How much is a good caloric deficiency?

[nuggets71]

I’ve been lifting for 5 months now and running and doing Orange Theory classes for cardio. Workout from 4-6 times a week. I get the full body muscle and body fat scans at Orange Theory too. I’ve gained 5 lbs of muscle and lost 4 lbs of fat, but now I’m gaining weight!! 4 lbs in the past 2 weeks. I’ve been eating high protein meals and I don’t eat processed food nuts all whole foods. I eat a ton of veggies. Very little sugar except two cubes in my coffee. Yes, I will cheat with a couple beers in a weekend night once or twice a month or a desert with my kids randomly. But otherwise, super healthy. But my clothes are getting tighter and I’m not seeing the changes I want to for what I thought was a good diet and exercise. 43 female, 144 lbs, 5’ 5”. I should be 130 for my normal size (up until I was 36). But I’d be happy at 134lbs and a size smaller.

I’m eating about 1500 calories a day and 80grams of protein. Should I drop my calories down by 300-400 a day? I need to lose this fat!!! Help!

 

[olusanya800]

@nuggets71 Do you weigh yourself daily and at the same time each day? Your weight will fluctuate and you should go off an average for the week instead of a random weigh in from week to week. If you’re truly eating 1500 just stick with it and you will lose weight. Muscle does take up space so your clothes may not fit for that reason. Try to focus on the way you look and feel in your work outs as a metric rather than just a number on the scale.

 

[nuggets71]

@olusanya800 I weight myself once a week in the morning right when I wake up. Weight wise I wasn’t too concerned until my jeans started feeling way tighter. I just don’t think I’m burning enough fat to make up for the muscle gain? How to do that is not reducing calories more?

 

[olusanya800]

@nuggets71 How active is your lifestyle of your work outs? I think you should weigh in daily for a while and look at your average. Scale fluctuations are normal and can happen for many reasons BM frequency, water retention, menstrual cycle etc. 4 lbs up doesn’t necessarily mean 4 lbs of fat gain.

 

[stardustypsyche]

@nuggets71 I agree with what the other commenter said. It's extremely unlikely you're eating 1500 cal per day and gaining weight.

If you gain 4 lbs of fat in 2 weeks, that's 14,000 calories of excess. Divided by 14 days that's 1000 calories per day in excess of your maintenance. There's no way your maintenance is 500 calories unless you're on your deathbed.

80g of protein is only 320 calories, where are the others coming from?

 

[nuggets71]

@stardustypsyche Broccoli? Lentils? Beans? Tofu? I struggle to consume 1500. I have to make a serious effort to eat that much and add in that protein. I eat a lot of fish and veggies….always have. I’ve never been a processed food person. Have always eaten extremely healthy, but now added more protein and upped my calories when I started working out again. Maybe too much?

 

[stardustypsyche]

@nuggets71

Maybe too much?

You're not reading what I wrote. Gaining 4lbs in 2 weeks means you were 1000 calories in surplus (even then your body would actually start making adjustments; gaining 4lbs of fat in 2 weeks is very hard to do unless you're pounding ice cream by the gallon). Does that sound reasonable to you?

Have you changed your diet in the last 2 weeks? It's more likely than not that what you gained is water weight due to change in nutrition. If started eating more carbs for example it would lead to more water retention. Have started / changed the dosage of creatine? Creatine leads to more water retention in the muscles (it's not a bad weight). Have you started/changed any medications?

 

[lyndam]

@stardustypsyche It's almost certainly not 4 pounds of fat but rather some fat and lots of water retention. 2 weeks is nothing to base anything on.

 

[nuggets71]

@stardustypsyche I was down and out and sick for one week, but didn’t eat much at all—but didn’t workout either. I started hormone replacement therapy 1.5 months ago, which is a low dose birth control for perimenopause symptoms. But I read and the Dr assured me it wouldn’t cause weight gain. Maybe it did? Shit. I didn’t really put those two together.

 

[stardustypsyche]

@nuggets71 Once again - 4 lbs of fat is 1000 calories per day in excess. This is chemistry (and physics). There's no cheating that. You don't gain fat other than consuming excess calories. There are no exceptions.

Assuming that you haven't eaten 1000 calories per day in excess. The most common way people gain weight very quickly is water weight/bloating. It's not a bad weight, it'll come off eventually. If you want it to come off quickly eat less carbs.

Lastly. My weight easily fluctuates 2-3 lbs from day to day. Weighing yourself every day is important. Equally important is to not treat each day as a catastrophe or triumph, but take a weekly average of your measurements. I saw in another comment you weigh yourself once a week. It's possible you caught yourself on a bad day. Do it daily at the same time (first thing in the morning is ideal). Look at the trend.

 

[nuggets71]

@stardustypsyche Thanks! I’ll start weighing daily and then looking at averages and see what it’s saying.

 

[dragonsaur]

@nuggets71 Check out https://www.reddit.com/r/AskWomenNoCensor/s/6MLKhxs2rT

Women’s body is more complicated than men’s body with respect to weight loss. PCOS, hormones, menopause, getting on or off contraceptions can all influence the metabolism. Check again with your doctor.

 

[nuggets71]

@dragonsaur Thank you! I will definitely check this out!

 

[teddybareheart]

@nuggets71 Are you certain your calories are weighed/tracked accurately? It seems very low, especially for the amount of exercise you're doing. The average BMR for a woman is ~1400 calories.

Also, a willfill mind can push through almost anything for awhile, even hunger, but your body will eventually demand food in a big way if you're undereating. I used to think my setbacks were a result of mental weakness, but it was my body screaming (and ultimately overcompensating) for more food. Grit is a wonderful thing to possess, but biological needs will overcome it.

There's a reason it's advised to lose fat slowly.

 

[deerlane]

@nuggets71 Do you actually track calories/macros? What’s your maintenance? Muscle takes up space and is heavy.

 

[nuggets71]

@deerlane I use Fitness Pal to track what I eat to ensure I’m getting enough protein and it does the calories too. So thinking that is pretty accurate? Yes? Eating that much protein is very hard for a woman without adding in a ton of calories with it!

 

[helen56]

@nuggets71 It’s not any harder for a woman to eat protein than a man…I’m a 41 year old female, I lift heavy, and I’m eating 190 grams of protein right now, 1900 calories a day, which is a deficit for me, and losing weight. Maybe you aren’t eating enough to actually burn anymore, if you workout as much as you say you do?

 

[nuggets71]

@helen56 How on earth do you do that? I just get full very quickly, especially with a protein rich meal. I get hungry, but can barely finish two cans of tuna mixed with chai seeds and hemp hearts. And don’t get hungry again until about 6 hrs later. What do you eat with that much protein?

 

[helen56]

@nuggets71 I do it because that’s what my body needs for fuel. It can be challenging some days sure, but I plan what I’m going to eat for the day, and I eat it. Lots of Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, chicken, one protein shake a day, Fairlife milk. Sometimes I’m not eating because I’m hungry, but because I need to eat. And I eat protein every time I eat. And remember, this is me in a deficit, I’m losing body fat right now.

 

[denversony]

@nuggets71 Count your calories and then weigh yourself everyday. Take the average for the week. After about 1-2 weeks if you haven’t lost any weight then cut 500kcal per day for the next 1-2 weeks and try again.