Please Help me

maggs155

I started in December of 2012 and from that date until now i lost 78 pounds i worked out two hour a day for the most part and only eating around 1200 cals a day. Around a month ago i slowed my working out down to an hour still eating 1200 cals a day. I had realized i wasnt eating enough. Im wanting to up my calories but want to be careful not to put weight on. This last week i have been eating around 1500 cals or so but some days would get scared and eat 1200. Should i just eat back my exercise calories and not worry about it? I want to be healthy not loose all this weight to just put it back on. Also i have added more strength training in on my workouts. I havent lost in 8 days but im not worried as long as i dont gain while im adjusting my calories. Also i have read the road map and my calories seem high to jump from 1200 to 2,446.

Alta2000

What's your current height and weight, and what kind of exercises you do and when, what type of work activity do you have?

maggs155

I am 5'8 and i weigh 170. Recently I have been doing 20 min of circuit training, 20 min of kickboxing, and 30 min of walking a very fast pace of 4.5 miles an hour. I am a stay at home mother. I only take one day off for rest if that.

FaerieCae

I increased 100 cals a week til I was at tdee-20%, still lost during this time.once I got there I didnt lose for nearly three weeks, then lost again. That was last week, so im not completely sure its going to keep qorking, but it makes it a bit less stressful.

So I would say, eat half your exercise cals back, or workout what -20% is and work your way up to it. And rest more, at least onemore day a week

Sarauk2sf

Walk your calories up slowly. Add 100 calories, sit there for a week or two. Then add another 100, and sit there until your weight stabilizes. Continue this until it looks as though you may be gaining - then cut back down by a couple hundred (assuming you have got your calories up by a decent amount at that point). Take it slowly though so you can assess your maintenance - then cut from there.

ironanimal

1lb of fat = 3500 calories over MAINTENANCE (which you are likely still well away from at 1500 a day)

Any weight gain immediately resulting from increasing calorie intake is glycogen and water.

Have faith in maths and science

vorgas

If you are adding in strength training, expect an enormous amount of fluid storage. it's a well known phenomena. The fact you are holding steady says you are fine to me. most people have weight surges when they go up. in addition, your metabolism probably slowed down considerably during your prior diet phase. expect a couple weeks for it to recover.

Alta2000

I am 5'8 and i weigh 170. Recently I have been doing 20 min of circuit training, 20 min of kickboxing, and 30 min of walking a very fast pace of 4.5 miles an hour. I am a stay at home mother. I only take one day off for rest if that.

http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/

I put 3-5 hours and gave me for TDEE-20% 1948 calories. I will boost your calories to 1500, keep it there for a week, then boost it to 1700 for another week and then 1850 and play around for a few weeks around that range.

maggs155

Thanks i think i will try that:)

bamos01

Great topic maggs155. A lot of people get concerned with increasing calories with weight gain. But gaining weight is not all that bad if you are measuring it correctly. In this I mean when weighing yourself there needs to be two measurements. 1) total body weight and 2) %body fat. For example say the person weighs 170 pounds and has 18% body fat. They weigh them self a month later after strength/aerobic training and find they weigh 175 pounds BUT their % body fat is now at 15%. So the person has lost body fat but increased their overall weight (muscle gain). So if increasing calories these parameters need to be measures.

Smores18

The only way I've ever been able to lose weight consistently, for more than a week at a time, is to diet for 2 days then off for 1. So I eat 1200-1300 calories (more if I exercise and never less) for 2 days then I eat 1800-2000 calories for a day then back to the 1200-1300 calories. With exercise I've found this works for me and I kept the weight off for many months after losing it (before gaining it all back due to infertility treatments). This method keeps my body from going into starvation mode and therefore allows it to continue to lose. I only diet for 2 weeks at a time, since we are trying to conceive I only diet before I ovulate, after I ovulate I treat my body as if I were pregnant. But during that time I still shoot for eating about 1600-1800 calories per day.
Also, because the higher calorie days come fairly often, only every three days, I am able to keep myself from eating and drinking high calorie food and drink until that day, then I get a sort of splurge day and jump right back on. This way I don't feel like I'm denying myself food which helps me stay on track. In general since calorie counting an TTC I have eaten much better anyway, so I know that helps a lot.
HTH!

Alta2000

Thanks i think i will try that:)

And do not eat back the exercise calories because they are already figured in the TDEE calculation. If in a day you do an excessive workout, for example, you walked for 7 miles, listen to your body and eat more that day. If on the other hand for example you had a cold and you will be unable to exercise for 3-4 days in a row, then these days you can cut 100-150 calories.

GKoz004

If you are adding in strength training, expect an enormous amount of fluid storage. it's a well known phenomena. The fact you are holding steady says you are fine to me. most people have weight surges when they go up. in addition, your metabolism probably slowed down considerably during your prior diet phase. expect a couple weeks for it to recover.

How long does it take for that fluid storage to neutralize? I've only been using weights for 3 weeks, but I do feel very much like I'm retaining water.

Alta2000

If you are adding in strength training, expect an enormous amount of fluid storage. it's a well known phenomena. The fact you are holding steady says you are fine to me. most people have weight surges when they go up. in addition, your metabolism probably slowed down considerably during your prior diet phase. expect a couple weeks for it to recover.

How long does it take for that fluid storage to neutralize? I've only been using weights for 3 weeks, but I do feel very much like I'm retaining water.

When I started doing extremely intense dumbbells heavy lifting, (intense meaning my muscles ached for at least 2-3days) it took me 2 weeks for the weight to start going down and went down fast.