help please

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matthewdove
matthewdove Posts: 4
in Introduce Yourself
I'm trying to lose weight now for about 6 weeks now, I lost 60 pounds earlier last year but then put it all back on after i quit smoking. My progress has really slowed the last few weeks and i wonder if my metabolism is slowing down because of my calorie intake versus my exercise. I am walking twice daily for 45 minutes each at 4 miles an hour on my treadmill but i am only taking in 1086 calories per day. I have been feeling tired and rundown and i lost no weight last week and like 3 pounds this week. I am working very hard at it but seem to be getting nowhere. Anyone have any advice?

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  • AmyRhubarb
    AmyRhubarb Posts: 6,890 Member
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    You are not eating enough. How did you arrive at the goal of only 1086 calories? MFP won't drop ya below 1200, and that is considered the bare minimum intake for women. Eat too low over a period of time, and you give the body a reason to store fat rather than burn it.

    You should adjust your goals in the MFP settings - maybe lightly active or moderately active depending on your occupation or what you do besides walking. Set your weekly goal to lose no more than 1lb a week. Log all your food and your exercise, and eat back the calories you burn - MFP adds exercise cals to you daily goal because there is already a deficit built in before you exercise - meaning you could eat to goal every day, with zero exercise, and you'd lose weight. Not eating back those cals creates too large of a deficit, so eat them up - food is fuel! The body likes to be fueled!

    Hope that helps.

    For what it's worth - I'm a 44 year old woman and I lose fat/inches/weight eating over 1800 calories a day, and working an hour or less per day. You can definitely eat more. :smile:
  • amata08
    amata08 Posts: 18
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    You are not eating enough. How did you arrive at the goal of only 1086 calories? MFP won't drop ya below 1200, and that is considered the bare minimum intake for women. Eat too low over a period of time, and you give the body a reason to store fat rather than burn it.

    You should adjust your goals in the MFP settings - maybe lightly active or moderately active depending on your occupation or what you do besides walking. Set your weekly goal to lose no more than 1lb a week. Log all your food and your exercise, and eat back the calories you burn - MFP adds exercise cals to you daily goal because there is already a deficit built in before you exercise - meaning you could eat to goal every day, with zero exercise, and you'd lose weight. Not eating back those cals creates too large of a deficit, so eat them up - food is fuel! The body likes to be fueled!

    Hope that helps.

    For what it's worth - I'm a 44 year old woman and I lose fat/inches/weight eating over 1800 calories a day, and working an hour or less per day. You can definitely eat more. :smile:


    Sorry to bump in, but is that a TARDIS in your counter thing??
  • Ed98043
    Ed98043 Posts: 1,333 Member
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    Your calories are WAY too low for man. Too low for woman, too. You're feeling tired and rundown because you're starving, and your metabolism is slowing down to try and get by on next to nothing. You need to up your calories before your body thinks that 1,086 calories a day is just how it's gonna be and adjusts long term. You're also eating up your muscles and other lean body mass which I assume is not the look you're going for.
  • poohpoohpeapod
    poohpoohpeapod Posts: 776 Member
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    1100 calories fro a male is way way too low.
  • skadoosh33
    skadoosh33 Posts: 353 Member
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    I have a relatively sedentary life. Besides my 12.5hr shifts in the ER 2 days/wk and my workouts, I am either studying/writing papers or taking care of my children. I only have 10lbs to my goal and I eat 2300-2500 calories depending on workouts or if I worked that day and I am still losing 1-2lbs/week.

