Is calorie spiking right for me?

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jennalink807
jennalink807 Posts: 226 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Female, 5'4''
SW: 143
CW: 138
GW: 130
Bodyfat- 28.5%

Cardio- 3-4x a week for 30-60 minutes each.
Strength/weights 3-4x a week for 30 mins each

I've been in a plateau for about 6 weeks now, and tried upping my calories after the first three. (Used to be 1200/day) Right now I'm on a 1450/day (before excercise) and I eat back almost all of my exercise calories. I'm thinking of starting a cal. spike program where I drop down to 1200 net for 2-3 days then go back up to 1450 net for a day and repeat; but I've been doing a lot of strength training (NSV: I can finally get 50 pushups in a row!) and I don't want to lose too much lean muscle mass. I know that at a calorie deficit I'm losing some anyway, but i'm wondering if cal spiking is worth it to lose these last 8 lbs. Thoughts? How detrimental would it be to my strength training?

Also, I know scale weight isn't everything, but 28.5% bodyfat is still kind of high, and the bodyfat and extra pounds are noticible. I have the dreaded tummy pooch (lol) and some sag in my butt still that I'd like to ditch. Should I just keep going? Will it go away eventually? I'm just not sure. I've just been lifting heavier and heavier, hoping the extra muscle will boost my metabolism and help me burn the fat away, but (and I could just be impatient) it hasn't happened yet... at all. Bodyfat has been the same for 3 weeks too. My arm measurements are getting bigger from muscle, but all my waist measurements are the same... for 4 weeks.

I've ordered myself an HRM (Polar FT4) because I'm thinking my exercise cals may just be so overestimated that its killing my ratio, so perhaps I should wait for a few weeks after using that to see if it changes anything?

Replies

  • parzyckj
    parzyckj Posts: 5
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    i am 5'4' and 147 and was curious about the idea of calorie spiking too, but I dont know anything about it! hopefully you found your answer!
  • Tara4boys
    Tara4boys Posts: 515 Member
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    It did not work for me. I was miserable during the week having to eat so low. Sure Spike Day was fun but ended up not being worth it for me.

    I was only able to create a meager weekly deficit. I just couldn't function on 1200 calories even for a few days. I lost 1/2# per week.

    I'm losing better eating moderate calories.

    I'm sure life will throw me a "spike day" naturally and I'll try not to sweat it. I

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