Should I adjust my calorie intake with Cardio?

kewierschke2

I've been using MFP since the first of the year. I set it to lose 2lbs/week which started at 1350cal a day. After losing weight it eventually dropped me down to 1200cal/day.

I joined a gym a week and a half back or so. I only do Cardio atm, but that's what I'm comfortable doing for now. It was a big step, I had been debating with myself to join or not for over 2 weeks, I get anxiety when I'm around people I don't know. Weight training will come, I just want to get comfortable going there first.

I try to get in at least an hour of excercise 6 days/week, burning 500-600 cal/day. The first 4-5 days I was fine leaving my calorie intake at 1200, but over the past few days I'm finding I'm more hungry and staying within that is increasingly difficult or non-existent.

Would it be ideal to change my settings and drop it down to lose less per week or leave it where its at and just eat a little extra? I know adjusting the weight loss amount a week changes your macros, but as I log my excercise MFP changes my macros. I want to make sure I'm getting enough nutrition as well, micro nutrients isn't an issue, its the macros. Fat is by far the hardest macro for me to hit most days. If I can add 1TBS olive oil to 1 meal a day it helps me get some healthy fats in me.

As I log excercises and it adjusts my macros should I try to intake more to meet the new amounts or still try to hit the macro amounts it lists pre-excercise? I try to meet/exceed the protein macro daily pre-excercise and I'm getting better with my carbs slowly.

Any help would be appreciated!

3dogsrunning

If you are following MFP you are supposed to add your exercise and include those calories in your daily intake.

I would, however, be cautious with the number. 500-600 calories per hour is quite high. What exactly are you doing?

I would strongly suggest eating at least a portion of them back, however.

ChicagOH

Agree with above. If you are hungry on a particular day, have an extra 250 calorie snack. If not, skip it. I log exercise as 1 calorie burned, and then listen to my body. I'd leave it at 1350/day and add a little more on exercise days if necessary.

TavistockToad

3dogsrunning wrote: »

If you are following MFP you are supposed to add your exercise and include those calories in your daily intake.

I would, however, be cautious with the number. 500-600 calories per hour is quite high. What exactly are you doing?

I would strongly suggest eating at least a portion of them back, however.

All of this.

Peanut butter us good for getting fat in as well.

kewierschke2

I figured the cal burned was high but I just log exactly what the machines say and not the amount MFP shows, which the machines cal burn is much lower. I try to aim for about 160-165bpm on my heart rate for my excercising so its a bit more intense than the lower end of my target HR scale. I use Arc trainers, Elipticals and do intervals of fast pace walking/jogging (C25k program) followed by 30 min of 9 incline moderate paced walking, again staying around 160-165bpm HR so I adjust the speed very slightly up/down.

kewierschke2

Here let me put it this way, I feel like Im losing weight TOO fast. Pre-excercise phase of my diet I lost 30 lbs in 2 months and that was with a 2 week stall in loss towards the end of FEB. I'm 5-8 and was 204lbs when joining and now I'm at 169.2. This week alone I've lost 4.1lbs and I still have to go workout today.

And thanks for saying something about peanut butter, I wont eat it but I did buy a large can of mixed nuts so I will try to incorporate some of those into my post workout snack. All these things to plan out I sometimes forget everything I made available. Out of sight, out of mind I guess.

TavistockToad

kewierschke2 wrote: »

Here let me put it this way, I feel like Im losing weight TOO fast. Pre-excercise phase of my diet I lost 30 lbs in 2 months and that was with a 2 week stall in loss towards the end of FEB. I'm 5-8 and was 204lbs when joining and now I'm at 169.2. This week alone I've lost 4.1lbs and I still have to go workout today.

And thanks for saying something about peanut butter, I wont eat it but I did buy a large can of mixed nuts so I will try to incorporate some of those into my post workout snack. All these things to plan out I sometimes forget everything I made available. Out of sight, out of mind I guess.

If you feel like you're losing weight too quickly then the simple solution is to reduce your deficit? Set MFP to lose 1lb per week and enjoy eating more cals.

3dogsrunning

As I sit here with my breakfast of eggs, cheese, and avocado I don't really get "not enough fat" thing. Lol.

Aside from nuts, those things I just listed are also options. Also try the higher fat versions foods. People tend to get into a "diet" mentality and avoid full fat food. Milk, yogurt and cheeses are often things people choose low fat versions of.

TavistockToad

3dogsrunning wrote: »

As I sit here with my breakfast of eggs, cheese, and avocado I don't really get "not enough fat" thing. Lol.

Aside from nuts, those things I just listed are also options. Also try the higher fat versions foods. People tend to get into a "diet" mentality and avoid full fat food. Milk, yogurt and cheeses are often things people choose low fat versions of.

Yeah, getting enough fat has never been an issue for me either. Keeping under 35% of my cals from fat is my goal!

kewierschke2

Sounds more like I should adjust, but I will drop it to 1.5 a week and see how the next two weeks and go from there.

The reason I posted was because I discussed this with my fiancee, who has never struggled with weight, and he told me not to adjust so I haven't, almost making me sound nuts for pondering the idea to adjust. I just don't want to do more harm than good.

My energy levels are way better than what they used to be but since I started exercising I seem to crash about an hour afterwards and get really tired, even with a post workout snack.

TavistockToad

I would have gnawed my own arm off by now eating 1200 cals a day, but that's just me!

pensierobello

The simple answer is: eat more, move less! If you're losing too fast you're doing too much, slow it down and relax. It will be better for your body if you give it time as it could contribute towards loose skin. What are your stats - what are you trying to get to?

