Maintaince question?
jlewisrn74
Posts: 94 Member
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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Replies
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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.0
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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...0
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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.0
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She eats her cals lost, so netting several 100 more than 1100. Sounds accurate to me.0
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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!0
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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
. 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. 0 -
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.0
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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.0
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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 Luck0
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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/0 -
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.0 -
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 working0 -
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!0 -
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.0 -
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.0 -
jlewisrn74 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.0 -
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?
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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/
and yes yes to this ^^0 -
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 . 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.0 -
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.0 -
I am 5'4 41 years old. Body fat when I had it measured before I started lifting constantly was 19. That's what I did at the gym with one of those hand held things. I'm not sure how accurate those are. Thank you all for your replies.0
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jlewisrn74 wrote: »I am 5'4 41 years old. Body fat when I had it measured before I started lifting constantly was 19. That's what I did at the gym with one of those hand held things. I'm not sure how accurate those are. Thank you all for your replies.
Then you can eat more than you think...I am as active as you are, a little older (46), shorter and maintain on 2200/lose eating anything less than that.0 -
You are maintaining. Right? You feel good. Right? You have energy. Right? If you answered yes to the previous questions you are doing it right. Don't worry so much about the numbers. If you are consuming more calories due to your miscalculations, so what. If you are actually eating at a slight deficit time will reveal that and you can up your intake.
This is not an exact science. I have been in maintenance almost 2 years after a 70 pound weight loss. The first year I maintained at the recommended MFP level. I sometimes ate back my exercise calories but not always. This summer I gained about five pounds. I lowered my calories a bit and got back to where I was; and am back where I want to be. I have never measured or weighted my food. I know the weight increase was due to portion control.
Instead of resorting to weighting and measuring I simply lowered my calories and it worked. I said all of this to say what I said at the beginning. If it's working don't mess with it.0 -
Thanks!You are maintaining. Right? You feel good. Right? You have energy. Right? If you answered yes to the previous questions you are doing it right. Don't worry so much about the numbers. If you are consuming more calories due to your miscalculations, so what. If you are actually eating at a slight deficit time will reveal that and you can up your intake.
This is not an exact science. I have been in maintenance almost 2 years after a 70 pound weight loss. The first year I maintained at the recommended MFP level. I sometimes ate back my exercise calories but not always. This summer I gained about five pounds. I lowered my calories a bit and got back to where I was; and am back where I want to be. I have never measured or weighted my food. I know the weight increase was due to portion control.
Instead of resorting to weighting and measuring I simply lowered my calories and it worked. I said all of this to say what I said at the beginning. If it's working don't mess with it.
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jlewisrn74 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.
Everything you mentioned needs to be weighed. Maybe not oil but sometimes I weigh that too.0 -
arditarose wrote: »jlewisrn74 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.
Everything you mentioned needs to be weighed. Maybe not oil but sometimes I weigh that too.
Not necessarily. She successfully lost weight using her method, and now she is apparently maintaining. The total number of calories is largely irrelevant as long as CI=CO, which is probably true, again, since she seems to be maintaining. As long as she is feeling good/healthy, then what she is doing works for her--I don't see any reason for her to change it up now.
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arditarose wrote: »jlewisrn74 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.
Everything you mentioned needs to be weighed. Maybe not oil but sometimes I weigh that too.
Not necessarily. She successfully lost weight using her method, and now she is apparently maintaining. The total number of calories is largely irrelevant as long as CI=CO, which is probably true, again, since she seems to be maintaining. As long as she is feeling good/healthy, then what she is doing works for her--I don't see any reason for her to change it up now.
I agree. Unless she hits a bump in the road or wants to read her macros accurately. Or know how much she is actually eating for data. I like the data.0 -
Thank you for your replies. I don't weigh those but I do measure and count. I don't weigh my tortilla's because it's on the package. I don't weigh my oil but I measure out. I have maintained this weight for quite a while now (1-2 years). I actually think I'm going to increase my calories some since I've started lifting and focus on macros more. We'll see what happens....0
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Maintaining long term on 110 calories is unrealistic. Maintaining on 1100 calories is not only unrealistic, but unhealthy.
Given your stated level of activity, there is no way you are maintaining. And if you are, you are either not eating that little or you are lying about your activity.0 -
jlewisrn74 wrote: »Thank you for your replies. I don't weigh those but I do measure and count. I don't weigh my tortilla's because it's on the package. I don't weigh my oil but I measure out. I have maintained this weight for quite a while now (1-2 years). I actually think I'm going to increase my calories some since I've started lifting and focus on macros more. We'll see what happens....
The tortillas may weigh 10-30% more than the package states, which is why you should weigh it.
If you are maintaining and don't want to gain you don't need to up your cals. All I am saying is that you are probably eating more like 1500 cals and that 1500 is your maintenance, but you think you are eating 1100 but your 1100 really = 1500.
If you up your cals from where you were maintaining you should expect to gain some weight.
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