Caloric cyling or increasing overall caloric intake

itslillers
itslillers Posts: 27 Member
edited September 30 in Health and Weight Loss
I've only been a member of MFP for about a month now, but started my weight loss journey back in March. I started out at 163 and dropped down to 150 fairly quickly (beginning of May). Then I started to plateau for the month of May and into June where I gained 2 pounds while doing JM's 30 Day Shred. I decided that I really needed to start counting calories and that's when I joined MFP and I also started doing JM's Ripped in 30. I've lost about 3.4 pounds in the last month, and currently I weigh between 148-149. I really want to get down to under 140 pounds or even just 145!! but I feel like it's not moving towards that direction.

I exercise almost every day for at least 30 minutes. I usually do JM's Ripped in 30, then head to the gym for about 25-30 minutes of cardio, either on the elliptical or the cybex arc trainer machine. I also started doing HIIT during these cardio sessions too. On occasion, I swim laps for about 30-40 minutes at the pool. Sometimes I walk for about 30-40 minutes at 3.5mph at a 10.0 incline, too. At first I set my MFP settings to try to lose 2 pounds/week, but it automatically went to 1.5 pounds/week and to consume 1200 net calories a day. About 1-2 days a week I tend to go over 1200 calories just because I'm either drinking alcohol or having a cheat meal, haha.

Now I've done a lot of reading/browsing around the forums - am I exercising too much? Eating too little? I can't decide if I should try caloric cycling or just increase my overall caloric intake to 1400-1500. I know every body's different, but if anyone could give me some advice, I'd be forever grateful! :smile:

P.S. As far as my diet goes, I'm a pescetarian, but I do not consume seafood/fish every day. So I've also been watching my protein intake and try to get at least anywhere from 80-100g a day, but I usually average around 70g which is what MFP recommends anyway, but I know I should be consuming more.

Replies

  • mark03264
    mark03264 Posts: 334 Member
    Are you eating back most of your exercise calories? If not that could be part of the problem. I know that it doesn't make sense to some people but it is important to eat close to your calorie goal each day including eating back most of your exercise calories. If you don't than you are likely to eat too few calories which will cause your body hang onto the fat it has.

    You should be eating .5 to 1 gram of protein for eat pound of lean body weight.
  • itslillers
    itslillers Posts: 27 Member
    Are you eating back most of your exercise calories? If not that could be part of the problem. I know that it doesn't make sense to some people but it is important to eat close to your calorie goal each day including eating back most of your exercise calories. If you don't than you are likely to eat too few calories which will cause your body hang onto the fat it has.

    You should be eating .5 to 1 gram of protein for eat pound of lean body weight.

    I do eat back most of my exercise calories (I tend to stop at about 100-200 left just in case there's some error in measurement)! Some days I don't, but it's never on purpose. For instance, if I burn about 500 calories, then I try to consume about 1500-1600 calories to make it a net 1200 calories, or as close to as I can.

    I believe my recommended protein is about 87g.
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