Sometimes I have to Learn the Hard Way
gelleebean44
Posts: 22 Member
Not sure if anyone else experienced this but I thought I'd put it out there 
Just started working out and counting calories for the 1st time in my life when I joined MFP 3 wks ago. It's been such an amazing & interesting journey so far. I exercised and was conscious of everything I ate for the 1st 2 wks and lost 11 lbs/5" (I also realized it would be a quicker weight-loss at the beginning).
I did my wkly weigh-in 2 days ago and I lost 1 lb. Wasn't too upset about it (although I won't lie, it kinda felt like coming in 3rd place in a Miss Universe pageant...you're proud that you placed but nothing beats being the new Miss Universe? Lol). I also wasn't too upset b/c I consciously decided to try not to eat ANY of my exercise calories and also stay as close to 1200 cal's/day as possible (my daily cal goal is 1660 & I work-out 5-6 days/wk). There were even 2 days this last wk where I was under 1200 cal's.
Ok, probably not the smartest experiment, but I was curious to see the results. Clearly, not the best way to try & hit the "fast-forward" button on my weight-loss and not the healthiest, either. Hated feeling hungry at times and I definitely had a loss of energy, found it hard to sleep sometimes too. Lesson learned: I need to eat smarter and not deprive my body of its fuel....still unsure of whether to eat my exercise cal's or not (& if so, how much of it) but I understand the debate still continues regarding this topic. Anyone else go through something similar?
Just started working out and counting calories for the 1st time in my life when I joined MFP 3 wks ago. It's been such an amazing & interesting journey so far. I exercised and was conscious of everything I ate for the 1st 2 wks and lost 11 lbs/5" (I also realized it would be a quicker weight-loss at the beginning).
I did my wkly weigh-in 2 days ago and I lost 1 lb. Wasn't too upset about it (although I won't lie, it kinda felt like coming in 3rd place in a Miss Universe pageant...you're proud that you placed but nothing beats being the new Miss Universe? Lol). I also wasn't too upset b/c I consciously decided to try not to eat ANY of my exercise calories and also stay as close to 1200 cal's/day as possible (my daily cal goal is 1660 & I work-out 5-6 days/wk). There were even 2 days this last wk where I was under 1200 cal's.
Ok, probably not the smartest experiment, but I was curious to see the results. Clearly, not the best way to try & hit the "fast-forward" button on my weight-loss and not the healthiest, either. Hated feeling hungry at times and I definitely had a loss of energy, found it hard to sleep sometimes too. Lesson learned: I need to eat smarter and not deprive my body of its fuel....still unsure of whether to eat my exercise cal's or not (& if so, how much of it) but I understand the debate still continues regarding this topic. Anyone else go through something similar?
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Replies
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There's a lot of talk about eating as close to your allotted calories as possible and then eating your exercise calories back, and it seems that different things work better for different people. I, for one, don't believe that experimenting with the numbers is going to hurt you at all as long as you are smart about what you are doing. If you tracked everything, then you know what will and won't work for you and can try something new next week. Now that you know that it didn't work for you, switch it up and find something that does.
I, too, tried to eat as little as possible the first time I jumped into this. Thinking... if an XXXX calorie deficit is good then XXXXX must be GREAT. Yea... not so much. Now, I eat when I am hungry because I feel like my body knows best. I eat back my exercise calories whenever I can, but sometimes my workout was just way too vigorous for me to get them all in. Just keep experimenting and see what works the best for you. For me, eating back my exercise calories is more due to the fact that I am usually STARVING about an hour after a good, hard workout and I get tired of hearing my tummy grumble.
You'll figure out what works for you, and I am sure everyone here will have TONS of advice. Part of why I love this site so much! Good luck
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I try very hard to nail my kcal count each day (I'm at 1400), and I consciously do not eat my exercise calories. I'm starting my third week of active MFP, and after talking with my doc, she said that the choice is mine, and if I want to occasionally eat them, that's fine, and use them to enjoy a treat, but the more I stay at my set amount for the day and don't eat them, the quicker I'm going to see inches lost.
Seeing the weight loss is always fun, but muscle building can and will slow that way down, so pay more attention to your inches, and you'll see far more results.
Never EVER feel hungry - if you do, you're not doing yourself any good at all. I'm at 300+ pounds, and at 1400 kcals per day, I'm never hungry, and occasionally can't manage to eat all the kcals I'm supposed to, but I try.
Looks like you have definitely learned the hard way, and now it's time to stick to what will work. Great job on both pounds and inches!!! You can totally succeed!0 -
Slow and steady wins the race. It also leaves less stretch marks and saggy skin. Your body needs calories to function and if you are working out hard and not putting the right kind of calories into your engine, you will find yourself running out of gas. Your body will adjust your metabolism to conserve its reserves as much as possible and you will not see the difference on the scale. You need to eat the right kind of stuff in the quantities needed so that your body knows it is not in a starvation situation and release the stored reserves (fat) to be used. Sorry to be so long winded.
