How to fix this?

LabMonkeySteph85

Okay, so I started dieting and working out in the middle of January. I exercise 90 minutes, 6-7 days a week and eat approximately 1500 calories a day. I don't eat back any of my exercise cals so normally I net anywhere from 200-800 cals a day. I lost 13 pounds in the first 5 weeks and have lost nothing since (even temporarily gained back a couple pounds.) So I am guessing that I need to up myself to netting at least my BMR (which is 1542) in order to start losing weight again. How do I do this? Do I just start eating the extra 700 calories or do I gradually add them in? I'm afraid that if I up my calorie intake drastically, I will gain back EVERYTHING I lost. I know this sounds ridiculous and I should just suck it up but I've been working so hard.

LabMonkeySteph85

Oh and I realize that it sounds ridiculous that I would net 200 cals a day, but if I go to kickboxing and Zumba I have problems eating after so I usually will have just a banana and some peanut butter instead of dinner so my calories for that day are lower anyway.

Ed98043

Yes, eat more. I wasn't losing at 1200 calories a day net, and started losing right away at 1400-1600. Your body is in distress with such a low net, and it's not working right.

LabMonkeySteph85

Yes, eat more. I wasn't losing at 1200 calories a day net, and started losing right away at 1400-1600. Your body is in distress with such a low net, and it's not working right.

I just can't fathom that much food. In order to net 1400 calories a day, I would have to eat like 2200 calories on my heavy workout days. It just seems crazy.

marooned

add back in a few hundred at a time; add nuts, and maybe moning protein shake

NaomiJFoster

Eat more or exercise less or eat back your calories. Your body is telling you that it isn't getting enough nutrients to sistain that amount of activity/exercise.

jehavin

You could try "cycling" your workout days and rest days so that you only have to eat big meals/cals on your workout days. Honestly, working out 90 minutes a day 6-7 days a week is probably unsustainable, so it would be better for you to find a routine that you can keep up for the years ahead. Try 5 days a week, eating 1900-2000 calories, (I eat around that, so feel free to add me as a friend if you need a sample diary,) and loading so that you eat most of your calories before your workout so that post-WO appetite loss isn't hindering you. Then, on your 2 rest days (I still count the days where I do yoga as rest days even though I am still doing activity,) eat 1500. I bet this will be just the shakeup that your body needs to start efficiently using its "fuel" and drop the pounds!

Good luck and congrats on all your hard work so far!

irisheyez718

It might seem crazy to eat 2200 calories on heavy workout days, but once you start eating more, you'll feel hungry and want more, at leas that's what I've found. Netting 200 definitely sounds crazy to me :-)

MelStren

You need to eat more and take a rest day or two a week. Try drinking protien shakes to help you reach your calorie goals.

SARgirl

Yes, eat more. I wasn't losing at 1200 calories a day net, and started losing right away at 1400-1600. Your body is in distress with such a low net, and it's not working right.

I just can't fathom that much food. In order to net 1400 calories a day, I would have to eat like 2200 calories on my heavy workout days. It just seems crazy.

I did it and lost 36 pounds:). If you don't want to jump right in maybe start by eating half back for a month or so and see how it goes.

xMonroeMisfit

1. TRY to eat back those exercise calories
2. Change up your workout
3. LAY OFF working out so much--your body is getting used to this and think it's the norm.

Give it a one month shot.

ashlinmarie

I'm not saying you should eat all your exercise calories, because I don't, but if you're exercising that much, then your BMR will be higher which means your TDEE is higher. For me, if I workout lightly 3-4 times a week, my TDEE jumps from 1900-2200 and you sound like you're doing much more than that. Maybe try figuring that out using scoobysworkshop.com and just eat 10%-20% under your TDEE. Look up the "In place of a road map 2.0" thread here because that helped me loads.

LabMonkeySteph85

MFP should just Sticky note IPOARM or EM2WL posts at the top of the website so we don't have to keep saying this over and over again BUT....

for arguments sake,

1. TRY to eat back those exercise calories
2. Change up your workout
3. LAY OFF working out so much--your body is getting used to this and think it's the norm.

Give it a one month shot.

I wasn't asking if I should do these things. If you read my post, you will see that I am aware that I need to eat more. What I was really asking is that since I have been on a really big deficit, should I start eating the extra calories all at once or should I try to do it gradually. Like which would be best to do to avoid shocking my body is what I am saying, I guess.

