Overweight but doing weights. How much should I eat to have energy and still lose weight?

Kanyon17

Hello everyone!
My name is Karyne, I've been on MFP since 2013 but at one point I stop comming here. But now I'm back . I'm a 26 y/o women, I'm 5'10 and curretnly weight about 248lbs. My highest was 270 and my lowest since that was last summer at 220lbs. I nerver really got lower then 220lbs. I'm fat, but also tall and muscular. I do crossfit a minimum of 2 times a week (currently back to 3-4 times a week) and last summer I was going to crossfit classes about 5x a week and running 2-3 times a week. I even got myself to run a 10k (a miracle!)
I went to see a nutritionist who told me I was eating too little (at that time I was trying to stay around 1250 cal. on days I wasn't active and more when I was active. I basically tried to keep my MFP number to 0
She gave me some tips and as I started eating more, the appetite got back. I started gaining weight, got scared, returned to old bad eating habits, things happenned in my personnal life and I lost control (but easily managed to find 30 pounds...)

Anyway, I'm back at it, crossfit 5x a week and thinking of getting back at jogging as soon as it's a little warmer outside (-25 Celcius degrees in the morning is kind of cold for a jog...).

I'm still eating to get to 0cal. in MFP, I know I will lose weight that way (calories deficit) but I'm also doing a lot of weights and I think I need more because sometimes I feel like I don't have any energy left when I go to the gym (arounf 6pm). But I'm scared to gain weight again. So, I'd like your input what I should pay attention to and what I should forget about.

Also, I'm not a fan of anything that comes in powder (proteins shake, etc.) but if you think it's the solution, I'll try it

Thanks a lot everyone!

MKEgal

I did a newbie help post which includes links to helpful info such as sexypants, accurate logging, goal setting (weight, calories, macros), and motivation.

I'm also about 5'10" and started at 275. My doctor & dietician told me to start eating 1700 calories per day. They arrived at that both by taking my then-current maintenance calories and subtracting 1000 (to lose 2 lb a week), and by multiplying my healthy goal weight by 10.
It just happened that they ended up with pretty much the same number.
Since then, as I've hit plateaus I've cut 50-100 calories at a time in order to maintain weight loss.
Currently, I'm aiming for 1400 per day, and usually do not eat back exercise calories. My doctor said to treat exercise as a bonus toward weight loss.

Have you tried moving your evening snack (dinner) closer to the time you go to the gym, so you have some blood sugar to use instead of relying on glycogen or fat the whole time?
I often eat lunch about 2pm and have my snack after the gym (or, if I'm going later in the evening, after work, I'll have my snack about 6pm; either way I'm not hungry & have plenty of energy).

The other thing I'm sure someone will be along to say pretty soon is that exercising away all your calories isn't exactly healthy.
Since I started last January, I've pretty consistently been eating about 300 cal below my BMR.
My doctors are pleased with my progress, I haven't felt deprived or weak, I'm losing at a healthy rate & not losing too much muscle.