Back to the basics- help!
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Lizzypb88
Posts: 367 Member
To start, I've lost 90 pounds since August 2015.
I started with just dieting and no exercise with weight watchers but found it too restrictive and wound up here in 2016 and realized this is the basic and most successful way to do it.
After losing 30 pounds and eating about 1250 calories a day, installed out for 3 weeks... I ended up taking a day off my diet (which I never had) and BAM I lost 3 pounds! Ever since then, I Diet during the week and have 1 off day. It has worked great, as long as I'm diligent with eating 1250-1350 calories a day and watch my macros.
I found my love for running last spring and since exercising I'm hungry, like every damn day! That 1 day off a week turns into 2-3 days off, then I go back to having 1 off day, then I can't handle it because with running twice a week and walking once a week I'm FRIGGIN HUNGRY!!
I started with just dieting and no exercise with weight watchers but found it too restrictive and wound up here in 2016 and realized this is the basic and most successful way to do it.
After losing 30 pounds and eating about 1250 calories a day, installed out for 3 weeks... I ended up taking a day off my diet (which I never had) and BAM I lost 3 pounds! Ever since then, I Diet during the week and have 1 off day. It has worked great, as long as I'm diligent with eating 1250-1350 calories a day and watch my macros.
I found my love for running last spring and since exercising I'm hungry, like every damn day! That 1 day off a week turns into 2-3 days off, then I go back to having 1 off day, then I can't handle it because with running twice a week and walking once a week I'm FRIGGIN HUNGRY!!
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How did you calculate your macros? You might need to up your calories by the sounds of it. How far so you run?2
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rhysleppard wrote: »How did you calculate your macros? You might need to up your calories by the sounds of it. How far so you run?
I'm still obese, and short lol so I run 2.5-3 miles twice a week, so with 5min warm up it's about 40min, and I walk for 1.5hrs with my kids the 3rd day.... I see that I can choose lightly active etc in the choices so with that I'm not sure what to choose?1 -
You don't look obese? Are you watching what you eat wholemeal bread lean meats etc. Try and run the 3 miles under 30 mins push yourself harder will help. How did you calculate your macros?12
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rhysleppard wrote: »You don't look obese? Are you watching what you eat wholemeal bread lean meats etc. Try and run the 3 miles under 30 mins push yourself harder will help. How did you calculate your macros?
What's magic about wholemeal bread?5 -
rhysleppard wrote: »How did you calculate your macros? You might need to up your calories by the sounds of it. How far so you run?
I'm still obese, and short lol so I run 2.5-3 miles twice a week, so with 5min warm up it's about 40min, and I walk for 1.5hrs with my kids the 3rd day.... I see that I can choose lightly active etc in the choices so with that I'm not sure what to choose?
Your activity level shouldn't include purposeful exercise.
You might want to look at how much fat/protein/fibre your getting as they all help you feel full.3 -
Do you log and then eat back any of your purposeful exercise calories? It seems as if your current problem stated at the same time as your running, you need to eat enough to fuel your runs. As you have found under eating can cause you to slip up more in the long run. If your not already doing so, I would suggest you log your runs and eat back at least 50% of the calories burned and see how this makes you feel.1
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To start, I've lost 90 pounds since August 2015.
I started with just dieting and no exercise with weight watchers but found it too restrictive and wound up here in 2016 and realized this is the basic and most successful way to do it.
After losing 30 pounds and eating about 1250 calories a day, installed out for 3 weeks... I ended up taking a day off my diet (which I never had) and BAM I lost 3 pounds! Ever since then, I Diet during the week and have 1 off day. It has worked great, as long as I'm diligent with eating 1250-1350 calories a day and watch my macros.
I found my love for running last spring and since exercising I'm hungry, like every damn day! That 1 day off a week turns into 2-3 days off, then I go back to having 1 off day, then I can't handle it because with running twice a week and walking once a week I'm FRIGGIN HUNGRY!!
Since you started running, how many lbs per week are you averaging? Are you hitting the MFP default minimums for protein, fat, and fiber?1 -
rhysleppard wrote: »You don't look obese? Are you watching what you eat wholemeal bread lean meats etc. Try and run the 3 miles under 30 mins push yourself harder will help. How did you calculate your macros?
