back again...

mjj79

For most of my adult life I've eaten between 800-1200 cals a day....i've had spurts of time where I lost on this (1 year I lost 50 lbs on medifast eating like this), but it always either comes back or stalls. i've been dancing around this whole eat more concept for years. I tried several years ago and was so discouraged and scared off bc I gained like 15 lbs, and never got to the place of LOSING.

Since then, my body has been under attack...two autoimmune diseases, on and off steroids , and a daughter with an eating disorder that required ME to eat 2000 cals a day to show her SHE could eat that much. UGH.

So here I am, weighing what I did after having my twins 6 years ago, and nothing has been working. (I have at least 80 lbs to lose.)

I decided to slowly try to up my cals, to see if that would help with the "sticker shock" of the weight gain.

This week my goal is 1250. (The SCOOBY website says I should consume 1800 for weight loss.)

I'm scared, depressed and at the end of my rope where my health is concerned. I have autoimmune thyroid disease (very underactive) but am on meds to control it. Not sure what, if anything, that means for my calorie consumption.

I also have another disease that affects my joints....some days I can exercise, others i can barely clean.

So, here I am...starting over, AGAIN.

heybales

First, the easy part - thyroid issue means you'll be more tired than average - less daily movement if uncontrolled.
It doesn't mean your body becomes super efficient at stuff handled considered to be metabolism, though if stressed it's more able to slow down the non-living required things - growing hair/nails/skin, good immune system, ect.
And stress by undereating can cause thyroid issues too.

Because if you lost about 1 lb average weekly for a year, but were only eating 800-1200 calories - you screwed your body up big time.
I'm betting you lost much more at first, and then it started massively slowing down to below that amount - though you thought you had a bigger deficit in place.

So you are really going to be helping your body.

Current issues of mindset you'll have to deal with - probably playing it on the "safe" side by underestimating things.

Like, you have twins or more kids at home - did you pick an activity level that is purely about hours of exercise and didn't include daily life?
Most do anyway, but were you honest about at least the exercise part?

Might try this too to confirm.
Just TDEE please, better than 5 level TDEE charts.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1G7FgNzPq3v5WMjDtH0n93LXSMRY_hjmzNTMJb3aZSxM/edit?usp=sharing

And don't even think about a deficit for weight loss right now unless you were eating that 1200 or below for like 1 week only.
Make your way all the way up to TDEE.

First couple weeks increase of 100 cal extra daily each week is fine.
But then jump to 200 cal extra daily or it will take forever.

Because even if that 100 extra over current eating level is over current suppressed TDEE - it would take 35 days of your body NOT speeding up to slowly gain 1 lb of weight.
Reread that.

Fat is not fast, loss or gain.

Water weight sure - so mentally make your mind over what is important here. For health it's excess fat weight, not body desired healthy water weight.

Since you have daily variety of exercise, you might do better with MFP method, unless you made a weekly schedule of exercise that you can make up on good days, or assumed number of good days weekly to get it in.

MFP method is fine, just be honest with the non-exercise activity level - probably lightly active.
And no deficit currently.
And log any exercise done honestly.
And reach the goal daily, though again, building up that 100 extra daily for awhile.

mjj79

I use a fitbit also...so i get a daily acct of calories out. I'm a home schooling mom of 5 and I work part time at a hospital, which consists of significant time on my feet. That link you posted showed my TDEE to be over 3000!!! I'm hoping I did something wrong.

HOw much should I expect to gain?

mjj79

MFP says 2330 for maintenance. Are you saying I should eat even more when I exercise? Thanks

MandaLeigh123

From your other post: "I increased my cals to 1200 this week and then actually hit 1500 cals today. (My TDEE is somewhere between 2300 and 3000 depending on which calculator)

I feel gross for eating 1500 cals and am so scared i'm gonna gain a ton of weight. How do you get past the fear????

I've tried reading these other threads that explain how this works and I find myself getting confused (which surprises me bc I'm not uneducated or inexperienced with the concept....maybe it's my fear clouding my thinking.)"

Hey It's not unusual to be scared. You can just take it slowly and remember you really have to be overeating by quite a lot to start gaining fat. So if you see that scale jump up 2lbs overnight, that's a water weight fluctuation, not fat. I agree with HeyBales though, after awhile you want to start increasing daily or it will take you forever. I think you are on the right road by slowly increasing at first. Keep reading and reading again. It took me several read through's of information to understand it all. You might want to try visiting www.eatmoretoweighless.com -- There are forums there also, where people might be more active. This group has been a little quite this summer. I was able to increase my calories from 1200 up to 2800 and I only ended up gaining a few pounds, so it is possible to increase without really gaining weight. When I was eating 2800 I was doing one day a week at a hospital (nursing student) and the rest of my weeks activities were from cardio, weight lifting and walking to and from the bus/hospital carrying a heavy nursing bag.

