Varying calorie goals by day

earlybirdlady
earlybirdlady Posts: 121 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I’ve been learning about best practices for maintaining muscle while losing weight and I want to check my understanding…

So if I have calculated a deficit of 300 calories, I’m wondering if I should eat at a higher calorie goal on days I am lifting weights. MFP does not attribute as many calories to non-cardio exercises (so I don’t think I can rely on exercise calorie adjustments), but I need more fuel to recover and retain muscle, correct?

I realize it’s normal to lose some lean mass while losing weight, and I realize prioritizing protein is key, I just want to make sure I’m not sabotaging myself by eating too few calories and losing more muscle than intended.

Appreciate any insights, experiences, wisdom, resources…


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Best Answer

  • Retroguy2000
    Retroguy2000 Posts: 1,867 Member
    Answer ✓
    Lifting doesn't burn all that many calories. I'm a guy, and quite a bit heavier than you, and I enter 250 calories here for an hour of lifting.

    Make sure you're fueling within a few hours of lifting. Even if it's just a banana.

    Given that, you shouldn't need to significantly change total calories each day. Remember when muscle gets built is in the recovery days, so you need adequate nutrition and rest for that.

    If you can build muscle in a deficit and keep progressing in weight and reps, that's great, but your #1 goal during fat loss wrt muscle is keeping what you have. Aim for at least 0.7g per pound protein every day.

Answers

  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,454 Member
    Yeah, well your body is going to use the calories when it needs them, it doesn't only grab protein after weight lifting.

    A lot of our answers will need more info from you.

    Depends on how much you're eating now, your current weight/height/gender, what your goals are, what kind of weight lifting you're doing (is this contest prep or just for general toning?)
  • earlybirdlady
    earlybirdlady Posts: 121 Member
    cmriverside wrote: »
    Yeah, well your body is going to use the calories when it needs them, it doesn't only grab protein after weight lifting.

    A lot of our answers will need more info from you.

    Depends on how much you're eating now, your current weight/height/gender, what your goals are, what kind of weight lifting you're doing (is this contest prep or just for general toning?)

    Great questions and thanks for your response and willingness to provide some insight. I’m in my 40’s, 5’8, 170lb, female, and goals include lifestyle change to promote longevity so I can live a long life and annoy my kids as long as possible. My understanding is that muscle gain and maintenance becomes more important as we age (and sometimes more challenging), so I am approaching my health with that in mind.

    I’ve spent some time focusing on building muscle and I have been happy with the results, I’m now focusing on reducing body fat. The internet does a great job of providing a lot of confusing and often conflicting information, which prompted me to ask this question to get some clarification from people more experienced than myself in this area.

    Question - when you say the body will grab protein when it needs it not just after weight lifting - are you implying that protein totals don’t need to vary day-to-day? Because that’s more of what I’m trying to get clarification on. I see that MFP offers a feature where you can enter different calorie goals for different days, so I’m trying to figure out if that’s a useful tool or if I should just keep it simple and stick to the calorie goal I’ve calculated for fat loss.

  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,454 Member
    edited June 26
    Still really depends on how much you're currently intaking.

    It's not easy to build muscle on a deficit, unless it's under very specific circumstances and there's just not enough info here. You either build muscle or lose fat (along with some muscle,) or do a recomp.

    I mean, what's your weights routine like? High rep, low rep, striving for PRs, just general overall training? How have you arrived at your current calories and macros?

    Here's the Recomp thread...you'll find your answers, hopefully: https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10177803/recomposition-maintaining-weight-while-losing-fat/p1

    Here's Lyle McDonald's take on recomp: https://bodyrecomposition.com/bodyrecomposition-articles
  • COGypsy
    COGypsy Posts: 1,365 Member
    What does your lifting routine look like?

    Sadly, lifting isn't much of a calorie burner. Even powerlifting, I'd only get 200 - 250 calories from a workout. I went by how I felt afterward and ate the extra calories if I felt peckish. If you're working on fat loss, increasing your calories above what you earn for the workout isn't going to do anything but reduce your overall deficit.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,454 Member
    edited June 26
    *edit*

    never mind. . she'll figure it out
  • earlybirdlady
    earlybirdlady Posts: 121 Member
    @Retroguy2000 This is more of the info I was looking for - thank you! As I mentioned before I’m looking to maintain what I have worked to build and don’t want to lose too much of it while working on losing fat. If I gain some more muscle that’s a bonus, but I’m more looking to maintain what I have already. I appreciate your feedback!

    @cmriverside thanks for those resources. I haven’t gone through the whole recomp thread but from what I can gather it sounds like different people take different approaches regarding varying their nutrition day-to-day. Good to have those resources bookmarked for reference!

    I did a dexa and RMR test a couple of months ago and that was really helpful for calculating my calorie and body composition goals. I’m hoping to do those tests again in a year or so because I found them really helpful.

    Thanks all for your responses!
  • earlybirdlady
    earlybirdlady Posts: 121 Member
    cmriverside wrote: »
    *edit*

    never mind. . she'll figure it out

    Was there more here? I missed the original post before the edit

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