How to pick "base" calories

Stellamom2018
Stellamom2018 Posts: 120 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hello, I am no stranger to MFP. I've lost just over 100lbs. I am on my last 15ish pounds now and the same math isn't working.

To lose the weight previously I ate 1700 calories plus half my exercise calories back. I am currently training for a 1/2 marathon and do hot yoga. Some days my burn is 800-1100 calories, rest days I REST.

Meaning some days I have 2500-2800 available, but then rest days I have it set to 1800. The issue is I'm not really losing anymore. It's probably the same 3-5lbs I go up and down. Rest days I am significantly hungrier then training days. Thoughts on how to average it? Or just tips?

Replies

  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,393 Member
    edited February 2022
    Based on what little info you give?

    Eat all the exercise cals.

    Be patient. That last 15 pounds took me nine months and I was hungry all the time with just a 250 cal per day deficit. Many days I could not stick that low and over-ate.

    You are the only one who can really dial this in. You will figure it out, it does take time and patience.

    Congrats on your weight loss so far! That's awesome.

    Have you read the Refeed thread? It's probably time for you to eat more.
    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10604863/of-refeeds-and-diet-breaks/p1

  • Stellamom2018
    Stellamom2018 Posts: 120 Member
    I didn't feel like it was a "little info". I'm not sure what else your looking for.

    I'm 5'2", 150lbs, body fat (from caliper) is 28%. I eat 1800 plus half of exercise calories. I aim for 130 grams of protein but average around 110.
  • spiriteagle99
    spiriteagle99 Posts: 3,740 Member
    The hot yoga is likely to mess up your weight numbers because of sweating heavily and then your body retaining water to compensate. Over the long term, you should still be showing a loss if your calorie goal is correct. 1800 calories may be too much for you to lose weight, unless you are very active in your work life. Have you reset your goal recently? Also, are you still weighing all your food? It is easy to get complacent after a while and start eye-balling portions rather than actually weighing them. Also, the 800-1100 calories would likely only be on the day of your long runs. If training for a HM, most of your runs would be more likely in the 400-500 calorie range, and yoga doesn't burn much.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    Stellamom2018 wrote: »
    I didn't feel like it was a "little info". I'm not sure what else your looking for.

    I'm 5'2", 150lbs, body fat (from caliper) is 28%. I eat 1800 plus half of exercise calories. I aim for 130 grams of protein but average around 110.

    It was "little info" because without those new stats (and age actually needed too) - how could anyone possibly know if 1700 is a good base level?

    The amount you lost and have left is meaningless for what the level should be, but it's good info to know.

    Without extra info the only thing that can be said is you are eating too much for causing a deficit.
    Where is the issue?

    Could be your exercise calories are inflated - where are you getting that figure from?

    Could be you have lost so much for so long body needs a break, and has adapted to the last chunk of time being a bigger deficit than it's happy with, it's slowed down, and added stress water weight.
    Have you reduced the amount of deficit? What's reasonable with a lot of weight to lose is extreme near the end. Extreme has bad effects.

    Could be you have ramped up training and the reasonable rate of loss that should be happening is masked by expected water weight gain.

    250 cal deficit would be reasonable now with only 15 lbs left.
    That requires some good estimates for burn and food logging to obtain.
  • hartjohnson23
    hartjohnson23 Posts: 2 Member
    That's awesome you have lost so much! Congratulations. I think you are active and healthy and should listen to your body. With so much loss success, it seems you would be relatively in touch with what your body needs.

    One thing to keep in mind is running 10 miles at 250 pounds burns a lot more calories than running 10 miles at 150 pounds. I have no idea if the app accounts for that or not. Bodies also get used to things they do really regularly and I think they reset base metabolism. Maybe shake things up with a little weight lifting? Or shift where you are getting your calories from for a few weeks--still healthy but with a different focus.

    Good luck! And be very proud of yourself already. That is a significant success. I am looking at it from almost exactly the other end. Just starting with 115 pounds to lose, 5 of those gone.
  • westrich20940
    westrich20940 Posts: 913 Member
    1. Congrats on your weight loss.
    2. I think what a previous commenter wanted was more information about your age....maybe?

