Completely confused, I need help.

mariadvicuna

Hey everyone! I have been using MFP for about 2 weeks now, I've also been going to the gym every day. I've been eating clean, I'm trying to lose weight and tone up. I'm a 19 year old female. My calorie goal is 1650 to lose 2 pounds a week. I currently weigh 194 and my ideal weight would be around 140.

However I think I haven't been eating "healthy" and by healthy I'm talking about enough calories. I am always under my calorie goal, usually by 500-600, I'm always afraid to eat more and I know it's not safe but I keep thinking the more I eat, the more difficult it will be for me to lose weight. My metabolism has been very slow, I usually go to the restroom once every other day and I know going to the restroom more often burns more fat but I just can't go to the restroom, I don't feel the need to. I also work out everyday which consist of; walking/running 20-30 minutes on the treadmill, do a 30 minute ab workout which leaves me drenched in sweat, and I also do weight training for about 30-40 minutes. I have not been eating my calories back (i don't put them into my diary either because I am unsure as to how much calories I burn but I will be getting a HRM soon), because I didn't know I should have until last night.

I just need to come up with a plan and I don't know how to go about it. I feel guilty eating too much. Don't get me wrong, I don't starve, I'll be satisfied with what I eat but if I count calories, it is nowhere near enough my calorie goal. I was wondering if I need to eat more to keep my metabolism going to lose weight, especially if I'm working out that much everyday but I am unsure. I would really appreciate any help, thank you so much.

P.S. I also tried the 40 p/40 c/20 f macros but I'm always going over my fat and not getting enough protein or carbs.

Anxieux

is 1050-1150 your net calorie intake or just your total calorie intake?

VelveteenArabian

Hey everyone! I have been using MFP for about 2 weeks now, I've also been going to the gym every day. I've been eating clean, I'm trying to lose weight and tone up. I'm a 19 year old female. My calorie goal is 1650 to lose 2 pounds a week. I currently weigh 194 and my ideal weight would be around 140.

However I think I haven't been eating "healthy" and by healthy I'm talking about enough calories. I am always under my calorie goal, usually by 500-600, I'm always afraid to eat more and I know it's not safe but I keep thinking the more I eat, the more difficult it will be for me to lose weight. My metabolism has been very slow, I usually go to the restroom once every other day and I know going to the restroom more often burns more fat but I just can't go to the restroom, I don't feel the need to. I also work out everyday which consist of; walking/running 20-30 minutes on the treadmill, do a 30 minute ab workout which leaves me drenched in sweat, and I also do weight training for about 30-40 minutes. I have not been eating my calories back (i don't put them into my diary either because I am unsure as to how much calories I burn but I will be getting a HRM soon), because I didn't know I should have until last night.

I just need to come up with a plan and I don't know how to go about it. I feel guilty eating too much. Don't get me wrong, I don't starve, I'll be satisfied with what I eat but if I count calories, it is nowhere near enough my calorie goal. I was wondering if I need to eat more to keep my metabolism going to lose weight, especially if I'm working out that much everyday but I am unsure. I would really appreciate any help, thank you so much.

P.S. I also tried the 40 p/40 c/20 f macros but I'm always going over my fat and not getting enough protein or carbs.

The calories set up by MFP are *already* a deficit. If you eat the full amount that you're allotted in a day you are already at a good deficit for weight loss. For example, if MFP gives you 1650 per day, then that means eating 1650 net (which means you eat back your exercise calories) you're already eating less than what you're burning and will lose weight.

2 pounds per week is not sustainable by many and not even doable by most. To lose 2 pounds a week you need a 7000 calorie per week deficit - which is 1000 calories per day. Not really doable for most people. Lower your goal down to .5 or 1 pound per week (this will also allow you more calories in a day). It will be slower, but it's more sustainable. Doing too much too fast will make you drop off.

How often you go to the bathroom does not indicate how quickly or slowly you will lose weight.

Once you get a HRM, track your burns and enter them, then eat back some or all. If eating them all back doesn't work for you, scale back to eating back half. Remember that HRM's are more accurate than a website, but it's not an exact science either.

Now, if you don't want to eat back your exercise calories, you don't have to. However, you will need to calculate your daily calories in a different way. If this method sounds better for you, then go here: http://iifym.com/iifym-calculator/ and fill out the calculator. With this method, you do NOT eat back your exercise calories, since you're already allowing for them.

Mr_Knight

I know going to the restroom more often burns more fat...

WTF?

techcoast

Your metabolism slows down when you eat so little. 1200 should be the lowest you consume at any given day. How did you come up with your calorie count? I'm 6' 194lb Male and I eat about 1700 a day to lose weight. So, right off your count sounds a bit high, but, that comes with trying your diet for a while and finding where your body naturally looses weight. IE burning more than you're taking in every day. I'd find that out before going overboard on exercise.

