Any other trainers or instructors out there?

Hey guys! I'm always asking questions on here and I get a really broad range of answers, because I think my situation isn't normal. After all these months I have played with my calorie counts over and over again. I'll get advice from big guys saying I'm eating way too much...I'll hear from fit athletic girls that I need to eat MORE! I hear to eat back exercise calls...but if I do that I'm eating quite a large amount of food. I just can't figure out the right amount to lose some weight. I'm in the mid 150's and at 5ft 6 I'd be more comfortable in the 140's. That is what I was a couple of years ago before I started teaching. Since then I've gained around 10 pounds. So are there any other instructors/personal trainers/people who train a LOT who could give me some insight? Nothing, and I mean NOTHING is making me progress. I teach all days but one. One day I teach twice..and Thursday I teach 3 times..the other four is just once. I can't change my routine up too much, as I'm already exercising a bunch teaching and I don't want to hurt myself. Any input would be great! Thanks gang!

I am assuming you teach fitness classes? And didnt i do a write up for you?

Not a trainer or instructor (but I am studying to do it), but I would say because you just burn SO much that maybe you could give it a few weeks where you only eat back half of your burned calories to see if it works. If you do that, would you still net at least 1200?

1200 doesnt apply to her.

She works out ridiculous amt to be stuffed a 1200 one size fits all status.

Here is the deal. Go to the local universities health fitness performance lab. Some call them Physical education or sports labs among other names. All universities have them and they are open to the public for services.

Go get yourself a metabolic cart done (~20.00). Find out with your metabolism what your burning just living. Then you could base of a HRM your calorie burns and adjust accordingly. With only a little left, don't deficit more than 500 a day. Anything more is just strain to your already strained system.

If your eating healthy, and I mean HEALTHY... whole foods, not store bought wheats breads, but true 5 ingredient kinds of healthy, you should have no problem getting it off.

Your at a totally different place than most anyone here is. This isn't the place to get fitness advice at your rate.

You didn't mention weights? Are you lifting? Likely going to assume if you are, your maintaining. So why would you want advice from big guys?

You always eat back your exercise cals. Got it. Fitness is a tool to be used with proper diet to reach weight loss goals. It's not something you use exclusively to meet your goals. If you don't eat your cals back you risk compromising your metabolism.

I find that if it's a pain in the *kitten* to eat, I'm eating right amounts. I'm not an expert. But I have been working closely with trainers in college, sports nutrition majors and performance majors to meet my goals EDUCATED.

Another really great alternative to counting is the bodybugg. These are incredibly accurate from all the things I have seen when used correctly by an educated individual. This can take out alot of guesswork to help you reach your goal.

To give you example. I work out 4 days a week, I spin all 4 for 40 minutes, I weight train 3 days, do hapkido two days week and walk everywhere. Usually 3 miles minimum daily. I also toss in zumba once a week somewhere.

I always burn 2000 - 3100 calories depending on that day. If I am 2k its cause I sat home most all day. I try to average 2 lbs loss week, I usually eat 1400-2200 day. But it all depends on the day. You need to know what you burned, to know what to eat. These one size calculators are sloppy at best. Get a HRM or a BB and go from there. That's where the guesswork is taken out.

I use a Sunnto HRM...was using a Polar. I actually HAVE a Bodybugg I got from a friend but after hours with technical support, could never get it to transfer to a new user! It was maddening! I live close to University of Maryland. I'll maybe google and see what they have. What specifically should I be looking for? Just physical education?

If you can't find info online, I would contact someone in their exercise physiology department, if they have one. HR is simply our best representation of changes in levels of exertion (energy expenditure). However, it is not really accurate. You do need to get the testing done and then work with them on how to calibrate your HRM to your actual burn. When I say this, I don't mean to actually do a calibration on the watch but, rather, to know what the number on the watch actually represents.
And I 100% agree that you need to focus moreso on nutrition and less on absolute values for cals. Increase raw veggies (and cooked) + fruits for desserts + lots of water (more than the 8 glasses since you are working out a lot) + lean meats/proteins. Stay away from processed foods as much as possible. If you aren't lifting, you may want to add in 2 days a week to just lift heavy for 20 minutes, while you are at the gym anyway.

1200 doesnt apply to her.

She works out ridiculous amt to be stuffed a 1200 one size fits all status.

Here is the deal. Go to the local universities health fitness performance lab. Some call them Physical education or sports labs among other names. All universities have them and they are open to the public for services.

Go get yourself a metabolic cart done (~20.00). Find out with your metabolism what your burning just living. Then you could base of a HRM your calorie burns and adjust accordingly. With only a little left, don't deficit more than 500 a day. Anything more is just strain to your already strained system.

If your eating healthy, and I mean HEALTHY... whole foods, not store bought wheats breads, but true 5 ingredient kinds of healthy, you should have no problem getting it off.

