Are you eating enough?
SammieGetsFit
Posts: 432 Member
Hi 30DSers!
This is something I had to do when I first started 30DS, and I thought I'd mention it to you.
If you're drastically increasing how much you are working out per week from before and/or the intensity of those workouts, you should take a serious look at your goals and settings here on MFP. You may no longer be eating enough to fuel you through these intense workouts. A starved body WILL NOT lose fat. It will lose muscle.
That said:
If you click on My Home > Settings (on the far right) > Update diet/fitness profile, you can change your settings.
I recommend taking a look at the question: "How would you describe your normal daily activities?"
The descriptions MFP gives there are VERY broad. It's not all about what type of work you do. If you are working out 3-5 times a week, you are at least "lightly active" if not more, depending on the type of workouts you're doing and how hard you're pushing yourself. A better set of descriptors is:
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
If you are doing 30DS every day this month, you are at least moderately active.
Be healthy everyone! And good luck!!
This is something I had to do when I first started 30DS, and I thought I'd mention it to you.
If you're drastically increasing how much you are working out per week from before and/or the intensity of those workouts, you should take a serious look at your goals and settings here on MFP. You may no longer be eating enough to fuel you through these intense workouts. A starved body WILL NOT lose fat. It will lose muscle.
That said:
If you click on My Home > Settings (on the far right) > Update diet/fitness profile, you can change your settings.
I recommend taking a look at the question: "How would you describe your normal daily activities?"
The descriptions MFP gives there are VERY broad. It's not all about what type of work you do. If you are working out 3-5 times a week, you are at least "lightly active" if not more, depending on the type of workouts you're doing and how hard you're pushing yourself. A better set of descriptors is:
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
If you are doing 30DS every day this month, you are at least moderately active.
Be healthy everyone! And good luck!!
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Replies
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Great post! Everyone needs to take a look at that! I personally use scoobysworkshop.com to figure out my goals. But whatever you use, definitely re-check it. Eat!!0
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I just adjusted my goals downward for a long-term goal, but after your post, I see a possible mistake -- I never eat back the calories MFP says I burned, and my activity level was set to sedentary. One without the other might be passable, but both is probably a bad idea (the same as setting a really high activity level based on workouts, getting a high calorie goal, and then eating the workout calories back on top of the goal that adjusted for them in the first place).
I changed it to "lightly active" and will keep an eye on myself to see if I need to adjust up. Thanks.
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For me I had to change WHEN I eat, not necessarily how much (not yet anyway). I have to eat a little something before working out these past few days because I've been getting lightheaded during my workouts. I attribute it to adding 30DS to my already tough workout...that or I'm coming down with a head cold or something :ohwell:0
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Thank you so much! I changed my setting from active to very active. I will see how this goes, and hopefully it helps. I really wish mfp described each level with how much exercise you do each day/week rather than your job.0
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I was set to sedentary but I upped it because at the moment I'm working out a lot and with my (hopefully0 new job starting next week I really will be sending a lot of time on my feet.
I still really struggle to eat my calories though. I'm trying to find more calorie dense foods to work in because today was an awful-eating day and I'm still 499 calories under before I've earned anything back from exercise.0