I started with a dietician, and she was very informative, but it got expensive, and somehow without telling her about my one binge day a week I lost weight with her... she gave me 1200-1450 calories/180 carbs/ 100+protein/48 fat/ 36 sugars... so now I'm doing som research and seeing that I should increase my calories to 1600, but I have NO idea what I should have my macros at!1 -
Wendyanneroberts wrote: »Do you log and then eat back any of your purposeful exercise calories? It seems as if your current problem stated at the same time as your running, you need to eat enough to fuel your runs. As you have found under eating can cause you to slip up more in the long run. If your not already doing so, I would suggest you log your runs and eat back at least 50% of the calories burned and see how this makes you feel.
I actually get less hungry after I run, I lose my appetite! But the following day I hungry, also when I'm ovulating and prior to my period, so I want to increase my calories (and macros?) to something so I don't feel like I'm always on edge of being hungry even on good days3 -
rhysleppard wrote: »You don't look obese? Are you watching what you eat wholemeal bread lean meats etc. Try and run the 3 miles under 30 mins push yourself harder will help. How did you calculate your macros?
Under 30mins would be a dream! When I started doing run/walk last year my knees were in so much pain I was in tears- I legit never exercised until now, but got my 5k PR from 44min to 36min, and that 36min run was the most painful run from beginning to end, I pushed way too hard and broke down because of the pain at the finish line... I've gotten my 1mi down from 13ish min mile down to 11min mile last week, but now I'm in lots of pain from that1 -
cmriverside wrote: »
No I never have, because if I wanted that one binge day a week, I couldn't do that and lose weight... but again I don't have much appetite after I exercise, I tend to get hit with the hunger bug the days following1 -
cmriverside wrote: »
No I never have, because if I wanted that one binge day a week, I couldn't do that and lose weight
Well, you can eat them purposely and then not have that overwhelming biological need to eat more - which is what's happening now.
You likely need to eat a lot more now at this point in your weight loss. 1200-1300 is fine when you have 75+ pounds to lose - not good when you get closer.
How much weight do you still need to lose to get into a healthy BMI?
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rhysleppard wrote: »You don't look obese? Are you watching what you eat wholemeal bread lean meats etc. Try and run the 3 miles under 30 mins push yourself harder will help. How did you calculate your macros?
Under 30mins would be a dream! When I started doing run/walk last year my knees were in so much pain I was in tears- I legit never exercised until now, but got my 5k PR from 44min to 36min, and that 36min run was the most painful run from beginning to end, I pushed way too hard and broke down because of the pain at the finish line... I've gotten my 1mi down from 13ish min mile down to 11min mile last week, but now I'm in lots of pain from that
Ignore that 'advice' about how fast you should run2 -
cmriverside wrote: »cmriverside wrote: »
No I never have, because if I wanted that one binge day a week, I couldn't do that and lose weight
Well, you can eat them purposely and then not have that overwhelming biological need to eat more - which is what's happening now.
You likely need to eat a lot more now at this point in your weight loss. 1200-1300 is fine when you have 75+ pounds to lose - not good when you get closer.
How much weight do you still need to lose to get into a healthy BMI?
I'm 200 now (188 last year), I was 280 a few years ago, according to the bmi chart I need to be 176 to be considered overweight and not obese... that's honestly my goal for now... any ideas on what my macros should be or should I just focus on eating a healthy 1600 calories in general and ignore my macros1 -
I agree it is because you are under eating that is causing you to need that 1 higher calorie day, which is no longer enough. I would suggest you set up mfp, as you should, to get a daily calorie target. Using the default setting for macros, should be fine. Making sure you get enough healthy fats and proteins and not worrying about carbs. You can then make smaller adjustments to your macros along the way once you find what split works best for you.
Set your activity on your day to day lifestyle, and then log any purposeful exercise separately. Make sure that you also eat at least a portion of these back, it's often suggested that 50% is a good starting point. Adjusting down the line, once you have reliable data of your own .Remember the closer you get to a healthy weight the slower you should expect to lose, in a healthy sustainable way.
This will then give you a daily calorie target as a baseline. But you do not need to eat that amount everyday, some people find calorie cycling fits their lifestyle better. I have always done this and found it far more sustainable and from what you have discribed I feel it may suit you. This will give you the flexibility to adjust your calories to suit, through out the week and still hit your target. Logging all you eat and drink, everyday while "banking" some calories for when you really need/want something extra. Then monitor your weight loss and adjust as needed.
