Calorie Intake - Help please!

Hi,

Just need a bit of advice because I don't seem to be making a lot of progress and there are so many different opinions available!
I've been at this for just a short time (4 weeks) but everyone says when you first start the weight should fall off!

Background, I'm 31 years old, female, 172lbs (12stone 4lbs for the English peeps here!) I'm 5ft 6.

Activity wise I am a stay at home mum so fairly active all day, I play league netball twice a week, swim over a mile 2-3 times a week and am currently on day 10 of the 30DS, which I have been doing for 12 days.

In my 4 weeks on here I absolutely have not cheated - I have logged everything consistently. I have made much healthier choices and reduced the amount I eat.

I set myself a calorie target of 1500 a day as I calculated my BMR etc and know I need 1900 ish to maintain so I thought i would be sensible and lose slowly!

I average 1300 calories a day intake and my net calories can fall anywhere between 1300 (on the two days in the last 4 weeks I haven't exercised) to -128 (yes Minus 128!!) I had a lot of exercise that day. But my calorie intake is always above 1200. If I had to average I would say my bet calories are around 700.

So given my healthy eating, lowered calories and plenty of exercise what on earth am I doing wrong that I am just not losing?!?!?!

Thanks for any help you can offer!
x

Replies

  • stacymay13
    stacymay13 Posts: 95 Member
    netting too little if I have to guess
  • stacymay13
    stacymay13 Posts: 95 Member
    fat2fitradio.com has a great BMR calculator and calorie plan estimator. Check it out :smile:
  • leslisa
    leslisa Posts: 1,350 Member
    I cannot say. Although in all my life weight has never "fallen off" me. I cannot see your diary so I don't know if you are loosing at all. What I can tell you is that what I eat greatly affects how I loose. You can try increasing your fiber and the types of food you eat. You could research fat blockers (like broccoli, oatmeal, and strawberries) and metabolism boosters (hot peppers and ice water and the first two that come to mind) as well as antioxidents like green tea. And finally make certain you are getting enough water. I can't loose anything unless I drink about 6 glasses of water a day. I usually average closer to 10 or 12.
  • vltaylor35
    vltaylor35 Posts: 72
    i think maybe change up your exercise regime a little to introduce something your body isnt used to. on a previous weight loss attempt i remained static for a while despite alot of swimming. when i swapped for a few sessions on the cross trainer a week the weight started shifting again
  • myfitnessnmhoy
    myfitnessnmhoy Posts: 2,105 Member
    netting too little if I have to guess

    ^^^ I like that guess.

    To the OP: I'd experiment with eating more. If 1900 is your "maintenance" level, try eating an average of 1400 "net" calories (that means logging your exercise and eating back your exercise calories too!). That should set you up for a one-pound weight loss a week (500 deficit calories * 7 days = 3500 calories = 1 pound).

    If that starts working for you, then you can experiment with lowering them a bit (say by another 250, bringing you to 1150) which might net you another half pound a week.

    But 700 net calories is just too low. You aren't fueling good workouts, and you aren't feeding your body. You CAN lose weight through starvation; I've done it. But it's painful, self-defeating, and in the long run not sustainable, as I've found out at least 6 times in my life.
  • aztec1966
    aztec1966 Posts: 12
    My son, age 40, lost 95 lbs over 9 month period by logging his calories and doing at least an hour of cardio 6 days a week. My guess is that you are not doing enough cardio.
  • arserine
    arserine Posts: 63 Member
    BMR is the minimum amount of calories that your body burns, just existing. If you were to sleep, completely still. Other things, like moving your hand to type or getting up to go to the bathroom, or even standing vs sitting, require additional energy, as calculated by your TDEE, your total daily expenditure. When you don't eat enough to keep your body existing, or when you burn those calories by exercising, and then don't replenish the body, your body does everything that it can to store the food you give it and will reject any weight loss. Try upping your calories to at least your BMR to get your body out of starvation mode. Give that a try for a week or two and see if you notice a difference.
    Do you notice a difference in your body as a whole yet? Do clothes fit better, or is there a part of you that feels smaller? If you're exercising intensely it's also possible that you're building muscle which weights more than fat by volume.
  • akamatilda
    akamatilda Posts: 19
    You may be sabotaging your effort by eating too few calories. When you do this, your metabolism slows down to compensate.
    It's a self-preservation mechanism.
  • jenniejengin
    jenniejengin Posts: 784 Member
    bump
  • Thank you all for your replies.

