Am I eating enough??

adrina037
adrina037 Posts: 8 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hello MyFitness Pal Community!! This is my first time reaching out to the community but I am looking for any tips, feedback or support on my journey. I am a 34 year old woman, 5'8" and SW: 225, CW:220 GW: 170. I have my calories set at 1500 calories to eat a day. I also use a armband bodybugg to track steps and calories burned. I workout for an hour at least 3 days a week and I am a school counselor so I do a lot of walking throughout the day. I am concerned that I am not eating enough food :\ I lost weight before using the tracking calories method and I lost pretty consistently, however I was not exercising regularly as I am now. Any tips? My TDEE is between 2428-2737 and my BMR is 1766.

Replies

  • PrizePopple
    PrizePopple Posts: 3,133 Member
    http://iifym.com/tdee-calculator/

    That says your TDEE exercising 3 times a week is 2404. TDEE -20% would be 1923. BMR is 1749.

    As I understand it (and I'm still learning) eating under BMR on a regular basis is not good as that is what your body would need to function if you were comatose. Eating at TDEE -20% you would NOT eat any exercise calories back.

    In the end I guess it really boils down to how you're feeling. I was eating under BMR lately and I started getting to a point where I was ravenous every night. So now I'm eating at roughly TDEE -20% (or trying to anyhow).
  • glasshalffull713
    glasshalffull713 Posts: 323 Member
    If you are eating less than you consume you should lose weight regardless. How long has it been since you have not lost anything?

    Sounds like you have lots of wiggle room if your TDEE is ~2400 and you are eating 1500, so if the exercise is making you feel hungrier, you could up your calories a bit and still lose weight.
  • adrina037
    adrina037 Posts: 8 Member
    I compared light exercise(1-3) to moderate exercise(3-5) to gather that TDEE range...
  • adrina037
    adrina037 Posts: 8 Member
    glass
    glasshalffull713 wrote: »
    If you are eating less than you consume you should lose weight regardless. How long has it been since you have not lost anything?

    Sounds like you have lots of wiggle room if your TDEE is ~2400 and you are eating 1500, so if the exercise is making you feel hungrier, you could up your calories a bit and still lose weight.[/quote

    I did my first official weigh in beg of this month...I have lost 5 pounds since I began
  • adrina037
    adrina037 Posts: 8 Member
    I have been in the habit of just not eating enough in general and as I get more serious about my health goals I want to make sure that I am not still doing this as I realize it is not beneficial in my long term weight loss goals
  • glasshalffull713
    glasshalffull713 Posts: 323 Member
    My advice is to either do TDEE-20% or use the MFP settings and eat back some of your exercise calories IF you are hungry. Maybe on days you exercise, add in a snack for energy. TDEE is considered pretty aggressive unless you are extremely overweight. Some people do TDEE-15% depending on their current weight and goals.
  • adrina037
    adrina037 Posts: 8 Member
    What about the day I dont exercise? Should I eat fewer calories on those days? On average according to my bodybugg I am burning about 2300 calories on non-exercise days.
  • wkwebby
    wkwebby Posts: 807 Member
    You should never go below your BMR for the long term (on the occasion will be fine, just not consistently below it like you are now). TDEE - 20% is still over 1900 calories. Conservatively, you could stand to up your calories anywhere from 1800 to 1900 and still lose weight. The key is to never go below your BMR, and stay below TDEE (which will change on days you work out vs. don't work out). Be very careful to be at a deficit, otherwise, you will find that your weight will stall. The path you are going with now, I would imagine that you are probably pretty hungry a lot of the times or at the end of the day.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    You have all the numbers you need. Aim for a 20% deficit from what your bodybugg tells you.
  • deksgrl
    deksgrl Posts: 7,237 Member
    adrina037 wrote: »
    What about the day I dont exercise? Should I eat fewer calories on those days? On average according to my bodybugg I am burning about 2300 calories on non-exercise days.

    If you follow MFP plan, you eat what MFP calculates PLUS more for exercise. On days you don't exercise you don't eat more for exercise.

    If you set your own goal by the TDEE-% method then you would eat the same every day, the exercise level is averaged over the whole week.



  • honkytonks85
    honkytonks85 Posts: 669 Member
    Yes you're fine.
  • adrina037
    adrina037 Posts: 8 Member
    wkwebby wrote: »
    You should never go below your BMR for the long term (on the occasion will be fine, just not consistently below it like you are now). TDEE - 20% is still over 1900 calories. Conservatively, you could stand to up your calories anywhere from 1800 to 1900 and still lose weight. The key is to never go below your BMR, and stay below TDEE (which will change on days you work out vs. don't work out). Be very careful to be at a deficit, otherwise, you will find that your weight will stall. The path you are going with now, I would imagine that you are probably pretty hungry a lot of the times or at the end of the day.

    So it sounds like I need to up my calorie intake from 1400-1500 to more around 1700-1800 since my BMR is 1766? That seems like a lot but it does make sense to eat at least that much on the days I workout since by the end of the day my bodybugg is reading I burned 2800 calories. I am always afraid to up my calorie intake because of possible weight gain but I will try to increase calorie intake especially on those very active days.
  • harlequin0318
    harlequin0318 Posts: 415 Member
    Maybe its WHAT you are eating and not how much?

    http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=2845231

    Macronutrients for the win!

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