Hit a plateau, binging has become a regular thing, need to make a change and fast!

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ashleynne
ashleynne Posts: 11 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi everyone! I was eating about 1300 calories a day and it was working really great up until a month ago. I've lost over 35 pounds but recently gained about 6 back. I've gained a lot of muscle and I've come to the conclusion after my personal trainer and the gnc guy stated I'm not eating enough. I'm 5'8 and weigh 165 pounds. I'm not following weight so much anymore but rather the size of jeans I fit into and what I look like. Here's my assumptions:

-These 3 small meals and 2 snacks thing isn't working out. I feel constantly hungry would it just be better for me to go back to 3 regular portioned meals as I felt fuller and satisfied for a lot longer.
-1300 calories can no longer support where I'm at. I go to the gym 4 days a week 2 hours at a time. First hour is weight training, second is cardio. I need to up my calorie intake as my body is just probably storing fat now as I'm eating too little. So should it be 1500 or 1600? I've read up 1800 but that seems a little high.
-I'm possibly over relying on supplements for my protein goals. I have two shakes a day now and a protein bar on occasion. Time to switch to whole foods? I eat a lot of frozen or ready to made. I read the nutritional labels and they aren't the worst, but I dont know they lack what I need to satisfy me and give me the nutrition
-If it matters just cardio alone I burn about 450 when I'm at the gym. I currently don't really have a way to keep track of how much calories I am burning with weights.

Thoughts???

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  • cerise_noir
    cerise_noir Posts: 5,468 Member
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    1. Eat as little or as many meals with in your calories as you need to feel satisfied. There are no set meal amounts or timing; it's highly individual.
    2. Your body cannot store fat if you're
    in a deficit. Since you don't have much to lose, set up MyFitnessPal to lose .5lbs (or 1lb per week if mfp gives you more than 1300 cals) per week. If exercise is the only activity that you do, set your activity to sedentary and add your 1hr of cardio. Eat a portion of those calories back as mfp and cardio machines overestimate exercise calories.
    3. Muscle gain is hard for women, even more so in a deficit.
    4. Are you near TOM? Have you had high sodium foods? You mentioned binges....did you log these? It's highly possible the binges spiked your weight and it may just be water weight.

    Things that can spike weight (water weight)
    -TOM and ovulation
    -Dehydration
    -High sodium days
    -Constipation
    -Travelling
    -Binges (can lead to fat gain)
    -Stress
    -New or increased exercise.

    It's possible the low calories and increased activities has been causing the binges. Set up your mfp diet profile to lose .5lbs. If you don't already, pick up a food scale and weight everything that isn't a liquid- even prepackaged food (yes they can be off by as much as 20%). Use cups/spoons for liquid only. Log everything; cooking oil, beverages, dressings, condiments... it all adds up.

    Shakes are fine as long as they fit in your calories. But! But... if you are hungry then it may be better to find lean sources of protien to replace 1-2 shakes. Look for frozen meals with more protien.

    What sort of weights do you do? Free weights or machines? Typically, weights don't burn many calories. I personally never eat back calories from lifting and only eat back a portion of cardio calories.

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