Struggling with calories

jwcabell

okay, short back story. I was on bed rest from Jan. till September of last year. I delivered my son and was in a coma for 6 days and a whole lot of complications. I was just now given the go ahead to diet and exercise again. Right now I'm aiming for 1000 calories a day. I'm exercising and burning about 600-800 calories a day through exercise alone.

I'm a picky eater and do my best to eat a variety of foods. I'm struggling to eat more. If I do it just seems to make me sick to my stomach. My calories are fairly decent as far as that little pie chart goes. Although I can't seem to get enough protein. I also do not understand net calories. Yesterday I was at -5 net calories. I ate three meals but no snack. I consumed 800 calories and burned 806 through exercise. Today I consumed 814 calories and burned 697 with 127 net calories.

How do I eat more without eating crap or large meals? I ate three meals plus one snack today. I'm also not hungry. I know I could add small snacks in the evening but they wouldn't be good ones, lol.

My goal is to lose enough weight to have a healthy bmi and to be fit and trim. The actual weight doesn't matter to me much. To get in my target weight range, I need to lose another 30 pounds. I've already lost 50lbs after I had my son.

Can anyone help me?

HonkyTonks

Sorry to hear about everything that's happened.

When you set up MFP you set your desired weight loss target, and then MFP creates a deficit based on your weight. It already figures in that deficit, which you can create through your diet alone, no exercise required. When you add exercise, your number of calories goes up. That means you need to eat more to have the same deficit as you would previously. If you have large enough deficits, your body starts using your muscle for fuel. You may lose some weight, but your'e losing lean muscle mass as well as fat.. this means your metabolism slows. 127 is definitely too low but I think you know this already.. do you need to be exercising and burning 600-800 calories a day? I think exercise is good for you, but if you can't eat to keep it up, you might want to cut back and do about 300 calories of exercise a day. Also do some strength training, which burns fewer calories but helps build muscle tissue.

Do you like peanut butter? Peanut butter, or nut butter, butter, olive oil, avocados, nuts are some really good calorie dense foods you could eat. I also try and avoid diet/low fat stuff so I can get my calories up.

jwcabell

I do some strength training every day but don't log those calories. My strength is not great right now. It took me almost two months to even walk unaided after I came home from the hospital. I'm on day 4 of exercising and a little over a week of keeping track of what I'm eating. I do like peanut butter and I would eat it with apples. So I'll try that tomorrow. I was thinking of trying a protein shake in the morning as well. So far I'm only tired if I don't take my medicine. I have narcolepsy and have to take something daily even if I didn't exercise just to stay awake. So I'm not tired and not hungry (and as of today, not sore). But I know even trying to get 1000 calories really isn't enough.

What do my net calories need to be? Is there a target number or range?

MissFit0101

You need to stop exercising until you can learn to eat back those calories. I think you should really consult your physician in this matter before proceeding.

djkshdfd

Do you enjoy nuts or nut butters? They are high calorie and contain very healthy fats. Just 2 tablespoons can add nearly 200 calories to your day.

Olive oil can also be a good way to add healthy calories.

Avocados are also a great high calorie option.

Artemis_Acorn

What do my net calories need to be? Is there a target number or range?

The general wisdom is that you should always consume at least 1200 calories a day. There is a lot of debate over the net calories, if you use the search function on the forums, you can find more opinions than you'll be able to process. Due to your particular issues, the best approach would be to get a qualified medical opinion.

hiker282

Nuts are one of the greatest ways to boost both calories and protein. Two tablespoons of peanut butter is 200 calories and 6 grams of protein. Cheese is another great one, though it's higher in fat unless you go for cottage cheese which is another great protein source. The last one I recommend is eggs. Eggs provide 70 calories, 6 grams of protein, a good dose of 'good' cholesterol and a number of great vitamins and minerals.

