RelevantGains Member

Yes, probably. It's very confusing. Others may disagree with me, but I'd advise everyone to STOP tracking exercise in MFP. It leads to a lot of confusion about how many calories you're consuming, there's inaccuracies with step counters and calories burned, etc. It's much simpler and more accurate to calculate a TDEE with…

My favorite part about this is that you said you're starting today. It's a pet peeve of mine when people say "I'm going to start Monday". I get people have lives, routines, schedules, but if something is important to you, you need to make it a priority. It seems like you are. Good on ya! :D

Optimum Nutrition has a good one called True Mass. What are your goals though? What do you mean "As much weight as possible"? I'm assuming you want to be putting on muscle, and not fat, right? You should only be consuming about 500 calories above maintenance, especially as a woman. Along with a good lifting program, you…

To retain muscle mass during a dieting phase, you should go no less than once per week. That would be the low end. The high end would be the most volume you can do and still recover from. So I'd say do what fits into your schedule. For a beginner, you can usually recover faster and do 3-4 full body workouts a week…

I think there is some kind of "anabolic window", but it's nothing like the 30 minutes or whatever was once believed, it's more like 4-6 hours or something. So if you don't plan on eating anything in the next several hours, it might be a good idea to get a protein shake in post work out, but you're also not going to waste…

Also, 1.5 pounds a week is about 750 calories a day. So with your TDEE calculation, that would put your daily calories to 1825, which is a little closer to MFP, but again, for this one, you wouldn't be eating back your activity calories.

There are many ways to calculate your calories. The way MFP does it is quite different than the way I do it. MFP relies on you eating back your exercise calories. It works, but I find that a bit silly, tbh. It sets your calories ultra low with the assumption that you'll actually be eating more on high activity days. If you…

I think the important thing is to find a diet that is easy for you to do. If you're not familiar with "flexible dieting" or "IIFYM", I recommend you check it out. I know a lot of the "fad" diets are fun to see big losses on the scale, but many of them are just not sustainable long term. Low carb diets are a good example.…

That is partially true. The longer you diet, the harder it becomes on your body and your hormones. Some people faster than others. When it gets to a certain point where there are hormonal issues (missed period, low libido, irritability, etc), taking a break for a couple of weeks is needed. Some people need to do this every…

If you've been lifting for 6 months on a decent program, that's about the time I'd expect you to stop being able to make gains while in a deficit. Once you get past that beginner level, strength gains really just aren't going to happen. At least not significant to be noticeable. If you want to continue cutting, that's…

Agreed with the above. I'm assuming you're wanting to gain muscle. To do that, you'll need to lift weights, or you'll just get fat. One thing to note, a mistake that I made, don't try to gain weight too fast. You can only gain about .5-1 pound of muscle per week, depending on your level of training. It will slow down even…

@elphie754 Just wanted to make sure you didn't forget to bring your sources.

Ah, thank you! I was trying to find Lyle's take on it, but couldn't find anything on his site. I guess I need to work on my Google-Fu lol

You're not gonna be able to save them all, unfortunately haha!

Exercise doesn't do a whole lot with your rate of weight loss, contrary to popular belief. It's all in your diet. I'm not sure what eating "better" means. That's very vague. The way to lose weight is to sustain a caloric deficit, meaning eating less calories than you burn. If you're not losing weigh, you're likely eating…

Hello. Are you prepping for a contest or something? Curious about that level of leanness. Part of having such low body fat is feeling like complete garbage and having a bunch of hormonal issues. Your symptoms are quite common in that realm. This is why bodybuilders, physique competitors, etc end up putting on weight after…

There's more to muscle retention than just throwing in more calories. Sure, if you want to completely prevent any muscle loss, then eat at maintenance or even a surplus. I would agree with you that that should be a focus, that protein should stay high, and that volume and intensity should stay at a good level to retain as…

I just did...

Haha, don't do that to the poor girl. Realistically, you could raise your calories to about 1550 and still have a decent rate of weight loss, probably about .5-1 pound per week, if you wanted to.

I eat out pretty much every meal, every day. I'm losing 1-2 pounds per week.

1200 would be at the low end of what I would recommend with your activity, but I don't think it's too low. Hormones do get a little screwy when you diet, especially at lower body fat levels. Having occasional refeeds or diet breaks may be beneficial. Also, make sure your fat is at a decent level. Fat intake that is too low…

It depends how you set up your calorie goal. Me personally, I factor in my weekly exercise with I set my calorie goal. So I eat the same number of calories every day regardless of if it's a rest day or an super intense day, it all balances out. Some people here set their calories around BMR, then eat back their exercise.…

Just to give you an idea, I'm 5'11", currently at a little under 160, and I'm losing weight consistently at 2000 calories. So 1600-1700 calories still should give you a good rate of weight loss.

I certainly agree with this, but that seems semi-unrelated to the topic. I think (sorry if I misunderstood the OP) that the issue was that the diet has become unsustainable due to hunger. As there are changes to leptin as you diet, these feelings in some (most) people tend to get stronger and stronger, and it becomes more…

Awesome! Lift heavy and build that body! :D

Please post your sources on studies that have been done that have shown that there are not any hormonal changes during dieting, and there is no metabolic adaptation. If I'm wrong, I'd love to become more educated on the subject. Thanks!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7oD_nGdtbs http://rippedbody.com/diet-break/ Here they are. Best of luck!

Welcome and good luck!

This is very common, There's a lot of hormonal craziness that happens with long term dieting. It looks like a diet break would work wonders for you to get everything reset. Try to sit at maintenance or slightly above for about 2 weeks, then get back to it. You'll be glad you did! I'll see if I can fish up some articles…

That seems logical. I can really see it going either way. When you diet, your appetite goes up due to leptin changes, as well as other hormone wackiness. This is just a natural survival mechanism. You're starving your body, not supplying enough energy for it to perform, so it's literally eating itself to survive (hopefully…