Of refeeds and diet breaks
Replies
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JaydedMiss wrote: »VintageFeline wrote: »JaydedMiss wrote: »GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »JaydedMiss wrote: »Nony_Mouse wrote: »JaydedMiss wrote: »It occured to me i may need a bit more thn the diet break (just finished 2 weeks after 18 months cutting) I didnt do it properly i pretty much kept uncontrollably reaching for sweet treats. My focus was purely on upping calories since i already eat alot of carbs and honestly upping calories is a scary enough step. I think I have a sugar "addiction"-I know leave the wording alone lol-
I backtracked back to when i began to feel the intense hunger and need to eat constantly (1.5ish months ago) and its been getting worse the more i gave in and tried indulging my growing sweet tooth with stevia and treats hoping itd help lol.
Been getting even worse to the point i literally CANT stop reaching for snacks. Its been horrid. Just now made the connection in my mind. I was crowding out vegetables and higher calorie proper meals to make room for more sugary stuff. Because thats all i want in the entire world lol.
Im going to continue a higher caloric intake- But only allow breakfast to be something sweet- With no stevia! And maybe some berries in a smoothie if i want or something later.
Hopefully the additional calories of properly nutritious not sweet foods and decrease of stevia will get this under control.
Sounds like focussing on good nutrition is the way to go, Jayde. How are you with nuts? They're nice wee dense energy packages, both nutritionally and calorically. I, alas, can't be trusted with nuts, but if they're something you have no trouble moderating, they'd make a good snack to replace the sweet stuff, or an addition to meals if you want to avoid snacking for now.
Nah i think my best bet is meals. Im hungry constantly and want to eat constantly im thinking ill stick to my regular stuff...eggs..tuna...potatoes...veggies....and fruit xD Just try to package them in a way that i get 4-5 good solid meals and maybe near the end try to aim for less meals if it works the way im hoping it will xD Calorie dense stuff is dangerous in my current situation lol
Weirdly my macros never suffered i picked my snacks well and even then majority of them were fruit based although admittedly were getting worse last week or so lol. Was easy to fool self i wasnt slipping even harder thn i realized lol. Fingers crossed
Are you getting enough fat, though? I tended to crave sugary stuff when I wasn't getting enough fat.
Granted that I don't need much, but it took me a while to find my sweet spot. I'm comfortable now around 50 -55 grams a day.
Yeah there was a while in the craving where i upped fats dramatically just to test it, Didnt help. I wish, Id love an excuse to eat peanutbutter XD
But were you still in a deficit? It be worth trying whilst at maintenance. May do nothing again but no harm in trying. Plus. Peanut butter.
Yeah no im down to try anything at this point im simply amazed iv managed to maintain these past few months of this. im desperate XD Thankyou. Ill up some fat but not in peanutbutter form. When the jars there i cant help but snack on it when other stuff isnt around- Adds up awful fast hah. Cant wait for my peanut flour to come in. I miss peanutbutter so much lol.
I was makign some sushi with salmon a few days on my diet break got fat in that way and eggs, So maybe ill make some more sushi and use salmon for a bit vs tuna. The meat makes me uncomfortable im not used to it xD Another attempt im trying to make the hunger relax was adding back in some meat.
Be prepared when you move to maintenance calories for the scale to move up. Do not worry, this will NOT be fat gain. It will be glycogen and extra food in your system.
I read in another thread that you haven't had your period for a few months. Now I know that you have PCOS and that your cycles might be messed up from that, but it is concerning considering that you've aggressively eaten at deficit for so long.
Considering the fact that you're a mover for a living, you're fairly active without even doing any exercise, and you do a lot of exercise on top of that. Do you have your settings in Fitbit set to say that you have an active job so that you're getting a good approximation of your TDEE?2 -
Hi! I'm new to this thread. Thank you Nony and Cynthia for inviting me. Today I am starting my first ever planned diet break. I'm ready but a little nervous for some reason. I think it comes at a good time, because this past week (13th of eating at a deficit) my weight loss this morning was a puny .2#. I have a question. I've been eating at 1200 cal per day (short girl). MFP says to maintain eat 1750. Two other websites say around 1650 and two more say around 1940. What should I aim for?
If I were in your position, I'd split the difference and eat somewhere around 1825.
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VintageFeline wrote: »eponine1984 wrote: »I've loved reading this entire thread though I haven't gotten to listen to the podcast - my one year old keeps me pretty busy. My husband and I have sort of accidentally fallen into the 5/2 way of eating since we joined MyFitnessPal. We tend to have parties or events on the weekends and we've just been a bit looser with the calorie restriction.
I have a few questions and I hope that someone more knowledgeable than me (who's had more experience, read the studies, etc) can help me out or at least point me in the right direction.
I'm 5'7, currently 188 lbs. At peak pregnant a year ago, I was 242 and then dropped to 213 pretty quickly where I maintained for awhile. Since August 2017, I've been eating between 1600-1800 calories most days and gotten down to 188. My son turned a year on October 17, and I'm still breastfeeding a few times a day and once or twice over night. I target 1800 calories which seems to work pretty well and hasn't impacted my milk supply. On weekends, I eat closer to 2000 calories per day. I started and finished c25k and started the bridge to 10K plan and run 2-3 times a week when I can get to the gym. I know n=1, everyone's NEAT can vary, etc.
Do my calories seem like they're in the right ballpark? I've been losing an average of 1.5 lbs per week and I'm okay with that. I'm not really sure what my body fat % is - my scale says about 50%, a website calculator says 36% (I know, I know - two VERY unreliable sources). I don't really know what my TDEE is either. I settled on my calorie goal after some trial and error. I haven't focused on macros yet as my initial goal was strictly weight loss. I tend towards 20% protein, 50% carb, and 30% fat.
If you were me, what would you do? Focus more on macros at the same calorie levels? Tweak the calories I'm consuming? My husband and I are planning to begin trying to expand our family in January, so this is really only for the next two months and once I get pregnant then it'll be a different goal. I'm below my pre-pregnancy weight already so anything else I lose now is a bonus and ideally I won't gain 50lbs again.
The only thing i would do is add resistance training. And then slowly start tapering your deficit back as you get closer to a healthy weight.
I agree with this but I would possibly slow losses to 1lb per week at this point (but this depends on goal weight, you might be good for another 10lbs or so where you are now). There's always a risk of keeping the deficit too high for too long and then, as most of us have experienced, get an extreme attack of the hungries.
What if I told you I don't like resistance training? Like I get really, really bored? I still need to do it? You're sure? Okay then... I know that's been lacking from my routine, same with bumping up protein a bit. Why are the things you know you need to do, the hardest things to do?
Thank you to those who replied to me and my questions. It's so greatly appreciated.1 -
eponine1984 wrote: »VintageFeline wrote: »eponine1984 wrote: »I've loved reading this entire thread though I haven't gotten to listen to the podcast - my one year old keeps me pretty busy. My husband and I have sort of accidentally fallen into the 5/2 way of eating since we joined MyFitnessPal. We tend to have parties or events on the weekends and we've just been a bit looser with the calorie restriction.
I have a few questions and I hope that someone more knowledgeable than me (who's had more experience, read the studies, etc) can help me out or at least point me in the right direction.
