Eat & Exercise Less vs. Eat & Exercise More

[Deleted member 106824]

Two general approaches to dieting. Eating less and exercising less crowd say they want to focus more on recovery, let the fat loss happen and not stress the body too much. Eating more and exercising more crowd say they want to force the fat loss to happen, make the adaptations, the body will recover and more food will allow a better overall effect.

I've seen many coaches on both sides of the spectrum, both bringing clients in looking fantastic. From 3 days per week lifting and only LISS to 6 days per week lifting, daily cardio/HIIT and double sessions, etc (with the 2nd group obviously needing more food).

So both approaches have their pros and cons. When dieting, which do you lean towards and why do you feel it's better for you? Obviously it's not always one or the other, it can be a middle ground or switch back and forth, but would you say you tend to opt for eating less and doing minimal cardio/training or still eating as much as possible but really amping up the GPP/cardio/training?

Referring mostly to general dieting, not the last month or so of a contest prep.

Edit: Also by "exercising less" I just mean in general, not necessarily less than you were when in a gaining phase, and by "eating more" I again mean relatively...not actually more calories than you were when gaining.

 

[hilly2008]

I like to do more and eat more but the food still comes down low in the end.

I do like to lift weights more n do less cardio

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[tr]

Definately EAT MORE AND TRAIN MORE !!!
I am training more than ever (every body part 2 sometimes 3 times a week, 20 sets each time, back legs even more), eating very high calorie high carbohydrate diet, moderate protein, I am just on trt with some dbol prew, but I look my best ever, actally I look no more than 4 weeks out year round and better than guys whose are on 2+G aas,hgh,slin

 

[Deleted member 106824]

Definately EAT MORE AND TRAIN MORE !!!
I am training more than ever (every body part 2 sometimes 3 times a week, 20 sets each time, back legs even more), eating very high calorie high carbohydrate diet, moderate protein, I am just on trt with some dbol prew, but I look my best ever, actally I look no more than 4 weeks out year round and better than guys whose are on 2+G aas,hgh,slin

Figured you'd chime in, I had you in mind when I thought about the 'eat more exercise more' crowd lol I recall you always doing tons of volume, sometimes double sessions I think, and eating a lot. Do you tend to do your sessions all in one go or break it up like training in the morning and cardio at night? What's a typical week look like for you training and nutrition wise while actively striving for fat loss?

I do like the eat more exercise more approach as it allows more food. The times when I've gone with very low exercise and eating (16-1800 calories and just 3-4 workouts per week) when dieting I've gotten annoyingly food focused, constantly on my mind and ridiculous cravings. Having said that there seems to be a limit to how much I can eat if I want fat loss...even if I am doing daily HIIT (which I have experimented with) and 4 workouts per week I still can't eat much more than 2400-2600 and actively lose fat, not consistently at least.

Also when activity gets too high it seems my body starts fighting back and I'll have a stall where nothing seems to happen and I just get very lethargic/worn out. This could be from increased water weight from cortisol because often just a few days of a break will clear it up and I'll drop a few pounds suddenly, but the breaks definitely seem necessary.

 

[275bills]

How come eat more and train less isn't a option?

 

[Deleted member 106824]

How come eat more and train less isn't a option?

For dieting? Good luck lol where will the deficit come from, unless you're just largely manipulating drugs.

 

[ryanbCXG]

Insatiable appetite and a love for training always means more of both and the most of both possible

 

[jrock00123]

I think it depends on the type of training. Adding more lifting volume with a little more food seems ideal. However, the amount of volume each person can handle is very individualistic.

I am not a fan of steady state cardio. A couple of HIIT sessions could be beneficial, but again this will effect the quality and volume of strength training.

This summer I did the lower calorie approach with daily walking. I am the leanest I've ever been without 45+ minutes of treadmill boredom.

 

[sammy555]

Eat less do less for me. I'll never drop intensity and reduce volume before I take a hit on the amount of weight i lift. I hold muscle real well doing this. I prefer less gear cutting to. Just feel better and don't get the cravings for food. I work 12 hour shifts and my son stays with me on days of so this approach is as much out of necessity than anything. So long as I get 3 sessions in at gym I can use my cross trainer at home when I like. I will increase cardio before stopping carbs though

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[Deleted member 106824]

Insatiable appetite and a love for training always means more of both and the most of both possible

Ideally this is what I would do as well. Before I used to say I'd rather just not do cardio but now I'm so damn hungry I'd gladly do it to get more.

