Need help/ advice

J3ss1caD

So.. to make a long story short. I started my "serious" journey to lose weight in Jan of this year. I work out about 5-6 times a week. When I started this "journey" I was at 135lbs My goal was to get down to 125lbs. SO.. I started counting calories and being serious about it.. and being sure to work out atleast 5-6 times a day. I started out at the recommended 1200 calories but found after a month of eating only 1200 calories.. I shed 5 lbs and was kind of stuck there. With this 1200 calorie intake also came hunger pains (I'm assuming bc I wasn't eating enough.. was working out.. and not eating back calories). Regardless... my job has this machine.. called the BOD POD.. measures your BMR and all that jazz. Found that my BMR was about 1149. It also told me that with a "sedentary" lifestyle I should burn about 1484. Based off of that I decided to up my calorie intake to 1484. SO I weighed myself ONE more time before I decided to increase my calorie intake.. also on a morning when my hunger pain was horrible.. and weighed in at 125.4. Decided I was getting crazy about weighing myself so stopped for a whole month.. continued with my normal workouts.. and increased my calorie intake to 1484.

Well (this was supposed to be short).. I weighed this morning and I'm back up to a 128

Need advice.. do I lower my calorie intake?? I just know with 1200 I get hunger pains.. and thats no fun.

kristynsflab

Just wondering - What types of foods are you eating? And how often do you eat? Im set at 1150 cals too and I eat 5 times a day but its all Clean & Raw - nothing processed. Im working out 5-6 days a week for 45 min to an hour each time.

My husband had hunger issues then we changed his food habits and helped 100%

J3ss1caD

Just wondering - What types of foods are you eating? And how often do you eat? Im set at 1150 cals too and I eat 5 times a day but its all Clean & Raw - nothing processed. Im working out 5-6 days a week for 45 min to an hour each time.

My husband had hunger issues then we changed his food habits and helped 100%

Well for the most part I try to eat healthy.. ie.. special k with skim milk for bfast. If I eat at work I typically will have a thin bagel with egg white, asparagus, mushroom, and swiss.

Lunches vary.. but most are home cooked. And if I eat at work I try to just have whatever the salad of the day is.. which is around (300-400 calories)

Dinners are almost always cooked at home and I try to keep it healthy.. ie salmon, tilapia, shrimp, chicken.

Not going to lie though. I do make creations at home that my husband and daughter like (chicken & dumplings or whatever) but normally don't overdue myself when it comes to eating it.

And I only drink water.. minus the cup of coffee I have in the morning.. which I have with a drip of skim milk and sweet and low.

My snacks typically consist of dried mango, bananas, or almonds.

SlickFootAnna

You could exercise a lot more which in return would give you the option more than 1200 calories.......

Greenrun99

Does the BOD POD tell you your BF% as well? (I thought I heard those do) Also if it told you to eat 1484 sedentary lifestyle and your working out 5-6 days a week, you need to eat your exercise calories. Too big of a deficit with little weight to lose can stall your progress.

seena511

drop off 100 calories/day for 4 more weeks and see where you're at.

there are also lots of reasons that the weight could have been incorrect. have you had a bowel movement within the last 24 hours? are your muscles sore (and thus retaining more water than ususal and adding water weight)? did you weigh in on an empty stomach after using the bathroom? i would double check in a couple of days and see if it stays the same.

J3ss1caD

Does the BOD POD tell you your BF% as well? (I thought I heard those do) Also if it told you to eat 1484 sedentary lifestyle and your working out 5-6 days a week, you need to eat your exercise calories. Too big of a deficit with little weight to lose can stall your progress.

It did tell me BF% too.. which was still kind of high.. I believe it was a 27%. And.. for a slightly active lifestyle it gave me 1800 (can't remember the exact number).

I'm scared to up my caloric intake if I'm not losing anything

And I base my calories burned off of my fitbit (which measures steps).
I do other workouts such as strenght training and other things not measured by steps and don't log those (just bc fitness pal doesn't seem to count strength training as calories burned.. and I have no way of measuring it on my own).

dixiewhiskey

Why would you lower your intake? Sorry if I missed the explanation but I remember being 120lbs before having children and I couldn't eat only 1200 cals per day. My stomach and mind hurt just thinking about that!

dixiewhiskey

Does the BOD POD tell you your BF% as well? (I thought I heard those do) Also if it told you to eat 1484 sedentary lifestyle and your working out 5-6 days a week, you need to eat your exercise calories. Too big of a deficit with little weight to lose can stall your progress.

