starting to eat exersice calories- What to expect??

aussie_nic_getting_fit

Hi

I joined MFP late January 2010 and head (in My opinion have had good weight loss).

In this time, as i was at my higher weight, i lost weight steadily and did not eat back my exercise calories.

ive found as ivs gotten smaller (and co-incidently since ive increased my gym workouts), my weight loss is very slow and ive gone through a few plateaus.

i have been going up and down for the past few weeks

i am going to start trial eating half/all of my exersice calories, to see how my body responds?

I am assuming because i have been eating 1200 cals (MFP recommendation), but NOT eating back exerises calories (i workout 4-6 times per week). it is highly likely my body is starvation mode :-(

Should i expect to gain weight in my first few weeks, while my body is adjusting??

thanks in advance


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mea9

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juliapurpletoes

according to things i read on this site, you probably were not exactly in starvation mode but it is that you had enough fat reserves that it didn't matter. I guess if your net were well under the 1200 for along time, it could of had health consequesnses but it sounds okay.

I definitely would start to eat them back...I always ate all of mine back or pretty close and all I had to lose was 25 pounds. It was slow going, but I plateaued the minute I didn't!! so that was proof enough for me.

best of luck!

janeinspain

you are at around 80 kg and you're only eating 1200 and not eating back any exercise calories? good job thinking of changing the pace, your body will thank you for that. Yes, eat around half of your exercise calories, I would recommend you to eat around 1400-1500 cals. try and lower your carbs, up your protein and don't be afraid of fats (the healthy ones).
I went down from 70 to almost 64 kg based on that. and I eat 1400 without the exercise calories

aussie_nic_getting_fit

@juliapurpletoes thankyou for the extra info
@jaininpain. Yep im now 80.1kg and since ive been working out since May 2011 my weight loss has slowed alot and ive had 2 plateaus. Thanks i'm open to any advice,

i am definatly going to try eating at least some of my exercise calories. im just wondering if i can expect weight gain, while my body adjusts??

i view this as a lifestyle change, so im happy to try anything in the hope that i can budge this weight..

cheers

mea9

I haven't been very good with this so I'm looking for information myself. I can tell you that I was doing really well on 1200 for a few months. Then I plateaued for several weeks. On a bad day I had some haagen daz iced cream (won't say how much). I woke up the next morning several pound lighter. I had really gone over my calorie goal even including my exercise calories. I have no explanation... I'm not saying I do it every day but I have been making a point of having an off day about once a week. Some people use zigzagging which also results in loss. There are lots of things to try and I think you need to change strategy at each plateau but I don't know.

aussie_nic_getting_fit

thanks alot. im going to try and eat back half my exersice calories for 3 weeks, then i will assess the progress..

My next step is to decrease my workouts for a week or two,

after that i will definatly be considering a "spike' day weekly, i guess im just scared that if i begin to eat "bad"foods, old habits will creep back and i may lose control :-(