Metabolism Reset - Eating at TDEE Support Thread
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I'm gonna jump in the deep end, too.
Start Date - 5/25/12 (Start of Memorial Day weekend with no WiFi or Cell = no MFP tracking = eating and drinking mucho, so I'm sure I was at TDEE or over)
Reset Length - 4 weeks, and then evaluate if I need to do longer
Age: 40 (41 in July)
Height: 5'6.5"
Lowest MFP Weight: 144
After starting EM2WL: 150 (also current weight)
GW: 135-140
BMR: 1425
TDEE: 2210
Exercise: Run 3x week (training for 2nd half-marathon), Lift 1-2x week (hoping to start NROLFW after my race season winds down, and aim for 3x week lifting)
Brief History:
Lost about 30ish pounds after being on MFP a year, eating 1400-1500 (always eating exercise calories back, too). At the holidays of 2011 I reached a plateau that lasted until late February. Found this group, and started eating TDEE -15% beginning of March. Ate 1800-1900 calories from March to May, and all I got out of it was an extra 6 pounds. BOOOOOO. No change in measurements or body fat % since end of 2011. Kept reading all these posts that it was water weight that would go, but it never did. Very discouraged to see 150 again.
Question on eating back calories. I know we're supposed to at least net BMR on exercise days, but if the actual food calories is lower than TDEE, we should aim to hit TDEE everyday, right?? For example, today I burned 400ish calories. If I just hit my net BMR of 1425, the actual food calories is around 1900, and still lower than my TDEE of 2210. I should actually eat 2210 in total food calories, right?
Our stats are really similar. I am 26 5 ft 6.5 Lowest weight 143.5 Current 149...150 today! GW 135. I have been aiming for 1800 cals for a month but I keep gaining. I just started NROLFW yesterday and hope to do that 3x and run 2x per week.0 -
I am actually not tracking my exercise calories in MFP's tracker but adding them as a note to my food diary. I typically have low burns between 300-500 so eating below my BMR isn't something I need to worry about and besides until I get used to all the numbers I need it to be simple
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I start my reset "offically" tomorrow - I am working from home so I will have some extra time tomorrow to take measurements & pictures (oy not sure I want to see these ).0 -
That's a great idea! I decided to do the same thing with the exercise. I posted this note on my friend feed this morning. I can't believe how much better I feel today!
Day 3 of the metabolism reset. Increased my calories drastically yesterday, but for a work day it helped me to get through the day much better! I'm eating 6 small meals and spreading healthy calories over the course of the day. My weight went down overnight, which I'm sure was the water I put on yesterday. I feel great and I slept well last night. I didn't awaken with being "shaky" and didn't feel a great rush to get some food in right away. It will be interesting to see how this progresses for me.0 -
So that "calories remaining"number is useless during workout days eh? ;p
Ty again for the help! you rock
LOL, yep, it's pretty useless on those days! :laugh: And you are welcome!
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I've been adding my exercise calories last thing of the day. It's helped me get used to the whole thing.
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Now that I understand the numbers and how to calculate things, I can understand how some people eating at tdee etc, log their workouts as "1" calorie burned (since you can't choose "0").
I am actually going to check my food longs of when I thought I was doing 1200 and eating back my exercise calories, I think some days my net was below bmr and other days and I was eating 200-400 extra calories, so now I wonder how much of a deficit I really was having, while losing weight.0 -
Frankly - I need it to be simple because I am "trained" to make the numbers zero out so I am scared that if I track my exercise calories the standard way then I will be eating above my TDEE and then will gain because of that.
K.I.S.S. has always worked best for my brain....
Knitter - so glad that day 2 went so well for you....0 -
You all rock! What a beautifully supportive group
I had a big bang on the head today as to WHY I'm doing this.
At some point, I will reach my goal. And I don't want to reach that goal, and be stuck forever at a maintenance of, say, 1800 calories, because that's what I've trained my body to do.
I'd rather have a maintenance, after goal, that's more reasonable. That allows me to live my life and enjoy food and be active and be healthy & thin, too.
A reset will train my body so I can take in more food over the long haul. Is it a bit scary? Yeah. I don't want to be puffier. But I also want to get it RIGHT this time
You've grasped the concept exactly! :drinker:0 -
Hi guys,
I'm having second thought about eating at TDEE. I'm going back and forth between doing it for just a week, going back to TDEE -15%, or just eating a flat 1750 cals daily. My weight started creeping up at least a week before I started a heavy lifting program (Stronglifts 5x5), and I weighed myself on Tuesday morning because a lot of my small clothes are getting tight (and these were clothes I bought fairly recently). I measure myself once a month, and from April 28th - May 29th I went up 1" in my belly, 2" in my hips, and almost 2" in my breasts.
I weighed again this morning, because I decided to weigh in daily so that I could understand that daily weight fluctuations are normal.
