I went 5 weeks without missing any gym time and I pushed and improved every single workout. I didn't lose an ounce of fat, or mass. I wasn't eating terribly, but I guess I was still eating too much.
In the last 4 weeks, I've used Myfitnesspal and have been fanatic about counting calories and have dropped 10 noticeable pounds. I counted calories in the past but the apps I had used were nowhere near as good as MFP. Its database is very deep and the scanner makes it easy. I love personal stats and watching my macro numbers makes this all kind of fun for me. If I'm not sure where a certain food will put me, I'll add it before I eat it to make sure it fits my plan.
The only tricky part is determining your BMR and activities' caloric burn accurately. I've seen a few different formulas that can have a variance of 300 calories a day, which is pretty significant. I cut back 100 calories this week to compensate for my new weight and today's run wore me down hard. But I'm also set a couple personal bests with the weights so maybe that was a factor.
TLDR: Count your calories!
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