Weight loss: getting it right...?

[woohoo]

Over the last month I've joined the TE weight loss thread and started weighing in weekly. In 4 weeks of watching what I eat and exercising, my weight is basically the same (within 1lb). It's consistent through the day, too.

Now I've done some (very geeky, sorry, graph attached) number crunching on my calorie intake over the past month, and am beginning to wonder if I'm not eating enough... Seems ridiculous since I'm trying to lose weight, but looking at the last month's intake & output, my average calorie balance has only been 1200 per day. Looking online tonight, with my exercise level and base metabolic rate it seems like I should be eating closer to 1800-2000 calories per day.

Am worried that if I eat more I'll put on weight rather than staying the same, though, especially since my calorie balance seems to be pretty erratic. Anybody been in a similar situation? How did it work out? If I did start eating more, what type of food would be best: carbs/protein?

Thanks, woohoo

edit: should have said, I've been using the livestrong calorie tracker and aiming for 1629 calories per day.

[malkin]

I'm confused. Are you saying you haven't lost weight and you think you need to be eating more calories?

[channlluv]

I think we'd need more information on the quality of those calories you're taking in and the amount of exercise you were doing before you started this weight loss effort. It may be that you need to up the exercise, or introduce interval training. (Trek recommended it to me and I've tried to do at least six intervals per hour-long workout, and it's helping me get stronger.)

Good luck in your efforts!

Roxy

[ny biker]

If you don't eat enough, your body will slow your metabolism as a defense against starvation. Sometimes you do need to eat more in order to lose weight. Read Nancy Clark's Sports Nutrition Guidebook. It is an excellent resource.

[zoom-zoom]

I tell ya', I am finding this site to be about the best invention ever. For years I logged my food on Fitday.com, but it was a PITA to enter custom things and I still had to manually figure calories eaten vs. calories burned vs. my activity level the rest of the time vs. my current body weight, etc. I've been using My Fitness Pal for about 10 days and LOVE how well it does the work for me. I enter what I'm eating (and a TON of specific things are already in the system that have been entered by other users--including things like store-brand things, canned goods, etc.), enter my workout, and it tells me how many calories I have left to eat for the day. I can also specify breakdown of those calories...what %age of fats, carbs, protein, fiber.

Best part--at the end of the day it tells me what I would weigh in 5 days if every day were like the current day. It's very motivating when I hit everything right on and it tells me I'd be 5#s lighter than I currently am. It really makes me want to hit those goals daily.

[WindingRoad]

Woohoo - I too am experiencing what you mention. I exercise consistently through the week. I'm doing cardio and strength but my weight doesn't seem to budge. I am not sure what's going on with my body but I think I'm gaining muscle right now so I'm backing away from the scales for a month or so. I've been using livestrong's website to track my calories to get a pretty good idea of what my daily intake is. I'm usually right around 15-1700 depending on the day and if I exercise hard. I know its frustrating, it is to me too. Guess I just wanted to say "I feel your pain."

[azfiddle]

I sometimes use calories, but have been on WW for the last two years the online program was very successful for me- with exercise. So I will put in a plug for trying it.

I had over 35 lbs to lose. I weighed 150, but I'm only 5'1", past 50 years old and I think I have a slow metabolism anyway. Without adding in much exercise, I lost 13 pounds, but eventually reached a plateau. I did not eat all of my extra "weekly points" or "actviity points". I lost about 1 lb with 100 miles of cycling, following the online program. I am trying to maintain - have been as much as 4 lbs above my goal of 112 during the holidays and some leg issues that prevented me from riding, but am currently only 2 lbs up.

Not sure how many calories I was eating - but I could try to figure it out if that would be helpful

[Triskeliongirl]

I looked at your chart. You are eating plenty of food to not be in 'starvation mode'. Is it possible you are overestimating the cals burned by exercise? Are you using the livestrong estimates, an exercise machine estimate, or a personal HRM estimate? While a personal HRM is the most accurate, its still only an equation that doesn't consider your personal metabolism. How old are you? I am 53 and will maintain but not lose on 1200 net cals so for me your numbers don't look surprising at all.

In addition to trying to eat less and burn more, I recommend increasing the ratio of protein to carbs in your diet. If you have any degree of impaired glucose tolerance that can make a huge difference. High protein/low carb foods are also more satisfying, so they let you feel satisfied with fewer calories, and also put you in a hormonal state that favors fat burning (glucagon>insulin).

[Susan]

For me, 1 month is just to short to see any change in my weight. If I eat sensible but not ridiculously little, so that i won't be hungry all the time, I can lose about 20 pounds in a year (and I do a quite considerable amount of exercise). Of course there are people that lose weight quicker, but maybe, if you are like me, you won't.

[woohoo]

Thanks for the great responses everyone - lots of good resources and things to consider!

Some info: I’m 28, large skeletal size from the chart suggested, and a bit more than 10-15lbs overweight Before I would have gone a 2-3mi walk once/week & maybe ridden my bike once or twice. Since the start of the year I have been trying to build my fitness up for an event in May. I've been managing (apart from one week I was ill) to increase that to include 3-4 sessions per week on the turbo trainer and either mtb or walking one day at the weekend.

A typical trainer session for me is 1-1.5 hrs of intervals on the trainer following either 'workouts in a binder' or sufferfest-type programmes. My average heart rate for the time will be approx 85% of lactic threshold, with peak intervals being just above, maybe 104%. I don’t work out the calorie burn myself, I’ve been using the livestrong app to put in the food I eat and the training I do. Maybe I’ll try an alternative calorie tracker, to see if it agrees/disagrees?

