totally lost! please help!
beautyh2t
Posts: 18 Member
Hi All,
Really hope no one minds me butting in and posting but could really use some help and just stumbled upon these threads and it feels the right place to be.
To give you a background over last 5 years I lost 5 stone with just general life changes that needed made. The problem is with that last stone I really fixated and its given me a n awful relationship with food that i ma now trying to fix ( damn you slimming world!) so here I am 29- 5'7 and right now 11stone 5 (nearer 11 stone but currently battling an ongoing up and down water weight) I have worked with my personal trainer who has helped me reverse diet to where I am now ( 1800 cals a day but still on the 5:2 system where on two days I eat around 700 cals- it helped my ibs!) We got up to 2k cals a day but thats when I think i panicked and mistook the slight gains at that amount for hitting my 'ceiling' so we went for the deficit to 1800 but bascially- i still have no period and I feel like I should be looking to increase to regain it before considering a deficit. What does everyone think? I stopped the pil almost 10 months back and only just realising now my period not returning is bad after 6 months. Just had the tests to show not pre menopausal so feel it is from my restrictive time at around 1300 cals a day.
I also worry exercise is contributing, i walk to and form work 5 days a week which i love but is 7 miles a day. and I have been learnign to lift which I also love but its been 3 half hour sessions a week ( not much but maybe all together contributing!)
I would like to ditch the low cal days and just get a nice even calorie split over the week that is going to repair my body with the ultimate goal of getting it in shape to make a small deficit to lost a few lbs. But i feel like I am a bit lost as to what is right for me right now- please help!
Really hope no one minds me butting in and posting but could really use some help and just stumbled upon these threads and it feels the right place to be.
To give you a background over last 5 years I lost 5 stone with just general life changes that needed made. The problem is with that last stone I really fixated and its given me a n awful relationship with food that i ma now trying to fix ( damn you slimming world!) so here I am 29- 5'7 and right now 11stone 5 (nearer 11 stone but currently battling an ongoing up and down water weight) I have worked with my personal trainer who has helped me reverse diet to where I am now ( 1800 cals a day but still on the 5:2 system where on two days I eat around 700 cals- it helped my ibs!) We got up to 2k cals a day but thats when I think i panicked and mistook the slight gains at that amount for hitting my 'ceiling' so we went for the deficit to 1800 but bascially- i still have no period and I feel like I should be looking to increase to regain it before considering a deficit. What does everyone think? I stopped the pil almost 10 months back and only just realising now my period not returning is bad after 6 months. Just had the tests to show not pre menopausal so feel it is from my restrictive time at around 1300 cals a day.
I also worry exercise is contributing, i walk to and form work 5 days a week which i love but is 7 miles a day. and I have been learnign to lift which I also love but its been 3 half hour sessions a week ( not much but maybe all together contributing!)
I would like to ditch the low cal days and just get a nice even calorie split over the week that is going to repair my body with the ultimate goal of getting it in shape to make a small deficit to lost a few lbs. But i feel like I am a bit lost as to what is right for me right now- please help!
0
Replies
-
Judging by your stats you should be eating way more tha 1300-1800 cals! And that gain you saw when you increased your calories was most likely NOT true weight gain. With your level of activity, 7 mile walks 5+ days/wk plus workouts, you need WAY more energy coming in!!0
-
Ditto.
Try this to get a better handle on current TDEE.
Just TDEE please, better than 5 level TDEE charts.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1G7FgNzPq3v5WMjDtH0n93LXSMRY_hjmzNTMJb3aZSxM/edit?usp=sharing
You might even punch in old weight and see what TDEE could have been, compared to what you were eating when it was even less.
How big was the deficit back then?
How big now at current weight?
And with no weight loss - this is potential deficit, of course you have none in place right now - you are eating at suppressed TDEE right now.
Got to get a healthy body back to get TDEE back up to potential - then take reasonable deficit.0 -
Ditto.
Try this to get a better handle on current TDEE.
Just TDEE please, better than 5 level TDEE charts.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1G7FgNzPq3v5WMjDtH0n93LXSMRY_hjmzNTMJb3aZSxM/edit?usp=sharing
You might even punch in old weight and see what TDEE could have been, compared to what you were eating when it was even less.
How big was the deficit back then?
How big now at current weight?
And with no weight loss - this is potential deficit, of course you have none in place right now - you are eating at suppressed TDEE right now.
Got to get a healthy body back to get TDEE back up to potential - then take reasonable deficit.
Thank you so much for getting back to me heybales and xavier- really hope you see this reply but not sure how to make sure! Definately glad to hear I should be able to be eating more- right now I am upping my cals to 2000 a day and 1200 twice a week to get my body slowly used to it ( with view to increase the low cal days to 2000 as well) does that seem smart?
