Overbiking, or not enough calories? Help?
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irnbruinaglass
Posts: 4 Member
Hey all,
I'm looking for some advice. I'm a 36 m weighing currently 188lbs and 5ft8. My daily calorie intake is around 1800, give or take a few extras here and there. (I do my best to track, but do slip up here and there)
My main focus has been weight loss, which is currently working, I'm gradually losing 1lb a week which was my plan to start with.
I do indoor cycling on a Wahoo Kickr Core using Zwift and occasionally go for walks. My indoor rides are normally quite long and I usually burn between 500-800 calories, I've currently being doing this every 2 to 3 days over the past 2 months which has been fine.
So my problem is: Over the past 2 weeks I've been feeling very fatigued with my legs and I'm not sure if this is down to my calories, am I taking in to little? or am I simply just over doing the bike?
I put my stats into a tdee calculator (See the image below) I've put it currently at Sedentary and showing 2,109 calories which i've now updated my diary to but i'm worried about weight gain. I appreciate this might happen and balance our over a week or 2 but still a little worried. So if anyone can try assist, should i increase my calorie intake, or cut back on the bike?
I'm looking for some advice. I'm a 36 m weighing currently 188lbs and 5ft8. My daily calorie intake is around 1800, give or take a few extras here and there. (I do my best to track, but do slip up here and there)
My main focus has been weight loss, which is currently working, I'm gradually losing 1lb a week which was my plan to start with.
I do indoor cycling on a Wahoo Kickr Core using Zwift and occasionally go for walks. My indoor rides are normally quite long and I usually burn between 500-800 calories, I've currently being doing this every 2 to 3 days over the past 2 months which has been fine.
So my problem is: Over the past 2 weeks I've been feeling very fatigued with my legs and I'm not sure if this is down to my calories, am I taking in to little? or am I simply just over doing the bike?
I put my stats into a tdee calculator (See the image below) I've put it currently at Sedentary and showing 2,109 calories which i've now updated my diary to but i'm worried about weight gain. I appreciate this might happen and balance our over a week or 2 but still a little worried. So if anyone can try assist, should i increase my calorie intake, or cut back on the bike?
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Replies
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Mfp is designed for you to eat back your exercise calories. Are you eating back your exercise calories?1
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You do know that doing all that exercise makes you more active than sedentary? Of course, if you're losing an average of 1 lb per week, you're probably eating a reasonable number of calories for your activity level. Are you having *difficulty* sticking to the 1800 goal? If you're occasionally overeating and still losing 1 lb per week, that could mean your deficit is too aggressive.
As a 5'3" lady weighing 157 lbs, I'm also losing about a pound per week on 1800 calories.
I am not feeling fatigued, so I plan to stay right about here until it stops working. If I suddenly find that my running starts to suffer, I'd raise my limit to 1900 without hesitation, to see if it helps. My priority is the running, moreso than the weight loss. If I chose to prioritize the weight loss, I might consider running less.1 -
irnbruinaglass wrote: »I put my stats into a tdee calculator (See the image below) I've put it currently at Sedentary and showing 2,109 calories which i've now updated my diary to but i'm worried about weight gain. I appreciate this might happen and balance our over a week or 2 but still a little worried. So if anyone can try assist, should i increase my calorie intake, or cut back on the bike?
So you seem to be mixing several methods.
Method 1: using MPF as intended
- choose an activity level that reflects how active you are NOT counting exercise
- choose a weight loss rate
- eat that calorie goal
- log your exercise
- eat back (a sensible estimate of) or exercise calories
Method 2: TDEE method
- use a TDEE calculator to calculate your TDEE
- your activity level here takes into account ALL your activities, including exercise (you are not sedentary based on your explanations)
- subtract 250 calories if you want to lose 0.5 lbs per week, 500 calories if you want to lose 1lb a week etc.2 -
First make sure you are only losing 1 pound per week. Some people have a harder time keeping up with or properly evaluating their actual trend. If you weigh daily subtract today's weight from one from 4 weeks ago and divide by 4. Do it again with 6 weeks if you can.
