Calorie level realistic

Alessa71

So after over a month of no loss I stopped eating back all of my exercise calories and finally started losing very slowly (low and behold). I don't have much to lose, so I don't want to go faster. I'm at about 1500 to lose though. I walk 5 miles/day plus a light gym workout. I'm starting to wonder if this will be hard to maintain if I do lose those last five. Do people find 1500-1700 realistic to keep up when active? I eat high volume healthy food, so I'm usually not hungry, but there's a lot less room for error at 1500 than 1800.

arditarose

I'm worried about the same, since I'm not losing which means I'm overeating...I must be eating my maintenance which calculates anywhere from 1850 to just under 2000. And I'm so hungry still. It's making me feel really blue, actually.

I'm supposed to eat 1650 to lose .5 a week, and yes-it's hard and there's like no room for error.

What to your maintenance calories calculate to?

queenliz99

what do you mean by high volume healthy food?

tomatoey

No way, not even when only "lightly active". In fact, I'm finding 2000 gross is my minimum.

Would you rather do a bit more cardio? (I would...)

Alessa71

Maintenance calculates to 1650 (bmr). It says 1200 to lose 1 lb/week and gives me up to 1700-1800 with my exercise, but I'm now stopping around 1500. I'm 5'3".

arditarose

Wait...what? BMR and TDEE are two different things.

Alessa71

By high volume I mean lots of raw veggies. Lots of salad with no cals added via dressing (spices, vinegar, etc.). Plus protein and dairy in measured amounts.

Yes, I would rather add cardio but have an inflamed knee issue now. Historically though I lose better with less food/less cardio.

wkwebby

Did you try to change your workout up a little? Try weight training or HIIT interspersed with your running. Your cardio is quite high and I can bet that you've gotten used to it.

ana3067

arditarose wrote: »

Wait...what? BMR and TDEE are two different things.

This. Calculate how many calories you've consumed over the last month, divide by 31 (or 30, however many days you chose), and that is your average estimated caloric intake. If oyu are not weighing your food then you could probably add another 200 onto that for a closer estimate of your true intake. This would be what you've eaten on average to lose weight. Then calculate how much weight you've also lost in the same time frame. I like this calculator to estimate TDEE from such information:
health-calc.com/diet/weight-loss-calculator

Enter in your intake level, then turn the other dial until you reach the monthly weight change that you experienced, and use this as your estimated maintenance needs.

I work out 3-4x a week, I do think I'm going to start doing 10 mins cardio after weights again or just cardio 1-2x a week, but overall I would not be able to only eat 1800, let alone 1500. My absolute gross minimum is 1900, otherwise I get too hungry.

Momjogger

I am also 5' 3" and with exercise I find that 1500 is my losing "sweet spot". When you get to maintenance, you can up your calories. I also eat more fruit and veggies to stay full. I think you are on the right track. I eat up to 1700 calories on hungry days, so I don't fall off the wagon. I find varying your calorie intake within a range helps.

NoelFigart1

I calculate deficit by daily weighing, smoothing out the curve, careful calorie tracking and adjustment based on that data.

I'm not as active as you are, but I have more to lose. Over the past three months, I've lost at a rate of 1.4 lbs a week on an average calorie intake of 1710 a day. This calorie intake doesn't leave me too hungry.

sympha01

I think your original question was about other people's experience trying to adhere long-term to a diet at the calorie level you are eating at.

I have been losing weight for 18 months. I could not have stuck with it this long if I were eating 1500 calories per day. Nope. I have been eating between 1850 and 1950 per day, and that lets me have plenty of flexibility in my diet as well as letting me count on small but carefully portioned indulgences every day. I am very active too: I also walk 5 miles per day, plus I do a 1 hour moderate workout each day (kickboxing or lap swimming or kettlebell swingin' or circuit training). Truth is, I feel like I probably should be eating more, but I also didn't want to risk slowing my progress.

I suppose it is really individual, though. People are different.

In terms of what a lot of people here are commenting on though -- why you might not be making progress unless you're eating really low -- my main guess is that already you just don't have much to lose (according to your ticker it looks like your goal is to lose only 6 lbs), so it's supposed to be crazy slow. My second guess is that maybe it would be worthwhile to do a portion size check? How accurate are you on measuring your food? Are you weighing your portions? If so, are you correctly matching cooked/raw weights in the database to when you're actually weighing your food? (I have a friend who was weighing her food, and meat in particular she was logging as "raw" weight. But it turns out she was weighing food after it was cooked. Guess what? 3 oz of cooked chicken starts out as like 4.5 oz of raw chicken with a lot of the moisture cooked out: that's 50% more calories than what she was logging! Generally speaking it's most accurate to weigh food raw, but for some people's routines it makes more sense to weigh it cooked: if you do that, just make sure to use cooked weight entries from the database.)

