HELP! I Can't figure out how many calories to eat!

Nicoleo1

Argh! Before I got on here (MFP) I lost 40lbs by walking and being careful about what I ate. I kept a food journal but didn't calorie count. Since November I've been on here and I'm more active than before, I've started running and I've been watching calories and logging and tracking exercise... and the results are not good. I've started gaining the weight back and I"m HUNGRY all the time. I have tried everything I know. I've increased calories, decreased calories, exersiced more, exercised less. I've taken a break and I've been really strict!
Can someone help me figure it out??? Please!
So I'm trying to get in 90 minutes of cardio 5 days per week. i have a sedentary job, and I'm 5'6". I walk every day and I run 3 x per week (just started C25K for a second go round -this time faster)...
A gym is not an option right now and I don't have weights at home.
I do not want to end up back where I started and it feels like that's where I'm headed.

jodyw83

How much do you weigh now if you don't mind me asking?

PayShi

Have you by chance figured up your maintenance weight and set a pretty easy goal beneath it?

jodyw83

You need to go online and find a BMR calculator. That is your Basel Metabolic Rate. It will tell you how many calories you will burn if you just lie in bed all day and do nothing. Get your BMR and then multiply that number by 1.2 since you work a sedentary job. That is the number of calories that your body will burn in a day in order to perform all of the functions it needs to do. So I weigh 228 pounds now... so my BMR is 1834.8. Now I am a full time waitress so I'm moderately active and I would multiply by 1.55 which would give me 2844 calories for the day. That is what I can eat to not gain any weight. So I give myself about a 1700 calorie a day goal and I've been losing weight like crazy with NO exercise! (I'm lucky to get mine at work) So with this app you set your calorie goal like that.. figure out the deficit that you can live with and then input your cardio exercise each day. It will give you a net calorie total. So if you give your 1500 calories a day and you eat that whole amount, but you run and burn 500 calories then your net would be 1000 calories. Meaning you lost an extra 500 under the deficit that you already set for yourself. I hope that explains it! If you have any more questions just send me a message and I'll try to explain it better!

Nicoleo1

okay... so I'm 175 and that makes my BMR 1530.8 x 1.2 = 1836.96... I set my calories today at 1500. So with the running and walking and zumba I should start to see some results... I hope!

Thanks!

ummommyme

I'm going to humbly disagree with the other poster. You should not eat below your BMR(especially since you are starving). Go online-fat2fit and type in your numbers to the BMR calculator. It will tell you how many to eat depending on your activity level. You are pretty active so it seems you need to eat more. But leave your cals at a set amount for 3 or 4 weeks before you decide it doesn't work for you. Basically you will be eating a bit below your maintence level(TDEE) and not eat back exercise cals because they are already included. If you are starving dear it's because you need to eat more. Hope this helps!

Nicoleo1

Okay so fat2fit says I should be eating 1837 calories... that is way more than I'm used to... it's more than I was eating when I increased calories... I think the hardest part to deterine is how active I really am. My job is sedentary but I try to get in an hour's worth of cardio every day... but some days that's just a walk... on my run days it's only (right now) 9 minutes of jogging. I've decided to increase it5 to 90 minutes a day and since the weather is getting nicer commit to my puppies that we will do an hour of good walking every night. So in my head I'm not that active and then you say I'm pretty actiive (not criticizing - I like being thought of as active) but I'm not sure which is real. My head spins just wondering about all of it!

brismom070897

BUMP

chrisb75

You are doing 90 minutes of CARDIO a week and you don't want to eat more than 1500 calories A DAY??? You are killing your metabolism, you are over training, and you will not lose anymore weight. Secondly you mention that you have tried EVERYTHING. How long have you tried everything?

Please read my thread here:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/586298-if-you-are-scared-to-increase-calories

Try this for 4-6 weeks. Cut the cardio back to NO MORE than 30-45 minutes for 3-4 times a week (walking would be fine). Start doing some sort of resistance training. You are killing your lean muscle mass.

