working out too much?
redmamacita
Posts: 43 Member
i usually work out 5 days a week, and aim for two two-a-day workouts, when i go to the gym in the AM and do crossfit in the PM. on average i'm burning around 3000+ calories per week (measured by my HR monitor). i usually keep my caloric intake to 1200-1600 each day, even though if i burn 1000 calories, MFP tells me i should be consuming an additional 1000 calories for the day.
that's just not going to happen.
some have suggested i add back half of what i burn onto my 1200 cal daily limit (set by MFP). does this seem accurate? i don't want to sabotage myself by not eating enough to sustain how much i workout, but i also don't want to be consuming too many calories and defeat the purpose of working out at all!
my weekly workout routine is: (or close to)
Monday AM: 20 min strength (varying muscle groups); 20 minutes cardio (intervals on treadmill, elliptical, or bike)
Monday PM: Crossfit
Tuesday AM: 2 mile run, Crossfit
Wednesday AM: strength/cardio at gym
Wednesday PM: Crossfit
Thursday AM: 2 mile run, Crossfit
Friday AM: strength/cardio at gym
Saturday/Sunday "rest" days, which still consist of a few 10-15 minute walks with my dogs at a leisurely pace.
like i said, MFP says my daily caloric intake goal is 1200 calories, and with each workout i log, it adds to my daily goal. i usually aim for at least 400 calories burned on mon/wed/fri gym visits, and don't have any "aims" for crossfit or my 2-mile runs, but i almost always burn more than 500 calories per crossfit WOD, and during my runs it's usually around 200 or so.
thoughts?
ETA:
nutritionally, i eat mostly vegetables and lean meats, fruit in the mornings and early afternoons, and i *try* to stay away from sugary treats, but they inevitably find their way to me once or twice a week.
that's just not going to happen.
some have suggested i add back half of what i burn onto my 1200 cal daily limit (set by MFP). does this seem accurate? i don't want to sabotage myself by not eating enough to sustain how much i workout, but i also don't want to be consuming too many calories and defeat the purpose of working out at all!
my weekly workout routine is: (or close to)
Monday AM: 20 min strength (varying muscle groups); 20 minutes cardio (intervals on treadmill, elliptical, or bike)
Monday PM: Crossfit
Tuesday AM: 2 mile run, Crossfit
Wednesday AM: strength/cardio at gym
Wednesday PM: Crossfit
Thursday AM: 2 mile run, Crossfit
Friday AM: strength/cardio at gym
Saturday/Sunday "rest" days, which still consist of a few 10-15 minute walks with my dogs at a leisurely pace.
like i said, MFP says my daily caloric intake goal is 1200 calories, and with each workout i log, it adds to my daily goal. i usually aim for at least 400 calories burned on mon/wed/fri gym visits, and don't have any "aims" for crossfit or my 2-mile runs, but i almost always burn more than 500 calories per crossfit WOD, and during my runs it's usually around 200 or so.
thoughts?
ETA:
nutritionally, i eat mostly vegetables and lean meats, fruit in the mornings and early afternoons, and i *try* to stay away from sugary treats, but they inevitably find their way to me once or twice a week.
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Replies
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I always eat bac exercise calories and have been successful. I don't exercise near as much as you though. If you don't eat enough to fuel your body for those workouts it could become a problem.0
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right i understand needing to eat enough to fuel my body, i'm just not sure how MUCh additional i should be eating. sometimes i burn more than 1000 calories in one day. eating 2000+ calories is just so foreign to me!0
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Wow...for all you do you aren't eating enough. Unless you have a certain fitness goal to meet or are training for a certain event I would either A) eat more, or
exercise less (ideally keep the lifting and cut out the cardio). Just my opinion..... 0 -
Wow...for all you do you aren't eating enough. Unless you have a certain fitness goal to meet or are training for a certain event I would either A) eat more, or exercise less (ideally keep the lifting and cut out the cardio). Just my opinion.....
