In Dispair

geordiegirl27

Hi all

I found you guys in mid 2012, until then I had always lived on a vlcd and had a small appetite to match.

I remember the day that I was running over the fells, on a hilly section that I always struggled with only to find I had the energy to keep going. I did up my cals to around 1900 /day (give or take) and my size reduced, I wouldn't say I lost lots of weight on the scales but I did see improvement in my shape.

I kept going until I got injured so couldn't exercise properly, the house was upside down as we had quite major renovations going on and cooking became increasingly difficult and I was travelling a lot and eating out a lot as a result and pretty much every day I was buying my lunch in the work canteen.

Upshot is over the last 4months of last year I put on a few lbs, not a lot but enough to make me grateful when my kitchen was back in, I could exercise again and get back to eating healthy.

I have got my cals set at 1750/day I have a fitbit and I am netting under calories of between 1200 - 3500 per week.

Problem is the past 2 months I've only lost a couple of lbs but my shape has gone up especially around my tummy & legs. My jeans that still fit in December are now too small and I don't understand it.

I am back running 3-4 times per week, I am going to a boxercise class and we really do work hard and I am doing core work twice a week. Do I need to cut my cals or do I need to increase again?

I would appreciate any thoughts or guidance if anyone feels they can offer help - thank you in advance.

heybales

At 1900 on whatever the routine was then - lost some(?) pounds and size went down.

Eating 1750 now on current routine - lost a few pounds but size went up.

So eating less - how does the routine compare from then to now?

And is "we really do work hard" meaning all out big carb burn because so intense?
Is that what level the running is at too?

Running 3-4 times a week, an intense class, and 2 classes of core.

What TDEE level did you select?

Netting calories comments means you think the FitBit can tell what your Boxercise class is burning, likely very under-estimated on that. So also on core classes.
Running is likely pretty good, unless your stride lengths are decently off what they default to.

jaeone

Hi all

I found you guys in mid 2012, until then I had always lived on a vlcd and had a small appetite to match.

I remember the day that I was running over the fells, on a hilly section that I always struggled with only to find I had the energy to keep going. I did up my cals to around 1900 /day (give or take) and my size reduced, I wouldn't say I lost lots of weight on the scales but I did see improvement in my shape.

I kept going until I got injured so couldn't exercise properly, the house was upside down as we had quite major renovations going on and cooking became increasingly difficult and I was travelling a lot and eating out a lot as a result and pretty much every day I was buying my lunch in the work canteen.

Upshot is over the last 4months of last year I put on a few lbs, not a lot but enough to make me grateful when my kitchen was back in, I could exercise again and get back to eating healthy.

I have got my cals set at 1750/day I have a fitbit and I am netting under calories of between 1200 - 3500 per week.

Problem is the past 2 months I've only lost a couple of lbs but my shape has gone up especially around my tummy & legs. My jeans that still fit in December are now too small and I don't understand it.

I am back running 3-4 times per week, I am going to a boxercise class and we really do work hard and I am doing core work twice a week. Do I need to cut my cals or do I need to increase again?

I would appreciate any thoughts or guidance if anyone feels they can offer help - thank you in advance.

Hi, glad you life and kitchen is getting back in order!! When you first found us did you do a reset?
Definitely do not lower calories! Your deficit is probably already too big. You are burning more calories than you think, so you're under eating reversing and stalling your progress. Figure out your TDEE choosing the right activity level, be honest!! Eat that amount for 2 weeks, consider it a diet break. Then go to 10% cut.
Also make sure your eating foods that help meet your macros, set at 40% carbs, 30% protein, 30% fat.
You can add me for support if you like!!

geordiegirl27

Thank you both for your replies, I have been to work with no access to MFP.

I will try to answer the questions.

Heybales you asked about my burn from exercise… Running my fitbit never gives me the correct mileage is off so I accept that its not accurate and the calories my garmin says I burn I don't manually adjust for.

As for boxercise/core work I don't get any other calories to what FB gives, obviously there is a lot of exercise that doesn't include moving around as much. Boxercise the trainer has us doing interval training and we work flat the only break is when I am on pads but I work with people who have been going longer than me and they do challenge with their punches and my core keeping my balance against them. I know HIIT training is said to burn a lot of calories but I have no idea how to allocate the extra with MFP.

I put in a lot of effort to my training, running I'm not fast but I am pushing and try to improve, I don't just plod (unless I'm running with my mum but even then I do put in some intervals to boost my training)

As for my routine before to now:

I was running some mornings before work and doing more weekly mileage but I didnt do any cross training - I'm trying to mix it up now.

Meals wise (now I have a kitchen again) is very similar, I generally have porridge for breakfast, lunch is either home made soup, a smaller portion of whatever we had for tea the previous night, salad, occasionally a sandwich, evening meal will be pasta, rice or potato based with lots of veg and some protein (I don't manage to eat a lot of protein which I know isn't ideal) I've even cut out having garlic bread as a treat except as an occasional treat.

I'm not good with eating fruit but I am trying.

What does happen is I have a lot of calories spare, still don't have a huge appetite so I do have chocolate some days and I do enjoy a wind-down drink (although I don't drink a lot, a small glass of wine (I do get 6 glasses out of a bottle) or a gin & tonic) so there is room for improvement on what I 'spend' my calories on but I'm trying.

I will give it a go upping my calories and trying to increase with good food. Thank you - just saying it out loud does help.

jaeone

By adding an extra 200 calories per week is a great way to increase your calories with out totally shocking your body!
Hang in there!

heybales

Thank you both for your replies, I have been to work with no access to MFP.

