Upping my calories for maintenance/strength training performance too

daligrrrl · July 2015

Okay guys, I have a nutrition question. (Novel below)

I eat about 1300 calories a day. After losing 62 lbs, I am not trying to lose anymore just maintain. Have heard from reliable sources that I need to be eating more and even eating back calories burned during workouts.

A few things to consider: I am not necessarily hungry on the 1300 calories as I make them count. I try my hardest not to eat stupid. Make the calories count. The first few months during crossfit it was enough. Lately, my strength seems to be getting less and less - weight lifted not increasing and Performance is poor (and let's face it, my attitude too!) Simple body strength things are getting so much harder instead of the skill improving.

I do wear a polar ft 4 during workouts as I like to gage how many calories burn. After years of using this , I'm starting to have a suspicion that the count on this varies (and may be inaccurate).

I have read about TDEE and all of that which confuses the heck out of me even more! I don't want to gain back the weight but maintain.

I guess my question is should I shoot for 1500-1800 a day (without eating back calories burned). Should I assume that my burned calories will range from 500-800 per day? I understand that strength training calories burned vs. cardio. Calories burned are different and strength is more long term and cardio is more 'in that moment'

As I said, scared to death to regain the weight but I think not eating enough is detrimental to my goals. But I think eating eating more (smartly of course) would help with the toning that I want and of course performance.

Advice? Thoughts?

cwolfman13 · July 2015

TDEE is just your maintenance with an estimate of your exercise included in your activity level...so if you eat TDEE you eat maintenance and you wouldn't eat back exercise calories because they're already accounted for in your activity level. MFP does not include those calories in your activity level which is why you're supposed to eat some estimate of that activity back...it's otherwise unaccounted for.

Beyond that, the average female without much in the way of deliberate exercise is going to maintain on 1800 - 2000 calories...and of course you feel week...your body doesn't have the fuel to perform the tasks you are asking it to perform. You have to get out of the diet and exercise mentality and get into the eat and train mentality.

Maintenance is really a range, and it takes some experimenting. Also, you are going to gain some scale weight as you increase your calories...for one thing, while dieting, your glycogen stores are in a chronic state of depletion...they will fill when you add calories...it's basically fluid, and it has mass and thus weight. You will also have more inherent waste in your system due to eating more...that shows on the scale too. Most people will see a 3-5 Lb gain on the scale when they go to maintenance due to these things.

It's also important to note that maintenance isn't a static weight...it is a range of weight...nobody weighs exactly XXX Lbs. This seems to get a lot of people because they see it fluctuate up and they drop calories and they end up in a constant state of Yo-yo.

DaddieCat · July 2015

I find TDEE more simple to work with. You adjust in MFP based on your TDEE, track for about a month. if you lose, you add calories slowly over time... if you gain, you subtract 100 calories a week until you find your equilibrium. It requires a little bit of work on your part to do this manual adjustment, but over time it gives you a more accurate calorie count based on your own personal needs.

FiitLou · July 2015

Definitely you need to up your calories, and not with low quality food.. but with healthy fats and proteins. Increase your calories slowly. 100 calories a day for 2 weeks, check impact and then up them again. I've managed to do this from 1600 to 2100.calories. I eat cleanly and get to eat delicious nutritious foods. Weight gain Zero. This year I went from 27% to 12% body fat in 4 months this year after years of YoYo dieting and so had same fear as you of regaining weight. But I'm not going back to the lifestyle that made me fat and overweight, so it's not going to happen. I eat occasional foods purely for pleasure too.. scones with clotted cream and delicious jam are my current favourite.. and I'm still lean.. After 3 months of experimenting I now believe I will be lean forever.

AsISmile · July 2015

I'm not sure on your stats, but 1500-1800 seems low to me.
I generally think that for most women 1800 is at the low end of the maintenance spectrum. Especially if you are as active as you say.
Also, in MFP you were always supposed to eat your exercise calories back.
Anyway, cwolfman's answer is great.

You should really start seeing food as a fuel. To maintain weight the same anount of fuel needs to go in as the work performed.
So that is:
bmr: the amount of calories you burn simply to exist and stay alive
Daily activity: living your life. This includes sitting down, standing up, walking to the kitchen or the bus stop etc.
Exercise: the extra work you do to strenghten your muscle, increase your stamina etc. in maintenance the goal is not to burn calories. You will burn calories because that is how it works, but you need to add them back.

Together they're your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure)
MFP calculates a calorie allowance on only bmr and daily activity. That is why eating exercise calories back is so important.
To maintain weight, food in needs to equal energy out. Don't worry about getting too many calories in though. The range is quite large.

(I personally am able to maintain at a TDEE of 2200 daily. Women, 5,10, 145 lbs, exercise 3x a week, lightly active. If your lifestyle allows it, you really don't need to worry about to many calories if you just eat in a normal way

)

daligrrrl · July 2015

All that you guys said. Thank you all so very much. Very helpful. Also, the 'train and eat' part. Gotta change my mentality. Thanks!

Upping my calories for maintenance/strength training performance too

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