IF/protein/super low cal help!

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quererespoder
quererespoder Posts: 40 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
so i'm trying IF and i've been doing it for a week now. i took to it super easily and naturally. i love to eat at night and i was barely eating breakfast before. i'm lifting heavy (for me) 3x a week and i also do 15 mins of HIIT cardio 3-4x a week (usually the same days i lift). to get all my protein in , i'm taking a protein powder which is super yummy but it fills me up a LOT.

before i was struggling to not go over my cals at night and now i have the opposite problem. today i've netted aprox. 600 cals after exercise. its 7:30. i haven't had dinner and my feeding window is until 8pm. i'm gonna push it back tonight , obviously , to about 10. still i can't have 500+ cals in less than 3 hours without making myself sick probably. i've gotten must of my protein (i aim for 100+ grams per day) and i'll probably get over 100 during dinner. but unless i force myself to eat (which i hate) i'm not gonna net anymore than 1000 tops. this happens to me several times a week.

i have a "cheat day" on Saturday (sometimes it lasts most of the weekend lol) where i dont log but i dont usually binge either. i'm terrified of slowing my metabolism/making my body use up muscle for fuel. but i'm simply not hungry! my question is , is it ok to net super low about 3x a week , as long as i get adequate protein , and then spend the weekend eating to my heart's content so as to ensure that i wont slow my metabolism? or is it still harmful if i net so low on my exercise days , even if i get enough protein?? if you read this far , congrats!!!!! any help is appreciated :D

Replies

  • bunny4ohs
    bunny4ohs Posts: 1
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    Hi, I have my bachelors in Nutrition and Food Science. Any female, sedentary to very active needs AT LEAST 1200 calories a day just to function. If you calculate your BMR (basal metabolic rate), you'll see that in one day just for your organs to function, not incorporating exercise, you need more than 1200 calories. It is not ideal to go below 1200 calories. If you are only doing it a few times a week and eat more on the weekends to make up for your low calorie days, I'd say it's okay. It's not good to force yourself to eat either. Try eating a bigger breakfast, possibly containing some nut butters, fat is higher in calories per gram than protein and carbohydrates. Having some extra fat at breakfast will also help keep you full. Protein powders are very unnecessary. An average person only needs 10-35% of their daily calories from protein. Americans as a whole really overdue it on the protein, and it's not doing our bodies any good. Try to eat whole natural foods, plant based is best. :)
  • quererespoder
    quererespoder Posts: 40 Member
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    thanks for the reply but i'm doing intermittent fasting leangains style (you can look it up on leangains.com i think ) , which means that i start eating at 12pm until 8 pm usually. and i have the protein powder only on the days i lift, cuz i have trouble getting all my protein in otherwise and i dont want my hard work to go to waste ;) i calculate my protein to be 30% of my daily intake. also , i just checked , i've only netted 400 something -.- aaaah how frustrating.
  • rileysowner
    rileysowner Posts: 8,239 Member
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    500 calories is nothing to eat . . . 5 Tablespoons of peanut butter. Add some fats to your food. A little olive oil here and there. Some 2% milk, and the like. You will find the calories come up pretty quick. The key is calorie dense food. That is one of the reasons Martin of leangains likes his cheesecake so much.

    Looking at your exercise amount, you likely need to eat a lot more. I would recommend using http://www.fitnessfrog.com/calculators/tdee-calculator.html to calculate your Total Daily Energy Expenditure, include the exercise you do in it, so from what you described you are at least moderate exercise. Then take the number it gives you and subtract 15-20%. That is what you should eat. That will put you at a good deficit and likely have you eating a lot more than you do now.

    Just took a very quick look at your food diary. I agree you need to eat more. If you are using the MFP calories, they are a goal to reach, not something you need to stay substantially under.
  • mallory3411
    mallory3411 Posts: 839 Member
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    I wouldn't net so low as your body needs fuel to function.

    What about adding things to dinner that give a larger calorie amount without feeling like you are stuffed? Full fat milk to drink., regular cheese, have a handfull of nuts later on? Things like that. A TBSP or two of PB can pack a decent amount of calories without feeling stuffed.

