Getting back into it and trying to conceive

[brasileira]

Hello! It's been a while since I've been on Bodybuilding.com. I forgot how motivating it is

I joined the gym again a couple of months ago and my turning point to really take this all seriously was a couple of days ago when I wanted to wear my favorite pair of denim shorts and I almost couldn't get them past my hips. Just last year they were slightly big on me. How disappointing!! Anyhow...

Right now, I can commit to 3-4 days a week at the gym as a reasonable goal - aiming for 2 cardio days (step master/incline on treadmill) and 2 days of lifting. Also may end up adding in training for a 10 miler.

I am 5'8 and weigh between 145 - 150 lbs right now. My weight gain is not a negative in my eyes. It's a sign of health since before now, I always unintentionally maintained my weight by going through bad phases of anxiety where I wouldn't eat and would easily lose 8-10 pounds in a month or two. I am happy to say the last year my anxiety has been better and so I have been eating nonstop =) But it's time to slow it down since I'm not happy with my body right now.

After doing some research and using the online calculators, I estimated that by doing a 1800ish calorie intake each day I should lose about 1 pound a week. I've been tracking calories in myFitnessPal the last couple of days and plan to continue this until I reach my goal - my initial goal is to get back to 135lbs like I was last year. I want to gain muscle and lose fat, of course. I am a beginner so I don't have muscle so my guess is with a good amount of protein in my diet, I should be able to do this. Thoughts?

Lastly, my husband and I are trying to conceive so I don't want to do anything that will hurt those chances. Does my 1800 calorie intake sound ok? I've always had an irregular cycle so I'm not so sure how being at a calorie deficit might impact this situation.

Any thoughts, comments, criticism is welcome. Thanks!

[Paichka]

For conception purpose, I don't see anything wrong with an 1800 calorie intake, so long as you don't notice a negative impact on your cycle. Other, smarter people may be able to weigh in on that better than I can.

I'm going to focus on your goal of losing body fat.

I am also 5'8", heavier at 160, with the goal of losing 1.5 lbs per week. I'm eating at 1400-1500 (which is a hair fast, I'm actually losing closer to 2 lbs a week recently), indicating my TDEE is something like 2,300-2,400). Based on your states, 1800 is a good intake level for a pound a week loss. Obviously the TDEE is just an estimate, and with tracking you'd be able to see where your TDEE actually is based on how much weight you lose or don't lose as you're tracking your calories.

That said, the BEST course of action may be to eat at maintenance calories (say 2,200) and just lift heavy three days a week, with additional cardio as you like. That may have a better impact on your body recomposition, since you say you don't have much muscle. You may want to try that for a few weeks (say 4-6) to see how your body changes and how you feel before imposing a deficit. You may find that staying the same weight but adding muscle will make you smaller, which fits you back into your shorts.

I'd also recommend, in addition to using MFP, that you get a food scale and weigh everything. I was shocked at how much more I was eating when I measured using measuring cups and tablespoons (peanut butter, ye gods), and I started losing consistently once I started weighing my food.

Just some thoughts from someone of similar (if slightly heavier ;-)) stats. Good luck!

[Paichka]

And bb.com isn't letting me edit for some reason, but I meant to add:

Setting your caloric intake is all well and good, but you should also set your macros. You want to eat approximately 0.8g/lb LBM in protein (which for you would be around 100g/day if you're at 22% body fat as it says in your bodyspace) and 0.4g/lb of fats (about 60g/day for you). If I were you, I'd probably do around 120-130g/day of protein, just because protein is so satiating, 60-70g/day of fats, and the rest carbs. That's just a starting point that you can adjust based on performance, body fat loss progress (judging after about a month of consistent eating), and how you're feeling.

(Smart people -- I'm curious, is there a benefit to eating higher fat for someone trying to conceive? I know super low fat diets can mess with your hormones, but OP isn't underweight.)

[brasileira]

And bb.com isn't letting me edit for some reason, but I meant to add:

Setting your caloric intake is all well and good, but you should also set your macros. You want to eat approximately 0.8g/lb LBM in protein (which for you would be around 100g/day if you're at 22% body fat as it says in your bodyspace) and 0.4g/lb of fats (about 60g/day for you). If I were you, I'd probably do around 120-130g/day of protein, just because protein is so satiating, 60-70g/day of fats, and the rest carbs. That's just a starting point that you can adjust based on performance, body fat loss progress (judging after about a month of consistent eating), and how you're feeling.

(Smart people -- I'm curious, is there a benefit to eating higher fat for someone trying to conceive? I know super low fat diets can mess with your hormones, but OP isn't underweight.)

Thanks for your input! Yes, I saw that .8 and.4 grams per lb calculation on one of the stickies so I'm aiming for those macros Forgot to add that! I also used a scale for dinner...4 ounces of milk was a lot less than I thought haha I'll make sure to keep using that.

I've always had a flat belly/waist (my body type is definitely bottom heavy), but now with this weight gain and maybe getting older (almost 30) I have a belly! So one of my biggest goals is to lose that belly fat which I know means losing fat overall. Do you think with just lifting and still eating around 2200 calories I could still lose that? Is there a downside to eating at 1800 for now or is your potential concern about the conceiving thing? Just want to understand the reasoning!
Thanks!

[Paichka]

I suggested eating at maintenance and lifting heavy because you said you wanted to gain muscle and that you didn't have very much, and that would allow you to not gain any weight but see some "newbie" strength gains in the gym as well as some body composition changes, before you decided how much of a deficit you might need. It's not practical to try to gain muscle on a deficit -- generally heavy lifting while cutting body fat helps to spare the muscle that you have, but you're not going to see the body composition you want as a general rule if you don't have a good base of muscle to begin with. You see this with the people who fall into what people call the "skinny fat" category, who have a low body weight overall but very little muscle tone, so they look flabbier than they would if they weighed more but had more muscle.

Without pictures, it's hard to judge whether you should cut, or whether eating at maintenance while lifting heavy would get you where you want to be. It's not a BAD idea to cut body fat before conceiving, just because you're going to gain weight when pregnant (if you're me, you're going to gain a LOT of weight when pregnant), and 1800 calories is reasonable for your stats, so if your primary goal is to cut body fat I think you're on the right track.

[brasileira]

I suggested eating at maintenance and lifting heavy because you said you wanted to gain muscle and that you didn't have very much, and that would allow you to not gain any weight but see some "newbie" strength gains in the gym as well as some body composition changes, before you decided how much of a deficit you might need. It's not practical to try to gain muscle on a deficit -- generally heavy lifting while cutting body fat helps to spare the muscle that you have, but you're not going to see the body composition you want as a general rule if you don't have a good base of muscle to begin with. You see this with the people who fall into what people call the "skinny fat" category, who have a low body weight overall but very little muscle tone, so they look flabbier than they would if they weighed more but had more muscle.

Without pictures, it's hard to judge whether you should cut, or whether eating at maintenance while lifting heavy would get you where you want to be. It's not a BAD idea to cut body fat before conceiving, just because you're going to gain weight when pregnant (if you're me, you're going to gain a LOT of weight when pregnant), and 1800 calories is reasonable for your stats, so if your primary goal is to cut body fat I think you're on the right track.

Got it! Thanks for all the info and help =) I think I'm going to stick to the 1800 for now as that seems like a reasonable amount and yes, I do want to lose at least some fat before getting pregnant (who knows how far I'll get before I get pregnant) so it's not piling more fat on top of it when that time comes =). If I had to choose, I'd prioritize fat loss over muscle building for right now at least.

Thank you!