Intake Guidance Greatly Appreciated

duckiec

Yeah yeah, the same "can you offer some intake guidance/confirmation" question, even after pouring over forums, roadmaps, calculators, etc. Here goes!

1) What's your current intake of calories gross, on average?
1200-1400 gross, some spikes of around 1700, often on bigger workout days. NET is often around 900-1200.

2) What's your current average intake of protein, carbs, and fats, in grams?
Fat: 30-40/day, Protein: 65/day Carbs, 185g/day

3) Do you use a food scale and measure everything?
Scale, no. Measuring cups/spoons/etc - yes.

4) Do you track all of your intake, daily? (Everything?)
If it goes in, it gets written down. Except water. Drink plenty, don't track it.

5) Do you take cheat days or days off?
Eh, not full blow-out days, but I have spike days where I'm still watching, just not as closely. Average cheat day 1700-1800, might have one over that. Max once a week, if at all. Oh, and often I'll have a bigger day after a series of lower days, so I sorta thought it was averaging out over the week.

6) How much weight have you lost so far?
9lbs

7) What is your activity like, both exercise and non-exercise?
Office/desk job, commute includes subway and a short walk. Chasing kids at home, average chores. Exercise: Cardio 30-60 min 5x/wk - zumba, C25K, long walks, Lindsey Brin videos. Strength- just started, Nerdfitness for beginners, Zumba toning, Lindsey Brin segements. Use polar HRM to track approximate cals & intensity. Trying to make a point to take stairs, keep moving (i.e while waiting for a train, in an elevator), and park far away to sneak in extra movement.

8) How long have you eaten at your previous amount and what happened in that time frame?
8wks. Lost 9lbs.

9) What's your height, current weight and if you know it, bodyfat%?
4'11", 173, don't know. 36 years old.

10) If you're stalled, for how long and is it a complete stall (zero change in weight)?
No loss this week, but don't consider that a true stall. More want to confirm before I set myself up for issues, if possible.

My questions:

Is my NET at/under 1200 too little? Should I be at least netting 1200? Or, eat at least BMR? (1300-1500 depending on calculator) NET at least BMR? Eat TDEE-20% and ignore Net? I can find the numbers if someone can provide some guidance on where to go from here. ANd if I can eat more and get the same results- awesome!

I've seen loss so far, but I'm scared I'll screw myself over for the long haul, I'd rather evaluate and fix now before any potential damage is done.

And another random question -just started Nerdfitness Beginners Stregnth routine. Ow! But looking ahead- recommended strength routines/resources? Small investments ok (kettlebells, dvds, etc) but schedule/location/cashflow doesn't support gym membership or big purchase yet.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Edited to add more info.

SideSteel

This is going to sort of suck, but please calculate your average calorie intake (gross) over the past 3 weeks. You may need to do it manually.

Thanks.

duckiec

A little math is a low price to pay for clarity!

Average: 1394.5 gross, 1120 Net for the past 26 days.

If it matters, the numbers. You can clearly see the pattern of higher days, some with exercise, some without. I went back even farther, and was surprised to learn that 1768 was the highest all year; happened to be a lazy day, too.


Eaten Eaten - exercise/net
1455 1075
1280 937
1378 1003
1768 1768
1348 848
1502 1144
1209 1209
1019 678
1222 888
1226 833
1405 1405
1636 1053
1182 1182
1794 1310
1201 941
1394 1030
1394 1098
1341 1341
1504 956
1295 1295
1310 990
1613 1241
1700 1254
1280 859
1564 1564
1237 1237

Sarauk2sf

Tagging so you don't get overlooked.

Sarauk2sf

When did you start strength training?

duckiec

Just last week. Ouch! Should have been on that sooner, I guess, but better late...

This week's plan is cardio (today - 40 min), strength (7-min warm-up cardio + nerdfitness beginners) tomorrow, cardio weds, repeat strength Thurs, rest Fri, cardio Sat, rest Sun. I may try to get some walking done in the afternoons of the strength days, or Friday. I have this mental block that if I'm not doing cardio, and just doing strength, it's not a true workout - even though I was never really sore until I started doing strength, so clearly it's doing something! I guess that I don't get calories "back" for strength is part of that mental hurdle.

