Beyond frustrated and lost...

LoveFitNation

Ok - so I am relatively new to MFP - honestly I am also kinda new to dieting...

Background - I was a collegiate athlete (volleyball - short girl on the team so I was the libero - chick in different color shirt that always plays defense therefore is in a squat position for hours) I was always a "thicker" girl - weighed 170 at 5' 8" - but was always in extremely good shape - never really dieted (meaning I never did anything longer than a week)...then got married and had kids - now I want to get back into shape and actually enjoy my body again...before having kids I found out that I have PCOS - some of the symptoms to it is that it makes it extremely hard to lose weight - luckily I do not have all or even most of the symptoms to PCOS....in jan my husband and I decided that it was time for our family to be HEALTHY...meaning eating clean and working out - although losing weight is def a goal it was not the main focus to starting this new lifestyle...since then I have yet to lose a pound...so beyond frustrated at this point...

Right now I weigh 180... I actually enjoy running - so I do jog tues, thurs, sat, and sun... No less than 3 miles - no more than 7... I also just got done lifting heavily in the LiveFit program...right now I do HIIT/crossfit training on wed, thurs, and sat....I have one cheat meal a week usually on sat afternoon...I never eat lower than 1200 calories but I also don't usually eat over 1700 ..like I said I haven't lost a pound...so I am assuming I am not eating enough calories (bet you haven't heard anyone new to the group say that one:/ )...I am also assuming that my PCOS is holding me back some - a lot of people that have PCOS end up going low carb - for me - I won't do it - I personally get migraines if I don't eat carbs - my body shuts down - I can limit them especially at night but I won't take them away for good...

So now... I have read many of the topics and am trying to understand all this crazy talk...I plugged in my info on the scooby site - I got BMR - 1,610 TDEE - 2,495 CUT - 2,121...is this correct (I am now 30)?? So I need to eat at least 2,121 calories a day unless I exercise and burn over 500 calories - if I do that I need to eat whatever the overage is of that exercise on top of the 2,121?? Good lord that is a freaking lot of food when you eat clean!!!!!!!!! So if these numbers are correct I need recipes of CLEAN food (I was raised vegitarian so I mostly grew up on carbs I do eat grilled chicken now - but if you have any ideas of food I would love to hear them!!) but really my question is now what?!? I just start eating 2,121 calories a day and hope the scale doesn't go up too much??

Sorry I'm lost - just getting so frustrated with it all...thanks for any help offered!!

colleen3115

I am pretty new to this mindset, but it seems like you are on the right track. With all that activity your TDEE may even be higher. What intensity did you select on the scooby site? Found this list of clean foods:

Fats:
Oils (olive, canola, heard good things about coconut)
Avocados
whole eggs
Fattier meat (chicken thighs/drumsticks, non lean ground beef, steaks, bacon)
nuts and seeds (and the "butters" made of them)

Carbs:
Potatoes
sweet potatoes
rice
veggies
fruit
beans
oats
bread

Protein:
Chicken breast
protein powder
eggwhites
pork tenderloin
ham steak
turkey breast
lean ground beef
cottage cheese
greek yogurt

LoveFitNation

I put it on the moderate 3-5 days working out bc I only work out 5 days...I take Monday and Friday off...though my intensity on some of the other days might make me need to go up to the 6-7 day workouts...who knows

calyhirsch

I'm in a similar situation. I have to eat close to what I burn everyday or I get migraines, and that sometimes means eating 2500+ calories. I also have to eat pretty clean - junk foods have a lot of migraine triggers!

Maybe try juicing - not as a cleanse but as a supplement to your diet when you need more calories. Juice packs in a lot of calories and healthier carbs and sugars, with less of the fiber that will make you feel too full. And fresh veggie and fruit juice is really delicious.

LoveFitNation

Thanks for the replies!!! I will def try some of these ideas!!!

IveLanded

I dunno, my first instinct would be to see your diet and 1) make sure you are tracking everything correctly and then 2)like the juice comment alluded to....clean up your diet if needed. I can eat the same calories one week of total crap and then next week of super clean eating and the crap week will see a huge gain and the clean week will see a huge loss.

heybales

Whole lot of stressful cardio there. Added to diet stress, and other stress.

Too much stress, body fights fat and weight loss.

Right mix of exercise could leave you at a performance plateau too, besides weight loss.

Probably need to round up to next activity level, besides doing reset.

Before you increase calories though, suggest exercise break.

Eat at Lightly Active for a week, and only walk during your workout times.

Muscles will be ready to go full tilt when you come back.

Then eat at rounded up TDEE figure for a week and your exercise will be making max benefit eating at that level.

Then cut 15%.

If exercise is steady enough with routine, might try this too for logging progress, and getting best estimates of BMR and TDEE.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/813720-spreadsheet-bmr-tdee-deficit-macro-calcs-hrm-zones