Calorie intake, exercise calories and protein (oh my!)

kaseyr1505

Hello,

My doctor recommended a 1,200 calorie diet when I first began losing weight. Because of some health things, I didn't move much. I was approved for a treatment, and got said treatment, and now I feel human again, and I was given the clear to workout. He hasn't really been overseeing my diet, he was just there to help me get started.

I have a few questions:

1.) I upped my calorie intake to 1,300 calories a day, then I was planning on eating half my exercise calories back. I am still pretty used to the 1,200 calorie diet. Is it "bad" if I cannot get up to 1,300 everyday? Obviously, I will be above 1,200 but below 1,300.

I ordered a protein supplement, because after logging here for a week (instead of a pen and pad), I noticed my protein intake was low. So, I know when I get that in, I won't have a problem reaching the 1,300.

2.) I planned on eating half the exercise calories back, because I do not have a HRM yet. I am starting a 100 mile walk challenge, and plan on getting one when I complete it. I do have a FitBit, and other apps (MapMyFItness, C25k). I was wondering how accurate these apps were. I know the MyFitnessPal calories are on the high side, which is another reason why I didn't want to eat them all back. Honestly, I am a little confused about if I should eat them back at all.

My MapMyFitness app and FitBit said I burned 103 calories on a 1.25 mile walk (I was walking my dog), that seems accurate to me, but like I said, I wasn't the most active person, so I think any amount burned would seem reasonable to me.

3.) I know that upping my calories will not cause me to gain weight, as long as I'm in a deficit. Will upping my protein have any impact on my weight? Also, can someone take in too much? I know if i go over on my sodium, I start to retain water. I know that any weight I gained would not be fat, I'd just like to be mentally prepared.


Height- 5'3"
CW- 156.8
GW 140-136
SW-186
Frame size- medium

Thank y'all in advance!

ThatMouse

I'm no expert, so please take my advice with a HUGE side of salt.

I recommend taking a look at a calculator like IIFYM.com (I'll include a link below). Input your details and pull out two numbers: BMR & TDEE.

BMR is your Basal Metabolic Rate - it basically means what your body needs to live if you were totally comatose. Meaning all your body would be doing is breathing and making organs tick. It's the minimum you should be eating - eating below your BMR for an extended period (months, say) may put your health at risk.

TDEE is your Total Daily Energy Expenditure - it basically means what your body is burning calorie-wise every day. This includes your workouts, your everyday activities and all those other things. Eating below this will result in weight loss.

Thus, eating BETWEEN your BMR and your TDEE will result in weight loss - the speed of loss is impacted by how much closer to your BMR you eat.

I would plug in your info and give you an idea, but I'm not sure of your age or body fat percentage - both of which are necessary for an accurate measure.

Here's the link: http://iifym.com/iifym-calculator/

Responding more directly to your questions, now:

1) "Bad" not to get to 1,300?
I think that depends on how you feel and what your body needs. A day or two of under isn't going to kill you, but if you're consistently eating lower it may cause you problems.
I had a period of a two months where I was eating 1100cal or less a day - at the time, I thought I was just fine. I wasn't hungry or anything. But I slowly began to realize my libido suffered and my energy was low. I wasn't making progress in my lifts and I was more emotional than before.
So I upped my calories all the way to 1600cal for a few weeks and saw a huge up-tick in all those markers - libido, mood, strength. Then I slowly cut back down by 100cal a week until I was at 1300cal.

TL;DR - go by how you feel. A day or two won't kill you - several weeks, however, that might not be a good idea.

2) Eating your calories back?
I never like to do this. I'd rather err on the side of losing faster than get into the bad habit of "oh, I worked out, I can reward myself!".
By using the TDEE system I outlined above, you can avoid this problem - because your workouts will ALREADY be included in your TDEE. So if you work out 3x a week, your TDEE will reflect that and you can take the guess work out of "do I have room to spare, or will I just over-eat?".

Regarding how accurate those apps are, I'm not entirely sure. But they do tend to be on the high side. While they are aiming to help people lose weight, these are still products from profit-driven companies - they'd prefer to make you feel good than make you feel bad if they can help it. Again, I'd rather err on the side of losing more than accidentally think I've done more than I have.

