Increasing Calories- Advice please

RubyInParadise
RubyInParadise Posts: 10 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Yes, another post about increasing calories....

In the past I have lost weight by cutting my calories to at or below 1000/day. In the past this has worked to "lose weight," but as others have said, I wasn't toned. I looked like I was wasting away....not sexy... I looked unhealthy... I was unhealthy. At the time I was happy with the way I looked and wondered why people asked me if I was okay, if I was sick... looking back at the pictures.. I think I looked terrible. I am disappointed at myself for letting that happen.

I have just had my third child, I had gone from 120lbs( an unhealthy 120lbs) to 160lbs during my pregnancy. Right now I am about 137lbs. When I started changing my eating habits a couple of weeks ago, I started with low calories once again. This was the only way I knew how to "diet."

After using MFP to log my calories I came across the message boards... This is where my research began. I saw most people talking about raising calories to drop fat and build muscle. Believe it or not, this was a foreign concept to me. I was advised for so long that I should drop my calories to lose weight.

I have been eating around 1300 calories/day for the past few days, which is a big improvement from what I was netting before, which was around 900ish. I know I need to raise my calories again because my caloric intake is still too low... my BMR is 1429.55. I started the 30 day shred a few days ago- I'm on my 4th day today.

My question is at 5'6, 137lbs and 27 years of age. is 1500-1600 calories enough? Or am I still cutting myself too short?

I want to get into shape. I don't just want to lose weight. I don't really want to lose much weight... I want to tone up. I have a lot of work to do on my thighs and hips. Those are my problem areas. I feel that with a goal of toning up, rather than losing weight I will be happier in the long run.

Replies

  • missjeevious
    missjeevious Posts: 83 Member
    google the scooby calculator and use it- it will tell you what amount to eat. a word of advice? You will be tempted to go for a 20% cut, but just do the 10%- you are SO close to the weight you want to be and it sounds like getting toned is important to you. You'll need to fuel your activity. the number will give you a heart attack if you are anything like me- but give it a chance. you've been eating such a little amount of food. and do pay attention to the macros 40/30/30 (carb/protein/fat)- i'm no expert have only been doing this since the beginning of the month.
  • Craigamears
    Craigamears Posts: 65 Member
    Ruby, with your BMR of 1450 or so, your TDEE with 3 kids is at least 2200 without the "shredding". Don't know if you are breastfeeding but that is about 500 cals more per day. So.... 10% less than the 2200 is around 1980 cals plus "shredding" work out plus breastfeeding if applicable. You can use an activity calculator that can total you calories based upon the actual effort involved. I thought I would be sedentary because of my work as a cube dweller. I plugged in my sleep time, sitting quietly time, office job sitting, and 1 hour drive time. It was like 150% of my BMR. That is not counting my regular walking to and fro during the normal part of the day.

    Don't let the numbers freak you out. This is what a healthy person needs to eat at a minimum to have a healthy sustainable weight loss. The lose 10 lbs in 10 days to go to the high school reunion only works for that night. The next day when you go back to normal, your system is in conserve mode so that Starbucks scone goes directly to the hips and all the water weight you lost will to.
  • now_or_never13
    now_or_never13 Posts: 1,575 Member
    YOu had mentioned you want to "tone" up rather than lose weight. While toning doesn't exist I imagine you want to have better definition.

    Your best bet would be to work on building muscle. In order to do that you need to lift HEAVY weights, max out on protein and eat at a slight surplus of calories. You lose muscle while in a calorie deficit so it's important to try and build that back up if you haven't properly been working on retaining you rmuscle along the way. Work on building muscle. Stay off the scale.

    Do bulk and cut cycles. Eat at a surplus, tons of protein and HEAVY lifting for 4-6 weeks. Then maintain lifting and protein intake but drop calories down to a deficit for about 4-6 weeks. Keep doing these cycles until ou are happy with your results.
  • RubyInParadise
    RubyInParadise Posts: 10 Member
    Thank you for the advice.

    I wanted to fit back into my jeans right away so badly. I was so tempted to do my usual to lose the weight, but looking back at those pictures... I just can't do that to myself again. I want to set a positive example for my children. I want to do this the right way.

    According to http://iifym.com/tdee-calculator/ my TDEE is 2454. So it sounds like I am looking at about 2000?.. not including eating back my exercise calories.

    As far as heavy lifting, how long/often should I be lifting? I know not to work the same muscle group every day, and I imagine that maybe 4 times a week will work? The only lifting I have ever done was doing 30 minute circuit at my local gym about 3x/week. Also, Should I still be doing much cardio? I was advised to do 30 minutes at least 3 times a week?

    Thanks so much for the advice

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