    If you are having trouble getting your calories in it may be a better idea to change the times you eat (I"m not sure why you do IF) or adding something small earlier in your day to help raise the cals.
  • mallory3411
    mallory3411 Posts: 839 Member
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    Not sure if you are trying to build muscle but eating such a low amount won't help you do that... thought I added that in my first post but failed to.
  • quererespoder
    quererespoder Posts: 40 Member
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    guys thanks for the reply...i actually eat nothing "diet" trust me , here its full fat milk , etc. i just had a muffin lol to bump those cals up. not the best choice but i really wanted it :) and actually my goals are set for very slow weight loss (0.5 lb) per week , trust me , i'm not trying in the slightest to starve myself or anything like that. its just that i also hate forcing food into my mouth you know? food should be enjoyed. i'm veeery close to my goal weight (most ppl say im fine this way) so my body is extremely stubborn about losing weight -.- i'm not trying to build muscle , but to lower BF%.
  • dougii
    dougii Posts: 679 Member
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    You will get all sorts of answers to this question, mostly telling you that this is too little......but, I am eating approx. 1400 - 1500 cals per day and burning 800+ from exercise; my net is almost never over 1000. I lift every other day and do a minimum of 60 minutes cardio everyday including rowing, Wii Fit and Sports, walking, EA Sports and eliptical (not all on the same day obviously). On the weekends I am likely to work out for up to 3 hours in two sessions. I am in my 12th week of doing this and am still losing weight at a constant rate of about 3 pounds per week (I am a 6' 1", almost 55 year old male, started at 286.2 pounds, goal of losing 81 to get to 205 lbs. ). Everything I am doing has been approved by my doctor who set the goal of losing 10 pounds per month for the foreseeable future.... He is not in the camp that says you have to eat your exercise cals back and neither am I. As long as I feel good and continue to have the energy levels that I do now, I plan on continung to do this. The 1400 cal of food is taken in and fuels the body; eating healthy insures I am getting all of the proper nutrients, protien, vitamins, etc. I do have a protien shake every morning for breakfast with 12oz 1% milk and a banana and other fruit mixed in because I work out hardest between 5 and 6:30 a.m. The exercise is burning up fat not my lean muscle. Follow your body and you will do fine. Remember that I am not a doctor and neither are most of the other posters as far as I can tell. If you are really worried about what you are doing I would get checked out with your personal physician. BTW I would suggest trying not to go too over board on the weekends - I try to stay relatively the same all week but do find that there is usually one day that I only consume about 850 cals and at least one when I go up to 1800 or so. Best of luck with your life style change!
  • tgzerozone
    tgzerozone Posts: 160
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    I think you will get used to it, eating the calories in less time. I do IF and manage 3500-4500 calories in my 8 hour window. I eat from 14:00 to 22:00
  • HIITTheChallenge
    HIITTheChallenge Posts: 25 Member
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    Hi I love hiit training and also have a background in fitness and nutrtion. HIITTHECHALLENGE is actually my user name for most of my sites, but for this site it was too long! If you are not hungry I would not force yourself to eat. As long as you are eating before you work out you should be ok and not burn muscle. If you don't have any food on board you before working out you will burn muscle instead of fat.
    Also, I would make sure you do your hiit training after your lifting, because then it forces your body to burn fat instead of muscle. I would encourage you to eat between 5-6 small meals / day which will also keep your metabolism going throughout the day. Your most important meals are going to be the one before you work out about 60-90 mins before and the one after you work out. You want to get a good protein/carb mix on board right after working out (with in 30 mins) to repair the glycogen in your muscles so they can tear down and build up easier.
    A Clean Pure Protein powder can be a great alternative to people on the go who do not have time to get everything they need naturally from other sources 95% of the population actually prefers this. Also, our bodies actually need 1gram of protein for every pound of body weight we weigh. Here is a great article on this.
    http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/attention-protein-skeptics.html
    Also, here is an article I just wrote about protein today.
    http://hiitthechallengewithjennifer.blogspot.com/2012/03/find-out-if-your-body-is-using-protein.html
    What kind of protein are you using?
  • quererespoder
    quererespoder Posts: 40 Member
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    well what i mean by eating a lot during the weekend is this past weekend for example: i had like 1000 cals in alcohol , a slice of pizza, 3 mini doughnuts , half an ice cream sandwich , a bag of doritos and some french fries plus my regular food. this was all spread over the entire weekend btw. so does it all balance out or should i try to limit the weekend eating/drinking and eat more on weekdays?
  • tgzerozone
    tgzerozone Posts: 160
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    Why not just stick your weekend eating within your eating window as well? Sure you are going to possibly have alcohol and so, but keep the eating within the window. And try not to go 1000 cals on alchol... (What the heck were you drinking, litres of guiness?) :)
  • beckajw
    beckajw Posts: 1,738 Member
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    It's okay to "save" some calories for the weekend.
  • tgzerozone
    tgzerozone Posts: 160
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    It's okay to "save" some calories for the weekend.

    Don't agree.
  • rileysowner
    rileysowner Posts: 8,239 Member
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    guys thanks for the reply...i actually eat nothing "diet" trust me , here its full fat milk , etc. i just had a muffin lol to bump those cals up. not the best choice but i really wanted it :) and actually my goals are set for very slow weight loss (0.5 lb) per week , trust me , i'm not trying in the slightest to starve myself or anything like that. its just that i also hate forcing food into my mouth you know? food should be enjoyed. i'm veeery close to my goal weight (most ppl say im fine this way) so my body is extremely stubborn about losing weight -.- i'm not trying to build muscle , but to lower BF%.

    In that case you should probably be looking at no more than a half a pound a week--ie a 250 calorie a day deficit. You also should be focusing on trying to build or at least maintain as much muscle as you can. At this point a goal weight is sort of unimportant, what is more important is body composition. To change that will require doing leangains beyond just the 16/8 fast/eating. It will require careful management of macros and even changing the amount of calories you eat depending on if it is a workout day or not. Read up at leangains.com for more info, or join the intermittent fasting group here and pick peoples brains who do leangains.
  • marbly
    marbly Posts: 103
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    Don't think too hard!

    500 cals is easy peasy to achieve. Like another poster said, 4-5 tblspoons of peanut butter or 3 handsful of nuts will do.

    IMO, sometimes, I think that the more we read, the more we try to follow all the rules and programs out there and the more we overthink things. IF is great but honestly, if you are just looking at toning your body and looking good nekkid, it is not necessary to follow to the letter the Leangains fasting/feeding/exercise timing program.

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