Maintaince question?

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jlewisrn74
jlewisrn74 Posts: 94 Member
in Goal: Maintaining Weight
everyone tells me I don't eat enough calories. My goal is set to 1100. I almost always go over that but very rarely over 1500. Because I set it so low i allow myself to eat my calories lost. I run 6-10 miles 4-6 times a week (or a similar machine at the gym but usually run outside)and lift using the 5X5 program 3x a week. My question is that even with all the cardio and the low calorie goal I maintain my weight. Which is what I want. So I would assume my calorie goal is accurate. I log everything! And am constant with logging. I am 5'4 and weigh between 110-113. If I increase my calories I would assume I will gain. So could it be that even with all my running my calorie goal is accurately set so low? This is a bunch of rambling and hoping it makes sense.
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  • iLoveMyPitbull1225
    iLoveMyPitbull1225 Posts: 1,690 Member
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    How do you feel? Are you hungry? Personally I think that calorie goal for maintenance is about 1000 calories too low for someone with your activity level.
  • jlewisrn74
    jlewisrn74 Posts: 94 Member
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    I feel great. And no I'm not hungry. I get hungry before dinner but not really throughout the day. I think it sounds low but I'm maintaining so I don't know...
  • TimothyFish
    TimothyFish Posts: 4,925 Member
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    Everything is based on estimations and you can never measure calories completely accurately, so if what you are doing is giving you the results you want, I don't see the problem.
  • michellemybelll
    michellemybelll Posts: 2,228 Member
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    She eats her cals lost, so netting several 100 more than 1100. Sounds accurate to me.
  • krdews
    krdews Posts: 124 Member
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    I recently hit maintenance mode 53 yo; 5'2" 121.9 (today). I'm sure there are some on here that are a lot smarter than me and will give you far better advice; however no one knows you better than you is my golden rule. Do what feels great and what you think you can sustain. My calorie goal is really low - some days I hit it other days I go over. I love running and generally run 20 mi on weekends and 12 mi weekdays along with other cardio activities like tennis, elliptical trainer etc. I rarely feel hungry; but if I do - I eat and try to eat healthy. The one thing that is really odd to me personally - on Saturday's I run 10 mi before 8:30A, I have tennis match @ 9AM and generally will go to they gym for about 1 hr burning about 1300 calories - one would think that I would be ravenous or at least light headed; but I'm not. I will grab an apple and run errands for the remainder of the afternoon. I don't do that on purpose, but I'm not hungry and I have a ton of energy - go figure!
  • jlewisrn74
    jlewisrn74 Posts: 94 Member
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    TimothyFish wrote: »
    Everything is based on estimations and you can never measure calories completely accurately, so if what you are doing is giving you the results you want, I don't see the problem.

    I realize "accurate" may not be the accurate word here :smile: . I log everything it may be off a little based on actual intake and portion size but it is as accurate as I can make it. I know I'm not eating 2000 calories a day. Which is what everyone says I should be eating. MFP even puts my calorie goal a lot higher but I have manually changed it.
  • arditarose
    arditarose Posts: 15,573 Member
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    I think your logging is off and you are probably eating close to what an online TDEE calculator gives you. Which is fine, because you want to be maintaining. But unless you're weighing your food (perhaps you are?) you won't be completely sure. If this is working for you now, fine. But if you start gaining and losing you might want to tighten up your diary.
  • arditarose
    arditarose Posts: 15,573 Member
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    Also, how long have you been doing this? If it's only been a little while and you're in a tiny deficit, it's going to take a long time for a loss to show.
  • printdoc2006
    printdoc2006 Posts: 30 Member
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    I agreed with "Ilovemypitbull" I'm a daily 5k runner with weekend 10 miler and I rarely hit my suggested cal intake but I feel great. Listen to your body, if you feel good and have gas in the tank to run as much as you do and you are maintaining you're doing great! Best of Luck
  • jim180155
    jim180155 Posts: 769 Member
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    My guess is that your body has adapted to your long term caloric restriction, "allowing" you to maintain your weight even though you're eating at a theoretical deficit. Somebody else under the same circumstances but with more fat to lose and a different mindset would be complaining that they've hit a plateau and that they can't lose weight even though they're eating at a deficit.

    Your body gradually adapts to calorie restrictions in the form of (I'm borrowing from the article I'm going to link below):
    • Your basal metabolic rate slows down
    • The “thermic effect of food” decreases
    • You burn less energy through “spontaneous” physical activity
    • You burn less energy through exercise

    If that's what's going on, and I'm pretty sure it is, you should be able to eat more and still maintain your weight. The idea is gradually increase calories by around 100 daily, then increase by another 100 each week until you've reached your TDEE.