I think the point about not having such an on/off pattern in days of exercise is probably a good one. My metabolism might be better served by a more even calorie intake and making an effort to go for a 20min walk at lunch or something on my rest days. Same goes for increasing the protein, I eat a lot of rice, pasta & bread…

I should I add that although I’m not losing the lbs I’d hoped for, I am seeing muscle development. My legs are noticeably more muscular, and although I haven’t dropped a clothes size, I have noticed a shirt or two fits me a bit better, so can’t complain too much! I guess if I keep going and take all the advice above over what I’m eating, the weight loss should follow in time - I always have been an impatient so-and-so

Thanks everyone for all the help & input – really appreciate it.

woohoo

p.s. WindingRoad – glad I’m not alone, we’ll get there eventually!

[limewave]

I just want to add from my own experience, that I have the most success in losing fat when I'm consistently eating good, nutritional food with approx. 1600-2000 calories a day. That's when I'm biking and running regularly. I usually do about 60 minutes a day (6 days a week) and try to do about 30 minutes of strength 4x a week.

I was seeing great success with that, so I tried cutting my calories to about 1100-1200 a day. Not so good. I saw much less weight loss, some weeks not any. And I didn't have the energy I used to have, so my workouts were flat.

If you're worried about gaining weight, just try adding calorie for two weeks and see how it goes. You can always scale back again.

[Triskeliongirl]

I think you guys are reading her graph wrong. Yes, her net calories are ~>1200 (but hard to tell exactly from graph as displayed), that's when she subtracts her estimated exercise calories from her intake, but her intake is quite a bit higher than that. For intake look at the yellow bars, she is eating from ~1200-2300 calories a day. The variation is due to exercise which is fine. But her net calories are probably still too high if she isn't losing. This may be in part from an overestimating of exercise calories.

I really think this idea of advising folks that are already eating well to eat more to lose weight is just flat out wrong.

[woohoo]

No worries Triskeliongirl, after reading the advice above I don't intend to add to what I'm eating. You're right about the numbers, the average of the yellow bars over the month (mean or median) was around 1700 calories/day. When I added in my exercise estimates, which I appreciate are approximate, the average dropped to around 1200. Whether that's the right value for weight loss seems to be personal. As I'm on the heavier side, don't feel lethargic and have the energy to train effectively, I agree with you it's likely that it's not too low (as per my original question), and from the posts above should a reasonable starting point. The big things I think will be keeping things going for a longer time, and keeping my net calories steadier in order to try and boost my metabolism rather than having it stop/start...

Thanks all, woohoo

[Triskeliongirl]

I always use the Livestrong site to track, and I have found that the calories they estimate I've burned are higher than what my HRM monitor tells me. Therefore I go by my HRM (I recently bought the polar Fit7 womens, which is very easy to use). I just use the manual entry feature to input the cals burned that way. From what I have read, its hard to get anything to estimate it perfectly, since your personal metabolism is a big variable. I also agree that while you need to eat more on days you workout more intensely, you don't need to eat everything you burn (also remember these programs aren't subtracting out the cals you would have burned at rest), so I actually set my target cals lower than I really want them to be, which just works out better for me psychologically. I'll eat what they recommend on days I work out, but eat a little more than what they recommend on days I don't, but I don't feel pushed to eat more than I need like I did when I had the target set higher. But, then I do track my real net cals in a spreadsheet, and each week average them. I also average my weekly first morning weights, and use those numbers to see how I am doing. I also find it depends on the exercise. If I am going for a 4 hour bike ride, obviously my caloric needs are very different from a day I go to the gym and burn 400 cals on a machine in a 45 min. workout.

I struggled a lot with my weight when I was younger, and for me the biggest thing was finding out I have impaired glucose tolerance and switching to a high protein/low carb diet, and also being treated for hypothyroidism. Since then, I have been able to lose my excess weight, and keep it off, and do find the livestrong site very helpful. So include some medical checks on your to do list. Also, when you say you are 10-15 lb overweight, according to who/what? If you have a high lean body mass, maybe you aren't that overweight, and that is why your body wants to maintain. Try to get your body fat measured, and use that info. to come up with a realistic but healthy weight for you. I find once I got my hormones in order and started eating foods my body could metabolize in the right amounts, my body weight pretty much normalized. I only gain weight if I break the rules, and start to eat foods I can't handle like carbs.

[woohoo]

Thanks very much girls, I really appreciate how much time and thought that you've put into this! I have learned *loads* about what I need to be thinking about

Triskeliongirl - interesting point about the glucose. I had a glucose test about 3 years ago as I was drinking about 4 litres of water per day. I wasn't over the blood sugar limit for diabetes, but it was a bit higher than usual. Protein more than carbs is therefore probably the way to go...

Muirenn, thanks for shedding some interesting light on the numbers behind all this. Interesting that to require 120 cals/hr plus 350 calories of extra fuel you have to be riding that hard. Reinforces that I need to try and even out the swings in my calorie intake. At the moment I move about more than that much day to day. There seems to be a big difference between 1600 and 1800, and if I may be overestimating calories burned using livestrong, I need to be pretty certain about what I'm eating to stay in the right range.

Many thanks again, brilliant example of why this forum is so great