It did tell me BF% too.. which was still kind of high.. I believe it was a 27%. And.. for a slightly active lifestyle it gave me 1800 (can't remember the exact number).

I'm scared to up my caloric intake if I'm not losing anything

And I base my calories burned off of my fitbit (which measures steps).
I do other workouts such as strenght training and other things not measured by steps and don't log those (just bc fitness pal doesn't seem to count strength training as calories burned.. and I have no way of measuring it on my own).

Don't be scared!!!!

I am 168lbs with a BF% of 25%! All you need to do is eat MORE (and by more I mean, healthy foods - chicken,turkey, vegetables, 0% greek yogurt, beans, brown rice, high fibre/protein pastas, fruit if you have a sweet tooth, etc,) and incorporate a strength training program if you wish to cut the body fat percentage.

I went from 31.9% at the beginning of the year to 25% just doing what I am explaining.. instead of eating 1400 cals, I eat anywhere from 1670-1800 cals per day. Depending on how much you work out, you may find eating 1400-1700 daily works - go high like 1700 if you workout everyday, lower if you don't. But please eat more than 1200! I would hate to see you stalled forever because you only eat 1200. Your body needs more

J3ss1caD

Why would you lower your intake? Sorry if I missed the explanation but I remember being 120lbs before having children and I couldn't eat only 1200 cals per day. My stomach and mind hurt just thinking about that!

I was only considering lowering bc I actually gained weight

I weighed myself prior to uping my caloric intake and I was at a 125. I initially increased bc of the hunger pains and the fact that I felt I was just sitting. My weight seemed stalled at 130.. then I had a horrible hunger pain and weighed myself at 125. So.. I decided to up my caloric intake to 1484 and not weigh myself (which made it easy bc my fitbit scale broke and I had to wait on a new one). But.. I've been at 1484 for about 3-4 wks.. and my weight went up. Since I'm now trying to get down to a 123.. MFP is saying my caloric intake should be 1200.

bizco

Read, learn, succeed.

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

dixiewhiskey

Why would you lower your intake? Sorry if I missed the explanation but I remember being 120lbs before having children and I couldn't eat only 1200 cals per day. My stomach and mind hurt just thinking about that!

I was only considering lowering bc I actually gained weight

I weighed myself prior to uping my caloric intake and I was at a 125. I initially increased bc of the hunger pains and the fact that I felt I was just sitting. My weight seemed stalled at 130.. then I had a horrible hunger pain and weighed myself at 125. So.. I decided to up my caloric intake to 1484 and not weigh myself (which made it easy bc my fitbit scale broke and I had to wait on a new one). But.. I've been at 1484 for about 3-4 wks.. and my weight went up. Since I'm now trying to get down to a 123.. MFP is saying my caloric intake should be 1200.

I understand. That's typical - most people think eating a lot got them where they are in the first place but it's really what you eat that does. MFP strangely enough recommends bad info e.g. eating 1200 cals a day. I hope they change that

Also do check out that thread that the previous poster wrote..there is a more recent thread that Helloitsdan posted. Check that out and PM him if you have questions about it

Krueger92

you should not eat lower then 1200cals ever. and cardio is not a good tool. the more cardio you do the more hungry your going to be. IMO cut all cardio for a week and just eat clean and between 1200-1400 calories and see what happens. best of luck!

hmadrone

So.. to make a long story short. I started my "serious" journey to lose weight in Jan of this year. I work out about 5-6 times a week. When I started this "journey" I was at 135lbs My goal was to get down to 125lbs. SO.. I started counting calories and being serious about it.. and being sure to work out atleast 5-6 times a day. I started out at the recommended 1200 calories but found after a month of eating only 1200 calories.. I shed 5 lbs and was kind of stuck there. With this 1200 calorie intake also came hunger pains (I'm assuming bc I wasn't eating enough.. was working out.. and not eating back calories). Regardless... my job has this machine.. called the BOD POD.. measures your BMR and all that jazz. Found that my BMR was about 1149. It also told me that with a "sedentary" lifestyle I should burn about 1484. Based off of that I decided to up my calorie intake to 1484. SO I weighed myself ONE more time before I decided to increase my calorie intake.. also on a morning when my hunger pain was horrible.. and weighed in at 125.4. Decided I was getting crazy about weighing myself so stopped for a whole month.. continued with my normal workouts.. and increased my calorie intake to 1484.

