Am I eating enough?

Lizzypb88

Since I've started running aka exercising I've felt much more hungry. Normally I was eating 1250-1300 calories a day but was sedentary and did not feel deprived!! I dropped 90 pounds over the last 2 years just fine... now with running every other day, I eat back about half my exercise calories which amounts to 1500-1600 on run days.. non run days I eat 1200-1300 as that's what the app suggests. in the last 2 months my weight has NOT moved, haven't gained but haven't lost and I feel deprived. I've read a bit about increasing my daily calories as that could be a reason my weight isn't budging, but I am following my fitness pal, I plug in to lose 2 pounds a week, and I put in my exercise, maybe I'm still being too strict? Does anyone agree with my theory or have a calculator for how many calories I could increase my daily intake to? Thanks in advance!

cathipa

If you are close to a healthy weight 2 pounds a week is too strict. Try 0.5-1 pound a week. Congrats on your loss!

ETA: Just took a look at your diary. Are you weighing your food? There are many servings, cups and spoon measurements. Agree with @Maxematics if you aren't losing you are probably eating close to maintenance calories.

Maxematics

Do you weigh all of your food with a food scale? If not, you're most likely eating more than you think and it's causing you to eat at maintenance. This is especially easy to do when "runger" hits. I love to run, but I get incredibly hungry when I do. It's not hard for me to be at a surplus when I run because my appetite gets insatiable at times. I can easily and happily eat over my maintenance by 500+ calories, especially after a day where I've run over 6 miles.

How many miles are you running every other day? What are your stats; height/weight/etc.? That would help pinpoint other possibilities. You could be retaining water, but not enough to mask losses for two months. I can tell you that increasing calories is not the answer though. Your body won't stop losing weight from eating too little.

ETA: @cathipa Thanks for the heads up abut the open diary; I didn't even realize. I took a look at your diary for the past month, OP, and it looks quite inaccurate. Most of the stuff is the same amount of calories daily and look like user entries. What is one serving of "healthy pancakes"? What is this "brew pub burger" you keep logging? On 7/4, 7/11, 7/18, 7/19, and 7/25 you didn't log any food at all. Without a doubt you are eating much more than you think. Get accurate with your logging and you'll continue to lose weight.

Lizzypb88

Maxematics wrote: »

Do you weigh all of your food with a food scale? If not, you're most likely eating more than you think and it's causing you to eat at maintenance. This is especially easy to do when "runger" hits. I love to run, but I get incredibly hungry when I do. It's not hard for me to be at a surplus when I run because my appetite gets insatiable at times. I can easily and happily eat over my maintenance by 500+ calories, especially after a day where I've run over 6 miles.

How many miles are you running every other day? What are your stats; height/weight/etc.? That would help pinpoint other possibilities. You could be retaining water, but not enough to mask losses for two months. I can tell you that increasing calories is not the answer though. Your body won't stop losing weight from eating too little.

ETA: @cathipa Thanks for the heads up abut the open diary; I didn't even realize. I took a look at your diary for the past month, OP, and it looks quite inaccurate. Most of the stuff is the same amount of calories daily and look like user entries. What is one serving of "healthy pancakes"? What is this "brew pub burger" you keep logging? On 7/4, 7/11, 7/18, 7/19, and 7/25 you didn't log any food at all. Without a doubt you are eating much more than you think. Get accurate with your logging and you'll continue to lose weight.

The brew burger etc most of this stuff is from a popular meal prep place, they all have some kind of a veggie with the meal and are pretty cheap. i am an extremely picky so I will literally eat the same thing almost every day for weeks until I get tired of it, then switch everything up and eat that for weeks on end... I have tried rotating a variety of foods so I don't eat the same thing every day but then I get sick of it all in general, so yea, I'm really repetitive!! Some of the days I don't log cuz I'm pretty sure it's a repeated day from before... or the other half of the time I ate crap and just didn't log it! So I do have screw up days

Lizzypb88

Also all the food from the meal prep gives basic info- cal/carb/protein/fat, they're known for low to no sugar and sodium in their foods which are made in house so that's why there's no data on most of my days concerning sodium/sugar

ritzvin

If it truly has been >2 months where it hasn't budged, then you are probably eating more than you think. For instance, do double check the brew pub burger. Looks low unless (1) you are ditching the bun, (2) it is small, (3) it uses leaner than the usual 80/20 beef, &/or (4) has no calorie-dense additions (like mayo, cheese, avocado,..).

As a female, unless you are obese or tall, the 1200 calories probably doesn't correspond to the 2 lb/week you entered (it will bottom out at 1200 and inform you what the actual estimated deficit is). For me, it's only an estimated deficit of 200 calories daily.

If you tighten up the food logging (1200 net calories will be a deficit even if the app is off on its estimate of your net maintenance calories), you should be able to eat more than half the running calories (the calorie burn numbers for running will be much more accurate than say aerobics/hiking/cycling where effort per time/distance can vary a huge amount).

Weigh daily and pay attention to the trends rather than any single number. I only ever pay attention to the current 2 week moving average (anything else has bumps from fluctuating water weight).

Not necessarily an issue for you (but is related to a post before): try to eat something that is slower to eat after the run-ger hits (at that point it's easy to quickly wolf down a 1500 calorie plate of a calorie-dense burger and fries without stopping before you realize you might be full).

cathipa

Lizzypb88 wrote: »

Maxematics wrote: »

Do you weigh all of your food with a food scale? If not, you're most likely eating more than you think and it's causing you to eat at maintenance. This is especially easy to do when "runger" hits. I love to run, but I get incredibly hungry when I do. It's not hard for me to be at a surplus when I run because my appetite gets insatiable at times. I can easily and happily eat over my maintenance by 500+ calories, especially after a day where I've run over 6 miles.

How many miles are you running every other day? What are your stats; height/weight/etc.? That would help pinpoint other possibilities. You could be retaining water, but not enough to mask losses for two months. I can tell you that increasing calories is not the answer though. Your body won't stop losing weight from eating too little.

ETA: @cathipa Thanks for the heads up abut the open diary; I didn't even realize. I took a look at your diary for the past month, OP, and it looks quite inaccurate. Most of the stuff is the same amount of calories daily and look like user entries. What is one serving of "healthy pancakes"? What is this "brew pub burger" you keep logging? On 7/4, 7/11, 7/18, 7/19, and 7/25 you didn't log any food at all. Without a doubt you are eating much more than you think. Get accurate with your logging and you'll continue to lose weight.

The brew burger etc most of this stuff is from a popular meal prep place, they all have some kind of a veggie with the meal and are pretty cheap. i am an extremely picky so I will literally eat the same thing almost every day for weeks until I get tired of it, then switch everything up and eat that for weeks on end... I have tried rotating a variety of foods so I don't eat the same thing every day but then I get sick of it all in general, so yea, I'm really repetitive!! Some of the days I don't log cuz I'm pretty sure it's a repeated day from before... or the other half of the time I ate crap and just didn't log it! So I do have screw up days

Seems like you answered your question. Tighten up your logging. Chances are your will find you are consuming more than you think.

TavistockToad

How are you calculating your calories burnt running?