Runner needing help
natbryan192
Posts: 11 Member
I am getting frustrated with mixed information. I calculate my suggested calories with a few different calculators online and I keep coming up with 4000+ calories per day. With this app, I am suggested a 1900 calorie a day plan. I workout almost everyday to an excess of about 1000 calories. I am currently holding a diet of 1900 calories which looks a lot like a bowl of outmeal, a sandwich, a banana, and a couple protein shakes per day. My protein is high, my carbs are low and my fats are lower still. I feel low on energy all day and I maintain my current weight of 208 lbs which is 20-40 higher then what my suggested weight is supposed to be as a runner taken from multiple sites. My bmi is 28.9 which is not good for my ankles as a marathon runner. What am I doing wrong? Should I be eating even less then I am already eating?
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Replies
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More stats needed. What is your height, age, sex, weight?
What are your goals? Are you trying to lose weight or run a marathon? You may find combining both goals a struggle.
If you are tired, sounds like you aren't eating enough to fuel your workout. You say MFP gives you 1900 calories and you burn through exercise an additional 1000 calories? So you should be EATING 2900 calories.2 -
height: 5'11"
age: 31
sex: male
weight: 208
I want to bring down my bmi so that I am lighter fat-wise comparatively to my muscle mass so as to by faster.0 -
You're not counting your calories in accurately
You're not estimating your calories out well
You are not giving it enough time
Pick any combination of the above
Also if that's how you're filling your 1900 calories you're doing something wrong IMO ...I would quit the shakes eat lots of real food, where's your vitamins coming from, I see no vegetables and fats..fats and protein are minimums ..yes carbs are great for energy
Could you open your diary so advice can be specific not generic?2 -
1900 is your calorie without the exercise
Are you weighing your food on a food scale or using scoops and cups and spoons ...do the former
Are you eating back your exercise calories? Cos you should be...at least a fair proportion of them?
But NB What are you doing that you think you are burning 1000 calories ? ..that's pretty steep..that's probably a 90 minute to 2 hour jog right there...you're doing that daily?1 -
I am trying to figure out what calculator gave you 4000+ calories plus per day? What did you use to calculate that? How are calculating these 1000 calorie burns through running?
MFP's method to lose weight is designed for you to eat MFP calories to eat per day + exercise. So if you are indeed burning 1000 (skeptical of this number) and MFP gave you 1900 to eat, you should be eating for example:
2900 (calories consumed) - 1000 = 1900 NET CALORIE GOAL..0 -
Apart from not understanding that this isn't a TDEE calculator so your comparisons are flawed are you really sure you want to be a marathon runner doing low carbs?
Low fat as well? Fat is essential.
High protein is beneficial for someone doing heavy exercise in a calorie deficit but you need a balance.
Low energy could be the low carbs. Have you only recently started reducing carbs?
Eat proper foods primarily, supplements should be used just to supplement your diet. Your diet, if what you stated is representative, sounds pretty awful I'm afraid.3 -
I also wonder about your low carbs with that much exercise and running. I had cut all carbs completely when I first started losing weight and I felt sluggish, tired, no energy and my workouts suffered. Once I added back in portioned carbs like oats, sweet potatos, potatos, brown rice, whole grain pastas, ezekiel breads, I started feeling so much better, I still lost another 20 pounds and my workouts and running improved so much.
I will have the occasional protein bar or protein shake if I am on the go and need to grab something or am starving, but I think real food is always better.0 -
You're not counting your calories in accurately
You're not estimating your calories out well
You are not giving it enough time
Pick any combination of the above
Also if that's how you're filling your 1900 calories you're doing something wrong IMO ...I would quit the shakes eat lots of real food, where's your vitamins coming from, I see no vegetables and fats..fats and protein are minimums ..yes carbs are great for energy
Could you open your diary so advice can be specific not generic?
