Frustrated and need help with diet numbers

downsizinghoss

So here goes. I am frustrated. I have lost a lot of weight, and am getting in better shape constantly.

I know not to worry too much about the scale when the NSVs keep rolling in, but this is ridiculous.
In the last two years I have lost a total of about 30 pounds, but have lost over 6 inches of waist line.


So I am putting it out to the general peanut gallery here for some suggestions.

403 pounds.
5'10" tall.
203-205 pounds LBM. (per bod pod air displacement test)
so about 50% BF still.

I have aimed my macros at 40% protein, and 30% each for fat and carbs. The main thing I try to do is to hit 200g of protein daily.

I measure my food rather closely.

I burn a lot of calories in a week, with a 1000+ calorie workout usually 4 times per week as measured by my Polar HRM
I do about half cardio, and half lifting. I rarely eat back even half of my exercise calories.

I only seem to lose consistently if I keep my calories to 2000-2200. So I am going back to that as of tomorrow for a week, just to force the issue.

I don't believe I am a special snowflake, but damn. Any suggestions?

odusgolp

*takes top off*


That's all i've got.

3dogsrunning

So here goes. I am frustrated. I have lost a lot of weight, and am getting in better shape constantly.

I know not to worry too much about the scale when the NSVs keep rolling in, but this is ridiculous.
In the last two years I have lost a total of about 30 pounds, but have lost over 6 inches of waist line.


So I am putting it out to the general peanut gallery here for some suggestions.

403 pounds.
5'10" tall.
203-205 pounds LBM. (per bod pod air displacement test)
so about 50% BF still.

I have aimed my macros at 40% protein, and 30% each for fat and carbs. The main thing I try to do is to hit 200g of protein daily.

I measure my food rather closely.

I burn a lot of calories in a week, with a 1000+ calorie workout usually 4 times per week as measured by my Polar HRM
I do about half cardio, and half lifting. I rarely eat back even half of my exercise calories.

I only seem to lose consistently if I keep my calories to 2000-2200. So I am going back to that as of tomorrow for a week, just to force the issue.

I don't believe I am a special snowflake, but damn. Any suggestions?

I am not sure I understand. If you are losing at 2000-2200, why are you changing?

downsizinghoss

*takes top off*


That's all i've got.

that goes in the motivational section! :-)

downsizinghoss

Not changing, just going back to it. According to the numbers that I always get. eating only 2000 calories on a workout day puts me at almost a 2000 calorie deficit on workout days. It is difficult to maintain for extended periods.

simplyjustme

I think you can try to change your macros to 50 protein, 20 carbs and 30 fat. If you are getting around 200 grams protein you should be good. Lowering the carbs can really help but can be hard. Taking your calories down is not a bad thing but give it a couple weeks to see the change. It will take that. Once you see a difference you can stick with it and let the progress take place. You might try changing up your cardio a bit as well. Some times shocking the body with something different helps. Try kettlebell it burns a lot and works the strength.

opalescence

bump. I still have lots of BF and I'm curious to see any suggestions.

3dogsrunning

Not changing, just going back to it. According to the numbers that I always get. eating only 2000 calories on a workout day puts me at almost a 2000 calorie deficit on workout days. It is difficult to maintain for extended periods.

Ah. I see. What were you up to before for calories? I see that you work out twice a week and use a heart rate monitor, what are your workouts?

forgage

First of Congragualations on your weight loss!! I know I know youve heard that before!! Have you ever considered hitting your weight in grams of protein so it would be 400 grams. I weigh 305 and try to hit 300 grams I know when i do and im consistant in my workouts i lose weight while not sacrificing muscle loss. and I lose inches also. My goal is 275 with 20 % bf. As we all know this is a marathon. Have you ever measured your TDEE. I know mine comes in @ 4100 and for a cut I hit @ 3500. I see success @ these #'s . I also dont do to much cardio and Lift Heavy 4-5 times a week

concordancia

HRM calorie calculations were mostly done on healthy people and can be off quite a bit for those of us who are obese. Furthermore, they aren't accurate for weight lifting.

What are your current calorie goals? What are your maintenance calories? Have you had a medical checkpoint with blood work? You say you have had bf measured with a bod pod, were any other tests done at that time?

downsizinghoss

Not changing, just going back to it. According to the numbers that I always get. eating only 2000 calories on a workout day puts me at almost a 2000 calorie deficit on workout days. It is difficult to maintain for extended periods.

Ah. I see. What were you up to before for calories? I see that you work out twice a week and use a heart rate monitor, what are your workouts?