I think I'm too worried that this won't work--which might be ok if I were to maintain--but I'm scared I'll gain a lot and that I won't be able to fit into ANY of my clothes, and of how long it will take me to get that weight back off. Plus I'm just feeling super bloated, stuffed, and uncomfortable. I pre-logged my after-dnner snack, but I don't want to eat it.
I might stick it out for the rest of this week, but right now I'm very nervous and scared. I've often been the odd one out in these situations--i.e., what seems to work for practically everyone else backfires on me.
I totally understand your worries about being that 'odd person' it doesn't work for. My personal history seems to have written the book on "that works for everyone BUT me". However, as I've pondered this group's philosophy and strategies, I've come to understand something....and it's based on something my husband used to say: "Honey, if a bunch of us got stranded on a desert island with no food, you'd be the last one standing....your body just makes the most of every bit of food it gets."
He said that because he watched me exercise for hours a day for years and eat so little (now I know I was netting around 500 cals or less many days) and I still gained weight (or lost nothing). My body had to be so efficient on so little food and I STILL kept going, and going, and going. I should have dropped like a fly. I wound up on medications so I could sleep (strong ones) and medication for depression, and countless other meds and vitamins for energy, fat loss, etc. My Dr. couldn't find anything wrong with me to explain my symptoms and she could not for the life of her figure out why I couldn't lose weight. So she sent me to a nutritionist/personal trainer/life coach. She got stumped too. And now I know why. Because NOBODY ever asked me what my NET calories were in a day!! All of them believed that the low cal, high exercise diet should work. But my body went into survival mode and it was VERY good at survival mode. Other people's bodies just might not be as efficient as yours and mine at survival mode...thus, they find success in things we couldn't after a while even though they were doing similar things.
I'm a survivor...I know that now-I've proven it...but it's time to get off the island. I want my life back, my body wants food and until I feed it, it's going to remain in survival mode and keep rationing/storing every bit of food it gets for where/when it needs it most. Once I feed it, it will know it's 'off the island' and food is abundant and it will stop storing for emergencies. This process will work because it just makes logical sense.0 -
reset start date: 5/6/12 (i inadvertently started my reset while on vacation in jamaica. hehe)
CW: 138
GW: 125
BMR: 1414
TDEE (moderately active): 2198 (rounding up to 2200)
length of reset: 6 weeks (end date: 6/16/12). gonna start the 15% cut on 6/17!
i'm already not liking this really full/heavy feeling but i'm only up 1lb so far. we'll see how this goes!!!!
good luck to all the other resetters out there! :drinker:0 -
You all rock! What a beautifully supportive group
I had a big bang on the head today as to WHY I'm doing this.
At some point, I will reach my goal. And I don't want to reach that goal, and be stuck forever at a maintenance of, say, 1800 calories, because that's what I've trained my body to do.
I'd rather have a maintenance, after goal, that's more reasonable. That allows me to live my life and enjoy food and be active and be healthy & thin, too.
A reset will train my body so I can take in more food over the long haul. Is it a bit scary? Yeah. I don't want to be puffier. But I also want to get it RIGHT this time
THIS is what i want. we can do this! 0 -
I posted this on my feed, but need to update here, so here goes:flowerforyou:
Well, I think it is 4wks now since I upped to TDEE and as of last week I was net up 1lb, this week I am up net of 6lbs. So, what's happening...lol...I know lots of sodium from the weekend, so I see the scale is starting to trend down. Also, my clothes are fitting a little better, so I am thinking it is a combo of some lean muscle gain and water retention. I waited to say for sure, but I am noticing fat reduction in certain areas and the BF machine has registered consistently for the last 3 days, 22.0-22.4% BF so that is 1% down from start of eating maintenance. So, if I forget about the scale (which is already forgotten...lol) my theory seems to be working. Eat TDEE since close to goal to hopefully gain a little muscle mass to help burn off the fat. I think it would be hilarously cool to fit all my 4's (and I have a couple 2's) at 160lbs we shall see...I love lean muscle mass!0 -
Oh and I will add, that once I see myself stabilized at the 2250 cal mark, I will be bumping up to 2350 cals to try and up my TDEE set point...hah. I am experimenting guys, don't go following me on this one...but hey info is info, so I will be putting it all out there...lol.0
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I posted this on my feed, but need to update here, so here goes:flowerforyou:
Well, I think it is 4wks now since I upped to TDEE and as of last week I was net up 1lb, this week I am up net of 6lbs. So, what's happening...lol...I know lots of sodium from the weekend, so I see the scale is starting to trend down. Also, my clothes are fitting a little better, so I am thinking it is a combo of some lean muscle gain and water retention. I waited to say for sure, but I am noticing fat reduction in certain areas and the BF machine has registered consistently for the last 3 days, 22.0-22.4% BF so that is 1% down from start of eating maintenance. So, if I forget about the scale (which is already forgotten...lol) my theory seems to be working. Eat TDEE since close to goal to hopefully gain a little muscle mass to help burn off the fat. I think it would be hilarously cool to fit all my 4's (and I have a couple 2's) at 160lbs we shall see...I love lean muscle mass!
