Help needed please!
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hannydee
Posts: 246
I'm still playing around with EM2WL, and haven't quite yet found my 'sweet spot' it would seem!
Few stats:
Age: 25
Height: 5'8"
Weight: 151 lbs
Activity: typically moderate-strenuous. I go to the gym 6 out of 7 days and normally do an hour's cardio class or 30 mins HIIT on the treadmill plus Body Pump 3x per week. I also walk quite a bit, taking my dog out most days for at least 30 mins (on quite a hilly route) and sometimes go for a longer walk myself so I often end up with over 2 hours of 'exercise' a day.
EDIT: I use a Polar FT4 HRM to count my exercise calories - I wear it while at the gym and while walking.
Now, after three weeks of eating back exercise calories to NET my BMR (which is 1500 - some days I've ended up eating over 3000!) I have simply maintained weight and my measurements are pretty much the same too.
What's the next step? I want to shed some fat!
Do I just eat a flat TDEE-15% cut (around 2200 cals) from now on and ignore the exercise calories (which would mean netting 800 or lower some days)
or
Do I aim to net higher than BMR (i.e. 1700 or 1800)?
or
Do I stop counting my dog walks as exercise, but still eat back cals burned from intense cardio to make sure I net BMR?
Let me know what you guys think. I'm a bit confused!
Few stats:
Age: 25
Height: 5'8"
Weight: 151 lbs
Activity: typically moderate-strenuous. I go to the gym 6 out of 7 days and normally do an hour's cardio class or 30 mins HIIT on the treadmill plus Body Pump 3x per week. I also walk quite a bit, taking my dog out most days for at least 30 mins (on quite a hilly route) and sometimes go for a longer walk myself so I often end up with over 2 hours of 'exercise' a day.
EDIT: I use a Polar FT4 HRM to count my exercise calories - I wear it while at the gym and while walking.
Now, after three weeks of eating back exercise calories to NET my BMR (which is 1500 - some days I've ended up eating over 3000!) I have simply maintained weight and my measurements are pretty much the same too.
What's the next step? I want to shed some fat!
Do I just eat a flat TDEE-15% cut (around 2200 cals) from now on and ignore the exercise calories (which would mean netting 800 or lower some days)
or
Do I aim to net higher than BMR (i.e. 1700 or 1800)?
or
Do I stop counting my dog walks as exercise, but still eat back cals burned from intense cardio to make sure I net BMR?
Let me know what you guys think. I'm a bit confused!
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Replies
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Be interested to see responses since I'm trying this out too0
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What you need to do is work out your real TDEE based on your level of exercise - for me I am in a desk job, workout (aerobics, pilates, zumba) three hours a week and run around after two young kids and do housework etc on weekends. So I set myself on moderately active on the scooby calculator and it seems to be working for me.
http://scoobysworkshop.com/accurate-calorie-calculator/
It sounds like you are at least at strenuous or even very strenuous which would give you either
BMR 1480
TDEE 2554
15% cut 2171
or
TDEE 2813
Cut 2391
What the team here say is to eat back exercise callories to ensure you net your BMR where your exercise causes this to fall. But this should not happen often if you have the right TDEE.
One question is do you use MFP for your exercise calories or are you using a heart rate monitor or something. The MFP figures can be a little high so people suggest being a little cautious with them - and effectively only count say 75% of what the system is saying. So I would suggest using a higher cut and then checking your net (only using 75% of the value if you are using the MFP numbers).
The other thing to do is if you can find out your body fat % via fat to fit as this helps make the TDEE more accurate and may give you a higher calorie base to play from.
Hope this helps.0 -
When you work out your calories do you put moderate or sedentary? If you put sedentary, eat them back, if you put moderate, don't eat them back as they are already factored in.
If you are putting moderate and netting below your BMR without eating back then moderate probably doesn't cover your activity level and you should up to active.
xxx0 -
Honestly, you might be overtraining, not giving your body time to recover sufficiently. This can stall out even pro athletes.
I would do two things--reduce your gym cardio sessions to at most two a week (given that you take those dog walks), and dump the Body Pump classes in favor of heavy lifting.0 -
Honestly, you might be overtraining, not giving your body time to recover sufficiently. This can stall out even pro athletes.
I would do two things--reduce your gym cardio sessions to at most two a week (given that you take those dog walks), and dump the Body Pump classes in favor of heavy lifting.
Thanks, I suspected this could be the case. I'm on summer holidays at the moment so am really enjoying all the gym classes. In September once I'm back at work I am aiming to cut down the cardio and start NROLFW (if I can pluck up the courage) but for August I'm going to carry on with this because I'm loving the fitness gains I'm getting.
The main problem I'm having here is what my calorie setup should be for now.Do you suggest I still eat my exercise calories back?0 -
What you need to do is work out your real TDEE based on your level of exercise - for me I am in a desk job, workout (aerobics, pilates, zumba) three hours a week and run around after two young kids and do housework etc on weekends. So I set myself on moderately active on the scooby calculator and it seems to be working for me.
http://scoobysworkshop.com/accurate-calorie-calculator/
It sounds like you are at least at strenuous or even very strenuous which would give you either
BMR 1480
TDEE 2554
15% cut 2171
or
TDEE 2813
Cut 2391
What the team here say is to eat back exercise callories to ensure you net your BMR where your exercise causes this to fall. But this should not happen often if you have the right TDEE.
One question is do you use MFP for your exercise calories or are you using a heart rate monitor or something. The MFP figures can be a little high so people suggest being a little cautious with them - and effectively only count say 75% of what the system is saying. So I would suggest using a higher cut and then checking your net (only using 75% of the value if you are using the MFP numbers).
The other thing to do is if you can find out your body fat % via fat to fit as this helps make the TDEE more accurate and may give you a higher calorie base to play from.
Hope this helps.
Thanks for running those numbers for me! I've used both Scooby's and Fat2Fit (at strenuous) to come up with my 2200 goal (I rounded it up)- but maybe you're right and I'm actually 'very strenuous'. Even so, with eating 2391 - let's call it 2400 - per day I will still end up having to eat some exercise calories back UNLESS I stop logging the dog walks as exercise.
Regardless of what the MFP goal is, though, as long as I'm aiming to NET above BMR I'll end up eating the same amount of calories whether my goal is set to 2200 or 2400...0 -
The main problem I'm having here is what my calorie setup should be for now.Do you suggest I still eat my exercise calories back?
Yep, at least to net above BMR. And maybe a bit more, as I think you said earlier; generally speaking, only netting at or slightly above BMR is something that should happen at most a couple of days a week, not a daily thing.0 -
The main problem I'm having here is what my calorie setup should be for now.Do you suggest I still eat my exercise calories back?
Yep, at least to net above BMR. And maybe a bit more, as I think you said earlier; generally speaking, only netting at or slightly above BMR is something that should happen at most a couple of days a week, not a daily thing.
Okay. So it's either drastically cut down on fun cardio classes or be prepared to eat in the region of 3000 calories at least a few times per week! Not quite the answer I wanted to be honest, but I'll deal with it.
One more thing: do the dog walks constitute real calorie burns that should be logged and potentially eaten back? Average heart rate is usually around 110 during (resting is ~60bpm).0