    You need to find out what your daily needs are. You can use an online calculator to help. They won't be exact though. Just try a couple and average them out. Then use that number for two weeks and see if you gain/lose/maintain. Adjust until you don't gain/lose for two weeks. This is your actual number of calories needed to maintain your weight at your lifestyle. Once you know this number for sure, you can figure out how to burn/cut 500 cal/day and you will lose 1lb/week. If you have a lot to lose you could do 2-3lbs/wk. But make sure you don't go under your BMR. Try to eat healthy and burn more by exercising.
  • matthewdove
    matthewdove Posts: 4
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    I screwed up in the mfp counter, i am at 1600 or so calories per day but i am vigilante about my exercise. I am laid off at the moment so my lifestyle is pretty slow, kids, cleaning, cooking. When i go back to work it will be more manual labor but for now all i get is my walking. I do add a 3rd 45 minute walk in when i can. But i am very tired and drugg out the last few weeks and working my *kitten* off on my eating and exercise. I eat the same thign everyday and walk in the morning and at 7pm every day. MFP says i am 1033 calories short for my goals so i am thinking of adding 600 calories to my plan because i think i must have crashed my metabolism. I was 320 6 weeks ago and i am at 290 now but the last 2 weeks it's like it has been at a standstill. Nothign worse than working your but off all week and seeing no results. And as heavy as i am there is no reason not to see some progress. Thanks for any and all advice, this is my first venture into diet and exercise, i am 39 turnign 40 this year and i quit smoking and am on the path to being healthy for the first time in my life but i think i could use some guidance
  • kimosabe1
    kimosabe1 Posts: 2,467 Member
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    eating back exercise calories is helpful and increasing your daily calories to 1200-1500 helps also. I increased my workouts to 60 minutes and am dropping weight that way as well.
  • matthewdove
    matthewdove Posts: 4
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    makes sense
  • vzryder
    vzryder Posts: 129 Member
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    Simple, eat more!
  • MichaelBrewer2634
    MichaelBrewer2634 Posts: 91 Member
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    I would advise increasing your caloric intake, and increasing your intensity. If you are walking. Walk a quarter of the way, stop, do some push ups, walk another quarter, repeat. But make sure to eat enough calories. Eat as much dark green vegetables as possible, no energy drinks, plenty of water, stay away from bread, sugar, and pasta. Eat a few apples each day. And above all else never quit ever!
  • Barbellerella
    Barbellerella Posts: 1,838 Member
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    read these

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/819925-the-basics-don-t-complicate-it
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/818082-exercise-calories-again-wtf
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/819055-setting-your-calorie-and-macro-targets

    seriously
  • SoViLicious
    SoViLicious Posts: 2,633 Member
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    suspect
  • JuniperT
    JuniperT Posts: 394 Member
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    Can someone help me know what I'm doing wrong then? My diary is open (last couple days are crappy though), I do 55 sometimes more minutes of excercise a day and I'm not losing either, and I thought I should be considering how big I am. My goal is 2 pounds a week, and I have my settings on lightly active 6 days a week. 1780 is what mfp gave me for my calories, I'm getting really frusterated, but I'm also fairly clueless about this process (I'll be the first to admit it). I'm honest with my diary cause I'm a no bs kinda girl. I refuse to give up but I'd like to see some results too.
  • Barbellerella
    Barbellerella Posts: 1,838 Member
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    Can someone help me know what I'm doing wrong then? My diary is open (last couple days are crappy though), I do 55 sometimes more minutes of excercise a day and I'm not losing either, and I thought I should be considering how big I am. My goal is 2 pounds a week, and I have my settings on lightly active 6 days a week. 1780 is what mfp gave me for my calories, I'm getting really frusterated, but I'm also fairly clueless about this process (I'll be the first to admit it). I'm honest with my diary cause I'm a no bs kinda girl. I refuse to give up but I'd like to see some results too.
    you're diary isn't open actually. Read the links I posted above.
  • matthewdove
    matthewdove Posts: 4
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    I just opened my diary too. I thought it was open already. I think i am the casualty of wanting very badly to get healthy and lose weight but having no clue how to do it lol. Enjoying the advice though and welcome more
  • Talleifer
    Talleifer Posts: 44 Member
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    Google is your friend. Read the articles that have been posted. Do some research of your own on BMR (Basic Metabolic Rate), macro nutrients and figure out what good nutrition really is. Step one, figure out how many calories your burn in a day. This is based on your age, height, weight and activity level. This is important, really important. Once you're sure you know how many calories you burn in a day, you want to eat less than that... but don't eat so little that you put your body into starvation mode. THIS IS BAD, DON'T DO IT! Eat moderately less at first, maybe a 10-15% deficit. The main goal here, is to eat less calories than you burn = weight loss. But, you want to burn fat, and only fat. Males should never go below 1600 as a general rule, females never below 1200. Read those articles, figure out what's right for you and your body, as everyone will be different. I myself am very active in working out and keep a healthy deficit at a 2000 calorie diet so I can safely lose about 2lbs a week, maybe even 3lbs. I go over my daily intake a lot.. but I don't sweat it, because I know I'm still at a deficit and still losing weight.

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