How do I know if my cals are TOO LOW?

epagelhogan

Hello - I'm 35 yo Female, 147 lbs. I'm trying to lose a small amount of weight, about 7-10 lbs. My profile was set at 1400 calories a day. Now I am training for a 10 miler and a 1/2 marathon. I'm exercising really regularly, 5 days a week, sometimes an hour at a time, so I'm definitely burning 500 calories several times a week. I never used to monitor my diet, so I guess I would eat between 1800-2000 calories a day, because I'm an average American! I never really gained or lost weight, just kind kept at the same place. No big deal, I never worried about it. But now that I'm done having kids I'd like to get into a good place and then just maintain and feel great.
I have a personal trainer, she hasn't gotten back to me about this question, so I'm coming to this forum!
I have been perfect this week, 1400 cals a day for the whole week, have done 4 workouts this week and will do 1-2 more over this weekend. I haven't lost a single pound!!! Nothing!!!
I even went up .5 to 1lb earlier in the week!
The thing that bothers me is that I've been watching my food and working out so regularly since Jan 24 2011 and I am just stuck at 147. I have lost about 2 inches, and my body fat is lower (my personal trainer keeps track of that) but this weight thing...it's turning into a paranoid obsession of mine - ugh!
I don't drink soda and I don't eat fast food. I have bumped up my fresh fruit and veg intake and I am avoiding sugary foods that I never bothered to worry about before (yogurts, granola bars, etc).
I wonder if my metabolism is slowing down way too much? How does one know if I should be at 1600 cals a day? My trainer suggested I stop recording my exercise in myfitnesspal so that I didn't "eat up" to the cals I had burned.
Any thoughts? I appreciate your opinions and experiences.

JennLifts

I would say try what the trainer suggested. They know you, where you're at etc. If you try it, and the results aren't good, or you're tired, etc.. Go back to what you were doing. Might think about Calorie cycling too.. heard it works

Good luck with the run!

kao708

Since you aren't logging your exercise calories you are probably eating too little at 1400 (with a burn of 500+). If you eat 1400 & burn 500 you've only actually taken in about 900 calories for the day, which most people will say is too low to do on a consistent basis. Especially if you only have about 7-10 lbs to lose.

If you have just stared to do this at the suggestion of the trainer, give it a couple weeks and see what happens. Good Luck!

whitneymws

I'm similar to you - I have it set to 1200 calories a day and I work out 4-5 times a week burning anywhere from 400-600 calories. I try and still keep myself to the 1200 calories and I definitely have had some stalls.

But I find that being really patient and giving it a few weeks pays off. I haven't been doing much differently this week and I suddenly dropped 1.5 lbs. And another week a few weeks back, I was having a terrible week cheating and such and I still dropped weight even though the week before when eating well I had gained. It's anyone's guess... I try and not get too discouraged and just tell myself that it takes weeks to see the real kind of results I want to see.

I did have a friend tell me tho that she did better upping her calories here from 1200 to a bit more, esp with the working out. I may do that in upcoming weeks and that may be the same for you - that you'd just burn better with your calories being a tad higher? Curious what others will say.

charityateet

Are you recording your exercise in your journal? I didn't see any and that's why I asked - if you are burning 4-500 calories running, you need to eat some if not all of them back. Maybe a little juice before the run (sugars) and a protien shake after?

rgunn02

My understanding is we need to eat our exercise calories.
Your calories for the day already have a 500 cal deficit calculated into them - before working out.
(500cal deficit/day x 7/days = 3500 cal deficit = 1lb of fat/week) If your not eating your exercise calories, your not getting enough calories and can slip into the dreaded starvation mode.
So Eat Up!

