Extremely active women calorie question

EnviDreams

Hello! Thank you very much for taking the time to read this because I need some help that I can not find the answers to.
I have managed to loose about 66 lbs (I am 27 years old, female & 5'5.5 feet tall & went from 188 lbs to 122 lbs) in about 8 1/2 months. I did this by following an extremely strict 1,200 cal diet & by exercising intensely for 1-2 hrs a day/7 days a week in the most toughest aerobics classes there is to offer with one of the best fitness instructors in my state. Some days I admit I ate less than 1,200 cals. I just wanted the weight off so badly. When I achieved my goal & had an extremely low body fat percentage but still in a NORMAL BMI category of 20.1, all of a sudden an internal alarm inside my body went off & started setting off the EAT NOW OR DIE signals. Hunger pangs struck me so hard that no matter how much willpower I thought I had was taken from me. I was starting to crack. I HAD TO EAT. I slowly upped my caloric intake on a week to week basis from 1200->1500->1700->1900->2000... All the way up to about 2300-2600 cals a day. But my body is always SCREAMING as if I am starving despite the increases. I have to eat every 3 hrs or so or I feel my stomach will eat me alive. It's a hunger that I didn't even feel as badly when I was overweight & eating a measly 1200 cals a day. It's unbearable hunger. To this day.. I continue to exercise intensely in aerobic classes 2-3 hrs a day. I do this because it's my passion. I want to teach fitness & love it more than anything else. I usually burn anywhere from 600-1100 cals a day from this exercise. But as soon as I crossed my calorie intake to above 2,000 a day, I started gaining weight. I have gained 9 lbs in about 3 wks despite only netting anywhere from 1300-2000 cals a day after exercise. I try to lower my calorie intake to 2,000, but come night time I find myself absolutely starving. I just can't do that low when I am burning that much exercising. I have tried every food combo there is (increasing proteins, increasing healthy fats, drinking tons of water, etc...) but nothing helps. I find myself daydreaming about food 24/7 always wondering when I will get to eat again. I eat nothing but healthy foods every day. I don't eat out either. Everything is cooked at home. I am wondering.. Is 2300-2600 cals a day for a woman as active as me too many calories? If it isn't.. Then why have I been slowly putting on the pounds the last 3 weeks? It's NOT sodium/water weight. It's been 3 weeks. And why am I always absolutely starving like I am in Ethiopia? It has come to the point to where I am absolutely terrified of my appetite & can not keep binge foods at my home. I make myself go to bed extremely early to avoid eating again. But I am so scared I am going to gain back all the weight that I have took such hard work to loose. Is 2300-2600 cals too many for an active woman doing intense cardio aerobics 2-3 hrs a day/7 days a week burning anywhere from 600-1100 cals a day? I just can't see myself ever being able to eat a tiny 1,870 cals a day for the rest of my life. That is just utter starvation. Please help

EnviDreams

Also.. I know I am burning that many calories a day because I record all my exercise with a polar FT7 HRM. thanks

AJ_G

@EnviDreams‌

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/another-look-at-metabolic-damage.html/#more-9313

Specifically:

I’m going to assume (and hope) that your readers are familiar with leptin. If not, basically it signals to the brain (and elsewhere) about energy stores in the body (and how much you’re eating) and when it drops it induces much of what is often incorrectly called the “starvation response” or “metabolic damage”. I say incorrectly because this simply represents a normal ADAPTATION to dieting that occurs because the body, fundamentally, doesn’t give a damn that you need to look good on stage. It wants to keep you from starving to death.
So falling leptin causes a host of things to occur: metabolic rate slows, hunger increases, you get lethargic, thyroid goes down, testosterone drops, and a whole bunch of other *kitten* goes wrong.
Pretty much everything bad that happens with dieting is controlled, to at least some degree by leptin levels especially at the level of the brain. On that note, studies that have given leptin replacement following dieting show a reversal of these effects; but don’t get your hopes up leptin is an injectable drug and still many hundreds of dollars per day. But drug using bodybuilders have basically been sort of fixing all of the peripheral problems with drugs: anabolics to counter falling testosterone, thyroid meds for thyroid, cortisol blockers, appetite suppressants, stimulants to keep energy levels up. Raising leptin would be more elegant (as it would fix the problem centrally in the brain) but difficult. Refeeds and full diet breaks (discussed on my site and in my books) help a lot. Injectable leptin would be skippy but way too expensive. The leptin-mimicking supplements are all *kitten*.
I bring this up because cortisol, among its other fun features, induces leptin resistance in the brain. Like insulin resistance in skeletal muscle (where the cells don’t respond to insulin properly), leptin resistance means that what leptin is around doesn’t send a sufficient signal to the brain. So in those folks who are already psychotically stressed and cutting calories and doing too much cardio, the massive increase in cortisol will have that effect centrally in the brain.

