I'm confused and need help

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PDLUCKY
PDLUCKY Posts: 60 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I have lost 90 pounds from my heavy weight but I still have a bunch of belly fat. Due to my arthritis I swim for my main form of cardio and I do a little walking every evening, about 1/2 mile or so. I really want to loose the belly fat so I have started doing some serious ab work to hopefully help me to loose the belly fat. But what has me confused is I just read the topic about eating back your workout calories and eating your BMR at least everyday, so I went to the BMR calculator on here and it said my BMR is 1870. MFP has me eating 1340 a day. I don't understand if everyone is saying to eat your workout calories back and eat at least your BMR then I would be still eating like 2300 calories a day. Can someone help me figure this out. the last couple weeks my weight loss has slowed considerably so I feel like I need to do something different to help get back on track but now I don't know what I should be doing here. Any suggestions?

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  • PDLUCKY
    PDLUCKY Posts: 60 Member
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    bump
  • samra2012
    samra2012 Posts: 715
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    mmm all i know is that i have to eat the cal back! im not an expert but is working x me! you can try and see if it works x u!:wink:
  • MustBeTheRows
    MustBeTheRows Posts: 377 Member
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    People will disagree with me....

    But eat to where you maintain, and then eat a little less than that. I wouldn't waist time on sit ups or crunches, you can't target condition. Just do planks and the like for a strong core. I have fibromyalgia and I lift heavy weights, it really helps with the pain.
  • PDLUCKY
    PDLUCKY Posts: 60 Member
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    One of the reasons I am bringing this up is lately I am hungry a lot more often. I have not been logging my food and exercise for a while now to see how I did on my own and my weight was dropping really well 3 to 5 pounds a week for a good amount of time but now I'm lucky if I loose a pound and some weeks I loose nothing.
  • Megdmcda
    Megdmcda Posts: 273 Member
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    its healthier to eat ur bmr...........but it looks like what ur doing is working really good.........so i'll say change ur excercise up a bit.......and keep in mind doing strenth excercise will add muscles which will make ur scale weight go up a bit.....hope this helps

    edit...not sayiing ur not healthy...... and if ur hungry maybe u do need to eat a little more.........i say try it and see........
  • jdploki70
    jdploki70 Posts: 343
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    I have the same issue. Seems like all the rest of my fat is stored at the middle. Over time your body will readjust to the new conditions.
  • lorelei31
    lorelei31 Posts: 6
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    I'm so new to all of this, I don't even really know what y'all are talking about. :ohwell:
  • MustBeTheRows
    MustBeTheRows Posts: 377 Member
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    One of the reasons I am bringing this up is lately I am hungry a lot more often. I have not been logging my food and exercise for a while now to see how I did on my own and my weight was dropping really well 3 to 5 pounds a week for a good amount of time but now I'm lucky if I loose a pound and some weeks I loose nothing.

    as your bodyfat % drops, your body will oxidize fat a slower rate and your losses will be less and take longer.
  • lilchino4af
    lilchino4af Posts: 1,292 Member
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    What MFP is telling you to eat takes into account the amount of weight you said you want to lose in a week. If you have it set to lose 1 lb/week, then your MFP BMR and what it says to eat is correct as MFP automatically subtracts 500 cals a day for you to lose 1 lb/wk. If you're hungry, then not only eat all the calories MFP says to eat, but also eat back your exercise calories, otherwise you're increasing your calorie deficit and it sounds like your body needs more fuel.

    As far as your belly fat, unfortunately you can't spot reduce fat. Best thing it to keep up the cardio and work on planks and other workouts to tone you muscles so they'll look better once the fat is gone :) An article I read the other day, and I can't find it now, said that if you drink lots of soda or diet soda, the sugars actually affect your belly fat; if you're not, then just plenty of water, continue exercising and it will eventually go away.
  • HardyGirl4Ever
    HardyGirl4Ever Posts: 1,017 Member
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    People do these things in different ways. Some use the calories that MFP gives them, then eat back their calories. Some find out their BMR and eat their exercise calories back minus 500 calories to lose 1 pound a week, 750 for 1.5 pounds, and 1000 calories for 2 pounds. Then there's Eat More Weigh Less which I have recently started doing. It has a calculator at a Scooby website http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/ where you plug in your information, and put a 10%-15% amount less. They give you the calories you can eat based on the information, and you don't eat your exercise calories back because the calculator already calculates that stuff in. Hope this helps a little. I'm not very good at explaining, so please feel free to ask me to clarify anything I said.


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  • singingsoprano
    singingsoprano Posts: 19 Member
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    Well, you can't make yourself lose weight in one area by exercising that area...you can improve muscle tone there, and that may look better, but if there's still a layer of fat over the top, only losing weight in general will make that go down.

    I'm going to throw it out there that I think 1350 calories is wayyyy to low for you as a man who has significant weight to lose. I'm guessing you will do better at the 1800-2000 range (and feel better, as long as it's not all sugar calories)

    Also, I don't know how much you still have to lose, but your body slowing down some is normal as you get closer to your goal, so as long as it's on the down direction, be pleased with yourself.
  • Nikiki
    Nikiki Posts: 993
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    what are your goals? maybe you have your system set to be losing too much? I have mine set for sedentary and am 172lbs, 5'2" and have it set to drop .5 lbs a week and its giving me 1600-ish cals a day. if you're hungry all the time you probably need to be eating more. There are a few camps on eating back exercise cals, some swear by it and some are 100% against it, you'll have to find what works for you. For me, as long as I net (calories eaten minus calories burned) around 1400 a day I drop about a pound a week. This week aside (just had wisdom teeth removed) I generally burn about 500 calories a day through workouts so i eat some of my exercise calories back but not all.

    as for exercise, see if you can stand bumping it up a little, getting a little variety. do you have a bike? thats easy on the knees.

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