Schedule also comes into play a lot too though. With work, school, etc sometimes we just can't spend a ton of time throughout the week training

I think it depends on the type of training. Adding more lifting volume with a little more food seems ideal. However, the amount of volume each person can handle is very individualistic.

I am not a fan of steady state cardio. A couple of HIIT sessions could be beneficial, but again this will effect the quality and volume of strength training.

This summer I did the lower calorie approach with daily walking. I am the leanest I've ever been without 45+ minutes of treadmill boredom.

Recovery is definitely a big factor. The reality is adding 50% more volume to your lifting probably won't increase weekly caloric expenditure that much but it will greatly impact recovery. I think that's one of the main issues with the "eat more exercise more" approach, often the added recovery needed from the increased training is more than the added calories can give while still being in a deficit.

That's where cardio comes in I think because it shouldn't in theory cause a huge increase in need for recovery but even that needs to be balanced because of course HIIT can take it's toll. LISS isn't so taxing but you need much more of it to have any significant benefit to your fat loss

How many calories are you eating to drop weight with just the daily cardio? Last week I ate 2000 calories with no cardio and barely dropped anything. This week will be 2400 calories but with 3-4 HIIT sessions to compare the contrasting methods

Eat less do less for me. I'll never drop intensity and reduce volume before I take a hit on the amount of weight i lift. I hold muscle real well doing this. I prefer less gear cutting to. Just feel better and don't get the cravings for food. I work 12 hour shifts and my son stays with me on days of so this approach is as much out of necessity than anything. So long as I get 3 sessions in at gym I can use my cross trainer at home when I like. I will increase cardio before stopping carbs though

The time commitment is definitely a factor in which method you can use. I find that keeping busy like that makes the "eat less train less" approach much more tolerable. Right now I am basically home studying all day so I'm very aware of my hunger and just waiting around to eat again. When I'm actively busy at work I can have much longer periods of time without even thinking about it too much (this was of course negated when I used to work in a restaurant lol that was hell while dieting).

If I recall you still have a pretty damn high caloric intake even when dieting though right?

 

[sammy555]

The time commitment is definitely a factor in which method you can use. I find that keeping busy like that makes the "eat less train less" approach much more tolerable. Right now I am basically home studying all day so I'm very aware of my hunger and just waiting around to eat again. When I'm actively busy at work I can have much longer periods of time without even thinking about it too much (this was of course negated when I used to work in a restaurant lol that was hell while dieting).

If I recall you still have a pretty damn high caloric intake even when dieting though right?

Is all relative I suppose. Never below 300 carbs, 3000 calories is as low as I go at end of cut. This is very tough for me and nearly kills me. I see guys bigger than me talking about 2000 calories and 100 carbs and just can't imagine how they function lol. I'm a bit bigger and stronger now so hoping to stay at 350 carbs next cut and no lower than 3200 cals by end. Not sure why i need so much food to function, I just do.


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[Deleted member 106824]

Is all relative I suppose. Never below 300 carbs, 3000 calories is as low as I go at end of cut. This is very tough for me and nearly kills me. I see guys bigger than me talking about 2000 calories and 100 carbs and just can't imagine how they function lol. I'm a bit bigger and stronger now so hoping to stay at 350 carbs next cut and no lower than 3200 cals by end. Not sure why i need so much food to function, I just do.

Yup that'd be me lol 2000 calories or so with the occasional refeed. 3000-3200 is where I'm at for a bulk honestly. Huge variability.

Idk if it's just because I seem particularly susceptible to water weight / bloat, but with the "eat more exercise more" approach it's definitely a bit harder to track progress at times because the increased food makes water weight shifts and food bulk swings a larger variable. 2400 calories yesterday (bumped up from 2000) and I'm up 3lb in 1 day...

