Help with my numbers?
AbbyPDX
Posts: 64 Member
Hey ladies,
I was hoping someone might be able to take me on as a 'pet project' ;-) I've done all the calculations, all the TDEE numbers, etc. I think I've narrowed it down within a couple hundred calories of what I should be eating to lose but... nada. I'm very careful about reporting my foods on my journal. I work out fairly heavily 5 days a week generally (crossfit/bootcamp style classes + running (slowly)). I'm 38 and eat fairly healthily/clean. I gained about 5lbs over the past 6 months since moving in with my boyfriend and likely just eating/drinking too much. But it's been a couple of months of minimizing alcohol, sugar, bread and counting calories but the most i can do is lose 2lbs then gain in back a day or two later. Something is clearly not shaking out and I can't tell what it is.
My stats are:
Age: 38
Height: 5'2"
Weight 134
BF: 22.5% (so says the recent caliper exam I had)
Like I said exercise generally 50 minutes a day 5 days a week, sometimes with an additional 1-2 mile run added on. Some days just a 3-4 mile run. My gym workouts include resistance training and weights (mostly kettle bells, dumb bells, sand bells, etc). One new things I'm trying is paying attention to eating less on the days I don't work out - I never used to alter based on this.
i've been shooting for 1700-1800 on days I work out and 1500 on days I don't. Lately I've been getting very hungry between meals (as in surprised that I ate a decent sized meal 2 hours ago and yet my belly is grumbling again). I've shifted from snacking on lots of nuts to fruit/veggies and small amounts of nut butter. Everything I've read here says it doesn't matter 'what' you eat, just calories. But then I'm wondering if my micronutrients are off. I do eat quite a bit of protein (especially since minimizing my bread/carbs). My boyfriend leans towards paleo so I ate a lot of his meals. I don't drink anything with caffeine or really anything but water. I don't drink milk but drink quite a bit of almond milk (unsweetened - sometimes I make my own).
Anyway, I thought if this all sounded familiar to anyone or if someone had had a similar issue and figured out a breakthrough, they might be willing to share. Or if someone wanted to run numbers for me and figure out if I'm doing something wrong. I was always consistently 120-130 at the very top all through my 20s and early 30s so this is new and it feels ickems. It's frustrating to be willing to try different things but be unable to figure out what works for me. I read the 'how many calories do you eat' thread and for women my size/fitness level I feel like they're eating around the same amount but... losing! Great for them, just wish they'd share their secret with me :-)
Thanks for your help ladies! I'm headed out for a run!
I was hoping someone might be able to take me on as a 'pet project' ;-) I've done all the calculations, all the TDEE numbers, etc. I think I've narrowed it down within a couple hundred calories of what I should be eating to lose but... nada. I'm very careful about reporting my foods on my journal. I work out fairly heavily 5 days a week generally (crossfit/bootcamp style classes + running (slowly)). I'm 38 and eat fairly healthily/clean. I gained about 5lbs over the past 6 months since moving in with my boyfriend and likely just eating/drinking too much. But it's been a couple of months of minimizing alcohol, sugar, bread and counting calories but the most i can do is lose 2lbs then gain in back a day or two later. Something is clearly not shaking out and I can't tell what it is.
My stats are:
Age: 38
Height: 5'2"
Weight 134
BF: 22.5% (so says the recent caliper exam I had)
Like I said exercise generally 50 minutes a day 5 days a week, sometimes with an additional 1-2 mile run added on. Some days just a 3-4 mile run. My gym workouts include resistance training and weights (mostly kettle bells, dumb bells, sand bells, etc). One new things I'm trying is paying attention to eating less on the days I don't work out - I never used to alter based on this.
i've been shooting for 1700-1800 on days I work out and 1500 on days I don't. Lately I've been getting very hungry between meals (as in surprised that I ate a decent sized meal 2 hours ago and yet my belly is grumbling again). I've shifted from snacking on lots of nuts to fruit/veggies and small amounts of nut butter. Everything I've read here says it doesn't matter 'what' you eat, just calories. But then I'm wondering if my micronutrients are off. I do eat quite a bit of protein (especially since minimizing my bread/carbs). My boyfriend leans towards paleo so I ate a lot of his meals. I don't drink anything with caffeine or really anything but water. I don't drink milk but drink quite a bit of almond milk (unsweetened - sometimes I make my own).
Anyway, I thought if this all sounded familiar to anyone or if someone had had a similar issue and figured out a breakthrough, they might be willing to share. Or if someone wanted to run numbers for me and figure out if I'm doing something wrong. I was always consistently 120-130 at the very top all through my 20s and early 30s so this is new and it feels ickems. It's frustrating to be willing to try different things but be unable to figure out what works for me. I read the 'how many calories do you eat' thread and for women my size/fitness level I feel like they're eating around the same amount but... losing! Great for them, just wish they'd share their secret with me :-)
Thanks for your help ladies! I'm headed out for a run!
