Would you say this is accurate?

stac3wa wrote: »

It’s saying my maintenance cals are 2351 so for fat loss it’s saying 1851. So stick at 1851? I do measure everything. Literally everything. But I admit to there being times I’m eating 1200/1400 or sometimes even less. Can under eating cause a stall?
So do I need to incorporate a decent amount of cardio? I’m planning on using my bike to ride a footpath we have that equals 5+ miles a day. Would that suffice?
Sorry for all the questions. I just want to do things right.
Thank you

You don't need to incorporate any cardio for weight loss specifically.

If it increases what you burn daily, allowing you to eat more and still eating less than you burn - it may help you adhere to eating less.

Eat 2000 burn 2500 with a bike ride.
Or eat 1500 burn 2000 without it.
Which would be easier to adhere to it.

Oh - that short of a ride isn't going to burn 500 calories, nor probably do much for you aerobically after initial couple weeks, nor actually add that many calories.

Hence the reason you lose fat weight with diet eating less, not exercise by itself - it doesn't burn as much as you can eat less.

And yes, undereating can cause stress and increase water-retaining cortisol - so even while losing fat you could gain water weight slowly and see no scale movement.
Not great to make a stressed body, negatives besides water weight gain.

Since you have a disease - your body is already under stress.
The amount of deficit reasonable for you will be less than for someone with generally healthy body.
So attempt to lose slow.

Do the cardio for your heart health. Log it honestly as exercise (if 5 mile ride takes 30 min, enter that 10 mph bike ride), and enjoy the few extra calories.
Same with Weight training lifting. Not a lot of calories, but log it.

Hey @stac3wa! I'm also in my 30s, 5'2", and was 208 lbs when I started losing last year, 157 now. I'm weight training now as well, but I lost most of my weight just calorie counting with some fairly light cardio. I've averaged around 2000-2300 calories/day so far, lowering to about 1700 for these last 25-30 lbs (plus eating back my massive daily 150-200 exercise calories).

The numbers that MFP is giving you sounds perfectly reasonable to me, but it's entirely possible that your counting is off. I stalled for about three months myself early in because of various logging errors. The stickies posts here have a lot of great ideas. Buying a food scale was a big help in figuring out portion sizes. You don't have to weigh everything for the rest of your life necessarily, but doing it for a while can give you a lot of helpful information about how much you're eating.

You also don't need to do cardio if you don't want to, although I find a 20-30 minutes of exercise a day helps me feel healthy and happy, and the extra calories are just about perfect for a glass of wine in the evenings. What you eat doesn't really matter for weight loss - I didn't pay attention to macros until fairly recently. I do try and hit a minimum of protein (1 gram per pound of lean body mass, which I use my goal weight of 135) and a minimum of fat is important too, not that I ever struggle with that one!

Definitely don't worry about eating too little slowing down your loss - that's largely a myth (I have the occasional 1200-ish or lower day myself and am totally fine). Certainly there are lots of potential issues with consuming too few calories for extended periods of time, but if you're averaging out to around 1800-1900 the day-to-day fluctuations won't matter so much. As you lose weight your body does need fewer calories to stay alive and at its current weight, but that's a gradual process that can easily be countered by either lowering your calories or accepting a slower rate of loss. Personally, I am not interested in joining the 1200 calorie club and am planning on staying around 1700 until I hit goal weight.

For your lifting, are you doing a structured progressive program? The key to gaining strength is continually increasing the amount that you're lifting. I've absolutely noticed strength and definition increases over the last six weeks since I started my program. Check out the list here if you need ideas.

Sorry for the essay - you remind me of me a year or so ago, and I want you to know that this is totally doable if you stick with it! Good luck!

PS. I also carry most of my weight around my belly. BLECH.

spiriteagle99 wrote: »

A 5 mile bike ride will only burn about 100 extra calories, unless the path is very hilly. Biking is good exercise and fun, but doesn't burn as much as people think.

This depends...a joy ride isn't going to burn much...but my time trial pace will burn more than 100 calories for 5 miles.

MegaMooseEsq wrote: »

briscogun wrote: »

Carbs aren't going to matter too much one way or another. Your body NEEDS carbs unless you are trying to enter ketosis?

I would say that if you are trying to lose weight and doing a progressive weight lifting regimen that you would be best served eating at a small deficit to your CICO goal and see how that goes for a few weeks/month. Tighten up your logging, weigh and measure everything because if its been 3 months and you haven't lost than you are eating at maintenance and not realizing it, but your weight is telling you the result.

I'm being a tiny bit pedantic here, but the body actually doesn't "need" carbs. The body can't produce fat or protein on its own so you do have to eat a minimum amount of those to stay healthy, but carbs are just an easy source of glucose and nutrients, all of which the body can get or produce from other sources. I love carbs, don't get me wrong, I just love accuracy too. Sorry!

True, I guess its more accurate to say the body needs what carbs provide, but you can get it from other sources?

Now it WOULD be true to say MY body NEEDS carbs...