Agreed
Another option, and one I would suggest is to workout your total Weekly TDEE with exercise included and eat 80-85% of that number everyday, so you eat the same everyday and average out your calorie burn from the week.
this can be done by taking your maintenance on MFP x 7 + your weekly total caloric burn from exercise /7 *0.85 (or 0.80)
so if your maintenance caloires on MFP are 2000/day, that would give you 14,000 for the week, then add your 3,000 cals burned to give you 17,000 then dived by 7 to get an average daily burn of 2428, to lose weight eat 80-85% of that number. So 1942 to 2064 to lose weight slow and steady. this would be 0.72 to 0.97 lb/week loss.
By doing this you don't have to eat any of your exercise calories back as they are already accounted for in your total intake prior to creating the deficit.
The numbers and deficit will change slightly if your maintenance is different than the 2000 I assumed in my calculation.0 -
right i understand needing to eat enough to fuel my body, i'm just not sure how MUCh additional i should be eating. sometimes i burn more than 1000 calories in one day. eating 2000+ calories is just so foreign to me!
If you don't you will hit a wall physically and/or will stall and have no weight loss because of ridiculous undereating.
LOL @ 2000 calories. If you are exercising as much as you say you are, you will not gain weight until you pass into the 3000 cal/day area. You'll likely have lots of plateau and stalling problems, not to mention performance problems, eating below 2000 calories/day.0 -
^ what eric said. If you can't eat more calories, then you should exercise less or start eating higher calorie foods more often. Even eating peanut butter out of a jar.0
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Wow...for all you do you aren't eating enough. Unless you have a certain fitness goal to meet or are training for a certain event I would either A) eat more, or exercise less (ideally keep the lifting and cut out the cardio). Just my opinion.....
Agreed
Another option, and one I would suggest is to workout your total Weekly TDEE with exercise included and eat 80-85% of that number everyday, so you eat the same everyday and average out your calorie burn from the week.
this can be done by taking your maintenance on MFP x 7 + your weekly total caloric burn from exercise /7 *0.85 (or 0.80)
so if your maintenance caloires on MFP are 2000/day, that would give you 14,000 for the week, then add your 3,000 cals burned to give you 17,000 then dived by 7 to get an average daily burn of 2428, to lose weight eat 80-85% of that number. So 1942 to 2064 to lose weight slow and steady. this would be 0.72 to 0.97 lb/week loss.
By doing this you don't have to eat any of your exercise calories back as they are already accounted for in your total intake prior to creating the deficit.
The numbers and deficit will change slightly if your maintenance is different than the 2000 I assumed in my calculation.
^^Totally!!^^0 -
I did this and I'm paying the price now. I have KILLED my metabolism having super low nets for a couple of years. I'm in the process of fixing it now...no fun. Why not eat more if you CAN? I mean, we all got here because we sorta dig food, you know? Your body needs calories just to function. If you don't give it enough it will hold onto your fat reserves like no ones business. Cut back on exercise OR get to eating! :-)0
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I don't know if you are working out too much but you are eating too little!0
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the goal MFP gives you is NET so expects you to eat back all your exercise cals. If you cant eat back that much, you need to exercise less.
Alternatively work out your TDEE and base your cals on that like eric said.
I exercise around 3000-3500 a week, but I eat an average of at least 2000 a day and lose just fine eating that much food!0 -
that's just not going to happen.
[/quote]... i don't want to sabotage myself by not eating enough to sustain how much i workout,[/quote]
Sorry, but you can't have it both ways. If you don't want to sabotage yourself by not eating, then you are going to have to eat.
If it makes you feel better and you don't want to eat the 1000 calories in one day (or most of them) then calculate your total workout calories for the week and divide by 7 and add that to your 1200 calories per day.0 -
Either workout less or eat more. It's one or the other. Not liking the answer isn't going to change it- if you burn off 1000 extra cals, you should be eating them.0
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@graysmom - I'm new to this whole process. You said you killed your metabolism. What did you mean by that? My metabolism is totally dead I feel like. I'm 5'7 and 306lbs.0
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i usually work out 5 days a week, and aim for two two-a-day workouts, when i go to the gym in the AM and do crossfit in the PM. on average i'm burning around 3000+ calories per week (measured by my HR monitor). i usually keep my caloric intake to 1200-1600 each day, even though if i burn 1000 calories, MFP tells me i should be consuming an additional 1000 calories for the day.
that's just not going to happen.
