This calories/exercise thing...

kellogsmscott
kellogsmscott Posts: 67 Member
edited September 30 in Food and Nutrition
Hello everyone.

I am looking to shed roughly 40lbs in chunk and have set myself to lose weight at roughly 1.7lbs a week. This leaves me with 1200 calories a day, which i know is the bare minimum and i must eat to that. But yesterday (my first day of being serious about this) i was a couple of hundred too low. So what to do?

This morning i have made another sandwich for a snack. Cornflakes for breakfast, tuna sandwich and yoghurt for lunch, natural peanut butter sandwich for lunch... I play a fairly active sport and with 90 mins of doing that this evening i am left with approx 1300 to eat.

So do i eat this amount, or some of it, I know i need to factor in a dinner and i haven't done that yet, but thats more than my daily allowance. This is where i get confused. I know i don't want to starve my body so i shouldn't drop below a certain point, but sometimes the amounts i am expected to chomp away on seem drastic and i wouldn't even know where to begin in terms of making something healthy that fits in with that. I am trying to avoid chocloate and crisps, i am allergic to fruit... so what? Do i use it another day, we have a game tomorrow and there may be an after party...

I know this has been rehashed over and over but i genuinely dont understand calroies, the body and eating back. I dont think i am doing anythign different to what i used to do??

What should i do?

Replies

  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    are you allergic to every single fruit there is? what about veg? you should really try to get your 5 a day in there somehow. and plenty of protien, as the majority of what you have said you are eating today is carbs.

    The amount of exercise you are doing you will definitely need to eat more than 1200 cals, or you just wont have the energy for it. I would suggest starting with eating half your exercise cals back and see how you feel?
  • AnaisInard
    AnaisInard Posts: 23 Member
    You should eat your exercise calories. If you eat below/burn too many calories you'll go into starvation mode and your body will feed on your muscles. It's better to lose weight slower than to lose your muscles and starve yourself.
  • fionamacf
    fionamacf Posts: 39
    If you exercise that much and eat less than 1200 calories that is bad. Some advocate eating back all your exercise calories - some suggest some. I have found eating back most of the calories has made me lose weight.
  • dddttt
    dddttt Posts: 39 Member
    "Veggies are free", I believe - even if I'm close to my calorie limit and I'm hungry, I get some veggies (raw or steamed), even with some butter or olive oil so that nutrients can get assimilated.
  • kellogsmscott
    kellogsmscott Posts: 67 Member
    Yep i agree about protein, for example yesteday i had salmnon fillet with salad, and natural yoghurt for dinner. I get my ptrotein in, if anything my readings for yesterday say too low on carbs and too high on protein..

    And i understand about muscle wastage, I'm not looking to build loads of weight in one go, im looking 1.5 ish lbs a week, which should be feesible right? IN fact its not even weight i am looking at, more inches etc and since i carry very bulky leg muscles and such i will always indicate heavier.

    Fruit wise i am pretty much deadly allergic to everything except oranges, lemons, mangos and bananas.

    I think the idea of eating at least half back is feesible, maybe. I will have burnt 945 cals tonight (potentially) so my remainder (500+ 450 ish) means i could have a nice amount of food.
  • tramaine81
    tramaine81 Posts: 113 Member
    I think you should be fine by eating the required amount (1200 -1400 calories). Don't worry about eating your exercise calories. I don't. I maintain muscle just fine. In addition, if your body needs more food, it will let you know. Personally, I think the point of MFP is to learn how to manage our calorie intake. If your calorie intake is always changing because of your exercise levels fluctuating each day, then it is hard to learn that concept. In addition, do not worry about eating your exercise calories, because some days you will naturally go over anyway. Most of the time I go over without trying and then on the weekends, I may go out to dinner and splurge, but it is okay, because I don't use my exercise calories so I have a lot saved up over the week. So don't look at calorie intake as a daily thing, but a weekly thing. If you do well on most days, when the holiday, birthday, celebration, or "just going out because it's Friday", times come up, you will continue to lose weight steadily.

    GOOD LUCK!!!!
  • kellogsmscott
    kellogsmscott Posts: 67 Member
    I think you should be fine by eating the required amount (1200 -1400 calories). Don't worry about eating your exercise calories. I don't. I maintain muscle just fine. In addition, if your body needs more food, it will let you know. Personally, I think the point of MFP is to learn how to manage our calorie intake. If your calorie intake is always changing because of your exercise levels fluctuating each day, then it is hard to learn that concept. In addition, do not worry about eating your exercise calories, because some days you will naturally go over anyway. Most of the time I go over without trying and then on the weekends, I may go out to dinner and splurge, but it is okay, because I don't use my exercise calories so I have a lot saved up over the week. So don't look at calorie intake as a daily thing, but a weekly thing. If you do well on most days, when the holiday, birthday, celebration, or "just going out because it's Friday", times come up, you will continue to lose weight steadily.

    GOOD LUCK!!!!

    Thankyou, i think you got what i was asking! I'm not looking to shed loads of weight at all. So i can, "store" not used calories? Theres a party tomorrow after the game, could get messy?
  • kellogsmscott
    kellogsmscott Posts: 67 Member
    Thanks everyone for your advice, food for thought, literally! :)
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