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I have opened my diary up to the public. I miss entering meals some days but the full days are representative of what I am eating dayly. I burn 1000 calories with an hour of running or an hour of cycling plus an hour of gym workout. My Saturdays are rest days.0
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Most of my days don't really have time for cooking so I end up measuring by what it says the servicing size is in the back of the box. I tried doing it with fruits and vegetables once but there was never enough protein coming from them. I am borrowing my nutritional guesstimates from a book running to lose which also suggests that I should be eating about 4000 calories.0
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natbryan192 wrote: »I am getting frustrated with mixed information. I calculate my suggested calories with a few different calculators online and I keep coming up with 4000+ calories per day. With this app, I am suggested a 1900 calorie a day plan. I workout almost everyday to an excess of about 1000 calories. I am currently holding a diet of 1900 calories which looks a lot like a bowl of outmeal, a sandwich, a banana, and a couple protein shakes per day. My protein is high, my carbs are low and my fats are lower still. I feel low on energy all day and I maintain my current weight of 208 lbs which is 20-40 higher then what my suggested weight is supposed to be as a runner taken from multiple sites. My bmi is 28.9 which is not good for my ankles as a marathon runner. What am I doing wrong? Should I be eating even less then I am already eating?
How are you burning 1,000 calories in exericse? Where do you get that number from?
What are your stats?
Do you weigh your food? Log everything you eat to ensure a calorie deficit?
Do you eat exercse calories back?0 -
natbryan192 wrote: »I have opened my diary up to the public. I miss entering meals some days but the full days are representative of what I am eating dayly. I burn 1000 calories with an hour of running or an hour of cycling plus an hour of gym workout. My Saturdays are rest days.
Count the calories burns for your steady state cardio, not for anyting else. How many calories does your running or biking alone burn?0 -
If you are not losing weight, you are eating at maintenance. Your exercise calories look really high - how are you calculating them?. Add some fat and vegetables to your diet. Log everything. I am not a runner, but I think that protein goal is a bit high. Perhaps look at other macro splits for runners?1
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You're estimating too much and using scoops rather than weighing
Weigh all your food
Your lack of fat and vitamins is why you're feeling shaky ..your diet is lacking in core nutrition
You're also overestimating your calorie burn from exercise
How long have you been maintaining?
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Re the bold.....natbryan192 wrote: »Most of my days don't really have time for cooking so I end up measuring by what it says the servicing size is in the back of the box. I tried doing it with fruits and vegetables once but there was never enough protein coming from them. I am borrowing my nutritional guesstimates from a book running to lose which also suggests that I should be eating about 4000 calories.
WOW!!!
Your TDEE which already includes your exercise (not the MFP NEAT method remember) for someone your size and very active activity level comes out to about 3300.
You would have to be doing a huge mileage to lose at 4000!
1000 calorie running burns for your someone your current weight is about 8 miles by the way.
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I run about 7-8 miles on the days I run. I am measuring calories burned with my Garmin. The other days I am doing a bootcamp and up to 3 sets of cycling running between 300 and 500 calories between sets.0
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I am getting fitter but my Garmin scale shows no change in bmi.0
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natbryan192 wrote: »I run about 7-8 miles on the days I run. I am measuring calories burned with my Garmin. The other days I am doing a bootcamp and up to 3 sets of cycling running between 300 and 500 calories between sets.
Your cycling burns look very, very high. Off road and uphill perhaps to make those low speed rides very high calories?
If road cycling would be very suspicious.
I use Garmin for my cycling and in contrast to you it estimates very low for me - is everything set up correctly?0 -
When I say cycling, sometimes it is on a bike and sometimes it's on a spin bike with a couple weights.0
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You might be a wee bit high on your calories burned... I like this calculator for running from Runner's World--I find that this matches up pretty well with my HRM: http://www.runnersworld.com/peak-performance/running-v-walking-how-many-calories-will-you-burn
And for cycling, I've seen some estimates on here for ~33 cal/km or 100 cal/mile.
The only day that you should be consuming close to 4000 calories is the day you actually do your long run training or your actual marathon. I would advise against being on an active cut/actively losing around the time you run your race--I did this for a half marathon once and then found that my pace was much faster when I wasn't cutting.0 -
OP there is nothing wrong with trying to cut / lean down before you next marathon. You did not say you had a race coming up, so I presume that you are still in a training plan for the next one?
Calorie burns for running 8 miles at around 1000 does not seem to out of the ball park for me, but this is taking into consideration that you have calibrated/setup Garmin with your personal data.
I am not a cyclist so I will leave this up the experts.
I looked at your diary and the question is why on a low fat diet? You eat plenty of carbs that I can see, but I did notice a few days not complete.. It looks like some consistency in your logging is needed, and if you are gonna log, you should consider a food scale to use as a tool, but you need to decide what method you want to choose to lose weight.
Also the Garmin BMI on your scale can be off. Those body composition readings are not very accurate.
What are you wanting to do in MFP? Use TDEE, or the MFP + exercise method or keep using your guesstimate process you mentioned above?0
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