2nd try, 4 weeks in. Progress+QUESTIONS! (prob TMI)

milkyskinn

One the first try of eating more, I was so bloated the 2nd week I gave up, but I'm trying again. This marks the start of week 4, and I've been going about it very carefully, since I'm coming out from years of eating 11-1270 calories a day and exercising.

I'm trying to get a better overview of my weekly progresses by keeping my own text document (MFP doesn't really have any good detailed weekly overviews :c) And I'm just going to copy and paste last week's here;

(ex=exercise calories)
25th Total: 1264 Net: 1029 Left over: 341 Ex: 235 TDEE deficit 711
26th Total: 1451 Net: 1271 Left over: 99 Ex: 180 TDEE deficit 469
27th Total: 1502 Net: 1069 Left over: 301 Ex: 433 TDEE deficit 671
28th Total: 1372 Net: 1154 Left over: 216 Ex: 218 TDEE deficit 586
29th Total: 1704 Net: 1105 Left over: 265 Ex: 599 TDEE deficit 635
30th Total: 1358 Net: 917 Left over: 453 Ex: 441 TDEE deficit 823

---

// THIS WEEK LEFT OVER: 1675KCAL
// TOTAL EXERCISE CALORIES: 2106KCAL
// TOTAL DEFICIT: (MFP 1740x7(days) )=12180KCAL weekly-3895=8285KCAL

I'm still netting below 1200 very often, but this is already a lot better than I used to be as I'm pretty sure I've netted 8-900 very frequently before this! There's left-over calories a lot (I can't always eat back everything because I exercise at night between 8-10pm) but I'm wondering if I'm on the right track at all?
I usually exercise 5-6 days a week and do a lot of Insanity, Turbofire, currently Jamie Eason's weightlifting program in combination with running, and Chalean Extreme. According to MFP my TDEE is 1740, (BMR 1370) while Scooby's been giving me a BMR of 1311 and a TDEE of 2032 on a moderate 3-5hrs a week exercise level. I'm only 5'2 and 109 pounds, and I'm really looking to shed the last fat and tighten up my body since I've hit a MAJOR plateau probably because of the low calorie diet that I've strongly held on to for years while my level of fitness, intensity and frequency of exercise increased!

Last week I was bloated for 2 days or so but it went away and I actually lost an inch on my waist. Now the bloat seems to be coming back and I feel very full and big...
Question is, being short and not very heavy, should I really up my calories more? (aiming for 13-1400 usually right now) Can the dreaded bloat go away and kick back in in different stages of the process or is this because my deficits are still too big?
And (probably TMI) I've been coping with severe cases of constipation, sharp pains in my stomach etc. for a long time without still knowing the clear root of the problem, but this is also partly why I'm pretty scared of eating more; I'm afraid it's only going to worsen and that tension of being 'full' is just very painful and probably even worse than normal bloat. Has someone had this problem (with em2wl) too? How did you go about it?

Raynn1

My heart actually hurts to see your last weeks diary. You definitely need to increase your cals substantially.
I would go by Scoobys calculator. Its the one most people find to be most accurate for TDEE. Considering how low you have been eating VLC, I would honestly suggest a full metabolism reset. That means eating at you TDEE level for at least 8 weeks. TDEE takes into account your exercise cals, so you DO NOT eat those back. You eat whatever your TDEE is daily, and the only time you eat back exercise cals is if you net below your BMR..

So your TDEE is 2000.. your BMR is 1300.. that means if you burn more than 700 cals a day, you would eat back some of them so your net is over 1300..

And (probably TMI) I've been coping with severe cases of constipation, sharp pains in my stomach etc. for a long time without still knowing the clear root of the problem, but this is also partly why I'm pretty scared of eating more; I'm afraid it's only going to worsen and that tension of being 'full' is just very painful and probably even worse than normal bloat. Has someone had this problem (with em2wl) too? How did you go about it?

There are actually quite a few women in here (HeidihoMom) for one, who noticed almost immediately that by eating more her constipation vanished. I would almost bet you will find the same situation. Your body is starving for food and likely it doesnt want to get rid of anything,, including your waste...

This way of living is about changing your perception on diets and learning that we dont need to eat 1200 cals to lose the weight. You CAN eat normally and lose the fat and one your body up. The process is a bit slower in the long run, but so much healthier for you.. Think of it as a way to ensure you never have to worry about 1200 cals in your diet again.

read through all of the stickies and really ask yourself if you are ready to give up on the VLC diets and stresses and frustrations that it comes with. Are you ready to be able to eat and enjoy food and have people ask you "how in the heck did you do it?!"

Hope this helps you out

trosewine

You've made GREAT progress from where you were, so, good for you on that! It's tough to mentally get past the "less food, more exercise" mentality...it is a process and you are heading in the right direction.

That being said, it seems like you definitely should be eating more. Based on your description, you are NOT 3-5 hours moderate exercise. Sounds pretty strenuous to me. :-)

I am sure everyone here will recommend more food, BUT if it is too hard to get your head around and even higher TDEE, can you work on dropping some of the exercise? Even if you shave off 30 minutes per session that will help lower your deficit and allow you to be closer to (or above!!) your BMR. It might be a struggle mentally, but it might be an easier path that just adding more cals.

milkyskinn

My heart actually hurts to see your last weeks diary. You definitely need to increase your cals substantially.
I would go by Scoobys calculator. Its the one most people find to be most accurate for TDEE. Considering how low you have been eating VLC, I would honestly suggest a full metabolism reset. That means eating at you TDEE level for at least 8 weeks. TDEE takes into account your exercise cals, so you DO NOT eat those back. You eat whatever your TDEE is daily, and the only time you eat back exercise cals is if you net below your BMR..

