Walking a marathon
Replies
-
Davidsdottir wrote: »MeanderingMammal wrote: »bigredchief1 wrote: »TavistockToad wrote: »bigredchief1 wrote: »Davidsdottir wrote: »TavistockToad wrote: »bigredchief1 wrote: »Still on track after a week on the road for a new job. Staying 800-1000 calories under the daily goal. Walked about 12 miles this week. Looks like I’ve cleared the first hurdle to stay on track. Down 75lbs.
Why ate you not hitting your calorie goal?
I'm wondering the same. You're severely under eating if your goal is already set to a deficit.
What's your calorie goal and how far under it are you?
Can you clarify please. Are you consuming a net of 800 calories per day, or c1600 calories per day?
Getting all this information piecemeal is making it difficult to get a good picture of what you're doing, hence the concerns expressed.
Fwiw, I agree with the point upthread that walking 26 miles per week isn't stressful enough on your system to need to worry too much about recovery. But it does need some build up.
He said 800 below his goal of 2590 (had to piecemeal that together lol) plus burns an additional 1500 cals a day that he doesn't log.
ETA that's what I've worked out based on what the OP has said, I may be wrong.
0 -
bigredchief1 wrote: »Davidsdottir wrote: »MeanderingMammal wrote: »bigredchief1 wrote: »TavistockToad wrote: »bigredchief1 wrote: »Davidsdottir wrote: »TavistockToad wrote: »bigredchief1 wrote: »Still on track after a week on the road for a new job. Staying 800-1000 calories under the daily goal. Walked about 12 miles this week. Looks like I’ve cleared the first hurdle to stay on track. Down 75lbs.
Why ate you not hitting your calorie goal?
I'm wondering the same. You're severely under eating if your goal is already set to a deficit.
What's your calorie goal and how far under it are you?
Can you clarify please. Are you consuming a net of 800 calories per day, or c1600 calories per day?
Getting all this information piecemeal is making it difficult to get a good picture of what you're doing, hence the concerns expressed.
Fwiw, I agree with the point upthread that walking 26 miles per week isn't stressful enough on your system to need to worry too much about recovery. But it does need some build up.
He said 800 below his goal of 2590 (had to piecemeal that together lol) plus burns an additional 1500 cals a day that he doesn't log.
ETA that's what I've worked out based on what the OP has said, I may be wrong.
Your goal is a goal to be met. And counting your walking you're 1600 calories below that. That is dangerous...if you keep it up, you will lose the energy for your walks, not to mention muscle mass and potentially develop a host of health issues. https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10569458/why-eating-too-little-calories-is-a-bad-idea/p1
If you're having trouble getting calories in, add in some calorie dense foods: nuts, nut butters, full fat dairy, cooking oils...even a yummy treat if you've met your nutrient goals for the day.1 -
l walk 3-4 miles a day average and take a day off a week. The calories being burned numbers are from the map my walk app thats ties into the my fitness app.0
-
Wow! 70 lbs that's awesome1
-
Before and after
so far anyway3 -
"Feeling great" when severely undereating is just your body in fight-or-flight mode needing to hunt for food.
Eat what MFP tells you.2 -
HollyJean2013 wrote: »Wow! 70 lbs that's awesome
0 -
Davidsdottir wrote: »@TavistockToad and @MeanderingMammal are you guys also waiting for the OP to come back? I'm honestly concerned.
You can give someone the advice, if they choose to ignore it, that's up to them.
The originator is not taking a particularly sensible approach to weight loss. His choice.3 -
I'm really glad you're walking more. I love walking, and it led me into running a marathon.
Well done on your weight loss. I'm sure you're on a huge high and getting lots of compliments.
But you're undereating, and really need to think about what's happening.
Read this from an older thread I've bookmarked:
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/33817997#Comment_33817997Faithful_Chosen wrote: »Losinandmovin wrote: »Faithful_Chosen wrote: »Two weeks is not a lot, so be patient and keep at it... But just to be sure: do you weigh everything in grams? Do you eat back all you exercise calories? Weight loss is a simple equation: calories in vs calories out: eat at a deficit and you lose. People tend to underestimate what they eat (especially when weighing in cups and pieces) and overestimate their exercise burns (do not trust MFP or your device. Heart rate monitors for steady-state are the only things even close to accurate). Weigh and log all your food in grams on a digital scale up to your goal as set by MFP and eat back 50 to 75 percent of you exercise calories (75% for HRM) and you will lose. It's science.
