Struggling

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trmrgb
trmrgb Posts: 19 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Hi everyone, So I have really been trying to figure out everthing on here and I am alittle confused about something. I have my goals set to lose about 1-1.5 pounds a week. I do strength training 3-4 days a week and cardio the other days. 1 rest day a week. I am 5' 6" and my starting weight is 211. I felt like 1600-1800 calories was a great place to start for me to lose weight and feel full and energized. I wear a body bugg and after it adjusts for my exersice for the day I usually net less than 1000 calories a day. I have been seeing some posts on here lately that that is not enough. Could I be struggling to see results because I am not eating enough!!! Could someone please help me? Should I focus more on my NET calories for the day or my total calories I log? Please help, I am trying so hard and not having good luck and very new to all this!! Thank you all in advance!

Replies

  • writergeek313
    writergeek313 Posts: 390 Member
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    You should be netting close to what your calorie goal is (1600-1800). Some people choose to only eat back 50-75% of their exercise calories, but not eating back any of them means that your body isn't getting enough calories to do everything it needs to do.

    If you feel like you don't want to eat more/more often, think about how you can add more calorie dense foods to your meals to help you meet your calorie needs.
  • tegalicious
    tegalicious Posts: 629
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    Also! If you don't have a food scale, get one. To have an accurate account of how much you are really eating, you need to weigh your food and measure your liquids.
  • michael300891
    michael300891 Posts: 275
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    First up, I have nothing against weight training, in that its damn brilliant, but if your primary goal is to lose weight and your struggling, consider dropping the weights to 2-3 sessions and upping the cardio?

    Another option would be to integrate an extra 20 minute treadmill blast at the end of each weights workout?

    In regard to calories what's important is NET. It's all maths when you break it down.

    Body fat = stored energy (around 3500kcal per pound of fat).

    So to lose 1-1.5 lbs a week you need to be negative of 5000+kcal / week. That figure is NET. If you burn 5k calories a week and eat 4k back it will be the same as if you burn 2k calorie a week and eat 1k a day.

    Feel free to ask me any other questions.

    Cheers, Mike.

    Doctoral Researcher in Exercise Adaptation and Metabolism:

    Follow me on Twitter (https://twitter.com/Michael300891)
  • marypatmccue
    marypatmccue Posts: 521 Member
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    Without much information from you I did some quick and dirty calculations. I put in your height/weight/age (stolen from your profile!), said that you had the following activity:

    Resting 12 hours, very light for 6 hours, light 4 hours and moderate for 2.

    I got the following for your calories

    TDEE: 2943
    BMR: 1723
    Calculating at a 20% deficit puts you able to eat 2356 calories a day. You could go to the following site to change your activity levels and get different numbers: http://www.exrx.net/Calculators/CalRequire.html

    I'd set yourself up to eat a 40/30/30 macro nutrient ratio for carbs/fats/protein.

    I'd suggest going to that website and playing with your numbers, but you can definitely eat more than you are. Get a food scale, pay close attention and record all your food. Using this method, you do not eat back your exercise calories.

    Good luck.
  • trmrgb
    trmrgb Posts: 19 Member
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    I guess my goal is to lose and tone. I am not as worried about the what the scale says as I am about what size clothes I fit in. I don't see pant sizes going down either! I do have a food scale and I do weigh my food. I am just so scared to eat more! So basically I need to "get over it" and eat what my body needs. In healthy forms of food............

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