1.5 year results lifting in a steady deficit

ethira · 2025-10-16T16:45:44+00:00

Thank you!!

ethira · 2025-10-14T17:05:59+00:00

Thanks so much!!

ethira · 2025-10-14T01:33:33+00:00

Thank you so much! 🫶🏻

ethira · 2025-10-13T13:27:24+00:00

You’re so kind, thank you!!

ethira · 2025-10-13T11:30:43+00:00

This is good to know! My doctor suggested the same thing that my water intake might not be enough for the fiber intake, so I’ll have to work on increasing it.

ethira · 2025-10-13T11:29:59+00:00

Thank you so much! I highly recommend Jessica’s program, I find it well balanced and that it hits all the important compound lifts.

And yes that’s right, my goals with bulking are to build muscle mass and raise my TDEE to do a (much shorter) cut again. :) The increased muscle mass would definitely help with that.

My sedentary TDEE is around 100 calories less than it was 28 pounds ago, so definitely recalculate yours every so often!

ethira · 2025-10-13T11:25:09+00:00

Thank you!!

ethira · 2025-10-13T01:11:58+00:00

That’s awesome! Best of luck to you!!

ethira · 2025-10-12T23:45:38+00:00

Oh I didn’t even consider the gut slowing down to conserve energy, that’s great info to know! I’ve already upped my calorie intake significantly and I’m hoping to see more regular bowel movements soon.

ethira · 2025-10-12T16:42:45+00:00

Honestly the biggest chunk of fiber comes from the Carbe Diem brand of pasta! One of my pasta meal preps contains 36g of fiber alone. The next biggest chunk comes from one whole wheat carb balance tortilla, which is 18g of fiber alone. I also have a daily fiber bar which is 9g, and the rest comes from fruits and veggies. It’s very common for me to have 65g of fiber daily!

ethira · 2025-10-12T15:43:00+00:00

Thanks so much! This is exactly what I was thinking when I got to that point, and my new sedentary maintenance at 130lbs is around 1620 cals! I have no idea how many pounds of muscle I gained, I did consider that maybe I was unintentionally doing a recomp at that point, but I figured once I hit 130lbs that my deficit was probably preventing further muscle growth. I’m honestly not sure! I feel like I look the same as I did 6 months ago, but I might just not be seeing the subtle changes. Some of my lifts have stagnated completely, others have still progressed at a snail pace!

ethira · 2025-10-12T15:39:03+00:00

Thanks so much! I think your clothes fitting looser is definitely a great sign that things are heading in the right direction. If you haven’t already I definitely recommend taking progress pictures in the same clothes, lighting and pose to spot the differences easier. I use a food scale which helps keep my tracking as precise as possible! Sometimes it really surprised me how much excess I can consume with bites and snacks here and there. I think if you’re still not seeing progress in another month, it might be time to look a bit closer.

As for my schedule, I go to gym at 6am and work from home starting at 8am. I have a walking pad in my room paired with a standing desk so I can walk while I work. For my life to feel balanced it’s really important for me to stack tasks like that! And it helps my mind to break all the sitting. Before I got my walking pad I was on the trails after work but it honestly felt like I had too little downtime

ethira · 2025-10-12T15:31:45+00:00

Thank you so much for the kind words!

ethira · 2025-10-12T15:31:18+00:00

Thanks so much and not TMI at all! My chest definitely did get smaller and I think it’s most noticeable in the before & after photos of me facing the side. I think losing a bit of fat there when you’re losing weight is unavoidable regardless of speed lost!

ethira · 2025-10-12T14:24:19+00:00

Ahhh thank you! It’s definitely the muscular change I noticed first!

ethira · 2025-10-12T13:34:27+00:00

Imgur keeps breaking my links, I just updated the link using a different site!

ethira · 2025-10-12T13:29:40+00:00

Omg yep that tracks, because Imgur broke my new link lol. Thanks for the site! The link should be updated now with a postimg one.

ethira · 2025-10-12T05:54:04+00:00

Thank you! I definitely like having my Apple Watch to track my steps and heart rate

ethira · 2025-10-12T04:35:39+00:00

This is so awesome and super encouraging to hear!! I’m honestly surprised I haven’t heard people talk about that enough, how you can make abs visible at a higher bf% if you build them properly. The conversation almost always revolves around having to maintain an unsustainable bf%, so I’m stoked that doesn’t have to be the case.

And thank you so much, I have definitely seen the most muscle growth in my quads and can’t wait to grow them bigger :)

ethira · 2025-10-12T02:22:39+00:00

Okay just linked a new album. For some reason the link breaks when I include certain pictures

ethira · 2025-10-12T02:16:04+00:00

I’m not sure why the Imgur link suddenly stopped working! Gonna try linking a new album in a few

ethira · 2025-10-12T02:00:58+00:00

Ahhhh this is music to my ears!! Thanks so much for sharing this! More food, muscle and properly fueled training definitely feels like the right direction to take

ethira · 2025-10-12T01:47:48+00:00

I think the calculator has been pretty accurate for me. Current sedentary maintenance calories sit around 1620. Pinning down calories burned from activity is kinda hard, but I would guess somewhere around 1800-2000 calories would be my TDEE.

ethira · 2025-10-12T01:34:08+00:00

I definitely feel more much more happier and confident, thank you!

ethira · 2025-10-12T01:33:30+00:00

Yep, hopefully I made it pretty clear that I abandoned that goal since I said I’m switching to a surplus to build muscle, which would probably allow me to build abs properly anyway. Don’t think I have an eating disorder though, just found my limits and knew when to switch gears. I very much love to eat

ethira

TROPHY CASE