New here...help?

Original_Beauty

Hello everyone I am new to the group

A little back history: I had anorexia for 10 years and bulimia for 15 years (nearly 3 purge free years)

To me trying to lose weight has always been hard it has always been all or none. Trying to lose weight on the mfp calories always left me starving so that lead me going in circles and more weight gain.

I tried using the IIFYM and it put my TDEE calories at 2300 and weight loss at 2000. I'm on day 4 trying this. I exercise 6 days a week and do a lot of interval training on the treadmill (that burns 500-600 calories an hour) I do an hour and some weights.

I am 5'3" and the last time I weighed in I was 92 kilos (200lbs) do my numbers look right for my TDEE? Any help would be amazing. I haven't weighed myself for 2 months, I sm taking monthly measurements

Besides my weight I am quite fit, I have coeliacs and anemia because of it. My waist is 37" and my hips are 46" my goal for the year is to get my waist to 33" and my hips to 42" by the end of year.

heybales

Why a lot of interval training? Because you read somewhere it burns fat better than straight cardio?
Did you also know that doing it constantly is more stress than benefit, and eventually becomes not doing it really?

And HIIT type intervals is as close to lifting for response as you can get when you only want to do cardio and not actual lifting. It's also why you shouldn't do the same muscles day after day, just as you hopefully wouldn't lift same muscles day after day?
And it's why it needs recovery just like lifting does.
Otherwise it's all just a big stress on the body.

But if you can do lifting, skip the HIIT/intervals and just do the real thing for the real response, which is better at fat burning.
Plus, with that past, you have undoubtable burned off some muscle mass you'll appreciate later in life, and lifting is only way to get that back.

Is 6 days a week because you think it's needed for weight loss?
Because with past ED, there is also an activity disorder that is latched on to by many to compensate for doing better on the food side. Body imagine problems can be very difficult to get over, and so not unusual at all for exercise to be turned to instead of the food side.

Because exercise if done right tears the body down.
But it's the rest for recovery and repair that builds it back up, stronger if diet allows.
Do you really have a smart weekly routine that allows rest?
And recovery takes longer in a diet too.

And the fact you got a TDEE of only 2300, tells me you probably didn't select an honest activity level, though I know that site also tends to underestimate TDEE, but still, what did you select with 6 x weekly workouts?
Sounds like Lightly Active, which you aren't.

Since you already have some body mis-functions that cause additional stress, and having so much exercise that I'm betting has turned more in to a stress than an opportunity for improvement, eating wrong is going to be another stress.

It'll be hard to do without a current weight, getting initial numbers.
Sounds low to me though.
Mifflin BMR is 1591.
Even doing just 6 hrs of intense cardio makes TDEE 2803.
But no comment about the time spent with weight lifting, or is it part of that hour, how much?
Or daily life, is it really sedentary desk job and no kids/pets after work, outside exercise?

Original_Beauty

I am 5'3" and the last time I weighed in I was 92 kilos (200lbs) I'm currently a stay at home Mum. Soon I will be working as a personal carer in home care.

I think I do it most days a week is because I enjoy it. I think you are about addiction disorder, if I do not go to the gym and burn x calories I feel nervous and anxious, something I need to work on. When I selected the level it only had how many times a week do you work out, nothing about anything else. What TDEE do you recommend?

When I tried another with moderate exercise it gave me 2500. I think I'm still in the mind set the more I burn the better chance of losing but this isn't working for me because I'm not losing. That's why I'm asking for help

mymodernbabylon

If you click on heybales profile on the left side you will see a link to a spreadsheet. It's the best way to figure out your TDEE. And note that you may have supressed your metabolism...as you've seen more is NOT better in weight loss.

Jennbecca33

Hi and welcome to the group!

I agree with Heybales. All of that HIIT is working against you, especially with not much rest to recuperate. I personally like to have 2 full rest days a week which I find really helps me. That all or none mindset I understand...I used to think the same way. But finally I realized that it never worked because I would burn out too easily. Take a more balanced approach and let your body have some rest. You will be able to lose fat more easily as your body won't be as stressed. Exercising excessively as well as limiting calories are both seen as a stressor by the body. Too much of both will stall your results. Also, as Heybales mentioned, your TDEE should be higher, so you should be eating more. You can use the spreadsheet found on his profile page which is a great way to determine a correct TDEE or you can use this site we recommend as well:

