Feeling down, with all my progress reversed, help?!

DaniettaF

Hello all,

Firstly I'd like to point out that I am having one of those days where I feel terrible and want to eat everything in the house. I can't find a job and am currently left for a week alone with no plans, which is awful as I hate being alone. All I have to do is a small project for a friend but that'll be over on Monday.

Moving on from that, I went on holiday about a month ago and had before hand had lost 2lb. After the holiday I had gained on 1lb, then lost 3lb, then since then have gained it back on. I'm getting a bit disheartened as before it was going alright and I felt a difference, but now I feel it's like there's no point?

After researching loads on TDEE, macros, and all that jazz I changed my calorie intake from 1200 to 1330 (about 2/3 weeks ago), adjusted for a more stable 1lb loss a week for someone my size. I'm finding it impossible to eat enough protein without going over my carbs, as I'm vegetarian. So that's a massive let down. I don't want to just eat cottage cheese (which I hate) and egg whites (which wastes a perfectly good yolk). But since then my weight hasn't budged and I feel as fat I was before. Should I go back down to 1200? I certainly was eating over 1500 before all this to have gotten to weight I was (and still am), but I haven't eaten that much without doing exercise to burn it off (apart from once I got upto 1800 as I went out and drank alcohol).

And if you're looking at my diary, today has been an emotional eating nightmare. I think I'll do a zumba video before bed to make me feel less guilty.

I don't really know what to do. Any help would be great :ohwell:

Oh and I'm 5'6'', 21 years old and am fluctuating between 153 and 149lbs. My goal is to be under 140lbs, ideally 130lb so my body fat is roughly %.

Thanks for any suggestions in advance :flowerforyou:

michellekicks

Your BMR is roughly 1464 calories daily and, if you can commit to 3-5 hours a week of moderate exercise, you should be able to burn about 2269 calories/day on average. Since you only have 20 lbs you want to lose (which, if you know your actual body fat % may or may not be reasonable for your height; depends on your lean mass) you should be aiming for no more than 1 lb/week.

I would increase calories to at LEAST 1500 daily if not 1750 or so... anywhere in that range. Every day without adding exercise calories back.

DaniettaF

My current body fat 29%, and my Lean Body Mass 107 lbs, this was although figured out from my bmi (24.39) online using various calculators.

I can commit that exercise easily as I'm already doing a about 3 hours a week now, so I could up it to 5 and see what happens.

Do you really think I should be eating that much? I feel that when I complete my logging and MFP says "carry on like this and you'll Xlbs in 5 weeks it doesn't seem to be doing anything in real life? If I were to increase it it'd be basically on a couple pounds lost in 5 weeks, but I suppose if that works then it'd be better than it is now, which is nothing at all.

michellekicks

That "in 5 weeks you'll weigh" business is messed up. It has to do with what MFP thinks you burn but it really doesn't know what you burn. I'm at maintenance and it thinks I'm going to gain if I eat what I'm eating... but I don't.

So knowing your BF% means we can get more accurate:

BMR is 1415 calories per Katch McArdle formula.
Burn with 3-5 hours/week moderate exercise averages out to 2194 calories daily on average.
Even at 1-3 hours/week of light exercise your TDEE would average out to 1946 calories daily. So if even if your activity is closer to this range, at 1750 calories daily you'll still have almost a half a pound weekly loss.

So yeah I do think you could/should eat about 1750 daily, every day and exercise for 3-5 hours a week... that's counted by minutes, though, so 4-6 sessions of 45 minutes would do it.

EDIT: If you do that, and track intake meticulously, and don't have a loss at the end of at least a month, only then would I suggest you change anything.

DaniettaF

Thank you for that, you seem very knowledgeable about all this, and after taking a sneaky peak at your profile I can trust what you say just from how fit you seem.

I will give this a go, see how it goes, do I mind if I add you and I can message you in the future?

Do you think my food diary is looking okay, apart from today which has included naughty mayonnaise and loads of cheese, is it all alright?

_EndGame_

As mentioned before, you may need to up your calories, especially if you're eating less than your BMR and not eating your exercise calories back. Your metabolism has probably got used to the lack of calories, and slowed itself down in order to preserve energy.

Up your calories for a week, change up your exercise routine, etc. It will give your metabolism a shock.

Good luck!

michellekicks

Cheese isn't naughty. As a vegetarian, you'll want to eat some cheese as part of your protein intake. I would recommend aiming for the highest protein foods you can, but not really aiming for low carb. Obviously you find 100g protein difficult to do, but I'd keep aiming for it if I were you.

So if you eat:
107g protein (25%) = 428 calories
58g fat (30%) = 522 calories
197g carbs (45%) = 788 calories
Total = 1738

So under goals, set your calorie target to 1750 with protein at 25%, carbs at 45% and fat at 30%. That will get you 1g/lb LBM of protein and plenty of fat (no need to go above 30%). The carbs will help you feel energetic and curb some cravings and such. Honestly, you can switch around carbs and fat however you like, but I'd aim for that 100g protein.

Will you eat fish? More beans? I've found some bread products that have relatively high protein - like 5g for a bun or 8g for a bagel. Not bad there.

DaniettaF

I'll change it right away! That seems much more manageable, as the guide was generic and for probably meat eaters it wasn't right.

I looove beans and happy to eat them a lot, I've avoided them recently because of the carb situation, but I can go back to them straight away. I only eat fish if I know it's sustainable, usually I eat it when at sea-side so I know where it's come from and who's caught it So it's pretty rare.

I'll also keep my eye out for bread with more protein, I think it's usually the yummy seedy wholegrain stuff that is.

Thanks for all your help.

And End Game, thanks, I'll definitely give this way a go. Thanks

I've been put off so much from eating more as my friends are all slim and don't eat much, so I've always thought that was the way to do it.