I'm hungry!!!

llbennett74
llbennett74 Posts: 132 Member
edited November 20 in Social Groups
So I started EM2WL on Saturday. I have been a 1200 calorie club member for a long time aside from weekends which are notoriously hard for me and have been up and down the same few pounds and feel like I have gotten nowhere. My TDEE IS 1777 and I have set it at -20% to start putting me at 1460. I workout 6 days a week doing a mix of cardio and weights. I am 5'1 and currently 128. I am starving!!! Am I doing this right? I was afraid to up my calories too much at the beginning. I know I sound like many others on here but I could use a little insight. Thanks!

Replies

  • retirehappy
    retirehappy Posts: 3,519 Member
    Your hungry, so eat already ;) And speaking of eating are you getting enough protein and fats to feel satisfied when you eat? I am a lifetime member of WW. I know how carb heavy that diet is and it is also pretty darned low fat. Fat makes you feel like you have eaten something.

    Is that TDEE based on Scooby's calculator, MFP's, or an activity tracker? How did you reach TDEE of 1777?

    Why the 20%, do you have a massive amount of weight to lose? Ya, didn't think so. If you are within 25 lbs. of your goal weight it should be around 10% or whatever gives you .5 lbs loss per week.

    Have you read all the EM2WL stickies about what to expect when you up your calories and the other good info there? This isn't an instant fix, you have to give it, your body, and your head time to adjust to eating more. There will be weight creep due to glycogen/water. It will seem crazy to eat so much. And you might feel hungry as your body adapts to the idea of being feed for all the cardio you are submitting it to.
  • llbennett74
    llbennett74 Posts: 132 Member
    I did my calculation on Scooby. I was on WW for a long time too until I realized 1200 calories on MFP is pretty much the same as 26 points. I know I need to just trust the process and stay off the stupid scale for now. I would like to lose 10-15 pounds and chose the 20% cut because I didn't want to jump up too much for fear of gaining. I have my macros on 40 carbs, 30 protein, 30 fat but will admit I'm having a hard time trying to get enough protein in. Oh and my calculations came from sedentary during the day and 5-6 hours of exercise a week. I probably went a little conservative on the exercise part but close. Thank you for your feedback. :)
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    TDEE 1777 / 1183 BMR = 1.5 activity factor.

    You did not select the level for 5-6 hrs of exercise a week - you got between Lightly Active and Moderately Active - no wonder you are hungry.
    And selecting 20% deficit with so little left to lose.

    Should be selecting 10% at this point.

    And be honest with hours of exercise weekly.

    So no - you actually are not doing this right.

    You are doing something else out of fear to keep a bigger deficit than reasonable.

    And read the topics - you'll discover the advice all over to increase calories slowly. 100 extra daily for a week at a time.

    Since doing a lot of cardio, your body has just been itching to store more carbs with attached water - so you should indeed see water weight gain. Same way as summer comes and you get warm more often your blood volume increases - natural body response to changes around you.

    That will increase LBM, and metabolism, and weight.
    And you were going to gain that weight as soon as you tried to eat at maintenance anyway, so who cares - it's spread throughout your body anyway.

    Your eating goal even with 10% should be about 1850.
    But you've been abusing your body at 1200 for awhile you said, so you should move on up slowly to 2050.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    Actually, if truly sedentary no kids/pets, that's 1880 TDEE, 1700 for 10% deficit after you reset.
  • llbennett74
    llbennett74 Posts: 132 Member
    And I stand corrected. I thought I used the Scooby calculator. I actually used the one on IIFYM.com which comes out different. So I think I need to go through and really re-read all of the stickies today. But one question. When you say I should add 100 calories per day each week, is that from the 1200'ish that I had been eating previously or do I jump up to the 1850 and move up from there?
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    Start at what you body had been getting.

    So if you were correctly doing 1200 on non-exercise days and eating more on exercise days, then add 100 more to whatever amount you ate on average in total - not net.