I will try to answer the questions.

Heybales you asked about my burn from exercise… Running my fitbit never gives me the correct mileage is off so I accept that its not accurate and the calories my garmin says I burn I don't manually adjust for.

As for boxercise/core work I don't get any other calories to what FB gives, obviously there is a lot of exercise that doesn't include moving around as much. Boxercise the trainer has us doing interval training and we work flat the only break is when I am on pads but I work with people who have been going longer than me and they do challenge with their punches and my core keeping my balance against them. I know HIIT training is said to burn a lot of calories but I have no idea how to allocate the extra with MFP.

I put in a lot of effort to my training, running I'm not fast but I am pushing and try to improve, I don't just plod (unless I'm running with my mum but even then I do put in some intervals to boost my training)

As for my routine before to now:

I was running some mornings before work and doing more weekly mileage but I didnt do any cross training - I'm trying to mix it up now.

You missed some important questions in my post that will likely help you once answered.

Intense exercise each and every time is usually counter-productive, even more so when eating in a diet.
It's a big stress on the body.

Example, you obviously see how intervals is beneficial because you push real hard. And what allows that, you recover for a bit, which allows you to push real hard again.
Sound like lifting - because it is similar.
What if you didn't recovery from either, what if you just tried to keep the high level, of either intensity or weight on the bar - what would eventually happen?

That can happen on a daily basis too, because intense workout needs a rest day, or at least easier day. Rest is actually where you even get benefit from the exercise - not during the session.
During the workout you tear the body down from your efforts. Intervals allow doing that better.
The rest for recovery and repair is where it actually is built back up, stronger if diet allows.

So confirm you have a rest in there. Every day hard turns in to actually not that hard, at least not as hard as you could if you had a rest in there. It's impossible to compare while doing it - because it feels like you are pushing yourself hard, and you are. On tired muscles that never recovered from prior workout properly.

So think about that, and the 2 unanswered questions in first post that might help you see something.

geordiegirl27

Sorry heybales my weekly routine at the moment is :

Monday - core work (although yesterday I did a boxercise DVD for 40min)
Tuesday - rest
Wednesday - either a run (4-6m) or core work
Thursday - boxercise
Saturday - 3m run
Sunday - easy pace run around 4m

I have also been doing 10-15 min core work - press ups, abs, plank, few kettlebells exercises 2-3 times per week too.

I have struggled a lot recently with low energy levels barely keeping my eyes open. I did think I had jumped from 0-60 too quick and backed off the running instead doing the little exercises at home.

Exercise level on mfp I have set to sedentary as fitbit will do adjustment and daily goal I've increased to 1900 - not sure if that answers the tdee question at your 1st post :-/

Really appreciate your guidance.

heybales

So partial, to reiterate that post.

You ate more with what routine then?

You are eating less now with the routine you have given now.

How do they compare for expending energy?

You need to learn to do this, because you need to learn to eat correctly for your level of activity - and that can always change down the road.

Guess what one of the first things your body does to adapt to eating level to low?
It slows down your daily activity levels, stops or reduces the amount of spontaneous activity - all in an effort to save calories for what is needed, metabolism functions - which can be slowed down to slightly.

So while you may think you burn X calories per day - your body as adapted you down to X-300 calories.

So that other exercise counts too, all part of daily burn.
You merely need to eat less than you burn IN TOTAL to lose weight, too much less it'll be muscle weight along with some fat.

If you are manually setting an eating goal - you must unsync your FitBit - that won't work at all.

So what TDEE level did you select that ended up giving you 1900 calories?
Lightly Active obviously isn't right, hope it was Moderately Active or more.

Again - that is NOT MFP level - which is NOT TDEE, but non-exercise maintenance.

I'm talking wherever you got your TDEE estimate from.

You might also try the spreadsheet on my profile page, get your stats filled in and track your progress with inches too. Stay on Simple Setup tab, and Progress tab for now.

geordiegirl27

I do apologise Heybales it has been that long since I started all this that I forgot about the TDEE thing (I thought you meant what calorie goal did I aim for on here) I cannot access your spreadsheet from work so I'll try at home but I do remember that I used scoobys calculator, I've just run the results again, using 3-5hrs of exercise per week / moderately active.

BMR - 1480

TDEE - 2250

Lose 15% per week - 1938
Lose 10% per week - 2052

I will look at your spreadsheet tonight.

Thank you for your common sense, you make it sound so obvious (which I know it is but a mind is a funny thing - or at least mine is)

In answer (I think) to your questions:

I ate more with my previous routine

I exercised more

I was more enegiesed

Now I am eating less

I am tired

I run out of energy on my harder runs and when I am at boxercise class I feel the energy sap - given what I said above and in my 1st post about 'that run' I knew then that fuelling my body gave it the power to work. So you have helped me see the answer clearly.

I think what happened was when I stopped exercising I still knew what I had to do and I cut back what I ate, but with the upheaval at home and work meant I wasnt making the best choices. Now that I have started to exercise, I have my house and routine back but I havent readjusted to eating more. Like everyone I am scared to increase food to hope to decrease size but it isabout more than that isnt it, its about eating correctly to fuel my body and last time I did that my body did respond favourably ok not at first but it did get there.

thank you for opening that box that my mind stubbornly refuses to listen too. I'll try your spreadsheet at home tonight.

I will learn what I need to do and I really appreciate the time you have taken to respond to my plea. Thank you.