That's awesome! I've heard of people who look fantastic and weigh more than "traditional" numbers tell them they should, but it's so much lean muscle mass that they naturally weigh more than others in their height/age brackets. You are rockin' it, can't wait to see you blow those numbers up! Stick to your "guns" because they are gorgeous!
It's so encouraging too! I'm 3 days into TDEE reset, and gained a pound overnight. AFter all my reading the last couple of days I can pretty much point to TOM, too much sodium yesterday, and a cortisol spike when I completely stressed out this morning at work. I told myself to expect a gain with this process, smile at the scale, and move on. Updated my ticker and moved on. Time to go work a little!0 -
Oh and I will add, that once I see myself stabilized at the 2250 cal mark, I will be bumping up to 2350 cals to try and up my TDEE set point...hah. I am experimenting guys, don't go following me on this one...but hey info is info, so I will be putting it all out there...lol.
LOL, blaze a path sister!0 -
Oh and I will add, that once I see myself stabilized at the 2250 cal mark, I will be bumping up to 2350 cals to try and up my TDEE set point...hah. I am experimenting guys, don't go following me on this one...but hey info is info, so I will be putting it all out there...lol.
LOVE this. I have to admit that part of the reason I want to do the reset is so that I can figure out exactly how much food I can get away with eating. I'd love to be able to maintain on a pretty decent amount of food!0 -
I'm resetting! Started yesterday,
BMR 1613
TDEE 2500
On Kiki's suggestion, I will increase until I see a gain that sticks (not water, TOM, etc.). I'll back off a bit and sit there for a month or so then cut back 15%.
Reason: I lost 75# 11 years ago and never found it.
I kept it off on VLCD. I've tried to lose an additional 15# for 3 years, with zero success, in spite of working out 6hr/wk. I've maintained at 1200 calories and at 1900 calories.:noway: Think I'll try showing myself some love and see what happens.
This is what I'm going to try. I want to get the cals as high as they go without gaining before I drop. That's that much more food I get to eat while losing! :happy:0 -
You all rock! What a beautifully supportive group
I had a big bang on the head today as to WHY I'm doing this.
At some point, I will reach my goal. And I don't want to reach that goal, and be stuck forever at a maintenance of, say, 1800 calories, because that's what I've trained my body to do.
I'd rather have a maintenance, after goal, that's more reasonable. That allows me to live my life and enjoy food and be active and be healthy & thin, too.
A reset will train my body so I can take in more food over the long haul. Is it a bit scary? Yeah. I don't want to be puffier. But I also want to get it RIGHT this time
I'm right there with you!0 -
So I started logging my food and really counting calories on Feb 6th. I didn't really workout until beginning of May and was just cardio, and usually burned 200+ but no more than 300 calories. Also, for the most part, I was meeting or close to my BMR of 1221, sometimes even over; even though my goal was 1200. I actually did calorie cycling now that I look at it. A couple of weeks on February I did 1000-1100 though. On March, I had some days below my BMR, others at BMR or over. on April, I met BMR or over (1400+) for the most part.
So it would seem I was on deficit for a month or 2?
So now I am wondering how long should I do this reset if I wasn't on a VLCD as long as I first thought. :grumble:0 -
That's a great idea! I decided to do the same thing with the exercise. I posted this note on my friend feed this morning. I can't believe how much better I feel today!
Day 3 of the metabolism reset. Increased my calories drastically yesterday, but for a work day it helped me to get through the day much better! I'm eating 6 small meals and spreading healthy calories over the course of the day. My weight went down overnight, which I'm sure was the water I put on yesterday. I feel great and I slept well last night. I didn't awaken with being "shaky" and didn't feel a great rush to get some food in right away. It will be interesting to see how this progresses for me.
This is fantastic!0 -
Day 5 of Reset. I think I lost a few days in there somewhere or miscounted. Oops...but I know it's day 5 now...my journal says so! Anyways, I decided to go ahead and up my cals again now that I'm back into running. So I'm now at 2500 calories. I believe my magic maintenance number is probably going to be somewhere between 2500 and 2800. It'd be awesome if it was 2800...lol! Anyways, I'm feeling good. My 5k is this weekend, so I'm kind of excited that I'm eating at full TDEE this week. My body will need that extra food to do as well as possible!0
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Plugging along here... managing so far to eat my cals and do my normal thing. I havent peeked on the scale even though it is killing me to have a look.. but I promised.. not until next week:)
Today is a NROL day and I have a kid home with the chicken pox, so hopefully we can make it through the rest of hte week and weekend without too much trouble..
The more the days go by, the more I know this is the right thing to do.. As much as it pains me to not be losing weight over this period, I know in the long run it will serve me better.0