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I log exercises, but don't eat them back. I've been using MFP to track my food, calories set based off the online calculators.Mfp is designed for you to eat back your exercise calories. Are you eating back your exercise calories?
Yea, i thought so, but as the weight loss was consistent i wasn't too bothered by it tbh. I'm not been having much troubles sticking to the 1800, everything was fine up until the past 2 weeks when i've hit this fatigue on the legs. I'll probably increase them and see if it improvesautumnblade75 wrote: »You do know that doing all that exercise makes you more active than sedentary? Of course, if you're losing an average of 1 lb per week, you're probably eating a reasonable number of calories for your activity level. Are you having *difficulty* sticking to the 1800 goal? If you're occasionally overeating and still losing 1 lb per week, that could mean your deficit is too aggressive.
As a 5'3" lady weighing 157 lbs, I'm also losing about a pound per week on 1800 calories.
I am not feeling fatigued, so I plan to stay right about here until it stops working. If I suddenly find that my running starts to suffer, I'd raise my limit to 1900 without hesitation, to see if it helps. My priority is the running, moreso than the weight loss. If I chose to prioritize the weight loss, I might consider running less.
irnbruinaglass wrote: »I put my stats into a tdee calculator (See the image below) I've put it currently at Sedentary and showing 2,109 calories which i've now updated my diary to but i'm worried about weight gain. I appreciate this might happen and balance our over a week or 2 but still a little worried. So if anyone can try assist, should i increase my calorie intake, or cut back on the bike?
So you seem to be mixing several methods.
Method 1: using MPF as intended
- choose an activity level that reflects how active you are NOT counting exercise
- choose a weight loss rate
- eat that calorie goal
- log your exercise
- eat back (a sensible estimate of) or exercise calories
Method 2: TDEE method
- use a TDEE calculator to calculate your TDEE
- your activity level here takes into account ALL your activities, including exercise (you are not sedentary based on your explanations)
- subtract 250 calories if you want to lose 0.5 lbs per week, 500 calories if you want to lose 1lb a week etc.
I use MFP to track my calories, but the calories i set are based of the online calculators. I've never eat back my exercises. I prefer the 2nd method0 -
Overbiking, or not enough calories? - its both. Muscles need good food(and time) to recover. Too much strain and they dont regenerate fast enough.2
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Unless you need those exercise calories to stay within range for the day, you should eat some of them back.
I personally need the exercise calories or I go over. That said, I know I can always exercise a little bit more if I want something special to eat.0 -
irnbruinaglass wrote: »
I log exercises, but don't eat them back. I've been using MFP to track my food, calories set based off the online calculators.Mfp is designed for you to eat back your exercise calories. Are you eating back your exercise calories?
Yea, i thought so, but as the weight loss was consistent i wasn't too bothered by it tbh. I'm not been having much troubles sticking to the 1800, everything was fine up until the past 2 weeks when i've hit this fatigue on the legs. I'll probably increase them and see if it improvesautumnblade75 wrote: »You do know that doing all that exercise makes you more active than sedentary? Of course, if you're losing an average of 1 lb per week, you're probably eating a reasonable number of calories for your activity level. Are you having *difficulty* sticking to the 1800 goal? If you're occasionally overeating and still losing 1 lb per week, that could mean your deficit is too aggressive.
As a 5'3" lady weighing 157 lbs, I'm also losing about a pound per week on 1800 calories.
I am not feeling fatigued, so I plan to stay right about here until it stops working. If I suddenly find that my running starts to suffer, I'd raise my limit to 1900 without hesitation, to see if it helps. My priority is the running, moreso than the weight loss. If I chose to prioritize the weight loss, I might consider running less.irnbruinaglass wrote: »I put my stats into a tdee calculator (See the image below) I've put it currently at Sedentary and showing 2,109 calories which i've now updated my diary to but i'm worried about weight gain. I appreciate this might happen and balance our over a week or 2 but still a little worried. So if anyone can try assist, should i increase my calorie intake, or cut back on the bike?
