Eating for weight loss AND fitness

dearannna
dearannna Posts: 60 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Hi all,

I'm looking for some advice on balancing eating for weight loss with eating to fuel workouts.

I've been following a calorie and carbohydrate controlled plan since the beginning of the year. Calorie wise I've been following MFP's recommendations for a 2lb a week loss, and carbohydrate wise I've been avoiding starchy carbs in the main as well as all forms of processed sugar and most fruit. I've been eating all veggies liberally apart from potatoes, and eating nuts and berries. The exception is that I eat a more carby meal pre workout (such as porridge with a banana) as it improves my performance. I'm aware that I would lose weight whatever I ate as long as I stuck to my calorie goal, but controlling the carbs really helps me manage my hunger / energy levels and stick to my calorie goal.

However, recently things have not been going so well. I've been sore ALL of the time, feeling more tired and hungry, and with that I've had more days (way) over my calories which has slowed my weight loss right down. I'm starting to wonder whether it is because as I get fitter I am increasing the intensity and volume of exercise and whether that means I should increase my carbs or calories. If so, by how much, and whether it makes a difference when I eat them... like post workout or avoiding before I go to bed? It might seem a little bonkers but I'm really nervous about making changes to my diet - I've failed so many times previously, and this is the first time in about 12 years I've managed to stay with a plan long enough to lose more than about 20lb. That being said I am still over 300lb so the thought of being sore, tired and hungry for the rest of my weight loss is not a good one!

For information, my exercise schedule isnt exactly the same each week as my work schedule varies, but I always work out in the morning and my week usually looks something like this:

Monday: 45 min spin, 30 mins circuit
Tuesday: 1hr strength training
Wednesday: rest
Thursday: 45 min circuit, 30 min strength training
Friday: 1hr strength training
Saturday: Active rest so maybe a long leisurely walk
Sunday: 30 mins circuits, 45 min body pump

Replies

  • christimccarty
    christimccarty Posts: 81
    Hey girl! I'd love to help talk some of this out with you! :)
  • Lizzy622
    Lizzy622 Posts: 3,705 Member
    You are doing quite a bit of exercise without replenishing your glycogen stores. You may want to try eating carbs once a week to see if it helps. Are you eating back your exercise calories (or portion of?)? If you are not this may be affecting you. As you progress you will tend to lose at a slower rate. (Have you been resetting your calories as you lose?) This is normal do not over push yourself. Some soreness is normal - sharp pain is not.
  • rybo
    rybo Posts: 5,424 Member
    Try setting your goal to 1 pound/week.
    Are you eating exercise cals back?
  • dearannna
    dearannna Posts: 60 Member
    Hi,

    I am resetting my calories every 10lb and I eat back my exercise cals if I'm hungry for them. I'm going to set my goal to 1lb and see how I fee,la couple of weeks in
  • lizchic82
    lizchic82 Posts: 46 Member
    If you can refuel (eat) as soon as poss after exercise, your body takes on board much more quickly than if you leave it over an hour before you eat. This means it'll be able to recover faster. So, your protein rich dinner when you get home is fine, but add a bit of carb to it. Not pasta or white rice or bread, but something natural and unprocessed.

    I know what you mean..its a hard balance to find. If you can try to eat slow-burn carbs, such as 50g of quinoa wit your chicken salad, or use flaxseeds or chia seeds in your porridge, you'll find your body doesn't lose its ability to lose the weight, you're just giving it a teeny bit extra to work with. Carrots are quite high carb for a veg, so maybe one of these half hour-hour before you work out will just give you that teeny bit extra? With minimal cals and lots of fibre to keep you from being hungry xx
  • NK1112
    NK1112 Posts: 781 Member
    I worked with a trainer for a while last year ... until I could no longer afford it. He had me work out first thing in the morning on just a cup of black coffee, then had me eat immediatly after the workout and every couple of hours after that ...

    ... a typical breakfast after a 45 minute workout would be ... 1 whole egg, 2 egg whites, 1/4 cup dry outs, 1 oz walnuts, some cinnamon, a couple of fresh strawberries and lots of water.

    A typical mid-morning snack was 2 1/2 hours later and was just a couple of ounces of poultry and as many green peppers and onions as I wanted to eat.

    For lunch, which was scheduled for 1 1/2 hours before an aterfnoon workout session was be something like a couple of ounces of poultry and as much salad with low carb veggies as I wanted with a teaspoon of olive oil and a teaspoon of cider vinegar .... with such a small amount of oil and vinegar you can guess tha the salads were not really big.

    Immediately after the fteroon workout, he wanted me to have a couple of ounces of seafood like shrimp or haddoc
    k measured after being cooked along with as mush cooked spinach as I wanted and 1/4 cup borwn rice ... measured cooked.

    A final meal came at about 8:30 or 7PM and was 3 ounces of meat, mushrooms and onions, asparagus ... again as much vegetable as I wanted.

    As my weeks wore on, small changes were made to the food routine, but breakfast was pretty much the same all the way through. I;d be allowed to substitute broccoli and 1 small red potato meal before my afternoon workout, or have the big salad at dinner instead of lunch if that was better for my schedule ... but not much else would change.

    I did lose 20 pounds following this routine but felt like all I was doing was eating and exercising so it was hard to fit into my schedule on days I couldn't exercise until the evening.

    However that said ... it seemed like he wanted me to exercise hungry and then eat high quality protein with a little high quality carb after every workout.

    This is an awful lot of information ... but I hope it helps you.
  • AliceDark
    AliceDark Posts: 3,886 Member
    The low-carb thing doesn't work for everyone. It doesn't mean that you're doing anything wrong -- your body may just need more carbs than you're giving it in order to function at its best. Everyone has a slightly different macro balance that suits them best, and you may just need to tweak yours some more until you find it.

    If you've figured out that adding some carbs before a workout improves your performance, that's great! You should continue to eat a banana or some oatmeal, whatever, before you work out. As long as it's accounted for in your calories, and you don't make some radical change and start eating 95% carbs or anything, you'll be fine. Either try that, or try adding in a portion of some kind of carbs to some or all of your meals every day.

    Carbs aren't the devil. If you were trying to lose weight 30 years ago, you would've heard everyone pushing low-fat diets. That advice was wrong back then, and all the "omg, carbs are the worst things you can eat!" advice is wrong now. Eat within your calorie limits and you'll be fine.
  • meshashesha2012
    meshashesha2012 Posts: 8,329 Member
    the one thing i noticed now that i'm eating 1000 calorie deficit a day is that i can only have 1 strength training session where i'm working at like 80-90% of my 1 RM. since my choice was to lose weight slower and be able to have 3 good strength training sessions vs losing at a quicker pace and putting 1 good strength session and working in the 50-75% range on the other 2 days.. i chose the latter
  • Soccer_Chick
    Soccer_Chick Posts: 204 Member
    I sent you a message. :)
  • dearannna
    dearannna Posts: 60 Member
    Thankyou to everyone for your input. I think I need to play around with introducing a little more carby food during the day and maybe eating smaller more frequent meals and see if it makes a difference to how I feel.
  • BetterKimmer
    BetterKimmer Posts: 178 Member
    http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/top-5-facts-you-should-know-about-carb-cycling-and-fat-loss.htm

    It can be easier to get through a low carb style diet without dying while killing yourself working out by carb cycling. Check out the link to start or Google carb cycling. You can play with your carb loading days to fit your needs and what works for you.

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