Minimizing waistline expansion

[spudness]

I'll start with the stats since that's the easy part:

· Age/Sex: 32 F.

· Current program (work-set weights and conditioning, if applicable): SS Novice program, 3x/week. Current work: Squats- 132.5, Bench- 77.5, Press- 62.5, DL- 162.5. Currently microloading at 2.5 lbs per day. Been on the program about 2 months.

· Current weight and BF% estimate: Weight on 12/23 (before 2-weeks of vacation): 156.2. Up from 150 when I started the program on 10/28. Tanita scale estimates my BF% at 36.4 (up from 35 when I started the program). I've also gained 2" on my waist and hips & not that much anywhere else.

· Current calorie and macro total (if known): When I eat "normally" (i.e. not trying to eat a certain amount of calories or hit a macro number), I eat about 1800-2000 calories with ratios of about 50% carb, 20-30% protein, 20-30% fat.

· Question (don’t just post your stats without a question):

The question is the tricky part, and I will try not to ramble too much here. There seems to be so much conflicting information on how to eat that I get very overwhelmed. Obviously, I am not a skinny dude trying to put on weight. Before starting the program, I was already up 15 lbs from where I had been the last two years. I am definitely fatter than I would like to be. I'm not so hung up on the weight number, but more would like to decrease my body fat percent & basically body recomp. I also understand that right now, I'm in the novice phase & that the focus should be on the gains more than anything. I figure when I get through the novice phase, I can either do a cut or start working in some conditioning work to help trim down some of the excess fat. But in the meantime, I would like to make sure I am not putting on more than absolutely necessary, so that when I'm ready to cut, I'm not making more work for myself.

The only information that seems to be consistent is to eat a lower carb diet if you're already overweight and to eat 1g of protein per pound of body weight. I've been trying to focus on the latter, but am having a hard time getting in that many grams of protein without taking in close to 3000 calories a day & that seems like too much. I've only just now started trying to cut back on the carbs (was waiting til the holidays were over). This is definitely a challenge, since I was a distance runner before this program, so I'm used to being able to eat as many carbs as I want. My body is used to running 20-25 miles a week, and now without any cardio, I feel like it's wanting to store fat.

Anyways, I guess what I am trying to ask is: how do I make sure that I am gaining enough to make gains, but not gaining so much that I'm just adding unnecessary fat? Any suggestions for getting in enough protein without taking in so much fat (I hate fish)? I had previously lost 50 lbs just by counting calories, so this is an entirely new way of thinking for me.

Thank you so much in advance for your advice!

[Jordan Feigenbaum]

I have a few questions for you:

1) How tall are you?
2) How long have you been microloading?
3) Are you doing any conditioning work at all?

I'm not trying to brag (okay maybe I am a little), but I'm really good/experienced at getting females in your demographic lean and strong. Once I have the aforementioned info, I'll make some suggestions.

[spudness]

I'm 4'11". I've been microloading for about 3 weeks now, after I was starting to consistently fail on my lifts, and was requiring 2-3 tries to make all the reps. I am not doing any conditioning work. When I first started the program, I was training for a marathon, but gave that up after a month in (and I wasn't really getting all my training runs in anyways). Nothing to do with the program, I had been getting progressively more injured & slower over the last several months & was back down to the pace I was at two years ago. Decided I needed to focus on strength more than anything and was tired of feeling so stressed out & miserable about running. So I've been doing nothing but the novice program since.

I do have one caveat that I should mention - I have done carb-free/low-carb diets in the past. The longest I've eaten that way is 2 months. I find that they make me very lethargic and tend to exacerbate my depression/anxiety symptoms. The carbs I do eat are very whole grain, minimally processed. I am trying to cut back on them, because I don't feel like I am doing enough cardio to justify eating too many. But I do not want to cut them out completely, because I know what happens to my mood & energy when I do.

[Jordan Feigenbaum]

Okay, there's a lot going on here, things that I can flesh out over time but instead of putting up a wall of text, I'll try to get some bullet points going for you.

-I definitely think a move to weekly programming is a smart move for you at this point. You can do this a number of ways, i.e. TM, TM split model (4x a week), 5/3/1, or a hybrid. This will wind up being a smart move for progressing while getting your nutrition dialed in.