Covert Bailey, author of "Fit or Fat", has some outstanding fitness tips. This is the list from his web site. Not item 7 in particular.
1. Exercise. If exercise were a pill, it would be the most widely prescribed medicine in the world.
2. Eat a balanced diet, lower in fat, lower in sugar and higher in fiber.
3. Diets don't work. Exercise is the bottom line behavior for weight management.
4. Throw away your scales. Measuring your body fat is a better indicator of health than your weight.
5. When trying to lose fat, aim for a maximum of 2 pounds a week.
6. If spot reducing worked, people who chew gum would have skinny faces.
7. Crash dieting, over exercising and fasting will slow down your metabolism.
8. People don't stop exercising because they grow old, they grow old because they stop exercising.
9. It's easy to lose weight. The challenge is to keep it off. Exercise works.
10. Don't worry so much about your heart rate when you exercise. Use common sense and pace yourself so you can talk.
11. When you exercise, remind yourself, "I'm building fat-burning enzymes."
12. If you get out of breath when you exercise, you're going too fast.
13. One of the best ways to reduce stress is to exercise.
14. The older you are, the more important it is that you exercise. Exercise makes bones denser. Exercise helps maintain mobility.
15. Labels don't lie, but liars write labels.
16. Statistics are like bikinis. They only reveal half the truth.
17. Upper-body weight training will help women maintain lean body mass.
18. More muscle equals less workout time.
19. Don't say, "I don't eat red meat." Say, "I don't eat greasy meats."
20. There's no such thing as cellulite. The word was dreamed up by people with products to market to describe skin with texture that shows underlying fat on some women more than others.
21. The best aerobic exercise is the one you'll do every day.
22. The best time to exercise is when you will do it.
23. If you don't seem to be getting more fit, you may be exercising too hard.
24. If you exercise more than 45 minutes 5 days a week, you aren't doing it for fitness sake.
25. Beware of medically monitored diet programs. If you need a doctor, there must be something wrong.0 -
There's a lot of talk about eating as close to your allotted calories as possible and then eating your exercise calories back, and it seems that different things work better for different people. I, for one, don't believe that experimenting with the numbers is going to hurt you at all as long as you are smart about what you are doing. If you tracked everything, then you know what will and won't work for you and can try something new next week. Now that you know that it didn't work for you, switch it up and find something that does.
I, too, tried to eat as little as possible the first time I jumped into this. Thinking... if an XXXX calorie deficit is good then XXXXX must be GREAT. Yea... not so much. Now, I eat when I am hungry because I feel like my body knows best. I eat back my exercise calories whenever I can, but sometimes my workout was just way too vigorous for me to get them all in. Just keep experimenting and see what works the best for you. For me, eating back my exercise calories is more due to the fact that I am usually STARVING about an hour after a good, hard workout and I get tired of hearing my tummy grumble.
You'll figure out what works for you, and I am sure everyone here will have TONS of advice. Part of why I love this site so much! Good luck
Thanks Sylly. I've never done this before so it's good to learn that there's no "set" way of travelling on this journey. I totally love this site too-it's been eye-opening for me and the people here have been VERY supportive & encouraging. Amazing experience so far. 0 -
I try very hard to nail my kcal count each day (I'm at 1400), and I consciously do not eat my exercise calories. I'm starting my third week of active MFP, and after talking with my doc, she said that the choice is mine, and if I want to occasionally eat them, that's fine, and use them to enjoy a treat, but the more I stay at my set amount for the day and don't eat them, the quicker I'm going to see inches lost.
Seeing the weight loss is always fun, but muscle building can and will slow that way down, so pay more attention to your inches, and you'll see far more results.
Never EVER feel hungry - if you do, you're not doing yourself any good at all. I'm at 300+ pounds, and at 1400 kcals per day, I'm never hungry, and occasionally can't manage to eat all the kcals I'm supposed to, but I try.
Looks like you have definitely learned the hard way, and now it's time to stick to what will work. Great job on both pounds and inches!!! You can totally succeed!
Thank-you CK. You actually reminded me-I haven't seen my Dr yet since I started MFP. Especially since I have high BP, I probably should pay her a visit soon! I've been measuring the inches lost as well and I see that it's been moving in the right direction so I try not to get de-motivated. For someone who's never really tried to be healthier, I'll celebrate any and every little nugget of progress I can achieve! The hungry feelings kinda sucked (A LOT! Lol) so I'll definitely have to manage that better and eat when my body is telling me to. 0 -
Slow and steady wins the race. It also leaves less stretch marks and saggy skin. Your body needs calories to function and if you are working out hard and not putting the right kind of calories into your engine, you will find yourself running out of gas. Your body will adjust your metabolism to conserve its reserves as much as possible and you will not see the difference on the scale. You need to eat the right kind of stuff in the quantities needed so that your body knows it is not in a starvation situation and release the stored reserves (fat) to be used. Sorry to be so long winded.
