TIRED..PLATEAUD...SCALE NOT MOVING !!!FOUND MY ANSWER !!!!

2BeHealthy4Life

April 2012 I worked out hard. I ate as little as possible.. Netting 1200 calories...PLAIN OLD STARVING !! All that hard work and and I only lost 2 lbs. the entire month. Some people said switch your routine other said eat less,try low carbs ...NONE OF THAT WORKED for me. Then one of my pals started the group EAT MORE TO WEIGH LESS.. Bam !!!! I found the answer for me. I lost the 1 lb I gained plus 2 more lbs after a 2 week metabolism reset.This is not a one size fit all journey.What work for you may not work for me !! I read the topics ,threads and watched the videos they have available that suggested upping my calories...YES...eating more food to lose the weight. I could not rap my brain around it...BUT it was the one thing I had NOT tried..I figured why not...I did a metabolism reset which means move your calories to maintenance which is your tdee total. I gained one lb so I figured my body was responding to the increased calories. Then I did a 15 % cut which is your tdee total minus 15 percent which totaled 2009 calories per day for me. I rounded the number to an even 2000 calories a day.GUESS what the weight is coming off again !!!

YOU can get your bmr and tdee numbers on www.fitnessfrog.com


I TRY LIVE BY THESE PRINCIPLES NOW...

I should never net below my bmr
1.Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) quantifies the number of calories your body burns in its idle statesuch as sleeping.


I should not splurge over my tdee...
2.TDEE - Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) quantifies the number of calories you burn in a day. This measure is best estimated by scaling your Basal Metabolic Rate to your level of activity. TDEE is critical in tailoring your nutrition plan to desired fitness goals.

IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS GO TO THE GROUP "" EAT MORE TO WEIGH LESS '''

MFP pal Anewlucia started the group EAT MORE TO WEIGH LESS ....I copied and pasted this information below from one of her threads that may helpful.

What is BMR?
Your basal metabolic rate, or BMR, is the minimum calorific requirement needed to sustain life in a resting individual. It can be looked at as being the amount of energy (measured in calories) expended by the body to remain in bed all day!

What is TDEE?
TDEE is the common abbreviation for Total Daily Energy Expenditure which is a metric to calculate the amount of calories your body needs to function in a day. This is quite similar to BMR; in fact, you need your BMR to calculate your TDEE; but your TDEE accounts for your average daily activity as well to give a figure truer to your specific situation. Basically, the TDEE calculation relies on categorizing your daily activity into one of the metrics' predetermined groupings:

Sedentary - desk job and little to no exercise
Lightly Active - light exercise/sports 1-3 days/wk
Moderately Active - moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/wk (****SIDE NOTE - even if you have a desk job most people fit right here when you workout 3-5 days a week)
Very Active - hard exercise/sports 6-7 days/wk
Extremely Active - hard daily exercise/sports & physical job or training
Once you have determined where you fit in on the TDEE activity rate scale, this activity rate is used to weight your BMR giving you a more accurate assessment of how many calories you really need throughout the course of the day.

Here is a link to a site that you plug in your information and it will provide your BMR and TDEE along with your Cut value (again, if you workout 3-5 times a week select "Moderate" and the "Select Your Goal" option you will select is "Lose Fat - 15% caloric reduction.

You can get your bmr and tdee number from here :http://www.fitnessfrog.com/calculators

So now, you should have your BMR, TDEE, and Cut Value (TDEE - 15%)

Here is a video that talks about this in great detail that hopefully will clear up any questions you may have:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYi9xjIRvbY&feature=g-all-u

If TDEE is figured out correctly, then exercise cals don't *have* to be eaten back because, technically, TDEE figures them in. The underlying factor here, is that most people underestimate their activity levels, (for fear of being told to eat "too much") and then proceed to under eat. If a person is burning 1000 cals/day in exercise, then that should be figured into their TDEE, meaning their TDEE should be AT LEAST 1000 cals more than their BMR. If this is not the case then they are undercutting themselves on the cals. So a person w/a BMR of 1300, that puts up 1000 cal burns should have come up w/a TDEE calculation of 2400 or more. So any situation where a person is not getting those calculations, they should be eating back some of those exercise cals.

So if you come up w/BMR=1300, TDEE=1800, you need to either A)eat back some cals, or recalculate your TDEE to include the *actual* burns that you're getting.

So to cut using *true* TDEE figures, you'd just eat a flat TDEE (-15%), as long as TDEE is correct. It should be fine. But if you are using MFP's calculations, or are not getting a TDEE that includes the amount you burn each day *plus* BMR, you need to eat back some exercise cals.

2fit4fat

welcome to the club! so much nicer isnt it? im sure my husband enjoys me not being half as grumpy as i was on 1200 cals. :-) even when the scale doesnt move as fast i lose inches a lot better too!