Losing2Live69

When I wan't eating at least a portion of my exercise calories I stopped losing. As soon as I upped my calories so my net calorie count was 1200-1400 cals a day, my weight loss picked back up. If your net calorie count falls below 1200 calories a day your weight loss will more than likely slow down.

pandafoo

Since you've stayed at 147 the past 2 months, but your body fat % went down, that must mean your muscle % went up -- which is great! Don't focus so much on the scale - anyone can lose weight, but their body fat % can actually go up in the process. That's what happened to me last month - I lost 5 pounds which should make me very happy but then I found out that all of it was muscle loss- which is horrible. So, be happy that you have gained muscle.

Be sure to fit in weight training regularly. I've read many threads saying how people training for marathons/triathlons actually gain weight in the process, and my colleague who's a triathloner attests to this. Weight training will increase your body's ability to burn fat.

As for your calorie intake, make sure your net calories DO NOT go below your BMR for a sustained period of time. BMR is the bare minimum of calories that your body needs to survive every day. If you consistently have net calories go below, then your body will hold onto fat easily, and start burning muscle. I don't know why your trainer would say you shouldn't record exercise calories so you won't eat them back -- in fact, you should at least eat enough so that at the end of the day, your net calories exceeds your BMR.

This is just my opinion tho and it'll definitely be good to consult with others before you decide how to move forward. Hope this helps!

FrankyOsage

You are most likely eating too few calories, especially if you are training so hard. Your body is rebelling due to lack of food! MFP sets your food at your deficit to lose weight at a safe rate, but when you workout you are increasing that deficit beyond that point and weightloss stalls. Some people with a lot to lose can do that, if you have less to lose its best to set a small deficit (.5 a week) and nourish your body because starving it does it no favors.

I really suggest: http://shouldieatmyexercisecalories.com/

epagelhogan

I have been recording my exercise on my other app, "mapmyrun" so at least have some record.

I am doing weight training, i'm on the second phase workout from my trainer which includes (among other things) bicep curls, roman dead lifts, shoulder press, push-ups, one-arm rows, etc. It's a doozy!!

I am glad to hear some things I needed hear from this forum...

1. be patient
2. consider that I may truly be eating too few calories
3. be happy about muscle gain and body fat loss

i only see my trainer in person about once a month, the rest of the time we talk via email. my next appt with her is march 23.

On Tuesday of this week, I ran for 60 min, at about 10:30min/mile. I live in Pgh, very hilly. I figured that estimating 500 cals burned was reasonable. but I still kept my food to 1470 cals, so that means I actually consumed 970 calories. Probably too low. I will re-visit this with her.

Thank you so much everyone, I appreciate this feedback!!!

callipygianchronicle

Also remember that when you have very little to lose and are already sitting near a healthy weight, your body is simply efficient. And that is especially true if your body is lean and your fat percentage is low. That means that you can still reduce your overall body weight, but it is not going to happen in big losses. Less than half a pound each week is what you should expect. There are a couple of forum threads that you might want to read through to help wrap your head around this some more:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/9433-expectations

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/10589-for-those-confused-or-questioning-eating-your-exercise-calo

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/181080-mfp-s-most-common-user-pitfall-to-avoid

becalee26

With you working out so much, I do recommend buying a HRM to count your calories if you aren't already using one. I just found out that I have been burning 2x as many calories than I thought. I haven't lose any weight in a month so I am guessing that's its because I am eating way to little with the amount of cals that I am burning. Just a thought..

epagelhogan

My body fat isn't THAT low! I don't want to sound like I'm some kind of muscle machine. I'm in the "fitness" category of 23%. I do not think I am "fat," I want to emphasize I do not have some unrealisitc expectation of body image. I just want to figure out why so much exercise isn't translating to a few pounds lost, I figured there was some scientific/nutritional formula I wasn't applying correctly!

I think after this week I'm going to bump up my cals per day slightly.

I like the idea of a HRM! I had one back in college, back when I could train 2x a day and was getting ready for a triatholon. Nowadays as a full time working mom of 3...just getting my running shoes on 1x a week was a huge victory!

This was my first post ever on MFP, and I have to say, the people who read/write/reply seem to be pretty cool. thanks everyone.