Nicoleo1

You are doing 90 minutes of CARDIO a week and you don't want to eat more than 1500 calories A DAY??? You are killing your metabolism, you are over training, and you will not lose anymore weight. Secondly you mention that you have tried EVERYTHING. How long have you tried everything?

Please read my thread here:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/586298-if-you-are-scared-to-increase-calories

Try this for 4-6 weeks. Cut the cardio back to NO MORE than 30-45 minutes for 3-4 times a week (walking would be fine). Start doing some sort of resistance training. You are killing your lean muscle mass.

I read the thread. I did the fit 2fat calculators... I didn't do a survey because i know it's there... I just always think, "It couldn't possibly apply to me". So this thing is a bit of fat girl talking in my head -It seems impossible to me that I (this would be in bold if it could be) am over training... I think this is the biggest problem. Not knowing if I am considered sedentary or mildly active. Believe me I want to eat. I mean EAT!!!! I am not restricting my calories because I want my diary to look skinny!

I've been trying to figure out the balance since January, and my weight seemed to stall in November when I joined MFP. That is when I started counting calories and increased my exercise from 30 min 4-6 days per week to an hour 5 days per week...

Here's the plan. Please set me straight if I am wrong - I don't mean to sound so dense, but this REALLY matters to me!
-Continue doing my runs -that's 30 minutes of cardio that "counts" 3 days per week.
-Add weights just 2 dyas per week (Can this be done at home without a gym? -I have no idea where to start with this)
-Increase calories to 1830 (According to the calculators on fit2fat) don't eat back exercise calories

This is it? I have a tendency to make things harder than they really are, and to over-think...

nickiw68

bump

em9371

You are doing 90 minutes of CARDIO a week and you don't want to eat more than 1500 calories A DAY??? You are killing your metabolism, you are over training, and you will not lose anymore weight. Secondly you mention that you have tried EVERYTHING. How long have you tried everything?

Please read my thread here:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/586298-if-you-are-scared-to-increase-calories

Try this for 4-6 weeks. Cut the cardio back to NO MORE than 30-45 minutes for 3-4 times a week (walking would be fine). Start doing some sort of resistance training. You are killing your lean muscle mass.

I read the thread. I did the fit 2fat calculators... I didn't do a survey because i know it's there... I just always think, "It couldn't possibly apply to me". So this thing is a bit of fat girl talking in my head -It seems impossible to me that I (this would be in bold if it could be) am over training... I think this is the biggest problem. Not knowing if I am considered sedentary or mildly active. Believe me I want to eat. I mean EAT!!!! I am not restricting my calories because I want my diary to look skinny!

I've been trying to figure out the balance since January, and my weight seemed to stall in November when I joined MFP. That is when I started counting calories and increased my exercise from 30 min 4-6 days per week to an hour 5 days per week...

Here's the plan. Please set me straight if I am wrong - I don't mean to sound so dense, but this REALLY matters to me!
-Continue doing my runs -that's 30 minutes of cardio that "counts" 3 days per week.
-Add weights just 2 dyas per week (Can this be done at home without a gym? -I have no idea where to start with this)
-Increase calories to 1830 (According to the calculators on fit2fat) don't eat back exercise calories

This is it? I have a tendency to make things harder than they really are, and to over-think...

That sounds like a good start, stick with at for at least 3-4 weeks before adjusting as needed.
I've based my numbers on fat2fit and its working just fine - I have a desk job but exercise 5 days boxing / weights / spin / swimming (average 600 cals oer day) so am moderately active.
If you exercise at all you are not sedentary. If you are working out 3 runs / 2 days weights really that would be moderale (3-5 workouts pw).
Look up 'new rules of lifting for women', that is a great guide to the right way to be doing weights, and can be done at home or in the gym.

just out of interest, do you know how much you were eating before you joined MFP and increased exercise? I lost a lot more when doing hardly any exercise due to injury - when I have added the exercise back in, I have also increased cals and the losses have continued :-)

em9371

okay... so I'm 175 and that makes my BMR 1530.8 x 1.2 = 1836.96... I set my calories today at 1500. So with the running and walking and zumba I should start to see some results... I hope!