http://scoobysworkshop.com/accurate-calorie-calculator/

IIFYM does estimate TDEE too low, so I would refigure using the above suggestions. Do be sure to pick the accurate activity level. If you use the website above, with all of your current activity level of 6 days a week HIIT plus weights, you are AT MINIMUM 5-6 hours strenuous activity level. You are actually probably even at the highest level once you add on your daily activity as well. It would really help you to cut back on a lot of that HIIT and increase your weights (for example: 3 days weight training for 30-60 min, with 2 days short HIIT training of 20-30 min, and 2 days rest). This will also help you not to burn out! You can only train so hard for so long you know. You want to eat to support your activity level and you want to work out in a way which allows you to keep going. Be sure if you cut back on your HIIT, to adjust your activity level. Most women who work out a few times a week automatically fall into the moderate activity level. It sounds as if your daytime job as a caregiver will also add quite a bit of activity as well, so take that into consideration.

Welcome again to the group and be sure to let us know how you are doing or if you have other questions! Add any of us for support!

Original_Beauty

I never thought HIIT would work against me, then again I didn't think I was doing HIIT. I think I need to change how I go about the gym and take it down to 3-4 times a week? It's really hard when you are in the all or nothing mind set. I'm trying to change this, it's scary to me actually. I'm doing quite good keeping with a 2000 calorie diet, but once I burn 400-500 calories exercising it takes me down to 1400-1500, is that okay? Or not? I do feel like I'm burning out, so I need to think about a lot of things.

I realised last night I lost more weight not going to the gym, then going to the gym, why is that?

Sorry for the dumb questions, I'm so grateful for your help.

Jennbecca33

There are no dumb questions! Yes, I think 3 or 4 times a week would be better for you. Your calories are still too low at 2000 if you keep to the same high activity level because you are netting back down to your BMR which is way too low - maybe even much lower than your BMR when you figure in your daily activity, which can amount to A LOT if you are walking/moving a lot through the day. If you decrease your cardio some, you might be ok at 2000 cals. Use the Scooby site to help you adjust your calories. It really is about alleviating some of the stress on the body (stressors being too few calories, too much cardio, lack of rest, etc...). Interval training is great, just not so much of it. Like you said, you lost more weight when going to the gym less. I think if you'd eat a bit more and cut out some of the cardio, you'd find a better balance with better fat loss results...and you'll feel much better, meaning not ready to burn out! Getting out of that all or nothing mindset is hard...but if you'll give up a little bit of that control and see that you can and will get better results without having to work as hard, it will be easier to move away from that mindset.

heybales

Walking is great on those off days outside. Well, ok, maybe not in the winter in some places right now. But generally.
As long as it doesn't turn in to 5 mph at 15 % incline for 3 hrs, just a calm walk to increase blood flow to aid in repair from a good lifting workout.

And it's impossible to get a good lifting workout in if you do it tired. You probably don't even realize how tired you are doing the workouts, because it's all relative.
Intervals are nice for specific training, because for like HIIT, it's a matter of going as hard as you can for 15-45 sec, then recovery for 3 x as long.
But as you can imagine, if you didn't do the recovery, while the hard part may still feel the same (as hard as you can), the speed would show that it's no where near as hard really.

The same exact thing happens on a daily basis. Hard workout today that you don't recovery from is going to make tomorrows not as hard if you attempted the same thing.
May feel mentally you are pushing as hard, but you aren't.
Day after day of that and eventually the mental feeling is the same, but the performance leaves a lot to be desired compared to what fresh muscles could do. But if you never have fresh muscles, you have no idea what they could do.

So it's a mindset of realizing the purpose of diet and fitness.

Diet is to lose weight, if done right fat only, if done wrong includes muscle mass.

Exercise is for heart health and body changes, and if done right can support fat only loss, if done wrong can encourage muscle mass loss.

Only thing exercise helps with for diet is the fact it makes you burn more in the day, and if you burn more but take the same deficit off, you get to eat more - perhaps making it easier to adhere to the diet.

But usually exercise done merely for calorie burn doesn't change the body much, and since no one probably will see you standing naked on the scale (outside hubby), but they will see you, exercise done for body transformation is more beneficial.

So having more rest days will allow those workout days to truly be as hard as they could be, which will require the body to transform more. And with the fuel to do so - it can.

So just apply your intervals for which you did for some beneficial reason, to the week. Hard, easy, hard, easy.