3) Upping protein consumption?
I've heard - again, this can be total BroScience, I've no clue - that if you consume excess protein, your body will treat the excess the same as it treats carbohydrates. However, I tend to retain water when I eat too many carbs and when I've eaten an excess of protein I don't find that I retain water the same way.

There are various websites that recommend 0.8-1.2g of protein per pound of lean muscle mass. This is to ensure you give your body what it needs to maintain and build muscle. Eating more won't make you build muscle faster, but dietarily it'll help satisfy you longer. Eating less may result in muscle loss.

Personally, when I haven't eaten enough protein, I don't see a change in weight - but I definitely see a change in body composition. I tend to get squishier when I don't eat enough protein (could also be because I tend to swap in carbs if I don't eat enough protein). I also tend to be much weaker. That could be slightly psychological.

If you're doing resistance training and looking to cut fat quickly, it's best to aim for 0.8g per lb of lean muscle mass at first. From there, feel it out and adjust as you deem necessary.


I'm sorry this is huge! I hope it helps, though! Good luck!

kaseyr1505

Thank you so much for all your advice! I really appreciate it.


I got my original estimate using the MyFitnessPal calorie estimate for losing 1lb per week and calorieking.com, but I will check the sites listed!

My main concern with the exercise calories is that I would not be eating enough, and it would cause my body to tap into resources that I don't want it to tap into. So, thank you for giving me a bit of peace of mind!

DanaDark

It is advisable to eat back around half the calories you burn. This is to prevent creating too large of deficits.

If you have difficulty getting enough calories a day, you can always try drinking calories (such as a protein shake using milk). Seriously, 1 scoop protein + 1 cup of 2% milk would be around 20% of your calories for a day given your goal numbers.

Overall, you're a smaller individual height wise, so the lower numbers are not out of reason.

kaseyr1505

I just got an update from Amazon, and my protein stuff should be here Wednesday! So, I'm not that worried.

I'm not sure if this will help anyone reading, but I enjoy Silk fiber + protein almondmilk. It's about 90cals/cup. I'll probably use that to mix the protein with.

ThatMouse

Glad to hear your protein is on the way! I'll join you in mixing up a protein shake tonight - though I think I need to get some new protein powder as I'm pretty tired of my current variety, ha ha! That mix sounds nice - I mix mind with unsweetened almond milk usually, but I've only got 2% at home tonight so I'll use that.

Using the TDEE, at least for me, is a lot easier than MFP's "net calorie" approach. I mean, I do karate 2x a week for 2.5hrs and MFP tells me that burns 2k+ cals. I've had 30 minute weight lifting sessions that drain me more than 2 hours does at karate sometimes, so I really don't trust their caloric estimates of what's burned through exercise.

Plus, by using the TDEE system, you have a set amount of calories you burn each day with your exercise ALREADY included - less math, less confusion! A set goal every day makes consistency easy to accomplish, and consistency is key.

Regarding making sure you have enough to recover from your workouts, set your initial goal first and try it all out for a few weeks. Keep a written diary of how you feel physically, mentally and emotionally. If it's a massive change, give it a few weeks first and then see how you feel - do you feel energetic? Focused? Are you recovering between workouts? Or are you lethargic, tired and have a hard time getting over DOMS?

From there, feel it out and make small changes. Try them out for a few weeks, reevaluate and go from there. Everyone's body is different and everyone starts someone unique to them - so we need to adjust for ourselves and make sure we make the decisions right for us.

Best of luck, and let me know how things go!

ucabucca

I will not directly comment on calories you have to regulate as scale indicates just don't drop too low. Adding protein is wise MFP is on low side of it I do what many recommend but I also am very active so 1 gram almost per lb of lean body so I am over 100 grams a day. Yes I do use protein bars as well as protein powder. Be careful with that said many protein bars are high in sugar. I love Luna and quest bars Protein powder is a variety of different ones have found it is worth spending more not buying from Wal Mart I use Evolution but many are awesome.
Eating back at least half is good idea and you can adjust as needed. I can not do that I would be off a lot so I eat back within a hundred a day but my goals are different I am maintaining and working on body composition . Eat to perform is true. can't get my body fat down too low or performance suffers so body fat will never be under 17% I guess