Should I up my net calories

Vonikins
Vonikins Posts: 56 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
So I've been really consistant with logging my food and exercise for the past month and more casually for the past 4 months. As a petite statured woman, I've accepted that in many ways I should only eat about 1/4 of what I seem to see the average person eat to and overall I have found a happy place where I am mostly staying around my net 1200 calorie goal each day. My diary is open if you want a look. I have been upping my fitness this year with more consistent execising between 30mins of walking on a inclined treadmill, swimming, and calisthetic work outs. The weight just doesn't seem to be moving that fast and it is hard to not get frustrated. I just did several TDEE calculators and they are showing 1773 as my daily rate and my BMR as 1379. I am strongly considering moving up my calories to 1379 to see if the issue is not getting enough fuel to the system. Does anyone have any thoughts, opinions, suggestions?

Replies

  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    Eat more....
  • ElliottTN
    ElliottTN Posts: 1,614 Member
    Define "that fast" for the class.
  • Holly_Roman_Empire
    Holly_Roman_Empire Posts: 4,440 Member
    How tall are you?
  • Vonikins
    Vonikins Posts: 56 Member
    Define "that fast" for the class.

    January 1 - I was 163lbs, now I'm just starting to hoover around 159lbs.
  • akaMrsmojo
    akaMrsmojo Posts: 762 Member
    I never eating under my BMR. 1200 is not the magic weight loss number. Good for you for researching TDEE.
  • Vonikins
    Vonikins Posts: 56 Member
    How tall are you?

    I"m 5'2"
  • jonnythan
    jonnythan Posts: 10,161 Member
    Define "that fast" for the class.

    January 1 - I was 163lbs, now I'm just starting to hoover around 159lbs.

    4 lbs in a month, month and a half is fine.
  • jonnythan
    jonnythan Posts: 10,161 Member
    BTW, your logged calorie burns are way too high. Walking burns around 75-80 calories a mile for someone your size. You're logging over twice that.

    30 minutes of brisk walking is probably about 170 calories, not 378.
  • jenniferevon
    jenniferevon Posts: 53
    I was eating at the 1200 calorie mark for almost a year. I'm 5'3. I lost 40 pounds and then my body said...Whoa! We're not going to lose any more. Did lots of research on plateaus, yadda yadda...up your calories. I've already lost 4 pounds since I started eating more. Just make sure to weigh and track EVERYTHING (if you can). Measuring cups/spoons don't work, buy a food scale. Also, you need to watch your macronutrients (protein, carbs, fat). Don't do "low carb" per se but make sure you're getting enough lean protein in your diet. Also, check out body-improvements.com I've learned tons from that site.
  • Vonikins
    Vonikins Posts: 56 Member
    BTW, your logged calorie burns are way too high. Walking burns around 75-80 calories a mile for someone your size. You're logging over twice that.

    30 minutes of brisk walking is probably about 200 calories, not 378.

    The calorie burns are from my HRM which I have been updating regularly as the weight changes. I'm usually setting my treadmill at 3.8 with a 7% incline. I will be slightly bummed if my inexpensive model HRM is lying to me. But on the plus side is that I rarely ate back my workout calories so it could be worse. I'll definitely reconsider the calories logged from my exercise.
  • jenniferevon
    jenniferevon Posts: 53
    I was eating at the 1200 calorie mark for almost a year. I'm 5'3. I lost 40 pounds and then my body said...Whoa! We're not going to lose any more. Did lots of research on plateaus, yadda yadda...up your calories. I've already lost 4 pounds since I started eating more. Just make sure to weigh and track EVERYTHING (if you can). Measuring cups/spoons don't work, buy a food scale. Also, you need to watch your macronutrients (protein, carbs, fat). Don't do "low carb" per se but make sure you're getting enough lean protein in your diet. Also, check out body-improvements.com I've learned tons from that site.

    One more thing, you don't get to eat back your exercise calories because you factored that in when you calculated your TDEE.
  • Vonikins
    Vonikins Posts: 56 Member
    I was eating at the 1200 calorie mark for almost a year. I'm 5'3. I lost 40 pounds and then my body said...Whoa! We're not going to lose any more. Did lots of research on plateaus, yadda yadda...up your calories. I've already lost 4 pounds since I started eating more. Just make sure to weigh and track EVERYTHING (if you can). Measuring cups/spoons don't work, buy a food scale. Also, you need to watch your macronutrients (protein, carbs, fat). Don't do "low carb" per se but make sure you're getting enough lean protein in your diet. Also, check out body-improvements.com I've learned tons from that site.

