Struggling - am I doing this right?!

MrsSmidders
MrsSmidders Posts: 7 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi everyone

I weigh 149lbs and I am 5.5 aged 29.

I have been trying to loose weight for a while and feel like I am banging my head against a wall, yet someone at work has just started and is loosing weigt really quickly.

I would like to loose about a stone (altho at the moment I would just like to loose 2 pounds to cheer myself up). I have been eating well and within my calories per day. According to MFP I need to eat 1220 cals. I also exercise 4-5 times per week by doing jogging, body combat, normal gym stuff. Yet this week I have literally been so good and not a budge on the scales!

What should I be doing? Am I eating enough? Should I eat back my exercise cals or should I not?

I just find it so hard to get my head around. I just want to see some results and make the exercise and Everything else feel worth it before I stress out completely and eat the entire supermarket aisle of biscuits and chocolates.

Any advice you could give would be grately received!!

Thank you

????

Replies

  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    do you weigh everything you eat with scales?

    if you're following MFP numbers, yes you should eat exercise cals back.

    given that you're already at a healthy weight, 1lb is the most you should be aiming to lose - having too large a deficit can work against you.
  • MrsSmidders
    MrsSmidders Posts: 7 Member
    Hi,

    Thank you for your reply. yeah I do weigh everything drives me mad haha. I am wondering if to up my cals to 1400-1500 and then not eat exercise back. Would that be more sensible? The days I exercise 1200 isn't enough.
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    Hi,

    Thank you for your reply. yeah I do weigh everything drives me mad haha. I am wondering if to up my cals to 1400-1500 and then not eat exercise back. Would that be more sensible? The days I exercise 1200 isn't enough.

    to be honest if you're truely only eating 1200 cals and exercising regularly then you should be losing weight.

    you should NET 1200 on exercise days.

    you could use TDEE method instead - and not eat back exercise cals - some people prefer that - i would go for TDEE -15% in that case.
  • ZaCkOX
    ZaCkOX Posts: 115
    I wouldn't suggest eating back your exercise calories. Those calories are meant for using fat stored energy.
  • logg1e
    logg1e Posts: 1,208 Member
    You could open your diary or, if you'd rather not, befriend a couple of us and we can take a look.
  • logg1e
    logg1e Posts: 1,208 Member
    I wouldn't suggest eating back your exercise calories. Those calories are meant for using fat stored energy.

    I respectfully disagree with this. I am a similar age and height to MrsS and also started off on 1200. I ate back my exercise calories and lost 2lb every week.
  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,151 Member
    Don't compare yourself to other people, it will drive you nuts! If you're not losing, you're eating more than you think. If you are exercising a lot, you usually retain water so it WILL seem you're banging your head against the wall. Open your diary.
  • MrsSmidders
    MrsSmidders Posts: 7 Member
    I've opened my diary. Thanks for all your help.
  • logg1e
    logg1e Posts: 1,208 Member
    Seems ok to me. There's the odd item that's a "cup" or "1 serving" and nearly everything you weigh seems to be in multiples of 5g.

    You didn't log everything last Friday and Saturday though. What happened then?
  • logg1e
    logg1e Posts: 1,208 Member
    Hmm, your accurate logging seems to have been just for about five days. You've got a very low cal Indian on Saturday 30th August :smile: Also, your exercise calories may be over-estimated a little.

    I think what you've been doing the last few days just needs to go on a bit longer.
  • I_Will_End_You
    I_Will_End_You Posts: 4,397 Member
    You may just need to give it more time if you've only been doing this for less than a week. I would suggest eating back half of your exercise calories. MFP seems to inflate those numbers a bit.
  • MrsSmidders
    MrsSmidders Posts: 7 Member
    Thanks everyone for looking.

    I thought i had logged the weekends food. I will keep going and see how i get on, most of the time the vegetables dont come in grams when i search, i will add it in grams going forward and see how i get on.

    The indian i only had chicken tikka pieces as i was trying to be extra good, i had the rice at home rather than theirs and had it with salad!

    :-)
  • ZaCkOX
    ZaCkOX Posts: 115
    I wouldn't suggest eating back your exercise calories. Those calories are meant for using fat stored energy.

    I respectfully disagree with this. I am a similar age and height to MrsS and also started off on 1200. I ate back my exercise calories and lost 2lb every week.

    Disagree all you want but to lose weight faster does mean burning the fat storage out of your body = exercise. If someone is not losing weight like they want I would definitely not suggest eating back all the exercise calories.
  • logg1e
    logg1e Posts: 1,208 Member
    I wouldn't suggest eating back your exercise calories. Those calories are meant for using fat stored energy.

    I respectfully disagree with this. I am a similar age and height to MrsS and also started off on 1200. I ate back my exercise calories and lost 2lb every week.

    Disagree all you want but to lose weight faster does mean burning the fat storage out of your body = exercise. If someone is not losing weight like they want I would definitely not suggest eating back all the exercise calories.

    I think, as someone who has also done this at 1200 calories as MrsS has, my advice is sound.
  • ZaCkOX
    ZaCkOX Posts: 115
    I wouldn't suggest eating back your exercise calories. Those calories are meant for using fat stored energy.

    I respectfully disagree with this. I am a similar age and height to MrsS and also started off on 1200. I ate back my exercise calories and lost 2lb every week.

    Disagree all you want but to lose weight faster does mean burning the fat storage out of your body = exercise. If someone is not losing weight like they want I would definitely not suggest eating back all the exercise calories.

    I think, as someone who has also done this at 1200 calories as MrsS has, my advice is sound.

    Ok let's assume everyone is exactly the same, great. At least my advice works regardless.

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