Thread: Working out for over an hour a day... how many calories to eat?

I usually work out seven days a week. The workout usually consists of stuff like skipping, stair exercise, some fast-paced walking + lunges, squats and leg lifts. My workout is moderate-intense. My HR tends to peak at about 170 BPM during a session and averages around 150.

I tend to work out for an hour and a half around 3/7 days, two hours 2/7 days, an hour for 1/7 day and 1/2 an hour 1/7. It depends how I feel. I do try and be consistent.

Anyway, I've desperately tried to work out how many calories I need in order for a good, consistent loss of 2-3lb a week in combination with this work out. Usually I eat 1500-1600 calories a day, but my weight loss is really inconsistent. For example it’ll be like:

Week 1 – 2lb
Week 2 – 1lb
Week 3 + 1lb
Week 4 STS
Week 5 – 1.5 lb
Week 6 + 0.5 lb
Week 7 - STS

That kind of thing; it’s never the consistent 1-2lb loss every week. Given the huge amount of exercise I do every single day, this seems very unfair. I sometimes wonder whether I’m not eating enough for my workout. I did trial this one week – I cut my exercise to 40 minutes a day and ate 1700-1800 calories, but I only lost 1lb, so I figured it didn’t work. But I’m wondering whether my inability to lose consistent weight may be caused by not getting the correct calorie/exercise balance. I’ve tried countless online calculators, but just can’t figure out the right balance for me. Given that I am quite overweight, I would expect to have had a slightly greater loss than I have so far (11lb since the beginning of January.)

I’ve also questioned whether I may be eating the wrong kind of calories. Overall, I think my diet is decent. I often eat porridge with fruit for breakfast, lots of vegetables during the day. However, I do have things that aren’t all that great on a few occasions – I have a pack of crisps almost every day, a Panini or piece of cake 1-2 a week. I have some “ready meals” – although they’re often the WW ones (which I have even though I’m not on WW.) I have wondered whether I should replace my “ready meals” (which I have around four times a week,) with something like fish and boiled veg, or meat and boiled veg. I don't know whether the kind of calories should affect weightloss if it's the calories in vs calories out mantra we go by.

Does anyone have any suggestions? I'm getting frustrated with the inconsistent weight loss!

Sorry to bump this up, but it's a few days old.

Does anyone have any ideas?

Yeah, it doesn't seem fair I know. Don't forget though, weight loss isn't a linear thing, it does tend to shove in fits and starts. Plus you ladies have things going on which make you hold on to your weight (STS every four weeks there???)! I know what you mean though, I seem to have reached a bit of a plateau and can't get it shifted, despite the fact I'm running about 20 miles a week at the moment...

Is eating 1600 calories the right amount for you? Have you tried a BMR calculation:

BMR Calculator
then:
Harris Benedict Equation

No replies to this thread, so I'll give it a shot! haha.

Right, start off my googling BMR and calculate your Basal Metabolic Rate. This will give you an indication of how many calories your burning without exercise. Then you can calculate how many calories your burning during the exercise. You dont necessarily need to ADD calories for helping with your weight loss goals, but seen as though your healthy eating its possible that you need to change a couple of things. After your workout I would recomend a good high quality whey protein, low in carbs. This will help your muscles recover after a work out. If you can stomach it I'd also throw in a spoonfull (approximately 5 grams) of BCAA (Branch Chain Amino Acids). Personally I use ON whey protein as its reasonably cheap and rocky road tastes delicious to me. After this you need to start working out your ratios, such as fat, carb and protein intake per day. Make sure that per lb of lean body mass your having at least 1g of protein. Can be hard to get your protein intake up but a big tin of tuna in spring water is an excellent addition to a salad and is high in protein! Simple changes like this will help.

Your aiming for "weight loss" and with the exercises that your doing that probably isn't your best goal. Maybe you should be aiming for body fat percentages. Dont forget that muscle weighs more than fat, so if your toning and gaining a bit of muscle while loosing fat you may not notice a difference in the scales because of the added muscle weight. Dont forget arnold schwarzangger in his peak weighed over 17 stone!

Just aim for eating in calorie deficit like your doing, make sure you have plenty of protein and a small ammount of carbohydrates post work out, and try and make sure that you stay hydrated, with training i'd say at least 4 litres of water a day, that would help flush out everything and keep your body at its peak!

