Two questions - Sugar and exercise calories

pinecone
pinecone Posts: 28 Member
edited September 22 in Food and Nutrition
I'm on my last 7 pounds, so t's set me at 1200 calories and 24g of sugar daily. The problem is, after breakfast and a snack (30g porridge with 100mls semi-skimmed milk, a small banana, one piece of dark cocolate and half a bagel) I've racked up 20g of sugar, much of coming just from the milk. This seems very stringent, particularly when thinking about fruit sugars. I'm eating lots of carbs, proten based diets make me feel depressed and tired, and my workouts are less effective.

I'm also concerned re. exercise calories. I'm trying to burn around 500 calories 5 times a week, which means I am starving if I stick to 1200. I usually finish on around 1400/1500 calories, but will this slow my weight loss? Is a calorie exercised off equal a calorie not eaten? All of this just makes me hungry!

Replies

  • alantin
    alantin Posts: 621 Member
    The exercise calories reduce your net calories so it could be said that eating 1200 and exercising 500 is pretty much the same as not exercising and eating only 700. That's starving yourself!

    The last pounds are the hardest to get rid of and it can't be done fast so you shouldn't be worried about how to make it as fast as possible so much as how to make it really come off from the fat. Since fat is getting scarce, muscle protein is becoming more and more attractive energy source for your body and if you don't supply it with enough fuel, it will rip the energy it needs off the muscle protein rather than from the fat.
    My advice is to lower you expected pace to about 0.5 pounds a week to make it as healthy as possible. I'm there too and that's what I'm doing. The down side though is that it is really easy to slip to maintaining, due to overestimating the calorie burn, and I had to lower my calories again a little after a month of stalling..

    Bottom line. Don't try to make it fast and increase your calories!


    I can't really give any advice on the sugar. I think, if you're not diabetic, they are just fast carbs which means that they are in the blood stream fast.. Try to have most of them in the morning or right before exercise. Those are the times you need energy quickly.
  • sherhop
    sherhop Posts: 25
    I use Almond Breeze unsweetened original almond milk. It doesn't have any sugars
  • AnnaPixie
    AnnaPixie Posts: 7,439 Member

    This seems very stringent, particularly when thinking about fruit sugars. I'm eating lots of carbs, proten based diets make me feel depressed and tired, and my workouts are less effective.

    I totally agree with you. I just want to kill someone if my carbs go too low!! :laugh:

    But seriously, some of us are more carb sensitive than others so I tend to ignore the recommended sugars and just stick to my calorie allowance. That's not to say i eat carbs all day, I don't! I just know that I need a certain amount to feel well. I read somewhere that 130g carbs was the minimum to allow proper brain function!

    Just stick to cals in and out and see if you get any results. I dont think there is any need to restrict macro's until you arn't seeing results after 4 - 6 weeks. And even then, its probably wise to tweak your exercise first.

    Also, you SHOULD eat some of your exercise cals as the previous poster suggests. BUT bear in mind that you need margin for error. So I never eat ALL of mine.

    We are all different, so you really have to listen to your body and eat when you're hungry and/or low on carbs/energy.

    good luck :flowerforyou:
  • alantin
    alantin Posts: 621 Member
    Also, you SHOULD eat some of your exercise cals as the previous poster suggests. BUT bear in mind that you need margin for error. So I never eat ALL of mine.

    I think, MFP tends to overestimate the exercise calories, and then there is the amount that you'd burn anyway. I.e. if I burn 1800 Kcal a day lying in bed, that means 1800 / 24 = 75 Kcal an hour that you need to subtract. For me, about half of what the MFP suggests for most things seems to be closer to my real exercise calories .it has needed some work to determine since I don't own an HRM, though.. If I go to a 1.5 hours Taekwondo training session, there are breaks too and your pulse doesn't stay up all the time, so I log that as 45 minutes and eat the calories for that.
    It is really easy to overestimate! :angry:
  • pinecone
    pinecone Posts: 28 Member
    I've joined a gym so I have slightly more accuracy now than when I was jogging or doing ju jitsu (totally agree - two hours jitsu training sadly does not equal 1000 calories!), but I still distrust those machines. I just wish I could lose it before christmas, but I suppose that's just not going to happen. I used to diet stupidly at the beginning and massively undereat, then it felt okay because I used to lose around 3lbs a week, but now the loss just wouldn't be worth it. I really can't take being hungry now!
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