I'm 5'7, currently 188 lbs. At peak pregnant a year ago, I was 242 and then dropped to 213 pretty quickly where I maintained for awhile. Since August 2017, I've been eating between 1600-1800 calories most days and gotten down to 188. My son turned a year on October 17, and I'm still breastfeeding a few times a day and once or twice over night. I target 1800 calories which seems to work pretty well and hasn't impacted my milk supply. On weekends, I eat closer to 2000 calories per day. I started and finished c25k and started the bridge to 10K plan and run 2-3 times a week when I can get to the gym. I know n=1, everyone's NEAT can vary, etc.
Do my calories seem like they're in the right ballpark? I've been losing an average of 1.5 lbs per week and I'm okay with that. I'm not really sure what my body fat % is - my scale says about 50%, a website calculator says 36% (I know, I know - two VERY unreliable sources). I don't really know what my TDEE is either. I settled on my calorie goal after some trial and error. I haven't focused on macros yet as my initial goal was strictly weight loss. I tend towards 20% protein, 50% carb, and 30% fat.
If you were me, what would you do? Focus more on macros at the same calorie levels? Tweak the calories I'm consuming? My husband and I are planning to begin trying to expand our family in January, so this is really only for the next two months and once I get pregnant then it'll be a different goal. I'm below my pre-pregnancy weight already so anything else I lose now is a bonus and ideally I won't gain 50lbs again.
The only thing i would do is add resistance training. And then slowly start tapering your deficit back as you get closer to a healthy weight.
I agree with this but I would possibly slow losses to 1lb per week at this point (but this depends on goal weight, you might be good for another 10lbs or so where you are now). There's always a risk of keeping the deficit too high for too long and then, as most of us have experienced, get an extreme attack of the hungries.
What if I told you I don't like resistance training? Like I get really, really bored? I still need to do it? You're sure? Okay then... I know that's been lacking from my routine, same with bumping up protein a bit. Why are the things you know you need to do, the hardest things to do?
Thank you to those who replied to me and my questions. It's so greatly appreciated.
I dont enjoy it either, but bodyweight stuff isn't too bad, maybe start there?2 -
eponine1984 wrote: »VintageFeline wrote: »eponine1984 wrote: »I've loved reading this entire thread though I haven't gotten to listen to the podcast - my one year old keeps me pretty busy. My husband and I have sort of accidentally fallen into the 5/2 way of eating since we joined MyFitnessPal. We tend to have parties or events on the weekends and we've just been a bit looser with the calorie restriction.
I have a few questions and I hope that someone more knowledgeable than me (who's had more experience, read the studies, etc) can help me out or at least point me in the right direction.
I'm 5'7, currently 188 lbs. At peak pregnant a year ago, I was 242 and then dropped to 213 pretty quickly where I maintained for awhile. Since August 2017, I've been eating between 1600-1800 calories most days and gotten down to 188. My son turned a year on October 17, and I'm still breastfeeding a few times a day and once or twice over night. I target 1800 calories which seems to work pretty well and hasn't impacted my milk supply. On weekends, I eat closer to 2000 calories per day. I started and finished c25k and started the bridge to 10K plan and run 2-3 times a week when I can get to the gym. I know n=1, everyone's NEAT can vary, etc.
Do my calories seem like they're in the right ballpark? I've been losing an average of 1.5 lbs per week and I'm okay with that. I'm not really sure what my body fat % is - my scale says about 50%, a website calculator says 36% (I know, I know - two VERY unreliable sources). I don't really know what my TDEE is either. I settled on my calorie goal after some trial and error. I haven't focused on macros yet as my initial goal was strictly weight loss. I tend towards 20% protein, 50% carb, and 30% fat.
If you were me, what would you do? Focus more on macros at the same calorie levels? Tweak the calories I'm consuming? My husband and I are planning to begin trying to expand our family in January, so this is really only for the next two months and once I get pregnant then it'll be a different goal. I'm below my pre-pregnancy weight already so anything else I lose now is a bonus and ideally I won't gain 50lbs again.
The only thing i would do is add resistance training. And then slowly start tapering your deficit back as you get closer to a healthy weight.
I agree with this but I would possibly slow losses to 1lb per week at this point (but this depends on goal weight, you might be good for another 10lbs or so where you are now). There's always a risk of keeping the deficit too high for too long and then, as most of us have experienced, get an extreme attack of the hungries.
What if I told you I don't like resistance training? Like I get really, really bored? I still need to do it? You're sure? Okay then... I know that's been lacking from my routine, same with bumping up protein a bit. Why are the things you know you need to do, the hardest things to do?
Thank you to those who replied to me and my questions. It's so greatly appreciated.
I thought I hated it, turns out I bloody love it but you have to find the style that at least is the least offensive to you. There's options from bodyweight right through to powerlifting. I'm a moderate weight/moderate rep, speedy feels like cardio sort of lifter (I use Fitness Blender, I really enjoy the style and I don't have to think).2 -
eponine1984 wrote: »VintageFeline wrote: »eponine1984 wrote: »I've loved reading this entire thread though I haven't gotten to listen to the podcast - my one year old keeps me pretty busy. My husband and I have sort of accidentally fallen into the 5/2 way of eating since we joined MyFitnessPal. We tend to have parties or events on the weekends and we've just been a bit looser with the calorie restriction.
I have a few questions and I hope that someone more knowledgeable than me (who's had more experience, read the studies, etc) can help me out or at least point me in the right direction.
I'm 5'7, currently 188 lbs. At peak pregnant a year ago, I was 242 and then dropped to 213 pretty quickly where I maintained for awhile. Since August 2017, I've been eating between 1600-1800 calories most days and gotten down to 188. My son turned a year on October 17, and I'm still breastfeeding a few times a day and once or twice over night. I target 1800 calories which seems to work pretty well and hasn't impacted my milk supply. On weekends, I eat closer to 2000 calories per day. I started and finished c25k and started the bridge to 10K plan and run 2-3 times a week when I can get to the gym. I know n=1, everyone's NEAT can vary, etc.
Do my calories seem like they're in the right ballpark? I've been losing an average of 1.5 lbs per week and I'm okay with that. I'm not really sure what my body fat % is - my scale says about 50%, a website calculator says 36% (I know, I know - two VERY unreliable sources). I don't really know what my TDEE is either. I settled on my calorie goal after some trial and error. I haven't focused on macros yet as my initial goal was strictly weight loss. I tend towards 20% protein, 50% carb, and 30% fat.
If you were me, what would you do? Focus more on macros at the same calorie levels? Tweak the calories I'm consuming? My husband and I are planning to begin trying to expand our family in January, so this is really only for the next two months and once I get pregnant then it'll be a different goal. I'm below my pre-pregnancy weight already so anything else I lose now is a bonus and ideally I won't gain 50lbs again.
The only thing i would do is add resistance training. And then slowly start tapering your deficit back as you get closer to a healthy weight.
I agree with this but I would possibly slow losses to 1lb per week at this point (but this depends on goal weight, you might be good for another 10lbs or so where you are now). There's always a risk of keeping the deficit too high for too long and then, as most of us have experienced, get an extreme attack of the hungries.
What if I told you I don't like resistance training? Like I get really, really bored? I still need to do it? You're sure? Okay then... I know that's been lacking from my routine, same with bumping up protein a bit. Why are the things you know you need to do, the hardest things to do?
Thank you to those who replied to me and my questions. It's so greatly appreciated.
