Hello all, I’m a 5’1 lady weighing in at 121lbs. This past year I lost 31lbs simply by counting calories and being more active. For the last 10 or so months I’ve progressively fallen more in love with the gym and strength training in general. I’ve finally hit the target weight I set for myself a year ago and it’s time to set myself some new goals! Here is a photo of when I started on February 6, 2018 and where I am today.
Here’s some additional info -
My job is sedentary but I try to live as actively as possible. I’m lifting weights 4-5 x per week, and doing cardio 3-4 x per week. My rest days include a lot of walking / hiking, or softball.
Im a pescatarian, so, veggies and seafood only. In the past, this has made my protein consumption lower than it should be.
My BMR is around 1300 but my TDEE is usually between 1800-2000.
I currently eat between 1500-1600 calories per day. I’ve just recently started paying attention to my macros and have been loosely trying to hit 30/30/40 for protein/fat/carbs, though I’m trying to consistently hit my protein. I love food though so, so if a donut throws that off once in a while, I’m not mad about it.
I have been practicing intermittent fasting, and only eat between 12:30 and 8:30. And I always hit my daily water intake!
My question is, to build lean mass can I be eating at maintenance, or should I be eating in a surplus? If I should be eating in a surplus, by how much? Is 30/30/40 a good target to have for my macros? I’ve spent the last year losing weight by eating in a deficit so naturally, eating in a surplus is pretty terrifying.. But ultimately, I want to build muscle by creating a lifestyle that I can maintain, and enjoy maintaining. Any thoughts or opinions are greatly appreciated!!
I’m also 5’1” and looking for similar results. Though I suspect I’m quite a lot older than you, so might have to manage my expectations there.
I’m just getting into CrossFit and am not burning anything like the calories you are. Did you start out at a lower calorie intake? My Fitness Pal is currently set at the standard 1200 calories but I feel like this is too much for meaningful weight loss at my current height/weight (5’1”/112lbs). After reading your post, I’ve changed my macro goals to 30/30/40 as well.
How did it go with upping the calories for muscle gains?
@flamingoandsparrow You’ve done an amazing job!! Check out the podcast ‘Empowered by Iron’. They speak about eating for strength and balancing increasing your performance with weight goals. It’s a really interesting take on doing a recomp.
@flamingoandsparrow Just here to say good work. I started mine 4 months ago and trimmed down and the last 2 months added some strength training. I gotta say, I’m looking much better than before, goes to show you how much a little bit each day mixed with determination can do! Very good job there and same for me as well, keep it up dude!
@flamingoandsparrow The other commenters are correct, you need to start adding a surplus of calories. Without knowing a whole lot about your history or diving too deep into what you’ve written (other people already have given excellent advice)
Add ~100 calories every two weeks or so and see how you feel. I spread them pretty evenly across macros for my clients, giving a little more carbs than fat usually.
There are a ton of free macro calculators out there but there are also a ton of nutritionists/coaches who will set you up with tailored macros for $25 or so.
@jsmallman Can you recommend any online nutritionists/coaches? This is a thought that has crossed my mind but it’s a huge industry and I have no clue where to even begin!
@flamingoandsparrow There’s honestly a ton of us (pretty sure we rival hair stylists in numbers lol). Feel free to message me if you want to talk about my coaching more, I need to double check the rules regarding that, I’m not sure where the line is and don’t want to get in trouble.
I personally use Maggie with Black Iron Nutrition as my coach. Any Black Iron coach knows what they’re doing.
@flamingoandsparrow You look amazing!! Youre before photo looks like how I look right now lol hopefully I can look like the after photo soon. Im 5’1 and about 136lbs and I would love to know a real in depth look on your workout routine and youre diet if you have the time. What do you do for cardio, treadmill? Do you run or walk etc? Right now I do circuit training and cardio boxing classes but its not doing the job. Im pretty sedentary besides the workout classes but Ive been trying to walk more. I just downloaded mfp so hopefully itll keep me in check more. Goal weight is 110-115. Thanks a lot!
@smashleigh17 Thank you so much!! I’m happy to help in any way I can.
For cardio I usually integrate it into my workout twice: at the start and at the end. I really hate running for distance so I generally stick to the elliptical. I might do 15 minutes at the start of my workout to warm up - 5 at a moderately slow pace (I usually workout about 30 minutes after I wake up so I don’t like to go too fast too soon), 8 at a medium pace and 2 at a high pace. Then start my weights for the day. Once my weights are done, which usually takes 45 minutes to an hour and a half depending on the day, I’ll do either:
20 minutes biking; 20s high intensity, 40s medium intensity
uphill walking on the treadmill; starting at a 5 incline and upping it 1 every minute until I hit max, then working my way down
I sometimes do treadmill sprints (mainly around ball season when I know I need to be a little bit faster), which I do at 30s personal max speed, 30s powerwalk for as long as I can until my legs feel like jello. Which usually isn’t very long bahah.
@flamingoandsparrow Same here I am 5’0” and can’t seem to get below 140 even though I go to the gym almost every day. I sit at work all day so I know I need to move more, I think I eat pretty healthy but pay no attention to macros because I don’t really understand what that means. I’m guessing I probably need to figure that part of it out if I want to see further results.
@hymnsong05 140 was a big plateau for me to get over as well. Once I got into the 130’s its easy for me to maintain but losing is just so hard. I dont even know how I would factor in macros as well
@smashleigh17 Ugghhh I really amped up my cardio this week, hoping a few weeks of that will make a difference. I usually do good with maintaining also but loosing this time around has been soooo slow (over 40). When I would loose in my 20’s and 30’s it was so much easier.
@hymnsong05 I wouldn’t worry to heavily about macros if weight loss is your primary goal, I would focus on calories instead which is much simpler to track!
@hymnsong05 Do you have any sort of fitness tracker? For me, going to the gym was all great and stuff but I had no awareness of how many calories I was burning. Which made guessing my calorie intake for the day really stressful. I got a charge 2 and that has been immensely helpful in getting a better sense of my activity level throughout the day. I work a desk job as well, and you can set reminders to make you get up and move.
As a vertically challenged human, I have personally seen a better result from a higher caloric deficit. It’s always been difficult for me to lose weight at anything less than a 500 calorie deficit.