Covert Bailey, author of "Fit or Fat", has some outstanding fitness tips. This is the list from his web site. Not item 7 in particular.
1. Exercise. If exercise were a pill, it would be the most widely prescribed medicine in the world.
2. Eat a balanced diet, lower in fat, lower in sugar and higher in fiber.
3. Diets don't work. Exercise is the bottom line behavior for weight management.
4. Throw away your scales. Measuring your body fat is a better indicator of health than your weight.
5. When trying to lose fat, aim for a maximum of 2 pounds a week.
6. If spot reducing worked, people who chew gum would have skinny faces.
7. Crash dieting, over exercising and fasting will slow down your metabolism.
8. People don't stop exercising because they grow old, they grow old because they stop exercising.
9. It's easy to lose weight. The challenge is to keep it off. Exercise works.
10. Don't worry so much about your heart rate when you exercise. Use common sense and pace yourself so you can talk.
11. When you exercise, remind yourself, "I'm building fat-burning enzymes."
12. If you get out of breath when you exercise, you're going too fast.
13. One of the best ways to reduce stress is to exercise.
14. The older you are, the more important it is that you exercise. Exercise makes bones denser. Exercise helps maintain mobility.
15. Labels don't lie, but liars write labels.
16. Statistics are like bikinis. They only reveal half the truth.
17. Upper-body weight training will help women maintain lean body mass.
18. More muscle equals less workout time.
19. Don't say, "I don't eat red meat." Say, "I don't eat greasy meats."
20. There's no such thing as cellulite. The word was dreamed up by people with products to market to describe skin with texture that shows underlying fat on some women more than others.
21. The best aerobic exercise is the one you'll do every day.
22. The best time to exercise is when you will do it.
23. If you don't seem to be getting more fit, you may be exercising too hard.
24. If you exercise more than 45 minutes 5 days a week, you aren't doing it for fitness sake.
25. Beware of medically monitored diet programs. If you need a doctor, there must be something wrong.
Thanks for posting this list, JD-it's awesome & totally makes sense! I've read on this site about the body going into "starvation mode" if a person doesn't eat enough calories/day. I guess I thought I could just have my body eat the "stored" fat if I stayed around/below 1200 cal's? Yeah, not too smart of me! Lol Do you eat back all of your exercise cal's or try to stay at your allotted cal goal (if I may ask)?0 -
No worries, I'm still learning and I've been doing this for 3 months now. I've moved my calorie intake around, not eaten my exercise cals at all, eaten some of them, eaten all of them, done long cardio, short cardio, weights, etc etc. Ha, I've found that as long as we're consistently eating right and working out, you should be fine! 0
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awesome tips, thanks for posting0
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Thanks for posting this list, JD-it's awesome & totally makes sense! I've read on this site about the body going into "starvation mode" if a person doesn't eat enough calories/day. I guess I thought I could just have my body eat the "stored" fat if I stayed around/below 1200 cal's? Yeah, not too smart of me! Lol Do you eat back all of your exercise cal's or try to stay at your allotted cal goal (if I may ask)?
Sorry it took so long to respond.
I try to eat when I am genuinely hungry. I am learning the difference between genuine hunger and I feel like stuffing pizza in my mouth. When I eat, I try to eat the stuff I am supposed to eat, though It does not always work out that way. For example, we went to a friend's cookout on Friday night and I knew I would be eating the dogs and burgers, but I stayed away from the desert stuff. I don't freak out on myself if I don't get through the day with a perfect food diary. I do try to record the good and the bad. I need to know what I am eating. Some days I go over my calories and other days I am under.
I find it is sometimes difficult to make up the exercise calories. On days when I exercise a lot, I tend to be under by quite a bit. Part of that is due to the fact that I am eating different kinds of food. I find that the foods I need to eat are a lot less fat and calories than the comfort foods I used to eat all the time. For example, yesterday I did not make it to the gym, and ended up coming in at 1055 calories under my goal for the day. However, I ate three meals and felt satisfied. For dinner last night I had a nice lean pork roast, garlic mashed potatoe and mixed vegetable meal last night for a very satisfying at 434 calories. I did not go to bed hungry.
The calorie deficit is one of the keys to losing weight. As long as we are burning more than we take in, we will lose as long as the body does not think we are starving it. Exercise is important because a pound of muscle at rest will burn a lot more calories than a pound of fat at rest. I think the key is to eat the right foods and listen to your body. Once your body gets accustomed to the change in what you put in your mouth, it will respond in a very surprising and rewarding way.
I hope this helps...0
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