Do you need to do resistance training? No. But it will highly benefit you. In fact, I have yet to hear from anyone who didn't like the way their body looked when they did incorporate resistance training. I know a lot of people who are cardio queens who struggle to get the body they want. If you are happy with your progress, then you don't need to change anything. But if you can't get the results you want, it's probably from a poor exercise program.
The biggest problem you face is that you are only working your aerobic system and not your skeletal system. That means you are limiting the potential to sustain your muscles during weight loss (more muscle = leaner bodies and a faster metabolism), you are limiting your strength potential which helps prevent injury, combating osteoporosis, etc..
What I have found with people I work with that they just need to find a training style that they find fun. It doesn't have to be traditional weight lifting, it can be a variety of things: body weight programs, crossfit, resistance classes, etc... Essentially, anything that breaks down the muscles and forces them to be rebuilt.4 -
GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »JaydedMiss wrote: »VintageFeline wrote: »JaydedMiss wrote: »GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »JaydedMiss wrote: »Nony_Mouse wrote: »JaydedMiss wrote: »It occured to me i may need a bit more thn the diet break (just finished 2 weeks after 18 months cutting) I didnt do it properly i pretty much kept uncontrollably reaching for sweet treats. My focus was purely on upping calories since i already eat alot of carbs and honestly upping calories is a scary enough step. I think I have a sugar "addiction"-I know leave the wording alone lol-
I backtracked back to when i began to feel the intense hunger and need to eat constantly (1.5ish months ago) and its been getting worse the more i gave in and tried indulging my growing sweet tooth with stevia and treats hoping itd help lol.
Been getting even worse to the point i literally CANT stop reaching for snacks. Its been horrid. Just now made the connection in my mind. I was crowding out vegetables and higher calorie proper meals to make room for more sugary stuff. Because thats all i want in the entire world lol.
Im going to continue a higher caloric intake- But only allow breakfast to be something sweet- With no stevia! And maybe some berries in a smoothie if i want or something later.
Hopefully the additional calories of properly nutritious not sweet foods and decrease of stevia will get this under control.
Sounds like focussing on good nutrition is the way to go, Jayde. How are you with nuts? They're nice wee dense energy packages, both nutritionally and calorically. I, alas, can't be trusted with nuts, but if they're something you have no trouble moderating, they'd make a good snack to replace the sweet stuff, or an addition to meals if you want to avoid snacking for now.
Nah i think my best bet is meals. Im hungry constantly and want to eat constantly im thinking ill stick to my regular stuff...eggs..tuna...potatoes...veggies....and fruit xD Just try to package them in a way that i get 4-5 good solid meals and maybe near the end try to aim for less meals if it works the way im hoping it will xD Calorie dense stuff is dangerous in my current situation lol
Weirdly my macros never suffered i picked my snacks well and even then majority of them were fruit based although admittedly were getting worse last week or so lol. Was easy to fool self i wasnt slipping even harder thn i realized lol. Fingers crossed
Are you getting enough fat, though? I tended to crave sugary stuff when I wasn't getting enough fat.
Granted that I don't need much, but it took me a while to find my sweet spot. I'm comfortable now around 50 -55 grams a day.
Yeah there was a while in the craving where i upped fats dramatically just to test it, Didnt help. I wish, Id love an excuse to eat peanutbutter XD
But were you still in a deficit? It be worth trying whilst at maintenance. May do nothing again but no harm in trying. Plus. Peanut butter.
Yeah no im down to try anything at this point im simply amazed iv managed to maintain these past few months of this. im desperate XD Thankyou. Ill up some fat but not in peanutbutter form. When the jars there i cant help but snack on it when other stuff isnt around- Adds up awful fast hah. Cant wait for my peanut flour to come in. I miss peanutbutter so much lol.
I was makign some sushi with salmon a few days on my diet break got fat in that way and eggs, So maybe ill make some more sushi and use salmon for a bit vs tuna. The meat makes me uncomfortable im not used to it xD Another attempt im trying to make the hunger relax was adding back in some meat.
Be prepared when you move to maintenance calories for the scale to move up. Do not worry, this will NOT be fat gain. It will be glycogen and extra food in your system.
I read in another thread that you haven't had your period for a few months. Now I know that you have PCOS and that your cycles might be messed up from that, but it is concerning considering that you've aggressively eaten at deficit for so long.
Considering the fact that you're a mover for a living, you're fairly active without even doing any exercise, and you do a lot of exercise on top of that. Do you have your settings in Fitbit set to say that you have an active job so that you're getting a good approximation of your TDEE?
Nah the period thign is 100% either my pcos.... or im pregnant (chances are basically 0 but i guess not 0) I dont undereat havent undereaten for any extended periods ever. Dont worry
As for work i only work 2-4 days a week, And I sort of just try to even it out i dont work enough days to say im overly active, I averaged out 2000-2300 and havent lost or gained so im saying i guestimated right. Just the cravings and hunger im feeling the need to carry it on while cutting sugar. I think stevia has me messed up lol.
Also my weight hasnt went up and i finished 2 weeks maintenance. Was nice lol
edited to add: its really nice how much we all know about eachother after so long. Its like having friends who actually know and care about your fitness journeys lol2 -
JaydedMiss wrote: »GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »JaydedMiss wrote: »VintageFeline wrote: »JaydedMiss wrote: »GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »JaydedMiss wrote: »Nony_Mouse wrote: »JaydedMiss wrote: »It occured to me i may need a bit more thn the diet break (just finished 2 weeks after 18 months cutting) I didnt do it properly i pretty much kept uncontrollably reaching for sweet treats. My focus was purely on upping calories since i already eat alot of carbs and honestly upping calories is a scary enough step. I think I have a sugar "addiction"-I know leave the wording alone lol-
I backtracked back to when i began to feel the intense hunger and need to eat constantly (1.5ish months ago) and its been getting worse the more i gave in and tried indulging my growing sweet tooth with stevia and treats hoping itd help lol.
Been getting even worse to the point i literally CANT stop reaching for snacks. Its been horrid. Just now made the connection in my mind. I was crowding out vegetables and higher calorie proper meals to make room for more sugary stuff. Because thats all i want in the entire world lol.
Im going to continue a higher caloric intake- But only allow breakfast to be something sweet- With no stevia! And maybe some berries in a smoothie if i want or something later.
Hopefully the additional calories of properly nutritious not sweet foods and decrease of stevia will get this under control.
Sounds like focussing on good nutrition is the way to go, Jayde. How are you with nuts? They're nice wee dense energy packages, both nutritionally and calorically. I, alas, can't be trusted with nuts, but if they're something you have no trouble moderating, they'd make a good snack to replace the sweet stuff, or an addition to meals if you want to avoid snacking for now.
Nah i think my best bet is meals. Im hungry constantly and want to eat constantly im thinking ill stick to my regular stuff...eggs..tuna...potatoes...veggies....and fruit xD Just try to package them in a way that i get 4-5 good solid meals and maybe near the end try to aim for less meals if it works the way im hoping it will xD Calorie dense stuff is dangerous in my current situation lol
Weirdly my macros never suffered i picked my snacks well and even then majority of them were fruit based although admittedly were getting worse last week or so lol. Was easy to fool self i wasnt slipping even harder thn i realized lol. Fingers crossed
Are you getting enough fat, though? I tended to crave sugary stuff when I wasn't getting enough fat.
