Upset and needing advice and encouragement!

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  • aimeemusic
    aimeemusic Posts: 73 Member
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    No way to eating extra calories! I take in 1400 a day and that is it! I always have a negative calorie intake when my day is done.

    I am not sure if you heard this already but maybe increasing you calories by 150-200..say 1600 might get your body out if its rut

    Maybe it thinks you are hitting a bit of starvation mode as you are really active.

    I had to up my calories to 1600 as my body was not reacting as well to my weightloss norm of 1440. Things are going down....slower than before but I know its still good as I am working on weight training as well as cardio now.

    remember Muscle is heavier than fat.....fed those muscles and they will love you back! :)

    Good luck girl! :)
  • SoulSistaSarah
    SoulSistaSarah Posts: 12
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    How some of you are coming across is really condescending and judgemental. I'm just saying. I wouldn't have asked this question if I thought that I had it all figured out, hence the needing advice. I'm new to MFP. I've only been on here a month! I have lost 30 pounds thus far and that was encouraging to me obviously, but I'm trying to get past this rut.
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,708 Member
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    Because your weight is so high, you are probably one of the rare people who actually do build muscle on a calorie deficit. Since the gain is slight, I would probably attribute it to that. However, I will also be the first to tell you that there is no need to swim for more than 60 minutes at a time, unless you're refueling for longer bouts. People have this vision that swimmers are lean because of the long hours they spend in the pool. What they don't see is that many swimmers eat well over 5,000-8,000 calories a day too.
    If you're swimming that long without any kind of protein refueling, then eventually you'll start to lose lean muscle tissue along with fat and you can lower your metabolic rate which will take you much longer to lose the weight you want. IMO, you should use the other 60 minutes to strength train to help retain what muscle you already have.


    A.C.E. Certified Personal Trainer/Group Fitness Instructor
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 28+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition



    How many calories should I be taking in per day then? I'm getting mixed messages from MFP I guess. I'm told there to eat 1400 calories a day. Why eat all the calories back I just lost swimming? Seems counterproductive.
    Because if the calorie deficit is too high, then metabolically your body will slow down on energy consumption. That's just how human physiology works.


    A.C.E. Certified Personal Trainer/Group Fitness Instructor
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 28+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
  • SoulSistaSarah
    SoulSistaSarah Posts: 12
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    No way to eating extra calories! I take in 1400 a day and that is it! I always have a negative calorie intake when my day is done.

    I am not sure if you heard this already but maybe increasing you calories by 150-200..say 1600 might get your body out if its rut

    Maybe it thinks you are hitting a bit of starvation mode as you are really active.

    I had to up my calories to 1600 as my body was not reacting as well to my weightloss norm of 1440. Things are going down....slower than before but I know its still good as I am working on weight training as well as cardio now.

    remember Muscle is heavier than fat.....fed those muscles and they will love you back! :)

    Good luck girl! :)

    Thank you so much for your help! That gives me a number to shoot for, which really helps! I lost those 30 pounds faster than I ever expected, I was shocked lol. I'm not trying to lose tons of weight fast, just lose in general. Thanks for your support, I truly appreciate it! :)
  • squishycow7
    squishycow7 Posts: 820 Member
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    How some of you are coming across is really condescending and judgemental. I'm just saying. I wouldn't have asked this question if I thought that I had it all figured out, hence the needing advice. I'm new to MFP. I've only been on here a month! I have lost 30 pounds thus far and that was encouraging to me obviously, but I'm trying to get past this rut.

    Sorry if I did :( There's a lot to understand so it's just important to understand WHY as much as HOW weight is lost. Check out the links I gave you.

    Don't let us mean forum-monsters get ya down.
  • SoulSistaSarah
    SoulSistaSarah Posts: 12
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    Could be muscles but really only if you were jumping into exercise for the very first time ("noob gains"). Those mucles might even just be retaining water, since when you're stressing them out they tend to hold on to water for repair purposes.

    Could be youre not eating enough (I can't see your diary...) I know that's counter intuitive, but with huge burns like that it's important to fuel your body properly. Even if that's just a "spike day" once a week. Do a forum search for plateau busting, you'll see tons of people having success when they bump their calories (again I don't know what you're eating so I apologize if this is something you already know).

    Could be youre not calculating your burns and your calories properly. could be underestimating food and overestimating burns, or any combo of that.

    Could be your diet is under all your macros, but it's "crap." Try eating "real" food, nothing processed, and see if that helps push things along. Not to say you cant lose weight eating whatever at a deficit, but I've found that quality DOES matter.

    Good luck <3 I know you work hard!!


    Edit - JUST saw your second post. Really, eat your exercise calories, at least half of them. Search the forums for people who do so, or have busted through plateaus by EATING MORE. It's not a joke. You don't have to eat all of them, but make sure your net calories are at least 1200ish so you're not starving. Your body will freak out and not cooperate.

    Oh, okay! I didn't realize that I should still have a positive calorie in that, honest error lol. I had thought it just meant that I was losing more weight by the defecit, so that helps me out a lot! Thank you! And yes, I'm working VERY hard! :)
  • Blessedmommy_2x
    Blessedmommy_2x Posts: 419 Member
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    If your not eating your exercise cals back and are burning as much as you are, you may need to increase your calorie consumption by a few hundred. The idea is to NET the amount that you were given. If you are eating 1400, burning 700 your body is only living off of 700 cals for that day... You tend to burn A LOT of cals swimming, so you may need to increase your calorie consumption to make up for that.
  • mhotch
    mhotch Posts: 901 Member
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    Research BMR (basic metabolic rate} and TDEE . Your body needs, and burns calories to breath, heart beat, kidney function, and so on. This is your BMR. Your TDEE are the calories you burn on a normal day, with normal activities. So essentially, you need to net more than your BMR, and slightly less than your TDEE to lose weight in a slow and healthy way. That is one of the reasons to eat back your exercise calories. Having said that, IMHO, MFP grossly overestimates calorie burn in exercise. If you use the data base here for your calorie burn , I would take 20-30% off the top, before you eat those calories back.

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