Think I am Not Eating Enough - Losing Too Fast

Techmuse
Techmuse Posts: 7 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi Folks,

I was reading some posts today in regards to TDEE and BMR, etc and it got me thinking that I am not eating enough and I want to get some insight from others. First some background.

Height 6' 1"
Weight at January 1: 266 lbs
Body Fat % January 27th: 26%
Weight Last weight in (about 10 days ago): 251
Body Fat% at last weigh in still 26%
Target weight is about 220-225lbs or so.

I have a Fitbit Aria that I am using to weigh myself with when I am home (Travel a lot for work). I have computed body fat using measurements, the scale and calipers. All are within a few percentages.

I also have a Polar Loop and an H7 heart rate monitor which I use to calculate workouts at the gym.

My Day job is sitting at a desk using a computer most of the time.

So when I started on MFP, I had set my activity level to sedentary given my job and I wasn't really working out much. I also wanted to lose 2 lbs per week. MFP says I need to eat 1600 calories for that. For the most part I have been pretty good. under a lot of days and some days over but not by much. I am losing weight much faster than 2 per week so far probably more like 5 per week (New pants bought 2-3 weeks ago already seem too big :) ).

Each week when I am travelling I try and use the gym 2-3 times per week and I try and get to the gym once per weekend (I travel every week for work) and I log the workouts separately based on the calories measured using my polar loop and H7 for those workouts.

Using the polar loop and its calorie burn calculations (which are definitely fluctuating in conjunction with my activity, steps, etc even when I don't have an H7 activity logged, which I am quite pleased with) I am burning over 2700 calories on my worst activity day in the past 3 weeks and about 3200 on average per day when I don't go to the gym, with high days being almost 3700 when I do the GYM with the H7.


So, here are my questions (finally the reader says :) ).
1) According to my polar loop, I am logging a lot more steps than I would have expected for someone who is sedentary (on bad days I am 8,000 and on most days when I am travelling I am 12,000 steps. Should I change my activity level based on that alone, ignoring the additional workouts for now? If so what sort of activity level should I use?
2) According to the BMR and TDEE calculators my BMR is about 2245 and TDEE for sedentary activity level is 2691 so TDEE-20% should be 2153, which in and of itself is a lot higher than the 1600 I was trying to hit that MFP said should be my target for 2 lbs per week of loss. SO given that my average daily calories burned is 3200/day according to my Polar Loop and TDEE is 2691 (which I guess means I should change my activity level to light activity at least which would give a TDEE of 3084 ), what sort of calorie intake should I be targeting?

To be honest, I am finding that my muscles are not recuperating well at the current calorie level after workouts so I suspect that I am not getting enough nutrition with the intake levels I have these past few weeks.

All thoughts would be welcomed.

Thanks.

Replies

  • Cryren8972
    Cryren8972 Posts: 142 Member
    You should definitely increase your caloric intake, but I would add mostly protein and raw fruits and vegetables. That way, you're giving your body the fuel it needs to repair damage and keep you going through the day. Protein is the only nutrient that builds cells....you NEED it if you're going to work out.
  • Techmuse
    Techmuse Posts: 7 Member
    Yeah I have been getting lots of Veg lately as I have been removing carbs in favour of veg to fill me up. I think I am too low on protein though for sure and low on calories overall. Today MFP says I got 76 grams of protein (that after I specifically added a 4th meal and a protein bar to up the protein) . Even at that I usually used to assume that I need about 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight in order to build muscle when working out. So I am still waaaay low on protein even at that. I would need to be more than triple the protein I have been getting.
  • AliceDark
    AliceDark Posts: 3,886 Member
    Yeah, 1600 sounds really low, especially since you're experiencing some negative effects. You only have 26-31 pounds left to lose, so a goal of 2 pounds/week is too aggressive. Try setting it to .5/week or maybe 1/week and see what that gives you, and eat back your exercise calories (if you're not already).

    The other option is to go with TDEE-15% or TDEE-20% (which could also be too aggressive). It all depends on whether it works better for you to have the same intake every day regardless of exercise, or if it works better for you to eat back your exercise calories.
  • Shaky44
    Shaky44 Posts: 214 Member
    I'm not all that good at math, but if you were 266 lbs on January 1st and 251 lbs roughly 42 days later, I think you're losing 2.5 lbs / week, not 5 lbs / week. For just starting a program, that kind of weight loss wouldn't really put up a red flag to me. Given your calorie intake, I'm almost surprised you're not losing more (3500 TDEE - 1600 intake = 1900 deficit x 7 days = ~4 lbs / week).

    You've got a lot of data points on your TDEE:
    TDEE at light exercise: ~3100
    TDEE at moderate exercise: ~3500
    Polar loop, non-gym days: ~3200
    Polar loop, gym days: ~3700

    Given all that data, I would estimate your TDEE around 3400-3500 / day, which would put your calorie intake goal at around 2700-2800 / day. I think you could set a calorie intake goal of anywhere between 2500-3000 per day - with no eating back calories from exercise - and be fine.
  • Techmuse
    Techmuse Posts: 7 Member
    Yeah, I only started tracking my weight loss about 3 weeks ago. I know I was 266 on Jan1, but didn't start doing anything about it until 3-4 weeks ago. I only got a scale 3 weeks ago and I am averaging about 5 pounds per week so far. I haven't weighed in in almost 10 days (was 251 10 days ago) since I am on the road for work and won't actually be able to get home to my scale for another 2 weeks so not sure where my weight is down to at the moment.

    But I think you are right I can eat a lot more. I am finding that I am muscle fatigued more than I should be after workouts (mostly exercise bike for cardio and heavy weights). I expect to be sore for 1-2 days after a hard workout but I am finding I am still muscle fatigued 4-6 days out which it shouldn't be I suspect I am not getting enough calories in general and definitely not enough protein to help the muscles grow.

    I'm going to up my calorie intake to about 2200 for now and change the mix to favour more protein. I'm going to aim for about 190g of protein per day (1g per pound of lean body weight). Prob use lots of cans of Tuna, protein shakes and protein bars to get that level when eating out. Its really hard on the road not to be really high in carbs and fat. Any thoughts as to what the carb/fat mix should be around that?
  • PDarrall
    PDarrall Posts: 114 Member
    1) It is very rare someone is sedentary. This method of calculating TDEE does not rely on the very subjective activity type in TDEE. It too is not perfect since it relies on the calories in/calories out, but it will give you an idea.

    1. Add up all the calories you ate, over a period of a few weeks
    2. Add 3,500 calories for every pound you lost in that same period (so if you lost 2.5lbs, add 3,500 x 2.5 = 10,500 calories),
    3. Take that total and divide it by the number of days involved.

    2) Consider upping your calories but with high protein items. This will help the muscles, help you feel better. Don't just generally up your calories (avoid increasing carbs/sugar)

    Has the aria shown only lean mass loss? If so, that is a definite sign of the need to up calories
  • Techmuse
    Techmuse Posts: 7 Member
    Yeah, The aria is showing weight loss but no change in body fat percentage which makes me think I am losing lean muscle as well as fat. Thus the concern, when combined with the muscle fatigue. Definitely going to protein up and increase my total calories and see how things change. I love the fast weight loss I've been getting but not at the expense of the muscle.
  • PDarrall
    PDarrall Posts: 114 Member
    Lost lean mass isn't really lost weight. Definitely experiment with upping calories & protein.

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