Granted that I don't need much, but it took me a while to find my sweet spot. I'm comfortable now around 50 -55 grams a day.
Yeah there was a while in the craving where i upped fats dramatically just to test it, Didnt help. I wish, Id love an excuse to eat peanutbutter XD
But were you still in a deficit? It be worth trying whilst at maintenance. May do nothing again but no harm in trying. Plus. Peanut butter.
Yeah no im down to try anything at this point im simply amazed iv managed to maintain these past few months of this. im desperate XD Thankyou. Ill up some fat but not in peanutbutter form. When the jars there i cant help but snack on it when other stuff isnt around- Adds up awful fast hah. Cant wait for my peanut flour to come in. I miss peanutbutter so much lol.
I was makign some sushi with salmon a few days on my diet break got fat in that way and eggs, So maybe ill make some more sushi and use salmon for a bit vs tuna. The meat makes me uncomfortable im not used to it xD Another attempt im trying to make the hunger relax was adding back in some meat.
Be prepared when you move to maintenance calories for the scale to move up. Do not worry, this will NOT be fat gain. It will be glycogen and extra food in your system.
I read in another thread that you haven't had your period for a few months. Now I know that you have PCOS and that your cycles might be messed up from that, but it is concerning considering that you've aggressively eaten at deficit for so long.
Considering the fact that you're a mover for a living, you're fairly active without even doing any exercise, and you do a lot of exercise on top of that. Do you have your settings in Fitbit set to say that you have an active job so that you're getting a good approximation of your TDEE?
Nah the period thign is 100% either my pcos.... or im pregnant (chances are basically 0 but i guess not 0) I dont undereat havent undereaten for any extended periods ever. Dont worry
As for work i only work 2-4 days a week, And I sort of just try to even it out i dont work enough days to say im overly active, I averaged out 2000-2300 and havent lost or gained so im saying i guestimated right. Just the cravings and hunger im feeling the need to carry it on while cutting sugar. I think stevia has me messed up lol.
Also my weight hasnt went up and i finished 2 weeks maintenance. Was nice lol
edited to add: its really nice how much we all know about eachother after so long. Its like having friends who actually know and care about your fitness journeys lol
Your weight hasn't gone up even a pound or two from fluctuations? I think you might need to eat more.
The hunger should have abated somewhat. You might be someone who burns a bit more than her Fitbit predicts.2 -
GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »JaydedMiss wrote: »GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »JaydedMiss wrote: »VintageFeline wrote: »JaydedMiss wrote: »GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »JaydedMiss wrote: »Nony_Mouse wrote: »JaydedMiss wrote: »It occured to me i may need a bit more thn the diet break (just finished 2 weeks after 18 months cutting) I didnt do it properly i pretty much kept uncontrollably reaching for sweet treats. My focus was purely on upping calories since i already eat alot of carbs and honestly upping calories is a scary enough step. I think I have a sugar "addiction"-I know leave the wording alone lol-
I backtracked back to when i began to feel the intense hunger and need to eat constantly (1.5ish months ago) and its been getting worse the more i gave in and tried indulging my growing sweet tooth with stevia and treats hoping itd help lol.
Been getting even worse to the point i literally CANT stop reaching for snacks. Its been horrid. Just now made the connection in my mind. I was crowding out vegetables and higher calorie proper meals to make room for more sugary stuff. Because thats all i want in the entire world lol.
Im going to continue a higher caloric intake- But only allow breakfast to be something sweet- With no stevia! And maybe some berries in a smoothie if i want or something later.
Hopefully the additional calories of properly nutritious not sweet foods and decrease of stevia will get this under control.
Sounds like focussing on good nutrition is the way to go, Jayde. How are you with nuts? They're nice wee dense energy packages, both nutritionally and calorically. I, alas, can't be trusted with nuts, but if they're something you have no trouble moderating, they'd make a good snack to replace the sweet stuff, or an addition to meals if you want to avoid snacking for now.
Nah i think my best bet is meals. Im hungry constantly and want to eat constantly im thinking ill stick to my regular stuff...eggs..tuna...potatoes...veggies....and fruit xD Just try to package them in a way that i get 4-5 good solid meals and maybe near the end try to aim for less meals if it works the way im hoping it will xD Calorie dense stuff is dangerous in my current situation lol
Weirdly my macros never suffered i picked my snacks well and even then majority of them were fruit based although admittedly were getting worse last week or so lol. Was easy to fool self i wasnt slipping even harder thn i realized lol. Fingers crossed
Are you getting enough fat, though? I tended to crave sugary stuff when I wasn't getting enough fat.
Granted that I don't need much, but it took me a while to find my sweet spot. I'm comfortable now around 50 -55 grams a day.
Yeah there was a while in the craving where i upped fats dramatically just to test it, Didnt help. I wish, Id love an excuse to eat peanutbutter XD
But were you still in a deficit? It be worth trying whilst at maintenance. May do nothing again but no harm in trying. Plus. Peanut butter.
Yeah no im down to try anything at this point im simply amazed iv managed to maintain these past few months of this. im desperate XD Thankyou. Ill up some fat but not in peanutbutter form. When the jars there i cant help but snack on it when other stuff isnt around- Adds up awful fast hah. Cant wait for my peanut flour to come in. I miss peanutbutter so much lol.
I was makign some sushi with salmon a few days on my diet break got fat in that way and eggs, So maybe ill make some more sushi and use salmon for a bit vs tuna. The meat makes me uncomfortable im not used to it xD Another attempt im trying to make the hunger relax was adding back in some meat.
Be prepared when you move to maintenance calories for the scale to move up. Do not worry, this will NOT be fat gain. It will be glycogen and extra food in your system.
I read in another thread that you haven't had your period for a few months. Now I know that you have PCOS and that your cycles might be messed up from that, but it is concerning considering that you've aggressively eaten at deficit for so long.
Considering the fact that you're a mover for a living, you're fairly active without even doing any exercise, and you do a lot of exercise on top of that. Do you have your settings in Fitbit set to say that you have an active job so that you're getting a good approximation of your TDEE?
Nah the period thign is 100% either my pcos.... or im pregnant (chances are basically 0 but i guess not 0) I dont undereat havent undereaten for any extended periods ever. Dont worry
As for work i only work 2-4 days a week, And I sort of just try to even it out i dont work enough days to say im overly active, I averaged out 2000-2300 and havent lost or gained so im saying i guestimated right. Just the cravings and hunger im feeling the need to carry it on while cutting sugar. I think stevia has me messed up lol.
Also my weight hasnt went up and i finished 2 weeks maintenance. Was nice lol
edited to add: its really nice how much we all know about eachother after so long. Its like having friends who actually know and care about your fitness journeys lol
Your weight hasn't gone up even a pound or two from fluctuations? I think you might need to eat more.
The hunger should have abated somewhat. You might be someone who burns a bit more than her Fitbit predicts.
I guestimated based on my averages. Fitbits hard it adds steps from my truck (its super dumb you cant turn its coutner off temporarily i get tossed like a rag doll in the truck lol) i took away a few hundred calories and ate between my math and fitbits estimate. I eat relatively high carb bulk to begin with so i assumed that was why Since i cut out alot of the bulk to try to keep up the calories thats why it didnt change the scale.