HTH

You could try popping on maximuscle website - there is a tool on the there to help find the ideal calorie intake for you based on excercise, weight, etc...
Maximuscle™ Feature | Kalorienrechner

The maximuscle site is really really high when calculating calories though. Look around online and their are some handy BMR calculators.

Thanks for all the great advice!

Well I've calculated my BMR (which is 1825.6) and taken into account my level of activity, which I would call moderate, since I exercise for at least an hour every day, although aside from the exercise, I'm not particularly active - other than walking around the house, light cleaning, a trip out now and again. Anyway, taking all this into account, I apparently burn 2,829.68 calories with exercise. Given that I eat 1,500 - 1,650 a day, I should be losing around 2 1/2 lbs a week.

So it's still a bit of a mystery. Maybe changing some of the food I eat will help. I reckon I only drink 6 glasses of water a day maximum - so maybe I should increase that. And I'm going to try and ditch some of my processed meals in favour of fresh meat and veg. Even with my "ready meals" I try and pick reasonably healthy ones - low in calories with low/none hydrogenated fats. But there's probably other junk in them which could be making me hang onto the LBs.

Well. If you're not getting the results you want then i would say take your weight one monday morning as soon as you get up. Each day for one week make a record of the calories that you eat and be as accurate as you can, along with roughly the ammount of liquid that your drinking. Dont forget to take into account milk in tea, spoonfulls of sugar etc.

After a week total up each day and see how much liquids your drinking. To be honest i thought i was eating a lot less than i was but the little additions do add up and at least this way you can keep some sort of record!

If your totals are as you think then you probably are best trying to swap some meals, slow release carbohydrates such as porridge on a morning, and try and eat high protein low carb the rest of the day.

Hope this helps!

Wasted Ink, you're actually not eating enough food for the energy you're expending. So your body is wondering what on earth is going on and holding on to as many calories as it can, thinking there's a famine or something going on.

Exercise 4-5 days a week for 45 minutes to an hour, but make that hour count. Rest your body 2 days a week so the body can readjust and build muscle. And nourish your body with fresh/frozen fruit and veg, with fresh meat and fish. You need the protein to build muscle. Stay away from the ready meals and get cooking, a chicken stirfy takes ten minutes, one breast and veg with half a cup of rice and a couple of teaspoons of olive oil (the latter helps your heart, skin, nails, hair and all the rest). Fresh fish with half a plate of veg and a quarter plate of brown rice/pasta is great for you. Eat the Mediterranaen way and you'll lose loads of weight.

Also, you'll destroy your poor knees with that much exercise, over an hour is too much. Think longterm and slow and steady, 4-6 pounds a month adds up to 48-72 pounds a year!!!! I bet you a penny to a pound if you carry on pushing your body without adequate food you'll be a stone heavier by next year (I know this from experience).

It's no wonder you're eating crisps and cake, your body is crying out for more energy. Feed yourself 2000 a day on the days you're exercising for an hour, 1800 the other days and eat more natural food. You'll do great if you treat your body well, I promise your body will reward you for it.

Thanks for all the great advice in this thread! I have actually switched over to Slimming World now. Calorie counting was getting a little too restrictive. However, I have incorporated the advice in this thread.

Faustina - thanks for the great advice. I have got rid of most of my ready meals and have replaced them with chicken/beef/fish for the most part. I now have about five "fresh" meals a week. Hopefully it'll work.

I eat about 800-900 calories a day and exercise for over an hour daily. My results are starting to slow and I would still like to loose a little yet.

Shelz I posted just above Wasted Ink there, she was doing the same as you. You cannot survive the rest of your life on 900 calories, as you get older you need fewer calories, what will you be living on aged 50, an apple a day???

Please glance over my post above and enjoy lots of good food, lots of it, you can maintain/lose on that. Otherwise you'll end up binging because you're body is starving. I put on so much weight after losing lots doing what you're doing - I would HATE to see you fighting the battle I'm fighting.

Originally Posted by lunar jim

Yeah, it doesn't seem fair I know. Don't forget though, weight loss isn't a linear thing, it does tend to shove in fits and starts. Plus you ladies have things going on which make you hold on to your weight (STS every four weeks there???)! I know what you mean though, I seem to have reached a bit of a plateau and can't get it shifted, despite the fact I'm running about 20 miles a week at the moment...

Is eating 1600 calories the right amount for you? Have you tried a BMR calculation:

BMR Calculator
then:
Harris Benedict Equation

how do u get the graph for your weight loss? ive been looking on tickerfactory but cant find it