I've been aiming specifically for 1400/day (from 1200-1300) with spikes in the past week, partly because I'm finding I'm hungrier(?!?) with more cals, and frustrated that I don't ever seem to be satisfied. If it helps, the past week, which leaves off from my post last week.


Intake Net
1378 1003
1280 937
1455 1075
1658 1357
1394 1148
2068 1591
1350 1350

Sarauk2sf

Sorry, should have asked this before. Over what period was the 9lb lost?

duckiec

No worries- sorry I didn't provide you everything you needed! Lost 9lbs from Jan 2 2013 - Feb 24th.

I know, I know, a reasonable loss, even if I seemed to get stuck a little over the past couple weeks.

I'm sorry, I posted before the "only ask for help if you're stuck" request/rule was posted for the group, so if you don't have time, I understand. While i know it's not a linear process, I was hoping for some confirmation/guidance before I got too far down a bad path and was more likely to have problems. And, it's been a tough couple of months, so if I can/should be eating more, changing up the exercise, whatever, to have continued weight loss- great. Sometimes reading on the Interwebs is a confusing/bad thing.

Thanks again for your time and attention - it's very much appreciated!

SideSteel

No worries- sorry I didn't provide you everything you needed! Lost 9lbs from Jan 2 2013 - Feb 24th.

I know, I know, a reasonable loss, even if I seemed to get stuck a little over the past couple weeks.

I'm sorry, I posted before the "only ask for help if you're stuck" request/rule was posted for the group, so if you don't have time, I understand. While i know it's not a linear process, I was hoping for some confirmation/guidance before I got too far down a bad path and was more likely to have problems. And, it's been a tough couple of months, so if I can/should be eating more, changing up the exercise, whatever, to have continued weight loss- great. Sometimes reading on the Interwebs is a confusing/bad thing.

Thanks again for your time and attention - it's very much appreciated!

No need to apologize, you asked before we made that post about not asking

We'll get to this shortly.

Sarauk2sf

Hi!

So, it actually looks as though you are on track as far as calories go - I would not change that. However, I would change your macros to:

Protein: 100g
Fats: 60g

The balance to go where you wish based on preference and energy levels.

I would suggest that you do strength training 3 x a week. Keep the cardio is you want but do after strength if you do it in the same session and limit to 30 minutes on those days and 1 hour at max on non-lifting days.

duckiec

Thanks so much for your time and feedback!

Sorry to pester you further, just to clarify- I'm assuming "leave the calories alone" was more for the past week, when I bumped them up a bit, and average over the week was about 1500? Or, shall I stick closer to 1400/average? Any concern about those low net days? Am I balancing them okay with the higher days?

It will be challenging to get all that protein and fat in- definitely prefer carbs, and to keep the cals low the fat is usually pretty low, too. Peanut butter time, I guess.

Also off to explore my home strength training options... hope with some work I'll outgrow the Nerds Basic in a few weeks.

SideSteel

Thanks so much for your time and feedback!

Sorry to pester you further, just to clarify- I'm assuming "leave the calories alone" was more for the past week, when I bumped them up a bit, and average over the week was about 1500? Or, shall I stick closer to 1400/average? Any concern about those low net days? Am I balancing them okay with the higher days?

It will be challenging to get all that protein and fat in- definitely prefer carbs, and to keep the cals low the fat is usually pretty low, too. Peanut butter time, I guess.

We are basing that recommendation off of the fact that your weight loss leading up to this point has been very reasonable for your stats. Consequently I would keep your average intake over the past 8-9 weeks roughly the same moving forward.

Sarauk2sf

No issues with the low net days as they average themselves out over the week.

duckiec

Awesome, thanks again!

SideSteel

Locking.