So you seem to be mixing several methods.
Method 1: using MPF as intended
- choose an activity level that reflects how active you are NOT counting exercise
- choose a weight loss rate
- eat that calorie goal
- log your exercise
- eat back (a sensible estimate of) or exercise calories
Method 2: TDEE method
- use a TDEE calculator to calculate your TDEE
- your activity level here takes into account ALL your activities, including exercise (you are not sedentary based on your explanations)
- subtract 250 calories if you want to lose 0.5 lbs per week, 500 calories if you want to lose 1lb a week etc.
I use MFP to track my calories, but the calories i set are based of the online calculators. I've never eat back my exercises. I prefer the 2nd method
In which case you are absolutely doing it wrong.
You exercise 2-3 days weekly for a long ride and big burn, and look at that chart and think you are sedentary?
I know - "just playing it safe".
Food logging also sounds like it is less than optimal "I do my best to track, but do slip up here and there".
So you are really attempting to use numbers that have little basis in reality to figure things out.
I wouldn't do that.
Sounds like you'd do just fine with the eat a little less, move a little more method of weight loss.
Because the logging of food is to confirm you are eating less than you burn, but you aren't attempting to deal with that figure, so the food logging is meaningful mainly just to see what could be left out and get a baseline - but not for any math.
Just keep up the good work of 1 lb weekly because of increased activity and eating a tad less.
Rearrange the calories to support the recovery more from the ride, which is fine the next day probably - but perhaps could use a little more pre-ride carbs if you are going full bore on those rides.
ETA - another thing that will help is when down to last 10-15 lbs left to lose - go to 250 cal deficit for 1/2 weekly - it's more reasonable and you'll see why to keep your workouts powerful instead of getting all wimpy from lack of food.3 -
I've been doing something similar for much of the summer. I mixed walking and cycling, restricted calories at 1800 per day, and went pretty hard core (at least for me) for the first 8 weeks or so.
My legs almost always felt tight. There were other times I felt depleted of energy. And I mean really depleted. Eventually around 9 weeks in I started to get frustrated when I wasn't getting the results every week and wasn't sure if it was too much cardio, calories were too restrictive, both, or it was all in my head and I just needed to keep at it.
I wound up taking a break and eating to maintenance while keeping to all health foods.Then I'd cut but not as hard core as before. I haven't been doing 1 hour of walking plus another hour of cycling 3+ days per week all while cutting to 1800 cals. That became a bit much and didn't need to go that hard core to get results. Now, I'm just walking mostly with occasional biking and cutting a few days per week. I'm still getting results and it's more manageable. I'd go nuts again if need be. But, I'd rather be more patient and keep everything manageable.
So, tightness in the legs should be expected with your level of activity. But, don't hesitate to make changes to your program if they are sensible. I started eating more whole grains and started to recognize when my body was depleted of energy. If I consume enough fruit or whole grains I can re-fuel myself when this happens or just eat enough of those foods to have the fuel I need in a day. You have to remember one of the pitfalls of diet and exersize is you are restricting calories while using more energy. Your body still needs fuel even on a deficit.0 -
Anything longer than an hour and I'm eating on the bike. About 70ish grams of carbohydrates an hour.1
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Make a fresh start as you aren't using the tools as designed and won't get the correct results without a huge amount of luck.
Would suggest with your exercise routine and with the ability to accurately estimate your cycling burns using average power from your Kickr that the MyFitnessPal method of accounting for exercise would be better for you.
When you pick your activity level do it accurately based on your entire job and lifestyle and don't game the system by automatically choosing the lowest option to force an outcome.
My guess at your age and with what (in cycling terms) is fairly modest volume it's your calorie balance that is inhibiting your recovery. If you have followed this routine for a couple of months it really shouldn't be a case of too much cycling.