some have suggested i add back half of what i burn onto my 1200 cal daily limit (set by MFP). does this seem accurate? i don't want to sabotage myself by not eating enough to sustain how much i workout, but i also don't want to be consuming too many calories and defeat the purpose of working out at all!
my weekly workout routine is: (or close to)
Monday AM: 20 min strength (varying muscle groups); 20 minutes cardio (intervals on treadmill, elliptical, or bike)
Monday PM: Crossfit
Tuesday AM: 2 mile run, Crossfit
Wednesday AM: strength/cardio at gym
Wednesday PM: Crossfit
Thursday AM: 2 mile run, Crossfit
Friday AM: strength/cardio at gym
Saturday/Sunday "rest" days, which still consist of a few 10-15 minute walks with my dogs at a leisurely pace.
like i said, MFP says my daily caloric intake goal is 1200 calories, and with each workout i log, it adds to my daily goal. i usually aim for at least 400 calories burned on mon/wed/fri gym visits, and don't have any "aims" for crossfit or my 2-mile runs, but i almost always burn more than 500 calories per crossfit WOD, and during my runs it's usually around 200 or so.
thoughts?
ETA:
nutritionally, i eat mostly vegetables and lean meats, fruit in the mornings and early afternoons, and i *try* to stay away from sugary treats, but they inevitably find their way to me once or twice a week.
I've done this for years. I'm a finicky eater and I UNDER ATE. Yet when I worked out, I wondered why I wasn't gettting results.
When I changed workout programs, I got out of my comfort zone. In a healthy nutritous way, I increased my daily calories by 1300 calories. I started eating 2100-2500 calories a day. I was VERY VERY uncomfortable with this! Everyday I said to myself, "OMG I can't believe I'm doing this!!!"
When I completed the program, something amazing happened.
I LOST INCHES AND BODYFAT!
Since you're eating mostly vegetables, lean meats, and fruit, it sounds like your nutrition plan is where you want it to be. Just increase it! To lose bodyfat and gain muscle, increase your calories. You WILL be out of your comfort zone, but it will pay off for you over time.0 -
How do you function eating 1200 calories doing crossfit and other workouts each week? I eat 1800-2100 calories per day and I do 30-60 minute workouts 5-6 times per week. Never 2 per day.
Shoot for a 500-1000 calorie deficit per day or 3500-7000 calories per week to lose 1-2 lbs. I assume you are trying to lose weight? Eating a handful of almonds or some natural peanut butter are easy ways to get your calories up without feeling like you are eating so much. They are higher in calories and contain good fats.0 -
@graysmom - I'm new to this whole process. You said you killed your metabolism. What did you mean by that? My metabolism is totally dead I feel like. I'm 5'7 and 306lbs.
@MelodyRocks - your metabolism isn't totally dead. You just have to jumpstart it.
It can be done, don't give up hope! 0 -
I don't eat back exercise calories but I also did a calculation for my BMR and adjusted my calories accordingly which upped them to about 1700 or so. So I try to eat as close to that as possible (some days I just can't but I get close) and I exercise and don't eat back exercise calories. On my rest days I lower, so right now my workout days I eat 1754 and on rest days 1349.0
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looks okay to me. i burn about that and sometimes more in a week. i never eat back all my calories and prefer to keep myself out of the "youre eating too few calories" range. i thnk youre doing fine, as long as u feel okay and your not burning urself out then good on ya! :drinker:0
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There are 3 great resources on MFP for info that I hope will help you decide what's best for your needs and goals.
Search Groups for Eat More to Weigh Less. Join and read through the stickies. Lucia and KiKi are amazing women.
