High mileage cardio help & metabolism reset

swingkid1975

Back in Jan before I found out about MFP and you all I registered for the Susan G Komen 3-day cancer walk. My walk is in Oct. The training schedule is similar to marathon training by increasing your mileage every week. I've been doing EM2WL for 9 weeks now and I've lost 7 lbs. Up until now I've bounced the same .5 lbs for a couple days and then it came back down to the next 1lb and bounced that for a couple days. But now I've been bouncing the same .5 lb for 11 days, which is not the norm for me.

Yesterday my training walk was 6 miles and it created so much of a burn that I Netted less than BMR so I had to eat more. I think that was only the 2nd day since I've started that's happened. My mileage is only going to increase over the next 4 months and that 6 miles yesterday is nothing compared to what's to come. I'm not sure what to do in the program at this point, since my BMR is going to get smaller but my burn is going to get bigger. I don't think I can eat enough food to keep up with it. My workout schedule is 2 days lifting, 1 day Zumba, and 3-4 days walking.

I'm also wondering whether it's time to do a metabolism reset since I didn't do one when I started. Somebody help me out.

Here are my stats:
5'
36 yo
172 lbs

I was using a 15% cut of 2002 based on Scooby, but since I've had my BMF and my average TDEE is actually 2615 I just upped my cut value to 2200. Somebody help. Do I continue to go with the 15% as best I can, do I go to maintenance for a while, do I forget EM2WL all together for the next 4 months while I'm training and then get back into it?

HeidiHoMom

They beautiful thing about EMTWL is that you can tailor it to your needs. Definitey do not stop. YOur body needs proper fuel while you are doing that much training.

you should go back to the scooby calculator and recalculate your calories based on your current level of exercise. If your exercise increases then recalculate again.

Zylayna

Definitely make sure you have your numbers correct with the proper activity level. If you are having to eat back calories on a consistent basis, bump up your activity level and recalculate.

You may also want to consider a 'diet break' for a week or two, or if you want go ahead and do a full metabolism reset. But because you were actually seeing results I think a diet break would be sufficient. Then drop back down into your cut. If you do not see results in the cut after the diet break then maybe consider that reset a little more.

Your two key things here are
1. to get your bmr, tdee and tdee cut values correct....make sure you get that activity level right.
2. take a diet break every 6 weeks or so. I think there are some posts around that talk about how often to take those breaks...you may want to search around for that.

swingkid1975

I'm using my BMF to get my actual TDEE, so my numbers should be pretty close. I just upped again yesterday so we'll see how a couple weeks at the new value goes.

michellekicks

I don't think you need to do a metabolism reset, because this was working up until a week or 2 ago, right? Just make sure you eat back ALL your exercise calories. I know it may seem hard, but eventually you'll figure it out. I'm doing half marathon training right now and I have days where I burn 1500 calories. I will eat lots of nuts, fruit cheese and such on those days... I also take energy chews with me on my runs so I'm actually eating while I'm running.

My average intake is 2100 calories/day. I'm 5'7", 36 y/o and 171 lbs. I've lost 8.4 lbs in the last 5 weeks.

swingkid1975

I'm glad to see other high mileage people doing this. I'm just afraid of what my daily consumption is going to have to be with the burns I'm going to rack up. Not to mention my grocery bill

michellekicks

I'm glad to see other high mileage people doing this. I'm just afraid of what my daily consumption is going to have to be with the burns I'm going to rack up. Not to mention my grocery bill

lol yep. But it's also BBQ season, so you can relax the reins a little and enjoy too!