EnviDreams

AJ_G wrote: »

@EnviDreams‌

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/another-look-at-metabolic-damage.html/#more-9313

Specifically:

I’m going to assume (and hope) that your readers are familiar with leptin. If not, basically it signals to the brain (and elsewhere) about energy stores in the body (and how much you’re eating) and when it drops it induces much of what is often incorrectly called the “starvation response” or “metabolic damage”. I say incorrectly because this simply represents a normal ADAPTATION to dieting that occurs because the body, fundamentally, doesn’t give a damn that you need to look good on stage. It wants to keep you from starving to death.
So falling leptin causes a host of things to occur: metabolic rate slows, hunger increases, you get lethargic, thyroid goes down, testosterone drops, and a whole bunch of other *kitten* goes wrong.
Pretty much everything bad that happens with dieting is controlled, to at least some degree by leptin levels especially at the level of the brain. On that note, studies that have given leptin replacement following dieting show a reversal of these effects; but don’t get your hopes up leptin is an injectable drug and still many hundreds of dollars per day. But drug using bodybuilders have basically been sort of fixing all of the peripheral problems with drugs: anabolics to counter falling testosterone, thyroid meds for thyroid, cortisol blockers, appetite suppressants, stimulants to keep energy levels up. Raising leptin would be more elegant (as it would fix the problem centrally in the brain) but difficult. Refeeds and full diet breaks (discussed on my site and in my books) help a lot. Injectable leptin would be skippy but way too expensive. The leptin-mimicking supplements are all *kitten*.
I bring this up because cortisol, among its other fun features, induces leptin resistance in the brain. Like insulin resistance in skeletal muscle (where the cells don’t respond to insulin properly), leptin resistance means that what leptin is around doesn’t send a sufficient signal to the brain. So in those folks who are already psychotically stressed and cutting calories and doing too much cardio, the massive increase in cortisol will have that effect centrally in the brain.

Thank you very much for replying. I have read about this phenomenon before & find it interesting. But my question is still unanswered ? Am I consuming too many calories for my activity level? I just don't know I can't find many women out there on MFP that seem to be as active as I am or as hungry as I am & I don't know what to do?

JennaNicoleS

You're calorie level is fairly realistic considering your exercise habits. 2,300-2,600 kcal is even possibly a little low on the days you burn more than 800 calories! I would say that you're safe at the place you're at now. It's a good place to be at. So glad that you have gone this far! You're doing amazing.

Leezy26

Just curious how much fiber do you usually eat in a day and how much water do you drink?Also do you know your body fat%?

Leezy26

If I had to guess I would say with the calories you burn each day you would be just fine eating 2500 calories a day to maintain your body weight. You need to make sure your getting at least 25-30g of fiber though each day.

steff274

I have a physical job and I go to the gym although recently because of doing alot of extra work and the gyms limited holiday schedule my next session is spin on the 2nd!! boo getting gym withdrawals my settings are very active 2010 calories on the days I am mucking out horses on the yard I try and eat back all my poo shoveling calories anything from 350 to 500 calories I make sure I eat back at least half of my excersize calories.. I dont know whether that amount of calories is too much for you.. it is about what I eat.. what do you do the rest of the time when you are not in the gym? I tend to active all through the day until I crash at night..

EnviDreams

Leezy26 wrote: »

Just curious how much fiber do you usually eat in a day and how much water do you drink?Also do you know your body fat%?

I am over my daily ️️fiber goal every single day. Today it said I had 116 grams. thanks for the positive encouragement. I hope that maybe I am just jump starting my metabolism again after months of extreme dieting & the weight gain will stop soon. I do not know my body fat % but I am very lean except towards the end of the night i seem to get really bloated & my stomach appears water logged & puffy.

orchidee1987

Hi there. Couldn't it just be glycogen stores which are replenishing ? Don't know, just a guess. You say you upped your calories gradually from 1200 to 2000 then up again, but on what period of time ? I'm 27, 5'3 and have been maintaining for over a year now around 125-128 pounds. It's now extremely hard for me to eat under 2000 kcals a day, and i usually eat 2000-2600 6 days a week and one day at 3000ish. The amount you eat seems normal to me, and i have read posts here of women eating the same amount.

orchidee1987

I would say just weigh yourself in a few weeks and see ! Are you sure the pounds have nothing to do with the moment in your cycle ?! I weigh myself only once a month one week after my periods. That's my lowest weight, before and after that i weigh a few pounds more. My weight did not fluctuate as much on a weekly basis when i was losing weight, only since i am maintaining.

