Should I be eating more calories??

ashzacher
ashzacher Posts: 114 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi everyone!

I've been on MFP for quite some time. I try my best to get to the gym 4-5 days per week. To preface: I am 22, I ran a half marathon in May for the first time (2:31:21!) and my next half is in September.

While training for my race in May, I had some success and went from about 155 lbs to about 143 lbs, but I gained back some of that throughout the course of my training and between the race and right now (about 2 months).

I have just got back into the swing of things, but I am adding weight training in with my cardio to make me an all around better runner - at first I was more focused on 'How the heck am I going to run 13.1 miles?' where now I'm more focused on improving my ability and my time.

That being said, I am afraid I am not eating enough. I am about 5'4, 152 pounds. I have MFP set to lose about 1.5-2 lbs/week, which is putting me at 1200 calories/day. I was considering lowering my goal to .5-1 pounds per week - I really am only trying to get to about 125-130, and I am not trying to work out and lose weight, then stop my ways completely, I'm in it for the long haul and plan to train for more races.

I recently purchased a Polar heart rate monitor. My average gym session is probably 75 minutes in length, in which I burn about 550-600 calories. I am 12 weeks out from my race, so my runs are on average 4 days/week, for about 45 minutes. I generally do one day of ellipticall as well. I have been trying to do HIIT training for some of my runs to improve my endurance and speed and to burn extra fat. Along with cardio, I add weight training for about 15-20 minutes.

I generally eat the 1200 calories that MFP allows - sometimes around 1400. I find that when I burn 700 calories on an intense workout, I definitely eat some of those calories back, and when I burn about 500 on an average day, I try to eat about 200-300 back.. but it's hard for me!! I eat clean for the most part, with indulgences a few times per week.. I avoid added sugar, processed foods, and artificial sweetener 90% of the time. Do you think I'm eating enough!? I am eating every 2-3 hours and I promise I am not starving myself! :)

Replies

  • thisismeraw
    thisismeraw Posts: 1,264 Member
    According to your ticker you only have 17lbs to lose so with that you should not be aiming for anything higher than 1lb per week as your loss goal... preferably 0.5lbs per week. 1200 calories is not enough as a base amount of calories especially if you are exercising that much.

    try to find ways to eat more. Have nuts as a snack.. switch out low cal versions for the full cal versions... drink milk... have yogurt.. use peanut butter.. etc to try and increase your calories.
  • megsmom2
    megsmom2 Posts: 2,362 Member
    You're close to your goal...slower will be better and more do-able. If you're that active...then yes, you should be eating more and eating back mort of your burn. Well done!
  • nursek_2010
    nursek_2010 Posts: 54 Member
    definitely eat more! while you may not feel like you are starving, your body is trying to tell you to feed it by holding onto the weight even though you are working out intensely. i would try to up your calories to either 1600 or 1700 a day and eat back some exercise cals with that! i recently just started this a few days ago and have already seen a huge change in my stomach from bloat alone and have dropped a few lbs as well! best of luck :smile:

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