Still Losing (and I don't want to)

spiriteagle99

I have been pretty stable with my weight for the past 6 years. A little up and down, mostly due to overindulgence on vacations, but generally within 5 pounds of my goal weight.

I came on MFP to lose 8 pounds I had put on during a couple of long road trips last year, prior to beginning marathon training. Last year I gained during marathon training and I didn't want to do that again. The weight came off quickly, much more quickly than I expected, especially with the holidays. I started maintenance when I reached my goal (131). MFP gave me 1460 calories for maintenance since I am an older (60) sedentary female. I continued to lose. I am in mid-training, so running 5 days a week and walking every day. I eat back almost all my exercise calories, so most days I eat 2000 calories or more. Even on my rest days I'm pretty close to 2000, because I get hungry and I'm used to eating more. I was over on calories 4 out of 7 days last week, and still lost .8. At this point I'm under 125 and really don't want to lose any more because the bones are showing and it's not attractive. I also worry that my body is burning muscle and I don't have it to spare.

I'm thinking it may be time to stop tracking altogether, since it isn't really helping me maintain, though it did help me lose. Maybe just weigh myself once a week and go back to tracking if I gain more than I want.

Thoughts?

CafeRacer808

I think a lot of people switch over to TDEE when they reach maintenance.

Also, if you're still losing then you're clearly still maintaining a deficit. Assuming your food logging is accurate, why not try eating back all of your exercise calories and see if that makes a difference?

kommodevaran

Or you can up your calorie goal and continue tracking?

crackpotbaby

If you're losing weight without trying it's worth seeing your doctor.

sijomial

I eat back almost all my exercise calories

Why not eat all of them? You are earning them through exercise, they aren't a bonus, they are a legitimate energy need of your body.

so most days I eat 2000 calories or more

That's not a lot!
Eat more - whether you track or not.

spiriteagle99

I don't eat all, because on 20 mile days that's an additional 2000 calories and even I can't eat 3400 unless I'm eating out.

I looked up my TDEE and it says 1900 calories, which is less than I'm eating now.

Docbanana2002

It doesn't matter what the calculator says--that's just an estimate, based on the average person. Your actual results from your own body weight are telling you that you are in a caloric deficit. That data is more accurate. The problem isn't that you are tracking, the problem is that you aren't responding to the data that tracking has provided to you: your estimate of maintenance calories is too low. So increase your calories until you hit a plateau and that will tell you the real maintenance level for your body/activity level (or if you aren't eating back calories, START... you burned them and need to replace them to maintain).

And FYI you don't have to eat back the calories from your long runs during the actual day they were burned.... carry them over into the next few days.

sijomial

spiriteagle99 wrote: »

I don't eat all, because on 20 mile days that's an additional 2000 calories and even I can't eat 3400 unless I'm eating out.

I looked up my TDEE and it says 1900 calories, which is less than I'm eating now.

Your TDEE on a 20 mile day isn't 1900 as you know.
(Which is why TDEE isn't a great choice for someone doing endurance cardio....)

If you are losing weight you don't want to lose you simply aren't eating enough whether it's on a big run day or over the course of the entire week.
No I don't think stopping tracking is a great idea for you right now - you should be raising your goal and trying to hit it.
Think you should stop looking at calculators though as they seem to be convincing you to under eat.

Mini_Medic

Eat more and if the volume is too much try to each more calorific foods like nuts, peanut butter or milkshakes. When I do long runs and I know I'm way under I get a spoon and a jar of peanut butter. I weigh my jar on the scale and then weigh it when I'm done so I can track my calories. I can easily eat 1000 calories of peanut butter without feeling too full. If I tried to do that with regular meals I'd be stuffed like a turkey. Luckily I don't normally have this problem but burning off that much from your long runs requires that you refuel that tank or you'll keep losing. Doesn have to be PB but any high calorie but less volume food will do the trick.

bbell1985

Jealous. I gain on 2000. Eat more!

AnnPT77

Just raise your calorie goal - you can set it manually - and eat more.

I'm 61, sedentary outside of intentional exercise, but like you pretty active exercise-wise (I'm a rower, but also spin, bike, swim, etc.). I eat back my exercise.

At 5'5", weight in the 120s, MFP would give me a maintenance-calorie estimate similar to yours . . . but I actually maintain somewhere around 2000 net (i.e., eating exercise on top of that).

I used my own weight-loss data to estimate maintenance calories, but got there by adding 100 daily, then monitoring to see if I gained/lost (looking at weekly averages more than daily for the calories), until I was certain I was still losing before adding more.

At first, I could quickly see I was still losing, so I might add another 100 daily the next week. But it got slower, until it took several weeks to know where things stood.

+1 to the comment above about not over-relying on MFP's (or any other calculator's) target estimates, if your own data proves them inaccurate. The calculators are based on averages of large groups. The give us an estimate that's a good starting point. But some of us are further from average than others, and need to adjust based on experience.

You can choose whether to average your exercise over the week (or so) - the TDEE method - or to use the net-calorie eat-back-exercise-daily approach - NEAT method - whichever works best for your preferences.

TimothyFish

I only track if my weight is starting to creep up. I'm not a big fan of looking up all my food. I logged my food through Thanksgiving and Christmas because I was on the edge of my goal range. Now I've gone from the top edge to the bottom edge without even trying very hard. Not logging won't change that, but I mind less about being under than over. I tend to lose weight during the Spring and Summer, so I see no value in continuing to log my calories.

comptonelizabeth

In addition to the above advice I'd say see a doctor if you continue to lose weight,as unintentional weight loss,especially at our age (I'm also a 61 year old sedentary female) can be a red flag

The_Enginerd

spiriteagle99 wrote: »

I don't eat all, because on 20 mile days that's an additional 2000 calories and even I can't eat 3400 unless I'm eating out.

I looked up my TDEE and it says 1900 calories, which is less than I'm eating now.

You don't have to eat to your daily goal every day. It's easy with the app to average your calories over the week. I net over some days (like my rest day where I'll typically be 300-500 over my daily goal) and under on my big run days.