Rookie question

thecazstewart

From a 4 year VLCD, I have been upping my calories and have been trying to aim for 1500 Net, to make sure I eat back all my exercise calories which for four years I rarely did and got onto a year long plateau.

Can you tell me whether I should be looking at my NET or total calories?

I'm 54
66 inches
179 pounds

I do 5-6 hours strenuous exercise per week, including hill running, Bootcamp, running half marathons every Saturday.

Scoobyworkshop states I should be eating 2048 at 20% cut of my 2560 TDEE.

So far, so good. Although I'm not quite getting as much as 2,000 every day - especially on rest days - but I understand I should be looking only at calories eaten - not achieving 2048 NET as the 2048 includes my projected exercise calories.

But it's on the half marathon days - where I burn 1600 exercise calories... It says to make sure I eat enough to at least NET my BMR. But then, I'm looking at a NET figure again...

Currently at about 1600-1800 per day, I'm feeling bloated and fat. I daren't stand on the scales and my waistbands are tight, I've started to wear my "cover up" clothes so I'm starting to feel like I should be eating less. Not more.

I would appreciate your help here. Thanks!

asidebottom

Hi fellow Brit. Hope the weather is as gorgreous down there in Bournemouth as it is here in London!

You should be eating your 2048 every day regardless of whether you exercise. As your BMR is 1484 if you burn off more than 564 calories through exercise you will need to eat them to Net your BMR. So on the days you burn 1600 you will need to eat an additional 1036 calories! Does that make sense?

If you are consistanly having to eat back your exercise calories to net your BMR then you have used the wrong level of exercise on Scooby so you need to recalculate using the level up.

It sounds to me like you need to be eating a whole heap more! at 1600-1800 a day your body will still think it's starving and be holding on to everything you give it.

I would consider doing a full reset if you can for 8 weeks and then cut back to TDEE minus 15%, we don't really recommend the 20%.

There's loads of info on resets in the sticky up the page.

Alison

asidebottom

Also have you set your macros correctly so you are upping your protein? They should be 40% Carbs, 30% Protein and 30% Fat - that made a huge difference to me.

Alison

autumnk921

You want to look at total calories eaten for the day - They should be the same or very close to your CUT of -15%...20% is not recommended especially for someone who is so close to goal you could even go to a 10% CUT...It gets a little harder to lose those last few pounds and you want to feed your body to make sure that your metabolism is roaring to let go of that last bit of fat.

I ran your numbers on the scooby site for strenuous activity:

BMR: 1484

TDEE: 2560

-15% Cut: 2176
-10% Cut: 2304 (I would go with this one b/c of being so close to your goal weight)

With the 10% Cut you should only have to eat back any exercise calories if you go over 820 calories burned...Then you want to eat until you reach your BMR which would be at least the amount over the 820cals that you burned..Make sense?? You just need to be aware of your net to be sure that you are always above you BMR...Make sure that you are consistent as well with your calorie intake each day...Even rest days eat your cut amount.

One last thing is that it sounds like you are a good candidate to do the full Metabolism Reset to get your metabolism back in shape from being on a 4yr VLCD....Check out the stickies on the Reset and see if it is something that you might want to do....Best of luck to you and I hope this helps you out!!