If you're only eating 1200 as well, that's the absolute minimum women should eat when losing weight - it's Very Low. And you're doing tons of exercise and as far as I can see, not eating your exercise calories back - you're already eating at a large deficit, so you're hurting your body by not eating some of the ones you've burned back. Try eating half back. For instance, I eat to 1400, but when I exercise, say I burn 500 calories. That means my daily limit is theoretically 1900, but because MFP overestimates, I usually eat half of that back, giving me a daily amount of 1650. Does that make sense?

I'm working on losing a total of about 100 pounds in a fairly sensible, slow, considered way and have dropped 40 pounds since last May. If you'd like to add me or check out my diary feel free

newmom_2012

You could also calculate your tdee (Scooby's workshop has a good calculator if you Google it). You put in your stats, including how much you exercise and it gives you a decent guesstimate (which is all any calculator can do). With this you eat the same amount of calories every day regardless of if you workout or not, and it balances out as long as you workout as much as you say you're going to throughout the week. It eliminates the guess work of how my calories you should eat back after an individual workout.

kewierschke2

My whole philosophy on dieting was to control how much I eat and when to hopefully make a life long change. I was always one of those people who snacked on something when I felt hungry, regardless if I really was or not. I never really ate that bad before pre-diet, I just ate more often.

The only thing I measure is my weight daily. I'm 5'8 (medium build) and169 and my target weight is 140 and if I feel I could lose more at that point I can readjust my goals. I'm doing this for overall health, not looks, I was fine with how I looked before.

newmom_2012 wrote: »

You could also calculate your tdee (Scooby's workshop has a good calculator if you Google it). You put in your stats, including how much you exercise and it gives you a decent guesstimate (which is all any calculator can do). With this you eat the same amount of calories every day regardless of if you workout or not, and it balances out as long as you workout as much as you say you're going to throughout the week. It eliminates the guess work of how my calories you should eat back after an individual workout.

Thanks I will go check this out.

And I know I need to incorporate weight training but it's taking baby steps to lose the anxiety to do so.

I guess since the gym I go to has learning type classes I should really start signing up. I'm just nervous about being put on the spot and having people watch me.

pensierobello

Stop thinking about it as control. The more you try to control, the harder it will get and the worse you'll feel.

Maybe try weighing weekly instead - the fluctuations daily can drive you insane. No one minds why you're doing it but we just don't want people unnecessarily restricting or doing themselves damage when they needn't.

What are you nervous about? I started at the gym when I was 232, so I do get the fear, but you have to remember that most people at the gym are there for themselves, not to look at other people. They're focusing on their own practice - and you'll find this far more with classes too. Have some faith in yourself!

kewierschke2

newmom_2012 wrote: »

You could also calculate your tdee (Scooby's workshop has a good calculator if you Google it). You put in your stats, including how much you exercise and it gives you a decent guesstimate (which is all any calculator can do). With this you eat the same amount of calories every day regardless of if you workout or not, and it balances out as long as you workout as much as you say you're going to throughout the week. It eliminates the guess work of how my calories you should eat back after an individual workout.

So if I go by this, I went though and did a quick calculate to see how many cals it says for doing a moderate pace elliptical for 1 hour. It gave me 2 numbers and each set is for calculating daily with 2 different methods. Calories used by exercise and calories used during exercise. But I only want to use the calculation for calories used by exercise?

So MFP shows an excess of 700 calories burned, the machines show 500-600 with moderate effort and that's entering my age and weight. Looks like this calculate shows 340 burned BY the workout for height, age, weight so that's the number I should log for calories burned then? Does 340/hr seem more accurate?

Remember this is all new to me, so I'm learning as I go. I figured if I entered what the equipment was telling me vs what MFP is telling me it would be a bit more accurate but doesn't look that way.

kewierschke2

I just have social anxiety in general, like I said I didn't mind how I looked before and I'm not worried the way people look at me I could care less. I just have general nervousness that effects me.

I just don't want to join a class and have 5 others glaring at me. Not until I'm comfortable with going there. I'm a very shy individual.

They do offer 1 on 1 personalized sessions for an hour so maybe I will start there and sign up for that.

pensierobello

kewierschke2 wrote: »

I just have social anxiety in general, like I said I didn't mind how I looked before and I'm not worried the way people look at me I could care less. I just have general nervousness that effects me.

I just don't want to join a class and have 5 others glaring at me. Not until I'm comfortable with going there. I'm a very shy individual.

They do offer 1 on 1 personalized sessions for an hour so maybe I will start there and sign up for that.

When I started doing Pilates, I was a mess, had no idea what I was doing (and was still in acute recovery from a life-changing injury a couple of years previous). I had a couple of private classes which really helped me to get the basics, and then when I was comfortable I joined a group class, and then went from there. That might suit you better? You will always have people in classes who are super-amazing and have been doing it for years, but then there are tons of us who are n00bs and fall about - and hopefully you will find a class that suits you, and when you do, I promise it can be a laugh, and you'll look forward to it!

kewierschke2

Thanks everyone for your thoughts and advice. I'm going to edit my settings today to lose 1.5lbs a week and shoot for 1400 cal a day vs 1200 and see if that keeps the extra hunger pangs in check. I also have to work on getting my meals more balanced. I tend to eat less early on and have to try and make it up later in the day. Maybe that will help as well.

I really appreciate you all taking the time to reply.

-Kassie