Thinking of changing my routine a bit. Input welcomed.

lgfrie

SW 330
CW 281.8
Lost: 48.2 lbs
Average rate of loss since diet inception: 2.04 lbs/week

So I'm coming up on the 50 lb landmark and thinking of making a couple of changes to my routine, which is currently:

• 1600 calories (as per MFP, actually it says 1620 but I like even numbers)
• 45 minutes of cardio
• no scheduled off days or cheat meals, but if I need a break I take one, log it, and try to keep it within maintenance for the day. This happens around once every 2-3 weeks,

This has delivered the 2 lbs a week that MFP promised me, their goal tool having been stunningly accurate for my body.

I always figured I would take stock at 50 and fine tune things.

I'm a bit tired of limiting myself to 1600 cals and am thinking of bumping it up to 1750. And I'd like to cut that cardio down to 1/2 hour. You don't often hear about people increasing their cals and decreasing the exercise mid-stream, so I'm just wondering if any others have gotten to the same place. I feel like I could use a little more food and a little less time on the cardio machines. Maybe I'm getting slightly burned out. I think I could ride the next 50 without changing the routine but that going a little more relaxed on both fronts might actually be better for compliance and long term success.

L1zardQueen

It sounds like a great plan. Congrats on your weight loss so far.

psychod787

Ok... want my thoughts, or am I too contrite? Well... I think you will come to a natural homeostasic point to where calories and exercise meet up. So, if you are ok with that...ROCK ON. If not.. 🤷‍♂️ congrats on losing. Keep up the work.

middlehaitch

You can go with what you are proposing, but realize you are losing 30 min of exercise cals (no idea what they may be) as well as the planned cal change.

Have a look at what you will get if you run MFP as intended:-

Update your goal to your current weight and none exercise activity level.

Change your loss to 1.5lbs a week.
More apropriate and will help with the burn out.

Log and eat back your exercise calories*.

*this gives you a variable where you can do no exercise, 30min, 60min and if a stall, illness or anything else occurs, you can adjust your cals accordingly.

Cheers, h.

jenncornelsen

I am a 5'4 160 lb female and generally eat 1600 cals a day so I would say 1600 cals a day is very low for someone your height/gender/size. Maybe incoperate some weight lifting for added calorie burn and muscle building? An hour of cardio sounds brutal 🙃. All the best and congrats on the weight loss, it's important to find a balance of something sustainable

Gisel2015

I agree with some of the above postings and this is are my added suggestions.

1) Change your goals to lose 1.5lbs a week instead of 2lbs. It may slow down your rate but you will have few more calories to play around with.
2) Reduce your cardio to 30 minutes and incorporate additional exercises such as, and especially, strength training to help you with muscle retention, or anything else that you would like to try (home DVD workouts, bodypump classes, boot camp, etc.). Get a trainer if you can to help you establish a good program.
3) Eat a portion of your exercise calories.
4) Review your results/progress in a month and see what kind of progress you made. Change your goals, exercise routine and WOW as needed.

Good luck and congratulations on your fabulous loss.

lgfrie

jenncornelsen wrote: »

I am a 5'4 160 lb female and generally eat 1600 cals a day so I would say 1600 cals a day is very low for someone your height/gender/size. Maybe incoperate some weight lifting for added calorie burn and muscle building? An hour of cardio sounds brutal 🙃. All the best and congrats on the weight loss, it's important to find a balance of something sustainable

Good points, all. My 45 min cardio isn't brutal, though. It consists of sitting on a recumbent bike and watching one series after another on Netflix LOL Right now I'm in season 4 of Tudors. Some days, I can hardly believe I actually get food credit for watching TV. Going to rewatch HBO's Rome next. Life is good when I'm on that machine, my favorite 45 minutes of the day.

MFP came up with the 1600, not me, but the 2 lb/week goal has outlived its usefulness. I got a few suggestions to change it to 1.5 lbs/week, which will mean 1850 calories, and I've decided to do that. I'm glad I pushed myself hard for the first 50, not just to melt off the 50 lbs, but to show myself this can really be done and get myself engaged with the diet through rapid, definitive feedback on the scale, but I feel like I'm "locked in" now habit-wise and am ready for a more gradual approach. I think the 1.5 lb plan will suit me much better at this point and am really looking forward to getting more food everyday.

PAV8888

1.5lbs is a great idea. First of all 2lbs was, by the sounds of it and in my opinion, too large a percentage of your tdee. Second it sounds like you need some time to sort through your habits.

It is now time to expand your horizons beyond just bike and watching Netflix unless you know that bike with Netflix represents a solid enough future structure for you.

You're building structures (habits) for the future such that you will lock in your weight loss and promote a healthier outlook towards caloric intake and activity.

If you don't "backstop" and develop habits that will act as impediments to a future road to regain, you will be leaving yourself more vulnerable to such potential regain.

I agree with the slower loss.

I agree with reducing hard exercise if it is too much and substituting it for more milder activity instead.

But I don't agree with reducing overall activity when it SOUNDS as if you're still relatively sedentary yet are not discussing any impediments to becoming less so.

Danp

Firstly a huge congratulations on your progress and an even bigger congratulations on the rational, sensible and measured approach you're taking with your weight management.

It's really good to see posts on this forum from people who are putting weight loss sustainability before velocity. This was a really big realisation for me and find it so encouraging when others come to the same conclusion.