Well (this was supposed to be short).. I weighed this morning and I'm back up to a 128

Need advice.. do I lower my calorie intake?? I just know with 1200 I get hunger pains.. and thats no fun.

If you are actually gaining weight, I don't think that adding more calories alone will do the trick.

Patience is key, especially as you get close to your goal weight. You have to keep trying things and seeing how your body responds to the changes.

I like weighing myself every day. I think it's good to see where you're going and how much your weight fluctuates. I'd start doing that, but I wouldn't change your calorie goals just yet.

First, how accurate are your measurements of calories in and out? If you aren't weighing and measuring your food, start doing that so you can get a more accurate picture of what you're actually consuming. The fitbit is supposed to be pretty accurate, and your calories out look reasonable.

If you aren't doing strength training, I would strongly suggest that you start that. Strength training builds muscle, which increases your burn rate. If you have a higher body fat percentage than one would expect for your weight, then you will burn less than expected.

After you track your weight and calories in/out carefully for a week, if you still seem to be gaining weight, I'd try shaking things up. You could try any/some of the following:

* Change your exercise routine, adding more/different exercises.
* Cut your calories a little bit, like down to 1300 or so, still eating your exercise calories.
* Since you are close to your goal weight, you might find that cycling calories is helpful. Eat your (Total Daily Energy Expenditure - 20%) for three days, and then eat TDEE.
* Add more fruits and vegetables to your diet to replace some of the starches.
* Raise your protein to 30%.

Give each change a couple of weeks to work before trying something different.

I find that I consistently seem to need 200-300 calories less than predicted in order to lose weight. My body is great at the adaptative thermogenesis business.

lizziebeth1028

So.. to make a long story short. I started my "serious" journey to lose weight in Jan of this year. I work out about 5-6 times a week. When I started this "journey" I was at 135lbs My goal was to get down to 125lbs. SO.. I started counting calories and being serious about it.. and being sure to work out atleast 5-6 times a day. I started out at the recommended 1200 calories but found after a month of eating only 1200 calories.. I shed 5 lbs and was kind of stuck there. With this 1200 calorie intake also came hunger pains (I'm assuming bc I wasn't eating enough.. was working out.. and not eating back calories). Regardless... my job has this machine.. called the BOD POD.. measures your BMR and all that jazz. Found that my BMR was about 1149. It also told me that with a "sedentary" lifestyle I should burn about 1484. Based off of that I decided to up my calorie intake to 1484. SO I weighed myself ONE more time before I decided to increase my calorie intake.. also on a morning when my hunger pain was horrible.. and weighed in at 125.4. Decided I was getting crazy about weighing myself so stopped for a whole month.. continued with my normal workouts.. and increased my calorie intake to 1484.

Well (this was supposed to be short).. I weighed this morning and I'm back up to a 128

Need advice.. do I lower my calorie intake?? I just know with 1200 I get hunger pains.. and thats no fun.

How did you come to the conclusion that you HAVE TO weigh 125? There is a lot of anxiety going on over a couple of pounds. In a nutshell your body is at a healthy weight. Weigh loss may not be the solution. Your focus should shift more to body composition. If you're not lifting heavy weights that challenge you...now is the time to start. Cardio is cool....but it should take a back seat to a serious strength training program. You should be eating a least the 1484 and make sure you're getting a lot of protein. And RELAX!!!...you look great :flowerforyou:

Lt_Starbuck

I would switch away from the scale and concentrate on how Im shaping my body now instead of just the record of my gravitational pull - there are other things more awesome to focus on! :drinker: :flowerforyou:

beachluvr19

Also, with eating so little and working out so much, your body could be in a state of starvation. Therefore when you eat anything, esp. carbs, your body is using everything it has to give you energy even if it is turning all of your carbs into sugar. Change your workout a bit as well dont continue to do the same thing day after day.