net calories not adding up

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  • feverinside
    feverinside Posts: 29 Member
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    I aint gonna say anything that hasn't already been said. But here are the facts IMO.

    -You gotta eat enough to keep yourself out of starvation mode in order to lose weight.

    -Swimming (unless you are seriously swimming for the length of time you say in your workouts) is a highly overestimated calorie burn on MFP based on my own experience. I spend 60 mins or so in the pool, and swim about 30%-50% of the time. Plus I float.. so treading water is barley neccesary for me. I usually log 20-30 mins for a swim... even though I am there for an hour. Again, based on my own experience... not yours. So what happens? If I log 60 min swims... I am told to eat more. If I eat more... I either gain weight or lose weight. I gained weight...w

    -Verdict: You need to stop worrying about other peoples opinions. If you are burning that much, net 43 cals and lose 1-2 pounds a week.... then keep doing it. On the other had, if you are not losing weight, then up your calories.

    -Personally, I would try to (as many people mentioned) find a way to more acuratley track you caloric burn. Buy something... or next time you go to the pool try to acuratley portray what you are burning.

    Again... all of this is IMO. You can do whatever you want to do. That is the main point here. When you see results/don't see results... that is when you need to change.
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,411 MFP Moderator
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    Simple fix. Change you settings to moderately active and eat more on days you dont workout. You can look at calories on weekly basis. Also, eat more calories dense foods; nuts, protein shakes, cook foods in evoo or eat a few spoonfuls of peanut butter.
  • danadarling09
    danadarling09 Posts: 12
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    I'm sorry i guess i came at this the wrong way, the input i was looking for was not eat more-workout less. Because I'm sorry that's not going to happen, If I'm not hungry I'm not going to eat, and i love to work out.

    What i was more looking for was what healthy foods could i eat with higher cals to where i can still work out how i do, but to where I'm not under my cal count.

    and i work as a life guard so the amount i swim is accurate. i may just have to track the cals burned in a better way then the MFP database does.
  • murphy612
    murphy612 Posts: 734 Member
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    I am one of those people that don't eat back my exercise calories (gasp!!) it just doesn't work for me. Everyone is different :) However, if I ever feel sluggish, extra hungry or if I feel my work outs are suffering from lack of energy I add some extra calories in there, usually some good carbs, like fruit and whole grains. Do what works for you. If you're not hungry don't eat. But if you notice a lack of energy while exercising or during the day you might want to add some calories. Good luck! I'm in NC too :)
  • jcpmoore
    jcpmoore Posts: 796 Member
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    When you're tracking your food, be sure to track everything. I sometimes forget to add that tbsp of oil that I cooked the chicken in and such like that. Those little things will add up the calories fast.

    I'll be honest-I don't recommend eating when you're not hungry. Listen to your body. It will tell you what to do. You can try eating denser foods, but I'm not a big fan of most of them myself (don't like nuts). But adding good fats while cooking can help.

    Some foods that can help with the calorie count would be good carbohydrates- sweet potato, whole grain rice, whole grain anything really, and good fats such as oils, nuts, fish and such.

    HTH

    Hey gals, I'm in NC as well!
  • PinkEnvyx
    PinkEnvyx Posts: 172
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    If you needed more food for energy your body will tell you. It knows more about how much of what it need and when more than anything or any one. Listen to it and don't worry about you numbers/ :smile:
  • danadarling09
    danadarling09 Posts: 12
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    I am one of those people that don't eat back my exercise calories (gasp!!) it just doesn't work for me. Everyone is different :) However, if I ever feel sluggish, extra hungry or if I feel my work outs are suffering from lack of energy I add some extra calories in there, usually some good carbs, like fruit and whole grains. Do what works for you. If you're not hungry don't eat. But if you notice a lack of energy while exercising or during the day you might want to add some calories. Good luck! I'm in NC too :)


    See that's my point! im not sluggish, i feel great! i have more energy then ever! and im sure if i was in STARVATION MODE every one seems to say i am, wouldn't i be tired? wouldn't my belly growl? wouldn't i kill over??? lmao but thanks, i was kinda surprised to she a helpful post. :)
  • danadarling09
    danadarling09 Posts: 12
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    thanks yall:)
  • stargazer008
    stargazer008 Posts: 531
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    Yes you might want to use a HRM because your exercise cals might be less than you think.
  • maddymama
    maddymama Posts: 1,183 Member
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    Are you training for the Olympics? That's the only way I can see you burning over 1200 calories a day swimming (to net around 43)? (This coming from a former competitive swimmer.) I am serious. How much yardage are you covering in a day? How many hours are you in the pool a day?

    Personally, I put the calories burned training in the pool as similar to the calories burned while running (around 100 an hour). This is for vigorous training- hard sets, etc. If you are simply swimming laps,and not training with a coach, then I'd even drop your calorie count down from 100-ish an hour.