    Anyway --- what training program are you using for your marathon training? How many rest days are included per week....usually there is only 1-2, with a long run, and then other short runs/cross-training. You're doing that in ADDITION to hot yoga?

    I guess the hot yoga will have an effect due to sweating/water retention issues....but overall I'd say that your resting metabolic rate is probably higher now than when your started on your weigh loss journey (I tended to re-estimate my calorie goal ~every 10lbs or so that I lost). Especially if you are training for a marathon. I'd forget eating only 50% of your exercise calories, and eat all of them. I'd imagine training for a marathon would be very difficult if you are on a calorie deficit?

    Without knowing your age I just used '30' as your age and a quick TDEE calculator would put your maintenance calories (which includes your marathon training --- I put it at 'Moderate Exercise') would be ~2,200 per day. So...if you are only eating 1800 per day, that's already a 400 calorie deficit, plus the 50% of your exercise calories....so that's quite a large deficit --- IMO if I'm understanding your eating/activity level properly.

    I might be completely misunderstanding though...but good luck with your marathon training and race!
  • Redordeadhead
    Redordeadhead Posts: 1,188 Member
    Stellamom2018 wrote: »
    Hello, I am no stranger to MFP. I've lost just over 100lbs. I am on my last 15ish pounds now and the same math isn't working.

    To lose the weight previously I ate 1700 calories plus half my exercise calories back. I am currently training for a 1/2 marathon and do hot yoga. Some days my burn is 800-1100 calories, rest days I REST.

    Meaning some days I have 2500-2800 available, but then rest days I have it set to 1800. The issue is I'm not really losing anymore. It's probably the same 3-5lbs I go up and down. Rest days I am significantly hungrier then training days. Thoughts on how to average it? Or just tips?

    Have you experimented with eating some of your exercise calories the day after your longer runs/on rest days when you are hungrier, rather than on the day of the exercise if you are less hungry then?

  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    Do you think your running calorie estimates are actually double reality?
    If so, why?

    How long have you been stuck gaining/losing the same few pounds?

    If I was in your situation I would consider two options:
    - A deliberate diet break for a month if you feel tired, cold, hungry, lacking energy.
    - If you are feeling fine, energised not generally hungry then reducing calories averaged out over the week and using the best estimation for your exercise and base activity level.

    The issue of feeling hungry on rest days is difficult because it could simply be the lower eating level on non-exercise days or it could be a hangover from the previous day's run if you don't eat enough then.
    I know from my long cycle rides that how I feel the next day is affected greatly by how carefully I manage the previous day's intake and post-exercise recovery eating.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    I don't have much else to add except that I participated in and trained for endurance cycling events from 2014 and up until 2019. For the most part, I was in maintenance (and eating a lot) at that time at around 180 Lbs. One season I decided I wanted to see how much of a difference it would be performance wise if I could ride at 165 Lbs...which would have also been considerably lean for me...probably 10% or less BF.

    I will say that training for endurance events and trying to lose weight at the same time was for me personally a real bugger. It was much different than when I was initially losing weight and mostly riding for health and fitness @ 30-45 minutes 5x per week or so. I was a lot hungrier when actively training and my body craved the energy (calories) and nutrition and it was really easy for me to go over. I ended up losing about 7 Lbs over the course of about 4-5 months from when I started that seasons training in January to a couple of weeks before my first event of the season in late May when I just decided to go to maintenance.

    My takeaway from the experience...1) I found it difficult to maintain a consistent deficit and balancing my training with my calorie needs and performance. 2) Endurance training is a huge stress on the body and cutting calories adds even more stress to the body. This raises cortisol levels. High cortisol levels lead to water retention and also are associated with increased appetite. 3) The nature of the training itself causes a lot of water retention for muscle repair.

    Personally, with that level of training and trying to lose 15 Lbs, I would expect a rather slow slog on the scale. As far as balancing out the calorie intake, at that point I was using the TDEE method rather than the MFP method so I had a calorie goal that averaged out over the course of the week...but I typically ate less on training days, especially long ride days because I wasn't that hungry...but I was ravenous on rest days, so I compensated on those days...but like I said, that level of training made it difficult to balance things out.

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