Im down to just not track for a few weeks and pack away low cal vegetables and potatoes again if it helps this insane need to eat out lol.0 -
Might be a bit of work, but at only 2-4 days a week, might take 2 weeks and log the Driving activity on Fitbit to 0 out those steps.
At least to get a decent estimate not including those bogus steps and distance and calories.0 -
Those added steps from driving aren't adding anything appreciable to your TDEE from Fitbit, though.
Fitbit calculates a commensurate burn for any step it credits you with, and any step it gives you from incidental movement doesn't really get any significant burn attached to it.
Subtracting a couple hundred calories for added steps due to driving is shortchanging yourself.2 -
it adds 5-10k steps its not shortchanging0
-
atleast i dont think lol. says i burn 3k+ on some work days when i know a ton of steps added but its average says 2070ish so im thinking the fact i didnt gain or lose and was eating just a bit above what fitbit average says i was okay as far as calories, Why i think it may be the stevia ....ill miss you sugar
1 -
Hi! I'm new to this thread. Thank you Nony and Cynthia for inviting me. Today I am starting my first ever planned diet break. I'm ready but a little nervous for some reason. I think it comes at a good time, because this past week (13th of eating at a deficit) my weight loss this morning was a puny .2#. I have a question. I've been eating at 1200 cal per day (short girl). MFP says to maintain eat 1750. Two other websites say around 1650 and two more say around 1940. What should I aim for?
Welcome aboard @Leeg5656! I agree with aiming higher rather than lower for estimated TDEE. For the diet break to work properly you really need to be hitting maintenance cals. If you're over by 100 a day, worse case scenario you're going to gain less than 1/2 a lb. And remember to include activity in your calculation.
@VintageFeline, no no, she really does mean 13 weeks. We netted this one early
Ooooh, data from someone incorporating diet breaks from the start! 5 -
Nony_Mouse wrote: »Hi! I'm new to this thread. Thank you Nony and Cynthia for inviting me. Today I am starting my first ever planned diet break. I'm ready but a little nervous for some reason. I think it comes at a good time, because this past week (13th of eating at a deficit) my weight loss this morning was a puny .2#. I have a question. I've been eating at 1200 cal per day (short girl). MFP says to maintain eat 1750. Two other websites say around 1650 and two more say around 1940. What should I aim for?
Welcome aboard @Leeg5656! I agree with aiming higher rather than lower for estimated TDEE. For the diet break to work properly you really need to be hitting maintenance cals. If you're over by 100 a day, worse case scenario you're going to gain less than 1/2 a lb. And remember to include activity in your calculation.
@VintageFeline, no no, she really does mean 13 weeks. We netted this one early Ooooh, data from someone incorporating diet breaks from the start!
Let's see if I have this calculation correct: In 13 weeks, I've lost 20#, so an average around 1.5# / week. I estimate that I've been eating around 1150/day average (based on my last 2 weeks. I don't really feel like going back thru the last 90 days), but I shoot for just a few calories under 1200. So I've been eating at a 5,250 calorie per week deficit. /7 = 750. So I should try for 1150+750= 1,900.
Is that right? That scares me. It sounds like too much.1 -
Nony_Mouse wrote: »Hi! I'm new to this thread. Thank you Nony and Cynthia for inviting me. Today I am starting my first ever planned diet break. I'm ready but a little nervous for some reason. I think it comes at a good time, because this past week (13th of eating at a deficit) my weight loss this morning was a puny .2#. I have a question. I've been eating at 1200 cal per day (short girl). MFP says to maintain eat 1750. Two other websites say around 1650 and two more say around 1940. What should I aim for?
Welcome aboard @Leeg5656! I agree with aiming higher rather than lower for estimated TDEE. For the diet break to work properly you really need to be hitting maintenance cals. If you're over by 100 a day, worse case scenario you're going to gain less than 1/2 a lb. And remember to include activity in your calculation.
@VintageFeline, no no, she really does mean 13 weeks. We netted this one early Ooooh, data from someone incorporating diet breaks from the start!
Let's see if I have this calculation correct: In 13 weeks, I've lost 20#, so an average around 1.5# / week. I estimate that I've been eating around 1150/day average (based on my last 2 weeks. I don't really feel like going back thru the last 90 days), but I shoot for just a few calories under 1200. So I've been eating at a 5,250 calorie per week deficit. /7 = 750. So I should try for 1150+750= 1,900.
Is that right? That scares me. It sounds like too much.
Was 1150 gross? Definitely a good idea to refeed!
But yep, sounds about right, you had a daily deficit of around 750 calories, possibly a bit less if we account for some water whoosh.
And trust me, once you're into the swing of it, 1900 is nothing.4 -
VintageFeline wrote: »Nony_Mouse wrote: »Hi! I'm new to this thread. Thank you Nony and Cynthia for inviting me. Today I am starting my first ever planned diet break. I'm ready but a little nervous for some reason. I think it comes at a good time, because this past week (13th of eating at a deficit) my weight loss this morning was a puny .2#. I have a question. I've been eating at 1200 cal per day (short girl). MFP says to maintain eat 1750. Two other websites say around 1650 and two more say around 1940. What should I aim for?
Welcome aboard @Leeg5656! I agree with aiming higher rather than lower for estimated TDEE. For the diet break to work properly you really need to be hitting maintenance cals. If you're over by 100 a day, worse case scenario you're going to gain less than 1/2 a lb. And remember to include activity in your calculation.
@VintageFeline, no no, she really does mean 13 weeks. We netted this one early Ooooh, data from someone incorporating diet breaks from the start!
Let's see if I have this calculation correct: In 13 weeks, I've lost 20#, so an average around 1.5# / week. I estimate that I've been eating around 1150/day average (based on my last 2 weeks. I don't really feel like going back thru the last 90 days), but I shoot for just a few calories under 1200. So I've been eating at a 5,250 calorie per week deficit. /7 = 750. So I should try for 1150+750= 1,900.
Is that right? That scares me. It sounds like too much.
Was 1150 gross? Definitely a good idea to refeed!
But yep, sounds about right, you had a daily deficit of around 750 calories, possibly a bit less if we account for some water whoosh.
And trust me, once you're into the swing of it, 1900 is nothing.
Hell, 3k is nothing.
7 -
Yep, sounds right to me too
And yeah, 1900 sounds a lot, it's not really (think, you were eating more than that to gain weight ). If you feel you're struggling to get to that, we can give you suggestions, but basically this is licence to have some of those things you may have cut out because they didn't fit your cals. Try to eat how you think you would like to once you're at goal weight. 3 -
VintageFeline wrote: »Nony_Mouse wrote: »Hi! I'm new to this thread. Thank you Nony and Cynthia for inviting me. Today I am starting my first ever planned diet break. I'm ready but a little nervous for some reason. I think it comes at a good time, because this past week (13th of eating at a deficit) my weight loss this morning was a puny .2#. I have a question. I've been eating at 1200 cal per day (short girl). MFP says to maintain eat 1750. Two other websites say around 1650 and two more say around 1940. What should I aim for?
Welcome aboard @Leeg5656! I agree with aiming higher rather than lower for estimated TDEE. For the diet break to work properly you really need to be hitting maintenance cals. If you're over by 100 a day, worse case scenario you're going to gain less than 1/2 a lb. And remember to include activity in your calculation.
@VintageFeline, no no, she really does mean 13 weeks. We netted this one early Ooooh, data from someone incorporating diet breaks from the start!