The fact that you've now done this routine for a while will probably mean that your body will need time to re-adjust to a normal diet and not hold everything it takes in before the metabolism will return to normal. This means you will probably gain back a couple of lbs before you start seeing a drop again. BUT, if you allow your body to go through its paces, you will eventually see the drop happen. Your body needs to be addressed first before you start adding an exercise routine.

Don't sweat it, it shouldn't take too long. For now, get your body loosing on its own and then add your exercise. When you do, be sure to consume the amount you're burning to keep your metabolism up. The point of exercise is to gain muscle and become a leaner burner of calories. So, don't think that burning off will get you there faster. It will slow down your metabolism again and you'll have to re-set. But finding out where you're burning normally and being within 200-300 of that goal will burn faster and be way more efficient.

Pay attention to your carb/protein intake too. It does play a part, but only once you've reset your metabolism. You can do it! (I'm down 96 myself.. )

techcoast

Oh, one other thing, DRINK MORE WATER!!! Say goodbye to diet drinks, sodas, (preferably coffee too) and smoothies. Drink more water. I've heard up to 1.5 gallons a day but I usually do about 4 liters (1 gallon) myself. You will go to be bathroom way more often and your body will respond better overall.

mariadvicuna

My total.

mariadvicuna

is 1050-1150 your net calorie intake or just your total calorie intake?

It's my total, not net.

mariadvicuna

Thank you so much! That was some great information.

BombshellPhoenix

Read this
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants

you should be netting and most importantly MEETING your calorie goal. I lost my weight eating 1650 net. Lost 53 lbs

It's not a matter of starvation mode, as that word is tossed around a lot in the wrong sense. There is a phenomenon called metabolic adaptation but that happens after a long time of VLCD, it's not fun. You don't stop losing weight from under eating but you do run the risk of losing muscle along with fat and muscle is what will help you look leaner at goal.

kristydi

You need to eat more. I'm more than 15 years older than you and I'm losing eating 1500 calories a day and eating back most, if not all, my exercise calories. Read around the forums some more. I'm sure someone will link the sexypants post read that. I would but I'm on my phone and is a real pain.

mariadvicuna

Your metabolism slows down when you eat so little. 1200 should be the lowest you consume at any given day. How did you come up with your calorie count? I'm 6' 194lb Male and I eat about 1700 a day to lose weight. So, right off your count sounds a bit high, but, that comes with trying your diet for a while and finding where your body naturally looses weight. IE burning more than you're taking in every day. I'd find that out before going overboard on exercise.

The fact that you've now done this routine for a while will probably mean that your body will need time to re-adjust to a normal diet and not hold everything it takes in before the metabolism will return to normal. This means you will probably gain back a couple of lbs before you start seeing a drop again. BUT, if you allow your body to go through its paces, you will eventually see the drop happen. Your body needs to be addressed first before you start adding an exercise routine.

Don't sweat it, it shouldn't take too long. For now, get your body loosing on its own and then add your exercise. When you do, be sure to consume the amount you're burning to keep your metabolism up. The point of exercise is to gain muscle and become a leaner burner of calories. So, don't think that burning off will get you there faster. It will slow down your metabolism again and you'll have to re-set. But finding out where you're burning normally and being within 200-300 of that goal will burn faster and be way more efficient.

Pay attention to your carb/protein intake too. It does play a part, but only once you've reset your metabolism. You can do it! (I'm down 96 myself.. )

I've been consuming less than 1,200 which I'm not proud of but I will definitely work on that.
MFP gave me the 1650 calorie count, I'm 5'4 and 194, do you really think it's high? Should I lower it?

I thought burning off more calories would get me there faster, I am misinformed. Thank you for all the tips! I'm going to try to re-adjust to a normal diet.

BombshellPhoenix

I've been consuming less than 1,200 which I'm not proud of but I will definitely work on that.
MFP gave me the 1650 calorie count, I'm 5'4 and 194, do you really think it's high? Should I lower it?

I thought burning off more calories would get me there faster, I am misinformed. Thank you for all the tips! I'm going to try to re-adjust to a normal diet.

No. Don't lower your goal! Eat up to it. I'm only 5'3.5" and ate that much from 170 lbs to 118 lbs.

It's a common misconception that you have to eat so little to lose. You can actually enjoy it. It's hard enough, let alone trying to eat so little:flowerforyou: slower weight loss is better

_HeartsOnFire_

I know going to the restroom more often burns more fat...

WTF?

My thoughts too...


