Are you eating enough?

jilliangetsit
jilliangetsit Posts: 97 Member
in Motivation and Support
Maybe you should be eating more... (please look in to your BMR & TDEE)
YES! It does sound counterproductive but/especially if you are exercising - YOU NEED MORE CALORIES lol I had lost about 12 lb on the 1200 cal limit that MFP gave me (fine and dandy) but I ended up exhausting myself because I wasn't providing myself with enough nutrition(energy) to sustain my daily routine let alone exercise on top of that. The weight came off, sure - slowly. Then all I wanted to do was ...well, nothing...and eat and it came right back. This go around I've increase my intake to 1400 (+/- 200 cal on a day to day basis depending on exercise and intensity) and literally 20 lb have fallen off of me in the last two months. I am 5'9" tall and went from 193.2 to 172.0 in two months. I'm sure WHAT I'm eating that makes up my daily 1400 calories has everything to do with how well this is working - (mostly clean/unprocessed foods and that is ON a Budget :) it can be done) but I don't feel hungry/deprived of food - I'm well rested every day and I'm losing weight. EAT to LOSE is real!! haha
Feel free to add me if you'd like to peek my diary etc. Cheers and best of luck to you!

Replies

  • ToraChan2310
    ToraChan2310 Posts: 45
    I wonder if that process will work for a male? I am eating 1400 calories a day while lifting weights in the morning and jogging in the evening each day. I am currently 200lbs, 5'9, 23 years old. I hope to lose 20-30 pounds in the next two months.
  • jilliangetsit
    jilliangetsit Posts: 97 Member
    Your metabolism will be a bit different because of the difference in hormones/types of exercise etc. and depending on how intense/frequent your lifts are you may actually even need more than that! Find your BMR and then create a comfortable range above and below that (within reason...like how mine is 200 calories more or less than my 1400 calorie a day goal) That way you can eat according to how much/hard you worked out for the day. It's amazing how quickly I started losing weight once I upped my calories though - mind=blown
    Best of luck! Cheers!
  • brianpperkins
    brianpperkins Posts: 6,124 Member
    I wonder if that process will work for a male? I am eating 1400 calories a day while lifting weights in the morning and jogging in the evening each day. I am currently 200lbs, 5'9, 23 years old. I hope to lose 20-30 pounds in the next two months.

    You're starving yourself and your goals are on the extreme end (30lbs in 8 weeks = 3.75 lbs per week).

    http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/
  • jilliangetsit
    jilliangetsit Posts: 97 Member
    bump - more people need to consider this!
  • lporter229
    lporter229 Posts: 4,907 Member
    Great post! I absolutely agree. People put a ton of emphasis on calorie burn from exercise, but a great deal of calories are burned just from your normal daily activity. If you don't have the fuel to do those things, you won't. Plain and simple. Sometimes more calories eaten=more calories burned and people need to consider this.
  • Kita328
    Kita328 Posts: 370 Member
    Well...we shall see I am a work in progress as I have hit a LOOOONNNNGGGG plateau and I need to get out of it. I am upping my calories quite a bit....

    I am starting to do Stronglifts 5x5 too....so ill letcha know in about 12 weeks if Ive seen some changes...
  • jilliangetsit
    jilliangetsit Posts: 97 Member
    Well...we shall see I am a work in progress as I have hit a LOOOONNNNGGGG plateau and I need to get out of it. I am upping my calories quite a bit....

    I am starting to do Stronglifts 5x5 too....so ill letcha know in about 12 weeks if Ive seen some changes...

    Rock it Kita! Definitely keep me posted! I'm about to up my calorie intake even more as I'm getting ready to start New Rules of Lifting for Women :) we're some hardcore ladies
  • tennisdude2004
    tennisdude2004 Posts: 5,609 Member
    I wonder if that process will work for a male? I am eating 1400 calories a day while lifting weights in the morning and jogging in the evening each day. I am currently 200lbs, 5'9, 23 years old. I hope to lose 20-30 pounds in the next two months.