Original_Beauty

Jennbecca33 wrote: »

There are no dumb questions! Yes, I think 3 or 4 times a week would be better for you. Your calories are still too low at 2000 if you keep to the same high activity level because you are netting back down to your BMR which is way too low - maybe even much lower than your BMR when you figure in your daily activity, which can amount to A LOT if you are walking/moving a lot through the day. If you decrease your cardio some, you might be ok at 2000 cals. Use the Scooby site to help you adjust your calories. It really is about alleviating some of the stress on the body (stressors being too few calories, too much cardio, lack of rest, etc...). Interval training is great, just not so much of it. Like you said, you lost more weight when going to the gym less. I think if you'd eat a bit more and cut out some of the cardio, you'd find a better balance with better fat loss results...and you'll feel much better, meaning not ready to burn out! Getting out of that all or nothing mindset is hard...but if you'll give up a little bit of that control and see that you can and will get better results without having to work as hard, it will be easier to move away from that mindset.

Thank you for your amazing help, I'm beyond grateful Right now eating more than 2000 calories scares me so that is something I need to address. Today I didn't go to the gym, so that was/is a little shocking for me. Over the past 6 weeks I have been increasing my calories from 1200. I'm currently around 1800 (- exercise) Crap even reading this I can see where my problem is, it doesn't leave me enough calories does it?

Off to scooby: (Because of the change of activity can I put myself at moderate activity?)

leaving it at -20%
Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR): 1826
Daily calories to maintain weight (TDEE): 2830 (!!!!!)
Daily calories based on goal in step 6: 2264

With all my food logged for today (i haven't had dinner but it is logged) I'm at 1800 calories and I'm completely full. How do I train my body to eat more to lose weight? Without feeling uncomfortable from being full?

I've been working at changing something for a while, last year doing what I was doing I only lost 3 kilos...that broke my heart. I felt like i was giving it all and got very little in return But i know if i fix this, i know this year i will have a lot of success.

heybales

Moderate sounds about right, rounded up probably for active day life.

Good job on slowly increasing it, body needs to get use to it.

As was mentioned in prior post by someone - you have suppressed your TDEE.

So that estimate - that is not your average TDEE right now - or you'd be losing weight. That is the definition of TDEE and eating it - maintain weight. Eat less, lose, eat more, gain.

Your average TDEE right now is whatever you eat and you aren't losing with whatever level of activity you do.

Scary thought huh, that much activity with low eating was actually maintenance. Imagine getting injured or really sick and not being able to workout that much.
When that happens, the eating then needs to become how low can you go.
Or vacation with less workouts, now obsessed over fact you must eat much less.

And when you of course go over your suppressed TDEE in those cases, the body stores that excess as fat, usually not long enough to start speeding up.

Now imagine you actually keep losing weight with those low eating levels and that much exercise required. When you weigh less, you burn less. So now eating level must go down even more or exercise even higher.
Would goal weight even be reachable eating so little - how bad would maintenance be?

Now it's easy to see why failure to maintain lost weight is so high in dieters.

So keep increasing the amount eaten slowly, you are hoping to help your system speed up to match the increased intake.

And sadly, you aren't going to speed it up beyond your deficit eating level if you stop there.

Body rarely works that way. You stop eating level at deficit calories, it has no desire to start to burning more so that you have an actual deficit in place. That level will stay your suppressed TDEE for months, one study showed over a year that was possible.

Nope, you'll need to read up on reset after the level of stress you've been throwing at your body. Keep on heading on up slowly to TDEE actually.

Original_Beauty

Any advice on how to to get my daily intake from 1600-1800 to 2200? Can I add 100 calories a week until I'm at goal? I'm nervous what this will mean for my weight, but I'm trying to look at the bigger picture. I'm trusting you both because I have nothing to lose (hahahaha!) can I add you so you can give me some advice on my food diary?

Original_Beauty

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/diary/Original_Beauty

my food diary be nice please!!!!

heybales

That's exactly how you do. 100 daily for a week at a time.

Add away, vast majority on friends list are doing a reasonable deficit type diet. Some bulking like me, some maintaining, couple foolish ones I hope to turn to the dark side .... dark chocolate side that is.

And think of it this way.
Even if during that whole week your body did NOT speed up one bit, and that 100 extra was really in surplus to a suppressed TDEE - it would take 35 days to slowly gain 1 lb.

Reread that. Because you always want to appreciate that concept of fast weight gain or loss, how it many times can't be anything but water weight, impossible to be just fat.

And even with that 1 lb gained slowly over 35 days if your body did that, with strong resistance training, it wouldn't even be all fat.
But I'm betting your body will speed up, you'll never have days on end of eating in surplus.

