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kmac1196
Posts: 188 Member
Hi! I searched for something like this and found you!
Some background....41 year old, married mom of 3 (18,15, 13).
5' 4.5" 178 lbs
Started in August 2012 at 249.6.
Calorie level started at around 1700 and I've decreased over the years. Last month, I was trying to make some movement (maintained through the summer and wanted to make up some time) so I dropped to 1400. Only last a month...hungry, tired, losing strength. I took a 2 week diet break and ate over maintenance. Then started to cut again at 1800-1850. Initially this week, I was dropping and now I seem to be going up. Caveat....TOM is due on 2/12 so PMS officially now.
Body media data says daily burn between 2742-2997 this week.
I lift weights 3 x's a week (full body 5x5....ICF). Cardio sometimes (walking). Housecleaner by trade...so active about 2 -3 hours per day. Then not so much.
I've lifted for 18 years but strictly for 3.
Currently wear a size 10 and 12 depending on brand so I'm not super hung up on the scale but I know it has to go down. Goal weight??? 140 I think.
Input? Advice on cals? Anything?
Thanks in advance.....
A visual for you that may help.
Kristen
Some background....41 year old, married mom of 3 (18,15, 13).
5' 4.5" 178 lbs
Started in August 2012 at 249.6.
Calorie level started at around 1700 and I've decreased over the years. Last month, I was trying to make some movement (maintained through the summer and wanted to make up some time) so I dropped to 1400. Only last a month...hungry, tired, losing strength. I took a 2 week diet break and ate over maintenance. Then started to cut again at 1800-1850. Initially this week, I was dropping and now I seem to be going up. Caveat....TOM is due on 2/12 so PMS officially now.
Body media data says daily burn between 2742-2997 this week.
I lift weights 3 x's a week (full body 5x5....ICF). Cardio sometimes (walking). Housecleaner by trade...so active about 2 -3 hours per day. Then not so much.
I've lifted for 18 years but strictly for 3.
Currently wear a size 10 and 12 depending on brand so I'm not super hung up on the scale but I know it has to go down. Goal weight??? 140 I think.
Input? Advice on cals? Anything?
Thanks in advance.....
A visual for you that may help.
Kristen
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Replies
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All I might suggest is changing it up a bit. Maybe add in a circuit training one day instead of straight up weight lifting?0
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Hi Kmac, welcome! Wow, what a huge change...congrats on your losses.
Since you have a Bodymedia, I would go with the numbers it gives you. Right now, your calorie deficit is too large, even at 1800 cals daily, you are probably finding yourself really hungry as you have a 1000+ calorie deficit! This big of a calorie deficit very well could stall your progress and at some point will become unsustainable. EM2WL suggests using a smaller deficit - no more than 15%, especially since you don't have too much more to lose. I would take an average using your Bodymedia - a week or a month's worth of data. It will probably come up around 2900 for your maintenance average. Then subtract 15% from that and eat that amount everyday. You can take a new average every month in case your activity varies. This will put you eating more around 2400-2500 cals a day probably - way more than you are eating now. This is really what your body needs to function properly and loose fat easier. If you decide to eat more in line with this amount, increase your calories slowly so that your body has time to adjust to eating more. It will be much more sustainable for you in the long run. I hope this helps!0 -
Jenn's got it right (as per usual). Keep up the good training with weight lifting - no need to change it up. As you may have read, it's a lot harder to lose weight once you are in the healthy area (which you are, even if it's not as small a number as you'd like). The 15% deficit will help and you'll find your strength gains going up, up, up...which means you'll lose fat more readily than muscle. Keep an eye on your protein intake - should be around 1 gram per lb of lean muscle mass (or .8 grams per body weight), especially on lifting days. I'm 147 and I eat a minimum of 100 grams of protein but up it to around 130+ on lifting days.0
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Yes I hit 120
Or more protein every day. At least. Try for 60g or more of fat. And the rest carbs. I'm going on a cruise on thurs and won't resume diet or wearing body media until the 22nd Monday. So I expect a weight gain as cals will be way over maint. Lol. I will cut at 2400 when I get back and see how that works.
1800 seems so happy for me after 1500 for a long time. Lol.