Let's see if I have this calculation correct: In 13 weeks, I've lost 20#, so an average around 1.5# / week. I estimate that I've been eating around 1150/day average (based on my last 2 weeks. I don't really feel like going back thru the last 90 days), but I shoot for just a few calories under 1200. So I've been eating at a 5,250 calorie per week deficit. /7 = 750. So I should try for 1150+750= 1,900.
Is that right? That scares me. It sounds like too much.
Was 1150 gross? Definitely a good idea to refeed!
But yep, sounds about right, you had a daily deficit of around 750 calories, possibly a bit less if we account for some water whoosh.
And trust me, once you're into the swing of it, 1900 is nothing.
Hell, 3k is nothing.
Pfft, hush, big man! 2 -
Courtesy of @fernt21 who run into this "calorie shifting" (=3 day re-feeds) paper: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4018593/4
-
Courtesy of @fernt21 who run into this "calorie shifting" (=3 day re-feeds) paper: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4018593/
Awesome (cos just hitting the button wasn't enough). 2 -
VintageFeline wrote: »Nony_Mouse wrote: »Hi! I'm new to this thread. Thank you Nony and Cynthia for inviting me. Today I am starting my first ever planned diet break. I'm ready but a little nervous for some reason. I think it comes at a good time, because this past week (13th of eating at a deficit) my weight loss this morning was a puny .2#. I have a question. I've been eating at 1200 cal per day (short girl). MFP says to maintain eat 1750. Two other websites say around 1650 and two more say around 1940. What should I aim for?
Welcome aboard @Leeg5656! I agree with aiming higher rather than lower for estimated TDEE. For the diet break to work properly you really need to be hitting maintenance cals. If you're over by 100 a day, worse case scenario you're going to gain less than 1/2 a lb. And remember to include activity in your calculation.
@VintageFeline, no no, she really does mean 13 weeks. We netted this one early Ooooh, data from someone incorporating diet breaks from the start!
Let's see if I have this calculation correct: In 13 weeks, I've lost 20#, so an average around 1.5# / week. I estimate that I've been eating around 1150/day average (based on my last 2 weeks. I don't really feel like going back thru the last 90 days), but I shoot for just a few calories under 1200. So I've been eating at a 5,250 calorie per week deficit. /7 = 750. So I should try for 1150+750= 1,900.
Is that right? That scares me. It sounds like too much.
Was 1150 gross? Definitely a good idea to refeed!
But yep, sounds about right, you had a daily deficit of around 750 calories, possibly a bit less if we account for some water whoosh.
And trust me, once you're into the swing of it, 1900 is nothing.
So true. Based on my actual RMR testing, I'm at 1866 a day just with my walk to and from work. If I actually am able to work out? Closer to 2300.
It was a little bit of fun -- or at least reassuring -- to see that I'm one of those outliers who burns more than the Apple Watch says.2 -
Nony_Mouse wrote: »VintageFeline wrote: »Nony_Mouse wrote: »Hi! I'm new to this thread. Thank you Nony and Cynthia for inviting me. Today I am starting my first ever planned diet break. I'm ready but a little nervous for some reason. I think it comes at a good time, because this past week (13th of eating at a deficit) my weight loss this morning was a puny .2#. I have a question. I've been eating at 1200 cal per day (short girl). MFP says to maintain eat 1750. Two other websites say around 1650 and two more say around 1940. What should I aim for?
Welcome aboard @Leeg5656! I agree with aiming higher rather than lower for estimated TDEE. For the diet break to work properly you really need to be hitting maintenance cals. If you're over by 100 a day, worse case scenario you're going to gain less than 1/2 a lb. And remember to include activity in your calculation.
@VintageFeline, no no, she really does mean 13 weeks. We netted this one early Ooooh, data from someone incorporating diet breaks from the start!
Let's see if I have this calculation correct: In 13 weeks, I've lost 20#, so an average around 1.5# / week. I estimate that I've been eating around 1150/day average (based on my last 2 weeks. I don't really feel like going back thru the last 90 days), but I shoot for just a few calories under 1200. So I've been eating at a 5,250 calorie per week deficit. /7 = 750. So I should try for 1150+750= 1,900.
Is that right? That scares me. It sounds like too much.
Was 1150 gross? Definitely a good idea to refeed!
But yep, sounds about right, you had a daily deficit of around 750 calories, possibly a bit less if we account for some water whoosh.
And trust me, once you're into the swing of it, 1900 is nothing.
Hell, 3k is nothing.
Pfft, hush, big man!
0 -
JaydedMiss wrote: »It occured to me i may need a bit more thn the diet break (just finished 2 weeks after 18 months cutting) I didnt do it properly i pretty much kept uncontrollably reaching for sweet treats. My focus was purely on upping calories since i already eat alot of carbs and honestly upping calories is a scary enough step. I think I have a sugar "addiction"-I know leave the wording alone lol-
I backtracked back to when i began to feel the intense hunger and need to eat constantly (1.5ish months ago) and its been getting worse the more i gave in and tried indulging my growing sweet tooth with stevia and treats hoping itd help lol.
Been getting even worse to the point i literally CANT stop reaching for snacks. Its been horrid. Just now made the connection in my mind. I was crowding out vegetables and higher calorie proper meals to make room for more sugary stuff. Because thats all i want in the entire world lol.
Im going to continue a higher caloric intake- But only allow breakfast to be something sweet- With no stevia! And maybe some berries in a smoothie if i want or something later.
Hopefully the additional calories of properly nutritious not sweet foods and decrease of stevia will get this under control.
I totally understand. Totally. I've made up my mind countless times in the past to get control of my cravings for sweets. I would be successful for a while - and I'd feel surprisingly happy and emotionally strong (why did I keep getting surprised??!) Then I would have an off day and just crumble. After a day of high carb/high sugar consumption my resolve would melt away and then I'd slip back into weeks or months of being a slave to my cravings again.
When I started my current diet, I was afraid to hope that this time would be any different, but early on, I realized that it was that fear and my lack of confidence that was my biggest enemy. I started practicing saying positive things to myself and just flat out banishing thoughts of future failure. We've all heard this advise a zillion times, but even so, when I owned it, it felt like some kind of miraculous epiphany to me.
So that was mentally huge. The other huge revelation was a physical. My dietitian asked me to try eating plain Greek yogurt for breakfast with a few berries and nuts. Low carb and a nice dose of protein and fat. She promised that avoiding grains and sugars early in the day would set me up for success the rest of the day because my blood sugar would be more stable. She was right. She was also right when she advised to eat veggies first and hit my protein and fat goal at each meal before even thinking about carbs. It really works for me.
Sorry to be so long winded! When I read your post it was like looking at myself a year ago and I wanted to reach out and try to rescue you! And believe me, I say that with much humility.
The first few days are always hard. Looonnnggg and hard. You think the suffering will never end! But it does, and when you stick with it you end up feeling so happy not to be in the clutches of the cravings any more. I'm sure you already know that, but a little encouragement right now might help? Best wishes!1 -
VintageFeline wrote: »Nony_Mouse wrote: »Hi! I'm new to this thread. Thank you Nony and Cynthia for inviting me. Today I am starting my first ever planned diet break. I'm ready but a little nervous for some reason. I think it comes at a good time, because this past week (13th of eating at a deficit) my weight loss this morning was a puny .2#. I have a question. I've been eating at 1200 cal per day (short girl). MFP says to maintain eat 1750. Two other websites say around 1650 and two more say around 1940. What should I aim for?
