Calories

[preciouskitten]

Hey all! So I'll give you a bit run down of my food history. I was always eating on the lower end, usually about 1600-1800 calories, lifting 3-4 days a week, and doing some hiit cardio. Lost some pounds and some inches, and then I stalled. Decided to do a metabolism reset before going on a cut. BAM in a couple months i've put on 9lbs and a few % of body fat. My suspected tdee is 2300 and certain calculators tell me to lose fat I should eat around 2100 or so. Not sure what I should do. Should I keep going at my tdee to try and stabilize my metabolism and then go on a cut, or should I go on a cut? Clothes are feeling tighter and all that, and i don't like it.

[juggernaut74ia]

Hey all! So I'll give you a bit run down of my food history. I was always eating on the lower end, usually about 1600-1800 calories, lifting 3-4 days a week, and doing some hiit cardio. Lost some pounds and some inches, and then I stalled. Decided to do a metabolism reset before going on a cut. BAM in a couple months i've put on 9lbs and a few % of body fat. My suspected tdee is 2300 and certain calculators tell me to lose fat I should eat around 2100 or so. Not sure what I should do. Should I keep going at my tdee to try and stabilize my metabolism and then go on a cut, or should I go on a cut? Clothes are feeling tighter and all that, and i don't like it.

First - get all that "metabolism reset/stabilize" crap out of your head. There is no need to do such a thing, nor is it possible in any meaningful sense.

What I'm getting out of your post, is that you don't really have a good handle on what you're actually eating (using words like "I was eating ABOUT _____" or "1600-1800 calories" - that being a fairly wide range or "my suspected TDEE")

My advice would be - get a food scale if you don't have one and a reliable logging/tracking system. Pick a reasonable calorie goal for your goals - if you want to cut a few pounds, say maybe 1900 calories or so. And for the next three weeks, weigh/measure and log every single morsel of food and drink that goes into your body. Do your best to hit as close to that number as you can every day. And then after three weeks measure your progress, and adjust as necessary.

[lvsteven]

I have to disagree with Juggernaut that you should DISREGARD the idea of a few weeks off.
Here is why:

A full diet break where the dieter eats at least 100g carbohydrates a day and eats at a maintenance level will allow tie dieter to return hormone levels (leptin, thyroid, testosterone etc) back to normal base levels before embarking on either weight gain or loss.

It isn't a bad idea to take upwards of 14 days to eat a nor al balanced type of diet and eat at maintenance.

I will agree that it sounds like you need a better handle on your calories. You need to have all this dialed in to see the best chance at real success.

[preciouskitten]

First - get all that "metabolism reset/stabilize" crap out of your head. There is no need to do such a thing, nor is it possible in any meaningful sense.

What I'm getting out of your post, is that you don't really have a good handle on what you're actually eating (using words like "I was eating ABOUT _____" or "1600-1800 calories" - that being a fairly wide range or "my suspected TDEE")

My advice would be - get a food scale if you don't have one and a reliable logging/tracking system. Pick a reasonable calorie goal for your goals - if you want to cut a few pounds, say maybe 1900 calories or so. And for the next three weeks, weigh/measure and log every single morsel of food and drink that goes into your body. Do your best to hit as close to that number as you can every day. And then after three weeks measure your progress, and adjust as necessary.

I have a food scale and i do weigh and measure my food. I use MFP to track everything. I had it set to 2300 calories.

It was suggested to me to eat at maintenance for 8 to 12 weeks. I keep gaining and I dont want to keep gaining so I have scaled back to 2100 for now continuing to log everything that i eat. If 2100 doesnt cut it i will adjust it lower i guess keep protein high.

[Jamesdothlift]

I don't trust MFP at all, using that thing can overshoot you'r macro's by a couple hundred calories if you'r not careful how you log your foods. Make sure you accuratly track the macro's and maybe switch to MacroTracker+ app.

[lmcfreekz]

You might want to check on the MFP numbers you're using since there are a lot of flaws on there that might be compromising the info you're using... an often overlooked thing is using 'raw' vs 'cooked' stats and also using them in correspondence with weighing when 'raw' rather than 'cooked'. You might not be doing this, but it's a common mistake...

When you're talking about a metabolism reset are you talking about reverse dieting and gradually adding calories back? Or something else?

[preciouskitten]

You might want to check on the MFP numbers you're using since there are a lot of flaws on there that might be compromising the info you're using... an often overlooked thing is using 'raw' vs 'cooked' stats and also using them in correspondence with weighing when 'raw' rather than 'cooked'. You might not be doing this, but it's a common mistake...

When you're talking about a metabolism reset are you talking about reverse dieting and gradually adding calories back? Or something else?

Pretty much reverse dieting ya back to maintenance calories. But how long do I stay at that for before I go back to a deficit?