    Vast majority that have their TDEE known based on actual results - have found that iifym badly underestimates TDEE. I think I've seen 2 that claimed it was right on.
  • llbennett74
    llbennett74 Posts: 132 Member
    Okay. That's how I've started out then so I will continue on. I'm almost through with my first week so I will add to it each week. My weight has gone up a tad but I thoroughly read a lot of information this morning and understand that I need not freak out about it right now and just trust the process.
  • XavierNusum
    XavierNusum Posts: 720 Member
    It makes total sense you being hungry. You gave your body just enough extra for it to think there must be more available and now it's demanding what it really wants. "Feed me Seymour" :D (sorry for the crappy movie reference)
  • llbennett74
    llbennett74 Posts: 132 Member
    :D
  • llbennett74
    llbennett74 Posts: 132 Member
    Tomorrow starts week two. I'm armed with a lot more veggies and more protein options. I realized I was severely lacking the vegetables this past week. I'm also upping it another 100 calories.
  • XavierNusum
    XavierNusum Posts: 720 Member
    Sounds good! Keep up posted!
  • llbennett74
    llbennett74 Posts: 132 Member
    Week 2, upped by 100 and ate 1560 all week and I lost 1.8 pounds. I'm still 300 or so from TDEE so do I continue to increase?
  • MandaLeigh123
    MandaLeigh123 Posts: 351 Member
    If you are under your TDEE, keep upping. After you get to the 1850, stay there for a bit then take a small caloric cut. Staying at 1850 gives your metabolism a chance to reset. Then when you take a caloric cut, it will work! Good job so far. I came from a 1200 calorie backgrounf also and it can be mentally challenging to up and stay at TDEE buy you are doing great!
  • llbennett74
    llbennett74 Posts: 132 Member
    Thank you! I'm glad I'm taking it in small increments. I just couldn't handle jumping in with both feet and seeing the scale skyrocket. It was very mentally challenging at first but it's getting easier and I'm finding that even though I'm not meeting them, I am paying attention and working on my macros and I'm finding myself eating even healthier than I was at 1200. I think part of that is I am keeping more in control on the weekends now too because the few extra hundred calories help and prevent me from eating anything not nailed down after being "good" all week. LOL!
  • MandaLeigh123
    MandaLeigh123 Posts: 351 Member
    That's awesome! I did bigger increases but my TDEE was way up there, so I didn't want it to take forever. To get from 1200 to 2800 at 100 per week.... I would have been increasing for 16 weeks! Then once I got to maintenance, to stay there for awhile... was just too long for me. So I increased from 1200-3000 over the course of 3-4 weeks, if I remember right. Then once I was to 3000, I started gaining so I went back down to 2800. I've spent the last three months at maintenance calories. I haven't lost weight, which is to be expected but I did lose inches and also have a much healthier relationship with food and the scale! Also, even Scooby underestimated my calories burned. My numbers were closer to the mens numbers than the womens. So the only way to truly "test" your actual TDEE is to keep increasing until you start gaining. If you aren't ready for that though, at least try to get up to the calculator recommendations. In the future if you feel stalled out, you can revisit your TDEE and try to push your limits.
    Just stick with it lady!
    Just remember to stay at maintenance for awhile before starting your cut. You have to give your body a chance to heal, or it will just think your new cut value is maintenance and you won't lose. You have to go up to maintenance, hang there, then take a reasonable cut. That's the idea for EM2WL anyway! I see a lot of people just try to go to cut value as soon as possible. They often have initial results but then plateau again and were in the same boat they started in.
  • llbennett74
    llbennett74 Posts: 132 Member
    Yup, that's why I knew I should ask because yay, I lost this week but I realize I'm still not where I should be. I jumped from 1200 to 1460 my first week so I did give myself a little jump start and actually 2 weeks from now I'll be at 1850 so that's not too bad. To be honest the challenge for me will be figuring out what to eat because as it is I'm eating more than I'm used to and I am definitely satisfied. I think I'll be adding in some sort of protein bars or shakes in the morning because my morning snack tends to be pretty light.
  • MandaLeigh123
    MandaLeigh123 Posts: 351 Member
    That was also a challenge for too me bc my cals increased more than the double. I added calorie rich protein shakes with nut butters! Good luck!
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    Week 2, upped by 100 and ate 1560 all week and I lost 1.8 pounds. I'm still 300 or so from TDEE so do I continue to increase?

    Always do math with with loss or gain to prove out if it could be fat or not.
    Because fat is not fast, gain or loss.

    1.8 lbs x 3500 / 7 days = 900 cal deficit from actual average daily burn.

    Do you think your daily burn was 1560+900 = 2460 on average every day?
    After how long eating 1200 with no change of weight, meaning that was your TDEE then?

    Of course not.

    But the only reason you'd drop water weight fast increasing calories (when actually the response would be water weight gain) - is because cortisol dropped and retained water dropped.

    Could also be the math done on invalid weigh-ins. Like prior weigh-in you were still sore retaining water for repair - this time not.
  • llbennett74
    llbennett74 Posts: 132 Member
    I understand that. I'm just glad I'm not holding on to a bunch of water weight.
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