A Personal View on Exercise Cals and Underfeeding

akaChuck

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

Quite welcome, I'm thrilled if it can help anyone. Thanks for taking the time to read it. :flowerforyou:

Gypsynana

Wow that sounds just like what I have been doing. I find this incredibly helpful!

ladyhawk00

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

me all over. thank you!

LickyNees

ops

LuluGirl140

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

ladyhawk00

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

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.

momof3G8kids

Thank you....I read this and thought "This is me" Exactly what happened to me! Never ate a lot, but am still fat, somehow, after the 3rd child. I really am getting it! I need to eat more in order to lose weight!

momof3G8kids

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.

This is exactly what I feel too!

themedalist

Bump. Thanks for taking the time to write this very informative and heart-felt post. I'm very grateful!

MelanieAG05

just read this and thought it deserved another BUMP :flowerforyou:

very interesting and informative as i am "worried" about eating all my exercise calories!

MelanieAG05

just read this and thought it deserved another BUMP :flowerforyou:

very interesting and informative as i am "worried" about eating all my exercise calories!

msunset262

OMG..Thank you so much for your story i totally understood what your saying and it explanded where all my skinny fat comes from.i also eat a lot of carbs not enough food and i have watched how my body turned skinny and squishy and .its like a fat deformity (if thats a word ) .oh well it fits lol. what i am tryinng to learn right now is the right foods to eat that my body will aceept as good foods to feed my muscles (which were eatin up by my body also ). i dont know the correct dietary life stye eating menu to follow.i thought i would start out with the muscle milk so my body would begin giving back some strength to work out with .so i dont feel so drained and extra tired after working out . Please help any ideas.

mamitosami

Bumping to read later...

lilojoke

A good read!

r1ghtpath

i know this is an old thread, but it's good to read that others have faced similar issues as i have. it's nice to know i'm not alone.

it's taken me awhile to get to the point where i AM eating the calories i'm supposed to. eating back exercise calories doesn't happen. and FINALLY, after 6 whole YEARS! i actually get hungry. i haven't felt hungry in 6 years :-( but just this past week it's started.

i still mentally fight my brain, pretty much every day, that eating food will not making me more fat. i didn't gain weight not eating, but i never lost any. i would go up and down about 5 lbs, but that's about it. i've been the same size since 2006....... and since 2006 i have been consuming about 800-900 calories a day, with some days probably way less than that! in 2010, i pretty much stopped eating anything but a handful of peanut butter M and Ms ( 2010 was a horrid year in my life). i worked out all that time too!!! several nights a week from 2006 on i would be in the gym, on the treadmill, elliptical machine, lifting weights....... none of it matter.

last week, was the second week my goal was to hit 1200 cal in a day and i actually managed to do that several times. and yesterday i took my weekly measurements and i had lost 8.5 inches with 3 of those from my waist. i haven't lost weight in 6 YEARS!

as i sit here and type this, my tummy is growling. that hasn't happened, in longer than i can remember. i hope that i can beat my brain on this. i hope that i can overcome the " eating will make you more fat" thinking permanently. some days, it's a CONSTANT reminder! and i KNOW that i need to be over 1200 cal for the day, because i am an active person, who still works out nights and burns easily 500+ calories in exercise alone............ BUT, i'm taking the right steps and i am headed in the right direction.

thank you for letting me know i'm not alone in this :-) it's so hard to read over and over, "calories in vs. calories out." or " eat less, move more." cuz all those do to my head is tell me that i'm gonna get MORE fat! even if my body shows me i'm not :-(

funkycamper

Thanks for sharing, r1ghtpath! It sounds like you are on the right path. Let us know how it goes.

familytime

Thanks so much for posting your views and experience. It sounds a lot like mine, except I've eating the wrong way for a bit longer, and I don't drink soda. Nevertheless, I've had to consciously make myself eat breakfast, and being accountable for what I take eat and how I exercise through using MFP has really been helpful. Now I can see what I am doing that does or does not work, and I can make changes accordingly. Any ideas how to boost the sluggish metabolism I've created over the years through negligent eating?

taylorblues

bump

penroseg

bump

taylorblues

Thanks so much for posting your views and experience. It sounds a lot like mine, except I've eating the wrong way for a bit longer, and I don't drink soda. Nevertheless, I've had to consciously make myself eat breakfast, and being accountable for what I take eat and how I exercise through using MFP has really been helpful. Now I can see what I am doing that does or does not work, and I can make changes accordingly. Any ideas how to boost the sluggish metabolism I've created over the years through negligent eating?

Green tea is supposed to help speed up your metabolism. Reading about this earlier today - http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/520628-green-tea-drinkers-help

thecazstewart

Such a sensible, heartfelt post. I've been under eating for nearly four years using another weightloss website and didn't fully understand the damage I was doing to myself until I realised that I was becoming "skinny fat".

Since moving over to MFP in January, I can now see my Net figure and no matter how much exercise I do, I always aim to get back to a Net figure of 1200-1400.

I think it's beginning to work after just 70 days. But it's a slow process as my metabolism has slowed down so much.

Your post clearly shows that this "starvation mode" isn't a quick and clearly visible state. It's definitely a silent, stealth killer - may not kill you, but it definitely won't help you in your desire for a fit looking body.

thecazstewart

I could so have written that. Am so with you

purplep41n

This just confirms my thoughts with what my body is going through, so I am glad I found this. I seem to naturally stay a high weight despite eating better than many people I know who eat a lot, drink a lot plus don't exercise. The times I have lost a lot of weight was actually when I was eating macdonalds up to twice a day plus cakes every day.

I started dieting when I was 7, I have done every strange diet possible.

I started this a few weeks ago. I spent the first week just noting what I was eating but this was with a vow to eat more veg and fruit, drink more water and I noticed me thinking more about moving more and what I ate just by using this site. I've now taken it to the next level where I am making a point of exercising more plus trying to keep within my calories. Now I've got rid of my cravings and weird binging habits, I can start eating to turn around a bad diet.

funkycamper

This just confirms my thoughts with what my body is going through, so I am glad I found this. I seem to naturally stay a high weight despite eating better than many people I know who eat a lot, drink a lot plus don't exercise. The times I have lost a lot of weight was actually when I was eating macdonalds up to twice a day plus cakes every day.

I started dieting when I was 7, I have done every strange diet possible.

I started this a few weeks ago. I spent the first week just noting what I was eating but this was with a vow to eat more veg and fruit, drink more water and I noticed me thinking more about moving more and what I ate just by using this site. I've now taken it to the next level where I am making a point of exercising more plus trying to keep within my calories. Now I've got rid of my cravings and weird binging habits, I can start eating to turn around a bad diet.

It sounds like you're on the right track. I destroyed my metabolism growing up as I had a mother who chronically underfed me for fear that I would get fat. I'm now working on upping my calories slowly and it's great to be able to eat more and still lose. It's not fast but, then again, I no longer feel deprived or as if I'm even on any kind of diet. Exercise and healthy eating works if you're patient and not trying to race to a thinner you. Best wishes.

SairahRose

This is brilliant, and definitely does help ease a lot of the fears about eating back the calories.
I don't - mostly because I'm following (ish) the Jillian Michaels food plan... but at the same time I'm noticing that the weight loss is slowing down a lot faster than I expected it to.
I do think that a trial of a month of just eating 1200 cals, followed by a month of getting the NET cals to 1200, will allow me to see just what works for my body.

Thanks

Em_runs_away

Thanks for posting