What is HRM? WHY would one eat back their exercise calories? Wouldn't that deficit lead to weight loss? What are you reading and basing your advise on? I really want to lose this weight, but some of the advise I'm reading on MFP confuses me. I'm a registered nurse, and fairly intelligent, but some of the acronyms I see on here are foreign. Thank you.
Thanks, everyone, for the answers already I am just going to add that MyFitnessPal calculates your projected loss (so, the amount you have set to lose a week) into the net goal you recieve. It assumes that if you want to eat more, you have to move more to stay in that deficit. Makes sense, right?
Now, especially newbies have a tendency to up the cardio and decrease the food to make a bigger deficit, assuming they will lose faster--and they might! I am not gonna sit here and say that you won't lose more. It's probably not going to show up on the scale due to water weight, but they will lose more. The question is: at what price? And what are they losing?
The MyFitnessPal method (built in deficit based on your numbers, especially plus purposeful exercise) is designed to steadily lose fat and preserving as much muscle as possible. You see, there is a (science proven) limit to how much fat a body can convert into usable energy during any period of time. If you go over that limit, it turns to muscle for fuel instead. You will always get a little bit of muscle tissue loss when eating at a deficit, but if you undereat and up the cardio (or even strength training!) like I see a lot of people on here do, you are forcing your body to canibalize its muscle tissue on top of the max level of fat it can burn. Not to mention that meeting your macro and micro nutrient goals with this method is virtually impossible, creating massive hormone imbalances (leptine, for example) and vitamins and mineral deficits.
The long term effects of crash dieting and deprivation dieting (which is basically what happens when you become one of the people who net in the low hundreds to negatives day after day for an extended period of time) can be really severe. Basically, you are systematically starving yourself, after all. The results tend to be this (one example, hypothetical you):
- your body burns fat, then muscle tissue to sustain itself. You become weaker and sore. You also start having cravings because your brain is sending out warning signs: 'I am starving! Feed me!'. So, you either binge and up your overall net a little, or you persevere and pat yourself on the back for a job well done! You wanted lots of fatty food, but you fed it a celery stick instead. Sadly, your whole timeline congratulates you on your willpower. You start to wonder, though, why your willpower is not being rewarded! The scale doesn't budge! You fail to realize it's because of water weight due to too much exercise and the body's inability to recover due to a lack of nurishment. The solution is often to eat even less and work out even more to get the scale to move.
- the body is further unable to sustain. It changed the body's chemistry to preserve all it can--after all, it needs to protect vital organs from becoming affected and keep you going so you can hunt and gather for food! At this stage, the body becomes its own worst enemy: it no longer tells you you are starving so you can make a last ditch effort to get food. You think you are fine on 1000 calories a day, burning 1200, because your body shows no signs of hunger anymore, but basically, the little neutrients you are providing your body with get sucked towards your vital organs, leaving nothing for the rest. You become more tired, and cranky, and your muscles no longer recover from all the stress you put them through working out. As a result, they break down even faster and hold on to even more water to prevent that breakdown from affecting your ability to throw a spear at a prey animal (hey, I can't help it your body still thinks we are living in caves!). The scale drops oh so slowly--if at all--but meanwhile you do see you are slimming down! Your measurements are less! MyFitnessPal celebrates! 'Hurray! The weight must come off in a 'woosh' soon now! Keep doing what you are doing!'. Note that (thankfully) many people drop out at this stage. The psychological burden becomes too great, they feel *kitten*, and life isn't fun anymore. They stop dieting, start binging, and gain even more weight. The jojo'ing has begun.
- you keep doing what you were doing. We are a few months in now. You develop headaches, fatigue, and you start finding more and more hair on your pillow in the morning. In fact, you start finding hair everywhere. You also get hungry again, not in a way that makes you binge but a sort of steady nagging: a gentle reminder that time is running out. Fail to meet it (MyFitnessPal people pat your back when you tell them you went to bed early instead of having more food) and slowly, your body gives up its protective hold on more systems. You can survive without full function to certain organs, so your body throws them to the wolves: nutrients go towards your brain, heart, and lungs. Pretty much all other organs start running at half capacity. You hold on to more toxins, which start chipping away at your system, and your ability to process food (get nutrients out of them) suffers greatly, so you are truly starving now. This is the point where the weight starts coming off, and pretty quickly, too, usually. A big whoosh! (MyFitnessPal people cheer in the distance). What you are really seeing is your body giving up on protecting muscle tissue completely: the water weight falls away, showing you that you actually did lose a lot of fat and muscle tissue. More cheering! It must be working! Keep at it! Work harder! Eat less!