Duckiec: Feel free to follow up with us in two weeks with an update (PM one of us), OR if additional questions arise or if you need to post in this thread. We are locking this due to a new procedure change to help us administratively.

Sarauk2sf

Unlocked at OPs request

duckiec

So quickly, thank you! Update check/in, now that's it's been a couple of months.

The good:
- Lost around 13lbs since early Mar.
- I'm meeting (or darn close to) my protein macro.
- Building fitness endurance; can run for longer.

Not so good:
- Fat macro usually not met. Better than before, but not met.
- Calories average low, I think.

Suggested average was around 1500/day (I believe, unfortunately I lost my PM message since it's been too long); I'm hovering in the 1350-1390 range/day, done by averaging lower weekdays (1200-1300) and higher weekends (1600-2000).

I haven't hit a stall, yet, so it's been hard to make changes when it seems to be "working." I am training for an obstacle 5k/mud run, and plan to start to shift from weight loss as the sole goal, to weight loss and fitness. I've started a new C25K program specifically for the event, which includes strength training, plus will re-add Nerd Fitness beginning strength routine (I had swapped out for 30DS, have 7 days left), or other strength moves.

In May, I plan to focus on getting 1400/day minimum, still allowing myself those bigger weekend days, which should bring my weekly average up. Hoping there isn't too much initial gain, and this will keep the loss consistent. The scale, so far, has been going down nicely, but I need to get through my head that if I continue having mostly 1200 intake days with 300-400cal exercise sessions, I WILL stall out then have to deal with the damage. Hoping, too, that bumping the daily intake a bit will mean more overall satiety and performance, so I don't look to the weekends as my only chance to be remotely satisfied.

So, no help/question here- especially as I haven't been following the original recommendations. Just noting for the record, and I'll check back in a couple weeks.

Sarauk2sf

Thank you for the update. I would suggest trying to up your calories as your activity levels increase. Your losses are little quick at moment for the amount you have to lose.

Could you give us your losses by week for the last 4 weeks.

duckiec

You betcha!

This is for the past 6 weeks. I weigh on Mondays and Friday, Monday is the "main" day though.

Mon. 3/18: 168.0
Mon. 3/25: - 1.6, 166.4
Mon. 4/1: -0, 166.4 (“The weekend of cheat”)
Mon. 4/8: -2.2, 164.2
Fri 4/12: 162.6
Mon. 4/15: -1.8, 162.4
Fri. 4/19: 161.6
Mon. 4/22: -1.6, 160.0
Fri. 4/26: -2, 158.0
Mon. 4/29: -.2, 159.8 (was over calories Saturday, but not by ~7000!)
Fri. 5/3: -1, 158.8 (stayed within current pattern, exercise sessions a bit longer/more intense this week)

So I've been hovering +/- 159 for a couple of weeks (I know, two weeks does not make a stall!), and posting my first gain since I started in January. Slight, but no real drastic exercise/cheat days leading up to that.

I suppose it looks okay on paper... but maybe it's just too aggressive, the "less is better" mentality is starting to catch up with my body, and it's not sustainable, especially as I move away from Jillian, and into more running and back into more targeted body-resistance strength routines (at-home stuff; no gym for now).

Any ideas you may have now, as always, are awesome and appreciated, otherwise I'm trying to focus on following your initial recommendations and will report back. Thanks!

Sarauk2sf

Hi!

Your average this week is definitely on the low side. I would suggest that you try to hit the 1,500 target and also to incorporate a high day once a week - at about 2,000 calories. This may help manage your metabolism as well as water weight which tends to be retained when restricting.

With regard to your weight, the trend is still going down and the small increase recently is probably due to water weight fluctuations as noted. Your losses have been 10lb in about 6 weeks which is pretty quick and you run a greater risk of LBM loss and above normal metabolic slowdown the leaner you get.

Sarauk2sf

Locking so we can keep track of active threads. If you wish for the thread to be unlocked so you can give an update or have more questions, please feel free to PM either myself or SideSteel, including a link to this thread and we will unlock it so you can.