Feed to shed fat

Kat120285

What are your thoughts on activity level?

I saw a discussion about how one person who has a desk job but works out hard 6 days a week wasn't losing on sedentary and once it was bumped up to very active, they lost.

Granted everyone is different but one who sits at a desk but works out hard 6 days a week will more times than not, burn more than someone who just sits at a desk without exercise.

I guess I'm just wondering if I'm still not getting enough calories. My base is set at 1250 as my BMR is 1245. Once I log exercise that number goes up to anywhere from 1850-2000+. I eat back most or all exercise calories. I'm wondering if I should not only change activity level but also go down to half a pound a week.

Newfiedan

if you are working out 5 days a week or more you are active regardless of job. I am a heavy equipment tech, on some days I work my butt off heavy lifting, hard work and others are slow and sedentary I work out between 3-4 times a week so i am very active by default. Sedentary means no real physical work at work and when home or working out once a week, anything more means moderate + level.

Sweetlost

bump

Kat120285

if you are working out 5 days a week or more you are active regardless of job. I am a heavy equipment tech, on some days I work my butt off heavy lifting, hard work and others are slow and sedentary I work out between 3-4 times a week so i am very active by default. Sedentary means no real physical work at work and when home or working out once a week, anything more means moderate + level.

Would you recommend upping my level?

Dancinhiphop4life

bump!

soriakyte

Thanks for the great information! Makes me want to read more.

hjollyrn

Bump

Newfiedan

bump & yes kat put it from sedentary to moderate, you need to find out where your balance is, slowly up it and watch what happens to fat loss, if it slows down then you are getting closer to maintenance.

Kat120285

Thanks, I upped it last night, didn't quite get all the cals as I did it late but we'll see how today goes. It'll be around 2300+ calories after I exercise. It's got me starting at 1690 now which I think is fine because when I used the team beachbody calculator it had me eat 1800 to maintain and that seemed spot on as my weight didn't move at all. I'll give it a couple weeks and see what happens.

Thanks for the feedback, I sort of new that even though I was eating around 2000 calories the base of 1250 just wasn't enough for the amount that I exercise.

BflSaberfan

I'd love your advice on what i should be eating. I am 5'2 140lbs want to get to 125lbs. Only 15 more to go. I've been eating 1200 a day for 10 months, plus excercising and lost 50lbs. The scale hasn't budged in 2 weeks and actually I went up 2 lbs today.

Newfiedan

are you eating back all your exercise cals or at least the bulk of them to stay above 1200 net?

BflSaberfan

are you eating back all your exercise cals or at least the bulk of them to stay above 1200 net?

No I never ate back my exercise calories. I've been a member here since June but just within the last few weeks actually started posting/reading - I was just using it to track my calories so I didn't completely and maybe still dont understand how it all works, all I know is I lost an incredible amount of weight and inches. I went from size 16/18 to 8.

I was probably under estimating my calories some days but didn't log any exercise either.....I dont believe I WAS in starvation mode because I had so much fat to lose, but now that I'm within 15 lbs of goal I know I have to change something.

Newfiedan

when we have a lot to lose you can get away with it to a point but once you get down to the lower brackets of fat loss then it will make a big difference which is why you have plateaued, start eating them back for a week or 2 and see what happens.

Tzavush

bump

BflSaberfan

when we have a lot to lose you can get away with it to a point but once you get down to the lower brackets of fat loss then it will make a big difference which is why you have plateaued, start eating them back for a week or 2 and see what happens.

Should I continue with 1200 calories? MFP now has me at 1390 for a .5 a week weight loss.

Newfiedan

do 1200 on days 1 and 2 then eat maintenance level on day 3, see my post on zig zagging cals: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/212510-how-to-zig-zag-cals-properly-caloric-cycling-properly I forgot to add that this means net including exercise so 1200 net including exercise and maintenance level including exercise to accelerate fat loss and break through that plateau.

hpsnickers1

Thank you. I believe everybody should read Tom Venuto. Brilliant advice and very simple to understand.