JoRocka

I dance 3-5 times a week (regular class and gigs) on top of training in the weight room 3 times a week- and I eat at 1800-2000 to maintain my 160ish pounds at 5'8"

in order to lose I have to be under 1600. it sucks. you wind up needing to eat less than you think- which sucks. a lot.

86tigger

I eat around 2200 on a cut at 192lbs. I exercise 5-6 days doing heavy lifting and cardio for around 90 mins a day. I don't think you are over eating. It may be that your body prefers to carry that little extra weight. I think if you are happy with the amount you exercise then I wouldn't bother with worrying about the scale. You are still in the healthy range for weight so just enjoy eating the extra calories.

heybales

You do a bunch of cardio, and the response of the body to improve from that exercise?

Store more glycogen in your muscles. That attaches with water.

You are finally eating enough to store what your body would like to based on the exercise you are throwing at it.

Accept the fact that is the improvement your are asking body to make.

Same as those lifting would expect more muscle if eating in surplus.
Same as cardio outside in summer would be increased blood volume with more water weight too.

That type of water weight increases metabolism too.

Accept the water weight gain from good workouts, eat up, and probably improve your workouts too.

Sued0nim

Ignoring the weight on the scale are your clothes tighter? Have your measurements changed?

Sounds to me like a sensible approach to hit maintenance and stay there for a while ...ignore the scale for the next month or so and let your body settle down

As an aside with all your aerobics do you do resistance / weight training too?

Chieflrg

EnviDreams wrote: »

Also.. I know I am burning that many calories a day because I record all my exercise with a polar FT7 HRM. thanks

While HRM may help, they aren't as accurate as people think. They measure heart rate not cals burned. Big difference as your heart rate can go up for many reasons not necessarily meaning you burned calories either.

I'm not saying your not burning the cals, just something to consider that it isn't set in stone.

FromHereOnOut

Sorry if this is a terrifying question, but could you possibly be pregnant?

I know this hunger you describe. I've had this hunger you described. I had it when I was pregnant, only to find out later that that was just the "mini" version of it. The real deal was when I was nursing. I called it a deep physiological hunger, as if every cell in my body was screaming for food. Suddenly I understood the phenomenon of pica, because if my body had screamed for dirt (thank goodness it didn't), I would've eaten dirt. Trust me, you cannot ignore this hunger.

You might want to visit your doctor, rule out pregnancy or any other hormonal upheaval. If the doc can't find anything, you might want to trade some aerobics for lifting, to try to convert some of that food into muscle.

And, no, I don't think 2300-2600 at your activity level should be too much at all (are you SURE it's FAT you're gaining? I've read that increased aerobic/cardio activity can cause increased glycogen storage CAPACITY, meaning it could be really alot of glycogen+water, just as heybales said).

JayRuby84

FromHereOnOut wrote: »

Sorry if this is a terrifying question, but could you possibly be pregnant?

I know this hunger you describe. I've had this hunger you described. I had it when I was pregnant, only to find out later that that was just the "mini" version of it. The real deal was when I was nursing. I called it a deep physiological hunger, as if every cell in my body was screaming for food. Suddenly I understood the phenomenon of pica, because if my body had screamed for dirt (thank goodness it didn't), I would've eaten dirt. Trust me, you cannot ignore this hunger.

You might want to visit your doctor, rule out pregnancy or any other hormonal upheaval. If the doc can't find anything, you might want to trade some aerobics for lifting, to try to convert some of that food into muscle.

And, no, I don't think 2300-2600 at your activity level should be too much at all (are you SURE it's FAT you're gaining? I've read that increased aerobic/cardio activity can cause increased glycogen storage CAPACITY, meaning it could be really alot of glycogen+water, just as heybales said).

Good question.

estherdfoster

this is the site i use to look at how many calories i need for either maintaining, losing or gaining, and it shows per amount each week you prefer to lose or gain.
http://www.calculator.net/calorie-calculator.html