Ok so I'm confused about eating exercise calories back

Brocksterdanza

I have had a bit of time tonight to look over thee forums. A great tool. I had some questions.

I lost a little over 100 lbs two years ago by getting my diet under control, doing insanity and jogging. This was done by basically getting my bmr with exercise modifier, etc. plus a lot of subway. I know I know. After losing my mom December before last I put about 25 lbs back on.

Currently I have been in the gym since before Christmas doing mehdis stronglifts 5x5 as well as cardio on 5 days. I have my faithful polar ft4 hrm. On given days, especially now that my lifts are getting heavier, I'm burning about 900 calories in my hour to hour and ten minutes in my gym.

I have lost roughly about 15 pounds back. However the eating exercise calories back confuses me. Mfp tells me to eat 2450 a day to lose 2 lbs a week. On most days I'm getting about 2000 or 2100. My weight loss has been steady at about. 1.5-2 pounds weekly. However I don't want to do something wrong.

For example, I woke up on Wednesday last week and felt itchy to weigh (generally weigh on Sundays). I was at 245 which was already about 3.4 pounds down from Sunday. I was busting my tail in the gym last week. However once I got back to Sunday and weighed again, I was up to 247.2. My diet is all measured out and weighed and I've gotten to where I do not feel hungry. I'm drinking at least a gallon of water a day. No soda, beer, etc.

Sorry for long post, but I know some of you can help me out. Thanks so much.

Coach

Dougf90

It could be just your run of the mill water weight spike. You could have been 244.5 on Friday (for example) and very easily gained a decent amount of water weight for whatever reason between then and Sunday (change in sodium levels, more carbs, change in exercise usually results in water weight gains for me). If 2,450 calories a day is what you should be eating after your exercise is logged for your 2lb/wk goal, you should definitely eat up to that number. Leave nothing available. Trust in the process, it's not exact because there's always moving variables, but it should get you there.

_Zardoz_

First thing your hrm is not accurate for lifting. They are only designed to measure steady state cardio so the calories it's giving you for lifting will be inaccurate so there is a good chance the figure you are using is to high. Also personally I only rarely eat all my calories back because no matter what it's all estimates do to leave room for error I only eat back around half of mine. You can always play with this figure personally I'm not going to force feed myself so use some common sense on how Much you eat back. As for the weight gain that was probably just a normal fluctuation it can vary hip to 5 pounds in a day sometimes. Also if you've not been lifting long there will be some water weight.

Brocksterdanza

I did have some bread and bakd potato for dinner on sat night with wife. So I guess it could be carbs causing this. Also, will that simply come back off with water intake etc?

My maintenance is 3450 at current weight according to mfp and it took it Down to 2450 for 2lbs a week. Should I force myself to eat that extra 3-400 calories? Like tonight's dinner was 8 oz of hamburger steak, 2 cups baked green beans, 15 steak fries and a fiber 1 brownie for dessert. That came out to be around 850 calories. The thought of eating again sickens me. I am not hungry at all.

Also fat doob, I do not generally use hrm for calculations in lifting. I track with cardio and hiit. The big number is usually around 900 with the average being around 700ish.