putting myself down for not hitting goals

KellieR56
KellieR56 Posts: 135 Member
edited September 23 in Health and Weight Loss
I started this website a week ago. I've been eating SOOOOOOOOOO much better (emphasis on the SO) and have been exercising everyday (10 vigorous miles on my bike and 5 moderate). My calorie goal each day is 1300. When I add exercise calories, I end up eating some of them leaving about 500 calories left for the day. I lose about 800 calories working out everyday. But I hate when my calorie number goes up and I see that I ate about 1,500 calories for the day. I want to lose weight....not gain. I get frustrated because I want to lose weight NOW, so I push myself harder but the calories are still too high at the end of the day :(

Replies

  • Naomi91
    Naomi91 Posts: 892 Member
    Eating those xtra calories will not make you gain weight, its for the benefit of your body and health. If you find it too hard to eat all the calories, spread them out over the day more. Like eating 6 meals a day with 300-400 calories per meal
  • tritta01
    tritta01 Posts: 311
    Sounds like your doing a great job, you actually want to eat the calories back because it helps your body not go into starvation mode. Just make sure you net calories are around 1200-1300 at the end of the day and you should be fine.
  • sunstreaks22
    sunstreaks22 Posts: 40
    First of all, RELAX! :) You only started a week ago, and you're making some BIG changes! Give your body some time to get used to them. Second, keep eating all of the calories that you need to stay healthy. I know it's difficult to see that number go up every meal/snack, but you're doing what's best for your body. Finally, just remember that even if you haven't seen a difference yet, your body is thanking you for all of the healthy changes you are making. You should be so proud of all of the fantastic hard work you've put in this first week. Keep it up, and hopefully next week the dreaded scale will move!
  • CalorieNinja
    CalorieNinja Posts: 645 Member
    You NEED to have at least 1200 calories netted. What I mean is lets say you eat 1200 calories, exercise for 800 that leaves 400 calories for your body to operate on. Your body will go into starvation mode. Your body needs 1200 calories to run properly, therefore if you are losing 800 calories you should try to eat some of those back otherwise you are just going to hurt your metabolism and have a hard time losing weight! So TECHNICALLY you should be eating 2000 calories a day to lose weight. Does that make sense (I am horrible at explaining things) but your body will hold onto the fat if you don't get enough calories for the day because it goes into "survival mode"
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,294 Member
    Not sure what you mean that your calories at the end of the day are too high? you have to remember when you signed up for MFP it gave you a calorie goal to meet your weekly weight loss goal. In your case 1300, so you are in a caloric deficit to lose your goal weight at 1300, then you exercise for 800, to keep your goal caloric deficit to lose your goal amount of weight you must eat those 800 extra, otherwise your caloric deficit is larger than your goal. This can lead to a few things. You may have fast weight loss (not necessarily good) If you lose weight fast much of it will be from muscle, which slows your metabolism down, making it harder to lose and easier to gain weight. I'm assuming your goal is to lose fat not just weight.

    So on the days you burn 800 you should be eating at least 75% of those back to ensure your caloric deficit is not too large that you burn more muscle than fat. You should ai for 1300 Net calories. If you exercise for 800 you would have to eat 2100 to net 1300 (2100-800)
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