I agree. I post his advice on here all the time. There's a site called hussmanfitness.org that has a short article of his called Working With The Body and it's great stuff to read.

hpsnickers1

My bad. hussmanfitness.org doesn't mention Tom Venuto. I have an article of his somewhere. But the site is still a good site.

dltldisney

I gotta bump this thread! Great information with lots of good questions and responses.

iamhealingmyself

do 1200 on days 1 and 2 then eat maintenance level on day 3, see my post on zig zagging cals: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/212510-how-to-zig-zag-cals-properly-caloric-cycling-properly I forgot to add that this means net including exercise so 1200 net including exercise and maintenance level including exercise to accelerate fat loss and break through that plateau.

thanks for sharing this. i was wondering if you had aconcise guide as i was reading.

Zsangel

Thanks for posting! It has some really helpful information but I am Beyond lost!
I have been tracking my calories for about 20 days now and have lost about 9 lbs but it has come back up in the past 2 days... I stepped up my exercise this week and try to eat back at least some of my burnt off calories but my net is below 1200 fairly frequently.
I exercise 5 times per week (circuit training ft cardio and weight training 3 times per week, and I'm on C25K week 2) and I have my daily activity level at sedentary because I don't currently work and don't do much else, but I'm wondering if I should change it? my calorie intake is currently set at 1450 for a 1.5 per week loss. I was wondering what your thoughts were to help me get back into weight loss mode.
According to MFP, my BMR is 1722 and my maintenance calorie intake would be 2180.

Any help or advice you could give me would be MAJORLY appreciated
PLEASE HELP ME xx

Newfiedan

Well your fist mistake is letting your net get below 1200, that is bad. The fist few weeks on mfp is going to be a roller coaster for you as the body gets shook up and starts to respond, for some of us that means big loss and for some that is a sudden loss and then a small gain back. This is usually due to water weight fluctutations. My weight can vary by as much as 6 pounds daily from water intake. If you are working out 5 days a week or more you should be set to active, or lightly active, sedentary lifestyle means no workouts or very few a week (maybe 2 at most) and those are not intense workouts more like walking. So set yourself up as lightly active to start, then from there set your fat loss to 1 lb/wk (do not worry you will lose more) then on days 1 and 2 the lowest you are allowed to go is 1200 net and on day 3 maintenance (if you have a lot to lose then you can go slightly below that, maybe 200 or so below) then repeat. Many of us make the mistake of underestimating our lifestyle or overestimating it to start with. I am a heavy equipment tech/shop foreman, some days are really active, some not so much so I am set to active but on days that I work really hard I eat more and on days I do not I eat less. If you workout 6 times or more a week you are active, 4 times is lightly active, and less is sedentary unless these workouts are very intense like a HIIT or MRT routine (High intensity interval training or metabolic resistance routine) I use MRT and workout 3-4 times a week.

Jonicha26

BUMP!

Newfiedan

bump for those whom need to read this.

dorairwin

Thank you..

MamaGraves2

Thank you for sharing! Such good info!

mrsjcmyles

Bump

Zsangel

Thank you heaps!
I will re-set my activity level and keep my calories up and see how I go

deathtaco

Although I dare not slander the name of Tom Venuto - the concept of "stoking the metabolic fire" every 2-3 hours has been debunked. Insulin spiking and control can be achieved in multiple ways, and for a lot of people the 2-3 hour thing isn't practical.

As previously stated, you certainly can gain muscle/lose fat at the same time through nutrient:workout timing and cycling on/off day nutrient breakdowns and caloric intake. Again though, comes in practicality. The amount of precision and effort this takes is not practical for most people, and is only really highly effective at certain fitness levels anyway.

What IS very practical is losing fat while MAINTAINING muscle!

Again, this isn't to slam this post or denounce "Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle," just saying that although this is ONE method (Zone diet, BTFFTM, etc). There are plenty more methods out there that people may be able to adopt to their schedule (Leangains, Eat Stop Eat, Keto, etc).

Never think there's only one way to a goal!

kdouglas11

I think you were much more intelligent in this post! I agree with you and you did it in a non-offensive way!