    Also, if you want help with food ideas, try to open up your food diary so we can see what you are eating to help give suggestions. I personally love to eat nuts as a snack. I also try to add avocado to almost everything I can. Those two items can add some healthy fat to your diet, and give your body some needed energy.
  • ipinch
    ipinch Posts: 6 Member
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    I have a Polar FT7 HRM and it does work in the pool but make sure its on pretty tight and stop from time to time to make sure its registering. It tends to not register if it gets to loose. Happy swimming! Keep up the good work!
  • TheRealParisLove
    TheRealParisLove Posts: 1,907 Member
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    Just a couple of questions, 1) are you losing weight at a reasonable pace? 2) How accurate are you when recording your meals, meaning do you weigh/measure everything or are you guesstimating?

    If you are losing too fast, you may need to force yourself to eat more. Try things like protein shakes and bars for extra calories.

    If you aren't losing:

    If you aren't super anal about measuring your food, or are eating a lot of restaurant and prepackaged foods, your calories could be as much as 35% above what is listed in the database. I had to stop the guy at Chipotle from putting a gigantic portion of guacamole on my burrito bowl yesterday. The scoop he had ready was probably 3/4 of a cup or more!

    With the prepackaged foods, you really have to look at the portion size. It may list a serving as a small calorie count, but when you really look at it, the serving is tiny. Like a can of soda serves 3 kind of tiny.
  • TheRealParisLove
    TheRealParisLove Posts: 1,907 Member
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    Are you training for the Olympics? That's the only way I can see you burning over 1200 calories a day swimming (to net around 43)? (This coming from a former competitive swimmer.) I am serious. How much yardage are you covering in a day? How many hours are you in the pool a day?

    If she is very young and very overweight, she could burn 1200 calories with just 1.5-2 hours of vigorous effort. I'm 42/ 140lbs. and can burn 1000 calories biking for about 2 hours at a moderate pace. She may also be counting things like house cleaning and playing Wii as part of her daily exercise to get up to the 1200 a day. For obese beginners it is pretty easy to burn a lot of calories.
  • geezer99
    geezer99 Posts: 92
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    Check some other websites for swimming calories. According to one calculator, swimming freestyle you would burn 2,000 calories if you swam for 3 hours and covered 360 laps (a bit over 5 miles)
  • feverinside
    feverinside Posts: 29 Member
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    What i was more looking for was what healthy foods could i eat with higher cals to where i can still work out how i do, but to where I'm not under my cal count.

    Basically some healthy fats will really help you out:

    Peanut butter
    Avocado
    Olive oil in homemade dressings or use it to cook your foods. (not pam)
    nuts: Peanutes, cashews, pistacios, pecans, walnuts ect

    Healthy carbs:

    Sweet potatoes
    Rice

    Throw a side dish of sweet potatoes or rice into a meal, you easily add 200 calories. Or throw peanut butter into a chocolate protein shake and add 200 calories. Grab a handful of nutts or throw um on some yogurt and you have another 200 calories. Avocado on a sandwich.

    Another option is less-lean meats. Fat is good in your diet so don't be afraid. I know people hate on animal fat but 99/1 lean ground beef is like 140 cals/4oz and 85/15 is like 250/4oz. Plus you could save some money. :D:D:D

    Again... all of this is just IMO. You do whatever you want to do!
  • Robin_Bin
    Robin_Bin Posts: 1,046 Member
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    I am one of those people that don't eat back my exercise calories (gasp!!) it just doesn't work for me. Everyone is different :) However, if I ever feel sluggish, extra hungry or if I feel my work outs are suffering from lack of energy I add some extra calories in there, usually some good carbs, like fruit and whole grains. Do what works for you. If you're not hungry don't eat. But if you notice a lack of energy while exercising or during the day you might want to add some calories. Good luck! I'm in NC too :)


    See that's my point! im not sluggish, i feel great! i have more energy then ever! and im sure if i was in STARVATION MODE every one seems to say i am, wouldn't i be tired? wouldn't my belly growl? wouldn't i kill over??? lmao but thanks, i was kinda surprised to she a helpful post. :)

    People tend to use the term "starvation mode" here a bit much... to mean that you've slowed down your metabolism, not that you're actually starving. And yes, you'd probably be tired, but no, you probably would not be hungry. The point is that this happens when your body has adjusted to too little food. So when you eat a "normal" amount, you'll gain. You may even be used to it enough that you wouldn't feel tired or sluggish. I've seen several postings recently where people didn't realize how much less energetic they'd become until they ate more.

    Eat as little as you want. But please don't eat under for extended periods of time and then come back in 3 weeks or 3 months complaining about... how this site doesn't work, how your hair is falling out, the plateau that you've hit, the number of colds you've had, how others eat foods you can't, how you're gaining weight even though you average under X calories/day etc. If it works for you, that's fine. If it works for you over the long haul, please share. Even as a relative newbie who hasn't reached goal yet, but who hasn't plateaued or suffered bad health side effects, I've seen way too many posts that basically say... I changed the plan, exercised more, ate less, it was going great and now it stopped working - why?

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