OP lots of useful info here

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1455850-new-here-have-questions-this-may-help

techcoast

A lot depends on your particular body. That's why you need to find out where your body burns weight naturally. Try going with JUST 1650 for say three weeks. See what your body does with that. Again, if it starts to go up, just stay at 1650 and give it three weeks. At the end of that see if it doesn't level off if not start loosing again. Your body will have reset and you will find that "Sweet spot" of where it wants to naturally burn.

If it just levels off and or starts gaining slower and slower. Then try backing off say 200 calories and go another 2-3 weeks to see what happens. Smaller adjustments over longer periods of time. It's partly a patients game. And believe me, when I started out, I was desperate to see the weight come off. But, I had been through the roller coaster so many times (and even the starvation method was tried too.. lol) I was determined to do it right this time. My coach really helped me by finding that natural burn level and after that, it was on!!! I dropped a lot of weight in the course of a year. 97 with 3 to go!!!!! (Just weighed in this morning)

OH!!! Another point while I'm thinking about it. DON'T freak out if you check your weight from day to day. Your weight will go up and down depending on salt intake (keep your sodium low if you can), water intake, and just general day to day living will change. So, I've had weeks where I'm up 1-2 lbs one day and down 2-3 the next. The scale is something you gauge over time. You'll get more comfortable with this as you go.

Good luck!! KEEP GOING!!

Omanya

Greetings!

Unless you're massively obese, you probably should not aim to lose two lb per week. Truth is, probably most of it will not be fat, particularly considering your calorie intake and level of exercise. In short, you're exercising way too much on way too few calories.

Your goal should be to get to 1,650 even with your exercise in mind - otherwise you'll lose a bunch of muscle, which will cause you to burn calories more slowly. You might also want to reduce your the amount and intensity of the cardio you do, which will also decrease the amount of calories you burn. You're currently encouraging your body to manage calories as efficiently as possible, which is the opposite of what you want to do.

As for diet, increasing calories is not difficult. Nutrient-dense cereal, for example, is relatively high calorie but healthful. That's because nuts, oats, etc., are high calorie. You can very easily hit your goal by not measuring (by weight) and eating a typical-sized bowl of cereal - which might be two-to-three-times a serving size. You can also simply double the portion size to easily increase your calories. Add a glass of milk to every meal. Add an egg or two for breakfast. Eat more calorie-dense whole grain bread instead of calorie(and nutrient)-poor white bread. Eat a few ounces of deli meat. Eat a slice of cheese. Eat some cottage cheese with fruit (but I highly recommend weighing this, as it's much denser than you might realize). Eat some oatmeal. Eat some nuts. Eat some avocados. Add olive or coconut oil to meals. Adding calories is easy peasy - and also why simply "eating clean" isn't enough -- nothing about "eating clean" ensures a low enough calorie consumption to create a deficit.

You should also be mindful of your protein. Are you getting enough? If you want to maintain your workout regimen, you really need to consume enough calories in general and enough protein in particular. Um, maybe unless you're using barbie weights and are doing cardio with resistance instead of strength-training. If that's the case, shift your focus to strength training and work each muscle group only three times a week. You should aim for two sets of ten reps at whatever weight tires you out at the end of the set and makes it so you physically can't do more for another 30-90 seconds. If you can get to ten without hitting failure(muscles can't do another rep), the weight is too low; conversely, if you hit failure before ten, the weight is too high.

On this regimen, you might find yourself gaining raw weight composed mostly of water, glycogen stores, and eventually muscle, but your body composition will change. It's the kind of thing that commonly results in a steady weight but a two or four inch smaller waist. However, over time your absolute weight will drop because your bodyfat % will decrease to the point that its total decrease will outweigh the weight of your muscle increase. Depending on your reserve for lean body mass(everything but fat), your weight estimate might increase but you'll still be around a healthy fat percentage estimate.

Hope this helps! Let me know if you desire any clarification or more information.

Omanya

Also, it might help to plan your meals ahead of time with the aim of hitting calorie goals for each one. First determine how many meals you tend to eat per day. Three? Four? Five? Six? The fewer the meals, the higher calorie each meal shoukd be and the more the meals the lower calorie each meal should be.

For example, 1,650 calories could look like this: 550 calories 3 times, 412 calories four times, 330 calories five times, 275 six times, etc. Do you like to snack between meals? How much and how often? Maybe you can do three 400ish calorie meals and two 200ish calorie snacks? Or maybe you tend to increase calorie consumption as your day progresses, so maybe you can start with 200 calories, eat another 200 later, eat a 400 calorie lunch, another 200 calorie snack, and a 600ish calorie dinner? This is a great way keeping a food journal comes in handy: See how often and how much you naturally tend to eat so you can create a plan that best suits you. I highly advise that your match you plan to your natural tendencies, which of course requires discovering what your natural tendencies are - hence the journal.