2400 will seem like a bulk.0 -
Well, the bodymedias are pretty accurate for most people I think, more so than fitbits. Although my BMF did overestimate my calorie burn quite a bit and I don't wear it anymore for that reason. You just have to try it though and see how your body does with the calories, making sure to give your body long enough to adjust to see a trend, whether up, down or even.0
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Second @Jennbecca33 and @mymodernbabylon. My estimated TDEE is around 2650 (lower than your BodyMedia data) and I was eating at 2400 last week. Even though my exercise was lower than what we used to calculated my TDEE because of a cutback/recovery week, my weight stayed the same and I lost a 1/2 inch in each of my "trouble" spots for a total of 1.5 inches lost. With your activity level, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised with 2400-2500 calories Good luck! 0
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Thank you all for your input. It's a bit nerve wracking thinking about eating that much but I have time before summer to be bloated a bit. LOL. And the cruise I'm taking should jump me right past maintenance and into surplus land (still going to lift and exercise on the cruise though). So that when I get back, I might as well try 2400. I cannot tell you how excited I will be at that level. Oh the joy of eating! LOL.....0
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Another question please.
I see that some of you take 10 weeks or so to reset. Is that including easing up to maint?
I am going in a 9 day cruise and leaving the day before. So technically 11 full days of eating not at a deficit. When I come back my plan is to get right to higher number. I expect to gain on the cruise. And then the smaller deficit Should bring weight loss. Right?
Kristen0 -
It really depends on your history and how your body reacts to the additional calories. For those that have restricted for a long time (usually 6 months or longer), we recommend a full reset which is 9-12 weeks eating at FULL maintenance calories (not including the time it take to get there), so it is a longer process but very much needed for those that need to heal their metabolisms. Eating at maintenance for that long is what heals your metabolism so cutting it short could hinder your efforts. You could go on your cruise and then try the 2400 when you get back for several weeks and see how you do (6 weeks or so). If you're not seeing any progress at that level, it may indicate you need to eat at maintenance longer and do more of a full reset.0
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Ah....Okay.
I've been dieting since Aug 2012....lost slowly already (.6 lbs average). I take a day or a few off often. And a week in the summer and holidays. So I'm hoping I put in enough diet breaks to not need a full reset.
2400 seems like so much. LOL
I'll post when I get back and report cruise weight gain (I'm guessing 8 or so lbs). LOL.
Kristen0 -
@kmac1196, in addition to all the great advice I'd also recommend not too comepletely let yourself go on the cruise foodwise. Reset usually implies raising your calories slowly by about 200 every 1-2 weeks to give your body time to adapt, this way you have a good chance of not gaining weight (I've finished my reset recently almost without gain, but it took me about 10 weeks to go from 1400 to 2500). Cruises usually offer a good selection of healthy food too, so contrlling your intake shouldn't be so hard. I don't mean track everything, I just mean stay away from that 3rd portion of free ice cream. And keep lifting! 0
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A bunch of us have a friend who eats over 3000 calories when she's not cutting. 2400 is not that much. I'm older than you by a few years and my non-cutting number is 2350 (when I'm lifting and playing hockey), so if you are younger than me, it's not surprising that your number is a bit higher (if not even higher). Believe me, you want to be able to eat as much as you can while doing a TDEE - and if you look at, realistically, what you ate before you lost weight, I bet it was a much higher number than 2400 (which isn't that much truly - just a good amount to eat).0
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What's the harm in doing a reset? I didn't do a reset (cause I didn't eat a LCD) but I did want to figure out my TDEE and I took 4 months to do so. That's only 4 months out of the many years I'm going to be living, and it means that I know what I can eat to maintain my weight right now and also how much to eat to lose weight while eating as much as I can eat. We're not in a race here! You can do it and it's so worth it.0
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Ok...so I'm back from the cruise. I will weigh in in just a bit (have to use the bathroom and wake up for a little). I'm expecting a 10 lb gain for sure (more maybe).
In answer to a few questions....I could have gone up slowly but since I was scheduled for this vacation and hadn't taken a diet break in over 2 years, I thought it was best (for ME) to just break. KWIM? My family needed me to not count or worry....I needed it. I did not work out (forgot my workout clothes and didn't like the gym and had a bad case of body dysmorphia on the cruise). Anyway....That's why I did it that way. I did eat fruits and veggies and good healthy things too.
