Rest Days

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megansayssup
megansayssup Posts: 16 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Happy Sunday everyone!!

I'm Megan, I'm 19 years old, 5 ft 8, and I am looking to slim down about 10lbs (140 to 130ish) after gaining about 15 pounds from my sophomore year stress eating. My current diet is at 1200-1300 calories, eating back most of my exercise calories. I tend to be more flexible with my diet on Saturdays- I don't pig out, but I don't hold back from having an extra cookie or two or a meal out with friends. I have a two week workout schedule that has four rest days (the weekends), three days of intense cardio, and the other days include a combination of cardio, weights, and normal circuits for about an hour a day.

I was wondering if this seemed like too many rest days for my goals. I'm hoping to reach 130 by September, but the overall goal time is in January when I go away for vacation!

I know I'm not heavy or overweight whatsoever, I'm just trying to get back to the way I used to be. At 130 I was equally as active (but I also had a higher metabolism back then, and would run, which I can't do know because of bad knees). I just had a really rough year in college.

Thanks xo

Replies

  • NaturalNancy
    NaturalNancy Posts: 1,093 Member
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    This is just my personal opinion but when I ate back all of my exercise calories, I never lost.
    Can u try eating back half instead?
    Rest days are fine as long as you're eating at a defecit
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,863 Member
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    NaturalNancy wrote: »
    This is just my personal opinion but when I ate back all of my exercise calories, I never lost.
    Can u try eating back half instead?
    Rest days are fine as long as you're eating at a defecit

    No. Do eat back your exercise calories, just check several sources to make sure you're not wildly overestimating them.

    Your 1200-1300 calories is already a quite low calorie goal for your height, weight, and size. With that little weight to lose, too deep a deficit will risk your losing lean body mass along with fat. Research suggests that our bodies can only metabolize around 31 calories per day per pound of body fat, and you don't have a huge amount of body fat. If your deficit significantly exceeds that, your body will make up the difference from somewhere - like muscles, bones, connective tissue, hair/fingernail growth & sturdiness, etc.

    With your stats, it would be safest to lose more like 0.5 pound/week, rather than 2lb/week. I'm shorter, lighter, and waaaaay older, and I'd lose rapidly at 1200-1300 net. I ate back all my exercise calories while losing 60+ pounds in less than a year, most of it at 1400-1500 net calories and above.

    Granny sez: Be careful. Stay healthy. Short-term cute isn't worth long-term unhealthy.

    Good luck with your next year of college!
  • megansayssup
    megansayssup Posts: 16 Member
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    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    NaturalNancy wrote: »
    This is just my personal opinion but when I ate back all of my exercise calories, I never lost.
    Can u try eating back half instead?
    Rest days are fine as long as you're eating at a defecit

    No. Do eat back your exercise calories, just check several sources to make sure you're not wildly overestimating them.

    Your 1200-1300 calories is already a quite low calorie goal for your height, weight, and size. With that little weight to lose, too deep a deficit will risk your losing lean body mass along with fat. Research suggests that our bodies can only metabolize around 31 calories per day per pound of body fat, and you don't have a huge amount of body fat. If your deficit significantly exceeds that, your body will make up the difference from somewhere - like muscles, bones, connective tissue, hair/fingernail growth & sturdiness, etc.

    With your stats, it would be safest to lose more like 0.5 pound/week, rather than 2lb/week. I'm shorter, lighter, and waaaaay older, and I'd lose rapidly at 1200-1300 net. I ate back all my exercise calories while losing 60+ pounds in less than a year, most of it at 1400-1500 net calories and above.

    Granny sez: Be careful. Stay healthy. Short-term cute isn't worth long-term unhealthy.

    Good luck with your next year of college!

    Thanks for your help!

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