PS - if you really want a same every day goal (TDEE method) then your combined activity and exercise needs to be reflected honestly in your selection.2 -
WIthout disagreeing with any of the above (because I generally agree), I'd add these question:
How is your nutrition? Enough protein, fats, plenty of veggies/fruits for micronutrients and fiber?
How is your hydration? If your urine is pale (straw colored) you're likely fine. (If you take B vitamins it may be bright, clear yellow, but dark (concentrated looking) is potentially a sign of underhydration.)
How is your sleep?
And, at a slightly lower level of possible relevance, how is your overall stress level?
Calories are crucial in a situation where you're working out. Even if your weight loss rate is OK, some individuals seem to feel better if they time some nutrients (especially carbs or protein) around workouts. (That's maybe sort of MFP heresy to say, but I think some of us are more sensitive to certain things even though others aren't. I see differences of that type between me & my workout buddies.)
Which reminds me: Are you low carbing? That's not wrong, but may have some special-case issues.
Back to the point: There are a variety of things that can affect exercise performance and how we feel in that context. Some loom larger than others, but a combination of sub-optimal things can conspire to get us to a bad spot, cumulatively. It can take time for some of those cumulative stresses to build up, and hit a perceptible level. So, think about the totality of the picture, too: Calories, nutrition, exercise intensity/frequency/duration, recovery, sleep, hydration, stress, etc.
As an aside, my exercise recovery subjectively seems affected if I drink alcohol somewhat soon after workouts (even with hydration and nutrition (etc.) on a reasonably sound basis, and moderate alcohol). It's not a big effect, but it's a thing I've noticed sometimes. Maybe it's just a li'l ol' lady deal, though. 🤷♀️0 -
As an aside, my exercise recovery subjectively seems affected if I drink alcohol somewhat soon after workouts (even with hydration and nutrition (etc.) on a reasonably sound basis, and moderate alcohol). It's not a big effect, but it's a thing I've noticed sometimes. Maybe it's just a li'l ol' lady deal, though. 🤷♀️
Good point - with biking you can actually drink on the ride!
I'm curious to see that attempt while rowing though. Especially on the water.1 -
As an aside, my exercise recovery subjectively seems affected if I drink alcohol somewhat soon after workouts (even with hydration and nutrition (etc.) on a reasonably sound basis, and moderate alcohol). It's not a big effect, but it's a thing I've noticed sometimes. Maybe it's just a li'l ol' lady deal, though. 🤷♀️
Good point - with biking you can actually drink on the ride!
I'm curious to see that attempt while rowing though. Especially on the water.
As long as no one as listening, I'll risk a totally off-topic digression, and say this, just between you and me:
Occasionally, the rowing club has a single summer party at the boathouse called "the moonlight row". We take out the barge, which is a giant rectangular thing about the size of a living room. It accommodates up to 16 rowers (2 across, single oar per person) and a rudder-person, plus maybe a few random passengers. It's normally used for training new rowers. (It's as stable as a living room, too, and close to as high performance 😆 . . . although decent rowers can get it moving OK enough, and I've seen one person row it alone.) There's a raised platform between the two rows of rowing seats, intended for a coach to walk along and correct the rowers.
For party purposes, it gets rigged up with a generator, coolers, colorful overhead party lights, music and volunteer "waitstaff", sometimes exotically (yet modestly!) clothed. The walkway is convenient for delivering drinks and snacks. Great cleverness has been used to create ways for people to drink while holding oars. Alcohol may be involved.
When there's an overflow group, we've taken out a regular boat as well, for additional seating (4 person sculling shell so two oars per person, with cox to steer, still pretty stable). Sadly, they don't get waitstaff.
It may even be legal here, if the rudder-person or cox aren't under the influence.
Either way, we row hard for a while, then stop and snack/drink for a while, then row some more, eventually ending up back at the boathouse again for a less active form of party. (Don't picture something grand: The boathouse is a pole barn with a dirt floor, filled floor to rafters with racks of rowing shells.)
