older than you, but I'm 5'1 (and a bit) and now weigh 112lb. I switched to maintenance just as lock-down started and I get 1340 a day, so I'd expect your maintenance to be a little higher (maybe 1400 or 1450). However, any weight loss you try to achieve, at this point, will only happen very very slowly. MFP will only set a target of 1200 as that's the minimum recommended for females, so your deficit will only be around 200 calories a day. You're not going to lose much per week and nor should you try to lose any faster. 1200 really is the minimum you should be eating.
And that is 1200 calories NET. So, if you're exercising, you should be eating additional calories to fuel that exercise.
However, it doesn't sound like you're trying to lose weight if you want to target fat loss. Enter your stats in to the MFP guided set up (Home - Goals), select Maintain current weight - and eat the calories MFP suggests. Log your exercise and eat those calories too. Then focus on body recomp exercise.
@Mandy72CM, per my answer to your other post - take a look at what rate of weight loss you selected in the MFP set up. Also, think about whether you selected 1200 or whether you entered your stats to MFP and it suggested 1200. There's potentially a big difference. If you repeatedly diet and then binge, it's more likely to happen if you're restricting yourself too aggressively. You shouldn't be aiming to lose more than 1% of your body weight per week and if you're only looking to only lose less than a stone, you shouldn't have a rate selected that is faster than 0.5lb a week. If you adjust your MFP set up, see how many calories it gives you as a baseline and eat that many plus your exercise cals. Also, you don't need to exercise to lose weight, you just need to eat less than you are expending. So if you don't enjoy doing 9 hours of workout a week,don't do it.
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Thanks for responding to me although I’m not the original OP. Just for the record I love exercise it’s something I’ve been involved with since an early age. It’s part of my life and I love it!0
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