Is it possible my "cut"

momof2osaurus

(Title should be "Is it possible by "cut" is really my maintenance?" Sorry, phone is possessed sometimes and now I can't change it!)

I'm really struggling and starting to think my numbers are wrong.

I eat paleo and am a Crossfitter. I do CF 5 times a week and am a SAHM of 2. I've been doing CF since July 1st - started at 3x/week and bumped it up to 5x/week the third week in July. When I started, I weighed 197.4. On August 1st, I weighed 194. As of this morning (at 6 weeks of eating about 10% deficit), I weigh 199.

I'm 5'6.5", 29 years old. I chose 5-6 hrs/week of strenuous exercise on Scooby's calculator - the EM2WL VERY detailed calculator just makes my head spin. I eat around 2600 cals a day. At my current weight, that's about a 13% deficit.

Any ideas what's going on? Is it possible the 2600 is just my maintenance amount? I know bodies aren't exact sciences. Please help. :-/

AnitraSoto

Have you ever done a reset? What is your long-term past dieting history?

Since you are pretty much maintaining where you are, then yes there is a chance you are eating at maintenance. Since you are holding steady, you sort of have 2 options IMO:

Bump your calories UP by a couple hundred calories and stay there for a couple months and see what happens. After those initial inevitable fluctuations, see if your weight stabilizes again. If it does stabilize, then this is most likely your true TDEE (or close to it). If it continues to increase, then chances are that you have surpassed your TDEE.

or

Drop your calories DOWN by a couple hundred calories and see what happens (this would be going on the assumption that you are really already eating at your TDEE now, and this drop would then be taking a cut..)

Personally, I would try option #1 first. Try and challenge your metabolism to go a bit higher. Try and figure out where your true TDEE is. You sound quite active...

It is all about tweeking your numbers and trying to find that "sweet spot"... I am still discovering that my numbers still need tweeking, even though I am really just trying to maintain at this point. What worked at one point no longer works. If I start feeling "fluffy", sometimes I will try decreasing my calories a bit, and then other times I will just try to increase my cardio. Both have the same net effect, but sometimes one seems to work when the other does not...

You said it best when you said "our bodies aren't exact sciences" - this is so true! They have not read the book! Just keep tweeking your numbers, but whatever you try, remember to give it a solid 8 weeks or so before changing again...

rmk20togo

Anitra is the expert here, and I'm no where near finding my sweet spot. The only thing jumped out at me is 5-6 hours of strenuous exercise. I CF 5x/wk and, while I am at the gym for an hour, at my place the warm up (usually an 800m run, air squats, duck walks, etc) and the skill (lift practicing) take about 30-40 minutes. That only leaves 20-30 min for the WOD and I only consider the WOD strenuous because it's the only part that really spikes my heart rate. Your gym may be very different, but it's something to think about.

Good luck and enjoy those kiddos!!

momof2osaurus

Anitra is the expert here, and I'm no where near finding my sweet spot. The only thing jumped out at me is 5-6 hours of strenuous exercise. I CF 5x/wk and, while I am at the gym for an hour, at my place the warm up (usually an 800m run, air squats, duck walks, etc) and the skill (lift practicing) take about 30-40 minutes. That only leaves 20-30 min for the WOD and I only consider the WOD strenuous because it's the only part that really spikes my heart rate. Your gym may be very different, but it's something to think about.

Good luck and enjoy those kiddos!!

Hm. That's an interesting point. The warm up still make my heart chug, but even if I count it at 40 mins of "exercise"/hour of CF, that would bump me down to the lower exercise category.

yourfriendchristine

(Title should be "Is it possible by "cut" is really my maintenance?" Sorry, phone is possessed sometimes and now I can't change it!)

I'm really struggling and starting to think my numbers are wrong.

I eat paleo and am a Crossfitter. I do CF 5 times a week and am a SAHM of 2. I've been doing CF since July 1st - started at 3x/week and bumped it up to 5x/week the third week in July. When I started, I weighed 197.4. On August 1st, I weighed 194. As of this morning (at 6 weeks of eating about 10% deficit), I weigh 199.

I'm 5'6.5", 29 years old. I chose 5-6 hrs/week of strenuous exercise on Scooby's calculator - the EM2WL VERY detailed calculator just makes my head spin. I eat around 2600 cals a day. At my current weight, that's about a 13% deficit.

Any ideas what's going on? Is it possible the 2600 is just my maintenance amount? I know bodies aren't exact sciences. Please help. :-/

I am still new at all this as well but have you taken your measurements? Have you lost inches? I know I gained for a couple weeks but I also lost inches in those same weeks so the scale is not always your friend. Scale may be going up if you are gaining muscle but losing fat. I ended up having to stop weighing myself every week and just doing measurements and going by how my clothes are getting looser.

You might want to try using this spreadsheet to find your numbers that heybales created. This is what helped me.

Weight Loss Calculator spreadsheet for BMR/TDEE deficit methods, HRM info, macro setup, MFP tweaking, all to maximize deficit and benefit of exercise done:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Amt7QBR9-c6MdGVTbGswLUUzUHNVVUlNSW9wZWloeUE

Description of spreadsheet:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/813720-spreadsheet-bmr-tdee-deficit-macro-calcs-hrm-zones

heybales

Too much of any stress on the body will mess with hormones, and fight fat and weight loss.

