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tracking/working, not losing!

Kittencol
Kittencol Posts: 1
edited January 27 in Health and Weight Loss
Hello everyone,
I am a moderately active person when I'm not working at the gym (Work in an ICU 3 days/week for 12 hours.) The other days, I have 2 very active children, ages 2 and 4, and we travel to the gym every day that I am off for 1 to 1.5 hours of intense work out. According to my Polar ft4 HRM, I burn anywhere from 800-1200 calories during those workouts. I track everything that I eat. I have lost...NOTHING. I don't know if I am not eating enough calories, but MFP tells me to eat 1430 calories. I usually flux between that and 1550, because I feel like with everything I burn I should be eating slightly more. However, having changed nothing about my diet and workout, I had previously lost 25 pounds, and over the course of 4 months have put every single pound back on. I had my thyroid checked and it is normal. Anyone have ANY suggestions? Because I am getting REALLY tired of having my doctor tell me I need to lose weight, and I am doing what I can and nothing seems to be helping!
Thanks for anything suggestions you can give me!
C

Replies

  • nicola1141
    nicola1141 Posts: 613 Member
    Are you eating back any of those exercise calories? If you're eating 1550 and burning 1200 that's not giving your body a heck of a lot of fuel for normal functions! I'd either start eating back 1/2 your exercise calories; or calculate your TDEE and use that number instead (-10-20% depending on how much you have to lose).
  • mahanaibu
    mahanaibu Posts: 505 Member
    It might help if you open your diary so we could see what your daily menu looks like.
  • bajoyba
    bajoyba Posts: 1,153 Member
    Are you eating back any of those exercise calories? If you're eating 1550 and burning 1200 that's not giving your body a heck of a lot of fuel for normal functions! I'd either start eating back 1/2 your exercise calories; or calculate your TDEE and use that number instead (-10-20% depending on how much you have to lose).

    I agree with this. If you're using MFP's calorie recommendations, you're intended to eat most or all of your exercise calories back. Leaving them totally uneaten creates too much of a deficit, especially if you're burning that much during exercise. Alternately, if your workouts are consistent, you could switch to the TDEE method. Either way, you want to make sure you're netting above your BMR.
    I definitely don't work out as vigorously as you do, and I always net above 1500, which means I eat more in the ballpark of 1800 calories on days that I exercise.
  • mahanaibu
    mahanaibu Posts: 505 Member
    Are you eating back any of those exercise calories? If you're eating 1550 and burning 1200 that's not giving your body a heck of a lot of fuel for normal functions! I'd either start eating back 1/2 your exercise calories; or calculate your TDEE and use that number instead (-10-20% depending on how much you have to lose).

    I agree with this. If you're using MFP's calorie recommendations, you're intended to eat most or all of your exercise calories back. Leaving them totally uneaten creates too much of a deficit, especially if you're burning that much during exercise. Alternately, if your workouts are consistent, you could switch to the TDEE method. Either way, you want to make sure you're netting above your BMR.
    I definitely don't work out as vigorously as you do, and I always net above 1500, which means I eat more in the ballpark of 1800 calories on days that I exercise.

    I have a question on this. I'm not looking to start another big flareup over TDEE vs the 1,200-cal-a-day diet; truly do want information. If you don't net above your BMR, isn't the idea that your body will burn fat to make up for the deficit in calories to run yourbasic body function? or is there something different about body function vs. activity and your body simply will not burn fat to be used for body function?
  • Blinggirlannie
    Blinggirlannie Posts: 2
    what is TDEE?
  • mahanaibu
    mahanaibu Posts: 505 Member
    what is TDEE?
    Total Daily Energy Expenditure. Some people lose weight by setting a calorie goal that's a certain amount under what the average person their weight, age and gender burns in a day...say, 500 calories under to lose a pound a week. or they go for 1,200 calories a day no matter what. They might eat back their exercise calories or not.

    Others reverse the process, basing calorie intake on total energy including exercise. there are many calculators for TDEE online...they're like a bmr calculator that takes your activity into account. So say you're a pretty big exerciser. Your TDEE, the total amount you burn each day, might be 2,200 calories. Then people will take a certain percentage off that, usually 20%, to be their intake calories for the day...so in this case it would be between 1,700 to 1,800 calories a day. For a less active person, there really isn't much difference between TDEE and the usual calorie-setting but it's the subject of raging debate around the forums.

    Me. I think whatever works for the individual is great.
This discussion has been closed.

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