For example:
Target: 1,600 calories daily (11,200 calories over the week)
Mon: 1,400 calories
Tues: 1,300 ""
Weds: 1,700
Thurs: 1,300
Fri: 1,700
Sat: 2,000
Sun: 1,800
This will give you the flexibility you want/need daily and still keep you on target with your weight loss. Which is why it was working earlier on when you were incorporating a higher calorie day, but as you have lost weight it is unattainable.1 -
Wendyanneroberts wrote: »I agree it is because you are under eating that is causing you to need that 1 higher calorie day, which is no longer enough. I would suggest you set up mfp, as you should, to get a daily calorie target. Using the default setting for macros, should be fine. Making sure you get enough healthy fats and proteins and not worrying about carbs. You can then make smaller adjustments to your macros along the way once you find what split works best for you.
Set your activity on your day to day lifestyle, and then log any purposeful exercise separately. Make sure that you also eat at least a portion of these back, it's often suggested that 50% is a good starting point. Adjusting down the line, once you have reliable data of your own .Remember the closer you get to a healthy weight the slower you should expect to lose, in a healthy sustainable way.
This will then give you a daily calorie target as a baseline. But you do not need to eat that amount everyday, some people find calorie cycling fits their lifestyle better. I have always done this and found it far more sustainable and from what you have discribed I feel it may suit you. This will give you the flexibility to adjust your calories to suit, through out the week and still hit your target. Logging all you eat and drink, everyday while "banking" some calories for when you really need/want something extra. Then monitor your weight loss and adjust as needed.
For example:
Target: 1,600 calories daily (11,200 calories over the week)
Mon: 1,400 calories
Tues: 1,300 ""
Weds: 1,700
Thurs: 1,300
Fri: 1,700
Sat: 2,000
Sun: 1,800
This will give you the flexibility you want/need daily and still keep you on target with your weight loss. Which is why it was working earlier on when you were incorporating a higher calorie day, but as you have lost weight it is unattainable.
Okay I never really thought about that! Some days 1300 is fine and other days I need more like 1700! Very helpful thanks!!0 -
OP, I don't think you've answered this yet (unless I missed it) - how many lbs per week are you losing since you started running?0
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OP, I don't think you've answered this yet (unless I missed it) - how many lbs per week are you losing since you started running?
I lost 10 pounds (80 pounds prior to that) but gained it back because I became more hungry and having too many off diet days... I lost 1/2 a pound to 1 pound a week when I was running, until I started to over eat. In general I lost 0.75 pounds a week over 1.5 years
The last year I've lost NOTHING!! I've been yo yo-ing these 10 pounds even with running because of my 1-3 off diet days a week.
I did get stronger, I couldn't run for 1min and now I can run 30min, but clearly Diet is more important for weight loss than any amount of running0 -
OP, I don't think you've answered this yet (unless I missed it) - how many lbs per week are you losing since you started running?
I lost 10 pounds (80 pounds prior to that) but gained it back because I became more hungry and having too many off diet days... I lost 1/2 a pound to 1 pound a week when I was running, until I started to over eat. In general I lost 0.75 pounds a week over 1.5 years
OK, thanks!
I was able to take a look at your diary. It is hard to tell how accurate it is, because you use a lot of recipe entries and restaurant entries. I would just generally suggest that you do kind of a gut check and make sure your logging is as tight as possible. Having accurate data can make it a lot easier to troubleshoot if you are having problems.
I will say that even for a shorter person, since you do exercise, 1250 calories is pretty low. It's possible you are undereating during the week and overeating on your cheat day, and then when you added in the running your body just can't find a happy middle ground of appetite to settle on. Perhaps you can find a middle ground of saving like 50 cals per day and then eating the 300 cals you saved on your "cheat" day. I'll add, there is no physical reason why your first cheat day led to the end of a plateau. It was quite probably coincidence! It's perfectly normal to have a couple of weeks here and there where you don't lose weight, and the smaller you are, the more typical it becomes.
It looks like you're getting enough protein and fat. I can't see fiber, but some people find fiber necessary to feel full, so you might want to check that as well.
The last thing I noticed is you tend to eat most of your calories in one or two larger meals. Is that the way you have always eaten? There is absolutely nothing wrong with that eating pattern, but it may help you to experiment with meal timing and spacing to see if a different pattern will control your hunger better.
Just some stuff to think about, I hope you figure it out!
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