    One more thing, you don't get to eat back your exercise calories because you factored that in when you calculated your TDEE.

    Yeah, I figured that changing to TDEE or more specifically TDEE less 20% means that all my activity is already accounted for so there is no eating back calories. Overall though, it would be about a 150calorie/day approx. increase and sometimes that does make a difference.
  • Holly_Roman_Empire
    Holly_Roman_Empire Posts: 4,440 Member
    Look, I'm going to be blount here. I'm not going to answer whether or not you should raise your calories, but I will say that your protein levels make me want to cry. There's no way I could be full on 1200 calories with less than 50 grams of protein per day. I find it rare when a person can eat 1200 calories and eat adequate protein.

    Edit to add: I also cannot fathom how you can eat so little and NOT be losing weight.
  • Vonikins
    Vonikins Posts: 56 Member
    Look, I'm going to be blount here. I'm not going to answer whether or not you should raise your calories, but I will say that your protein levels make me want to cry. There's no way I could be full on 1200 calories with less than 50 grams of protein per day. I find it rare when a person can eat 1200 calories and eat adequate protein.

    Diet-wise - upping my protein has been a focus of mine rather than a low-carb or low-fat focus. I am by habit a carb-hog and this time on the healthy journey I have been focusing on increasing my protein overall because then naturally my carbs and fat decrease. I am still not where I want to be protein-wise and I agree that before I focused on the protein macro I felt on the brink of starvation at 1200 calories, now most days I'm pretty content but I really want to get my techniques and diet choices established for a more long-term healthy relationship.
  • jenniferevon
    jenniferevon Posts: 53
    Look, I'm going to be blount here. I'm not going to answer whether or not you should raise your calories, but I will say that your protein levels make me want to cry. There's no way I could be full on 1200 calories with less than 50 grams of protein per day. I find it rare when a person can eat 1200 calories and eat adequate protein.

    Edit to add: I also cannot fathom how you can eat so little and NOT be losing weight.

    You can eat adequate protein on 1200 calories a day but it's not fun. I did it for almost a year. 84-104 grams per day by doctors orders but eating like that will kill your metabolism over a long period of time.
  • loubidy
    loubidy Posts: 440 Member
    I'd been stuck at losing 1/4 to 1/2lb a week and have upped my calories about 100-200 depending and my weight loss was 1lb!!

    Definitely play about
  • Holly_Roman_Empire
    Holly_Roman_Empire Posts: 4,440 Member
    Look, I'm going to be blount here. I'm not going to answer whether or not you should raise your calories, but I will say that your protein levels make me want to cry. There's no way I could be full on 1200 calories with less than 50 grams of protein per day. I find it rare when a person can eat 1200 calories and eat adequate protein.

    Edit to add: I also cannot fathom how you can eat so little and NOT be losing weight.

    You can eat adequate protein on 1200 calories a day but it's not fun. I did it for almost a year. 84-104 grams per day by doctors orders but eating like that will kill your metabolism over a long period of time.

    Yeah, that's why I said it was rare. Sure, you can get 80-100 grams of protein in, but why would you want to.
  • Vonikins
    Vonikins Posts: 56 Member
    Look, I'm going to be blount here. I'm not going to answer whether or not you should raise your calories, but I will say that your protein levels make me want to cry. There's no way I could be full on 1200 calories with less than 50 grams of protein per day. I find it rare when a person can eat 1200 calories and eat adequate protein.

    Edit to add: I also cannot fathom how you can eat so little and NOT be losing weight.

    You can eat adequate protein on 1200 calories a day but it's not fun. I did it for almost a year. 84-104 grams per day by doctors orders but eating like that will kill your metabolism over a long period of time.

    Yeah, that's why I said it was rare. Sure, you can get 80-100 grams of protein in, but why would you want to.

    I've been averaging around 50g but I just changed my targets so I'm know aiming to increase my calories with more protein centered food choices. good thing my son likes eggs in the morning

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