Question about exercise calories

TamTastic · February 2008

I know there are many posts regarding eating your "exercise" calories. I just wondered who does or doesn't and how successful you are at doing whatever it is you do.

I am just wondering because I haven't been eating my exercise calories and I had lowered my calories from 1500-1600 a day to 1400-1500 a day and noticed that my weekly losses went from 2-4 (3 being the average) to 1-2 and am wondering if this is the culprit OR if I have just lost a lot (65 lbs now) and my body is taking a break.

Oh the human body! What an interesting machine it is!

Thanks!
Tami

TamTastic · February 2008

I know there are many posts regarding eating your "exercise" calories. I just wondered who does or doesn't and how successful you are at doing whatever it is you do.

I am just wondering because I haven't been eating my exercise calories and I had lowered my calories from 1500-1600 a day to 1400-1500 a day and noticed that my weekly losses went from 2-4 (3 being the average) to 1-2 and am wondering if this is the culprit OR if I have just lost a lot (65 lbs now) and my body is taking a break.

Oh the human body! What an interesting machine it is!

Thanks!
Tami

banks1850 · February 2008

well, without going into really deep detail about your lifestyle and choices, none of us can tell you for certain if that is the reason. But It's definately a possibility. Now, the fact that you have lost so much weight would definately throw up red flags for me (nice work by the way). Remeber as you get closer to your goal, your body won't relinquish the weight as easilly, mainly because you don't have as much to loose. What I usually tell people is that as your weight comes down, so must your expectations for loss. I.E. you may have been loosing 3 lbs/week when you were 50 lbs over weight, but you won't loose anywhere near that with the same effort when you only need to loose 10. It might not even be possible anymore for you to loose that fast (as a matter of fact, I would highly doubt it is possible).

TamTastic · February 2008

Thanks Banks...yeah it's hard to tell what is going on.

Yes, I have lost a lot of weight but having started at 270 lbs in September, I am now down to 205 which is a lot lower but I still have a lot to lose to get to my goal, so I wouldn't think my body would be slowing down this soon. I'm not sure. I just know I started this in September and was actually eating around 1600 calories a day and lost really well. As I got to around 220, I lowered my calories to 1500 and my losses have slowed. It could be anything....eating too few, plateau, body taking a break, etc. I mean, I am still losing an average of 2 lbs a week so I am hardly upset....just wondering if I added another 100 or so calories to my day if it would really have an affect.

I don't know. I may need to mess around with my calories for a week and see how they do.

As far as my lifestyle goes...I don't starve (I have a 15 month old son to chase after, so I cannot be weak!!)...I try to get to the gym at least 3 times a week. My cardio is the elliptical trainer, random setting, level 17 for 50 minutes(45 min + cool down). I keep my heart rate up to 150 (which is my target heart rate for my age), I weight-lift those days as well as do squats and other things at home whenever I get the chance (and my son isn't trying to grab my tush while doint it! LOL).....I eat well...lots of whole grains, fruit, veggies, lean protein and drink about 70 ounces of water a day.

I don't know....anything else I could be doing????

Thanks!
Tami

jessneill · February 2008

Have you tried this formula to figure out your daily caloric intake needs?

Calculate your current maintenance calories at 205. You might want to use a couple different sites and take the average.

Here are some sites

http://www.caloriecontrol.org/calcalcs.html

http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm

http://www.diet-blog.com/archives/2005/12/26/how_to_calculate_your_daily_calorie_needs.php

Then you reduce your maintenance calories by how much you want to lose

500 calories is 1lb a week
1000 calories is 2lbs a week

I would also check this agains your current BMR to make sure you do not go below that.

I started out at the recommended 1200 on this site and was losing 1 -2lbs a week, then I started feeling a lag in my energy while working out so I thought I would do some checking and thats when I upped my calories to between 1600 - 1700 a day. Now I don't have any energy problems and I usually lose 2 -3lbs a week.

Hope that helps.
Jess

banks1850 · February 2008

Tam, please don't take this the wrong way, I'm not shooting barbs at you. But at 270 (granted I don't know your height) you were probably obese (possibly even morbidly so). Guess what, I'm pretty sure you aren't anymore. When the body has that much extra fat, it tends to just MELT away. I was borderline obese when I started, and I was dropping lbs at 4 a week or so. It slowed down for me rather quickly (after the 1st 20 I started to loose about 1 a week max). Just because you still have a ways to go doesn't mean your body won't slow down it's loss.

think of fat like Ice under a heat lamp. You put a cube under there and you can only melt a cube's worth of ice. Put a 2 foot X 2 foot X 1 Foot slab under it, and you can melt a lot more in the same amount of time. It's all about how much fat your body can get at to burn. The less there is, the less surface area the body can pull from, so the slower the process becomes as you get smaller.
I hope this clears it up a bit for you. I'm in your corner! GO GET EM!