You definitely need to cut back on the exercise and learn to eat more or you're at high risk of losing muscle mass, which will only hurt in the long run as it will destroy your body's ability to metabolize food. Work hard and eat right, those are the keys to making this a healthy activity rather than a harmful one.

petreebird

You need to stop exercising until you can learn to eat back those calories. I think you should really consult your physician in this matter before proceeding.

^^^This!!

jwcabell

Lol, I did! He told me it was okay for short term.

My excerise partner is a doctor as well and we had a big discussion about it tonight after our workout. Her concern was my heart. My heart and my lungs took a huge beating when my son was born. I died twice on the table. I've had a good target heart rate so far. Being skinny is not worth my life. But I feel better than I have in over a year. The numbers just don't look right to me, though.

My doctor actually told me 800 calories was fine until I started exercising. Then I would need to increase it to around 1000. This was when I was 230lbs. at 5'4.

heybales

My goal is to lose enough weight to have a healthy bmi and to be fit and trim. The actual weight doesn't matter to me much. To get in my target weight range, I need to lose another 30 pounds.

BMI is worthless, forget it. Go off estimated fat %, as accurate as you care to pay for it.

If actual weight really doesn't matter, you could continue the route you are going, and will most likely loose an easy 12lbs of muscle mass, add to that the water that muscle retains, and the glucose, and you may be up around 20 lbs easy.

Or you could take the smart advice that several mentioned and see a Dr. You've got a messed up metabolism, and if you keep burning up to the same number of calories you actually eat, you'll have a several messed up systems in your body.

heybales

My excerise partner is a doctor as well and we had a big discussion about it tonight after our workout. Her concern was my heart. My heart and my lungs took a huge beating when my son was born. I died twice on the table. I've had a good target heart rate so far. Being skinny is not worth my life. But I feel better than I have in over a year. The numbers just don't look right to me, though.

My doctor actually told me 800 calories was fine until I started exercising. Then I would need to increase it to around 1000. This was when I was 230lbs. at 5'4.

Show her you faithfully done food logs with calorie counts, and several sites or methods for your exercise calories.

And ask how in the world 400 calories a day for the body to survive on can be healthy for ANY period of time.

DrNicoleRed

You need to stop exercising until you can learn to eat back those calories. I think you should really consult your physician in this matter before proceeding.

Agreed. Burning 600-800 calories sounds like a lot of effort. An hour of running is usually in the 500 calorie ballpark. That level of exertion sounds like a lot, especially if you were just recently cleared for exercise. Staying active is important, but perhaps ease into it a bit…250-500 calorie burn would probably be plenty, about 30 min moderate activity daily.

Also, if you still have some active medical issues, you may have an altered metabolic rate (faster or slower) based on your medications, inflammatory processes, hormonal shifts, etc. So MFP calculator is not able to take this into account. So discuss this with your MD in greater detail.

Generally, your net calories should be equivalent to whatever your basal (resting) metabolic rate is--the equivalent of what your body needs for basic functions (breathing, heart beating, blinking, etc.). It is thought that anything less than this will signal food scarcity and cause the body to slow metabolism…you'll still lose weight, but much more slowly as your body tries to be more conservative with the few calories it is getting. The only way to REALLY know this is to have it measured using indirect calorimetry. MFP and other calculators approximate it using equations that account for age, height, weight, and gender. They do not take into account other known contributors such as race/ethnicity, current lean muscle mass, and medically related metabolic issues.

So the calorie deficit is ideally generated from the calories you utilize from your daily energy expenditure to do activities above and beyond rest, such as getting off the sofa, walking around your home/office as well as any structured exercise. So if your basal metabolic rate is 1000 calories, your daily activities adds another 500 calories, and structured exercise (i.e., workouts) adds to the total calories--let's say 500. So your caloric needs for weight maintenance would be 2000 calories in this scenario. Thus, for weight loss, if you eat just your basal calories of 1000, plus "eat back" your 500 exercise calories for total 1500 calories intake-- that would still leave a 500 calorie deficit (from your daily activity)--which amounts to about a 1 lb per week weight loss. If you don't eat back your exercise calories, and consume only your basal calories of 1000, you'll have a higher deficit and more weight loss.

