Not sure if I'm using the right number
Dobie76
Posts: 17
I'm not sure if I'm eating the right amount of calories and I was hoping for some help. I calculated my TDEE-20% using the scooby calculator with it set at a moderate activity level (3-5 hours of mod activity per week). However, according to my heart rate monitor, I average 9 hours of exercise a week. I do HIIT or some mixture of mod/hi intensity cardio and strength training workouts daily. I burn over 5000 cals a week. The 9 hours does not include the two days a week of hatha-style yoga classes that I take at work (1hr 30 min total). Plus I also don't own a car so I walk and take public transportation to get to and from the office three days a week (I never calculated how much walk I actually do). I work a desk job so I'm sitting most of the day. I work from home 2 days a week so I'm sitting at home too. On the weekends sometimes I go out to do stuff with my 6 years old and sometimes I don't. So with all of that, should be be eating with an activity level set at 5-6 hrs /wk of strenuous exercise instead? Or even 7-21 hrs per week?
TIA.
TIA.
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Replies
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Hi Tia,
How long have you been eating 20% cut? and how many calories are you eating? Since you do have a desk job, Maybe try a 10% cut and stay at moderate activity level.0 -
You know you are way over 5-6 hrs of exercise weekly, of course you are higher.
But, to speak to that.
Is all that exercise for weight loss, or training for something?
Because for weight loss, it's counter-productive.
Diet is a stress, and so is frequent intense exercise.
Exercise is for improving your body, which usually has little to do with weight loss anyway, and can actually make weight loss not be totally fat loss if done wrong.
Diet is for weight and hopefully just fat loss if done right.
Wrong combo, you'll cause problems.
Right combo, you'll do wonders.
For instance, HIIT, if really done right, is basically strength training for a cardio sport. All out intense anaerobic effort with recovery time to allow another all out effort. Purpose and result if done right is increasing strength and muscle mass if eating right.
Would you lift with the same muscles 2 days in a row?
What would happen to your ability to lift the same the second, third, fourth day in a row of doing that?
Since getting stronger from exercise requires rest for the body to actually repair stronger, when does that happen?
That being said, you probably aren't doing HIIT properly anyway. Just as you could not get a properly lifting workout on tired muscles, you can't do HIIT either on tired muscles.
Pushing for all you got means different things on tired muscles compared to fresh muscles.
Tired muscles means endurance, some strength, increase glucose stores to go longer next time.
Fresh muscles means strength gains, and increase muscle if needed to support the overload situation.
And just as lifting day after day with same muscles is going to kill the repair process, so will attempting HIIT the next day.
All that bad combo ends up being just a bunch of stress to the body. Stress messes up hormones. That fights fat and weight loss.
I'll suggest, even with a wiser workout routine to truly benefit from, this should help figuring out your activity better.
Though it might be interesting to see what the current routine would rate as.
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/813720-spreadsheet-bmr-tdee-deficit-macro-calcs-hrm-zones0 -
I guess then technically I'm not doing something right. I exercise out of habit and though I'm not training for anything in particular, I like the feeling of being able to get through a workout and feel like I accomplished something. I started working out on a regular basis when i was in college, and it became a daily thing maybe 10 or so years ago. The weight loss was the reason i started, but is no longer the reason i keep doing it. Maybe i'm not understanding what a true hiit workout is. A typical weekend workout would be 30 minutes on the elliptical, followed by Jillian Michaels ripped in 30 week 2, and an online group workout challenge that consisted of 4 sets of bear crawls, pushups, mountain climbers and planks. The weekdays would be 30-40 minutes of a similar circuit workout or kickboxing or something of that nature. I don't go to a gym so all my workouts are on DVDs and just do whatever I feel lime I can handle that day. I don't want to give up my daily workouts , but I have cut back so that at least one day is not as intense as the others- a moderate cardio workout followed by a calming yoga session. I have filled out the spreadsheet though I estimated a lot because I wasn't sure of some numbers and times. If I did it correctly it says I should set mfp to very active and my net cals to consume as 2498. I've never had anyone professionally review my routine or give advice about what my routine should be.0
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Excellent habit!
A very full workout schedule is great (though actually they are finding too much stops giving improvements and actually causes problems, the whole reasonable level).
But it is also a stress on the body.
While eating at maintenance it might not be bad or difficult at all.
But under a deficit, adding more stress to an already stressed body being fed less than it wants - is just asking for not best results. To either the exercise or the weight/fat loss.
So good plan to make some workouts easier.
It doesn't take pros long to discover (because their coaches monitor them) that pushing through a hard workout each and every time is very counter productive to their sport, to fitness in general actually.
So just mentally accept a different challenge - not pushing as hard as you can, but keeping that HR in the Aerobic or Active Recovery HR zone instead. Finding the turnover or breathing pattern that helps do that.
That is challenging too, and I'd suggest more than just pushing hard. Because you have to mentally tell yourself, this is for the better good.
HIIT, like lifting, is all out anaerobic push for short period followed by recovery level rest, then another hard push.
If you do either with tired muscles, you know you can't push as hard, weight for lifting, or pace for HIIT if running.
If you can't actually overload the muscle, you aren't getting the same effect.
An overloaded muscle gets micro-tears, they must repair, and given enough nutrition, repair stronger.
A tired muscle failing never got to that point. So body's response is store more glucose for this endurance load next time.
That's why HIIT is usually tied to getting the HR up to upper reaches, which can only be accomplished with fresh muscles. Because the feeling may be the same, but the HR can't go as high because you can't push as hard.
Regular intervals help cardio functions, endurance, VO2max, clearing out lactate acid. Great for cardio sports and aerobic conditioning. Can increase strength somewhat, but not the focus.
At least try to alternate hard and easy days. You'll see an improvement to how hard you can really make the hard days, and that's what calls on the body to improve and get stronger. Unless your desired improvement is endurance cardio.
For the times, averaging is just fine, it usually doesn't change the value too much.
30-40 min becomes 35 x 5 days of high cardio, which most workout videos will be.
The weekend is all high cardio too, so just have to estimate the time.0 -
Thanks. This is a really helpful explanation. I do have a few workouts with high intensity intervals in my collection, but nothing that would really push you, like a crossfit kind of intensity (cross fitters would laugh, I'm sure). I admit I have a bit of an unhealthy relationship with exercise: if i'm not drenched in sweat by the end then i didn't do it right. They've gotten harder and more intense over time. I also can probably count on one hand the number of days of exercise I've missed over the years. I realize it is a stress and there are some days where I can feel it but I push through anyway and repeat the next day. I'll work on alternating to see what results I get from that. I also want to make sure that when I'm following the roadmap while making all these adjustments, I'm eating what I need rather than going too far over or under.0