Help needed for new member please.. x

[BeckyBunny]

Hi all, I'm a relatively new member to Minimins, and totally new to the CC section and i'm looking for a little guidance and help please. x

I have been calorie counting for 4 weeks using myfitnesspal to help me keep track of everything. I opted for them to give me a calorie total that would allow me to lose 2lbs a week and they said 1750 cals a day (I started at 19 stone 11lbs and previously was consuming about 3000 cals a day without realising). I have been sticking to the goal every day apart from maybe 1 or 2 days in those 4 weeks and have been feelin really motivated. However here are my weight losses
Week 1 - nothing
Week 2 - 4lbs (WOO!)
Week 3 - nothing
Week 4 - nothing

HOW CAN THIS BE HAPPENING? Especially when I did nothing different in Week 2 than in the other weeks, and when I have cut more than 1000 calories per day off my previous intake?

I have started exercising too (I can only do swimming because of an ankle injury preventing me from doing other sorts of exercise). I have been swimming for 45 mins (gentle / moderate breastroke) about 4 or 5 times a week and really love it now. But myfitnesspal says that in this 45 mins I am burning about 900 calories! Can this be right? Because of this, on many days a week it says my net calorie intake has gone down to about 700 calories a day because of the exercise.

Having looked at previous threads, it seems to be being suggested that I need to eat extra calories on these days to bring my net calories up to 1750 again because otherwise I am consuming too few calories. But I really can't bring myself to consume and extra 900 calories on these days because I feel that it would defeat the purpose of being on a diet, and that I couldnt possibly lose weight doing this? I would understand if I was slim ish already and finding it hard to lose weight but I thought at my size, cutting calories like this would see the weight falling off in these early stages?

Any suggestions?

 

[leighleigh]

Hmm I've never used myfitnesspal because I never quite understood the maths behind what they're saying...my own stupidity there.

The site I use (and it is EXCELLANT I can't advocate it enough) is Free Diet Plans at SparkPeople
They give you a calorie total, you stick to it, you lose weight. What confused me w/ myfitnesspal was that their calorie totals were so much higher than sparkpeople's. SP recommend I eat somewhere between 1280 + 1650 calories a day - mfp was recommending I eat 2340! Way too much, even at my target weight! They also give you a target number of fitness minutes a week and a year. Really they aren't any different, apart from mfp seems to concentrate on net calories consumed whereas sparkpeople focuses on the defecit between calories consumed and calories burned (bmr+excercise)

Although myfitnesspal seems to be working for other people, not everything works for everybody. Try sparkpeople for a couple of weeks and see where you get. You've got nothign to lose!

 

[Caz]

I use myfitnesspal but I don't actually use all of the calories as I decided my own calorie goal of 1200-1500 whereas MFP tells me 1800 to lost 2lb a week. You don't HAVE to eat your exercise calories but on days where you are exercising you can if you feel you need to, you need to make sure you don't burn yourself out. The 1200 calories are what you need to have before exercise.

What kind of things are you eating? Are you eating high sugar/fat etc. and not particularly healthily but just under those calories?

 

[BeckyBunny]

No I'm eating quite healthily I think. Either a slimfast shake or wholegrain toast and a poached egg for breakfast (roughly 200 cals) For lunch I've been having a big salad with a piece of poached salmon and some couscous. (roughly 500 cals) And dinner is anything from chicken fajitas or spaghetti and meatballs etc. (roughly 700 cals) I don't really snack but if I do, it's a 95 calorie chocolate bar or a yoghurt or banana.

 

[Fattack]

MFP is brilliant.
With the swimming, are you logging it as laps, or as the stroke you do? I find the stroke is probably overestimating calories (unless you're swimming fast), so I tend to log my swims as laps (the slower option). I'm probably somewhere inbetween because I'm a good swimmer, but I don't work at 100% exertion when swimming for an hour and that's what I interpret the "stroke" as.

Secondly, you *need* to eat back at least some of your exercise calories Trust me, it works better that way! I'm not saying go to McDonalds or anything, but have some more fruit, more lean meat, some fruit juice, greek yoghurt!

Thirdly - the usual reasons for weight loss stalling. The first reason is "shock" (you're doing something different, and you're not eating your exercise calories which shocks your body even more). Then there's things like water retention (are you drinking enough water? what's your sodium level like?), constipation (enough fibre? being regular etc.) and most importantly - are you weighing everything with a decent pair of scales?

Finally, don't give up. Keep doing what you're doing, but do try to consume those exercise calories Also - some people just have different patterns of weight loss. You've still lost an average of 1lb a week, which is fantastic! Some people have one big loss and then a week or two of nothing / small losses, other people lose the same, smaller amount every week.