    You're starving yourself and your goals are on the extreme end (30lbs in 8 weeks = 3.75 lbs per week).

    http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/

    Certainly achievable - but your loss will NOT be coming mainly from fat is will be from your lean mass (muscle, bone, sinew, organs).

    Especially if you are exercising (lifting) your body will be releasing cortisol, which will be stripping back your lean mass for amino acid - so your liver can convert it into much needed glycogen for fuel.

    Seriously this way of weight loss will lead to long term damage. Eat a healthy deficit 200 - 500 cals (make sure you log your exercise so the calculator can re-calculate your daily calorie target) and most importantly make protein your top priority macro nutrient.
  • jilliangetsit
    jilliangetsit Posts: 97 Member
    I wonder if that process will work for a male? I am eating 1400 calories a day while lifting weights in the morning and jogging in the evening each day. I am currently 200lbs, 5'9, 23 years old. I hope to lose 20-30 pounds in the next two months.

    You're starving yourself and your goals are on the extreme end (30lbs in 8 weeks = 3.75 lbs per week).

    http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/

    Certainly achievable - but your loss will NOT be coming mainly from fat is will be from your lean mass (muscle, bone, sinew, organs).

    Especially if you are exercising (lifting) your body will be releasing cortisol, which will be stripping back your lean mass for amino acid - so your liver can convert it into much needed glycogen for fuel.

    Seriously this way of weight loss will lead to long term damage. Eat a healthy deficit 200 - 500 cals (make sure you log your exercise so the calculator can re-calculate your daily calorie target) and most importantly make protein your top priority macro nutrient.


    Very well stated! NROL is teaching me so much about how the body absorbs and processes the nutrients you fuel it with. I'm already a carb (complex) and protein junkie as it is. Time to expand on that part of my diet even more so!!
    I've found that it's difficult to find this information broken down in to layman's terms. You relayed the message very clearly but still in a way that is technical. Thank you! :)
  • parkscs
    parkscs Posts: 1,639 Member
    It really comes down to how much body fat you have as to what is a "healthy" deficit. Honestly it's silly to just conclusively state that 200-500 calories is a "healthy" deficit. The deficit your body can support comes down to how much energy your body can pull from your fat stores each day and that is based on how many pounds of fat your body has access to. That cut-off point may be only 500 calories per day (if you're an incredibly lean individual with only ~16 pounds of total body fat) or it may be several thousand calories, but it's not a blanket 200-500 calories.
  • tennisdude2004
    tennisdude2004 Posts: 5,609 Member
    It really comes down to how much body fat you have as to what is a "healthy" deficit. Honestly it's silly to just conclusively state that 200-500 calories is a "healthy" deficit. The deficit your body can support comes down to how much energy your body can pull from your fat stores each day and that is based on how many pounds of fat your body has access to. That cut-off point may be only 500 calories per day (if you're an incredibly lean individual with only ~16 pounds of total body fat) or it may be several thousand calories, but it's not a blanket 200-500 calories.

    Unless someone was efficient at burning ketones, I would not suggest more than that. A lot of people are risking their lean mass when they are on relatively high carb diets and a massive deficit and just hoping their FGF21 hormone kicks in.

    Slow and steady wins the race.:smile:
  • parkscs
    parkscs Posts: 1,639 Member
    The problem is your suggestion does not match the current research on the topic. You should do some reading on when substantial lean body mass occurs. With sufficient protein and resistance training, there's no substantial loss of LBM until you get to the point where you body simply cannot pull enough energy from your fat stores to make up your caloric deficit and has to turn to your LBM for calories. Some people might find they have less energy on a higher deficit and that could affect their workouts, but that's more of a subjective consideration and may not depend entirely on calories.

    Edit: To give you an example, take someone who weighs 400 pounds and is carrying 250 pounds of fat on their body. At a 500 calorie deficit/day, we're talking about 4+ years until they hit their goal weight. However, there's absolutely no reason that such a person cannot run a more aggressive caloric deficit with minimal, if any, consequences, and I think the majority of people would agree that they should run a more aggressive caloric deficit with those stats. That's why a blanket statement like "200-500 calorie deficit is healthy" is nonsense - like all overgeneralizations, it's true for some people but horribly inaccurate for others.

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