Next comes a little more research with planning meals. It doesn't have to be a constant thing. In fact it's really easy if you tend to eat the same things for certain meals, and myfitnesspal lets you save meals for even more convenience. So now just mix and match things! For example, one of my typical meals is one whole + two egg whites, 2 oz deli turkey, one piece of swiss cheese, and an english muffin. That's about 370 calories. I can easily adjust that. Another one is half a serving of "oatmeal crisp crunchy almond cereal" + half a serving of "quaker simply granola vanilla almond" cereal + 1 cup 2% milk, which is about 350 calories. Again, I can very easily adjust the calories here by adding more or less cereal or fruit or something. Long story short, make a bunch of "meal" options in your account and mix and match.

I'm very confident that you won't have much trouble increasing your calorie intake.

Graelwyn75

You can definitely eat more and still lose weight, especially with the amount of exercise you are doing. You are going to be burning up your muscles as well as fat because you are leaving your body nothing to work with. It is very detrimental if you wish for a lifelong change rather than to lose the weight rapidly, then end up regaining it. You will also most likely hit a wall eventually where you do not have the energy to workout to such a level anymore. At 136, I lose weight netting 1600. With exercise, I usually end up eating anywhere from 1900 to 2600 and still losing. Slow and steady is the best way, imo, and much more sustainable. You need to experiment and find the highest amount you can eat at, while still losing weight, leaving yourself somewhere to drop down to as your weight lowers.

mariadvicuna

Omanya wrote: »

Greetings!

Unless you're massively obese, you probably should not aim to lose two lb per week. Truth is, probably most of it will not be fat, particularly considering your calorie intake and level of exercise. In short, you're exercising way too much on way too few calories.

Your goal should be to get to 1,650 even with your exercise in mind - otherwise you'll lose a bunch of muscle, which will cause you to burn calories more slowly. You might also want to reduce your the amount and intensity of the cardio you do, which will also decrease the amount of calories you burn. You're currently encouraging your body to manage calories as efficiently as possible, which is the opposite of what you want to do.

As for diet, increasing calories is not difficult. Nutrient-dense cereal, for example, is relatively high calorie but healthful. That's because nuts, oats, etc., are high calorie. You can very easily hit your goal by not measuring (by weight) and eating a typical-sized bowl of cereal - which might be two-to-three-times a serving size. You can also simply double the portion size to easily increase your calories. Add a glass of milk to every meal. Add an egg or two for breakfast. Eat more calorie-dense whole grain bread instead of calorie(and nutrient)-poor white bread. Eat a few ounces of deli meat. Eat a slice of cheese. Eat some cottage cheese with fruit (but I highly recommend weighing this, as it's much denser than you might realize). Eat some oatmeal. Eat some nuts. Eat some avocados. Add olive or coconut oil to meals. Adding calories is easy peasy - and also why simply "eating clean" isn't enough -- nothing about "eating clean" ensures a low enough calorie consumption to create a deficit.

You should also be mindful of your protein. Are you getting enough? If you want to maintain your workout regimen, you really need to consume enough calories in general and enough protein in particular. Um, maybe unless you're using barbie weights and are doing cardio with resistance instead of strength-training. If that's the case, shift your focus to strength training and work each muscle group only three times a week. You should aim for two sets of ten reps at whatever weight tires you out at the end of the set and makes it so you physically can't do more for another 30-90 seconds. If you can get to ten without hitting failure(muscles can't do another rep), the weight is too low; conversely, if you hit failure before ten, the weight is too high.

On this regimen, you might find yourself gaining raw weight composed mostly of water, glycogen stores, and eventually muscle, but your body composition will change. It's the kind of thing that commonly results in a steady weight but a two or four inch smaller waist. However, over time your absolute weight will drop because your bodyfat % will decrease to the point that its total decrease will outweigh the weight of your muscle increase. Depending on your reserve for lean body mass(everything but fat), your weight estimate might increase but you'll still be around a healthy fat percentage estimate.

Hope this helps! Let me know if you desire any clarification or more information.

Sorry for the late reply. I have been trying to eat 1,850 calories (my TDEE) and I'm also working out 4-5x a week. I'm having a bit of difficulty reaching so many calories but I'll definitely try some of the tips you gave me. I really appreciate all the help. Thank you!

eldamiano

Dont blame metabolism. It is such an overrated excuse. More likely you are not logging correctly.

However, it is just unnecessary to eat 600 calories less than you should on a daily basis.