Having trouble eating enough calories

naomi8888

retgarr wrote: »

Theoldguy1 wrote: »

retgarr wrote: »

So my take aways here are to improve food measuring for accurate calories to see if the caloric deficit isn't too extreme in the first place and to eat energy dense foods with higher levels of protein andd natural fats if I am actually eating too little. And adjust to slow down the weight loss a bit.

Now to reconcile that with estimated calories burned. Todays workout was about 1.5 hours long including short breaks. My workouts tend to be a strength ond conditioning type. So free weights with aerobic activity in there too. It seems like even though the apple watch is well regarded, those would be the types of exercise it would struggle to accurately count. How should I be estimating calorie burn?

In all likelihood, the workout you describe is nowhere near 1100 calories.

Yeah, I figure that's the case. On those workouts where there is a lot of weight training involved, I'm guessing the watch is not as accurate so I often reduce the recorded amount by half. Which still left me with a lot of calories to eat.

For elucidation here was the workout that day

3x10 single leg squats to 20" box
3x40yd farmer carry 40lb kettlebells
3x40yd claw grip dumbbell carry

box jump to max height, increasing from 14" to 32" by 1.5 inches at a time or so 3 reps each height

30x1 Deaadlifts starting very light bar, adding to max, then dropping to finish out 30

5 reps of 30 kb swings followed by lunnge 15yds with kb over one shoulder, then back on other shoulder.

What do you select on your Apple watch to track the workout? Those numbers do seem really inflated... my watch would only give me a couple of hundred for that I'm sure.

Regardless, you seem to be losing quite quickly so I wouldn't worry too much unless it's too quick.

retgarr

naomi8888 wrote: »

What do you select on your Apple watch to track the workout? Those numbers do seem really inflated... my watch would only give me a couple of hundred for that I'm sure.

Regardless, you seem to be losing quite quickly so I wouldn't worry too much unless it's too quick.

Yeah, it's for sure inflated. So I basically just subtracted 500 calories from that. I selected "Other: Open Goal" for everything other than the deadlifts, those I selected "Strength Training". I also selectively paused the exercise, especially during the box jumps when setting a new height.

The other factor is there is 204 pounds of me, which is a lot to move around. Looks like there is a lot less of you. And I'm still early days so less efficient. It took me just under 1.5 hours.

I've tried looking into how accurate the Apple watch is, but most of the info seems to test it against running. For which it seems to be little different from lab methods. But given the pauses and bursts in more varied exercise, I'm guessing less accurate. But I've got no evidence of that either.

naomi8888

Sounds like you're doing really well. Keep it up

roadhazzard369

As I was reading through this thread a couple of things come to mind. In my, admittedly limited, understanding, it’s not what you do on any particular day that matters most. It’s what you do over time. And if you need to lose weight, I would wager that not eating enough hasn’t been your problem over time. I would further wager that if you don’t eat as much as you think you need to today or tomorrow, before long you will be hungry enough to not have that problem any more.

Here’s what I think, not that you necessarily care what I think, but if you accurately log your intake and don’t overeat, then you will eventually get where you want to go. I would be quite surprised if the not wanting to eat enough continues to be a problem for very long.

As far as estimating calorie expenditure through exercise I would advise to adjust your calorie goal as you gain experience in how your intake and exercise affect your weight loss trajectory. It’s not absolutely necessary to be absolutely perfectly calculated each and every day. You have time.

I wish you well on your journey.