And you thought it would be difficult to drink and row? Never underestimate the ingenuity of masters rowers! 😉4 -
Forget those online TDEE estimators. You can calculate your TDEE using your weight loss/gain and daily caloric intake. Since you are losing a pound per week, you are in a weekly deficit of 3500 calories. If you eat 1800 calories per day and burn 2000 calories per week, here's your TDEE:
((1800)*(7) + 3500 - (2000) )/(7) = 2014
A one pound per week rate of loss is a healthy rate. If you're happy with that, then keep up with what you're doing. If you feel you need to refeed yourself to help replenish glycogen stores, then do that every so often. I'm in a 750 daily deficit right now and training for strength while cutting. I woke up today incredibly sore and tired and decided to eat at maintenance today because I needed it. Keep your eyes on your long term goal. Sometimes you really do need to take a step back to continue moving forward.0 -
DevilsFan1 wrote: »Forget those online TDEE estimators. You can calculate your TDEE using your weight loss/gain and daily caloric intake. Since you are losing a pound per week, you are in a weekly deficit of 3500 calories. If you eat 1800 calories per day and burn 2000 calories per week, here's your TDEE:
((1800)*(7) + 3500 - (2000) )/(7) = 2014
A one pound per week rate of loss is a healthy rate. If you're happy with that, then keep up with what you're doing. If you feel you need to refeed yourself to help replenish glycogen stores, then do that every so often. I'm in a 750 daily deficit right now and training for strength while cutting. I woke up today incredibly sore and tired and decided to eat at maintenance today because I needed it. Keep your eyes on your long term goal. Sometimes you really do need to take a step back to continue moving forward.
No that's not how to calculate TDEE from weight loss. You don't subtract exercise burns.
It would be calorie intake + calories from weight lost only. Otherwise the more exercise you did the lower your TDEE would be and that's clearly not right.
1800*7 + 3500 / 7 = 16,100
Divide by 7 gives 2,300 estimated TDEE which is closer to what you might expect from OP's stats.
But in his case with admitted inaccuracy in food logging makes that an effective not true estimate. With poor recovery there's also a good chance that his weight loss isn't truly reflecting his calorie deficit.
I do agree that OP would do with recovering properly before making a fresh start.3 -
DevilsFan1 wrote: »Forget those online TDEE estimators. You can calculate your TDEE using your weight loss/gain and daily caloric intake. Since you are losing a pound per week, you are in a weekly deficit of 3500 calories. If you eat 1800 calories per day and burn 2000 calories per week, here's your TDEE:
((1800)*(7) + 3500 - (2000) )/(7) = 2014
A one pound per week rate of loss is a healthy rate. If you're happy with that, then keep up with what you're doing. If you feel you need to refeed yourself to help replenish glycogen stores, then do that every so often. I'm in a 750 daily deficit right now and training for strength while cutting. I woke up today incredibly sore and tired and decided to eat at maintenance today because I needed it. Keep your eyes on your long term goal. Sometimes you really do need to take a step back to continue moving forward.
No that's not how to calculate TDEE from weight loss. You don't subtract exercise burns.
It would be calorie intake + calories from weight lost only. Otherwise the more exercise you did the lower your TDEE would be and that's clearly not right.
1800*7 + 3500 / 7 = 16,100
Divide by 7 gives 2,300 estimated TDEE which is closer to what you might expect from OP's stats.
But in his case with admitted inaccuracy in food logging makes that an effective not true estimate. With poor recovery there's also a good chance that his weight loss isn't truly reflecting his calorie deficit.
I do agree that OP would do with recovering properly before making a fresh start.
Yep, my mistake. I was coming back to correct it. Calories burned due to exercise area already included in the weight lost on the scale. Thanks for clarifying my mistake.
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You do not count exercise when determining daily activity. NOT calculates exercise calories and show the calorie adjustment.0
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