 

[anarchocapitalist]

im just a nobody who likes a workout but when im dieting i start off at 3600 calories and slowly cut as i need to lose weight. i cut fat calories. so low fat would be like:

breakfast egg whites / oats / peanut butter
4 meals of lean meat / rice / peanut butter ... the occasional steak or fish.
last meal egg whits / peanut butter

i keep the carbs high im eating 1 cup oats and 1 cup rice per meal. the peanut butter is a savior.

i don't do more than 20 min cardio per day tho i don't really need to.

 

[IronManRep]

Eat more and train more. No doubt!

 

[Cerberus777]

What works for me isnt an option. I start with eat more exercise more, when I stall I reduce cardio some and drop calories (almost always from carbs) then increase cadio when I stall. So I end up doing both every few weeks.....and end up on the eat less and exercise more lol.

 

[Mini Truck]

Adaptation 101 .
There is nothing "constant" about progression.

Plus the older you get................you'll see !!!!!!

-MT

What works for me isnt an option. I start with eat more exercise more, when I stall I reduce cardio some and drop calories (almost always from carbs) then increase cadio when I stall. So I end up doing both every few weeks.....and end up on the eat less and exercise more lol.

 

[Cerberus777]

Adaptation 101 .
There is nothing "constant" about progression.

Plus the older you get................you'll see !!!!!!

-MT

Yup, if nothing changes, than nothing will change. Life is just like that.

 

[Deleted member 106824]

What works for me isnt an option. I start with eat more exercise more, when I stall I reduce cardio some and drop calories (almost always from carbs) then increase cadio when I stall. So I end up doing both every few weeks.....and end up on the eat less and exercise more lol.

Lol good point, that's basically how it is for me with the eventual end being eat less and exercise more.

I'm surprised by the poll results, looks like twice as many people go with "eat less exercise less". I expected a lot of guys here to be all about maximizing both.

On another forum there was a guy telling me how my diet was way too restrictive and I was not going to make progress because I was starving myself and doing too much activity. But this was on ~2000 calories with a refeed and daily cardio. I listened to him as I got off cycle and bumped it up to 2400 but as I said it was off cycle so I lost a ton of bloat and he thought it was working but once the water was off it completely stalled and in my opinion it's an incorrect view. Yes at times you need to back off but it's unrealistic to think anyone can keep getting as lean as they want on 2400+ with little cardio, especially endos like us. I can think of 5+ guys I know right now, all more muscular than me (but around the same weight) who are dieting with around 2000 calories right now and only very moderate refeeds of 3000-3500 so I don't think I'm out of the norm or doing anything too extreme with dropping below 2400 especially with the refeeds thrown in.

Giving oneself enough time is a big part of it but I think eventually a lot of dieters get to the point of needing to eat less and exercise a lot.

Oh and one method I will not go back to is the "exercise less but more T3" approach lol I still do not completely understand scientifically why but it seems past the 50mcg point (roughly) the deficit created by more T3 just seems to be more catabolic than an equal amount created by diet or exercise. Can't seem to find a legitimate explanation for this though.

 

[sma]

Training should stay the same until you are 7-6% bf . Indivuals who are naturally lean don't have a problem at all but most people 7-6% training takes a hit because there body's are used to holding more fat( so there out of homeostatis). That is also when diet plays a huge role specifically sodium / potassium and where the individuals hold water.

Diet and cardio are what should be focused on for fat loss. Think about it why would you train more ? To burn more calories all your doing is wearing your joints and ligaments out more . Unless your blasting gh or are genetic elite ( meaning strong joints tendons) < ex. Look at some one like Kai Greene do you see his ROM and flexibility with that amount of muscle it's absurd that is a quality which shows ability to train high frequency high volume.(it doesn't mean he will be able to recover from it that's not something predictable it's only trial and error.)

Lose fat: 1. Add cardio 2. Drop cals 3. You get the point

Of course add gh and insulin and it's a different story

 

[sma]

Is all relative I suppose. Never below 300 carbs, 3000 calories is as low as I go at end of cut. This is very tough for me and nearly kills me. I see guys bigger than me talking about 2000 calories and 100 carbs and just can't imagine how they function lol. I'm a bit bigger and stronger now so hoping to stay at 350 carbs next cut and no lower than 3200 cals by end. Not sure why i need so much food to function, I just do.


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Sounds like you just love to eat bro. You never know where your going to end up in terms of macros on cut as long as you reach your goal should be the focus point.