A question about exercise

JBankey

Hello. This is end of my first week on Medifast. I have done well, have not messed around with the requirements, and am not hungry in between meals. I started by weight loss journey about 2 years and 50 pounds lost so far. I started this because even with good everyday exercise ( 4 mile walk <15 mpm pace, 30-45 minutes elliptical) I was plateaued and really didn't know how to regulate my food well. That is why my doctor (now coach) suggested I try this. I want to lose another 45 pounds and I cut back my exercise to either 30 minutes on an elliptical (program) or a 20 minute strength/circuit training video. Here is my question... Is it okay to be a net 500 calories per day since I know I am getting all of the nutrients? I am not worried about the starvation mode thing as I am getting all nutirents, taking supplements, and at the border of overweight/obese on the scale. What would you suggest?

PippaJo_

I think that the MF plan sort of takes that into account.

It understands that your calorie *intake* will be in the 900-cal range, and if they're allowing you 30 minutes of not-terribly-strenuous exercise, they understand that you will also be burning calories with that, which puts your net calories likely below 750, at least.

Because that's not how MFP is set up, naturally the site (and other users) tend to have a bit of a panic attack about that - but if MF didn't think that lower net calories was okay and not harmful, they wouldn't recommend it.

If you are a regular exerciser, but you've scaled back to 30 minutes, that ought to be okay. If your weight loss is stalling, or if you are feeling weak or tired, I'd either scale back further for a while, or talk to your coach (?) about perhaps adding in more protein.

If you are truly burning 4-500 calories within that 20-30 minutes, my guess is that you may be exercising too strenously (or perhaps your current weight is at such a place that you truly will burn a massive amount of calories with less effort than someone of less weight). But I think it's more likely that your calorie burn is overestimated, and you're not burning quite that many calories, if your exercise is reasonably moderate.


I'm not a coach or health professional though, just another user, so take that for what it's worth. :-)

JBankey

Thanks for your thoughts. I am 42 and have been working hard on an elliptical for over 18 months. I can get my heart to a sustained 75% (145 bpm) for a good portion of that time. I have cut back to only a 30 minutes program every other day and typically can burn 400 calories in 30 minutes. Cycle type training would only be 200 calories

MCLA4mom

I agree. Everyones body is different. For some, that amount of exercise will not throw them out of fat burn and for others it will. I did light cardio while on the 5 & 1 and focused on strength training. The way to know if you are not in fat burn is if your hungry and your cravings come back and you don't feel great!
If you really insist on lots of cardio talk to your coach about ways modify your plan.
Hope this helps.