Frustrated - any ideas???

Nikiki

Does anyone have a view on whether its better (easier) to exercise less and keep calories eaten lower, or eat more calories and exercise more? Eg, if I'm aiming for say 1400 NET calories a day, am I better off eating 2000 and burning 600, or should I just eat 1400 and chill out a bit more? Perhaps go for a walk or something.

I currently exercise way more than most people I know, yet still struggle with my weight. Its counter-intuitive but I'm wondering if more rest would help my body in some way and make me less likely to get tired and binge.

Anyone have any experience or ideas about this?

Depends on your goals, do you want to be just skinny or do you want to have sculpted muscles (and by that I don't mean beefy body builder sculpted I mean shape magazine cover model sculpted)? If your only goal is to get skinny and drop the number on the scale then less exercise more diet. If you want abs and cut arms then you need to keep working out.

I do know that our bodies are extremely adaptable however they are stuck in the stone age. If you continue with basically the same exercise plan and not enough food your metabolism will slow, you my notice more soreness in your muscles because they're having a hard time repairing themselves without enough calories and any extra calories you eat (on those I'm so sick of dieting just eff it days) your body stores away the excess because it's pretty sure you're in a famine right now and so it wants to store away any extra in case it gets worse.

I'd suggest, to break up the pattern your body is setting, take a few days off at the gym and slowly bump up the calories over those few days. Likely you won't feel hungry for it all because you've gotten used to running on less so you'll have to make small changes, try cooking with a little more oil (olive or coconut are both very healthy in moderation and my weight loss sped up considerably when I started eating more!) add an extra snack in the day of something you love (I'm a fan of chocolate covered frozen bananas by diana's banana babies. Or mini snickers or milky way ice cream bars). After a few days of rest go back to working out but try to change up your routine if you can. Do hiit workouts or take a class ect...

Don't be shocked if the first week or so you gain a little, your body needs to adapt to the new way but at first it's going to just think this is one of those binge days and sock that away. It will stop though and the scale will drop again. Also take measurements to see for the weeks that the scale doesn't budge if it's because you're replacing bulky fat with lean muscle which will stall the scale but drop inches.

Good luck!

fionaad

Depends on your goals, do you want to be just skinny or do you want to have sculpted muscles (and by that I don't mean beefy body builder sculpted I mean shape magazine cover model sculpted)? If your only goal is to get skinny and drop the number on the scale then less exercise more diet. If you want abs and cut arms then you need to keep working out.

I do know that our bodies are extremely adaptable however they are stuck in the stone age. If you continue with basically the same exercise plan and not enough food your metabolism will slow, you my notice more soreness in your muscles because they're having a hard time repairing themselves without enough calories and any extra calories you eat (on those I'm so sick of dieting just eff it days) your body stores away the excess because it's pretty sure you're in a famine right now and so it wants to store away any extra in case it gets worse.

I'd suggest, to break up the pattern your body is setting, take a few days off at the gym and slowly bump up the calories over those few days. Likely you won't feel hungry for it all because you've gotten used to running on less so you'll have to make small changes, try cooking with a little more oil (olive or coconut are both very healthy in moderation and my weight loss sped up considerably when I started eating more!) add an extra snack in the day of something you love (I'm a fan of chocolate covered frozen bananas by diana's banana babies. Or mini snickers or milky way ice cream bars). After a few days of rest go back to working out but try to change up your routine if you can. Do hiit workouts or take a class ect...

Don't be shocked if the first week or so you gain a little, your body needs to adapt to the new way but at first it's going to just think this is one of those binge days and sock that away. It will stop though and the scale will drop again. Also take measurements to see for the weeks that the scale doesn't budge if it's because you're replacing bulky fat with lean muscle which will stall the scale but drop inches.

Good luck!

Thanks for your help. I'm already fairly muscly but the gym work is probably my favourite workout. Just sick of so much cardio. A few days of rest would probably change that though! I definitely like the strong look (and know its healthier) so I guess that was a stupid question
BTW, I just had a peep at your diary. Do you mind me asking, what height and weight are you? Also, are you losing at the moment? I'm really having a hard time getting my head around being able to lose weight while eating more!

FrustratedYoYoer

Does anyone have a view on whether its better (easier) to exercise less and keep calories eaten lower, or eat more calories and exercise more? Eg, if I'm aiming for say 1400 NET calories a day, am I better off eating 2000 and burning 600, or should I just eat 1400 and chill out a bit more? Perhaps go for a walk or something.

I currently exercise way more than most people I know, yet still struggle with my weight. Its counter-intuitive but I'm wondering if more rest would help my body in some way and make me less likely to get tired and binge.

Anyone have any experience or ideas about this?

I also over-exercise but since June have changed my ways both with the gym and eating habits. Exercise wise i now make sure i rest one day a week minimum. And on my gym days i now limit my cardio and include free weights & rsistance machines at the gym so it's 50/50 or quite often these days it is more biased towards the weights with less cardio. I really try to mix my routine up. If I do an hour of cardio it's only cos I've done a gym class which includes toning exercises and i may do a few toning exercises of my own. Basically I have limited what I do on the cardio front and not been over-zealous with my workouts.

