A Personal View on Exercise Cals and Underfeeding

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  • spinaddict4life
    spinaddict4life Posts: 93 Member
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    This was interesting but I have been bouncing back fourth with gaining and losing the same4 pounds since May. I spin three days a week and work out five days a week. I think sometimes exercise may be over caclulated so I eat most but not all. I wish i knew what my balance is to get out of the cycle
  • ladyhawk00
    ladyhawk00 Posts: 2,457 Member
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    This was interesting but I have been bouncing back fourth with gaining and losing the same4 pounds since May. I spin three days a week and work out five days a week. I think sometimes exercise may be over caclulated so I eat most but not all. I wish i knew what my balance is to get out of the cycle

    Congrats on your progress - you've done fantastic!

    Have you adjusted your goals as you've lost weight? You'll need a lower loss per week goal as you get leaner and have less fat stores to draw from.

    You do still have a decent amount to lose, so as long as you're eating around 50-75% of them, you should be ok. Ideally, using an HRM with a chest strap will give you the most accurate account - but if you don't have one and can't get one, for the "standard" exercises like spinning, running, walking, etc, MFP should be fairly close because those are repetitive movements where calories burned don't vary a lot.

    But making sure your settings are appropriate for where you're at is the first step, cause if those are wrong, everything else will be too. Also, make sure you're weighing/measuring food as that can throw a big inaccuracy in.

    Another thing to consider is going on maintenance for a week or two. Being in a constant deficit for a long period is very stressful for the body, and it often just plain needs a break. Giving it a chance to re-regulate hormones and adjust to the changes that 93 lbs of fat loss brings can be very helpful.
  • ladyhawk00
    ladyhawk00 Posts: 2,457 Member
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    Bump
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,081 Member
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    and... bump
  • ladyhawk00
    ladyhawk00 Posts: 2,457 Member
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    and... bump

    Well, if you insist... :happy:
  • ladyhawk00
    ladyhawk00 Posts: 2,457 Member
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    Ah, why not...
  • starberi30
    starberi30 Posts: 59
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    thank you, BUMP
  • kirsty0911
    kirsty0911 Posts: 54 Member
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    bump
  • moreaudrey
    moreaudrey Posts: 49 Member
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    Wow, I just came across your post and I was blown away at how similar our stories are. I am going to think long and hard about everything you just wrote. Thank you so much for taking the time to post it.
  • missikay1970
    missikay1970 Posts: 588 Member
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    i just wanted to thank you for taking the time to write all of this. i have been in a debate (with myself) doing research and studying what to do about calorie intake and the like. it has been a real source of frustration for me. this week, i increased my calories, and i'm eating most (if not all) of my exercise calories. it is threads such as this one that provide REAL answers with concrete real-world experiences. i realize that everyone is different, but this information was very helpful and informative. :smile:
  • akaChuck
    akaChuck Posts: 233 Member
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    Thank you very much for taking the time to write your story down, your view has given me even more of a reason to eat the right amount of food for my body...and it will thank me years down the road :) Thank you again, and congrats on your weightloss!
  • ladyhawk00
    ladyhawk00 Posts: 2,457 Member
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    Quite welcome, I'm thrilled if it can help anyone. Thanks for taking the time to read it. :flowerforyou:
  • Gypsynana
    Gypsynana Posts: 9
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    Wow that sounds just like what I have been doing. I find this incredibly helpful!
  • ladyhawk00
    ladyhawk00 Posts: 2,457 Member
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    Wow that sounds just like what I have been doing. I find this incredibly helpful!

