How long to stay in deficit?

[FemmeFatale28]

I spend alot of time on the female side of this website but I thought I would take this question out and see what the general concensus is. Okay.

I have been on a routine for about 6-7 weeks. Ive lost alot of inches and about 5lbs because the scale just now has decided to move. Honestly I think I experienced a "woosh" Anyways.. Im at 1700 calories which is a 20% deficit from percieved maintainence for me. Before I came here I had a bad problem of undereatting and bingeing lifting NO weights, cardio queen = no results. However, the females here and articles Ive read have set me straight and Im well on my way. My concern now is that since Ive got my metabolism working again that I might again stall it out by staying in deficit too long. I have about 25lbs of fat I want to shed, so thats 12-15 more weeks of deficit, respectively. Assuming my body cooperates. That will bring me to 20+ weeks of deficit should I be breaking in there somewhere? Like a week of eating at "maintainence" at any point? Also, my macro break down right now is 45/25c/30f which Im happy with. Not uncomfortable with this at all. I take in about 106-112g of carbs everyday. At this amount of carbs are refeeds necessary? I dont really know much about refeeds, and how they apply to moderate carb intake, if at all. Any insight would be helpful.

Thanks

[Nab0610]

You'll know if you need to re-feed on the carbs

Just monitor your workouts both cardio and weightlifting, if your losing your pump during your exercises, or there becoming increasingly more difficult and tiring earlier on. Your body probably needs a day with more carbs in it.

Whenever I'm cutting/dieting and need to re feed on carbs I'll up my calories about 200-300 for 2 days and I'll eat double the amount of carbs on those days. I'll also cut my protein consumption a little bit on those days to meet my needs.

You shouldn't worry about those carbs being turned to fat as you should be eating them evenly spaced throughout your day, and your muscle glycogen (carb storage) will be low if your pumps are weak and your tiring easily. So your muscles will basically act like sponges and suck up those extra carbs.

As far as eating at maintenance at some point, everybody is different, if you notice your weight loss is stalling out and your also not losing any inches anywhere for something like 7-10 days than yes eating at maintenance for a week should jump start your fat loss again.

Another good thing to do is mix up your cardio after 20 weeks your body will become extremely efficient at performing a particular exercise. I prefer a nice mix of elliptical, cycling, and jogging. I'll also mix it up between interval training and steady state cardio on all 3 of those exercises.

[FemmeFatale28]

sweet.. thank you

I read so much stuff, and sometimes I get confused on what pertains to be NOW as opposed to what will pertain to me when I am lean. I do have a goal of being able to compete in a figure competition by 2012. Also Im working on my degree in health, fitness and exercises studies I just confuse the hell out of myself with all this reading. I am trying to make notes of everything as I go but sometimes its a little easier said than done

[itsaburgerrun]

http://www.ironaddicts.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=20966

you are better off looking for a recomp diet plan on that site rather then an all out cutting diet.

[Nab0610]

Yea it can be very confusing...I remember when I first started dieting about 4 years ago and fifty different people were telling me fifty different variations of similar things.

I just found what worked for me best than I continued playing with it and adjusting it a little here and there based off of additional advice I received. Now 4 years later I know what works good for me.

Best piece of advice I can give you is just because something worked for one person doesn't mean its going to work for you. You have to do the diet and nutrition program that works for you. I personally absolutely love M&M's, yea there terrible for you, but I know how many calories/macros I need to reach my particular goal so now I'm completely comfortably eating a normal sized pack of them 2-3x a week and knowing that I'm not completely sabotaging all my efforts. If your diet is basically torturing yourself you'll be miserable and eventually you'll probably cave in...

[FemmeFatale28]

Yea it can be very confusing...I remember when I first started dieting about 4 years ago and fifty different people were telling me fifty different variations of similar things.

I just found what worked for me best than I continued playing with it and adjusting it a little here and there based off of additional advice I received. Now 4 years later I know what works good for me.

Best piece of advice I can give you is just because something worked for one person doesn't mean its going to work for you. You have to do the diet and nutrition program that works for you. I personally absolutely love M&M's, yea there terrible for you, but I know how many calories/macros I need to reach my particular goal so now I'm completely comfortably eating a normal sized pack of them 2-3x a week and knowing that I'm not completely sabotaging all my efforts. If your diet is basically torturing yourself you'll be miserable and eventually you'll probably cave in...

Thats what I am loving about my "diet" is that its working for me and I know just what I can have. Im not deprived at all. I wouldnt be able to stick with it if I felt deprived I would be reverting to old habits. Granted Im not big on M&M's but I have a huge sweet tooth, luckily I have yummy protein powders that I get creative with.

[txapn]

I just found what worked for me best than I continued playing with it and adjusting it a little here and there based off of additional advice I received. Now 4 years later I know what works good for me.
.

^good advice there!

and to the OP, like Nab said i too would try to eat at maintance about 1-2 days a week (keeping in a deficit the other5-6 days), and see how ur body reacts to it!

[ricohitman]

You'll know if you need to re-feed on the carbs

Just monitor your workouts both cardio and weightlifting, if your losing your pump during your exercises, or there becoming increasingly more difficult and tiring earlier on. Your body probably needs a day with more carbs in it.

Whenever I'm cutting/dieting and need to re feed on carbs I'll up my calories about 200-300 for 2 days and I'll eat double the amount of carbs on those days. I'll also cut my protein consumption a little bit on those days to meet my needs.

You shouldn't worry about those carbs being turned to fat as you should be eating them evenly spaced throughout your day, and your muscle glycogen (carb storage) will be low if your pumps are weak and your tiring easily. So your muscles will basically act like sponges and suck up those extra carbs.

As far as eating at maintenance at some point, everybody is different, if you notice your weight loss is stalling out and your also not losing any inches anywhere for something like 7-10 days than yes eating at maintenance for a week should jump start your fat loss again.

Another good thing to do is mix up your cardio after 20 weeks your body will become extremely efficient at performing a particular exercise. I prefer a nice mix of elliptical, cycling, and jogging. I'll also mix it up between interval training and steady state cardio on all 3 of those exercises.

Extremely good advice here. Repped for awesomeness.

[mlp_22531]

http://www.ironaddicts.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=20966

you are better off looking for a recomp diet plan on that site rather then an all out cutting diet.

I'm four weeks into a ten week experiment with a diet/exercise program I created that's very similar to the programs in this thread. My goal is to lose 2 lbs of fat per week and gain 1/2 lb muscle per week. I know this is impossible for most, but as a lifting newbie I think I have a chance.

[FemmeFatale28]

I'm four weeks into a ten week experiment with a diet/exercise program I created that's very similar to the programs in this thread. My goal is to lose 2 lbs of fat per week and gain 1/2 lb muscle per week. I know this is impossible for most, but as a lifting newbie I think I have a chance.

I had originally planned to do carb/calorie cycling but I was advise by pretty reliable sources that when you have quite a bit to lose you are better off waiting until you are on the leaner side before there will really be a need to do this. Thats the reason why I havent been doing that.