Ok, i need advice ...

Bloodie

I've already asked how close do you guys get etc etc... and since then i've read plenty of topics on that matter here but im still puzzled...

My daily net calorie goal is ~ 2600 cals a day, and in the lifestyle change that i've done, there's no way im eating that much lol with normal eating every day i take around 1500-1600, on a bit stronger days when i expect a harder workout or dancing + workout i get to close to 2000 but then i also have an intense workout + dancing and i burn ~ 1000 cals so that makes my net calories consumed at around 1000 lol and my daily net goal is 2600.

Now my question is, i know that this isnt really good, but i have a well balanced diet so i don't feel hungry or weak, and im not gonna go to the fridge and just eat so i could get up my calories, but on the other hand im kinda frightened of that starvation mode etc bleh ...

batgirl79

I am also finding it odd that you can eat the calories you burn... i have only just started but seem to have 500 calories left a day due to exercise?? Will be interested to see what responses are....

young1726

Your body needs a certain number of calories each day to be at its peak performance. If you don’t eat all the necessary calories, it will put a damper on your body’s performance. Look at it this way. If your body needs to consume 1500 calories daily and you eat 1500 calories, but burn an extra 500 from exercise – it’s basically like you only consumed 1000 calories that day. Your body CANNOT perform well when not given what it needs.
I know what you mean about not “wanting” to eat when you’re not hungry to consume all of your calories. Try eating higher calorie, healthy items when you do eat…such as peanut butter, nuts or cheese as long as you watch your daily fat consumption as well.

Bloodie

Your body needs a certain number of calories each day to be at its peak performance. If you don’t eat all the necessary calories, it will put a damper on your body’s performance. Look at it this way. If your body needs to consume 1500 calories daily and you eat 1500 calories, but burn an extra 500 from exercise – it’s basically like you only consumed 1000 calories that day. Your body CANNOT perform well when not given what it needs.
I know what you mean about not “wanting” to eat when you’re not hungry to consume all of your calories. Try eating higher calorie, healthy items when you do eat…such as peanut butter, nuts or cheese as long as you watch your daily fat consumption as well.

Ok, i get where you're aiming at, but lets say that i eat a bit more food with more calories, and get to dunno 2400-2500 calories... then go and exercise and burn ~1000 cals.... then im at 1500 again lol ... and i need 2600... you see where im getting at?
I mean, to be close to my goals (200 cals + or - ) on a day that i have my combined workouts i would need to eat 3600 cals... that's WAY too much lol considering that im eating 1400-1600 (easy exercising), 1700-2100 (exercising+dancing) and don't feel hungry, basically i feel good.

young1726

I also see what you're aiming at... 3600 calories IS ALOT! But you are working your body SOOO hard when you burn 1000 calories, your body needs those extra calories! It's not going to kill you if every once in a while, you don't eat ALL of your exercise calories (especially if your "net" calories are over 1200), but I wouldn't recommend doing it all the time. When you work out that hard, you really need to replenish your body.

I'm telling you, if you follow the calorie guidelines that this site sets up for you, you WILL lose. I tried on my own before this site and lost 10 lbs in a year, but using this site I lost 25 lbs in 5 months. My husband and I both use it and when we do so regularly we lose our projected weight pretty much painlessly.

P.S. I would LOVE to be able to eat so much more food!! Feel lucky!

silvertears

My opinion, and it doesn't really count for much :laugh: , is to do what you can do to get as close as you can... maybe add protein shakes here and there or something to that effect, but if you are consistently losing weight - don't stress over your calories. Stressing over it isn't going to help in losing weight. If you are working this hard and don't see any results, you know that increasing your calories might be the answer. I sometimes think us larger people have a little more leeway before we get into the "starvation" mode. If I have 2 workouts in a day, I have over 2000 calories to eat a day and that's not easy to do without feeling like I've overeaten or eaten things that just aren't good for me. I can't imagine 3000+ calories.

Good luck

Bloodie

My opinion, and it doesn't really count for much :laugh: , is to do what you can do to get as close as you can... maybe add protein shakes here and there or something to that effect, but if you are consistently losing weight - don't stress over your calories. Stressing over it isn't going to help in losing weight. If you are working this hard and don't see any results, you know that increasing your calories might be the answer. I sometimes think us larger people have a little more leeway before we get into the "starvation" mode. If I have 2 workouts in a day, I have over 2000 calories to eat a day and that's not easy to do without feeling like I've overeaten or eaten things that just aren't good for me. I can't imagine 3000+ calories.

Good luck

Heh i think you're probably right, and im gonna give the peanutbutter idea a try, and perhaps some p. shakes when i get a chance. As for the 3000 cals a day, it really isn't a problem to get to it lol, 1 four cheese pizza, or mixed one and *puff* you're at ~1800 lol but the idea is to get there with HEALTHY food heh which is a bit trickier obviously

Phoenix_Rising

I'd say reach out to those who have lost as much weight as you are needing to lose. Off the top of my head, ArtSchool (shoot, is that her name?) and TamTastic. Look for females who have lost 100+ lbs and ask their advice. I think their personal accounts would be helpful. :flowerforyou:

SHBoss1673

Well, you understand the concept I'm sure, or at least it seems like it. So the problem (and I see it on here a lot) is that you've trained your metabolism over the course of months or years, to accept fewer calories. Your body has, in effect, put you into permenant starvation mode already. It has slowed down the burn rate of calories to non-essential organs and tissue, and has been panicking and storing fat for as long as you've been eating too few calories.

