calorie deficeit / female weight training

Most women tend to have the bump, if you have had children or c-sections, or hernia removals. I would continue working on your core, and research foods that can cause the stomach bump you may need to stay away from.

I have had all of the above; and no matter what I do I will never get rid of my bump. I dislike it and finally saw a surgeon. I hope to get the bump taken care of this year 2012. I work on my core and weights.

Hope this helps.

Set your goal to lose 0.5lbs/week, eat back exercise calories, hit your protein target and lift heavy weights (5-10 reps range/set where the last rep or 2 is difficult to complete with good form) preferably compound lifts.

If you don't eat enough you risk losing a large % of the lean muscle you already have. the less you have to lose the more important it is to have a smaller deficit.

I agree with the others...lift as heavy as you can for 6-8 reps and eat more...1200 is for the birds. Even when I'm cutting I eat 1500+ calories without exercise, and I still drop a few pounds, and I'm already small. I hate that number!

I am eating 2000-2200 while strength training, keeping cardio to a minimum and not eating back cardio calories when I do it. My TDEE is around 1800. No, I am not at the BF% that I want yet, but I am in the weight range that I consider acceptable. I decided to stop losing fat for a while and try to build muscle instead. I am going to continue to do this for 2 months total (stage 1 in the NROL4W program). After that, I will evaluate where I am at and if I want to "cut" more fat out.

Based on your pic and what you have said you don't have much more fat to lose, so it probably doesn't matter too much what you do until it is gone since that should only be another couple few weeks. In general though you would want to watch how fast you are losing, especially the lower bf% you get to, and 1200 would be pretty low for longer term. Once the fat is gone as a woman you would eat around 200 over maintenance if you want to grow more muscle. A ton of useful info can be found here http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=146519303

Forgive me for being naive, but if you work out 2x a day and don't eat back your deficit how do you manage to maintain energy in everyday life? Is your BMR cals at 1200 and you eat that but just don't eat back the deficit from your workouts?

I am asking cause mine is at 1200 cals but I do eat back my deficit and am wondering if this is reason for my lack of scale movement. I usually do an hour of cardio and then free weights for 30mins - all in one session though. Not to hijack this thread. You look amazing.

Someone please explain to me why my thighs are getting bigger and hips wider as a consequence...I'm lifting heavy, doing short HIIT and eating at TDEE-15%?

I would say either you calculated TDEE wrong and are eating over maintenance, or you are just experiencing water retention in your leg muscles (the "swell" from lifting, my arms look huge right after lifting but go back to normal in a few hours).

I've calculate my TDEE time and time again. I weigh everything and log very accurately...to the single gram. My maintenance is 2076, I'm def not eating this.

If you are short, that seems a bit high. My TDEE calculated on here is 1800, but by NROL4W's method it is 2000. I am 5'5"/135#. Where did you calculate the number?

Just wanted to add my experience to good information you're getting here.

I started heavy lifting in April 2011. I saw great results with body recomposition and kept bopping along doing some combination of heavy weights, some cardio, and deficits eating from 1500-2000 for probably almost a year with 40/30/30 c/f/p macros. I bounced around a lot depending on how on target I was with these goals. I dropped body fat and looked better this April than last but still wasn't at my body fat goal and getting frustrated.

I realized I had been essentially eating at deficit for too long and took 2 weeks and ate at maintenance. After, late June, I started a an aggressive cut following a most of a recommended program from Leigh Peele (http://www.leighpeele.com/). This was a change. The deficits are much more dramatic, the macros vary according to which part of the cut you are in and there much more cardio work. I am always at a deficit of at leat 30% of TDEE and as high as 40%. I don't log exercise calories since they're already included in TDEE. I am working on being diet adherent all the time except for 1 meal/evening per week.

After 4 weeks I have lost 8 inches overall and 6.5 lbs (some of it water from having been eating more for 2 weeks before the cut). Body fat is harder to determine but I think that's trending downwards. I am in my 5th week with 7 weeks left (12 total)

I tell you all this because while I think slow and steady works for some it wasn't getting me where I wanted to go. I am cutting aggressively now and after I will reassess, eat at maintenance for a while and if I want to I will go back to cutting, though, according to the numbers this should put me where I want to be.

So do you recommend I eat at maintenance for a few weeks? I've gradually upped my cals since last year...I was massively under eating for years. My current deficit is 15% so maybe need to go lower and add in more cardio?

I've been on fitness frog.

If you want to work it out please do so as I could be wrong, I'm 4ft 11, 56.9kg, exercise 5 times per week, 28 years old

Is it because I'm older?

I get the same number you did. But if you include your exercise in the TDEE, you aren't supposed to eat back exercise calories, without considering exercising the number is 1750ish. Also, TDEE calculators are just estimates so it is possible that your metabolism is slower than average. Are you gaining weight or just inches?

PS I am definitely no expert on any of this :laugh:

I don't eat back exercise calories. However! Ive been advised to ensure I net my BMR which sometimes I haven't if I've had a big burn.

So do you recommend I eat at maintenance for a few weeks? I've gradually upped my cals since last year...I was massively under eating for years. My current deficit is 15% so maybe need to go lower and add in more cardio?

If you were "massively under eating for years", yes, I'd recommend eating at maintenance for maybe as long as a month. You might gain a bit to began with, but that should level out after a week or so. Your hormones are probably out of balance due to the the long term calorie deficit.

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/the-full-diet-break.html

So do you recommend I eat at maintenance for a few weeks? I've gradually upped my cals since last year...I was massively under eating for years. My current deficit is 15% so maybe need to go lower and add in more cardio?

If you were "massively under eating for years", yes, I'd recommend eating at maintenance for maybe as long as a month. You might gain a bit to began with, but that should level out after a week or so. Your hormones are probably out of balance due to the the long term calorie deficit.

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/the-full-diet-break.html

I completely agree - before my current cut I took a few weeks at maintenance (could have/should done longer). After my cut I will go back to maintenance for month before I consider cutting again.