Oh wow - ok just used your amazing spreadsheet and it has my tdee at 2904 so 2468 for a 15 percent deficit! ( i wasnt sure how to put exercise in so went for 300 mins of walking flat and 300 of cardio- is that ok?) wow. What is best to do now- do I am aim for deficit daily or should I be looking much bigger and looking at getting closer to tdee?? sorry for all the questions this was a huge help, other calcs I have used have not got nearly close to that!
thanks again
0 -
Also sorry heybales- I didnt answer all your questions. Right now I am sitting at 11 stone 4 .
"Got to get a healthy body back to get TDEE back up to potential - then take reasonable deficit."
to get a healthier body back to get up to my TDEE do you advise slow increments?
0 -
For the big amount you are going up for potential TDEE, and where the body is currently burning - for sure small increments.
100 more than current eating level daily for 1 week.
Next week another 100 daily.
Then go by 200 cal jumps weekly.
So TDEE calc gets:
90 min weight lifting, you said 3 x 30 min sessions weekly.
5 x 7 miles walking, which could be 2 hrs then daily, 10 hrs weekly, 600 min walking weekly. But correct that with actual time.
Add any other workouts in if you do them.
Not sure where the 300 higher cardio came from, unless you jog home, in which case it should take less time than walking to work.
Now eventually, the accuracy of logging what you eat will come in to play.
If not currently weighing your foods - start getting used to it. You may have lucked yourself out and aren't truly eating as low as you think if accuracy is off.
But no need to get super accurate now while the levels are still low.
I'd suggest when you hit 2000, start getting more accurate if not already.
And get all the way up to the potential TDEE the spreadsheet shows with corrected figures. Confirm your daily activity selection is correct too.0 -
For the big amount you are going up for potential TDEE, and where the body is currently burning - for sure small increments.
100 more than current eating level daily for 1 week.
Next week another 100 daily.
Then go by 200 cal jumps weekly.
So TDEE calc gets:
90 min weight lifting, you said 3 x 30 min sessions weekly.
5 x 7 miles walking, which could be 2 hrs then daily, 10 hrs weekly, 600 min walking weekly. But correct that with actual time.
Add any other workouts in if you do them.
Not sure where the 300 higher cardio came from, unless you jog home, in which case it should take less time than walking to work.
Now eventually, the accuracy of logging what you eat will come in to play.
If not currently weighing your foods - start getting used to it. You may have lucked yourself out and aren't truly eating as low as you think if accuracy is off.
But no need to get super accurate now while the levels are still low.
I'd suggest when you hit 2000, start getting more accurate if not already.
And get all the way up to the potential TDEE the spreadsheet shows with corrected figures. Confirm your daily activity selection is correct too.
Oh Heybales- you are a huge help, thanks for this!
Ok no wonder i had it all skewed- putting in the 90 min weights, and the 600 mins of walking ( and nothing in the cardio one) and changing the job section to no cross ( i work in a desk job with no kids/pets) that brings my TDEE to 2383 and the 15 percent cut to 2026 which feels a lot more accurate and without a doubt I bet my accuracy is off as I dont properly weigh.
So just to check I am getting it all right ( sorry- just really want to avoid running away at this first sign of water weight I am at and cutting cals again!)
Up until last week I was on 1800 cals a day 5 days a week and 2 lower days of only around 700 cals. This week I am going for 2000 cals a day and getting the lower days up to 1200 cals. Should I stick with that for another week do you think to adjust and then after that put the lower cals up again by 200 maybe? In my head I am looking to aim for 2000 7 days a week and then work towards getting them closer to the TDEE before cutting back down to suggested deficit? ( oh and weighing properly etc to check myself)
Apologies if I am totally getting that wrong- really appreciate the help on here!
0 -
Actually, the average weekly TDEE method means you eat that much daily.
You took what you did for the week and average it out - and since you mainly were eating higher, no need to keep the lower amounts at all.
Your body isn't in the same level of shock as eating at 1200 daily, you already were up at decent level.
I'd just increase those low days right on up to 1800 also.
Then start your march up to 2000 and beyond as you mentioned.
And start getting accuracy down, or at least weighing enough food to see where the issues are, right now.
You could easily be eating 400 more than you know.
I don't think you'll have to spend much time at TDEE resetting, because the study on the 5:2 diet (was that kind of what you were attempting) shows great results eating at TDEE the 5 days. You were close to TDEE, so system probably not too stressed out.
Though, appears about 600 deficit even on those days - so actually that was a big amount overall.0 -
thanks so much for all your help Hey Bales- going to go for 1800 on 7 days next week and march towards 2300 for a little while and then go for a deficit then ( probably around 2k 7 days a week)
Hopefully that all sounds smart anyways!
have a fab weekend!
R0
This discussion has been closed.