This has been an off week. I tend to work out at least 4-5 days. If at the gym I usually do 30 minutes elliptical, 3000 m rowing, and then lift. Sometimes I will do an hour elliptical if I want a higher calorie burn.
Then I try to walk when the weather is good. Usually 2 hours and burn 1100-1200 calories.

metaphoria

Hey hon. Have an idea of what your tdee is? Tdee -20% is usually what the math gurus recommend. I personally do not count my workouts in my activity level, then I can eat back exercise calories on the days I do get a workout in, including my protein right after. I know you do monster workouts, do you know how accurate the numbers are?

Also, I've been told to do weights/resistance first to use up glycogen stores, then move to cardio so it starts off with depleted glycogen and your body goes directly to fat for fuel. It seemed very efficient for me back when I had a home gym to really do heavy resistance.

ladyace2078

You may be eating too little food. I'm female, 5'11" and 169-174 lbs. I eat 2400 calories to maintain when working out 2 days/week (heavy lifting + intervals for 60-90 min per day). When I was working out 4-6 days per week and trying to lose I was eating closer to 2800-3000 calories per day.

Also if you are lifting, DO NOT USE THE SCALE to track your progress. BF and inches are what you want to see changes in.

downsizinghoss

random additions. No High blood pressure. freakishly low cholesterol (109 total).
I drink gallons of water.

I am in great cardio vascular shape, but my joints still can't take a ton of impact so I get stuck on the elliptical a lot.
Lifting wise, I lift heavy, but pure squats and deadlifts are still out due to hip issue.

edit: I can't go *kitten* to ground, and I use plates to hold the deadlift bar a couple of inches off the ground.

forgage

can you do Body weight squats with a bar or deadlifts with just a bar? How about Kettle Bells?

forgage

like

vim_n_vigor

Hoss - for a while I was working to get 900+ calorie burns 4-5 days a week. I really pushed for that and usually pushed to get 500-1000 on my 'down days' I tracked everything in a spreadsheet - more details than anyone would care to see. What I did find interesting over the months I did that was that I lost more consistently when I didn't have such high calorie workouts. I felt better (once I got over feeling bad about cutting back). Lifting 3-4 days a week for 45 minutes and walking for about an hour 3-4 days a week got me the best results for weight loss. I don't know if it will help you, but the excess cardio calories really didn't seem to give me as big of a deficit as the numbers said it should.

downsizinghoss

I appreciate all the suggestions and would love more feedback. Heading out to walk in the rain lol.

I will be back this evening. I do appreciate it.

3dogsrunning

You may be eating too little food. I'm female, 5'11" and 169-174 lbs. I eat 2400 calories to maintain when working out 2 days/week (heavy lifting + intervals for 60-90 min per day). When I was working out 4-6 days per week and trying to lose I was eating closer to 2800-3000 calories per day.

Also if you are lifting, DO NOT USE THE SCALE to track your progress. BF and inches are what you want to see changes in.

At 403lbs he can do a larger calorie deficit.
I would say stick with the 2200 if it works for you, however, my issue is that you said it is difficult to maintain.
I would also be wary of the calorie values given by the HRM. It is not accurate for strength training. I would also look into what Concordancia said. I haven't come across that but that doesn't mean it isn't true.

What were you consuming when you stopped losing weight? And what time frame was that?

Oishii

How do you FEEL at 2000-2200kcal? Starving? Irritable? Tired? I weigh about 1/3 what you do and I don't like to eat that little :laugh:

dbrightwell1270

Part of the problem may be that you are overestimating the Calories burned from lifting. I have read (cannot verify the accuracy of the information) that heart rate monitors are good at estimating the Calories burned from aerobic exercise like the elliptical but that they do not accurately count Calories from anaerobic exercise like lifting weights. The reason being that heart rate and O2 intake are highly correlated during aerobic exercise but that correlation breaks down during anaerobic exercise. The O2 process is where Calories are burned.

3dogsrunning

Part of the problem may be that you are overestimating the Calories burned from lifting. I have read (cannot verify the accuracy of the information) that heart rate monitors are good at estimating the Calories burned from aerobic exercise like the elliptical but that they do not accurately count Calories from anaerobic exercise like lifting weights. The reason being that heart rate and O2 intake are highly correlated during aerobic exercise but that correlation breaks down during anaerobic exercise. The O2 process is where Calories are burned.

A couple of sources were listed in here
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/459580-polar-hrm-calorie-burn-estimate-accuracy-study
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/773451-is-my-hrm-giving-me-incorrect-calorie-burn