Welcome aboard @Leeg5656! I agree with aiming higher rather than lower for estimated TDEE. For the diet break to work properly you really need to be hitting maintenance cals. If you're over by 100 a day, worse case scenario you're going to gain less than 1/2 a lb. And remember to include activity in your calculation.
@VintageFeline, no no, she really does mean 13 weeks. We netted this one early Ooooh, data from someone incorporating diet breaks from the start!
Let's see if I have this calculation correct: In 13 weeks, I've lost 20#, so an average around 1.5# / week. I estimate that I've been eating around 1150/day average (based on my last 2 weeks. I don't really feel like going back thru the last 90 days), but I shoot for just a few calories under 1200. So I've been eating at a 5,250 calorie per week deficit. /7 = 750. So I should try for 1150+750= 1,900.
Is that right? That scares me. It sounds like too much.
Was 1150 gross? Definitely a good idea to refeed!
But yep, sounds about right, you had a daily deficit of around 750 calories, possibly a bit less if we account for some water whoosh.
And trust me, once you're into the swing of it, 1900 is nothing.
I'm not expert at this, but as someone who just did a diet break for the first time, I can share that perspective.
Before I began my diet break, I actually went back a few months and calculated my calorie averages and weight loss so that I would feel confident with estimating my TDEE. Then I compared my number to MFP's and another diet website's suggestion and saw that mine fell in the middle. In practice, I ranged from the lower to the upper number, but the 14 day average was kinda accidentally-on-purpose my number.
Because of what happened on the scale during and right after the diet break, I'm thinking I wasn't eating enough calories. I had the glycogen weight gain after 5 days, but then lost that weight on day 14, followed by a 2.5 lb loss in 6 days. That doesn't seem to add up.
Next time I do a diet break, I'm going to ease into and out of it. My first day eating at maintenance, I thought I would pop. So next time I'll increase only 300 calories the first day, then go full on for another 13 days. Afterwards, first day back on diet, I'll do the same thing so I don't feel like I'm starving to death. I'll plan to eat only 250 calories less that first day. Since getting the cortisol under control is one of the goals, it seems to make sense to take things easy.4 -
JaydedMiss wrote: »atleast i dont think lol. says i burn 3k+ on some work days when i know a ton of steps added but its average says 2070ish so im thinking the fact i didnt gain or lose and was eating just a bit above what fitbit average says i was okay as far as calories, Why i think it may be the stevia ....ill miss you sugar
Normal driving no - bouncing around in a truck can add much more impact making it think you've gone much more distance - therefore calories.
Go create an activity record for a known time that you have been bouncing around - it'll show you the stats for that block of time - steps, distance, and calories.
I've seen the records of some - 200-300 cal for an hour of sitting in a bus, not even the driver - that's bad - but understandable.
Hence the workout of driving to 0 it out.0 -
Courtesy of @fernt21 who run into this "calorie shifting" (=3 day re-feeds) paper: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4018593/
Very nice.
Just wish (don't we always wish they'd done things a little differently) that since they acknowledged that the metabolic changes are a small result in RMR and also in daily activity, they'd found a way to easily measure the daily activity aspect of it between the groups as the interventions went on and into the followup checkups.
Obviously the results speak somewhat to the fact that while the RMR dropped around 100 cal more in the CD group, the extra fat loss of the CSD group must therefore be explained by increased calorie burn during the daily activity part of the TDEE.
Of course 100 extra calories a day still isn't anything to shake a stick at, but very curious as the participants went past the intervention and back to whatever eating style - where did daily activity move.
Still interesting method of doing it, with still some great health marker improvements.3 -
CynthiasChoice wrote: »VintageFeline wrote: »Nony_Mouse wrote: »Hi! I'm new to this thread. Thank you Nony and Cynthia for inviting me. Today I am starting my first ever planned diet break. I'm ready but a little nervous for some reason. I think it comes at a good time, because this past week (13th of eating at a deficit) my weight loss this morning was a puny .2#. I have a question. I've been eating at 1200 cal per day (short girl). MFP says to maintain eat 1750. Two other websites say around 1650 and two more say around 1940. What should I aim for?
Welcome aboard @Leeg5656! I agree with aiming higher rather than lower for estimated TDEE. For the diet break to work properly you really need to be hitting maintenance cals. If you're over by 100 a day, worse case scenario you're going to gain less than 1/2 a lb. And remember to include activity in your calculation.
@VintageFeline, no no, she really does mean 13 weeks. We netted this one early Ooooh, data from someone incorporating diet breaks from the start!
Let's see if I have this calculation correct: In 13 weeks, I've lost 20#, so an average around 1.5# / week. I estimate that I've been eating around 1150/day average (based on my last 2 weeks. I don't really feel like going back thru the last 90 days), but I shoot for just a few calories under 1200. So I've been eating at a 5,250 calorie per week deficit. /7 = 750. So I should try for 1150+750= 1,900.
Is that right? That scares me. It sounds like too much.
Was 1150 gross? Definitely a good idea to refeed!
But yep, sounds about right, you had a daily deficit of around 750 calories, possibly a bit less if we account for some water whoosh.
And trust me, once you're into the swing of it, 1900 is nothing.
I'm not expert at this, but as someone who just did a diet break for the first time, I can share that perspective.
Before I began my diet break, I actually went back a few months and calculated my calorie averages and weight loss so that I would feel confident with estimating my TDEE. Then I compared my number to MFP's and another diet website's suggestion and saw that mine fell in the middle. In practice, I ranged from the lower to the upper number, but the 14 day average was kinda accidentally-on-purpose my number.
Because of what happened on the scale during and right after the diet break, I'm thinking I wasn't eating enough calories. I had the glycogen weight gain after 5 days, but then lost that weight on day 14, followed by a 2.5 lb loss in 6 days. That doesn't seem to add up.
Next time I do a diet break, I'm going to ease into and out of it. My first day eating at maintenance, I thought I would pop. So next time I'll increase only 300 calories the first day, then go full on for another 13 days. Afterwards, first day back on diet, I'll do the same thing so I don't feel like I'm starving to death. I'll plan to eat only 250 calories less that first day. Since getting the cortisol under control is one of the goals, it seems to make sense to take things easy.
While you may gain water attached to more stored glycogen - that's limited to about 4 lbs total weight in all the muscles of average person - and you weren't likely walking around totally depleted of muscle glycogen stores anyway - so aren't going to gain that.
But the water retained from cortisol because of a stressed out body - from being in a deep diet - that can rack on up to 20 lbs.
So water weight gained - body unstressed - more water weight lost - very expected.
It's why people that say they ate more and lost weight are usually talked down that it must have been for some other reason - like better logging by eating more (?).
The problem of extremes is just too much in the forums.
The myths of starvation mode are asked about after missing a meal or no weight loss for months (extreme) - people claim there is no mode at all (extreme) and throw the baby out with the bathwater - and just claim you must keep eating lower and lower to eventually lose (extreme), and no wonder adherence falls into binges (extreme).