- now you are in serious *kitten*! Your organs are not keeping up, your muscles are breaking down, and the body has to start looking elsewhere for fuel: your organs and the more vital muscles, including your heart. At this point, your nails will become brittle and start falling out. Your hair falls out. Your period stops. You experience bouts of nausea and muscle weakness. You might find yourself pulling into a run and suddenly blacking out. You still function, but on the inside you are shutting down.
From here on out, it all depends on if you start eating again and stop exercising or not. If you don't, you can end up killing yourself. If you do, it is a long road to recovery, sometimes lasting years and it sometimes includes permanent damage to the function of certain organs, especially the liver and kidneys. Worst of all, this entire crash diet hasn't taught you how to sustain weight loss, so as soon as you crash and burn, the weight flies back on! And trust me, it takes a fraction of the time it took to lose it to gain it back.
I am not saying this to frighten you (well, I am a little), but as a nurse, you should be aware of the ramifications of crash dieting. Those of us that do realize the effects therefor recommend you lose weight slowly, at a sustainable rate that gives you the best ratio of fat loss vs. muscle loss. Stick to your MyFitnessPal calculated net, take the time, eat back your true exercise calories (which is probably 50 to 75 percent of your machine or database given calories), and learn how to eat (and what to eat) for weight loss you can maintain for years to come. It might not go as fast, but you will be able to see it on the scale, and best of all, it will be safe. That is my very long winded answer to 'why' you should eat back exercise calories.
4 -
MeanderingMammal wrote: »Davidsdottir wrote: »@TavistockToad and @MeanderingMammal are you guys also waiting for the OP to come back? I'm honestly concerned.
You can give someone the advice, if they choose to ignore it, that's up to them.
The originator is not taking a particularly sensible approach to weight loss. His choice.
We are all individuals. What works for you might not work for me. Advice and information is always welcomed.
Look at that before picture. Does that look healthy? I have had sciatica nerve pain for over 8 years. Never exercised and took pain meds while l sat on the couch.
l now am now off the couch. Not taking pain meds. Lost 75 lbs so far. l have hard muscles in my legs. I started out walking with a back brace. I now can walk 4 miles without a back brace and be pain free. I’m stronger physically in every single way and part of my body than a few months ago. I recently had blood work done. Cholesterol is down. Blood pressure norma and all other blood work was fine.
l think I’m on the right track to better health. No one has to approve or be responsible for my decisions but myself.
7 -
No-one's saying you don't look at a more healthy weight.
We have the right to warn you of the dangers of what you're doing.3 -
Undereating isn't healthy, either.1
-
OP, I feel you on overcoming starting from a bad place. I started out walking with a cane, and am now a runner, okay?
So I get the high of making improvements to your health.
But I can also tell you that it backfires every. single. time. when you try to rush the process. Undereating will catch up to you, the hormonal system in your body is only going to allow you to get away with so much before it starts to fight back. And you will lose and undo all the progress you've made.
Please. Some of us have struggled with trying to rush and paid the price for it and are telling you it's not worth it. Even if you think you are making healthy improvements, you're not doing it in a sustainable way. Slow your roll, make changes that fuel a healthy mindset that's not just focused on a finish line, but a lifetime of living a new way.2
Categories
- All Categories
- 1.4M Health, Wellness and Goals
- 393K Introduce Yourself
- 43.7K Getting Started
- 260.1K Health and Weight Loss
- 175.8K Food and Nutrition
- 47.4K Recipes
- 232.5K Fitness and Exercise
- 416 Sleep, Mindfulness and Overall Wellness
- 6.5K Goal: Maintaining Weight
- 8.5K Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
- 152.9K Motivation and Support
- 8K Challenges
- 1.3K Debate Club
- 96.3K Chit-Chat
- 2.5K Fun and Games
- 3.6K MyFitnessPal Information
- 23 News and Announcements
- 1.1K Feature Suggestions and Ideas
- 2.5K MyFitnessPal Tech Support Questions