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charismah
New Member
| Joined: | 19 May 2009 |
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| Posts: | 2 |
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Posted: 20 May 2009 12:52 am |
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I am 31 years old..weight 219 height 5 feet 5 inches tall
I started at 239 at the beginning of the year and kept my cals in between 1750 and 1900 and lost 20 pounds. NO work outs.
Now Iam working out ..I signed up for a 5K in july and I am training completeing about 20 miles a week ( so far) and on my off days I play tennis or ride my bike,aerobics ect...I am doing a few strength training exercises in between as well. I am working out about 70 minutes a day if i average it out.
keeping my calories at 1750-1950---I didn't lose any more weight so I adjusted them to 2010-2360 thinking that I put my body in starvation mode--I have been at this for almost a week and still haven't lost anything...what am I doing wrong?
A few questions....if I have long run day do I eat more on that day? So if I have a slow work out day eat less on that day? Or just average it out and keep the same amount of calories everyday?
Also what is more important? Intense work outs or long workouts? I mean i making sure I complete 8 miles on saturdays..but would it be better to shorten the miles and work at a harder intensity basically? I need to build up strength ..but I also need endurance so what would be better? I am sweating during my work outs and sore afterwards...so I don't know what is going on with my body or if I need to push harder.
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OnceUpon-A-ThinGirl
Distinguished Member
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Posted: 20 May 2009 02:03 am |
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| My suggestion is that you should have left your calories where they were. Dont' up them. At a lower weight you need less calories to lose, not more, and now that you're working out you probably stayed the same weight from muscle gain. I'd lower my calories back down to 1700 and keep up the exercise program.
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 20 May 2009 09:18 am |
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Great that you've managed to lose some weight already at those calorie levels. Works for some whilst others find they have to cut more drastically (for example at your BMI it is suggested to cut as low as 75% under unadjusted RMR which would work out at... 1282). Having said that however it might be prudent to keep it higher on the account of the energy you need for your activities.
Am puzzled about why you're running 8 miles training for a 5k (which is about 3.2 miles). Personally I recently got injured after only a month of running (5-6 miles x 2 a week; from a standing start) so I'm acutely aware of the danger of jumping in too quickly.
I'd be weary of eating over maintenance calories on any given day. Apart from that, it is a compliance issue I find it easier to eat the exact same calories every day regardless of activity level, zig-zagging just messes with me, but as long as the levels average sensibly and don't go too high or too low it should technically be ok to vary.
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charismah
New Member
| Joined: | 19 May 2009 |
| Location: | |
| Posts: | 2 |
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Posted: 20 May 2009 03:28 pm |
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SO how many calories do you think I should eat while completing over 70 minutes of cardio a day?
I am jogging 8 miles on saturdays because it is my long day....I am hoping after my 5K to sign up for a half marathon in October so I am kind of training for both......because I can't just train for 13 miles in 3 months--so I have to prepare now. SO I jog 3 miles on mondays, 5 on weds. and 3 again on thursdays....but it will increase each week until the race. I have also been riding my bike instead of driving and on my off days I play tennis, ride my bike, and aerobics.
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 20 May 2009 06:10 pm |
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Starting from the point of view that you'll be eating around 1300 calories on a 'rest day', and accepting that running would be pointless if you ate back all of the calories that you are burning, but you might want to eat some extra calories to fuel the workout.
For the sake of argument let's say that whatever you're burning, you're planning to eat half of those calories back.
Step 1 = estimate how many calories you are burning.
You didn't specify how fast you are running, so I went to the Activities Calculator and just selected an example:
Running - 5 mph
927 calories in 1 hr 10 min
so if you wanted to eat half the calories back, 927 * 0.5 = 463. Add 463 to 1300.
Now you're back to 1763 
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Sarah Riedl
New Member
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Posted: 21 May 2009 08:28 pm |
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I'm a personal trainer, and I've had this happen to clients before. I have a few suggestions:
1762 is your basal metabolic rate: if you sit around on the couch all day and do nothing, you can eat 1762 and maintain your current weight. I would suggest adding another 10% of that, though, since I'm sure that even on your rest days you don't just sit around. So that brings your total to 1938. So that brings you back to your original calorie range, and I would go back to that for now.
The second thing is that it sounds like you're doing an awful lot of long cardio workouts. I understand that you're training for a distance race, so congratulations! I myself am an endurance athlete (triathlons and marathons) so I know what the training schedule can look like. There are two things you can do to stick to your run training and still lose weight:
1) build in a recovery week. Do your program, and increase it accordingly, for 3 weeks, then cut all your workouts down by 30% in the 4th week. This gives your body a chance to recover and rebuild itself, which is incredibly important if you want to keep seeing results.
2) cut out one or two of your long workouts and replace it with a short, high intensity workout that only lasts about 30 minutes. A strength training or circuit training workout would be ideal, but since you're training for a run, you could also do sprint intervals. The key is to push yourself super hard (about 90% of your capacity) for up to 3 minutes, then take a break for up to 3 minutes. Do this for 30 minutes. High-intensity interval training has been proven to burn up to 160 extra calories (and these are fat calories, since your body burns fat for energy when it is at rest) in the 24-hour period after the workout, whereas cardio only burns calories while you do it.
Don't fall into the trap of going for longer and longer workout sessions. What your body really needs is a lot of variety and an adequate amount of time to rebuild itself.
One last thing: If you keep track of the calories you burn every day vs. the calories you eat, don't try for a calorie deficit that's bigger than 1000 calories a day. Even 500 calories a day will let you lose a pound a week; 1000 calories a day is 2 pounds a week. Any more than that and you do risk putting your body in starvation mode, even if you're eating 1700 calories a day. Plus, the faster you lose weight, the more likely you are to put it back on. Slow and steady is the best way to go.
Hope this helps, and good luck on your weight loss and running goals!
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gigglebritchez
New Member
| Joined: | 14 July 2009 |
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| Posts: | 9 |
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Posted: 15 July 2009 02:55 am |
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| if you are sore from your workouts you need to increase your protein intake with good proteins such as ground flaxseed in a shake, cottage cheese, or egg whites. yummy
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