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kurli05
Posts: 7 Member
Hi,
I'm new to MFP and have been reading a lot about the dangers of eating too little. I've spent many frustrating (and headachy) hours reading trying to understand all of this and finally decided to ask for help. I'm sorry, I'm sure you get the same questions over and over again.
Here's a little background on me:
1) I'm a 26-year-old female, 5'2", 178lbs
2) I'm very prone to headaches and am in pain 24/7. I've had the headaches since high school and they steadily got worse until I was forced to stop everything (work/school) and move back in with my parents. Because of this I spend a lot of time laying down and resting just because it hurts to move/open my eyes/think, etc. Most of my pain comes from my neck which I found out a few months ago was misaligned. In the last few weeks I've been noticing progress with my pain levels and of course the first thing I want to do is try to lose weight.
3) I made a goal 2 weeks ago to go walking every day and have stuck to it. I can't allow myself to do any more than that because I'll trigger a bad spell that could last a week. Anything that involves moving my neck is out. I'm nervous to do weight lifting because in the past sore shoulder muscles have also triggered bad headaches. I'm determined to work up to this though, I just have to take things very slow and start very small.
4) I have done the low cal thing for a week now and haven't been happy. I did about 1350, which I've now learned is lower than the 1500 BMR that was calculated. First of all I didn't lose any weight, which I know one week is a short time, but most of all I noticed that sometimes my headache felt better after I ate something. This makes me wonder of I was making my head worse from eating too little and I REALLY don't want to risk that. Also, being hungry on top of being in pain is pretty rotten.
So that long intro leads me to a few questions. With my limitations, do you think EM2WL thing can work for me? Also I'm trying to use the calculator mentioned in the sticky and I'm not sure what activity level to put. Some days I mostly lay/sit down along with a 30-60 min walk and others I will do shopping/drs/choir along with my walk. Which one should I choose? I'm still trying to wrap my mind around all the TDEE and BMR stuff so any suggestions are appreciated.
Sorry for the really long post.:ohwell:
I'm new to MFP and have been reading a lot about the dangers of eating too little. I've spent many frustrating (and headachy) hours reading trying to understand all of this and finally decided to ask for help. I'm sorry, I'm sure you get the same questions over and over again.
Here's a little background on me:
1) I'm a 26-year-old female, 5'2", 178lbs
2) I'm very prone to headaches and am in pain 24/7. I've had the headaches since high school and they steadily got worse until I was forced to stop everything (work/school) and move back in with my parents. Because of this I spend a lot of time laying down and resting just because it hurts to move/open my eyes/think, etc. Most of my pain comes from my neck which I found out a few months ago was misaligned. In the last few weeks I've been noticing progress with my pain levels and of course the first thing I want to do is try to lose weight.
3) I made a goal 2 weeks ago to go walking every day and have stuck to it. I can't allow myself to do any more than that because I'll trigger a bad spell that could last a week. Anything that involves moving my neck is out. I'm nervous to do weight lifting because in the past sore shoulder muscles have also triggered bad headaches. I'm determined to work up to this though, I just have to take things very slow and start very small.
4) I have done the low cal thing for a week now and haven't been happy. I did about 1350, which I've now learned is lower than the 1500 BMR that was calculated. First of all I didn't lose any weight, which I know one week is a short time, but most of all I noticed that sometimes my headache felt better after I ate something. This makes me wonder of I was making my head worse from eating too little and I REALLY don't want to risk that. Also, being hungry on top of being in pain is pretty rotten.
So that long intro leads me to a few questions. With my limitations, do you think EM2WL thing can work for me? Also I'm trying to use the calculator mentioned in the sticky and I'm not sure what activity level to put. Some days I mostly lay/sit down along with a 30-60 min walk and others I will do shopping/drs/choir along with my walk. Which one should I choose? I'm still trying to wrap my mind around all the TDEE and BMR stuff so any suggestions are appreciated.
Sorry for the really long post.:ohwell:
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Replies
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Hi,
I'm new to MFP and have been reading a lot about the dangers of eating too little. I've spent many frustrating (and headachy) hours reading trying to understand all of this and finally decided to ask for help. I'm sorry, I'm sure you get the same questions over and over again.
Here's a little background on me:
1) I'm a 26-year-old female, 5'2", 178lbs
2) I'm very prone to headaches and am in pain 24/7. I've had the headaches since high school and they steadily got worse until I was forced to stop everything (work/school) and move back in with my parents. Because of this I spend a lot of time laying down and resting just because it hurts to move/open my eyes/think, etc. Most of my pain comes from my neck which I found out a few months ago was misaligned. In the last few weeks I've been noticing progress with my pain levels and of course the first thing I want to do is try to lose weight.
3) I made a goal 2 weeks ago to go walking every day and have stuck to it. I can't allow myself to do any more than that because I'll trigger a bad spell that could last a week. Anything that involves moving my neck is out. I'm nervous to do weight lifting because in the past sore shoulder muscles have also triggered bad headaches. I'm determined to work up to this though, I just have to take things very slow and start very small.
