Struggling with balancing exercise and calorie consumption

tiny_clanger
tiny_clanger Posts: 301 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi all,

Just looking for some advice really. I'm currently training for a marathon, so running around 30-40K a week. I'm also cycling around 100K a week (20K x working day in 2 journeys).

According to my fitbit/cycle GPS/running GPS, I'm burning around 600 exercise calories a day. My MFP baseline calorie goal is 1400 calories. I eat around 17-1800 calories a day, so about half my exercise calories.

Anyway - the problem is I'm HUNGRY!!! I'm waking up hungry, snacking, being hungry at work, eating lunch early, being hungry in the afternoons, snacking when I get home, eating dinner, going to bed hungry. Today was the first day I've not been hungry, and that's because I didn't cycle this morning and had a much larger than average dinner last night.

I've got no idea if I'm losing weight or not, as my weight seems to fluctuate by a kilo or more each day, though there is a barely perceptible downward trend. People who haven't seen me for a while are commenting on how much weight I look like I've lost, so things must be moving in the right direction though.

Anway - it would be great to get a sense of how many calories other people, especially women, eat with a similar exercise routine. I can't go on like this, I'm craving sugar just for an easy fix, I can't find any foods that make me feel full except chia pudding, and woman cannot live on chia pudding alone! :)

Replies

  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    i cant imagine that much running on less than net 1400 cals. how much weight do you have to lose? is 1400 to lose 1lb per week?
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,421 Member
    Eat more. Listen to your body. Are you close to goal weight already?
  • tiny_clanger
    tiny_clanger Posts: 301 Member
    I'm not sure how much I need to lose, to be honest. Depending on the scales I use, my weight fluctuates by 5KG. So, the worst case is I have 10KG more to lose to be right in the middle of a healthy weight. Best case it's 5KG...
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,421 Member
    edited August 2016
    Are you weighing and logging all your food?

    It seems that the first thing to do is get some good tracking going on. Track your weight on the same scale daily. Set your goals to lose 1/2 kg a week - or even better, 1/4 kg a week, you don't have that much weight to lose. Start eating back ALL your exercise calories. Weigh and measure ALL your food.

    This isn't a guessing game, it's math. Why would you buy a fitbit and then sabotage it? Eat!
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    tiny_clanger wrote: »
    I'm not sure how much I need to lose, to be honest. Depending on the scales I use, my weight fluctuates by 5KG. So, the worst case is I have 10KG more to lose to be right in the middle of a healthy weight. Best case it's 5KG...

    what deficit is 1400 cals?
  • dragon_girl26
    dragon_girl26 Posts: 2,187 Member
    edited August 2016
    TavistockToad wrote: »
    i cant imagine that much running on less than net 1400 cals. how much weight do you have to lose? is 1400 to lose 1lb per week?

    This. When I was cycling regularly a few years back, I was ready to eat the house most nights. I craved sugar and carbs like nothing I'd ever experienced previously.
    It makes sense that when you're highly active, your body craves more energy (calories) to fuel itself. If you want to stay that active, you need to be eating back more of your exercise calories to keep up.
    Although, as a side note, I thought for this very reason, the general advice is never to try to lose weight if you're actively training for a marathon?
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,421 Member
    edited August 2016
    Although, as a side note, I thought for this very reason, the general advice is never to try to lose weight if you're actively training for a marathon?
    this. Pick one.
  • Terpnista84
    Terpnista84 Posts: 517 Member
    You're doing a lot of exercise so your body needs fuel. This is why I had to cut cardio to stay within my calorie goal. After an hour of cardio I am ravenous.
  • tiny_clanger
    tiny_clanger Posts: 301 Member
    Well I'm not actually really losing weight anyway - maybe on average 300g a week, possibly less. It is difficult to tell because my weight will vary over a KG a day for no very good reason, but I don't really want to gain. It's just unsustainable at the moment to have a deficit which "should" be losing me a KG a week, isn't losing me much weight at all, and I'm hungry all the damn time!! :)

  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    tiny_clanger wrote: »
    Well I'm not actually really losing weight anyway - maybe on average 300g a week, possibly less. It is difficult to tell because my weight will vary over a KG a day for no very good reason, but I don't really want to gain. It's just unsustainable at the moment to have a deficit which "should" be losing me a KG a week, isn't losing me much weight at all, and I'm hungry all the damn time!! :)

    have you tried just weighing yourself after a rest day to try and reduce water retention?
  • robininfl
    robininfl Posts: 1,137 Member
    I would judge this on two criteria:

    1. is your training suffering? Are you recovering well, do you feel good working out? Are you making progress?

    and

    2. is your weight loss stalled, or dropping too quickly? Either of those seems bad. There IS a situation where distance training can cause body to retain fat even at low calorie intake, this is unusual but not impossible.

    http://www.outsideonline.com/1923816/if-youre-not-eating-enough-you-might-gain-weight


    If you feel good and are losing very slowly, that sounds like you are fueling correctly.

    Since you asked - I do twice daily workouts, so run/walk 4 miles in the morning and do a power yoga class in the evening, stopped tracking as I can eat naturally if I work out this much but my estimate based on previous tracking is 2,000-2,500 kcal per day to maintain close to 140lb at 5'9". I am generally bound to be hungry eating under 2k.



    Maybe you could calculate the TDEE for the weight you want to be, and eat that, and let your weight settle to there sloooowly?
  • StaciMarie1974
    StaciMarie1974 Posts: 4,138 Member
    edited August 2016
    You may need to decide which is more important: training or calorie deficit? Training for a marathon on a calorie deficit will be difficult. If you feel your cardio burn # is fairly accurate (it seems reasonable from what you posted) then I'd suggest eating more of the exercise cals each day. I'm assuming the original 1400/day goal has a deficit built in? If so, then eat all the Fitbit calories back. Else you risk your marathon...

    And of course for a slight weight loss trend, the calories in need to be accurately logged.

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