fat loss: macro advice given varying daily activity level

[nanson]

First, thanks for answering people's questions. I have learned a lot from reading though old posts.

Stats: 38 Female, 5'4", Started lifting in January at 160 lbs, been a fairly stable 165 for the last 3 months, bia scale always says 34%, it lies, I’m not sure how much.

Current Lifts: Deadlift: 270x5 - Squat: 220 3x5 - Press: 65x5x5 - PC: 75x5x3 - Chinups: 3-5

Excessive cardio:
I've been racing trail ultramarathons for the last couple of years. I’m currently training for a trail 50k at the end of August (B-race) and a ~54 mile, 3 day stage race (also trail) at the end of September (goal race). Running ~8 hours/week at a pretty easy pace, on hilly trails and gravel roads, lots of vertical gain/week - average grade is usually 6-8%. Starting to add in a couple of higher intensity runs/ week. I’ll be closer to 10 hours/week pretty soon.

I lift 3 days a week in the evenings and harder/longer runs happen the morning after.

Diet:
Average over last 12 days eating to hunger while attempting to get in enough protein:
cal - protein - carbs - fat
2,559 - 171 - 207 - 120
-protein is pretty consistent
-total calories varies from 1700-3500 depending on how hungry I am
-no change in weight that I can tell, though I might be a pound down from where I was last month at this point in my menstrual cycle - or I’m dehydrated… it’s been ridiculously hot and humid

Questions:
I got fat over the winter (on crutches for 2 months) and now I need to lose some weight. Previously I felt best racing at 150 lbs. Not sure where I'll end up now but 165 is too heavy.

Using the To Be A Beast guidelines for female fat loss, keeping calories and protein constant and proportionally increasing fats and carbs, I get: 189 - 240 - 94, protein - carbs - fat.

In an attempt to work this out on my own, after playing around with the numbers a bit, I came up with:
T/Th/Sa: 189 - 300 - 85
M/W/F/Su: 189 - 190 - 100
as a roughly isocaloric (to my current diet) macro breakdown and working on the assumption I'll need to cycle carbs around my harder run days.

When I take off 25g carbs and 10g fat I get,
high (T/Th/Sa): 189 - 275 - 75
low: 189 - 165 - 90
as a starting point.

Am I close to something that might work?

Thanks
Lynde

[Jordan Feigenbaum]

Hi Lynde,

Thank you for your thoughtful question. I think you're really close to where I'd have you start with your macros. Excellent job

[nanson]

Excellent! Now I just need to figure out what to eat to make this happen. Looks like I'm going to have to learn how to properly cook chicken breast.

Quick follow-up questions:
1. I noticed you've mentioned Vitargo a few times as a carb supplement. Do you think it could be mixed super strength so that I can carry say 600 cal in an 8oz soft flask? Or will it not dissolve properly?

I prefer keeping my calories, water and electrolytes separate so that I can tweak my consumption of each independently as conditions change. So I'm testing out various products that might work. Ucan and Tailwind are up next. So far Gatorade, Heed, and FRS are no go's.

[Jordan Feigenbaum]

No problem As far as the vitargo, I am not sure how that would mix up to be honest. It might be a bit thick, but you can try it.