Search the forums for Pu_239's How to Lose Weight Correctly
Search the forums for helloitsdan's In Place of a Road Map
All 3 of these are truly fantastic educational resources. The EM2WL group is filled with ladies and gentlemen who have been there. They share their struggles, their success and are amazingly supportive. Good luck to you!0 -
I was the same way until I went to a professional nutritionist. She gave me my BMR (Basic Metabolic Rate) and told me to use MFP (Great APP) just don't calculate your excercise unless you burn 1000 plus in a day. Your goal should be between 250-500 under your BMR. If you cut 500 a day under your BMR on average you will lose 2 lbs a week. If you are doing crossfit, plus strength training my personal opinion is to cut out your cardio. Crossfit is a more up tempo workout as it is and the muscles you are working is more than enough to keep your metabolism running on high speed. The additional cardio is just going to eat at your muscles...of course this is just my opinion based on what you wrote. Hope my two cents helps
P.S. If you are doing all that working out you are a BEAST!!!!! In a good way LOL :happy:0 -
I think adswillis27 was exactly right. I'm a long distance triathlete, so I do regular two-a-day workouts and I could never do it on 1200 calories/day. When I'm putting in a lot of miles, nuts are the primary way I add calories - good nutrients and you don't feel full.
Everyone's different though - if you don't feel overly tired and don't lack energy, you may be doing okay. Personally, I'd try adding another 300 or so calories and see how you feel.
Great job!0 -
thanks for all the comments. i think i knew the answer was going to be "eat more," but i wanted some validation to make sure i wasn't going to make the wrong choice. looks like i'll be stocking up on tonnnnns more veggies. gonna have to get creative, too!
dumb question... TDEE?? what is that?0 -
I was the same way until I went to a professional nutritionist. She gave me my BMR (Basic Metabolic Rate) and told me to use MFP (Great APP) just don't calculate your excercise unless you burn 1000 plus in a day. Your goal should be between 250-500 under your BMR. If you cut 500 a day under your BMR on average you will lose 2 lbs a week. If you are doing crossfit, plus strength training my personal opinion is to cut out your cardio. Crossfit is a more up tempo workout as it is and the muscles you are working is more than enough to keep your metabolism running on high speed. The additional cardio is just going to eat at your muscles...of course this is just my opinion based on what you wrote. Hope my two cents helps
P.S. If you are doing all that working out you are a BEAST!!!!! In a good way LOL :happy:
i do like doing mostly strength/weight training at the gym. cardio is more of a quick 5 min warm up on the treadmill, and maybe a bit of intervals at the end just to round it out. i won't miss cutting it out completely though....pretty sure crossfit helps me get my heart rate up enough!
re: your beast comment.....that's exactly what my crossfit trainer calls me, hah! i take it as a compliment 0 -
I was the same way until I went to a professional nutritionist. She gave me my BMR (Basic Metabolic Rate) and told me to use MFP (Great APP) just don't calculate your excercise unless you burn 1000 plus in a day. Your goal should be between 250-500 under your BMR. If you cut 500 a day under your BMR on average you will lose 2 lbs a week. If you are doing crossfit, plus strength training my personal opinion is to cut out your cardio. Crossfit is a more up tempo workout as it is and the muscles you are working is more than enough to keep your metabolism running on high speed. The additional cardio is just going to eat at your muscles...of course this is just my opinion based on what you wrote. Hope my two cents helps
P.S. If you are doing all that working out you are a BEAST!!!!! In a good way LOL :happy:
Those figures are only okay if you have a lot to lose. Otherwise you should not be netting lower than at or above your BMR.0 -
thanks for all the comments. i think i knew the answer was going to be "eat more," but i wanted some validation to make sure i wasn't going to make the wrong choice. looks like i'll be stocking up on tonnnnns more veggies. gonna have to get creative, too!
dumb question... TDEE?? what is that?
I've been upping slowly, I am @ 1800 a day and still losing. I workout 6 days a week. It actually feels GREAT to eat and still lose 0 -
thanks for all the comments. i think i knew the answer was going to be "eat more," but i wanted some validation to make sure i wasn't going to make the wrong choice. looks like i'll be stocking up on tonnnnns more veggies. gonna have to get creative, too!
dumb question... TDEE?? what is that?
TDEE, = total Daily Energy Expenditure = BMR + activity multiplier + exercise. Essentially it is maintenance after exercise is factored in.0 -
Another option, and one I would suggest is to workout your total Weekly TDEE with exercise included and eat 80-85% of that number everyday, so you eat the same everyday and average out your calorie burn from the week.
this can be done by taking your maintenance on MFP x 7 + your weekly total caloric burn from exercise /7 *0.85 (or 0.80)
so if your maintenance caloires on MFP are 2000/day, that would give you 14,000 for the week, then add your 3,000 cals burned to give you 17,000 then dived by 7 to get an average daily burn of 2428, to lose weight eat 80-85% of that number. So 1942 to 2064 to lose weight slow and steady. this would be 0.72 to 0.97 lb/week loss.
