Calories & macros when lifting
 

There are a bunch of you ladies I'd really love to know what your calories and macros (especially protein) look like on your on days, and your off days.

I realize that things are indivudualized, but I'm struggling with knowing how much to eat, and how much protein to intake. I've upped my lifting days to 4 days a week, but I haven't adjusted my calories or macros. I feel like that's probably a problem, but I don't know how much I should be eating calorie-wise and protein-wise.

I have been shooting for 1300-1600 on off days and 1500-1700 on workout days. My protein kind of varies but I aim for 120, sometimes I don't make it, sometimes I'm over.

No advice except to say I will be watching this thread since I am curious too!

On days: 1500-1800 (besides lifting I also do about an hour of cardio)

Off days: 1200-1500 (1.5-2 hours of cardio)

I try to keep my macros generally the same every day. I don't really aim for a certain grammage... But it's about 40-45% carbs, 30-35% protein, 25% fat.

I used the calculator here: http://www.1percentedge.com/ifcalc/ to redo my macros a bit ago.

I'm shooting for about 1400 calories on rest days 15%carbs/40%protein/45%fat. On training days I'm trying for 2200 (but that's HARD to hit) 30%carbs/40%protein/30%fat. I get all my carbs from fruit, sweet potatoes, and veg... occassionally white rice. I'm probably overthinking it, I don't know. I'm a control freak :).

This puts my protein grams right about even with my weight. I shoot for 1gm of protein per lb. of body weight.

ETA: I train on Tues/Thurs/Sat. 1.5-2 hours of heavy lifting. Off days I'll swim or walk or pedal a recumbant bike at high resistance while I study.

I love this tool! Thank you for posting it!

OMG how in the world do you train for THAT long at once? Do you rest between sets!? What do you do!?



Thanks for the replies so far! And the link!

I just LOVE it!! I have 2 VERY high energy children. Training is a break, compared to that! :dizzy: I do rest between exercises for a second... take my time and stretch and walk around the track.

I alternate upper and lower body. On upper body days I do military presses, bench presses, attempt to do pullups (my summer goal), lats, rowing, curls... etc etc. I switch it up. On leg days I do deadlifts, squats, lunges, farmer walks, leg presses, step ups - lots of variations of each... I take my time and go heavy! :carrot:

How many sets and reps do you do?

My 20 - 30 minute weight training sessions are feeling a little inadequate now :o I've been doing 3 sets, higher reps (usually 15), but I do compound sets so I don't rest between exercises I just go to my next one and so on. I've been considering changing it to lower reps, higher weight, rest between sets. I start overthinking things and get confused and don't know what to do! As I've lost more weight I've started wanting to focus more on weight training because I want to be strong and have muscles! I just can never decide what road to take to get there, if that makes sense.

Haha yeah. I overthink too. I do 3 working sets of 6, usually. So heavy I can barely get them up by the last rep. I hit failure on each set so I need to rest for a few seconds between. It takes a bit longer, I think. I've been making progress a lot quicker going heavier/lower reps than I did on sets of 15-20, like I was doing before.

OMG I am clearly undereating according to that calculator. No wonder why I'm back down to 110 again. I can't seem to gain anything past this. I went from 107 to 110 for a while, got to 112 for a bit and now back to 110. I think my body likes 110lbs.

Anyway, I used to lift twice a week for 20-45min depending on what time I had (heavy weight low reps). And some bodyweight exercises for 15mins or so. I recently added another lift to make it three times a week. After two of my heavy lifts I take a spin class for another 45 min which usually is a mix of cardio and strength training (probably why my thighs are so big, but they're muscle!).

Once or twice a week in addition to the other stuff I do I take a boot camp class and on Sundays I take a spin/weights/abs class.

I give myself one rest day a week but I can't sit still so I walk around a lot.


Food wise I was trying to get to 2500 calories a day to bulk (with the ultimate goal of hitting 3000), which I did for a while but then I started slacking again and eating ~2000, and a few days I ended up under that. I don't really count my macros too much, but I just try to choose foods higher in protein. I've started consciously trying to get more healthy fats into my diet too.

I probably need to cut out some of that exercise so it'll be easier to eat enough. Thing is this teacher is on summer break and can't sit still!

My initial instinct was to do lower reps higher weight. I signed up for a trainer who I meet with twice a month, mainly for accountability, and since our 1st meeting she's had me doing high reps, compound sets, lower weights. So I figured well, I will do what she says. I think I'll let her know I'd like to start lifting heavier so she can assist me in attaining those goals, and start doing that. I have not progressed in strength really at all since I started, only in endurance really, which I'm not thrilled about.

I'm questioning ALL THAT I KNOW! :lol:

I'm still working to cut fat, and I usually net 2000-2100 calories. On my workout days, that means my total intake is ~2300 or so. Occasionally I'm over that, and occasionally I'm under.

I don't actually track macros other than making sure I get at least 150g of protein per day. I do tend to eat lower carb on my rest days than workout days, but I don't track it. Most of my carbs come from sweet potatoes and vegetables with a little bit of fruit (usually berries).

There's some new research indicating that higher reps are good for hypertrophy (building muscle)*, BUT you still have to be lifting heavy. That's really the crucial thing: whether you're doing shorter sets or longer sets, you need to be close to exhausted at the end of each set (and eating enough to sustain muscle development).

One option is to mix it up (they call this 'periodization'). Do 2x12 one day, 4x6 the next, then 3x10, or etc. This is a bit tricky because you have to know how to shift the weights around to lift heavy for each of the rep schemes, but it's kind of fun and effective.


The newest NROL book begins with longer sets--15 I think. I was confused by this and asked about it on the NROL board. Lou Schuler (the author) responded and explained about it. This is what he wrote:

You can read the entire thread here: http://www.jpfitness.com/showthread.php?t=50544

Oh man, now I'm kinda confused... Back to some experimenting...

Augh! I'm eating like 1/3 of the recommended protein grams according to that IF calculator. I probably average my weight in KILOGRAMS most days, not POUNDS. Suppose I wasn't taking whatever training I'm doing seriously enough. Time to shift those macros...