    Glad it helped... I think it's a lot more common than we think. :frown:
  • LickyNees
    LickyNees Posts: 101 Member
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    me all over. thank you!
  • LickyNees
    LickyNees Posts: 101 Member
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    ops
  • LuluGirl140
    LuluGirl140 Posts: 364 Member
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    So I re-read this post and I'm hoping you can help me, since you've been successful with what you're doing. I completed my first round of Insanity back in June, and was netting about 1200 or so calories a day (sometimes less). I only lost 6 lbs, but lost tons of inches, which is great. Recently I upped my calories to 1500 because I haven't seen any more weight loss. This time I was doing a hybrid of P90X and Insanity. I was netting very close to 1500 calories every day for 2 weeks and saw no movement. So now I'm going Insanity again, and have my calories set to 1290, although I don't eat back all of my exercise calories. I am netting anywhere from 800-1200/day, with most days being closer to 1200. I'm assuming your recommendation would be to try to net closer to 1200 most days? I guess it messes with my mind because sometimes I feel so stuffed, and still have cals left, and just don't want to eat any more. I also don't want to overdo it. What would you recommend for me?

    Thank you!!! :flowerforyou:
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,081 Member
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    :smile:
  • ladyhawk00
    ladyhawk00 Posts: 2,457 Member
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    So I re-read this post and I'm hoping you can help me, since you've been successful with what you're doing. I completed my first round of Insanity back in June, and was netting about 1200 or so calories a day (sometimes less). I only lost 6 lbs, but lost tons of inches, which is great. Recently I upped my calories to 1500 because I haven't seen any more weight loss. This time I was doing a hybrid of P90X and Insanity. I was netting very close to 1500 calories every day for 2 weeks and saw no movement. So now I'm going Insanity again, and have my calories set to 1290, although I don't eat back all of my exercise calories. I am netting anywhere from 800-1200/day, with most days being closer to 1200. I'm assuming your recommendation would be to try to net closer to 1200 most days? I guess it messes with my mind because sometimes I feel so stuffed, and still have cals left, and just don't want to eat any more. I also don't want to overdo it. What would you recommend for me?

    Thank you!!! :flowerforyou:

    I'm sorry, I missed this before -

    What are your current stats? (ht, wt, age, etc)

    You may need to net a lot more than 1200, depending on your circumstances.

    As for eating more, it's not always necessary to increase volume of food a lot. You can often achieve a higher cal level simply by choosing more nutrient dense foods, such as healthy fats (nuts, natural oils, avocado).
  • funkycamper
    funkycamper Posts: 998 Member
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    This is a most helpful discussion. I actually read this soon after joining MFP but, while it made sense, I really couldn't wrap my head around it. After two months of going from only doing dog-walking a few days a week to doing a large variety of more intense exercises (spin, step aerobics, elliptical, HIIT, weight training, swimming, biking, etc.) and tracking my caloric intake with a goal of 1200 net, and only losing 10# in that time, I'm beginning to strongly consider upping my calories. I have adopted zig-zagging to try to fool and boost my metabolism but I do have too many days where my net is too low.

    I am rarely hungry and have probably lost that ability to recognize true hunger through years of eating too little as, even when I was much heavier than I am now, I often kept food dairies and rarely have eaten over 1500 calories a day. (Yes, I gained to a high of 237# eating just that.) I do, however, often have intense fatigue from exercising to the point where I'm napping a ridiculous amount of hours each week in addition to sleeping more at night. I'm guessing this means my body is starving and shuts down to maintain my needed bodily functions? What is curious is that once I start exercising, I get an energy lift and feel great during the exercise routine and can really push myself pretty good during it. However, a few hours after exercising, I totally crash. I'm really hoping to feel the increased energy all day long that my increased exercise and fitness level should be bringing me.

    So I am convinced that, yes, I need to up my calories and nutrition (I don't eat enough veggies or protein and really need to work on both). I am down to 183# at this time (10# since joining MFP, the rest has been a gradual loss over about a decade using a combination of low-carb eating and moderate exercise not the intense amount I'm doing now). I'm 53, 5'6". My goal is to get down to around 130-135, I think. I don't have a clear weight goal, more of a pant size goal and even that isn't clear. I don't think I'll know where I want to be until I get there. I just know that I want my BMI to be in the normal range. Right now, I'm still just on the edge of obese.

    Tips, encouragement, and such would be great and very helpful. I'm scared to death that I'm going to gain weight if I up my calories. While I understand it logically, I'm having a hard time accepting it on an emotional level.

    Anyway, thank you for this discussion. It's very helpful and motivating.

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