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carhenn
carhenn Posts: 8 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Ive been struggling for the past month. Ive set my goal to 1200. I stuck to my calorie intake per day but somedays I find that 1200 calories are just not enough, even though I eat lots of low GI foods which will fill me up especially on days I work. I go to the gym an average of 4 times a week & maybe road run once a week, burning on average about 450-500 per go. What im wondering is, Do i have to stick to the 1200 calories per day? & eat the entire "extra" 500 I burn at the gym? Or do i not eat them? Ive tried both ways myself & for the passed 4 weeks, Im not just budging on the scales! There maybe a couple days where by i may eat lets say 1400kcal. where teh "extra" gym clas come in, but in saying that at the end of that day, the cal intake is just levelling at 1200 again ( due to gym cals subtracting from regular cals). And then the days where I dont workout, & Im hungry, I may eat not 1200 but maybe 1300kcal/ 1400 kcal, and then my overall week average is about 1300kcal.

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  • lacewitch
    lacewitch Posts: 766 Member
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    how do you feel?
    there is lots of discusiion about this on posts and threads with people leaning (or falling all the way over) one way or the other
    to eat or not to eat back exercise calories?

    if you don't what are your energy levels like are you tired and listless? or are you full and not wanting anything more
    if you do (or don't )does your body change for the better ( not the number on the scale but body fat % waist / hip measurements/ tome / how you feel about yourself / how your clothes fit)

    it depends on all sorts of things like basal metabolic rate, and amount of activity and mostly it depends on you!
    we set these goals that are based on formulae and generic equations - the best ones take things like body type into account. but we are not robots we are all individuals and that goes for weight loss too. what works for one won't work for another.

    it sounds like you are trying both but what i would do is work out your BMR and then work out your body type and activity level ( try some of the calculators here http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/ ) this will work out a rough guide for your maintenance. the take away ~500 calories from that and try and average that for a few weeks
    this factors in activity so you dont have to worry about eating back calories. it also spreads the calories out so you don't have days where you eat more or less due to exercise as the body doesn't do everything in 24 hour slots anyway. then try to stick to your calorie goals with healthy food ( scientific studies have shown that what you eat does matter as well as how much! ) also look at your proportions carbs /protein / fat /sugar and try and get that in balance or leaning oon good fats / lean protein and complex carbs And drink plenty of water

    but remember these numbers are not for you they are generic but calculated as much as possible for frame size. so if you fell stuffed all the time lower it and if you have no energy go for a bit more but be wary of false ( emotional boredom etc) hunger
    other things to remember are it's not meant to be about the number on the scales . are you healthy are you fit. are you increasing muscle mas and burning fat?

    Good luck and remember it will take time to get it 100% right for you ut keep going , you are doing it right and you will get there!
    good luck and let us know how you get on!
  • ladyraven68
    ladyraven68 Posts: 2,003 Member
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    Ive been struggling for the past month. Ive set my goal to 1200. I stuck to my calorie intake per day but somedays I find that 1200 calories are just not enough, even though I eat lots of low GI foods which will fill me up especially on days I work. I go to the gym an average of 4 times a week & maybe road run once a week, burning on average about 450-500 per go. What im wondering is, Do i have to stick to the 1200 calories per day? & eat the entire "extra" 500 I burn at the gym? Or do i not eat them? Ive tried both ways myself & for the passed 4 weeks, Im not just budging on the scales! There maybe a couple days where by i may eat lets say 1400kcal. where teh "extra" gym clas come in, but in saying that at the end of that day, the cal intake is just levelling at 1200 again ( due to gym cals subtracting from regular cals). And then the days where I dont workout, & Im hungry, I may eat not 1200 but maybe 1300kcal/ 1400 kcal, and then my overall week average is about 1300kcal.

    Personally if 1200 isn't enough I'd do some research on your daily energy requirements.
    http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/bmr/

    1200 wasn't enough for me and left me feeling faint.

    It may just be a matter of decreasing your target from 1lb per week and 0.5, so that you get more calories, but actually lose something, rather than targetting 1lb and losing nothing.

    Good luck.
  • xraychick77
    xraychick77 Posts: 1,775 Member
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    consistency in calorie intake is a must for some people. we are all different and our bodies react differently to stimuli. so try being more consistent with your calories.

    to start calculate your EER (estimated energy requirement)..the most recommended formula is called the harris benedict formula..you can google it and find it on wikipedia.

    you should already have your exercise calculated into your EER. so there is no need to eat back..since you should already be eating for that level of activity.

    you should never just automatically set your goal at that mythical 1200 cal. it is meaningless, based on no scientific fact or proof whatsoever. you should only reduce based on your EER. if you reduce too much, you leave yourself no wiggle room when you start losing fat..plus the fact that if your EER is 2500 cals and you only intake 1200, you can almost guarantee you're losing muscle mass along with that fat, which is never a good thing. you should probably never lower more than 500 cals from your EER.

    many times also, these stalls are caused by not being honest with ourselves. whether it be how much we exercise to how much we eat. if you have a calorie deficit you WILL lose weight.
  • peachNpunkin
    peachNpunkin Posts: 1,010 Member
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    I'd starve to death if I had to survive on 1200 calories a day. But if I did have to live on 1200 calories per day, you better believe I would be eating back those burned calories.
  • carhenn
    carhenn Posts: 8 Member
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    Thank you so much for all your responses. Ive went to all the sites that you've all recommended. Put my settings in, on various sites and they came out approx the same on most of them. So according to the sites, I calculated the kcals in order to maintain my weight,which for my stats, works out at about 2220cals on average per day. And then to lose weight, they recommend I eat at least 500 less than this( so approx. of 1729cals) , and no more than 1000 ( 1229cals) less than the original figure. So im going to go around 1500cals on average for now, and see how i go. BTW, best of luck to all of ye too, in your aim to hit your targets :wink:
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,411 MFP Moderator
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    Thank you so much for all your responses. Ive went to all the sites that you've all recommended. Put my settings in, on various sites and they came out approx the same on most of them. So according to the sites, I calculated the kcals in order to maintain my weight,which for my stats, works out at about 2220cals on average per day. And then to lose weight, they recommend I eat at least 500 less than this( so approx. of 1729cals) , and no more than 1000 ( 1229cals) less than the original figure. So im going to go around 1500cals on average for now, and see how i go. BTW, best of luck to all of ye too, in your aim to hit your targets :wink:

    here are general guidelines based on how much weight to lose on how aggressive your deficit can be. I actually suggest take a 20% deficit to help maintain lean muscle mass. Which for you would be .8 lbs per week at 1750 calories. This is a much better option. Also, if you include your exercise into the calculation (like you did with F2F) then you don't eat them back. Also, when you try something new, you need to give that one thing a month to see results. You can't change every few days.

    If you have 75+ lbs to lose 2 lbs/week is ideal,
    If you have 40-75 lbs to lose 1.5 lbs/week is ideal,
    If you have 25-40 lbs to lose 1 lbs/week is ideal,
    If you have 15 -25 lbs to lose 0.5 to 1.0 lbs/week is ideal, and
    If you have less than 15 lbs to lose 0.5 lbs/week is ideal.

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