Help please - calories/BMR/TDEE/diary critique

AshinAms

Hi everyone,

I need some help. I am 5 ft 11 and currently weigh 101 kilos. My fat % and BMR have been calculated by machines at the gym which I feel are fairly accurate, as 41% and 1845 calories respectively. I have entered myself into the system as sedentary with the idea of counting all my exercise calories and eating them. Currently MFP gives me around 1490 calories a day to lose 1.5 lb a week of which I eat about 1300 and then have a zig zag day now and again where I go up to my BMR. This is taking into account that I have not adjusted my BMR with TDEE.

To give you some background I have a long history of eating disorders - anorexia & bulimia from age 11 which was medicated with 80mg Prozac pd when I was 18 for a period of 15 years. I gained an incredible amount of weight during that time, eventually weighing in at 140+ kilos when I came off the Prozac and started trying to lose weight. Personally I would have preferred the ED to the weight gain but it's not really done to say things like that!

Diet and exercise together with acupuncture brought my weight down to around 88 kilos, then I had a car accident, became sedentary and gained back to 106. I've been successful in losing 6 kilos over the last 9 weeks. I need to take care with exercise because if I overdo it I seem to aggravate my spinal injury which causes headaches/fatigue etc.

My boyfriend is a sports scientist and whilst very supportive of my efforts to lose weight he thinks I am eating too little. The Katch McArdle formula puts me at about 1773 for weight LOSS with a TDEE adjusted figure of about 2200. Personally I can't see this working as I feel that it was eating around 2200 that made me gain weight but my weight loss has stalled at my current weight.

Looking critically at my diary I can see there are some areas that require change - I have white bread in there, and although I try to eat four to six times a day I don't make it every day. I could eat more vegetables & less fruit. My ratios are 40/30/30 and I try to get in 5 - 8 servings of fruit & veg. If I could exercise without pain I would eat aroun 2000 calories a day and then exercise to my deficit but that's out of the question right now - I consider myself lucky if I get through two workouts a week without the cluster headaches reappearing.

Any constructive advice would be welcome.

Thanks!
Ashleigh

Elleinnz

You and I are at a very similar stage - I am 5"9 and weigh 105 kg...... MFP also gives me 1490 calories - and I eat most of them every day - on the days I exercise I do eat a bit more (but I dont eat back all my exercise calories...... might have to do this as I lose more weight, but while I am still in the obese category the danger of "starvation mode" is very slim...)

Looking at your diary you do seem to eat very little compared to the truckload of food I seem to be packing into my day..... and yes - the biggest difference is in the amount of vegetables I eat every day......

I also eat much less carbs, and quite a bit more protein than you are eating....

Most weeks I do 2 "big" workouts metabolic weight training at the gym (around 700 calorie burn)... Other than that I try to walk at least 30 mins a day - and do one or two Zumba or Tae Bo sessions a week.....so not a massive amount of exercise compared to some others on here....

For the past 2 months I have consistently lost around one kg a week (MFP is set to 1.5lbs) so I am losing a bit more than my "weekly goal" on here.....

So you seem to be on the right track, but from my personal experience I do suggest that you "clean up" your eating a bit more, and see what happens.

Feel free to send me a friend request if you are interested - and good luck!!

AshinAms

Thanks for your comments Ellie. I had a look through your diary and I think one of the big differences is that my fruit & veg are recorded mostly in my 'recipes' so not showing up as f&v on my diary. What I'm going to do is enter each item separately over the next couple of weeks to get more of an accurate overview for myself.

I am hoping that someone with experience of EDs/metabolism issues will be able to take a look at my diary as well and advise.

Thanks for taking a look! Have sent you a friend request.

AshinAms

bumping this so maybe someone will see it.