By doing this you don't have to eat any of your exercise calories back as they are already accounted for in your total intake prior to creating the deficit.
The numbers and deficit will change slightly if your maintenance is different than the 2000 I assumed in my calculation.
ok so using this calculation, i should be eating between 1600 and 1800 a day. I can do that.
BRM 1664 x 7 = 11,648 + 3000 burned/week = 14,648 / 7 = 2092 * .80 (or .85) = 1674 to 1778
Thank you so much for all your input!0 -
Another option, and one I would suggest is to workout your total Weekly TDEE with exercise included and eat 80-85% of that number everyday, so you eat the same everyday and average out your calorie burn from the week.
this can be done by taking your maintenance on MFP x 7 + your weekly total caloric burn from exercise /7 *0.85 (or 0.80)
so if your maintenance caloires on MFP are 2000/day, that would give you 14,000 for the week, then add your 3,000 cals burned to give you 17,000 then dived by 7 to get an average daily burn of 2428, to lose weight eat 80-85% of that number. So 1942 to 2064 to lose weight slow and steady. this would be 0.72 to 0.97 lb/week loss.
By doing this you don't have to eat any of your exercise calories back as they are already accounted for in your total intake prior to creating the deficit.
The numbers and deficit will change slightly if your maintenance is different than the 2000 I assumed in my calculation.
ok so using this calculation, i should be eating between 1600 and 1800 a day. I can do that.
BRM 1664 x 7 = 11,648 + 3000 burned/week = 14,648 / 7 = 2092 * .80 (or .85) = 1674 to 1778
Thank you so much for all your input!
The way you worked it doesnt factor in normal daily activity, the base number (your 1664) needs to be your bmr x activity factor (or what MFP gives you for maintenance before you log any exercise).
You are exercising enough to eat at maintenance and just create your deficit through exercise.0 -
The way you worked it doesnt factor in normal daily activity, the base number (your 1664) needs to be your bmr x activity factor (or what MFP gives you for maintenance before you log any exercise).
You are exercising enough to eat at maintenance and just create your deficit through exercise.
not sure what you mean... MFP gives me 1664 as my BMR, which to my understanding is what i would need to eat to maintain if i were to just sit on the couch all day and do nothing. MFP also listed my daily caloric goal as 1200/day.
eating at maintenance would mean eating 1600 or so a day while working out as i do now.
not sure if this makes any bit of difference...but i weigh appx 197 and am looking to drop my BF% from 31% to closer to 20% or so. not so concerned with the scale weight- BF% is my progress indicator.0 -
The way you worked it doesnt factor in normal daily activity, the base number (your 1664) needs to be your bmr x activity factor (or what MFP gives you for maintenance before you log any exercise).
You are exercising enough to eat at maintenance and just create your deficit through exercise.
not sure what you mean... MFP gives me 1664 as my BMR, which to my understanding is what i would need to eat to maintain if i were to just sit on the couch all day and do nothing. MFP also listed my daily caloric goal as 1200/day.
eating at maintenance would mean eating 1600 or so a day while working out as i do now.
not sure if this makes any bit of difference...but i weigh appx 197 and am looking to drop my BF% from 31% to closer to 20% or so. not so concerned with the scale weight- BF% is my progress indicator.
You are confusing BMR with TDEE (total daily energy expenditure). Your BMR is the amount you burn to stay alive, like if you laid in bed all day. On top of your BMR there is the calories you burn with a of the things you do, from walking to the car to brushing your teeth. It includes your exercise as well, that is your TDEE. This is the number that you would maintain at. (just a note the MFP does not include exercise in the number it gives you)
So if your BMR is 1650, your TDEE is higher.
Keep in mind that you are burning off all of the calories you eat, plus some. Your body still requires calories on top of that. Yes, your body dips into fat stores to get those, but it will also start burning your muscle as fuel. You cannot maintain your lean body mass with such huge deficits.0
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