Is the "wrong" way the right way?

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  • ironanimal
    ironanimal Posts: 5,922 Member
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    I stalled pretty quickly eating 1600 a day. I've been gradually increasing the intake, first to 1800, then 2000, then 2200 and now 2500 (which pre-factors my exercise, so for now, I'm not eating them back) and I'm finally seeing the fat shift and muscle replace it. You don't need to starve. That may well lead to you being 'lighter', but you'll have just as little muscle tone as you started with. If you want to look fit and healthy, you need to eat back what your body burns in exercise to provide the nutrients it needs to build and strengthen your muscles.
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,538 Member
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    Temporary weight loss is the wrong way. Calorie deficits that are too high are temporary in weight loss.


    A.C.E. Certified Personal Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 28+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
  • kiminikimkim
    kiminikimkim Posts: 746 Member
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    I have 8 pounds left to go and it is going really SLOWLY.

    1st month I was losing 1 pound a week. Very light exercise (walking mostly)

    2nd month I joined a boot camp class. Vigorous exercise twice a week. Continued losing 1 pound a week.

    3rd month - I am currently in month #3 and I am stalling. I invested in a Heart Rate monitor watch. It calculates my steps and heart rate. According to my MIO watch I have a basal heart rate of an athlete, close to 43 beats per minute. During my bootcamp workouts, my heart rate was up to 90% of my target heart rate, which meant I was definitely burning calories. I will eat 1/4 of my burned calories.

    It appears my body is sustaining itself at 1200cal a day. I eat every time I am hungry to prevent "starvation mode". According to an online calculator (requiring the input of wrist, forearm and hip measurements) , I have a Body Fat % of 25.4%, which is considered okay but not great. I definitely would like to lose 2 inches in my thighs, 1 inch off my knees and calves.

    I don't know how I will "shock" my body. I'm scared to nutritionally alter my lifestyle so I will continue till the bootcamp classes end and I will try a different type of exercise.
  • castadiva
    castadiva Posts: 2,016 Member
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    My BMR is 1,677. I understand the math and the reasoning, but that doesn't seem to be what a lot of "successful" people here are doing. I noticed it when I starting pulling up the diaries of people with significant weight loss.

    I usually walk 40 min a day, 1/3 of it is uphill (pushing a 50 lb stroller with 80 lbs of girls in it) . I am also doing Julian Michaels 30 day shred.

    well this is kind of a lie.
    I'm successful in my weight loss.. I've lost a lot of weight GAINED A TON OF muscle... because I EAT. and i EAT EAT EAT EAT EAT. if i dont .. then i cant do my workouts. 40 mins of day .. walking.. IS NOTHING.
    you need to UP your workout. you need to do intense stuff.. try sprints.. and weight lifting. i dont even break a sweat if i walk for 2 hours.. and dont compare yourself to others.. its just not okay..

    Er, I walk a minimum of 30-40 mins/day at a brisk pace (no pram!), have lost 34lb in four months and kept it off. Walking is my primary/sole exercise - I have neither the time, the opportunity nor the inclination to do sprints or lift weights. I'm glad intense work-outs work for you, but please don't tell someone what they're doing won't work, based purely on your personal experience. This person may not be at your level of fitness, and an intense workout might be totally wrong for them at this stage in proceedings. Walking is a great way to get started and a good way of maintaining health in the long run. We all have to do this in the way that suits us.

    I get that you're trying to be helpful, but maybe you could frame your words as suggestions rather than denigrating the efforts of someone who is doing this their own way and making sweeping generalisations that may or may not hold true.
  • nk17
    nk17 Posts: 141 Member
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    Everyone is talking about calories. How are your carbs? I am trying to eat 1200 cals most days, but I'm trying to keep my carbs under 90 gm. I think this makes a big difference.
  • NovemberJune
    NovemberJune Posts: 2,525 Member
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    I started out at 229 and I usually ate about 1800 calories at that point while exercising about 30-45 minutes per day. Now I'm 164 and I usually eat between 1500-1600 per day and I exercise 30-60 minutes per day. I don't usually eat more or less on the days I exercise more or less, unless I feel extra hungry. And I've lost a little more than a lb per week on AVERAGE. There are plenty of weeks that I didn't lose anything, or had a small gain on the scale.

