I STILL have 800 calories to eat again today!! How?????

I have a great book titled "Eat up, Slim down" its numbers are higher than any online food tracking I've used, however, I followed their recommendations on the # of calories to eat per day and lost 20#'s in 6 weeks (which I promptly gained back when I stopped)...that being written, what the book recommends is: find your current weight, look at your activity level, then subtract between 500-1000 calories per day from what you would need to eat to maintain your currently weight at your current activity level. This site 'told me' I should be eating ~1250 cals/per day with a sedentary activity level, I set my goal to 1320, track my activity separately and have lost 5 #'s in 3 weeks.

If you don't feed your body enough at an increased activity level it will hold on to the weight, also, muscle weighs more than fat, which we all already know. A nutritionist once told me after any sort of vigorous activity one should eat something High in Protein, to help the body repair itself. She recommended soy protein shakes, but I don't like soy products, so I eat peanut butter and or egg whites.

Then again, perhaps you are just at a plateau and it's time to "trick your body" into more weight loss by doing something different for exercise.

If you aren't hungry don't worry about it.

Have you figured out your calorie dilemma? I struggled with the total calorie problem off and on in the past. When I went back to training - endurance and heavy condition to build a base from which to move on to tougher work - I met with my MD (a board certified medical nutritionist of all things) and he ladled out the following parameters:

1. Protein intake not more than 1g per kilogram of TOTAL body weight. You really can get stronger without adding a ton of muscle mass, unless "hulked out" is what you're going for.

2. Carb intake should rough out to about 50% of total daily calorie intake - slow burn, high fiber carbs like veggies, beans, brown rice, sweet potatos only. I eat a lot of red beans and brown rice. It works.

3. No gluten, period. If bread factors into the day, only one serving per day and only whole wheat (which is tough given that few commercial brands use only whole grain flour).

4. Fat intake to not more than 20% of daily calorie intake. In my case, the cutoff is 40g per day. Just keep fat low - the whole Primal / no carb approach is not sustainable long term, at least in my case as endurance training can't persist in the face of acidosis. (The ketone problem one of your posters observed).

5. Keep up with BMI% and BF%. If you lose muscle mass, don't add protein. Rather, start by adding a few extra slow burn carbs. Your body may just need the calories to prevent metabolizing muscle tissue instead of burning the carbs. I know, right? That's the kicker. Adding more protein doesn't actually prevent muscle mass - ya just gotta replace those calories with carbs.

6. Do a little research on calorie deficit. There's a lot of nutrition information available - I've been hanging out at www.beginnertriathlete.com lately. The site has links to a lot of science based nutritional information that I've found helpful. It'll help to calculate your BMR - the site has links to the simple math you need to work the numbers. Then you can set your goals by calorie deficit and exercise. Maintain the calorie deficit and to NOT add calories because you work out. My daily calorie number is 1,900, no matter how much I exercise.

7. Keep up with the kind of exercise you do to compare how you feel to what you eat.

Sorry for running on as I have, but when I started trying to get my sexy back, I rarely hit my goals, struggled to lose weight and couldn't get over feeling tired and deeply fatigued. I ended up cutting back on protein - I was still going over my daily maximum any way - adding about 150 calories more of carbs every day to prevent muscle loss and Bob's your uncle, the fat started melting off. Oh, and work out your preferred sports drink. I'm not necessarily talking counter brand gatorade though. I use stuff called Scivation Xtend, its a zero calorie BCAA supplement that one takes during a workout. (It's made in a med lab right here in NC, but eBay has it cheaper by far). On tougher, longer days, like the first 3 hour ride I did recently, my MD recommended G2, low sugar Gatorade with alka-seltzer added in. 1 bottle per hour max. It flushes lactic acid very quickly, reduces fatigue to the point where I don't notice it at all and cuts recovery time to, well zero.

OK, now I am rambling. Sorry about that but your topic is close to my heart / waistline and I've spent a lot of time figuring this stuff out for myself, the hard way.

Good luck.

Have you figured out your calorie dilemma? I struggled with the total calorie problem off and on in the past. When I went back to training - endurance and heavy condition to build a base from which to move on to tougher work - I met with my MD (a board certified medical nutritionist of all things) and he ladled out the following parameters:

1. Protein intake not more than 1g per kilogram of TOTAL body weight. You really can get stronger without adding a ton of muscle mass, unless "hulked out" is what you're going for.

2. Carb intake should rough out to about 50% of total daily calorie intake - slow burn, high fiber carbs like veggies, beans, brown rice, sweet potatos only. I eat a lot of red beans and brown rice. It works.

3. No gluten, period. If bread factors into the day, only one serving per day and only whole wheat (which is tough given that few commercial brands use only whole grain flour).

4. Fat intake to not more than 20% of daily calorie intake. In my case, the cutoff is 40g per day. Just keep fat low - the whole Primal / no carb approach is not sustainable long term, at least in my case as endurance training can't persist in the face of acidosis. (The ketone problem one of your posters observed).

5. Keep up with BMI% and BF%. If you lose muscle mass, don't add protein. Rather, start by adding a few extra slow burn carbs. Your body may just need the calories to prevent metabolizing muscle tissue instead of burning the carbs. I know, right? That's the kicker. Adding more protein doesn't actually prevent muscle mass - ya just gotta replace those calories with carbs.

6. Do a little research on calorie deficit. There's a lot of nutrition information available - I've been hanging out at www.beginnertriathlete.com lately. The site has links to a lot of science based nutritional information that I've found helpful. It'll help to calculate your BMR - the site has links to the simple math you need to work the numbers. Then you can set your goals by calorie deficit and exercise. Maintain the calorie deficit and to NOT add calories because you work out. My daily calorie number is 1,900, no matter how much I exercise.

7. Keep up with the kind of exercise you do to compare how you feel to what you eat.

Sorry for running on as I have, but when I started trying to get my sexy back, I rarely hit my goals, struggled to lose weight and couldn't get over feeling tired and deeply fatigued. I ended up cutting back on protein - I was still going over my daily maximum any way - adding about 150 calories more of carbs every day to prevent muscle loss and Bob's your uncle, the fat started melting off. Oh, and work out your preferred sports drink. I'm not necessarily talking counter brand gatorade though. I use stuff called Scivation Xtend, its a zero calorie BCAA supplement that one takes during a workout. (It's made in a med lab right here in NC, but eBay has it cheaper by far). On tougher, longer days, like the first 3 hour ride I did recently, my MD recommended G2, low sugar Gatorade with alka-seltzer added in. 1 bottle per hour max. It flushes lactic acid very quickly, reduces fatigue to the point where I don't notice it at all and cuts recovery time to, well zero.

OK, now I am rambling. Sorry about that but your topic is close to my heart / waistline and I've spent a lot of time figuring this stuff out for myself, the hard way.

Good luck.

Yoy.