Diet wise, I never used to snack between meals and would keep carbs to lunch time meals where i would over indulge and then have a salad and fruit at night. I was regularly netting 800 cals and after a few wks would binge over several days and gain the weight back and more. However, now I snack in the morning and in the afternoon. I have a nice lunch. Still carby but I limit it to sandwiches with a snack bar of some sort and yogurt or a ready meal/tin of soup (not good i know but it's days i'm on placement only). Then in the evening I have a "proper" meal as in it is sustainable for me. Something hot and sizeable but healthy and it is usually carb based - potatoes, pasta, rice etc. I find that I enjoy it more which makes me feel satisfied and I feel full for longer. I follow it up with a chocolate mousse or greek yogurt/honey which satisfies my sweet tooth or choc cravings so it's win win.

Since I have changed my diet and exercise habit i am happy to say that binges are extremely rare now and if so it couldn't even really be considered a binge. A few extra cereal bar or a bag of crisps etc. To my amazement I have consistenly lost 1 lb each week and most weeks I have not even felt like I was dieting.

I think you are better to lower the amount of exercise you do and see how u feel regarding food. Listen to your body. You know yourself better than anybody and since I have listened to mine rather than ignoring it things are going a lot more smoothly. I don't count my cals here I just record what I have eaten but I would guess I eat 1700+ calories every day.

fionaad

Wow - you sound like you were previously quite like me. THanks for your advice. Sounds like a bit more moderation is key. So good to hear that you've managed to break the cycle by changing up your diet and exercise. Well done. Hope I can do the same

Nikiki

This last week is a bad example of my diet & exercise routine, work has been pretty nutty and food has been provided several times this week so I've not done well, plus longer hours so I'm not making it to the gym as much next week will be more normal!
Typically my average net calories are about 1400-1500 a day. I am 5'3", started at 189 and am about 160 right now. I work at a bank but am surprisingly active during my work day so I have my activity level set at lightly active. I do somewhat of a calorie cycling program, basically I eat anywhere from 1300-2500 calories a day and just watch I be sure that my net intake averages under 1600 per day (so I may be over on wednesday and Saturday but I'll be under Monday and Thursday to make up for it) I work out about 5 days a week, doing about 30 minutes of weights 3 times a week and anywhere from 15-45 minutes of cardio at each workout (I do hiit workouts on weights days to keep my heart rate up and 5k training most straight cardio days). I'm in the "only track actual workouts" camp because my activity is set at lightly active so short dog walks, cleaning and such I don't track.

I've lost just shy of 30lbs in 6 months and dropped from a too tight size 16 down to 10-12's so this method has been working for me

Oh and I'm a big believer in rest days, every few weeks I make sure I take about 3 days of total rest otherwise I tend to train too hard and hurt myself!

Helloitsdan

This works!
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12


Ive broke 100s of plateaus with it.

Eat TDEE for 2 weeks then resume the diet at a moderate level.

asugar

I think that is a healthy weight for your height! Whybfret

ouandi

Even if she nets lower during the week and blows it on the weekends, the total net should be fine for the week and you should still lose weight. Or does it not work that way?

I'm asking because for the longest time I ate lighter during the week and whatever I wanted on the weekend and lost weight very slowly a few years ago. Now that I'm trying to net a certain number of calories a day, one mistake or two for the week will stop weightloss in it's tracks.

JMitchell219

Great advice from GauchoMark!

firstsip

Having looked at your diary, your carbs seem pretty high even for all the exercise you do, particularly since i'm not seeing very complex carbs (you're having at least two candy bars every day :P) AND on that note, you're not tracking your sugar or sodium. Try watching those, set strong limits, and THEN see how the weight comes off. If it's only two or three pounds, it's very possible you could be retaining all that from sodium.

3foldchord

I am here to glean from your thread's suggestions. I am the same exact height and weight. Just wanna lose a few 'vanity pounds" and I am glad to see others' number looking like the ones I came up with today. (since I have no idea what I am really doing)

I guess I have not been eating enough. My main problem is I want to lower my carbs a bit, but am having trouble getting alternative foods and allergies are bad now, making me tired and miserable, LOL, ( so I don't have the energy or desire to be creative in my eating)

ABY WOO-HA. Best of luck to you! The suggestions look great! Feel free to add me and we can try all the suggestions together.

mercymarque

I looked at ur food log and it doesn't seem like ur getting enough calories. MFP already has u at a decline. Also u said u weighed 140 something u may need to change ur settings. U should also incorporate plain water in ur diet. They have 100 calorie chocolates... Have ur sweets in moderation. Good luck

fionaad

Having looked at your diary, your carbs seem pretty high even for all the exercise you do, particularly since i'm not seeing very complex carbs (you're having at least two candy bars every day :P) AND on that note, you're not tracking your sugar or sodium. Try watching those, set strong limits, and THEN see how the weight comes off. If it's only two or three pounds, it's very possible you could be retaining all that from sodium.

That was the blow out! Candy bards are pretty rare (usually) and certainly not in my plan (other than protein bars). I will try to cut down on the sodium and go back to low sugar though - good points!

windycitycupcake

sounds like you need to tone up more than you need to lose weight

fionaad

I looked at ur food log and it doesn't seem like ur getting enough calories. MFP already has u at a decline. Also u said u weighed 140 something u may need to change ur settings. U should also incorporate plain water in ur diet. They have 100 calorie chocolates... Have ur sweets in moderation. Good luck

Thanks, that's the message I'm getting from a few people so you are probably right! (I'm a convert to using forums for advice!!) My plan is to aim for around 1300 NET cals and see what happens. I do drink water but don't track it. I probably don't drink enough though (so should start tracking it). As for sweets in moderation... I don't think my personality allows for that! Once I get a taste, I'm a goner

GauchoMark

thats a step in the right direction, but for your size and actvity level, 1300 still might be a little low. Try it and see how it works out, though.