Increase calories or power through?

pedsgirl06

I'm on week 4 of 22 min Hard Corps and just started couch to 10K since I just signed up for a race later this year. Plus, I chase 2 year old twins.

I have been trying to not eat my calories back, and get about 1700 calories a day. I'm getting 700-1200 calories credit a day with my Fitbit.

I'm struggling right now, though! I've found it harder to get through some workouts than I did last week, and end up feeling shaky way earlier on the resistance days.

Should I increase my calories? If so, by how much? More protein? Or will my body adjust to the increased activity if I just keep sticking to it?

malibu927

Eat your Fitbit calories. That's what they're there for. Start with 50%, and adjust up or down depending on how you feel/if you're losing more or less than you were before.

mommazach

I only eat back about half of my exercise burned calories. If you are getting shaky, it's most likely blood sugar drop. Take the time about an hour before to eat a banana, or other high energy snack like nuts, seeds. Here's what our Bootcamp instructor recommends 75 mins prior to workout. Remember to have about 25 g. Protien (shake), 25 g. Carbs (apple), 10 g. Fat (1/4 cup almonds) about 75 min before bootcamp so you have fuel!

dykask

You should only expect limited performance improvements from working out if you are living with a calorie deficit. It is much more likely you will slowly lose ground in performance while maintaining a calorie deficit. In general building muscles requires a calorie surplus and plenty of protein in your diet. The fact you feel that you are hitting your limits in the workouts pretty much shows you what is going on.

I basically plateaued for two years while trying to lose weight by mainly working out. It is probably possible to build muscle and lose fat at the same time, but I think it takes a lot of effort. I was always trying to lose weight and ended up very slowly reducing fat while very slowly building some muscle.

Right now my focus is on dropping weight, once I burn off enough fat I will focus on building up my body again. Building strength is a lot more straight forward and losing weight. (At least for me.)

A 700 kc workout is a very large workout. I assume the fitbit calories are for all kinds of active calories. Otherwise you are really pushing a very hard workout and you could be over training. Working out too much can also be counter productive.