    Good luck!


    ETA: For most of my weight loss, I've eaten around my BMR, until here recently. My BMR is now about 1450 and I eat about 100 more than that on average.
  • NovemberJune
    NovemberJune Posts: 2,525 Member
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    If your HRM doesn't know your weight, gender, age, etc there is no way it's going to be accurate.

    10 pounds since December IS success. congrats. :)
  • spskinny
    spskinny Posts: 96 Member
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    Thank you everyone again for the feedback. My take away is I am going to try eating 1300 cals, keep walking ( which pushing 130 lbs uphill gives me a hr of 150, burning back legs and a half wet shirt) which I have to admit has changed my legs completely getting some cuteness back :) , I will toss my HR monitor for one that is more accurate, and keep on the steady course of healthy weight loss.

    Thank you!!!!
  • Tonika44137
    Tonika44137 Posts: 188 Member
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    I'm not one to give much advice but I like to share my experience..I joined MFP back in 2010 and did it for a few months, I lost weight but not the right way..I set myself at 1200 cal at that time and did crazy cardio..I didnt know that I was really only consuming 200-500 cal a day after all my exercising..I didnt understand the program and eating back exercise calories it just didnt make sense to me..well after I lost my weight, I stopped logging and stopped paying attention to what I ate and I gained those pounds back..also at that time I was that person that hated strength training so I had no muscle mass...this time around beginning 2012 I incorporated strength training 3-4x a week and read everything I could about eating right and back your exercise calories so now I eat alot more, roughly 1400-1900 cal a day and that includes my exercise calories and I'm losing weight and building muscle which in the long run will help me from gaining the weight back.. so my point is eat right, exercise and your most or all your exercise calories and it will help you in the long run..when you do those short calorie "diets" they're only temporary and will cause you to gain the weight back..you dont want to keep doing this over and over
  • slimkay1
    slimkay1 Posts: 40 Member
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    BUMP!
  • gaia3rd
    gaia3rd Posts: 151
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    I have 8 pounds left to go and it is going really SLOWLY.

    1st month I was losing 1 pound a week. Very light exercise (walking mostly)

    2nd month I joined a boot camp class. Vigorous exercise twice a week. Continued losing 1 pound a week.

    3rd month - I am currently in month #3 and I am stalling. I invested in a Heart Rate monitor watch. It calculates my steps and heart rate. According to my MIO watch I have a basal heart rate of an athlete, close to 43 beats per minute. During my bootcamp workouts, my heart rate was up to 90% of my target heart rate, which meant I was definitely burning calories. I will eat 1/4 of my burned calories.

    It appears my body is sustaining itself at 1200cal a day. I eat every time I am hungry to prevent "starvation mode". According to an online calculator (requiring the input of wrist, forearm and hip measurements) , I have a Body Fat % of 25.4%, which is considered okay but not great. I definitely would like to lose 2 inches in my thighs, 1 inch off my knees and calves.

    I don't know how I will "shock" my body. I'm scared to nutritionally alter my lifestyle so I will continue till the bootcamp classes end and I will try a different type of exercise.
    With only 8 pounds left to lose, MFP would recommend no more than a 1/2 pound weight loss a week. I suggest you reset your goals to 1/2 pound a week and...and eat back more like 2/3 to 3/4 of your exercise calories.
  • cressievargo
    cressievargo Posts: 392 Member
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    Since starting losing weight I've eaten between 1,200 and 1,400 cals per day, and NOT eaten back any of my exercise cals. Sometimes, when I've had a particularly hard day's exercise, I can net around 600 cals, which some people recoil in horror at. But, I don't feel unhealthy, the foods I'm eating are healthy and well balanced, and I've been losing weight consistently throughout and have lost over 6 stone using this method now. So I don't believe in "starvation mode". It's like saying if your car was running out of fuel it'll stop burning it- utter rubbish. Your body CANNOT and DOES NOT work on thin air. It NEEDS fuel, it's just a basic biological fact.

    Eating a net of 600 calories is insanity, especially long term. This does in fact, effect your metabolism, and additionally - your body can burn muscle if you don't "fuel it properly"...so what's the point of losing weight if you are only losing lean muscle?

    And "it needs fuel" - yet you aren't giving it to it???

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