Newbie Question about CICO and MFP

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  • StaciMarie1974
    StaciMarie1974 Posts: 4,138 Member
    edited March 2017
    Running 18 miles some days: you probably do more cardio per week than the average person starting out on calorie counting.

    You will need to judge at least somewhat by how you feel. If you are regularly eating with a huge deficit, your training (marathon I presume) is going to suffer.

    Edited: I see from other replies that your marathon is in May. Since you are training and have less than 2 months til your event: might be better to focus on feeling fueled/satiated and not stress about weight loss.
    VydorScope wrote: »
    So a long time ago (well not that long) I was much heavier, and I lost a bunch of weight (50 pounds). Then eventually gained it back, and lost it again. I have been doing pretty okay, but as time rolls on I see it slowly coming back. I REALLY do not want to find it all again, so I thought I would give MFP and CICO a try since it appealed to my logical side. I am 5 days into this plan.

    Well, the problem is - CICO seems to be all over the map. For example today I will finish with over 1500 calories LEFT TO EAT. (1700 daily goal, and I ran 18 miles of hills, so net right now is in the negatives still). Tomorrow is a rest day which means I will have to eat less than 1/2 of what I ate today, and less than 1/3rd of what I was supposed to eat today (to loose 1 pound a week -need only drop like 5-10 pounds). Then Monday, I will probably burn 1000 calories in exercise, meaning I will need to eat half again as much as the day before.

    So, I guess I am getting whiplash here. Am I missing something? I was hoping that CICO would be simple and straight forward. Eat good variety and keep quantity under control. Sounds like a nice logical diet... but 5 days in, and I am getting dizzy trying to keep up.

    Thanks for any advice.

  • deannalfisher
    deannalfisher Posts: 5,600 Member
    VydorScope wrote: »
    deannalfisher wrote: »
    20 miles and 5 weeks out from the race - you are starting to get to the stage where injury could play a role

    you have a solid base right now; I'd dial it back a week and then do one last long run before taper - 2-3 weeks out

    I hear you... but if I can not push through to 20 miles now, how in the world will I be able to do 26 in May? I need to get to a 9ish min pace to beat my goal of 4 hours. I have a lot more running to do I think.

    trust me - you'll do it - I have a good friend who is a multiple time BQ qualifier and he never runs more than about 16 miles in a lead-up to a race (this is the third year in a row that he has qualified) - his son is my triathlon coach
  • PastorVincent
    PastorVincent Posts: 6,668 Member
    StaciMarie1974 wrote: »
    Running 18 miles some days: you probably do more cardio per week than the average person starting out on calorie counting.

    You will need to judge at least somewhat by how you feel. If you are regularly eating with a huge deficit, your training (marathon I presume) is going to suffer.

    Edited: I see from other replies that your marathon is in May. Since you are training and have less than 2 months til your event: might be better to focus on feeling fueled/satiated and not stress about weight loss.

    Well, my goal was to get to a race weight, and then level off for training. Picked up some pounds during the winter. I hoped to get there a month a head of the race, and I am getting close now.

    But you raise a good thought about training - maybe that is why I feel like I am really struggling to make (and currently miss) my goals for time and distance.
  • PastorVincent
    PastorVincent Posts: 6,668 Member
    Well, I pushed through and made 20 miles today. Way slower than I wanted, but at least I made it. I have a race next weekend - doing a "9.3 challenge" (a 5k race followed by a 10k race) so will have to do a mini taper this week I think.

    Sitting at -773 calories for today, but I think I will puke if I try to eat anymore.

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