So your TDEE is 2000.. your BMR is 1300.. that means if you burn more than 700 cals a day, you would eat back some of them so your net is over 1300..

And (probably TMI) I've been coping with severe cases of constipation, sharp pains in my stomach etc. for a long time without still knowing the clear root of the problem, but this is also partly why I'm pretty scared of eating more; I'm afraid it's only going to worsen and that tension of being 'full' is just very painful and probably even worse than normal bloat. Has someone had this problem (with em2wl) too? How did you go about it?

There are actually quite a few women in here (HeidihoMom) for one, who noticed almost immediately that by eating more her constipation vanished. I would almost bet you will find the same situation. Your body is starving for food and likely it doesnt want to get rid of anything,, including your waste...

This way of living is about changing your perception on diets and learning that we dont need to eat 1200 cals to lose the weight. You CAN eat normally and lose the fat and one your body up. The process is a bit slower in the long run, but so much healthier for you.. Think of it as a way to ensure you never have to worry about 1200 cals in your diet again.

read through all of the stickies and really ask yourself if you are ready to give up on the VLC diets and stresses and frustrations that it comes with. Are you ready to be able to eat and enjoy food and have people ask you "how in the heck did you do it?!"

Hope this helps you out

haha, it's good you haven't seen it from two months ago, then :c
I'm pretty fed up with all the health problems, the struggles it would give me in daily life, and how hard it made me be on myself; I don't want to come to a point where I'd think it's okay to NOT eat; because it isn't. And I love food too much to give it up! The love for food and cooking is definitely helping me in this progress, mostly by also trying and introducing new foods (like goat's cheese) I never ate before because of their caloric/fat content.
I have already more noticeable energy for my workouts than before!

I'm taking the reset if eating at a deficit isn't going to change anything, and I'm just very slowly easing myself into it, as well as my body. It doesn't like sudden changes, so I'm sticking around the 13-1400 range for another week, before moving to 14-1500 the next two, and after that 15-1600 (which should be the amount around my TDEE -15-20% cut)
I'd like to do at least see what happens on that amount when I stick to it for 8 weeks, and if nothing happens I'll do the full reset

I'm hoping this will solve it for the most part, although unfortunately it's a little more complicated than that. A part of my intestine (the part where it goes from small -> large intestine) has been seen swollen on an MRI, and something's been aggravating it. It has gone down (after going through a heavy detox and eating very minimal amounts of meat, legumes, eggs and rice etc for a while), but I definitely don't have a healthy colon. The upper part of my small intestine was infected too, and while they were suspecting gluten, eating 100% GF has not changed anything and I'm going to cut out nuts this week, since the problem started 1,5yrs ago and that's also around the time when I started slowly increasing the amount of nuts I'd eat per week (I used to never eat them)

read through all of the stickies and really ask yourself if you are ready to give up on the VLC diets and stresses and frustrations that it comes with. Are you ready to be able to eat and enjoy food and have people ask you "how in the heck did you do it?!"

I have read through them I wouldn't have gone and try this for a second time if I wasn't ready to give up on VLC diets! I crave the liberty to eat and enjoy food as the fuel I need and my body definitely needs it if I want it to be fit and build muscle, and carry me on long, future hikes! I just have to keep reminding myself that the beginning is always the hardest, but it's a matter of pushing through and knowing what will be best in the long run.
Thank you so much for all your input! I'm definitely going to slowly keep increasing, and strive more to at least net 1300 more often. It's going to take work, but I'm going to get there!

milkyskinn

You've made GREAT progress from where you were, so, good for you on that! It's tough to mentally get past the "less food, more exercise" mentality...it is a process and you are heading in the right direction.

That being said, it seems like you definitely should be eating more. Based on your description, you are NOT 3-5 hours moderate exercise. Sounds pretty strenuous to me. :-)

I am sure everyone here will recommend more food, BUT if it is too hard to get your head around and even higher TDEE, can you work on dropping some of the exercise? Even if you shave off 30 minutes per session that will help lower your deficit and allow you to be closer to (or above!!) your BMR. It might be a struggle mentally, but it might be an easier path that just adding more cals.

Thank you so much! c:
Oh, it's a process alright. Thankfully last week I've made some new friends in this group and seeing their dairies and getting their support and seeing them cheer each other on in their way of eating as well is really helping me to keep a positive mindset and still enjoy my next meal, and push away the thought that "I'm eating way too much if I do INSANITY and eat 1700kcal".

Are you sure? I have to exercise pretty hard to get to 5 hours a week, wouldn't it be an overestimate? Especially since I'm jobless right now (only doing freelancing when I can get it), but even if I'd have one I have a desk job! The only other activities I have is some house chores every day and walking up and down two flights of stairs all day, haha.

Probably balancing it out more with an extra rest day might be a good start... I really love to exercise; it started with the mentality to burn what I eat, but as I began to struggle with health issues, losing my job because of that and becoming unable to work it became an outlet and I'm actually really having a lot of fun trying new things and see how hard I can go. I still have to head into the more food direction because I hate sitting on my *kitten* all day (literally!) exercising 5 instead of 6 days a week until I am prepared to eat at my TDEE might be a good starting point right now.