BMR, daily intake, sugar and toning up

kimw91

So, the title of this topic is quite a mouthful. I'll just briefly introduce myself first: I'm a 20 year old woman, currently weigh 59 kilos and am 1.70 meters tall. I started working out 4-6 times a week in August last year. I am still the exact same weight as when I started (ranging between 58.5 and 60). Although I think my body has changed in some small ways (thinner thighs, slightly tighter stomach), I'm not seeing the changes I'd like or expected when I started going from couch potato to gym addict!

I started logging my intake a couple months ago. I've read all the threads on BMR, the discussion around starvation mode (and whether it exists at all), the calorie deficient needed to lose weight etc etc. Through that information, I figured I might have been under-eating (not by huge amounts) for some months. Especially be net-calories would be fairly low (800-1000). So I've been trying to up my calories a bit. Now, originally MFP set me at 1240 calories a day. I've upped this a bit to 1480. Although I'd checked my BMR before, I kind of forgot about it as I assumed MFP would take it into consideration when calculating how much calories I should consume a day. How wrong I was! My BMR comes in at about 1390 a day, meaning MFP's original suggestion of 1240 was way off.

As for my questions: is the current goal of 1480 still too low? I am trying to eat back my work out calories, so I probably get a total of about 1600 a day and around 1400 net. However, I ALWAYS go over my sugar macro. Most of my sugar (and carbs for that matter) does come from fruit and now sugary, processed food. However, could it have anything to do with my weight not budging and measurements not really changing? I know my weight is absolutely healthy as it is, so I'm not too focussed on the number on the scale, but would just like to see some changes somewhere! Mainly just toning up I suppose. Also, to try to lower my sugar intake a bit, does anyone have some healthy, low-sugar snack ideas to substitute some of the fruit with?

My diary is set to public, so if anyone has some suggestions or is willing to check it out, that'd be great! Oh and I tend to under-log my workouts as I read MFP tends to overestimate the amount of calories burned.

kimw91

Anyone?

022412

Edit: That guy below me knows what he's talking about

taso42

You're in the normal weight range now. Your goal weight puts you underweight. Meaning, you would need to sacrifice muscle and end up looking like a skinny frail weakling. So, first sort out your goals.

Since you are at a good weight currently, the best things you can do from here are:
1. Take a calorie deficit of no more than 250 cal/day. Consider just maintaining weight (no deficit)
2. Do some heavy strength training 3x/week. Starting Strength, StrongLifts, NROL.
3. Get at least 1g of protein per pound of lean body mass. Figure something like 90g per day. Make protein your priority
4. For fat, get about half of that (45g/day, say)
5. Don't worry about carbs or sugar... they will fall into place naturally when your protein and fat are dialed in

Cheers

P.S., Check out Staci - http://nerdfitness.com/blog/2011/07/21/meet-staci-your-new-powerlifting-super-hero/

kimw91

Thanks for the reply taso42! Have adjusted my goal weight a bit, but was never too obsessed with that to start with. And I'm guessing that if you set your MFP to "maintaining", whatever goal weight you've entered doesn't really matter anyway as it won't be calculating your calorie deficit. My net calories is now set to 1730 (my profile is set to sedentary lifestyle) which seems reasonable.

As for the strength training: I do group fitness classes of which 3/4 a week are circuit training ones. Out of those, 1 is purely strength, the other ones focus mainly on strength but add in some cardio as well. I started adding some strength training to that myself about a month ago by either diving into the gym before or after the lesson, or by using the dumbbells I have at home, so I guess I'm on the right track there. Am now checking your suggestions, so thanks for the help!