    If you haven't already looked at your TDEE, try this online calculator which puts your TDEE at around 1732 calories given your stats and 6 workouts per week: iifym.com/tdee-calculator/

    And this is the article I was talking about. It's about reverse dieting and targeted toward people who want to eat more, which would be most people, but I think it applies to you as well: muscleforlife.com/reverse-diet/
  • jlewisrn74
    jlewisrn74 Posts: 94 Member
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    arditarose wrote: »
    Also, how long have you been doing this? If it's only been a little while and you're in a tiny deficit, it's going to take a long time for a loss to show.

    I have been logging for over 210 days now. I think I log fairly accurate. I really only eat healthy. I would be VERY surprised if I was way off on my logging. I don't weigh my food but almost always log higher then I ate if there is a question on the portion size.
  • jlewisrn74
    jlewisrn74 Posts: 94 Member
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    printdoc2006 wrote: »
    I agreed with "Ilovemypitbull" I'm a daily 5k runner with weekend 10 miler and I rarely hit my suggested cal intake but I feel great. Listen to your body, if you feel good and have gas in the tank to run as much as you do and you are maintaining you're doing great! Best of Luck

    Thanks. I guess I'll just keep doing what I'm doing and not think about it since it's working
  • jlewisrn74
    jlewisrn74 Posts: 94 Member
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    jim180155 wrote: »
    My guess is that your body has adapted to your long term caloric restriction, "allowing" you to maintain your weight even though you're eating at a theoretical deficit. Somebody else under the same circumstances but with more fat to lose and a different mindset would be complaining that they've hit a plateau and that they can't lose weight even though they're eating at a deficit.

    Your body gradually adapts to calorie restrictions in the form of (I'm borrowing from the article I'm going to link below):
    • Your basal metabolic rate slows down
    • The “thermic effect of food” decreases
    • You burn less energy through “spontaneous” physical activity
    • You burn less energy through exercise

    If that's what's going on, and I'm pretty sure it is, you should be able to eat more and still maintain your weight. The idea is gradually increase calories by around 100 daily, then increase by another 100 each week until you've reached your TDEE.

    If you haven't already looked at your TDEE, try this online calculator which puts your TDEE at around 1732 calories given your stats and 6 workouts per week: iifym.com/tdee-calculator/

    And this is the article I was talking about. It's about reverse dieting and targeted toward people who want to eat more, which would be most people, but I think it applies to you as well: muscleforlife.com/reverse-diet/

    Thank you!! You answered my question!
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,293 Member
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    jlewisrn74 wrote: »
    arditarose wrote: »
    Also, how long have you been doing this? If it's only been a little while and you're in a tiny deficit, it's going to take a long time for a loss to show.

    I have been logging for over 210 days now. I think I log fairly accurate. I really only eat healthy. I would be VERY surprised if I was way off on my logging. I don't weigh my food but almost always log higher then I ate if there is a question on the portion size.

    By not weighing your food, even if measuring, you may be eating 10-50% more than you think you are. could be even more off if you don't even measure. So your 1100+ (up to 1500) may be more like 1400-2000. You wont know for sure unless you start weighing your food.
  • jlewisrn74
    jlewisrn74 Posts: 94 Member
    edited August 2015
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    erickirb wrote: »
    jlewisrn74 wrote: »
    arditarose wrote: »
    Also, how long have you been doing this? If it's only been a little while and you're in a tiny deficit, it's going to take a long time for a loss to show.

    I have been logging for over 210 days now. I think I log fairly accurate. I really only eat healthy. I would be VERY surprised if I was way off on my logging. I don't weigh my food but almost always log higher then I ate if there is a question on the portion size.

    By not weighing your food, even if measuring, you may be eating 10-50% more than you think you are. could be even more off if you don't even measure. So your 1100+ (up to 1500) may be more like 1400-2000. You wont know for sure unless you start weighing your food.

    I don't eat much on a daily bases that has to be weighed. Grilled veggies, low carb tortillas, protein shakes, oatmeal, fruit (that I measure out if like blueberries). I don't eat meat and measure things like tuna, mayo, oil, nuts and beans ect... I measure in measuring cups things that can be measured that way just not weight. But I don't eat a lot that needs to be weighed that way. I'm not at all saying it's not a possibility though.
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,293 Member
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    jlewisrn74 wrote: »
    erickirb wrote: »
    jlewisrn74 wrote: »
    arditarose wrote: »
    Also, how long have you been doing this? If it's only been a little while and you're in a tiny deficit, it's going to take a long time for a loss to show.

    I have been logging for over 210 days now. I think I log fairly accurate. I really only eat healthy. I would be VERY surprised if I was way off on my logging. I don't weigh my food but almost always log higher then I ate if there is a question on the portion size.