Be gentle with yourself. I have joint issues too and it sucks to have a chronic condition, especially at a young age. I am about to hop on steroids myself to try to get my joint pain under control, so have been scouring the internet looking for heaps of low glycemic index recipes! I've read that can help with keep weight down while on steroids, so I'm going to try it. Steroids also cause a lot of water retention, so I'll be doing my best to keep guzzling that. Steroids and autoimmune disorders which affect your thyroid really do mess with your weight.

About eating your exercise calories:
If you follow the Scooby calculator, you eat the same amount of calories every day. This is because the scooby calculator already accounts for your exercise.

If you do the MFP method, you eat back your exercise calories every day.

Before you consider eating at a caloric cut level, you need to work your way up to maintenance and stay there for 8-12 weeks. Then take a cut.

mjj79

Thank you!!!! That all does make sense. I looked at the website but didn't see the forums. I'll check them out.

heybales

So indeed, the Scooby calc unless you just increased the level by probably 2 (work and kids all day moving) from whatever you pick as exercise.

But - forget that - why?

You have a Fitbit attempting to give you a daily TDEE level already - why guess and attempt to add 2 different parts of life together?

And yes - 3000 sounds much more realistic with your life then.

But using Fitbit - be aware it's estimating calorie burn with a healthy body - yours isn't right now if you've been eating down around 1200 and not seeing massive weight loss - that's less than 1/2 of what your body could be burning - that's not good at all.
And if not losing massively, then body is already operating slower than it could, and what Fitbit thinks. So it's sharing potential daily burn - but you aren't there yet.
Your current eating level with no weight changes is your current suppressed daily burn.
That's the gap you need to close by speeding your body up.

So new advice with Fitbit.
Set MFP to maintain - since that's what you are going to work your way up to.
Set activity level to Sedentary - no you aren't by a long shot - but MFP will correct itself with Fitbit daily burn, so no problem. Sync a few times daily so you can plan well and meet your goals.

Manually log on Fitbit's site any lifting you do, because it needs to be done.

You don't mention what Fitbit you have -
If HR-based, all cardio is fine using Fitbit's estimate. Might just start activity record with button press so you can view stats down the road - always interesting.
If step-based, you must manually log biking, elliptical, swimming, rowing, stair climber, ect - not step based workouts basically.

Since your day is all about many steps, and calorie burn is based on distance of those steps - try to confirm on treadmill set to a daily purposeful pace (not fast exercise pace) - that the distance is correct.
If not, the stride length needs to be corrected.

Keep your accounts synced - and meet your MFP daily eating goals.

At this point though, keep increasing each week by 100 extra daily for couple weeks. Then 200 as body knows it can speed up.

How much to be gained?
Couple water weight pounds. But you'll probably lose that or more stress-water-retained pounds later.

XavierNusum

It's a scary concept to eat more and expect to lose weight. You should take the time to go through ALL of the information available to help you wrap your brain around the concept. Yeah it makes "sense" to most, but they quickly dismiss it thinking "it'll never work for me", but you have to try it full on. Especially check out the youtube channel and the website forum. Also there is a website/podcast called Halfsize me that had a two part episode with the ladies that help start the EM2WL movement, MFP group and site. They have heard stories similar to yours and have helped lots of people through the apprehensions they have regarding this method of nutrition. They also suggest being available for consultation or at least social media contact for answering questions and giving guidance. This can really help you mentally accept this before making it part of physical practice. Or you could be like me an many others and just jump both feet and see what happens because you really don't have much to lose. (crappy pun not intended)

Good luck to you! Prayers to you on your journey. Hopefully in time you will never say again that you feel gross for feeding your body properly.

mjj79

Thanks!!! Off topic, are those twins in your profile pic? If so, how old? I have 6 yr old twins (and 3 other kiddos

Thanks for taking the time and giving advice!

XavierNusum

mjj79 wrote: »

Thanks!!! Off topic, are those twins in your profile pic? If so, how old? I have 6 yr old twins (and 3 other kiddos

Thanks for taking the time and giving advice!

@mjj79 Yes they are. Born June 2, 2015 at 30 weeks, 1 day. Harper (right, 2nd) spent 6 weeks in the NICU and Kendall (left, 1st) just came home today!!! YAY after 8 weeks in the NICU. I also have 2 other daughters, 8 & 7. Yes, my house is full of women, even the cats are girls!! LOL