CodeMonkey78

Alessa71 wrote: »

So after over a month of no loss I stopped eating back all of my exercise calories and finally started losing very slowly (low and behold). I don't have much to lose, so I don't want to go faster. I'm at about 1500 to lose though. I walk 5 miles/day plus a light gym workout. I'm starting to wonder if this will be hard to maintain if I do lose those last five. Do people find 1500-1700 realistic to keep up when active? I eat high volume healthy food, so I'm usually not hungry, but there's a lot less room for error at 1500 than 1800.

If you're not hungy and happy with what you're eating at 1,500 Calories, I don't see why it would not be realistic to maintain with 300 additional Calories in your budget. If you want room to splurge and have high Calorie treats once in a while, you don't have to eat your full 1,800 every day -- just average it out over the week.

Is 1,800 your TDEE calculation? That seems low..

If you wanted room for more, you could do more high impact exercise a couple of days a week or strength training to create room in Calorie budget.

deksgrl

Alessa71 wrote: »

So after over a month of no loss I stopped eating back all of my exercise calories and finally started losing very slowly (low and behold). I don't have much to lose, so I don't want to go faster. I'm at about 1500 to lose though. I walk 5 miles/day plus a light gym workout. I'm starting to wonder if this will be hard to maintain if I do lose those last five. Do people find 1500-1700 realistic to keep up when active? I eat high volume healthy food, so I'm usually not hungry, but there's a lot less room for error at 1500 than 1800.

Weight, height, age, gender, and exactly how "active" all figures into this. You need to figure out your TDEE, which will be different for you than for other people.

WalkingAlong

Alessa71 wrote: »

So after over a month of no loss I stopped eating back all of my exercise calories and finally started losing very slowly (low and behold). I don't have much to lose, so I don't want to go faster. I'm at about 1500 to lose though. I walk 5 miles/day plus a light gym workout. I'm starting to wonder if this will be hard to maintain if I do lose those last five. Do people find 1500-1700 realistic to keep up when active? I eat high volume healthy food, so I'm usually not hungry, but there's a lot less room for error at 1500 than 1800.

Are you asking if you'll have to maintain your goal weight at 1500-1700? No, you won't. If you're losing at 1500, you can probably maintain closer to 2000, especially at your activity level.

Is 1500 do-able for the period needed to get a 5 lb. loss? Yes!

Alessa71

Thanks for all the helpful responses. I am losing very slowly and agree that it's probably the right way at this point given how much (little) I want to lose. Good suggestions on adding in some HIIT. Once my knee has settled down I will add that back. Right now my cardio is indeed quite low intensity, and much of it is just walking/commuting (though it's 5 miles most days). I go to the gym regularly but for now am focused on resistance as the high intensity classes I love are too stressful on the joints for now. I used the TDEE calculator and come out around 1900+ which seems consistent with how I was eating previously in maintenance.

One issue I have identified on tracking though is my extremely high fiber intake. I knew it was high, but not this high. Because I feel up on fibrous veggies and eat Quest bars, my daily intake is often around 90 grams! So while my carbs appear to be in a normal range of 200 or so, they're actually a bit low depending on how much I discount for fiber. This is fine now that I'm taking it slow at the gym, but I think it's a little low for when I am really active. O

Thanks again.

JennaNicoleS

Just adding to other responses- you can't forget that muscles weighs much more than fat and although you may not be losing lbs, you could be losing fat and gaining muscle. Wish you the best!

WalkingAlong

High fiber is good, though if you're new to it you might have some digestive issues until your body adapts.

deksgrl

JennaNicoleS wrote: »

Just adding to other responses- you can't forget that muscles weighs much more than fat and although you may not be losing lbs, you could be losing fat and gaining muscle. Wish you the best!

She isn't gaining muscle with that calorie amount and workout routine. And her measurements would be getting smaller if this were the case.

brianpperkins

JennaNicoleS wrote: »

Just adding to other responses- you can't forget that muscles weighs much more than fat and although you may not be losing lbs, you could be losing fat and gaining muscle. Wish you the best!

Gaining actual muscle for females is extremely difficult ... doing so while eating at a deficit is nearly impossible without illegal pharmaceutical help. Since muscle is more dense than fat, she would get smaller.

Psychgrrl

I have a bad knee--do HIIT on the elliptical. Works well for getting the heart rate up without the impact on my knee. (Hurt it over 30 years ago in an accident.)

You might want to ask a doc/PT, but here's my knee solution ...

I make sure to really train my hamstrings--for women knee injuries can increase when quad strength is much greater than hamstring strength (which can be typical). Over time, this has increased my ability to run without pain and lessened my overall knee pain.

I've been careful and gone up slowly. Every time I can increase without any discomfort, I know it's working for me. I have to have patience, I cannot increase the weight on the hamstrings nearly as quickly as I can with other exercises (including the leg press). Getting over that "I should be lifting heavier" feeling was the hardest for me.

As for gaining muscle, here's an interesting article on supporting nutrition:
http://bit.ly/13NhtSk