Fitting diet with exercise

mattylevan
mattylevan Posts: 10 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi,

I have an issue generally with dieting, I do quite a lot of outdoor exercise over several hours, mainly hiking but also some cycling. I find that if I try and cut back on how much I eat then I don't have the energy to get up the hills at my normal speed, which surely can't be healthy. But because of this I am basically eating back what I burn and remain overweight. Any suggestions?

At the risk of annoying people the following probably won't persuade me unless you have a really good argument.

-Giving up the exercise I enjoy outdoors to focus instead on going into a stuffy, windowless room to lift weights and use a treadmill. I do some of that but only to keep my body ready for the fun stuff and I really don't want it to be my only exercise.
-Having to sit down for an hour before each meal with a calculator and long list of calories for various foods
-Giving up on home cooked meals for branded 'slimming' products
-Diets in the sense of drastically altering what I eat for a short period before returning to normal.

Replies

  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,267 Member
    Exercise is for health...calorie deficet is for weight loss.

    If during your regular exercise you don't have the energy you are not eating enough or your choices of what you eat is causing the lack of energy.

    First question is how many calories are you consuming a day?
    How do you measure your burns?
    Do you log everything? accurately? weigh solids on a food scale????

    And why would it take an hour before each meal to log your food??? takes like maybe 5mins max.

    Not sure what the list is for at the bottom but none of them sound like anything people here would suggest...

    PS I lift weights and it is not in a windowless, stuffy room...
  • mattylevan
    mattylevan Posts: 10 Member
    To give a few more details, yesterday I did 20 miles with 5000ft of ascent, which is close to my upper limit. Most weeks I would do between eight and 16 miles once or twice plus a bike ride of around 10 miles and two or three gym sessions, though as I mentioned these bore me so I try to keep them to under an hour and a half.
  • LKArgh
    LKArgh Posts: 5,178 Member
    Get a kitchen scale, use the recipe tool to log the calories in your homemade food, calculate how much you are eating per serving (it really is not more than 5 mins per recipe) and then see where the calories are coming from, e.g. is there a need to eat smaller serving sizes, could your meals be prepared with less fattening ingredients, could you try different snacks and so on. There is no other way, sorry.
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,267 Member
    To give a few more details, yesterday I did 20 miles with 5000ft of ascent, which is close to my upper limit. Most weeks I would do between eight and 16 miles once or twice plus a bike ride of around 10 miles and two or three gym sessions, though as I mentioned these bore me so I try to keep them to under an hour and a half.

    Okay so you walk a lot...bike a lot but you still haven't mentioned how much you are eating etc.

    As for preparing foods/meals with "less fattening" ingrediants isn't necessary either...our body needs fat.
  • mattylevan
    mattylevan Posts: 10 Member
    I don't measure my calories either in or out, maybe that's the answer and OK the bit about an hour was hyperbole I just don't treat my meals as a mathematical exercise. As for the windowless room, I guess I need to find a better gym or buy some weights for at home.

    Also just to clarify I do normally have enough energy, the comment was in relation to a time I tried to cut back on how much I ate and saw negative results. This leaves me with a sense that I can't risk cutting calories without cutting energy, which is probably wrong but I just need a better idea of how to go about it.
  • craftywitch_63
    craftywitch_63 Posts: 829 Member
    -Giving up the exercise I enjoy outdoors to focus instead on going into a stuffy, windowless room to lift weights and use a treadmill. I do some of that but only to keep my body ready for the fun stuff and I really don't want it to be my only exercise.
    -Having to sit down for an hour before each meal with a calculator and long list of calories for various foods
    -Giving up on home cooked meals for branded 'slimming' products
    -Diets in the sense of drastically altering what I eat for a short period before returning to normal.

    Changing these things is really anti-MFP because the whole purpose of MFP, as I understand it, is to make changes you can live with for life.
    -Doesn't matter where you exercise. Just exercise. Or don't. What you're doing sounds pretty awesome anyway.
    -I log my food a entire day at a time and it takes a total of 15 minutes. If you don't want to do that, I'm confused as to why you are on MFP at all since calorie logging is one of its main features.
    -Whenever someone mentions "slimming" products they are usually shouted down. Especially fasts/cleanses, "magic" pills and potions. They're a little gentler on pre-packaged foods but it's usually pointed out that this type of program isn't a long-term solution.
    -Giving up what you eat for "a short period" is the antithesis of the MFP program. Make only those changes you can sustain.
  • pennyllayne
    pennyllayne Posts: 265
    I don't measure my calories either in or out, maybe that's the answer and OK the bit about an hour was hyperbole I just don't treat my meals as a mathematical exercise. As for the windowless room, I guess I need to find a better gym or buy some weights for at home.

    Also just to clarify I do normally have enough energy, the comment was in relation to a time I tried to cut back on how much I ate and saw negative results. This leaves me with a sense that I can't risk cutting calories without cutting energy, which is probably wrong but I just need a better idea of how to go about it.

    Cutting back on your eating won't hugely impact energy levels unless you're choosing the wrong foods or cutting back by too much. But as I'm sure you're aware, if you want to lose weight you're going to have to change something. Some people can lose weight easily without having to log everything they eat, but if you're not losing weight unfortunately it's just something you'll have to do if you want to see results. Give some examples of what you eat if you'd like some suggestions.
  • healthygreek
    healthygreek Posts: 2,137 Member
    Countless people, (myself included), have managed to get down to their goal weight eating great food and having plenty of energy to do strenuous workouts.
    Yes, it involves a bit of planning but that becomes second nature after a while.
    If you really want to lose the extra poundage, ya gotta put in a little effort.
    But, you needn't be hungry or without energy to do it.
    Just ask yourself if you really want it, and then change your attitude a little.
  • mattylevan
    mattylevan Posts: 10 Member
    OK thanks for the quick responses guys, I think I see the point. I need to start working out the calories in my food more accurately (or at all actually) so I can reduce my intake just enough to have a slight net deficit while leaving myself with enough fuel for whatever I'm doing.

    As to why I'm on MFP mainly because when questions come to my mind I look for people who might answer them, I've only filled in the tracker a handful of times to see what it told me.
  • MelissaPhippsFeagins
    MelissaPhippsFeagins Posts: 8,063 Member
    If you want to lose, you have to measure calories in and accept that to lose 1 lb per week, you need to eat 500 calories less than you burn daily. You hike and bike further than I do and go more often than I do, so for you that will be a LOT of food to eat. I am maintaining now and at 1800 calories/day plus exercise. I never eat back all of a hike though and I always have the energy to go.
    My advice:

    1) eat what you love, just a little less of it.
    2) eat a protein bar of some sort before/during your hikes to keep your energy up
    3) once you begin to measure your food and you know you're keeping a reasonable deficit, if you don't lose or if you continue not to have the energy for your hikes/bikes, then see your doctor. There could be an underlying medical issue affecting your energy/metabolism (i.e. anemia or a thyroid issue).

    Take a peek at my diary if you like, my meals certainly aren't mathematical exercises, although I have entered my favorite recipes in MFP for logging purposes. I put in the calories that are on the milk jug, the cereal box and the yogurt container this morning. I used a measuring cup for the cereal and the milk. I lost 43 pounds doing it this way. Your mileage may vary, of course. :-)

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