LabMonkeySteph85

You could try "cycling" your workout days and rest days so that you only have to eat big meals/cals on your workout days. Honestly, working out 90 minutes a day 6-7 days a week is probably unsustainable, so it would be better for you to find a routine that you can keep up for the years ahead. Try 5 days a week, eating 1900-2000 calories, (I eat around that, so feel free to add me as a friend if you need a sample diary,) and loading so that you eat most of your calories before your workout so that post-WO appetite loss isn't hindering you. Then, on your 2 rest days (I still count the days where I do yoga as rest days even though I am still doing activity,) eat 1500. I bet this will be just the shakeup that your body needs to start efficiently using its "fuel" and drop the pounds!

Good luck and congrats on all your hard work so far!

I friend requested you. Thanks for the advice!

Erikalynne18

When I realised the 1200 calorie life (plus excercise calories) wasn't going to work forever, I upped my calories in 2 parts. First to 1350, ate like this for 2 weeks, then upped to 1550 calories. The weight loss slowed, but I didn't gain it all back

LabMonkeySteph85

Thanks everyone for the advice! I guess I will try to cut back to an hour of exercise 5 days a week and add in extra calories a couple hundred at a time.

jehavin

To me, three hundred sounds like a good increase to do per day and try it out for a week or two. When I had to add 300 calories a day for my last trimester of pregnancy, I would just eat a pbj sandwich when I woke up first thing and that was 350 cals. If I forget to eat enough and need some cals at the end of the day, I will do a cup of applesauce or pudding with graham crackers, which is about 200-250 cals. So start this week adding 300 (one snack at whatever time) to your rest day cals and 600 (one snack in the am and one in the pm) to your training day cals. If you choose not to decrease your activity and need to go higher than that on your train days, then just add another (a couple fried/hardboiled eggs in a tortilla is 350).

Erikalynne18

At first I thought 1350 (then 1550) was alot, but once my body got used to the food it adjusted pretty quickly Try nuts? Easy way to get some calories in and it's healthy too (as long as you don't get the extremely salted mixes lol). Good luck

tmauck4472

Yep that's it eat more even though your not hungry, sounds like a plan to me. I'm thinking that's how you got to this point to begin with. I do agree with cutting down your exercise some. Take a rest day. I find I'm up a lb or so the day after a good workout and it's just water weight. Stay where you are calorie wise and just back off exercise some, just for a week or two and see how that works before you start adding food that you really don't want to eat or feel you need to eat. IMO doesn't matter that you've "burned" all those calories your still getting them in your body and your still getting all the nutrients from said food. The nutrients doesn't go away even if the calories in theory. I never ever eat back my exercise calories unless I'm still hungry.

jehavin

Yep that's it eat more even though your not hungry, sounds like a plan to me. I'm thinking that's how you got to this point to begin with. I do agree with cutting down your exercise some. Take a rest day. I find I'm up a lb or so the day after a good workout and it's just water weight. Stay where you are calorie wise and just back off exercise some, just for a week or two and see how that works before you start adding food that you really don't want to eat or feel you need to eat. IMO doesn't matter that you've "burned" all those calories your still getting them in your body and your still getting all the nutrients from said food. The nutrients doesn't go away even if the calories in theory. I never ever eat back my exercise calories unless I'm still hungry.

Your sarcasm doesn't refute the fact that "eating even though [one isn't] hungry" if the person is in a huge deficit (which OP admittedly is) actually does work to help stalled weight loss for most people, or at least most of the active, healthy-food eating people on this website. Granted, everyone is different, and you may not have had to increase your calories despite increasing your activity. And, as for the nutrients not going away, that flies in the face of all widely held scientific theories that calories in have to equal calories out (or not go extremely above or below) in order achieve a healthy metabolism.

LabMonkeySteph85

Yep that's it eat more even though your not hungry, sounds like a plan to me. I'm thinking that's how you got to this point to begin with. I do agree with cutting down your exercise some. Take a rest day. I find I'm up a lb or so the day after a good workout and it's just water weight. Stay where you are calorie wise and just back off exercise some, just for a week or two and see how that works before you start adding food that you really don't want to eat or feel you need to eat. IMO doesn't matter that you've "burned" all those calories your still getting them in your body and your still getting all the nutrients from said food. The nutrients doesn't go away even if the calories in theory. I never ever eat back my exercise calories unless I'm still hungry.

