Talk to me about calories

manit1117
manit1117 Posts: 54 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I'm 5'3" 133lbs and carrying the majority of my weight in my chest/belly area. I workout 5x week and eat fearly good BUT I'm not losing anything. I'll go up/down between the same 3-5lbs.

I always eat my exercise caloriesand on the weekend may be a bit over :ohwell: Yes that weekend is part of the problem. I'll eat about 1600-1800 calories/day without going over what my daily intake should be (ex. 1200 + 500 exercise = 1700 calories).

Should I stop eating my exercise calories to lose weight? I'm not looking to get skinny but thinner and toned...I like my curves.

*I use a HRM watch to estimate my calories burned

Replies

  • melsinct
    melsinct Posts: 3,512 Member
    The HRM is an estimate. MFP gives you estimates. None of this is black and white fact. I have found throughout my loss and maintenance that I need to tweak the numbers to suit what actually happens in real life, not estimates. I am maintaining and can't eat all of my exercise calories- if I do I will gain. I am 5'7" maintaining at 145 pounds and eat 1700 calories/day and maybe half of my exercise calories. This has kept me at a consistent weight for 5 months now. You'll need to play around with numbers as well to find your swet spot for losing. Mine was setting MFP for a 0.5 lb/week loss and eating some exercise calories back. Going that route I was steadily losing 1 lb/week.
  • manit1117
    manit1117 Posts: 54 Member
    i have been tweaking it a bit and found that I feel best eating 1500 calories/day. When I stuck to that then I was always down on the scale but still holding onto those final lbs. I'm going to try what you did and switch it to 0.5lb lose/week and eat only half (if even that) of my exercise calories. Hopefully that'll get things going. Thanks.
  • achvr
    achvr Posts: 21 Member
    I would also switch up your workout routines. AKA if you are doing all cardio 2 days a week and strength 3 days a week, trying doing half and half. If you are doing the elliptical for your cardio then try a spin class. When we've been doing the same thing for a while our bodies get used to it. Also, I would check with a trainer and see if someone will give you a cardio precription...a way to manipulate your heart rate for the most effective weight loss.:happy:
  • teez52
    teez52 Posts: 104 Member
    Are you weighing your food? If not, you may be eating more than you think. Everything will be an estimate, HRM will be close, but never perfect, MFP will be less accurate than the HRM probably, but I think your weekends may be doing more harm than you think. I know I tend to get relaxed on the weekends about tracking and that ends up hurting my progress.

    Also if you've lost a bit of weight you may want to recalculate your TDEE and make sure you're staying under it. Lower weight means lower calorie needs.
  • ZoobityBop
    ZoobityBop Posts: 22
    If you want to lose weight, then counting calories isn't completely necessary. That's what I liked most about the Diet Solution Program, because it helped me burn up to 10% bodyfat and I didn't even have to worry about counting calories. Here's a review if you're curious about it: http://fantasticfitnessreviews.com/the-diet-solution-program-review/
  • manit1117
    manit1117 Posts: 54 Member
    If you want to lose weight, then counting calories isn't completely necessary. That's what I liked most about the Diet Solution Program, because it helped me burn up to 10% bodyfat and I didn't even have to worry about counting calories. Here's a review if you're curious about it: http://fantasticfitnessreviews.com/the-diet-solution-program-review/

    Intrigued...

    Have you done this? How much weight did you lose? Is it easy to adapt to your lifestyle or is it just going to be another fab diet?

    TY!

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