 

[Emmaline]

Hi Becky, I can't help feeling that the answer to your problem is in the "roughly" bit.
It is quite surprising how many calories there are in an extra ounce or even half ounce of some items of food which would mean that your "allowance" would soon soar over and beyond your limit.

I am on 1000 cals per day and make sure that 99% of the time everything is weighed accurately in order to ascertain a correct count otherwise I would soon be putting weight back on.

Just a thought but can never understand this idea of eating back calories lost thro' exercise - what is the point of that?...

 

[Weaver78]

I use both MFP and spark people apps. Free and I love them !

 

[BeckyBunny]

I just put "roughly"previously because it depends what I have on any given day. But I do use MFP and calorie count everything exactly so I do know the reality of how many cals I'm consuming. I have just realised though that I put my normal activity level as "lightly active" which is true when I'm at work as a teacher running around school. But I've been on Easter holidays for 2 weeks and been mostly sedentary apart from my extra exercise so maybe that's why. Seems to suggest that during the hols I should be having 1420 cals a day rather than 1750. So maybe that explains it all?

 

[Fattack]

]Just a thought but can never understand this idea of eating back calories lost thro' exercise - what is the point of that?...

Basically, you have a range where your body feels like it's obtaining the correct amount of food - a bit above the maintenance calories (around 500) and upto 1000 below your maintenance calories. These numbers have been calculated by various scientists and doctors over time. Staying within this range ensures you don't screw with your metabolism too much. However, this range varies from person to person a little, depending on a few factors (what you eat and how often, how effectively you burn fat / your lean muscle tissue, if you've crash dieted i.e. exceeded this range of calories before and how many times).

If you don't eat your exercise calories and go over that defecit of upto 1000 calories (or less, depending on your metabolism) over a long period (probably at least a week although some people contend it can be a couple of days -probably varies per person), survival mode kicks in, and it becomes harder to shift the weight. The closer you are to your healthy weight, the more prominant survival mode becomes and you end up breaking down muscle (because the body finds it easier to break down muscle than fat). This is why people often have problems with the last stretch of weight loss as they approach goal weight, and why people who diet without exercising / crash diet often end up skinny but quite flabby / with a high % of body fat. They've lost muscle tone.

 

[Back2Black]

I use MFP and I only get 1350 calories per day although i try to stick to under 1200... I only started a few days ago so its new to me. I am aiming to lose 91lbs and on my weight in the morning I have already lost 4 lbs since I started. I am KCB1978 on there if you want to add me and have a look at my food diary and see if it can help?

 

[Fattack]

I use MFP and I only get 1350 calories per day although i try to stick to under 1200... I only started a few days ago so its new to me. I am aiming to lose 91lbs and on my weight in the morning I have already lost 4 lbs since I started. I am KCB1978 on there if you want to add me and have a look at my food diary and see if it can help?

Not meaning to be cheeky and well done on your first loss (they're always the biggest, yay!), but why are you eating less than recommended? MFP lowers your calories as you get closer to goal weight, but never less than 1200. as you have a substantial amount to lose I really would try to stick to 1350 until it lowers it for you, because you may hit plateaus later on because of starting at the "lowest" you can have. If you have too large a defecit from your BMR you'll lose muscle, not fat, and lower your metabolism, making it hard to lose weight further down the line.

 

[Emmaline]

Basically, you have a range where your body feels like it's obtaining the correct amount of food - a bit above the maintenance calories (around 500) and upto 1000 below your maintenance calories. These numbers have been calculated by various scientists and doctors over time. Staying within this range ensures you don't screw with your metabolism too much. However, this range varies from person to person a little, depending on a few factors (what you eat and how often, how effectively you burn fat / your lean muscle tissue, if you've crash dieted i.e. exceeded this range of calories before and how many times).

If you don't eat your exercise calories and go over that defecit of upto 1000 calories (or less, depending on your metabolism) over a long period (probably at least a week although some people contend it can be a couple of days -probably varies per person), survival mode kicks in, and it becomes harder to shift the weight. The closer you are to your healthy weight, the more prominant survival mode becomes and you end up breaking down muscle (because the body finds it easier to break down muscle than fat). This is why people often have problems with the last stretch of weight loss as they approach goal weight, and why people who diet without exercising / crash diet often end up skinny but quite flabby / with a high % of body fat. They've lost muscle tone.

You seem to speak with some authority on the subject - How and where did you get these qualifications?

 

[BeckyBunny]

Thanks for all your advice everyone. I've decided to reduce my overall calorie intake to 1520 to allow for being more sedentary in the holidays, but am also going to try and eat back some of the calories I burn thru exercise so that my net cals stays at roughly 1520 a day rather than dropping to 600 if I go swimming. Going to give that a go for two weeks and if I STILL dont lose anything am going to go back to my GP because it can't be normal at my weight to lose barely anything when making such a concerted effort for nearly 2 months. X