For those who eat their exercise calories - a question...

hgillesp
hgillesp Posts: 46 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I have been trying to lose the same 10 pounds for several years now and have recommitted myself to getting it off. Finally. Am using the Beck Diet Solution and MFP to help me and I love the BDS because it really makes me think about why I want the weight off and stops me from sabotaging myself which is really where my problems have always been, i.e I can eat this because I am sad, mad, glad.... etc. Right now, at 5' 9" and 160 lbs, 49 years old, I am trying to maintain a net calorie intake per day of 1,000 cals and typically exercise about 500-600 calories worth each day. I don't use MFP to estimate my exercise calories, I use Calories per hour because it is much more accurate or my heart rate monitor if I run. I haven't seen the scale move a whole lot and I have been eating really, really well. Lots of fruits, veggies, beans (I am a vegetarian anyway). So, my question is, what have others found to help them when they don't have a lot to lose and they do believe in eating back their caloiries. I am wondering if I should go up to 1100 or 1200 cals per day, net. Or only count half my exercise calories. Just not sure.

I know this is a really controversial and much discussed area but I am really struggling, really committed and I don't want to get derailed because the scale isn't moving. And yes, I have seen some differences in the way my clothes fit so something good is happening. And I do know the scale is just a number and I don't count my existence on it, but ultimately I don't want to work so hard to lose weight and have the darn thing never move. It really is the ultimate goal for me. I have set goals for my weight loss that are reasonable - 5 lbs by mid April, 5 more by mid to late May and I have set up rewards for myself as I meet my goals. I just feel like I need to improve the actual mechanism for losing weight which isn't quite right at the moment.... or I have to be patient. Thanks so much for any ideas or for sharing your successes. I want to find something that works so I can stick with it. :smile:

Replies

  • ILiftHeavyAcrylics
    ILiftHeavyAcrylics Posts: 27,732 Member
    My personal feeling is that with only 10 lbs to lose you should set MFP to lose .5 pounds per week and then eat up to your goal, including at least half of your exercise calories. That, along with getting enough protein, will help make sure you don't lose too much muscle.

    1200 calories is considered the bare minimum amount in terms of getting enough nutrition. I would not recommend going below that amount unless you're very overweight and being monitored by a doctor.

    If you do set your goal to lose half a pound a week that's a smaller deficit so you need to make sure you are logging accurately, with a food scale. It doesn't give you much margin of error so you can't estimate or eyeball. This method is how I lost my last 10 lbs. I never had the stall that a lot of people talk about.

    Good luck.
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,431 MFP Moderator
    We can start simple. How many gross calories are you eating. Also what is your exercise routine... i am sorry but i have know clue what bds is. On a side note, another women i closely work with that is almost exactly your stats is eating 2100 calories a day and consistently cutting body fat. Its quite possible you are under eating
  • newtench
    newtench Posts: 3
    Also as stated before it would help to know your exact breakdown. Without seeing that i cannot help much but i can tell you calories is just a small part of the process. Your putting in hard work at the gym and monitoring your intake but to what level. What im getting at is the total breakdown of your day from sodium, fats ect. In the past when i was training clients something like having them eat a little more "fats" helped them trigger that burning zone. Hope i can help more when i see it.
  • majope
    majope Posts: 1,325 Member
    For what it's worth, I'm the same age (49), nearly the same weight (162), and am planning to lose 7-12 pounds. I am shorter, though, at 5'7".

    I started at 170 pounds in mid-January. Set MFP to lose half a pound a week, so my net calorie goal was 1660. I ate almost all of my exercise calories back, leaving a small buffer of 100-200 calories to cover food and exercise estimates. After 4 weeks, I'd lost 6 pounds, or a pound and a half per week.

    Because I run and want to fuel that properly--and because I'm going to turn 50 this year and prefer to give my skin more time to adjust while I lose weight--I reset my activity level to the next level to bump my net goal up to 1780 per day and resolved to eat closer to that most days, reducing that 100-200 calorie buffer to under 100 calories. That has slowed my weight loss to half a pound to a pound a week, which is what I wanted.

    I also figure that since I'm eating closer to my maintenance level, when I do go to maintenance it won't be a huge bump in calories so the adjustment will be a lot easier.

    I'm rarely hungry, and on big burn days get to eat 2400 calories, which gives me room to include stuff like pizza, wine, pasta, and crusty bread with real butter while still losing weight. Works for me!
  • hgillesp
    hgillesp Posts: 46 Member
    Thanks for the quick responses! I run 3-4 times per week for about 45-50 minutes each time. I am a slow runner - 11.5 minute miles or so. On the weekends I run longer, usually 6 or 7 miles at the same pace on Satruday. On non running days I will do the elliptical trainer or stationary bike for 45-60 minutes. 2-3 times a week I use my pilates reformer (cheap version!) at home to get some strength training in, with the resistance set pretty high. Usually do a 45-50 minute session. Finally, whenever possible (2-3 X per week) I will throw in an extra 2.5 mile walk at lunch or after work. I put all these activities in MFP and eat them back to get to my 1,000 net cals. As for food, I weigh nearly everything that goes in my mouth and I eat few processed foods. I do eat dessert, every day dammit, but it is dark chocolate, 240 cals. That is my vice. I usually eat a vegan protein smoothie every day to ensure that I get enough protein. My protein intake is usually about 75-90 gms per day, my fat is probably 35-40gm and carbs 220-250. Rough estimates but pulled from MFP charts.

    So, an average day might be: 45 min run in the morning, protein smoothie, kashi cereal, soymilk in coffee (305 cals)
    Clementines for a snack in late morning (60 cals), large salad wtih onions and carrots and light dressing + fage 0% with 2 tsp honey for lunch (353 cals), millet and flax chips for an afternoon snack (132 cals), and an egg omeletter with a bit of cheese and roasted asparagus and onions with evoo for dinner (451 cals) and 240 cals dark chocolate for dessert.... I might also have walked during lunch for 45 minutes so my total exercise cals for hte day would be roughly 500 cals.
    Hope that helps. I don't know how to make my food diary public or I would do that - but this is really pretty much on target.
  • ILiftHeavyAcrylics
    ILiftHeavyAcrylics Posts: 27,732 Member
    I missed the "net" part of you first post. :blushing:

    To make your diary public go to Home, Settings, Diary Settings.

    And listen to the lemon, he knows what he's talking about. :flowerforyou:
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,431 MFP Moderator
    Well i dont know how many total calories but here are my thoughts. One you are doing way too much cardio. You really only need 1-2 days of good cardio. I would suggest 1800-2000 total calories with 3 days of resistance training (8-12 reps for optimal strength gains) and 1-2 days of cardio and a day of pilates. Also, i would adjust macros to around 40% carbs, 40% protein and 20% fats to help with muscle retention.
  • hgillesp
    hgillesp Posts: 46 Member
    I made my diary public and thanks for telling me how to do that! The one thing to note is that my exercise minutes are lower than reality since I use "www.caloriesperhour.com" to estimate them which usually gives me lower numbers than mfp (which is usually too high). So, I just decrease my exercise minutes to get the right number of calories burned. As of today, doing what I have been doing for a solid week I have lost not one ounce. Scale went down a tiny bit but then right back to my starting point. So frustrating.

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