Too big a diet, too frequest intense exercise, food sensitivities or allergies, life, ect.

Have you read up on the Paleo site about chronic cardio?
They still say not needed, just some brief stuff for cardio, a little bit of lifting.

But they had such an outcry by people wanting to do endurance cardio stuff, they came out with alternate plans.

Why?
Eating low carb and doing a high carb burning exercise is a very stressful combo. The conversion of protein to glucose just to maintain blood sugar levels is slow and inefficient, the need for muscles actually wanting it for a bunch of anaerobic level exercise is a whole other stressful level.

Guess where a lot of the Crossfit falls in the categories?

While it has a strength focus, it is still a high cardio routine, at the anaerobic line or above on the lifting parts, and therefore is almost totally carb burn.

That is one incredible stress on the body.

Suggest you go check out the Paleo site for the advice for those wanting to do cardio training still, and modify eating amount of carbs if you haven't yet.

And even with that, you'll probably need to back off the diet stress since the exercise is so high. Who knows where your personal level of too-much-stress is.

While you try to find your numbers, it is best to come in on the number flying high, not grounded trying to take flight. Much easier coming down.
That's what the spreadsheet trying to help you do. And stick on the Simple Setup tab, and actually read what it says, don't be flashed by the colors. It's asking for stuff you have memorized and probably already have written down, and you know.

athenalove46

Too much of any stress on the body will mess with hormones, and fight fat and weight loss.

Too big a diet, too frequest intense exercise, food sensitivities or allergies, life, ect.

Have you read up on the Paleo site about chronic cardio?
They still say not needed, just some brief stuff for cardio, a little bit of lifting.

But they had such an outcry by people wanting to do endurance cardio stuff, they came out with alternate plans.

Why?
Eating low carb and doing a high carb burning exercise is a very stressful combo. The conversion of protein to glucose just to maintain blood sugar levels is slow and inefficient, the need for muscles actually wanting it for a bunch of anaerobic level exercise is a whole other stressful level.

Guess where a lot of the Crossfit falls in the categories?

While it has a strength focus, it is still a high cardio routine, at the anaerobic line or above on the lifting parts, and therefore is almost totally carb burn.

That is one incredible stress on the body.

Suggest you go check out the Paleo site for the advice for those wanting to do cardio training still, and modify eating amount of carbs if you haven't yet.

And even with that, you'll probably need to back off the diet stress since the exercise is so high. Who knows where your personal level of too-much-stress is.

^^ Wow Haybales. That makes so much sense to why everything has been going on with my body! I did verrrrry low carb Paleo (as well as VLCD) + Crossfit for almost 18 months. Sure, I looked great, but I felt like something was wrong!

OP, I would also suggest that you use the level below (Moderate) because as one poster said, even if you do a brisk warm up the WODs never last longer than 20 minutes (most times). Try eating at that point. I would also suggest maybe doing a reset? I eat Paleo, have for the past 3 years, and only recently increased my carbs to around 150 grams a day. I'm sure it's still on the low end, but way better than my 20-50 grams I ate for years!!!! That might help you too. I include oatmeal occasionally (gluten-free variety), starchy veggies too. Good luck. It's one big learning game!

husseycd

What's you activity like the rest of the day when you aren't exercising? NEAT calories contribute a lot to our daily requirents. I do aerial fitness, which is a great, amazing workout and physically very challenging, but it doesn't burn a ton of calories. If I were sedentary the rest of the time, like truly, sitting sedentery, my burn would be that of lightly active.


Remember the TDEE calculations are just estimates. If it's off by a hundred or so calories, and your food weighing/measuring is off by a hundred or so calories (very easy to do, btw), your deficit disappears.

I know this is EM2WL, but honestly, if you're eating at 2600 and maintaining and want to lose, I'd cut down to 2300 or 2200. Even though my maintenance is about 2100-2200 calories, I tend to eat at about 1800-1900 on most days (M-Th), knowing I'll go over on some days or that I don't weigh everything I eat or my tablespoon might actually be 1.2 tablespoons... Doing this I maintain a steady 128 lbs.

The other thing I recommend--get your RMR tested, body fat tested, and use a fitbit/bodymedia to get the most accurate idea of what you truly burn.

momof2osaurus

Thank you for all of the help guys!! :flowerforyou:

I bumped my activity level down one and set my calories to be TDEE minus 10% for that level. I'll try that for a few weeks and see how things go.

ETA: Oh, and I am measuring - but the places I'm measuring aren't changing. Clothes are getting loser, so I must be losing fat from somewhere, but not from where I checked, apparently.

heybales

Thank you for all of the help guys!! :flowerforyou:

I bumped my activity level down one and set my calories to be TDEE minus 10% for that level. I'll try that for a few weeks and see how things go.

ETA: Oh, and I am measuring - but the places I'm measuring aren't changing. Clothes are getting loser, so I must be losing fat from somewhere, but not from where I checked, apparently.

Don't ya hate it when the spot measuring confirms you can't spot reduce, but it's like 8 spots or such should show something.

At least ya got some clothes proving it out. Just don't wash and shrink them, very discouraging when first tried on and tight.

momof2osaurus

Just wanted to update - I've lost 2 lbs since I bumped my activity down! I think RMK was right on, I was up too high on activity. Basically I did a 6-week metabolism reset accidentally.

Just wanted to say thank you again for the help!