TamTastic · February 2008

LOL Banks! I would hardly take offense. Of course I was obese (and might still be classified as that even at 205, who knows. I mean I am 5' 5" tall)...BUT, I am on a healthy path that I am confident will lead to my goal of 135, so it's no biggie. Obese shmese!!!

You make a lot of sense. I have wondered that myself...but I just figured it would be a LITTLE longer until I slowed down..like at least in the 170s or so. I don't know. I am still happy to be losing regularly and these 2 lb losses add up quick, I just thought it interesting that when I lowered my calories is when my weight loss slowed. Might just be a coincidence.

MontanaGirl · February 2008

I guess I would say if it was working that well and you changed it and it isn't working that well anymore, I would go back to the way it was before and see if it goes back to working that well. (Hope you understand my somewhat *twisted* logic!) Then go from there. If you go back to the level you were losing before, GREAT. If not, then maybe you need to tweak something! Good Luck!

jessneill · February 2008

Since we know how tall you are now we can check your BMR

I think that may be the issue if you are eating 1400 - 1500 calories a day you are below your BMR which is 1636 according to the calculator on this site.

Which is probably why you were losing better when you were eating closer to your BMR.

banks1850 · February 2008

Since we know how tall you are now we can check your BMR

I think that may be the issue if you are eating 1400 - 1500 calories a day you are below your BMR which is 1636 according to the calculator on this site.

Which is probably why you were losing better when you were eating closer to your BMR.

there ya go, that makes sense too. If your eating too little Tam, it may be that your body is storing fat for "the winter". Give it a shot, you never know.

TamTastic · February 2008

Ok, I will try to eat at least 1600 calories a day again. Yikes!! It's so strange to eat MORE and hope to lose more. I will try it for a week and see what happens.

AndreaMMil · February 2008

I threw caution to the wind and have upped my calories as well. I feel like I'm cheating when the front page says I have 100 calories remaining instead of 500 or 700. I do feel better, I don't feel as tired. I haven't seen a difference on the scale yet. But I think it's is on strike. The scale hasn't moved in 3 weeks, but the clothes are fitting looser.

jessneill · February 2008

I threw caution to the wind and have upped my calories as well. I feel like I'm cheating when the front page says I have 100 calories remaining instead of 500 or 700. I do feel better, I don't feel as tired. I haven't seen a difference on the scale yet. But I think it's is on strike. The scale hasn't moved in 3 weeks, but the clothes are fitting looser.

You know you can go in and manually change your calorie allotment for the day in your goals section. I did that with mine since the site set me at 1200 and I upped mine to 1700.

And yes, it seems like cheating at first, but I really saw a change in energy and the weight is coming off just as steady if not a little faster.

TamTastic · February 2008

This is my progress, copied and pasted from my progress on ediets. It is interesting that at the beginning of the year I lowered my calories and that is when my weight loss slowed to 2 lbs or less per week (the two maintains I had so far were during Thanksgiving and Christmas week). I am going to see how I do upping my calories from 1400-1600. It could just be I have slowed down but it's good to find out!

Sep 2007
9/27 258.5 lbs. 9/20 262.0 lbs. 9/13 264.0 lbs. 9/6 270.0 lbs.

Oct 2007
10/25 246.5 lbs. 10/18 249.0 lbs. 10/11 252.5 lbs. 10/4 255.5 lbs.

Nov 2007
11/28 234.0 lbs. 11/22 234.0 lbs. 11/15 238.0 lbs. 11/8 241.0 lbs. 11/1 243.0 lbs.

Dec 2007
12/27 223.0 lbs. 12/20 223.0 lbs. 12/13 227.0 lbs. 12/6 229.0 lbs.

Jan 2008
1/31 212.0 lbs. 1/25 214.0 lbs. 1/17 216.5 lbs. 1/10 218.5 lbs. 1/3 220.5 lbs.

Feb 2008
2/28 205.0 lbs. 2/21 207.0 lbs. 2/14 209.0 lbs. 2/7 211.0 lbs.

auntkaren · February 2008

:happy: WOW that is awesome .........you have done great. :drinker: Will look forward to the day I can show that kind of progress.

Question about exercise calories

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