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Replies
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What's your non-exercise activity like? What's your average day look like, activity wise (i.e. active on your feet job, or desk job...household chores...chasing kids...)
It sounds like you work out quite a bit, which ups your TDEE, but it would be helpful to know how active you are otherwise.
Also - I say this a lot, having a food scale made me really aware of what I was *actually* eating, which was maintenance levels instead of losing levels. If you don't weigh your portions, you might consider that. For us smaller gals, the difference between losing, not losing, and eating *too* little is so very small that if we're not really precise we can end up not getting anywhere.
I agree with you mainly on it doesn't matter *what* you eat, to some extent. You do want to make sure you're getting enough protein and fat, which will help you feel full longer and hopefully avoid your grumbly belly. A common way to determine how much you need is 1g of protein per pound of lean body mass, and .35g of fat per total body weight. Set your diet up to meet these requirements (as a minimum, don't worry about being over) first, then eat what you like to fill up the rest of your calories.
A really great group on here with lots of information you'll find useful is call "Eat. Train. Progress."
Good luck, hope this helps!0 -
I would echo what Schmoozy said! When you are relatively thin, and you are at 22% body fat, it is really difficult to lose fat. Fat want to survive so badly:happy:
Also, the point is, the difference between maintaining and losing is very small. None of is really knows how many calories we are burning and our bodies become more efficient, the more we exercise so we gradually burn fewer calories.
And macros do matter, especially at the small deficits we see. Because, basially, it's harder to digest protein so you end consuming fewer calories, or burning a couple more, when you eat protein instead of sugar.
your diet sounds great, though, I think you should experiment with the cals and maybe cycle more dramatically on your non-workout days. I am 115 lbs and 27% body fat and my maintenance cals are about 1470. if that helps0 -
Thanks to both of you!
Schmoozy, my regular work day is fairly sedentary (desk job - jealous of your farming!). My commute to and from work involves about a 3/4 mile walk, which I generally do fairly speedily. I'm not good at sitting around (we don't have a tv) so when I'm home I'm moving around, sweeping, cleaning up, etc. But I wouldn't say I'm getting a ton of activity outside of my workouts. We just built a huge garden so hope to be outside more often working on that.
I JUST mentioned to my boyfriend last night that I think I need to buy a food scale. I especially have trouble with meat since we eat a decent amount of it. I definitely think I'm ok with my protein intake - it's generally right around the range you say. However I may be eating too much fat? I get a lot of fat from nut butters, eggs, avocado, cooking oils, etc. So all 'good' fats but they do add up. If the calories are staying in the range they're supposed to be, do you think that could be making a big difference?
I will try to lower my cals on my non workout days. The problem is I'm usually not working out because I have some social engagement where there's food :-) But I will be more observant of that.
I will check out the Eat. Train. Progress group as well.
I haven't been able to figure out how to change my goals on my food diary... I see where I can update what to display, but can't for the life of me figure out how to adjust the numbers. Any thoughts? Thanks again!0 -
Yep, you can change your goals just go to "goals" on the "my home" tab and, hit "change goals" then select "custom" and put in what you want for cals, and macros.
I go with a 40/30/30 for carbs/protein/fats, try that and log and see how close you're getting and you might see if you are way over on fat or not. the MFP macros are pretty bad, I have no idea why they set them the way that they do!
It's worth mentioning again that you have to be really consistent for a really long time to see results, because the deficits are small, say 200 cals per day deficit, that would mean 17.5 days before you see a one-pound loss (3500 calorie deficit=1 pound of fat). Of course, that is precise in a way the human body is not, but just to give you an idea, because I realized my weekend binge was undoing all the hard work for the week.0 -
That's helpful. I think I do have a tendency to do something for a week and expect to see results (because sometimes I do get that 2lbs drop but then it's up again). I'm trying to be more aware of what I do when I don't eat at home (I have no idea how to log a dinner out... who knows what they put in there?). So my answer is to just leave a LOT of calories left if I plan to eat out. I live in a major foodie city so it's not as simple as ordering the 'grilled chicken breast salad' most of the time. You never really know what's in something. That said, I'm trying to eat out very little, bring my lunches to work, etc.
I will be patient though and give this a few more weeks before bashing it :-) As of Jan 1 I spent a month with no alcohol, minimized sugar and bread and thought "Oh the weight will just melt right off!" because it did when I was 25 :-) This is more like banging your head against the wall.
Thanks for the tips! I've updated my goals so we'll see how that goes.0