Your sarcasm doesn't refute the fact that "eating even though [one isn't] hungry" if the person is in a huge deficit (which OP admittedly is) actually does work to help stalled weight loss for most people, or at least most of the active, healthy-food eating people on this website. Granted, everyone is different, and you may not have had to increase your calories despite increasing your activity. And, as for the nutrients not going away, that flies in the face of all widely held scientific theories that calories in have to equal calories out (or not go extremely above or below) in order achieve a healthy metabolism.

That is why I have my diary private. I am doing a weight loss challenge right now and my partner works out as much as I do and only eats 1200-1400 calories a day. It is working for her (she has lost 15 more pounds than I have in the same amount of time) but it is obviously not going to work for me. Her encouragement to me is eat less, not more, so I decided to close my diary the other day because I was feeling like a slacker compared to her.

jehavin

Yep that's it eat more even though your not hungry, sounds like a plan to me. I'm thinking that's how you got to this point to begin with. I do agree with cutting down your exercise some. Take a rest day. I find I'm up a lb or so the day after a good workout and it's just water weight. Stay where you are calorie wise and just back off exercise some, just for a week or two and see how that works before you start adding food that you really don't want to eat or feel you need to eat. IMO doesn't matter that you've "burned" all those calories your still getting them in your body and your still getting all the nutrients from said food. The nutrients doesn't go away even if the calories in theory. I never ever eat back my exercise calories unless I'm still hungry.

Your sarcasm doesn't refute the fact that "eating even though [one isn't] hungry" if the person is in a huge deficit (which OP admittedly is) actually does work to help stalled weight loss for most people, or at least most of the active, healthy-food eating people on this website. Granted, everyone is different, and you may not have had to increase your calories despite increasing your activity. And, as for the nutrients not going away, that flies in the face of all widely held scientific theories that calories in have to equal calories out (or not go extremely above or below) in order achieve a healthy metabolism.

That is why I have my diary private. I am doing a weight loss challenge right now and my partner works out as much as I do and only eats 1200-1400 calories a day. It is working for her (she has lost 15 more pounds than I have in the same amount of time) but it is obviously not going to work for me. Her encouragement to me is eat less, not more, so I decided to close my diary the other day because I was feeling like a slacker compared to her.

Good for you for seeking out advice and not just following what your friend is doing. She may be the "special snowflake" that can survive on 200 calories net, or she may be underestimating her cals OR she could be like many of us (including myself,) who totally bought into the 1200-exercise-your-butt-off-to-see-rapid-results. Unfortunately, while that leads to success, as you've seen, it also leads to plateau or our bodies just plain out revolting through injury or illness or plain mental giving up b/c that lifestyle is unsustainable.

It sounds like you are in a different place than your friend, perhaps a few mental and physical steps ahead where you realize that what you were doing before isn't working any more and you have to change one of the variables. 300-600 extra cals a day (putting you at TDEE-10%, definitely not over maintenance) isn't going to make you gain all that weight back, but it may be the difference your body needs to help you lose more. Just like sometimes we have to STOP eating when our body still says we're hungry, sometimes we have to eat a little more when our body says that we're not hungry, contrary to what others might say/believe. Believe me, I make myself choke down that last 1/4 cup of veggies even though my tummy feels full because I know that I need that fuel for later!

Dare to try a different method and see if it works

jehavin

Obviously, someone just used how to insert gifs but needs to practice the context selection aspect.

skincy

I am like you I am afraid to eat all those calories, I am tall and I have to realize that I need more calories than the average girl. But I am happy because I get to eat! Anyway easy way to get extra calories is to add in nuts, you can easily get 300 calories in a couple of handfuls. Also adding coconut oil to your protein shake or almond butter. Another way you can use real butter (yes its not the the terrible thing its made out to be) in your oatmeal and that will add extra calories. I really don't understand those who cannot reach 1400-1800 calories, my TDEE with 20% deficit is 2200 calories and sometimes I feel that is not enough LOL good luck! Add me if you want!

misskerouac

Whenever I want to up my calories I do it gradually by adding 100 calories one week then another 100 a week or two later until I get to where I want my calorie goal to be.

Also if you aren't hungry and you know generally that you quantity wise you don't feel like eating a lot of food, try to make he ret of your food that day calorie dense. Skip anything light/diet/fat-free. They generally have more sugar and if you don't need to save the calories it's best to go for the real thing.

Good luck on your weight loss!