Need some help with intake...what am I doing wrong?

pineygirl

Hi, I'm new here....just discovered this group. I've been at this for about 9 weeks and don't feel like I'm getting anywhere. I feel like I should have lost a little more weight. What I'm I doing wrong or could be doing better? Eat less, Eat more, pay better attention to macros. Exercise more? I'm sort of stumped.

1) What's your current intake of calories gross, on average?

Consumed: 1563 gross (average of past 3 weeks).

Estimated calorie burn from Fitbit and HRM (for cardio only) is 2031 (past 3 weeks).

2) What's your current average intake of protein, carbs, and fats, in grams?

Protein -117g, Carbs-135g, Fat-58g (average of past 3 weeks)

Carbs 34%, Fat 36.5%, Protein 29.5%

3) Do you use a food scale and measure everything?

I use a scale for most things (meat, produce, grains). Although I use measuing cups and spoons for liquids.

4) Do you track all of your intake, daily? (Everything?)

Yes.

5) Do you take cheat days or days off?

No. I really try not to. I had one recently though where I only had a 200 calorie deficit for the day.

6) How much weight have you lost so far?

3lbs in about 9 weeks. But this week gained 1-2lbs back due to most likley water retention from excess sodium and my monthly cycle.

7) What is your activity like, both exercise and non-exercise?

Daily activity:

I work as a formulation chemist and am usually on my feet for most of the day (it's similar to working in a busy restaurant kitchen). I take about 10000-15000 steps most days and some days as high as 20000 or more. I also clime 12-50 flights of stairs at work because I don't use elevators and have to go to different floors of my building often. I do some heaving lifting at work when we get deliveries of supplies and materials. At home I do typical housework...cooking, cleaning, laundry.

Exercise:

I set up a circuit down in my basement for strength training. My circiut consisits of about 12-15 different exercises like push ups, pull ups, triceps dips, burpees, mountain climbers, dead lifts, chest presses (using a stability ball as a bench with two 30lbs dumbells), weighted lunges (with 80lbs), dead lifts (100lbs), overhead presses, prone jackknifes, various ab exercises, triceps dips or extensions, bicep curls, various weighted rows, probably other things I'm forgetting.

I do this curcuit 3 times a week and it takes about 60-75 minutes to complete.

I also use an elliptical for 45 minutes 3-4 times a week for cardio, on days I don't strength train.


8) How long have you eaten at your previous amount and what happened in that time frame?

5 weeks at around 1400-1700 calories, 4 weeks at around 900-1500 caloires. Before I started tracking I had no idea. Some days 600 calories if that, some days like 2000 caloires or easily more for months before. This led to me packing on about 5lbs.

9) What's your height, current weight and if you know it, bodyfat%?

5'0 116lbs (this morning) Body fat according to calipers and online calculators using measurments is 24.0%, My scale says 35.7%. Not sure which is correct. I'm gussing I'm around 29-30% body fat.

10) If you're stalled, for how long and is it a complete stall (zero change in weight)?

I started this 9 weeks ago, and have lost a total net of 2lbs. I figured I should have lost more. I lost my last pound 3 weeks ago and have actually gained it back.

pineygirl

Hi...

Just bumping this to hopefully get some insight. It would be much appriciated.

Thanks much...:flowerforyou:

SideSteel

Hi...

Just bumping this to hopefully get some insight. It would be much appriciated.

Thanks much...:flowerforyou:

Tagging. Sometimes it takes us a day or two due to volume.

Sarauk2sf

Hi...

Just bumping this to hopefully get some insight. It would be much appriciated.

Thanks much...:flowerforyou:

Tagging. Sometimes it takes us a day or two due to volume.

Or three!

SideSteel

Please set your intake as follows:

1450kcal
90p min
45f min
rest in cho

You can exceed protein and/or fat at the expense of carbs (If you prefer your protein around the 110+ mark, no harm there, have at it and just reduce carbohydrate to keep your calories at the 1450 range). You do not eat back any exercise calories using this model.

Just as a reminder/checkpoint, please read this as well if you've not already. I'm only mentioning this to reinforce the idea of maintaining accuracy and consistency with tracking. You probably are already very accurate but it doesn't hurt to revisit:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/872212-you-re-probably-eating-more-than-you-think

Please PM one of us in two weeks with an update. If you have any performance or adherence issues at this intake, let us know right away.

pineygirl

Thanks so much. I usually don't have a problem keeping my protein over 90g and my fat over 45g in a day so that shouldn't be hard. I had my marco targets set to 40/30/30. I usually trend lower on carbs (not intentionally).

I think maybe I was eating a bit too much. Cutting by about 100-110 calories a day should help.

BTW I actually lost another 2lbs since I first inquired a few days ago. Down now to 114lbs. I think I was hanging on to water.

I'm not sure what I want my goal weight to be exactly, maybe 105-108lbs.

I have been pretty bad about giving myself rest days, and I always seem to lose at least 1lb after one.

I will update in a couple weeks. Going to go update my calorie and macro goals.

Thanks again.

pineygirl

Two week update:

I did stick to 1450 calories a day for just under two weeks (over by around 100 calories the past couple days) I have since lost 5 lbs since my original post. From 116 lbs to 111 lbs.

I think a good portion of it was water weight from bloating from hormones and water retention in muscles from strength training, but 1-2lbs of it may have also been fat. My scale says I went from 35.7% body fat to 32.2% fat. I'm not sure how accurate my scale is, because at 32.2% body fat I can see clear definition in my abs, which I don't think should be possible. Online calculators based on measurements have me at now at 22.5% and 21.9% (down from 24.3% and 23.8%) . Calipers are usually in line with the online calculators, although haven't checked with them yet.

At 1450 calories a day I had significantly upped my caloric deficit to about 500-750 calories per day from my TDEE of about 1950-2200 depending on activity.

I've been really busy at work this past week and haven't had much time to work out (10+ hour work days on my feet on top of a 3 hour round trip commute). On a busy work day I can log 15000-18000 steps, climb 25+ flights of stairs and also manage to do some heavy lifting (we got 2 huge deliveries this week.) So I figured I got a lot of unintentional exercise at work this week. Plus it's gardening season and I've been ripping up sod and turning over soil and planting seeds.

I will be stepping up my workouts again this coming week.

Would it be a good idea to switch to a smaller caloric deficit now that I'm closer to my goal weight? I feel like I might be able to have more energy to work out and not be so tired after work.

SideSteel

Your choice entirely. If you increase, start with 100 calories by adding 25g carbohydrate. Check results in 1 week.

Sarauk2sf

Locking as part of our new procedure to try to help track open threads: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/914180-thread-locking-and-intake-follow-ups

Feel free to PM either myself or SideSteel to unlock when you have an update or earlier if you want to add anything.

Thanks!