Now that I"m back, I've put my armband back on and am back to tracking and counting (need to go to the store...I'm out of everything!).
Plan is to hit 2400 cals for a full month and look at the data. I will be posting it here (unless I should post it somewhere else) for experiment purposes. Feel free to add comments, advice, suggestions, and criticism here. Although, be gentle with the criticism....I'm sensitive
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Sounds good to me. Have you checked out the website? There's a place where we post journals and it's great for getting support and just reading other people's good times and bad. Here's the link to mine (I have a different name) and then you can check out others or decide to post one yourself: http://forums.eatmore2weighless.com/showthread.php?tid=117980
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I'll check it out.
Post cruise weigh in.
189.2
+10 lbs.
Now onto 2400 for a month (?) and see what weight is.
And thanks I'll check those out!0 -
mymodernbabylon wrote: »Sounds good to me. Have you checked out the website? There's a place where we post journals and it's great for getting support and just reading other people's good times and bad. Here's the link to mine (I have a different name) and then you can check out others or decide to post one yourself: http://forums.eatmore2weighless.com/showthread.php?tid=11798
Awesome thread you have there. So much greatness!!! You are very brave and I will be following you.
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Started a thread over there! Thanks!!!0
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Okay so I belong to BB.com and post and read often over there. And one of the veteran's commended this post as accurate.....thoughts? I'm super nervous eating this much.
I am no expert, but our stats are the same (well, were the same when I started my cut this January ) I am 5'4, was 147-149 on Jan 3rd and I am 135.8. This is my second cut, last one was hard because I just got stuck on 137 and the scale would not move. So this is what I have learned from all of this:
- we really do tend to overestimate our activity and underestimate how much we eat. I got Bodymedia and according to it, I was burning ~2400 every day (I have an office job and sit on my behind all day ). So I could not understand why in the world am I not losing on 1700 cals? Well, came to find out that body media can be off by 15-20% or so. So better to follow the nutritional sticky on this board, minus 15-20% of that and start there (also, I love this ITFYM calculator, I actually use it now and according to it 1550-1600 is where I should be for a cut - http://iifym.com/iifym-calculator/)
- I was using digital scale for SOME foods, but not all. For example, I was not weighing in vegetables and fruits - I mean, how many calories can there be in lettuce, tomato, banana, etc. Well, many, apparently. This cut I am measuring EVERYTHING - I came to find out that I was off, like way off. I was actually eating at maintenance! Measuring cups - big mistake. They are also off - liquids including. When all of that added up, I was off by ~250-300 calories! So everything goes on digital scale now.
- I used to have re-feed days during first cut. Not this time. I do 1600 cals every day, about 1g of protein per lbs and the rest carbs and fats. I don't ever go low carb because with lower calories I am already more tired and we need energy to function. There is absolutely no reason why we should go low carb on a diet, IMXO. I eat plenty of carbs and fats (as long as protein req is met). Once a week (sometimes twice), I eat stuff that I like - piece of pizza, my kids bday cake, ice cream, whatever. That day I just don't have my usual protein shake, or that piece of fish. Basically try to not go over 1600 cals and if I do, only by a bit. Also, nothing is off limits. As long as it fits my macros, I am going to have it. For example, I add whipped cream to my strawberry-banana shake every day
- I do very little cardio this cut - twice a week, 20-30 min, that's it. Cardio makes me tired and hungry and like everyone says here, it is not necessary for weight loss. I don't know how to explain it other then, I feel 'balanced', I never feel hungry or super tired. And if I do, I take a day off from the gym and chill. More is not better
- Last cut I worked out like a maniac, sometimes waking up at 4:30 am to do cardio! I noticed while wearing Bodymedia that I burn less calories when I sleep less. So this cut I am watching my sleep. I rather rest and get my sleep, then have no sleep and workout. Rest is important!
I am steadily losing this time (~11.5 lbs so far). HTH
That's what she said and then a vet over there (moderator, personal trainer, competitor) agreed with it all and says that we over estimate our burn. Which really is the opposite of every one here.
I read a lot. Mostly follow works like Alan Aragon and Brad Schoenfeld . Science.
Anyone want to point me in the direction of literature supporting EM2WL?
Kristen0 -
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