The wedding cake syndrome hits everyone until they slow down and think about the effect.
That's where the women in the bridal party dieted all week, usually to extreme, to fit in their dresses. Because we all know pounds on the scale equal measurements.
And then they ate 1 piece of wedding cake, and saw a 3-5 lb gain on Sunday morning.
Even though the cake weighed at most 0.75 lb actually eaten.
So little thought is given to how 0.75 lb becomes 3-5 lbs. Never mind the water that was drunk.
So all week they lost glycogen stores with water attached. That's what happens in a diet.
And then they ate a bunch of sugar, and it was stored with water.

So just be aware of what can go on. That reload effect is in fact what proves if still in a diet. If truly eating at maintenance, there are no stores to top off with big water weight change.

I usually don't comment on food choices much, because I'd be a hypocrite then.
Get some vegetables in daily, fruit is good, meet protein goals with complete protein, shakes is fine for a little of it. Watch sodium if it's an issue to you, watch carbs if it is too, or anything else confirmed stress on body.
Eat early, eat late, eat frequent, eat infrequently - all that doesn't matter strictly for weight loss - just personal adherence to the plan. For eating more though when not used to it, obviously eating early to late frequently may help.
And then weighing what you eat enough that you see how inaccurate measuring only is.
Treats daily can help adhere too. But if it turns in to whole bag being eaten, maybe not good idea.
Now, where are my M & M's.

mymodernbabylon

I would definitely NOT suggest a 20% deficit but a 15% max - and honestly, you really would do even better with a reset and eating AT TDEE for 8-12 weeks. What that means is that you will up your burn and then be able to lose weight on a reasonable amount of food.

Good foods to eat that won't fill you up too much? Calorie dense ones with lots of fat in them (fat is good, not evil) - peanut butter, avocados, steak, even chocolate (I have chocolate as part of my diet almost every day). Feel free to check out my diary - I'm aiming to lose a bit on a 10% deficit after sitting at TDEE since Sept. You may discover that you will eventually trigger a hunger signal in you as you up your calories and that is a good, good thing.

Original_Beauty

mymodernbabylon wrote: »

I would definitely NOT suggest a 20% deficit but a 15% max - and honestly, you really would do even better with a reset and eating AT TDEE for 8-12 weeks. What that means is that you will up your burn and then be able to lose weight on a reasonable amount of food.

Good foods to eat that won't fill you up too much? Calorie dense ones with lots of fat in them (fat is good, not evil) - peanut butter, avocados, steak, even chocolate (I have chocolate as part of my diet almost every day). Feel free to check out my diary - I'm aiming to lose a bit on a 10% deficit after sitting at TDEE since Sept. You may discover that you will eventually trigger a hunger signal in you as you up your calories and that is a good, good thing.

How do I do a reset? I've put it down to 15% which gives me 2400. I love nuts, so I had 600 calories to go to meet my TDEE and had had bunch of nuts for dessert (400 calories) i love peanut butter and all things nuts, so that works for me. I use nothing low fat. I know your right, I used to live on less then 1000 calories and exercise, that was horrible...so I know I can do this.

mymodernbabylon

You do a reset by eating AT TDEE not at a deficit. I would definitely check out the articles above, read a lot on the website and plan on changing yourself mentally as well as physically.

Jennbecca33

All great and trusted advice given above. Resets are hard mentally, but if you really want to get your metabolism healed up and running fast again, it's the way to go. It's the same idea as increasing calories, but you keep increasing all the way up to your maintenance level (TDEE - what Scooby says you should maintain on) and you stay at that level for 9-12 weeks minimum before introducing -15% deficit again. If that's too big of a chunk for you to bite off right now, just keep increasing your calories to your -15% deficit number and stay there for several weeks and see how you do. If you're not seeing any progress after about 6 weeks at that level, then you should could consider a full reset.

Yep, nuts and peanut butter, cheese, cook with olive oil. And don't shy from treats. I have my daily dose of chocolate - it helps. Your hunger will increase and you'll be looking for more calories soon - you'll wonder how you ever survived on less. Great job on increasing cals so far and being willing to listen and take advice and try things that the mass dieting industry goes against. You will be successful!

Jennbecca33

Also...I think you mentioned starting a new job soon as a caregiver? That could easily push you up into the next activity level. With Scooby, you also have to count your daily activity as well as exercise when choosing an activity level.