Achy and Tired all the time, but eating 1500 calories a day!

intrepidelephant
intrepidelephant Posts: 100 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I'm eating a fairly well balanced diet, balancing the four food groups, protein, fat, fibre, without too much sodium. I gained weight eating garbage and ending up at 146 lbs at 5'6. Now I'm 141 and 23% BF (which I used to maintain without trouble, with 21-22% BF) and trying to get down to 135. I generally try to walk 7 to 11 miles a day plus a lunchtime stroll and 15 minutes to and from the bus stop. I used to be able to do this, no problem when I was overeating, but now I'm just completely achy and exhausted all the time -- and hungry.

I fall asleep two hours early and wake up with muscle aches. Last summer, I walked 300 miles from one side of Iceland to the other in a month, carrying a 40 lb pack the whole way (I was 140 lbs then, and eating 3400 calories a day) and I never felt this awful!

Replies

  • evileen99
    evileen99 Posts: 1,564 Member
    You feel awful because you're not eating enough to fuel your body. How well does your car run on no gas?
  • intrepidelephant
    intrepidelephant Posts: 100 Member
    1500 calories seems a lot for a diet. Maintenance is like 2000 calories a day and I've always been an active person -- heavy or slim.
  • ToraChan2310
    ToraChan2310 Posts: 45
    When I went down to 1200-1300 calories a day, I felt the same way. However I stuck with it for about 2 weeks and started to feel good after workouts and wasnt hungry very frequently.

    However, I am not a heavy eater so a lower calorie diet would work better for me than it would for you. Try upping your calories by 200 and try it for a week, and see if your condition improves.
  • WBB55
    WBB55 Posts: 4,131 Member
    I would wonder about how many calories you burn on average. I would guess your TDEE without all the extra walking is somewhere in the area of 1900-2000. But that doesn't include the 10 miles/day extra walking. Depending on speed and how much you're carrying, that much walking could easily be 500 calories of burn or more.

    This puts you at least at 2500 calories per day burned total. I suggest getting a FitBit maybe, to see how much walking you're actually doing, because if you're truly eating only 1500 calories total per day, then you are probably too close to your ideal weight to have a 1000 calorie per day deficit. And that's why you're tired.

    If I were you, I'd shoot for at least a couple hundred more calories per day to eat.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    I walk 3-4 miles a day, and I eat 1600+. I'm 5'5", 136 lbs, and 35 (for 2 more weeks!). I lost 2.5 lbs last month... You're probably not eating enough, and that's why you're so tired.
  • Phrick
    Phrick Posts: 2,765 Member
    Agree with the others, your calculations seem off. I walk 5-7 miles a day (per Fitbit) and eat over 1900 and I lose (I'm 5' 7.5" and currently 188lb), you could definitely eat more.
  • tabbyblack13
    tabbyblack13 Posts: 299 Member
    If you have a chance also go to the dr. The way you feel is similar to how my sister feels when she have inflamation flareups. Do this to rule out any health issuse. Don't forget to bring your food log have have the dr check it over. Also check for food allergies and vitamin diffencies.
  • intrepidelephant
    intrepidelephant Posts: 100 Member
    I've been dieting for 2.5 weeks and have lost 5 lbs
  • writergeek313
    writergeek313 Posts: 390 Member
    You're not eating enough. 1500 calories is barely above your BMR, which would be fine if you were just going on short walks every day. You're going on very long ones, though, and it doesn't sound like you're eating back any of your exercise calories. That means chances are you're netting under 1000 calories a day. So no wonder you feel tired and achey--as another poster said, it's like trying to drive a car with a near empty tank.

    This site should be helpful to you for figuring out how much you need to be eating: http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/ I set your exercise at 5-6 hours a week (which is probably low for the number of miles you log), and it said your maintenance calories would be 2484. I'd set your deficit to 10% since you don't have much more weight to lose (your goal here should be .5 / week). Based on those calculations, you're eating hundreds of calories less than what you need to fuel your activity level.
  • intrepidelephant
    intrepidelephant Posts: 100 Member
    I originally put myself in as doing "light" activity since I have a desk job. I used to have a manual labour job (landscaping) and was eating probably over 3000 calories a day. I consider myself more or less sedentary now. 8-9 miles a day doesn't seem like a lot to me since I tried the gym when I was younger and hated it!

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