Thanks!

BMR is calculated based on height / weight / age / body fat %.
The 1.2 multiplier gives you your activity level (sedentary) not BMR.
The multipliers on Fat2fit are different as they include exercise.

chrisb75

You are doing 90 minutes of CARDIO a week and you don't want to eat more than 1500 calories A DAY??? You are killing your metabolism, you are over training, and you will not lose anymore weight. Secondly you mention that you have tried EVERYTHING. How long have you tried everything?

Please read my thread here:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/586298-if-you-are-scared-to-increase-calories

Try this for 4-6 weeks. Cut the cardio back to NO MORE than 30-45 minutes for 3-4 times a week (walking would be fine). Start doing some sort of resistance training. You are killing your lean muscle mass.

I read the thread. I did the fit 2fat calculators... I didn't do a survey because i know it's there... I just always think, "It couldn't possibly apply to me". So this thing is a bit of fat girl talking in my head -It seems impossible to me that I (this would be in bold if it could be) am over training... I think this is the biggest problem. Not knowing if I am considered sedentary or mildly active. Believe me I want to eat. I mean EAT!!!! I am not restricting my calories because I want my diary to look skinny!

I've been trying to figure out the balance since January, and my weight seemed to stall in November when I joined MFP. That is when I started counting calories and increased my exercise from 30 min 4-6 days per week to an hour 5 days per week...

Here's the plan. Please set me straight if I am wrong - I don't mean to sound so dense, but this REALLY matters to me!
-Continue doing my runs -that's 30 minutes of cardio that "counts" 3 days per week.
-Add weights just 2 dyas per week (Can this be done at home without a gym? -I have no idea where to start with this)
-Increase calories to 1830 (According to the calculators on fit2fat) don't eat back exercise calories

This is it? I have a tendency to make things harder than they really are, and to over-think...

I would suggest weights 3 days a week, and if you really enjoy running make that 2 days a week. You need some rest too. Rest and diet are the two most important parts of losing weight. You can do weights at home. I have become a BIG heavy lifting advocate, but I started out doing P90 Scupt and that worked well. The idea is to push your self on the weights, eat WELL at a deficit, and rest.

If you have been doing low calorie for a while, you may initially gain weight (typically 3-4 lbs) but it will come off again. Put the scale away for 4-6 weeks and let your body replenish itself. Good luck!

Nicoleo1

just out of interest, do you know how much you were eating before you joined MFP and increased exercise? I lost a lot more when doing hardly any exercise due to injury - when I have added the exercise back in, I have also increased cals and the losses have continued :-)

Unfortunately I don't know how many calories I was eating, but I know I was eating 3 meals and 2 sometimes 3 snacks... I was never hungry and I was eating portion controlled carbs like pasta and rice. So I'm guessing that the key is that I was listenining to my body and probably eating at least 1500 calories... exercising waaaaaay less... and I never let myself have a "treat". (I'm bad, once I start I can't stop... personality trait and I know it... best cure for me is avoidance!)
My problem is that there's a wedding in August and some work travel in August too... I really want to be at my goal by then (Now it isn't really realistic considering how far away from said goal I've gotten) so if increasing calories doesn't work and I gain more and more weight... I mean at this point it's 6 of one half dozen of the other -I've started gaining already. So I'm taking the advise of my MFP friends and crossing EVERYTHING and hoping that it will work.
I am doing one final weigh and meadurements tomorrow morning so I know where I started from and then hiding that bad boy for a month or so. Wish me luck!!!! And thanks for the input!

Oh yah, I'm running 3 days per week because I'm doing the C25K program and that's what it requires... When I'm done I'll cut it back to 2 if everything else has worked... I'll cool it on the walks -maybe stroll more as opposed to the brisk walk that I take the dogs on...Let them smell the flowers a bit!