How do y'all balance cardio with lifting heavy 3-4x a week? Also...any suggestions for healthy ways of tracking your diet?

So I used to be really into powerlifting during college. The problem was, I got a "powerlifter gut" from 1) not doing cardio and 2) dealing with some hormonal imbalances I wasn't aware of at the time/only saw a doctor for after college. Took a couple years off and lost 20 pounds, and dropped a lot of visceral fat just from doing more cardio instead/eating less since I lost my appetite. I started powerlifting again about 5 months ago, and because I take meds for my hormonal issues, I haven't been gaining as much weight as the last time I was powerlifting (even while weighting up during my workouts even faster than before)...but my stomach is definitely getting softer again. I'm very concerned about this from a health standpoint - diabetes, heart disease, stroke, high BP run in my family like crazy. I know having more visceral fat only makes this worse, so I'm trying to keep off the belly fat while doing a sport I love.

I've been kickboxing once a week, but I don't think this is enough (clearly, since I'm still starting to get a bit of a gut despite eating more or less the same as I used to/doing this level of cardio). So I'm trying to find out what other cardio workouts I can do that won't cause my lifting/muscle building to take too much of a hit.

This probably also will lead to me having to track what I eat somehow. Which I've kind of been avoiding, since I feel like I become crazy and obsessive when I count calories and old patterns of disordered eating start coming back. I've tried CICO, IMF, IIFYM in the past...all make me pretty crazy because of my perfectionist tendencies. Now I just eat healthfully and avoid sugar/processed foods as much as possible largely due to my heart health concerns. But I'm thinking I may be overconsuming healthy foods (even if just by small amounts every day), if that makes sense. I would love to hear about any healthy approaches to tracking what you eat!

So I used to be really into powerlifting during college. The problem was, I got a "powerlifter gut" from 1) not doing cardio and 2) dealing with some hormonal imbalances I wasn't aware of at the time/only saw a doctor for after college. Took a couple years off and lost 20 pounds, and dropped a lot of visceral fat just from doing more cardio instead/eating less since I lost my appetite. I started powerlifting again about 5 months ago, and because I take meds for my hormonal issues, I haven't been gaining as much weight as the last time I was powerlifting (even while weighting up during my workouts even faster than before)...but my stomach is definitely getting softer again. I'm very concerned about this from a health standpoint - diabetes, heart disease, stroke, high BP run in my family like crazy. I know having more visceral fat only makes this worse, so I'm trying to keep off the belly fat while doing a sport I love.I've been kickboxing once a week, but I don't think this is enough (clearly, since I'm still starting to get a bit of a gut despite eating more or less the same as I used to/doing this level of cardio). So I'm trying to find out what other cardio workouts I can do that won't cause my lifting/muscle building to take too much of a hit.This probably also will lead to me having to track what I eat somehow. Which I've kind of been avoiding, since I feel like I become crazy and obsessive when I count calories and old patterns of disordered eating start coming back. I've tried CICO, IMF, IIFYM in the past...all make me pretty crazy because of my perfectionist tendencies. Now I just eat healthfully and avoid sugar/processed foods as much as possible largely due to my heart health concerns. But I'm thinking I may be overconsuming healthy foods (even if just by small amounts every day), if that makes sense. I would love to hear about any healthy approaches to tracking what you eat! https://ift.tt/eA8V8J https://ift.tt/2El1qiD