4) I have done the low cal thing for a week now and haven't been happy. I did about 1350, which I've now learned is lower than the 1500 BMR that was calculated. First of all I didn't lose any weight, which I know one week is a short time, but most of all I noticed that sometimes my headache felt better after I ate something. This makes me wonder of I was making my head worse from eating too little and I REALLY don't want to risk that. Also, being hungry on top of being in pain is pretty rotten.
So that long intro leads me to a few questions. With my limitations, do you think EM2WL thing can work for me? Also I'm trying to use the calculator mentioned in the sticky and I'm not sure what activity level to put. Some days I mostly lay/sit down along with a 30-60 min walk and others I will do shopping/drs/choir along with my walk. Which one should I choose? I'm still trying to wrap my mind around all the TDEE and BMR stuff so any suggestions are appreciated.
Sorry for the really long post.:ohwell:
I can't help you with most of this, I'm sorry! Your headaches sound terrible though. I am also not lifting weights for another week or so, so I can't help you there either.
You haven't been on a low-cal diet for long, so no reset should be necessary. Maybe you should do a 'tweener' factor for your activity level, between lightly active and moderately active? It sounds like time-wise you are moderately active (3-5 hours of exercise) but I don't know how intense your walking is, or what else you do, so in between might be safest.
Good luck, gotta go!0 -
So that long intro leads me to a few questions. With my limitations, do you think EM2WL thing can work for me? Also I'm trying to use the calculator mentioned in the sticky and I'm not sure what activity level to put. Some days I mostly lay/sit down along with a 30-60 min walk and others I will do shopping/drs/choir along with my walk. Which one should I choose? I'm still trying to wrap my mind around all the TDEE and BMR stuff so any suggestions are appreciated.
This isn't just a program for people that lift weights and do tons of cardio.. sure it helps cause it gives them more to eat but if you don't do those, it doesn't mean its not for you.. This is just a program to eat the way you are suppose to eat to lose weight in a healthier manner I suppose you can say.
So now with your activity, Lightly Active is where I would start. Even with your walking and house work, just do lightly active and see how you do at that level. When doing this you wouldn't add any exercise calories, and you would eat that number everyday. Read the section about macro's and try to pick foods that are fresh, cooked instead of packaged and processed.0 -
Thank you both for the help!
I'm nervous about my TDEE because I don't know what normal is anymore. I used to be a student huffing it around campus or a teacher on my feet all day. My life has so completely changed, it feels like I don't do anything anymore.
So I chose "1-3 hours/week of light exercise". This week I'm up to 2.6 MPH at 1.5 incline, 30 minutes. That feels like SO little to me, but I'm forcing myself to take it slow.
Does that sound good for me?0 -
Might see if you can home in on that TDEE with better activity calc, because with little exercise, you have narrow window, hate to miss anything, or lose muscle mass because of doing too much.
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/813720-spreadsheet-bmr-tdee-deficit-macro-calcs-hrm-zones
And hey, something is better than nothing.
If you can fight through some of the headache pain for some sort of workout, may see it improving things.
And that workout is still useful. Not that you need exact figures when using the TDEE deficit method, but you did burn 150 calories.
http://www.exrx.net/Calculators/WalkRunMETs.html
Or about 107 calories over what you would have burned sitting. (net option)
And if that workout is 30 min x 7 days, the spreadsheet shows that is probably a little under Lightly Active. About 1.3 BMR multiplier.
Get the speed up over 3 mph level, then it would go up to 1.34, not much, but still.
Spreadsheet will also suggest correct deficit for type of exercise and amount to lose.0 -
Oh wow, that's confusing. It may take me a while to understand that spreadsheet. I've already learned so much in the past week, I'll get there.
Let's see if I understand this, if I bump the exercise a little bit, I'll match the lightly active setting better. For more precise numbers I can use the spreadsheet. Is this correct?
Some days I have been doing another 30 min walk later in the day, so maybe it evens out. Since I'm upping the speed and incline of the exercise every week, albeit slowly, how often should I recalculate?
Thank you for taking the time to help me!0 -
Oh wow, that's confusing. It may take me a while to understand that spreadsheet. I've already learned so much in the past week, I'll get there.
Let's see if I understand this, if I bump the exercise a little bit, I'll match the lightly active setting better. For more precise numbers I can use the spreadsheet. Is this correct?
Some days I have been doing another 30 min walk later in the day, so maybe it evens out. Since I'm upping the speed and incline of the exercise every week, albeit slowly, how often should I recalculate?
Thank you for taking the time to help me!
Spreadsheet uses big ranges you'll notice, likely won't have to change where the numbers go until the incline is so much the walking is like running level faster than 4mph.
Bump the exercise a little to match the TDEE level - or realize that those aren't the ONLY 5 calorie levels you could possibly use. There are tons of numbers in between those.0 -
Thank you!0