Just hope people searching for topics come across this one.7 -
CynthiasChoice wrote: »VintageFeline wrote: »Nony_Mouse wrote: »Hi! I'm new to this thread. Thank you Nony and Cynthia for inviting me. Today I am starting my first ever planned diet break. I'm ready but a little nervous for some reason. I think it comes at a good time, because this past week (13th of eating at a deficit) my weight loss this morning was a puny .2#. I have a question. I've been eating at 1200 cal per day (short girl). MFP says to maintain eat 1750. Two other websites say around 1650 and two more say around 1940. What should I aim for?
Welcome aboard @Leeg5656! I agree with aiming higher rather than lower for estimated TDEE. For the diet break to work properly you really need to be hitting maintenance cals. If you're over by 100 a day, worse case scenario you're going to gain less than 1/2 a lb. And remember to include activity in your calculation.
@VintageFeline, no no, she really does mean 13 weeks. We netted this one early Ooooh, data from someone incorporating diet breaks from the start!
Let's see if I have this calculation correct: In 13 weeks, I've lost 20#, so an average around 1.5# / week. I estimate that I've been eating around 1150/day average (based on my last 2 weeks. I don't really feel like going back thru the last 90 days), but I shoot for just a few calories under 1200. So I've been eating at a 5,250 calorie per week deficit. /7 = 750. So I should try for 1150+750= 1,900.
Is that right? That scares me. It sounds like too much.
Was 1150 gross? Definitely a good idea to refeed!
But yep, sounds about right, you had a daily deficit of around 750 calories, possibly a bit less if we account for some water whoosh.
And trust me, once you're into the swing of it, 1900 is nothing.
I'm not expert at this, but as someone who just did a diet break for the first time, I can share that perspective.
Before I began my diet break, I actually went back a few months and calculated my calorie averages and weight loss so that I would feel confident with estimating my TDEE. Then I compared my number to MFP's and another diet website's suggestion and saw that mine fell in the middle. In practice, I ranged from the lower to the upper number, but the 14 day average was kinda accidentally-on-purpose my number.
Because of what happened on the scale during and right after the diet break, I'm thinking I wasn't eating enough calories. I had the glycogen weight gain after 5 days, but then lost that weight on day 14, followed by a 2.5 lb loss in 6 days. That doesn't seem to add up.
Next time I do a diet break, I'm going to ease into and out of it. My first day eating at maintenance, I thought I would pop. So next time I'll increase only 300 calories the first day, then go full on for another 13 days. Afterwards, first day back on diet, I'll do the same thing so I don't feel like I'm starving to death. I'll plan to eat only 250 calories less that first day. Since getting the cortisol under control is one of the goals, it seems to make sense to take things easy.
While you may gain water attached to more stored glycogen - that's limited to about 4 lbs total weight in all the muscles of average person - and you weren't likely walking around totally depleted of muscle glycogen stores anyway - so aren't going to gain that.
But the water retained from cortisol because of a stressed out body - from being in a deep diet - that can rack on up to 20 lbs.
So water weight gained - body unstressed - more water weight lost - very expected.
It's why people that say they ate more and lost weight are usually talked down that it must have been for some other reason - like better logging by eating more (?).
The problem of extremes is just too much in the forums.
The myths of starvation mode are asked about after missing a meal or no weight loss for months (extreme) - people claim there is no mode at all (extreme) and throw the baby out with the bathwater - and just claim you must keep eating lower and lower to eventually lose (extreme), and no wonder adherence falls into binges (extreme).
Just hope people searching for topics come across this one.
I figure if I, and you @heybales, and others, keep saying it and linking the thread, it's got to get through to the general populace eventually!! I was really happy to see a couple of people linking to this today actually. Warmed the cockles of my stoney wee heart 6 -
Nony_Mouse wrote: »CynthiasChoice wrote: »VintageFeline wrote: »Nony_Mouse wrote: »Hi! I'm new to this thread. Thank you Nony and Cynthia for inviting me. Today I am starting my first ever planned diet break. I'm ready but a little nervous for some reason. I think it comes at a good time, because this past week (13th of eating at a deficit) my weight loss this morning was a puny .2#. I have a question. I've been eating at 1200 cal per day (short girl). MFP says to maintain eat 1750. Two other websites say around 1650 and two more say around 1940. What should I aim for?
Welcome aboard @Leeg5656! I agree with aiming higher rather than lower for estimated TDEE. For the diet break to work properly you really need to be hitting maintenance cals. If you're over by 100 a day, worse case scenario you're going to gain less than 1/2 a lb. And remember to include activity in your calculation.
@VintageFeline, no no, she really does mean 13 weeks. We netted this one early Ooooh, data from someone incorporating diet breaks from the start!
Let's see if I have this calculation correct: In 13 weeks, I've lost 20#, so an average around 1.5# / week. I estimate that I've been eating around 1150/day average (based on my last 2 weeks. I don't really feel like going back thru the last 90 days), but I shoot for just a few calories under 1200. So I've been eating at a 5,250 calorie per week deficit. /7 = 750. So I should try for 1150+750= 1,900.
Is that right? That scares me. It sounds like too much.
Was 1150 gross? Definitely a good idea to refeed!
But yep, sounds about right, you had a daily deficit of around 750 calories, possibly a bit less if we account for some water whoosh.
And trust me, once you're into the swing of it, 1900 is nothing.
I'm not expert at this, but as someone who just did a diet break for the first time, I can share that perspective.
Before I began my diet break, I actually went back a few months and calculated my calorie averages and weight loss so that I would feel confident with estimating my TDEE. Then I compared my number to MFP's and another diet website's suggestion and saw that mine fell in the middle. In practice, I ranged from the lower to the upper number, but the 14 day average was kinda accidentally-on-purpose my number.
Because of what happened on the scale during and right after the diet break, I'm thinking I wasn't eating enough calories. I had the glycogen weight gain after 5 days, but then lost that weight on day 14, followed by a 2.5 lb loss in 6 days. That doesn't seem to add up.
Next time I do a diet break, I'm going to ease into and out of it. My first day eating at maintenance, I thought I would pop. So next time I'll increase only 300 calories the first day, then go full on for another 13 days. Afterwards, first day back on diet, I'll do the same thing so I don't feel like I'm starving to death. I'll plan to eat only 250 calories less that first day. Since getting the cortisol under control is one of the goals, it seems to make sense to take things easy.
While you may gain water attached to more stored glycogen - that's limited to about 4 lbs total weight in all the muscles of average person - and you weren't likely walking around totally depleted of muscle glycogen stores anyway - so aren't going to gain that.
But the water retained from cortisol because of a stressed out body - from being in a deep diet - that can rack on up to 20 lbs.
So water weight gained - body unstressed - more water weight lost - very expected.
It's why people that say they ate more and lost weight are usually talked down that it must have been for some other reason - like better logging by eating more (?).
The problem of extremes is just too much in the forums.
The myths of starvation mode are asked about after missing a meal or no weight loss for months (extreme) - people claim there is no mode at all (extreme) and throw the baby out with the bathwater - and just claim you must keep eating lower and lower to eventually lose (extreme), and no wonder adherence falls into binges (extreme).
Just hope people searching for topics come across this one.
I figure if I, and you @heybales, and others, keep saying it and linking the thread, it's got to get through to the general populace eventually!! I was really happy to see a couple of people linking to this today actually. Warmed the cockles of my stoney wee heart
I saw that mountain you went up! You have no "wee" heart girl, you got a big 'ole heart! 4
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