Calorie intake advice after long period of weight loss

[OriginalFDM]

Hi Folks

Looking for some specific nutrition advice please from those who know a lot more about this stuff than I....

Basic back story is that I'm very slight of build but have always been chubby in certain places (man boobs and gut!). Since October I've been - bar the occasional week of holiday/christmas etc.) in a calorie deficit pretty constantly, with an awful lot of exercise thrown in, and have gone from a chubby-round-the-edges 12st9 to a pretty slim 11st2 and have taken 3.5in off the waist and 2.5in off the chest.

When calculating my calorie deficit, I took the number from TDEE calculator (based on no exercise/sedentary job) and reduced it by 20%. On an exercise day (almost every day....) I would 'add back' the calories I used exercising to always come in at the 80% of the baseline TDEE number.

Now I've got to the point where I really don't want to get any 'skinnier', instead I want to emphasise my muscles more and focus on the aesthetic side of things....though I am still carrying excess a little excess body fat that I'd like to shed around my core.

It's been advised that I drastically reduce the cardio I do and do a full body weights/resistance workout 3-4 times per week, which is cool, I enjoy that sort of exercise. But I'm absolutely confused about how much I should be eating.

Some people say I still need to be in a small deficit if I want to lose body fat, then some people say it's impossible to add muscle if I'm in a deficit, and I need to be eating at my maintenance calories (this is TDEE if I do no exercise and TDEE+exercise calories if I do, yes???), and some people say that if I want to add any muscle at all I need to be in a surplus.

I'm highly confused and at this point have read so much contradictory advice that I'm completely stuck.

For the time being I am eating at my baseline TDEE (no exercise/sedentary job) and on a weights day/running day, I eat more by the amount that my Apple Watch says I've burned during my workout, but I haven't been doing it long enough to measure any effect yet.

Can anyone who is skilled in this area please weigh in (no pun intended!).

The immediate short term goal is to improve my muscle definition - without really increasing my overall 'size', and continue to get the body fat down. I'm pretty confident on the exercise side of things and what to do, it's the nutrition side that's tripping me up.

Cheers!

[CAH706]

In your position I’d eat as you are (maintenance) and hit the weights for 3 months. You won’t make drastic muscle gain in 3 months but you should see some and even if you don’t drop any fat you will a) look better and b) increase the calories you can consume due to increased muscle mass. I’d also slightly reduce carbs and slightly up protein ... nothing radical just bit of a shift in macros.

In 3 months you may be happy with how you look or you can then slowly take off a little more fat whilst preserving your muscle

FWIW - if you haven’t lifted much before I do believe you can shed a little fat and add a little muscle with a slight calorie deficit. Not a great deal but muscle gains are slow for most of us anyway

Ps well done dropping the weight. You clearly have the dedication so I’m sure you will have the patience to see a program through

[OriginalFDM]

Thanks matey! I already eat pretty low carb/high protein and most of my carbs come from fruit and veg rather than things like pasta/rice/bread which I have in real moderation.

Ok so maintenance cals plus weights....that’s what I’m doing now so that’s cool.

One thing I’m not 100% on....on a day when I do a weight workout, my AW tells me I’ve burned around 350 cals doing the workout. So should I still be eating maintenance + 350 on the basis that I’ve calculated my maintenance cals on the assumption of no exercise/sedentary job?

[CAH706]

It’s hard to be 100% accurate with calories so I wouldn’t obsess over it too much. Be guided firstly by how you look and feel and secondly by the scales.

Don’t make snap adjustments but look at the weekly trend and adjust from there. Small changes and don’t fiddle with diet and exercise at the same time as you will never see what does and doesn’t work for you

I would start by adding in calories to cover the exercise so yes in your example + 350 that day. Give that a try and adjust from there

I’m sure in 3 months you will see some real improvement if you nail the training as you can clearly stick to an eating plan!

[DaveGrohl]

CAH706 said:

In your position I’d eat as you are (maintenance) and hit the weights for 3 months. You won’t make drastic muscle gain in 3 months but you should see some and even if you don’t drop any fat you will a) look better and b) increase the calories you can consume due to increased muscle mass. I’d also slightly reduce carbs and slightly up protein ... nothing radical just bit of a shift in macros.

In 3 months you may be happy with how you look or you can then slowly take off a little more fat whilst preserving your muscle

FWIW - if you haven’t lifted much before I do believe you can shed a little fat and add a little muscle with a slight calorie deficit. Not a great deal but muscle gains are slow for most of us anyway

Ps well done dropping the weight. You clearly have the dedication so I’m sure you will have the patience to see a program through

I was about to advise you to try to keep carb intake lowish but you seem to be on a sensible diet for the long term by the sounds of it. This has health benefits way beyond weight loss (well done btw) and will stand you in good stead for the future.

Don't get overly hung up on calories as they are a horrendously crude and inaccurate way of measuring what the body actually does with food once it's inside you. Also apps are a good way to focus the mind but they are also of limited value as they are dealing with hundreds of variables any number of which can be out of line rendering the result questionable.

Last point is don't fear saturated fats, it's not these that make people fat and unhealthy in the first place unless someone is consuming silly amounts in the first place because their overall diet is shocking. The general thing about losing weight is that that's the easy part, keeping level is trickier, but your body will adjust in time, just need to focus for a few weeks for your body to adjust.