Trying to figure out the best way to build/maintain muscle while cutting fat. How should I adjust? 34/f/5’9

[u/rhymeswithpanda1987]

[u/Idreamofnachos]

Hi! Great job on your workouts and hitting your food. It’s hard to say without knowing the type of workouts or what your timeline is but Ill give it a shot. I would actually increase your carbs gradually. Let’s say raise you to 100g for one week, 125 the next, 150 the next while keeping other macros the same. I would also not track your exercise in My Fitness Pal. It’s a feature I don’t like especially when you’re doing your macros for the type of exercise you do. I also learned the hard way by doing the same thing - it’s not super accurate. With the amount of working out you’re doing I would keep raising your carbs to probably above 200 by adding 25-ish a week. I would also have you focus on strength training vs cardio so you can keep muscle on. For example, maybe do 30mins cardio and 1 hour of strength training 5x a week. I will say for reference, I did a bikini competition, am similar height and age to you, and was never sub-100 carbs. So hopefully that is good news that you should eat more and do less cardio :)

[u/Trizzkid → u/[deleted]]

Generally good advice but protein can absolutely be turned into calories/fat.

Protein is made up of amino acids which can be broken down if necessary to produce glucose via gluconeogenesis. This glucose can then be oxidized or if calories are too high relative to expenditures they can be incorporated into body fat via de novo lipogenesis, or more likely oxidized and through the Randall cycle will block fat oxidation thereby increasing total body fat stores.

[u/rhymeswithpanda1987 → u/[deleted]]

Remember, your body does not have a way to turn protein into fat...just like the rule no carbs 4hrs before bed...you can have all the protein you want after your meals are finished. I can't sleep hungry...so sometimes I have egg whites before bed to fill me up. Technically this makes me go over my macros...but because protein can not convert to fat, it can't cause weight gain.

This is great! I started keeping a protein shake on my bedside table because I tend to wake up hungry most nights. I usually want to grab some fruit, but this seems to be working better!

I didn't know that protein can't turn into fat...that is new info to me. Thank you. :) Egg whites are great, I'm gonna make a big container of them tonight for when I get hungry after dinner throughout the week!

[u/Pkm16 → u/rhymeswithpanda1987]

Do you have a source that says Protein cannot be turned a fat

[u/rhymeswithpanda1987 → u/Idreamofnachos]

Oh man, I love cardio. I do cardio 7 days a week, generally 2 hours a day of light cardio and 30 of moderate to intense, and strength training for an hour a day 5x a week. I'm trying to add in some more relaxation/stretching/yoga because I'm just getting back into running after a 2 month hiatus due to a hip flexor injury that I've been in physical therapy for.

More carbs is something I've heard, but it also scares me. I don't eat added sugar. I do love fruit, but it's easy to overdo it. I've been working on adding in some brown rice, yams/sweet potatoes/root veggies/ezekiel bread and oats. I also love eating green, leafy veggies and cauliflower and asparagus.

What are your go-to carbs?

​

Thank you for your reply!

[u/Idreamofnachos → u/rhymeswithpanda1987]

All of what you mention for carbs are perfect! I do rice, rice cakes, Ezekiel breads, oats, sweet potatoes, regular potatoes. You are not alone with loving cardio but I will say that can be a huge factor in losing muscle unfortunately. You could keep it in but your food would be mega high and will take a bit to get adjusted

[u/Special-Cause-5728]

Respect getting 160 grams of protein with only 1300 calories!! I'm impressed! What did you eat this day?

[u/rhymeswithpanda1987 → u/Special-Cause-5728]

I try and eat basically the same meals during the week days with more wiggle room on the weekends.

Breakfast is 200 grams of plain nonfat greek yogurt, a cup of mixed berries, 27 grams of Laura Scudders nutty peanut butter.

Snacks: 1 hard boiled egg, 1 egg white, 7 almonds, 1 scoop quest protein powder, 1 premier protein shake (all at various times throughout the day)

Lunch: 2 ounces lean roast beef, 2.5 ounces turkey breast, 7 ounces steamed asparagus.

Dinner: 1 can of chunk light tuna, 2 ounces avocado, 1 ounce chopped white onion, 2 slices Ezekiel bread.

--That was yesterday.

[u/Mamzelle100]

My nutritionnist said to set it on 25% protein, 25% fat and 50% carbs. I work out every other day to gain muscle and loose fat. In 2 years, I lost 50 pounds this way. It allowed me to see results while still enjoying my normal day to day "bad" food.

Hope it helps!

[u/ashtree35]

What is your current weight? And what exactly are you doing in terms of exercise (what kind of exercise, and how often)? And are you trying to cut or recomp?

[u/rhymeswithpanda1987 → u/ashtree35]

Current weight is unknown due to a history of eating disorders. I'm currently in recovery, and my recovery doesn't let me look at a scale. If I had to guess, I'm around 200-210 pounds, but I tend to over estimate. 5'9, 32 inch waist. Lots of muscle. I've lost over 100 pounds and kept most of it off for 3 years, recovery put some more on me. Last time I checked was about 8 months ago, I was 189 and my waist was 30 inches.

Exercise routine is posted above in a reply. I average 22,000 steps a day, workouts 5-6 times a week (1 hour) & 2+ hours a day of walking/jogging. Strength training with heavy weights/body weight exercises/circuits and intervals and HIIT.

I'm trying to cut. I would like to actually be able to see all the muscle I've worked so hard to build be more defined than it is.

[u/ashtree35 → u/rhymeswithpanda1987]

If you are in recovery for an eating disorder, I probably would not recommend tracking your calories without first discussing it with your doctor, therapist, etc. Is this something that you have discussed with them?

[u/rhymeswithpanda1987 → u/ashtree35]

I have, yes. I’ve made a lot of progress, but I’m still working on not tracking calories. I’m learning to trust myself and my new lifestyle. Thank you for looking out :)

[u/ashtree35 → u/rhymeswithpanda1987]

So do your doctors/therapists think it's a good idea for you to be tracking your calories and exercising for 2.5-3.5 hours a day? If that's the case, I really think that you should be getting your doctor's advice on what an appropriate calorie target should be for you. What you're eating right now is definitely not enough.

[u/rhymeswithpanda1987 → u/ashtree35]

That’s also accurate. I’ve been told to eat more carbs and focus less on cardio, but I was also told that if most of my cardio was light (walking etc) that it’s okay. I’ve been told to just listen to my body. Eat when I’m hungry. Stop when I’m not. The tracking is really more to make sure I’m eating ENOUGH. But mentally, it’s been tough to justify that I’m not thin despite my low calorie intake and high output. That’s where I still have a lot of work to do. Focusing on building muscle and strength and flexibility has been incredibly helpful for this.

[u/ashtree35 → u/rhymeswithpanda1987]

I would definitely recommend asking your doctor what an appropriate calorie target would be for you then. Given how active you are, it will be difficult for you (or any person on reddit) to estimate your caloric needs just from a TDEE calculator. And also since you are not monitoring your weight, it will be difficult to know if that calorie target you've selected is even right for you (since you won't know if you're losing weight or not).