But eating your basal calories presumably keeps your body from thinking that it is starving and thereby slowing weight loss. Given your prolonged inactivity while you were ill, it is possible that your metabolism has slowed. Alternatively, illness is a high stress state and you could have had a boosted metabolism (esp. since you were metabolizing for two and trying to heal an ailing body).

Seek additional medical advice. I'm an MD btw, but since I don't have the details of your medical history/exam this is strictly "friend" advice, not a medical opinion.

kandrews24

I'd just try to eat smaller meals more often, such as 6x daily. Avocado is a good choice and protein bars (like luna). Look around for bread that is higher in protein. They make some nice spouted wheat. As you log things and experiment, you'll learn more about nutrition. Broccoli and brown rice (for example) is packed with lots of good stuff.

I'm sure your appetite will increase as you get better. When you don't have an appetite your metabolism is low (which is really not helpful).

Also, be sure to get your 8+ glasses of water daily. It heps with so many things = digestion, hydration, working out, skin, and metabolism.

Sounds like you are on your way.

jwcabell

I don't think seeing my dr. at this point is going to help because I'm following what he told me to do. Except I doubt he thought I would be able to burn so many calories a day.

Should I see a nutritionist or dietitian?

And I know bmi isn't an end all. My husband's bmi is high but it's because he is extremely fit and has more muscle than most. I just don't want to go to a doctor again and my weight be an issue.

DrNicoleRed

I don't think seeing my dr. at this point is going to help because I'm following what he told me to do. Except I doubt he thought I would be able to burn so many calories a day.

Should I see a nutritionist or dietitian?

And I know bmi isn't an end all. My husband's bmi is high but it's because he is extremely fit and has more muscle than most. I just don't want to go to a doctor again and my weight be an issue.

A nutritionist can be helpful for giving you feedback on your food diary, and take into account your food preferences and medical needs. Would still recommend a second opinion from a different physician.

jwcabell

Dr. Nicolered, I think I get it now. Thank you :-). I will say my dr. friend almost fell out today when I told her how much I was burning. I go at lunch and workout, then we go at night together. Since you may know what I'm talking about, I had placenta percreta with my son and it attached to my entire abdominal wall. Then while on the table, I had an amniotic fluid embolism. I received over 300 units of blood and blood products over two days and three surgeries to save me. I was intubated for 6 days following that. Bladder was resected twice and I had a complete hysterectomy. It's a miracle we both survived.

I'm going to work on eating some peanut butter and still perhaps the protein shakes and maybe cut back a bit on the exercise till I can get a better handle on being able to eat more. And I'm going to call my dr. and try to see someone about diet and exercise.

Thanks for the advice everyone :-)

Pebble321

I'm pleased to hear that you're going to get some professional advice - it sounds like you had an incredibly tough time and your body will still be healing and regaining strength after all you have gone through, so you need to look after yourself.
Try and build up your calorie amount slowly - you don't want to start overeating (though you are FAR from that at the moment), there are lots of good suggestions here for healthy higher calorie foods.
And I would seriously reconsider doing quite so much exercise until you get medical clearance - building up slowly is good here too.
Good luck, I hope you find the right plan for you.

heybales

It's great you've made it so far, and even are able to look at other goals besides making it another day.

If you just feel the need to exercise, perhaps figure out what 500 cal worth of exercise would be in whatever you enjoy, and only 4 times a week max.
And eat those calories back, plus more as suggested.

To calculate the exercise calories, HR monitor will be the most accurate you can use, if like Polar it has you enter gender, age, weight at the least.
If not going to use, hit several exercise calorie calculator sites and compare the calorie burns. Lose the outlying figures and avg the rest.
When you see activity names/paces that are exactly the same, know they bought the same data table, so don't mess with multiples.

http://www.primusweb.com/cgi-bin/fpc/actcalc.pl