Help with calories in vs out

Locky17 · August 2011

Hi for the past 6 months I have been working out hard training at BMF- British military fitness, I wasn't really trying too hard on fe calorie front until 4 weeks ago, where my starting weight was 11st 6 lbs or 160lbs I'm 5ft 7. In the past 4 weeks I've averaged 5 intense workouts a week, calories ranging between 700- 1200 calories depending if it's an hour BMF or 1 hour and a half soccer training. My question is I'm only at 156 lbs now so only 4 lbs loss. The first week I was ranging around 1600-1700 cals, then upped it abit for 2 weeks now trying to net 1200- 1300 cals after exercise. I don't get why I'm not losing a bit more weight even a couple of pounds. The foods I eat are tracked and healthy not onthis site.
An average days food would look:
Breakfast- 50g low sugar muesli, 200ml semi skimmed milk and medium banana, or 2 poshes eggs on bergen bread toasted, small amount of low fat spread, and a glass of oj.

Lunch- chicken salad wrap, or soup toast piece of fruit, prawn or tuna pasta salad

Dinner- salmon vegetables, chicken and veg, omelette and veg somethig usually low carb as it's usually 8pm after training.

Snacks can be yogurt, pistachios, fruit.

With the cals I'm consuming I'm rarely hungry and feeling like I have plenty of energy to work out.
When I was eating 1600 cals after exerise even after a week I was struggling for energy so upped cals.

Do u think on exercise days such as soccer days where i can burn around 1200 do I need to still try and bet 1200 meanin I'm goof to have to eat a he'll of a lot?
Thanks any replies would be much appreciated

sarahemily72 · August 2011

I am interested to see replies....I was wondering the same thing.

TavistockToad · August 2011

4 pounds in 4 weeks is a good, healthy loss.

Locky17 · August 2011

Forgot to mention those calories were lost in the first week! I am seeing more muscle tone but have been exercising hard for 6 months doing military circuits and soccer so I would hope for this. Il jut have to keep plugging away not worrying about it then maybe it will come off naturally. I am in a healthy weight range just not happy asthetically and want to improve speed for soccer, carrying an extra 14lbs of fat slows me down!

dieselbugparrot · August 2011

You mention soccer, do you do any other type of cardio or are your other workouts more strength training based? Maybe right now your building muscle and that's why you are not seeing a difference on the scale.

Krissie_Triaxis · August 2011

You're losing a pound a week which is really a great weightloss.

Have you measured yourself? It could be that you're toning up. losing inches and although you are losing fat you are gaining muscle mass - especially doing BMF. Are you eating your workout cals? If so perhaps you want to conserve 500 cals from that as well as what you're nutrition recommendation is (which the BMF instructors should be able to help you with), 500 cals saved a day is the equivalent to a 1lb loss a week.

But try measuring yourself as sometimes that's a better indicator of how you're doing

but don't get down if you're not losing as much as you'd like, a loss is still a loss. Our bodies are fickle machines and have off days/weeks just like our brains

Locky17 · August 2011

Hi thanks for the replies, BMF is a mixture cardio and resistance exercise it's about a 50/50 split, most of the Cardio is on hills too absolute killer.measurements wise not much difference it's up ad down around an inch which is also frustrating, have more muscle and strength and have gained a bit of fitness and fitness levels are pretty high now. So some good things are happening.
Just about to start preseason training for soccer so going to be very intense fitness sessions on top of BMF.

Just something from my past thought I'd put in. When I was 14, 22 in 2 weeks
Now, I upped exercise days to 4 days a week from 2 when I joined a running club. Ten I had no idea about nutrition and ate what I wanted when I wanted. I was flighty shorter but probably weighed what ido now. Never chained eating habits
But lost loads of weight with no effort, and I did eat crap then and definitely over my cals. This is why I find it frustrating now and decided to up my cals, I'm hopin this will have the same effect as before.

Also when I was 16 I had gained the weight back exercising less, decided to diet, was doing no exercise by then, changes cals to 1200 a day lost weight quick and kept lowering my cals to around 700, but was walking alot. Ended up quite I'll and when I started eating properly gained all weight back and here I am now.
I think this time I'm just trying to get around my head eating more to loss weight when exercising and hopefully this will work for
Me
Sorry for blabbering on but with it written down its helping me to understand my issues

catcoot1 · August 2011

Athletes should not rely so much on the scale number. Muscle and water retention (sodium balance etc) can fluctuate the number significantly. Take some measurements. And you don't seem to be carrying much extra fat so losing it more slowly is typical. It's good you've lost four in four weeks. That's a lot considering it was probably mostly fat, you're maintaining muscle with training.

Locky17 · August 2011

Thanks for the replies I'm at ease now just need to keep going!

psuLemon · August 2011

Since you are extremely active, and you are in a healthy weight, you really need to up your calories from what I can tell. If you are burning a 1000 calories and your BMR is probably around 1500 or so, you should be eating around 2500 calories. i will say, it's hard to tell what you are eating unless you make your food diary public. Keep in mind, you are training like an athlete so you have to eat like one. BMF sounds very much like a p90x or insanity, so that means you really have to up your calories. Below is a link that helps set your caloric needs.

Also, at this point, you really need to stop measuring weight. You should look at inches and body fat. They are better indicators than weight. This is what I have to do because I am about 12% body fat and even when I lose 20% body fat, I only lose about 5 ish lbs.

http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/bmr/

Krissie_Triaxis · August 2011

Don't apologise for getting your thoughts down, it's good to get it off your chest and written to see where you are in the now as it were. Good on you, says I

I'm big on keeping mood and food diaries, even though 5 years ago I laughed at the idea

One of the reasons we can eat what we want as kids who are active (as I was the same, Harriers, Badminton etc, always on the track or in the gym and never at home) is that we're also still developing and the amount of growth hormone that our bodies produce is much larger, which burns up calories like a machine (it's why a lot of quick fix weightloss products contain growth hormone). As we get older the amount of growth hormone that we produce becomes less so naturally we can't eat what we want anymore. Add to that fast food and ready meals are practically the norm, we chuck so much processed crap in our systems that while we were eating what we wanted because then it had no effect, now we're paying the price because we've put our endochrine system out of wack.

It's a balancing act and it takes a while to get the balance right, and be prepared that when you do you'll have about 6 weeks before you have to shake it up again and find the new balance as your system adapts fairly quickly.

Best of luck, keep a journal and carrying on writing stuff down, it'll all help in the long run. Happy Birthday for when it comes, by the way

Locky17 · August 2011

Loving the idea of eating more! Healthy food obviously

psuLemon · August 2011

Loving the idea of eating more! Healthy food obviously

It's a concept that most people freak out over. But I eat 3000 calories and I am burning 1% fat a month and that is with an OK diet structure (I am a little high with sodium). In six months, I have lost 33% of my body fat. I am hoping by October, I can make it 50% of my body fat.

Help with calories in vs out

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