Your at a totally different place than most anyone here is. This isn't the place to get fitness advice at your rate.

You didn't mention weights? Are you lifting? Likely going to assume if you are, your maintaining. So why would you want advice from big guys?

You always eat back your exercise cals. Got it. Fitness is a tool to be used with proper diet to reach weight loss goals. It's not something you use exclusively to meet your goals. If you don't eat your cals back you risk compromising your metabolism.

I find that if it's a pain in the *kitten* to eat, I'm eating right amounts. I'm not an expert. But I have been working closely with trainers in college, sports nutrition majors and performance majors to meet my goals EDUCATED.

Another really great alternative to counting is the bodybugg. These are incredibly accurate from all the things I have seen when used correctly by an educated individual. This can take out alot of guesswork to help you reach your goal.

To give you example. I work out 4 days a week, I spin all 4 for 40 minutes, I weight train 3 days, do hapkido two days week and walk everywhere. Usually 3 miles minimum daily. I also toss in zumba once a week somewhere.

I always burn 2000 - 3100 calories depending on that day. If I am 2k its cause I sat home most all day. I try to average 2 lbs loss week, I usually eat 1400-1200 day. But it all depends on the day. You need to know what you burned, to know what to eat. These one size calculators are sloppy at best. Get a HRM or a BB and go from there. That's where the guesswork is taken out.

I am not sure if the "1200 calorie" was directed at me. If it was, my example was just how going off a "calorie cut" based on 500 or 1000 is inaccurate. It was just an example.

I do have a bodybugg, and yes it's a great tool. I know some people who use them and can't take off the weight. They are just... eating too little for their biochemicals to function properly.

Is "sports performance a major?" If it is, I didn't know that. That's what i want to do, maximize people's potential, but i am going through the route of "biochemistry" one of my majors, I want to apply it to sports science or something similar.

Also I have another question. I am currently at a community college, going to transfer to Berkeley in a year or 2. Do you know if they offer this metabolic analysis at such a school? Or is it just at universities?

No it wasn't I didnt see your post when I wrote this.

From my experience metcarts are only available at university sports depts. But you never know until you ask!

There are SO MANY majors in sports, nutrition, health, wellness, and all inbetween. Check a few out! This is what I'm considering as well. They go by all sorts of names. You really need check the course curriculum to be sure.

The difference in metabolic rate isn't going to be dramatic in a person your size. It's maybe a few hundred calories at max. For me, the difference between what MFP estimate (1894) and Katch McArdle (2080) is minimal. So, yes, you can go get your BMR done but it won't affect you too much in terms of calories. The biggest thing is understand how much you you are burning as this will be the long pole in the tent. And until we know how much you are burning, it's going to be difficult to determine how much you need. But as a starting point:


Your estimated BMR is around 1450. You are lightly active outside of your exercise.


TDEE (less exercise) = 1450 * 1.375 = 1993
For weight loss = 1993 * .80 = 1594


So 1600 is practically your base calories. Now if you and figure out an average burn for yourself, then we can figure out caloric needs. But for example, lets say you average 1000 calories burned.


So TDEE = 1993 + 1000 = 2993 * .80 = 2394.



Now if you can't accurately figure out how much you burn, you can use the Katch McArdle multiplier approach (i would consider you athletic)

So 1450 * 1.9 = 2755 * .8 = 2204


So eat at 2200 calories for 2 weeks. If you don't see weight loss, bump it up by 200 calories Monitor for another 2 weeks and if no weight loss, then add another 200 calories. And repeat.

Even on days you don't teach or workout, still eat that high of calories so your body can feed the repairing process.

I'm a dance instructor and about to become a turbo kick instructor. My advice is to experiment with the suggestions of others. One of them is bound to work (as long as it seems reasonable and realistic and healthy of course).

Since I'm active for my part-time job (teaching dance classes), I don't really count that as working out. For one, I'm not doing as much as I would if I were actually taking the class, since I have to walk around and look at my students or watch them when they are doing it without my help. Even if I were to dance the entire class, I still don't count it because it's just a part of my routine that my body is used to. When I workout on my own, I'm constantly varying my routine so my body doesn't get too used to anything. My roommate is a full-time dance teacher and teaches dance sometimes 6 hours a day, but she also still works out on her own 5 days a week and doesn't really count what she does for a living as "exercise" (although she does have her profile set to a very active lifestyle). Again, her body EXPECTS that she will be up and dancing all day, so it's almost like her body doesn't view it as working out. Does that make any sense?

If you want my advice, eat the maximum calories MFP tells you to eat. I saw the best results once I set my weight loss goal to lose a pound a week and started eating around 1800 calories a day. But that's just what worked for me (and it worked phenomenally; I have energy, I'm satisfied, no cravings or binges, and I'm still losing plenty of weight yet still gaining muscle!)

Good luck!!