Elizabeth_M

Bump because I have just (nervously) started this.

CoderGal

Thanks for sharing I can't imagine eating so little anymore. I got to goal (5'7, 120 lbs) with my goal set to my TDEE. I highly recommend eating lol.

abadmommy

BUMP

2BeHealthy4Life

Thanks 2fit4fat.. My attitude is much better also... Eating 2000 calories a day and still losing weight. I lost a nice amount of inches myself...

jickalina

bump

KBreezy76

YES!!! I started eating to my TDEE a couple months back, and it works for me!! I love that I have a little more wiggle room as far as calories and food choices! I am not starving myself and I am happier here. I still manage to lose the same or more than on my 1200 cals! I wasted a lot of time eating LESS! Smh. Good luck all!!

Kim1118

Bump

munkey418

bump for later

2BeHealthy4Life

Thanks for sharing I can't imagine eating so little anymore. I got to goal (5'7, 120 lbs) with my goal set to my TDEE. I highly recommend eating lol.
Your welcome ... I love this new life style !!!

Queen_Christine

Bump

jenncaroon

bump

2BeHealthy4Life

YES!!! I started eating to my TDEE a couple months back, and it works for me!! I love that I have a little more wiggle room as far as calories and food choices! I am not starving myself and I am happier here. I still manage to lose the same or more than on my 1200 cals! I wasted a lot of time eating LESS! Smh. Good luck all!!

Isn't this liberating. Not having to be hungry. I have a lot more food options also...Congrats

soontobesam

I started off at 1200 and recently bumped to 1350 but have had some difficultly netting above 1200.

My BMR according to Fitness Frog (and other sites) is 1619 and my TDEE is 2510.

What am I supposed to aiming for? I thought I understood this but turns out I don't .

sarahs440

Ok my BMR is 1519, and my TDEE is 2354. So I should eat 15% less than the 2354? I'm sorry if I sound slow, but this confuses me so much and I am stuck in a 4 month plateau. Losing some inches, but no pounds. Thanks so much!! I have tried eating back all my calories, and it doesnt seem to be helping. Maybe this is what I need??

cindylou617

bump

DaBossLady24

bump :happy:

Aquaduckie

I have been debating about trying this method. I don't want to live off of 1200 calories a day for the rest of my life! It's not a happy place for me, so I would just gain the weight back. Eating closer to 2000 calories a day, you don't have to feel like you're on a diet. My question is, what are your workouts like? I did some of the calculations the other day and got my BMR and TDEE. But then they were telling me to not do as much cardio... I'm just trying to figure out what kind of routine is going to work for me so I can keep losing, and not go crazy trying!

1Kristine1

Im eating 1600 right now, seems to be working well. If I stop losing I will definitely keep this in mind.

monikki39

bump

1Kristine1

Im eating 1600 right now, seems to be working well. If I stop losing I will definitely keep this in mind.

I knew I would never be able to start at 1200 (what mfp calculated for me)

ThorneDust

bumpin

pauljsolie

Way to go. It takes a while to "get it" but once you do the rest is easy. Congratulations!!!

Healthy_4_Life2

Welcome to the club. Wish I would have known this information last June when I first started MFP )

This has been working for me like a charm. It was hard at first but its working for me wonderfully. Am losing weight and inches. I wish I started eating like this when I first joined MFP.

wareagle8706

Thanks for that website, the calorie calculator is really cool! Never seen one like that before. It's fun to just keep plugging different numbers in to see what you do on different days!

soontobesam

So I took my TDEE of 1510 and subtraced 15% and came up with 2133.5.

If I understand correctly - that should be my total calorie goal for the day - exercise calories mean nothing to this calculation.

Again - paying attention to my total and just ignoring the net part?

mcjmommy

bump for later

2fit4fat

I do ripped in 30 and callanetics right now. i would love to start heavy lifting but have to wait a bit since i dont have a bunch of money to blow on a gym right now :-)

2BeHealthy4Life

QUOTE
I started off at 1200 and recently bumped to 1350 but have had some difficultly netting above 1200.

My BMR according to Fitness Frog (and other sites) is 1619. Does that mean I should be aiming to net at 1619 or that I want my total to be about 1619 and eat or don't eat back my exercise calories depending on how close I am to my TOTAL.

YES you should always should be netting 1619 because your bmr is the calories required simply if you were just resting. Sometimes netting too low can cause you to plateau are cause your boddy to hold on to the weight because its not getting enough fuel.

EXAMPLE : You can not efficiently run an suv on the same amount of gas it would take for a toyota corola...

astrampe

Do as much cardio as you like, just make sure you do strength training also... I am a runner, so I run a lot, and I do heavy (for me:bigsmile: ! ) lifting three times a week.... if you eat 15% below your TDEE, don't eat back your exercise calories unless your net drops under your BMR - then eat more, at least to your NET BMR....