SO, now that we know the problem, the question is, how do you fix it. OK this is a simple answer, simple does NOT mean easy, or cheap, but it's still simple. Over the course of a month to 6 weeks or so, very slowly, raise your calories, every two or three days add about 75 calories to your food total, over about 5 weeks or so you should be at, or close to your goal calories. NOW here's the tricky part. For this period of time, while you are doing this, you have to be MEGA strict with your diet, you can't have any cheat days or days where you screw up, you have to be within about 25 or 50 calories of perfect EVERY day, for this period, otherwise your body's just going to be confused. Here's the other trick, if you DO go over, go over ABOVE, never fall below your calories! Why? We're trying to teach your body that it's ok to burn those calories, you fall below a few times, and your body goes back to the old ways.

It takes A LOOONG time to train your body like you have, don't expect imediate success the other way around, it'll take a little while.

In some cases you should even eat maintenance calories for a few weeks. Sure you'll gain a couple of pounds, but your body will usually recover, start burning WAY more calories, and that weight comes off in days or weeks when you do go back to a calorie deficit.

Hope this helps.

gnastro

Hi Young1726,

I am a sub school nurse so I put myself as sedetary. I do cardio 45-60 minutes 5 days a week & lift 3 to 4 days a week. According to MFP I will lose 0.5 lbs a week or 2 pounds a month. Is this correct I work so hard & to have such a slow weight loss. Granted I started at 133.5 & my goal is 110.I am 128.2 now so I won't hit my goal until July is that correct? Is there anything else i can do just to lose 1.0 pound a week.


Thanks
Gina

Bloodie

Well, you understand the concept I'm sure, or at least it seems like it. So the problem (and I see it on here a lot) is that you've trained your metabolism over the course of months or years, to accept fewer calories. Your body has, in effect, put you into permenant starvation mode already. It has slowed down the burn rate of calories to non-essential organs and tissue, and has been panicking and storing fat for as long as you've been eating too few calories.

SO, now that we know the problem, the question is, how do you fix it. OK this is a simple answer, simple does NOT mean easy, or cheap, but it's still simple. Over the course of a month to 6 weeks or so, very slowly, raise your calories, every two or three days add about 75 calories to your food total, over about 5 weeks or so you should be at, or close to your goal calories. NOW here's the tricky part. For this period of time, while you are doing this, you have to be MEGA strict with your diet, you can't have any cheat days or days where you screw up, you have to be within about 25 or 50 calories of perfect EVERY day, for this period, otherwise your body's just going to be confused. Here's the other trick, if you DO go over, go over ABOVE, never fall below your calories! Why? We're trying to teach your body that it's ok to burn those calories, you fall below a few times, and your body goes back to the old ways.

It takes A LOOONG time to train your body like you have, don't expect imediate success the other way around, it'll take a little while.

In some cases you should even eat maintenance calories for a few weeks. Sure you'll gain a couple of pounds, but your body will usually recover, start burning WAY more calories, and that weight comes off in days or weeks when you do go back to a calorie deficit.

Hope this helps.

Hmm well, this is interesting. And I thank you for your post, the only problem with that theory is that i DID take dunno 2000-3000 cals a day up until 2 weeks ago, i had maybe 2-3 meals a day, but mostly of junk food or late at night because im pretty sure that eating half a pizza, pasta with meat & 2-3 slices of white bread and dunno pancakes with chocolate will sum up to over 2.5-3k with not alot of exercise....

So basically what i did was switch from junk food to healthy food, and eating all during the day, with my last meal around 8 pm ....

SHBoss1673

Hmm well, this is interesting. And I thank you for your post, the only problem with that theory is that i DID take dunno 2000-3000 cals a day up until 2 weeks ago, i had maybe 2-3 meals a day, but mostly of junk food or late at night because im pretty sure that eating half a pizza, pasta with meat & 2-3 slices of white bread and dunno pancakes with chocolate will sum up to over 2.5-3k with not alot of exercise....

So basically what i did was switch from junk food to healthy food, and eating all during the day, with my last meal around 8 pm ....

Well, you forgot to mention that little tid bit, which slightly changes things. 2 weeks is not long enough for changes to take affect. I still think you're way under in calories which is most likely slowing down any progress you are trying for though. Most of what I said still holds true though, you probably don't need to take as long to get your calories back up, but you should still do it over time (I.E. not just all at once). Course the quality of the food you eat and when you have your meals and snacks is still just as important as how much you eat, so basically, the idea is, cut out the snacks (a treat every once in a while is fine, but not on a daily basis, more like 1 treat a week is what most of us do), eat a decent amount of calories for your weight and activity level, and eat lots of small meals throughout the day that balance your 3 main macro nutrients and fiber. Do these, along with a good dose of moderate exercise, and you should start seeing the situation improve.

young1726

Hi Young1726,

I am a sub school nurse so I put myself as sedetary. I do cardio 45-60 minutes 5 days a week & lift 3 to 4 days a week. According to MFP I will lose 0.5 lbs a week or 2 pounds a month. Is this correct I work so hard & to have such a slow weight loss. Granted I started at 133.5 & my goal is 110.I am 128.2 now so I won't hit my goal until July is that correct? Is there anything else i can do just to lose 1.0 pound a week.


Thanks
Gina

I am guessing that MFP tells you to eat 1200 calories a day??? I'm not an expert, but I would say that this is correct that it will take you this long to lose the weight. Once you get so low on calories, it is difficult to lose 1 lb a week or more, because the deficit of calories you need to do so would put you under 1200 calories...which is not healthy and could, in fact, make you gain weight back eventually. I would say that just keep up with what you are doing...be happy to be at 133 (most of us would kill for that) and know that doing things slowly will keep the results longer.

Kpablo

Okay, yeah, I had this question come up yesterday with me.

My goal is to have 0 calories by the end of the day, even doing exercise?

young1726

Okay, yeah, I had this question come up yesterday with me.

My goal is to have 0 calories by the end of the day, even doing exercise?

Exactly!