New - Sell it to me!!

K2405

Ok so at the moment I do minimum of 3 workouts per week which consist of 5k on the bike to warm up followed by a strength workout. I aim to run on the 2 days I don't workout (only do about 2 miles) but this doesn't always happen. There is the occasional minimum 7 mile bike run when the weather is nice too. I also walk minimum of 2 miles daily as we have dogs. I'm following weightwatchers and have been for 2 years with a few months off last year after our wedding. I managed to lose 3.5 stone before the wedding but have put about 1 stone back on. Therefore my first goal is to lose this stone again to get back down to my ideal bmi weight (maybe that's not the best goal to have as I don't like being hung up on what the scales say!). I do have a rather podgy belly which is my hardest part to lose and even when I was within ideal bmi weight range I still had a way to go before losing it.

Anyway, I currently eat about 1040 calories per day on my weightwatchers plan and have maybe two bananas and an apple for snacks which aren't included in the above cals. After reading up on here I've realised I'm not eating anywhere near enough which explains why I'm not losing anything. I've had a look at that scooby site and if I've put my info in correctly then my TDEE is 2279 and BMR is 1470 and I should be eating 1937. Does this sound right? I'm 25, 5'2 and currently weigh about 149lb.

Someone sell this to me...I always think I'm not eating enough so up my cals and then resort back to what I was doing because I either maintain or gain in the week or two following the change.

heybales

Fast weight change is not fat, up or down. Water weight.
Last sentence is wrong method.

You don't have to eat bare minimum to lose weight, that's a great way to include muscle as part of weight, though your strength training helps there.
But I'll bet your workouts are nowhere near what they could be.
Which means they don't have nearly the effect on the body, which would burn more calories and burn more fat.

If you haven't been losing for 6 weeks, whatever your true average eating level is, is your current maintenance, of course. That's your current suppressed TDEE.

Sound scary?
Should - because how much less do you want to eat and adhere to in order to lose weight, and/or how much more active to burn more to accomplish the same thing?
And during this time, workouts won't be nearly as beneficial as they could be.

So slowly increase calories to let body unstress and speed back up to it's potential, instead of crashing it in to the ground which WW's does.

As for correct selection of TDEE level, add up your actual time weekly in those activities.
If it's 2 or 3 times for 30 min - that's 2.5 x 30 for an average.
If something is truly iffy, leave it out, but know that if you did it, that day you'd log it as exercise and eat those calories back.

K2405

Hey! I've realised how crap WW is from reading the info about em2wl - I can relate to so much and now realise when I eat more cals (e.g. on holiday) why I suddenly put on 5/6lbs. I've learned a lot!

I definitely do 40 minutes walking per day so that's 4 hours 40 minutes but am I right in thinking walking/running are counted as half so it's really only 2 hours 20 minutes? Then I work out for about 45 minutes 3 times per week so another 2 hours 15 minutes on top. So do I put that in as definite which will be included in my TDEE level then if I do a run/bike run just manually add that to mfp and eat back cals?

My workouts really aren't anywhere near where they could be. I do roughly 15 minutes on the bike followed by about 30 minutes of strength. I'm currently nursing a shoulder injury so can't do much lifting so am trying to focus on my lower body/core with a little bit of arms. At the moment I do pull downs, leg curls, spiderman plank, bicep curls, squats, bicycle crunches. I need to do more but really have no idea what I'm doing plus I'm limited with my shoulder.

Jennbecca33

Hi K2405, and welcome to the group! If using the Scooby website to calculate your calories, I think your activity level is at least the 5-6 hour level - and then be sure to eat back all additional calories for the occasional run/bike when you do those.

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

Slowly increase your calories up rather than increasing all at once - this will help eliminate gains and help your body to adjust to the additional intake. I used to do WW - they gave me far to low of calories...I crashed and burned multiple times with WW. Better to do it the right way and eat more to support your body. I've had great success with EM2WL. You can check out the main website at www.em2wl.com for additional support and forums too! Welcome!

K2405

Hi Jennbecca33, thanks for your help! Yes I was using the scooby website and going on 5-6 hours my BMR is 1470, TDEE is 2537 and -15% is 2156. Does this sound about right? How many cals do you recommend going up by and how often?

Yes, I'm on the lowest amount of pro points possible on ww and find that I can often have a good week but the week or so following a good week I end up binging so I'm just going round in circles really. I'm very excited to try this and not be hungry all the time!!

Jennbecca33

Yes, I think this sounds about right - as long as you eat back calories for any additional runs/bikes like you mentioned. If those become regular, it would probably be best to just increase up to the highest activity level and include those calories in your TDEE.

We normally suggesting adding 100 calories every day for a week - and then the next week add another 100 calories - and slowly increase like that. If you feel that's too slow, you could go a little faster and that's ok, so long as you realize there might be more fluctuations on the scale that way. Either way, there could be fluctuations (mostly water), so if the scale bothers you, you might put it away for the first several weeks or so until you get your calories up and your weight stabilizes.

When I was on WW, I ate the bare minimum points they allotted me, but never ate any of the extra points or exercise points...that was where I went wrong and they didn't tell me otherwise. No one had any advice on why I wasn't losing...I was eating around 1400 cals and working out every day and draining myself...I would always give up and binge similar to your experience. I think you'll have great success eating more and I'm glad you found us! Please let us know how you do and post back if you have any other questions!

heybales

K2405 wrote: »

Hey! I've realised how crap WW is from reading the info about em2wl - I can relate to so much and now realise when I eat more cals (e.g. on holiday) why I suddenly put on 5/6lbs. I've learned a lot!

I definitely do 40 minutes walking per day so that's 4 hours 40 minutes but am I right in thinking walking/running are counted as half so it's really only 2 hours 20 minutes? Then I work out for about 45 minutes 3 times per week so another 2 hours 15 minutes on top. So do I put that in as definite which will be included in my TDEE level then if I do a run/bike run just manually add that to mfp and eat back cals?

My workouts really aren't anywhere near where they could be. I do roughly 15 minutes on the bike followed by about 30 minutes of strength. I'm currently nursing a shoulder injury so can't do much lifting so am trying to focus on my lower body/core with a little bit of arms. At the moment I do pull downs, leg curls, spiderman plank, bicep curls, squats, bicycle crunches. I need to do more but really have no idea what I'm doing plus I'm limited with my shoulder.

Walking burns easily 1/2 or less as running, so walking time counts 1/2 time.
Running is full time, along with other intense cardio like that.
Like the bike could be done like walking, just rolling along the trails, barely pedaling, below 10 mph probably. That would be 1/2 time too, like maybe a slow ride up to grocery store instead of a walk, don't want to sweat, just easy.
But for exercise and pedaling and breathing hard - full time.

Sounds like 4:45 hrs of for sure time - but is daily life got kids and longer family stuff involved like cooking and cleaning and longer shopping trips, ect?
Perhaps barely in to next level there, or between levels rather.

K2405

Fab, thanks. No, no kids yet just dog walking and I have an admin job so don't do a huge amount of walking at work either.

Would you go as moderate instead of strenuous then?

heybales

That 40 min is the dog walking, so stopping sometimes, going slower sometimes? Or the dog is pulling on leash the entire time making you walk 4mph?

I'd use Moderate, but round up to nearest 100. There are infinite levels, not just 5, that's just for convenience.
Take average of Moderate and Strenuous for that matter.

K2405

We do walk quite fast but yes, stopping etc too. Thanks, I'll do that

What are the recommended ratios for carbs, fat & protein?