Should I adjust what I eat for my calories burned

tracysalisbury

Hi, I am 50 years old, 199 pounds, 5'7. Since December I have lost 21 pounds but have started with the consistent exercise for about a month, I have a goal of losing another 40 pounds by December. I have been tracking my eating and exercise for a month and except for the first two weeks I have not lost anything more. I am eating 1250 calories a day of all whole foods. I have chronic migraines and any artificial anything puts me over the edge so I cannot use supplements, artificial sweetener of any kind or food colorings. I am swimming 3x week for 80 minutes doing laps, doing 75 minutes of cardio Zumba on the other days. I am not adjusting my calories for the exercise. I am also drinking 90-120 ounces of water a day consistently. I now I am learning that I do need a food scale because the calories are not accurate on the food labels. I am hitting the macro goals for my calories. I an pretty hungry at night which is miserable. According to everything I have read I am burning about 650 calories a day with my exercise.

Should I be at 1250 a day with the exercise calories added back in? I thought that a larger deficit would help me get to my goal sooner but now realize that I am only netting about 600 calories a day. Any advice would be helpful. BTW I am eating a varied balanced diet of many different foods, not KETO or any other specific plan.
Thank you

WinoGelato

MFP is designed to provide you a calorie target with a deficit built in, assuming you do no exercise. When you do exercise, you should be logging and eating back at least a portion of those calories (many people find MFP estimates of calories burned to be on the high side so they start with only eating back about 50% of their calories until they verify how accurate those estimates are) so that 1250 is your NET intake.

Also, you mentioned having about 40 lbs to lose, what rate of loss did you select for that 1250 target? With less than 50 lbs to lose you should be aiming for about 1 lb/week.

That said - if you aren't losing, you aren't in a calorie deficit. You said you are tracking your eating, meaning that you are logging here on MFP? But you aren't currently using a food scale? That's the best way to provide accuracy and ensure a calorie deficit so I would definitely pursue that, you will probably find it eye opening, you are likely eating more than you think.

Lastly, if it's only been a couple of weeks that you haven't lost any weight, that is not abnormal either - weight loss isn't linear and things like stress, hormones, new exercise routine, change in diet, TOM, etc can impact that.

Read the stickied Most Helpful Forum Posts at the top of the getting started section if you haven't already, they have a wealth of information that will help you optimize results using MFP.

Good luck!

erickirb

You don't need to eat any different food, just eat more of what you are eating to meet your goal. You can start by eating half the calories back and if losing too fast, then up that to 75%.

Jessical1066

Thank you! I have the same question. I usually eat 1100 - 1200 calories. My heart rate monitor tells me that I burn about 450 calories (or more) in an hour workout. I'm 41, 5'2", female, and my current weight is 232 and is coming off steadily. I'm getting conflicting information from my medical dietitian (who is discouraging me from eating more) and a personal trainer who says I am not eating enough and as a result, slowing my metabolism which will make weight loss harder. This is very confusing!!

erickirb

Jessical1066 wrote: »

Thank you! I have the same question. I usually eat 1100 - 1200 calories. My heart rate monitor tells me that I burn about 450 calories (or more) in an hour workout. I'm 41, 5'2", female, and my current weight is 232 and is coming off steadily. I'm getting conflicting information from my medical dietitian (who is discouraging me from eating more) and a personal trainer who says I am not eating enough and as a result, slowing my metabolism which will make weight loss harder. This is very confusing!!

it wont slow your metabolism, but losing too fast can lead to a larger % of your loss coming from lean muscle, meaning, at your goal weight your BMR, TDEE, NEAT will all be lower than if you retained more muscle. That said, I would start by eating half them back, track results for 3-4 weeks and adjust as necessary

jflongo

Personally, if I were you, I would start lifting weights or do some HIT classes. Doing the same cardio over and over again will many times stall out on you. I see a lady in my gym doing cardio for 2 hours every single day, it's crazy.

cwolfman13

jflongo wrote: »

Personally, if I were you, I would start lifting weights or do some HIT classes. Doing the same cardio over and over again will many times stall out on you. I see a lady in my gym doing cardio for 2 hours every single day, it's crazy.

That's not really true. I've been cycling for years and I had no problem dropping 40 Lbs and have no problems dropping my winter weight when I ramp up in the spring for the season. I do lift weights and do some interval work on the bike, but most of my rides are steady state conversational paced rides. When I'm actively training for an event I can spend hours on the bike some days...but I wouldn't spend hours doing cardio unless I was specifically training and it certainly wouldn't be stationary.

AnvilHead

jflongo wrote: »

Personally, if I were you, I would start lifting weights or do some HIT classes. Doing the same cardio over and over again will many times stall out on you. I see a lady in my gym doing cardio for 2 hours every single day, it's crazy.

So you somehow stop burning calories after you've done a particular kind of exercise for a while? How exactly does that work?