-counting calories is gonna be a good bet for you. Going low carb in and of itself won't allow you to lose weight unless your caloric expenditure is greater than your intake. Manipulating the macronutrients changes both sides of the equations (intake and expenditure) in and of themselves, but still I find that measuring/counting is the best bet for long term progress whilst improving strength.

-going no carb/VLC can definitely do some funky things to your mood/energy levels. A lot of this also has to do with fat intake/metabolism and protein intake/metabolism. It's not as simple as saying "I didn't eat any carbs and felt like crap so I need carbs", although I'll readily admit that there's a definite "transformation" period where people's enzymatic machinery upregulate to use primarily fat for fuel. This period can vary from a week to months depending on the person.

-I'd start you at 175g protein, 165g carb, 50g fat 6 days a week and then go 140g pro/ 300g cho, 45g fat 1 day per week (on your heaviest or most volume-focused workout). To get your protein macros without going over on fat, you'll need to stick to leaner protein sources and excluding fish, that would be like egg whites, chicken breast, protein powder, fat free yogurt/cottage cheese, turkey breast, etc.

-I'd do some high-intensity conditioning every Saturday at first. Something like pushing the prowler, pulling a sled, or rowing intervals looking like 30s ALL OUT effort: 1:30 rest x 10 rounds. I'd also eventually sneak some conditioning work in after certain training sessions, but that's dependent on your training template.

Overall, a lot of this stuff is definitely consult-territory but I've given you where I would start. If you want to me to expand on these thoughts I can do that here too. My female clientele seemed to do really well on a truncated version of SS LP, then a more intermediate setup w/ some smart conditioning and being dialed in nutritionally.

[spudness]

Wow. That's a lot more info than I had expected. Thanks!

Just a few follow up questions:

- I am totally good with counting calories. I counted fairly consistently for 2 years and lost a lot of weight that way. Are you suggesting I eat below maintenance? Won't that hurt my gains?

- For your ratios, I don't see how I can eat that many grams of protein/carbs/fat while still being on a deficit. My maintenance calories are around 1800-1900. But I suppose I will have to do the math to see how it works out calorie-wise.

- I have a lot of questions regarding the weekly programming, but I won't get into that here. That seems like that could get very complicated, and right now, I'm just trying to get the nutrition sorted out, since eating for running/fat loss is so much different from eating for lifting/muscle growth. Personally, I've been very satisfied with the novice LP & feel like it's too soon to move to intermediate programming, but, like the nutrition, there is a lot of varying information regarding that as well.

Again, thanks so much for your very thorough response! The macro ratios really give me a good starting point & feel like those are very doable for me & counting calories most definitely works for me.

[Jordan Feigenbaum]

It's not really below maintenance, it's right at the bottom end of what you said you normally ate (and have been maintaining your current weight, presumably). Plus there's a carb up day in there, so your average cal's and macros change a bit with that. It won't hurt your training, provided you structure it in such a way that does not tax your recovery so much, i.e. you actually get a longer time to recover from the stimulus so you can still progress.

The calories are 1810. You'll notice I rarely ever prescribe calories, but rather I prescribe macros. The macros change week-to-week depending on the results. We shall see exactly how you respond to these macros and go from there.

Right now ,if I understand it correctly, you're adding 7.5lbs a week to your squat via microloading. This will only last maybe another 2-3 weeks tops (no matter what you ate) because you're simply nearing the end of your novice progression in my opinion. Intermediate programming can be brutally effective and efficient when you're ready for it, which you are (or at least advanced novice LP) in my opinion.

[spudness]

That clarifies things so much. Thanks! One clarification I will make is that I was maintaining my weight eating 1800-2000 calories but while also running 20-25 miles a week. Once I started cutting back on my mileage (and eventually altogether), then I started gaining. I never adjusted my diet to account for the decrease in cardio. But I'm guessing that adding in some conditioning work will help to make up for that.

This has been a huge help! Thanks again!

[Jordan Feigenbaum]

You'd be surprised by how little "net" caloric expenditure you were getting from the running, but yes, some hard conditioning will help. At the end of 7 days, if you're not down any weight at all, pull some carbs and fat out (~10g cho/4g fat)

[spudness]

I burned about 100 calories/mile according to my HRM. Or by "net", are you referring to something else?

[Jordan Feigenbaum]

Yes, by "net" I'm referring to the metabolism's ability to dynamically change and also the body's ability to get so efficient at a repetitive thing like running after consistent training (at low to moderate intensities).