    I find it hard to imagine that I am in starvation mode as my BMR is 1398 and generally I eat that amount? Perhaps I have misunderstood it but I thought the exercise calories didn't have to be eaten because they aided faster weight loss - I only want to average 2lbs a week so I'm not looking for extremes or to starve myself, I love food, that wouldn't happen! I've just found that by eating breakfast regularly, having a small mid morning and mid afternoon snack, a healthy lunch & dinner (lots of grilled chicken, fish and veg etc) I can eat a lot on not many calories!

    Also in terms of cardio, netball is an hour solid of cardio and swimming is also a cardio for me, I average 70 lengths in an hour so I work hard. My fitness levels are good, the problem I have is I can't really change my routine up very much because of being a stay at home mum.

    I have lost size and gained strength, but nothing too noticeable, in fact the only place I can really tell is that little squishy bit girls get under their arms just at the top of their bras!! I have lost 6cms from there which I can only assume is from the push ups on the 30DS!!!

    I'm just at a bit of a loss really. I've definitely upped my calories slightly this week, still not exceeding 1500 intake a day, less for net obviously, so I will see what my weigh in brings. It just frightens me the thought of eating more to lose weight!!! Lol!!!

    Thanks again for your replies! I need a bit of motivation, it's hard when the scales don't move!!
  • Oh and massive thanks to PLUMSGRL for the blog link. It does make sense when you step back and look at it differently. I think I will have to bite the bullet and raise my calorie intake!

    Fingers crossed I don't just put on the few lbs that have shifted so far!!!
  • ayunus
    ayunus Posts: 1 Member
    Hi. This is my input...

    It is my belief that the goal of this process that you're undertaking is making a sustainable change in the way you eat, the way you feel, and the way you feel about yourself. In any big project, like the one you're undertaking, I think it's always best to start at the end and work your way backwards. If we were talking face-to-face, I'd probably ask you questions like: What are the types of foods that you find give you fantastic energy to play with your kid(s)? What are the types of foods that make you feel tired or groggy? If you ate mostly the foods that give you fantastic energy, how much would you have to eat so that you're neither full nor famished; but comfortable?

    With that in mind, I see two main challenges with what you're currently doing.

    1. You've put yourself into a starvation mode, which there's no way you can sustain for years and years. Instead it's driving your energy straight down through the floor.
    2. You're measuring your results before you've really established clearly in your mind what you're trying to achieve.

    Here's my advice. Stop measuring your results and focus on the long-term process. Take your time. Read about nutrition (not only for you but for your little one(s). Learn about the healing powers of fresh fruits and vegetables. Keep a log here not only of what you eat...but most importantly, log how you feel. Log how the foods you eat make you feel positive about life or down and negative. When you start monitoring how what you eat affects your emotions, you'll be shocked!

    When you start to notice the pattern of how nutritious colorful fruits and veggies taste great AND make you see the world as a happier place, you'll worry less about the numbers on the scale. Instead, you'll be using food to manage your energy in a positive way that will uplift everyone in your life and set a great example for your kid(s). As your energy and positivity goes up....the numbers on the scale will go down.

    It sounds simple, but it works...
  • angelina2585
    angelina2585 Posts: 273 Member
    Hi check out the group 'eat more to weigh less'. I think I have the link on my profile. Take your time reading the stickies. Best thing I ever did was to up my calories.

    Edit....I see that the link is in the blog posted above too. So yep have a good read and eat more :)
  • vguynes
    vguynes Posts: 753 Member
    Bump