Opinions please

TamTastic

Hey,

I would really like your opinions on how I am doing with calories. According to the BMR calculator on this site, mine is 1590 right now based on my current weight of 195 and my height of 5' 5". I am 33 years old too. (yes, getting up there! LOL!). I don't work but am a stay at home mom of a 17 month old boy, so NOT exactly sedentary. I work out 4 days a week right now at the gym. I will be taking my son for a walk in the stroller more and more on the days I don't hit the gym now that it is getting nicer and warmer out.

Anyway, this is how I have eaten the past week and the calories I have burned on 4 of those days. I enter my weight into the elliptical at the gym before starting and keep my target heart rate up above the target. So, I'm sure the calories burned are not EXACT, but they are a good guideline.

Ok, here goes:
Thursday: 1520 calories consumed/ 814 burned
Friday: 1544 calories consumed
Saturday: 1361 calories consumed/ 784 burned
Sunday: 1671 calories consumed/ 762 burned
Monday: 1506 consumed
Tuesday:1609 consumed/805 burned
Wednesday: 1514 consumed

Is there something I am doing that is causing me to have maintained the past 2 weeks???

Thanks!
Tami

TamTastic

Hey,

I would really like your opinions on how I am doing with calories. According to the BMR calculator on this site, mine is 1590 right now based on my current weight of 195 and my height of 5' 5". I am 33 years old too. (yes, getting up there! LOL!). I don't work but am a stay at home mom of a 17 month old boy, so NOT exactly sedentary. I work out 4 days a week right now at the gym. I will be taking my son for a walk in the stroller more and more on the days I don't hit the gym now that it is getting nicer and warmer out.

Anyway, this is how I have eaten the past week and the calories I have burned on 4 of those days. I enter my weight into the elliptical at the gym before starting and keep my target heart rate up above the target. So, I'm sure the calories burned are not EXACT, but they are a good guideline.

Ok, here goes:
Thursday: 1520 calories consumed/ 814 burned
Friday: 1544 calories consumed
Saturday: 1361 calories consumed/ 784 burned
Sunday: 1671 calories consumed/ 762 burned
Monday: 1506 consumed
Tuesday:1609 consumed/805 burned
Wednesday: 1514 consumed

Is there something I am doing that is causing me to have maintained the past 2 weeks???

Thanks!
Tami

icandoit

Hey Tam-
It sounds to me like you are not taking in enough calories.
For example-
Me-no exercise is 1330 and when I burned 637 the other day, so my intake was 1957.
So if you take the calories you ate and then you burned, you are low on calories.
Check it out:flowerforyou:

hamilton4beaumont

I'm no expert, but I think you need to go to reports and look at your net calories! I'm pretty sure you'd be under 1200 everyday. That's not good. When I workout, i always go to the report section and make sure that my net calories read at least 1200! HOpe that helps.

rem1979

You are not eating enough.

Example: You said that Thursday you ate 1520 calories and burned 814 which puts you at a net calorie of 706 and you are doing this consistently. Your body is probably going into starvation mode and is holding onto whatever is can. Try shooting for a NET calorie of no less than 1200 cals or whatever MFP recommends. It will never give you a NET calorie of less than 1200.

sr2000

I agree, taking all of your exercise into consideration, at only 1500 calories, you are not consuming enough calories for your body to run efficiently. You need to eat some of those caories you have burned so your net never goes below 1500 in your case. Because the machines can be off by nearly 30%, I usually only eat 70% of those earned by exercise.

TamTastic

I have wondered if I'm not eating enough but I work out every other day and the days I don't work out I eat in the 1500 calorie range. I thought that would be a good way of keeping my calories up enough and keeping my body "guessing" .

GIGINATOR

I always eat my exercise calories because eating under 1200 net calories WILL put your body in starvation mode. I know sometimes this is hard because I find myself struggling somedays to eat all these calories. It took me a while to realize this but I'm finally convinced that this works because I'm losing the weight and eating a ton. Hope this helps!!

TamTastic

Man, so I have to try and eat like 500 more calories on the days I work out??? WOW! How do I do that?? LOL I'm already plenty full as it is!

icandoit

Try adding some almonds or if you are eating apples, add some peanut butter on it.
Little things add up.

proudmama0118

Man, so I have to try and eat like 500 more calories on the days I work out??? WOW! How do I do that?? LOL I'm already plenty full as it is!

On the days I do my long runs and find myself with extra calories I make myself a giant glass of chocolate milk. 12oz of 2% milk and nesquick. Comes out to about 300 cal. Plus all the calcium you are getting!

TamTastic

So you all eat all your exercise calories and still have successful weigh-ins?

icandoit

Yes. Sometimes it may stay at a stand still, but the clothes sure are fitting looser.

Healthier_Me

You must eat all of your cals.. including the exercise cals.
You'll see & feel the difference.

~Joanna:flowerforyou:

sr2000

I actually did not lose any weight when I was eating only 1300-1400 and buring 300-700 a day ( 5' 8'' and started at about 187) I did this for four weeks, and when I finally started eating more, up to about 1700-2000 a day, then I started losing weight. (I'm down to 176 now) Everyone is different, some people will lose a lot of weight will a strictly reduced diet, but in the long run that does more damage to your health and permanent weight loss goals. And then there are people like me that need to eat More to lose any weight.
I am not a professonal or expert on this, only speaking from experience and obsessive reading of health and fitness books and articles. Having said that, based on what you have said about your bmr and exercise routine, my opinion is that you should be really try eating back about 70% of what you have burned off. Adding nuts and milk as mentioned are great ideas. On your exercise days, add a 100-200 calorie snack about 45 minutes before you work out and another 200-300 cal snack about 15-45 minutes after you workout. Bananas, nuts, oatmeal, just make it healthy calories and your body will be happy!