    By not weighing your food, even if measuring, you may be eating 10-50% more than you think you are. could be even more off if you don't even measure. So your 1100+ (up to 1500) may be more like 1400-2000. You wont know for sure unless you start weighing your food.

    I don't eat much on a daily bases that has to be weighed. Grilled veggies, low carb tortillas, protein shakes, oatmeal, fruit (that I measure out if like blueberries). I don't eat meat and measure things like tuna, mayo, oil, nuts and beans ect... I measure in measuring cups things that can be measured that way just not weight. But I don't eat a lot that needs to be weighed that way. I'm not at all saying it's not a possibility though.

    Beans, tortillas, oatmeal, fruit nuts, nut butters, mayo, tuna should all be weighed not measured. veggies should too, though they are low cal so wont make much difference. so you could be easily overestimating, though maybe not 50% but 10-25% would be very probable.

    I would encourage you to measure out your food for a day and weigh the same thing and see how far you have been off all this time.
  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,342 Member
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    iLoveMyPitbull1225 wrote: »
    How do you feel? Are you hungry? Personally I think that calorie goal for maintenance is about 1000 calories too low for someone with your activity level.

    ^^ this
    with all that activity it should be higher...what height are you?
  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,342 Member
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    jim180155 wrote: »
    My guess is that your body has adapted to your long term caloric restriction, "allowing" you to maintain your weight even though you're eating at a theoretical deficit. Somebody else under the same circumstances but with more fat to lose and a different mindset would be complaining that they've hit a plateau and that they can't lose weight even though they're eating at a deficit.

    Your body gradually adapts to calorie restrictions in the form of (I'm borrowing from the article I'm going to link below):
    • Your basal metabolic rate slows down
    • The “thermic effect of food” decreases
    • You burn less energy through “spontaneous” physical activity
    • You burn less energy through exercise

    If that's what's going on, and I'm pretty sure it is, you should be able to eat more and still maintain your weight. The idea is gradually increase calories by around 100 daily, then increase by another 100 each week until you've reached your TDEE.

    If you haven't already looked at your TDEE, try this online calculator which puts your TDEE at around 1732 calories given your stats and 6 workouts per week: iifym.com/tdee-calculator/

    And this is the article I was talking about. It's about reverse dieting and targeted toward people who want to eat more, which would be most people, but I think it applies to you as well: muscleforlife.com/reverse-diet/

    and yes yes to this ^^
  • TimothyFish
    TimothyFish Posts: 4,925 Member
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    jlewisrn74 wrote: »
    TimothyFish wrote: »
    Everything is based on estimations and you can never measure calories completely accurately, so if what you are doing is giving you the results you want, I don't see the problem.

    I realize "accurate" may not be the accurate word here :smile: . I log everything it may be off a little based on actual intake and portion size but it is as accurate as I can make it. I know I'm not eating 2000 calories a day. Which is what everyone says I should be eating. MFP even puts my calorie goal a lot higher but I have manually changed it.

    I'm just saying that there's a point at which you shouldn't worry about the calorie number. If you aren't losing weight and you aren't gaining weight, then what you are doing is your maintenance level. If it doesn't match up with what you expect to see, it is likely inaccuracies somewhere. You don't really gain any value by figuring out what those inaccuracies are, just keep doing what you're doing.
  • ExRelaySprinter
    ExRelaySprinter Posts: 874 Member
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    jim180155 wrote: »
    My guess is that your body has adapted to your long term caloric restriction, "allowing" you to maintain your weight even though you're eating at a theoretical deficit. Somebody else under the same circumstances but with more fat to lose and a different mindset would be complaining that they've hit a plateau and that they can't lose weight even though they're eating at a deficit.

    Your body gradually adapts to calorie restrictions in the form of (I'm borrowing from the article I'm going to link below):
    • Your basal metabolic rate slows down
    • The “thermic effect of food” decreases
    • You burn less energy through “spontaneous” physical activity
    • You burn less energy through exercise

    If that's what's going on, and I'm pretty sure it is, you should be able to eat more and still maintain your weight. The idea is gradually increase calories by around 100 daily, then increase by another 100 each week until you've reached your TDEE.

    If you haven't already looked at your TDEE, try this online calculator which puts your TDEE at around 1732 calories given your stats and 6 workouts per week: iifym.com/tdee-calculator/

    And this is the article I was talking about. It's about reverse dieting and targeted toward people who want to eat more, which would be most people, but I think it applies to you as well: muscleforlife.com/reverse-diet/

    I agree with this also.
    OP, if you know what your body fat percentage is, the online calculator will be more accurate.
    I would guess that your TDEE is much higher than you think.

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