Forums >Health and Nutrition>Eat more to lose weight?
I have been doing a Boot Camp class 6 days a week in order to push myself through the winter. I am now in my second month and still weigh 180lbs (5'9"). I haven't gained or lost any weight the whole time. For the last 3 years I have been running 1/2 marathons, marathons and triathlons and typically weighted about 176lbs. I'm trying to she'd about 10 pounds before the spring but there has been no change. I feel my body getting stronger from the BC classes.
I've been tracking my food intake since I started BC and have consistently not reached my allotted calories per day. My trainer said to eat more and you will lose weight. Does that make any sense to you guys?
What makes sense is that your body composition has changed significantly. Have you kept track of body fat and waistline measurements? I suppose that the trainer might be suggesting that your glycogen stores are low and that could inhibit your exercise intensity and the body's ability to burn fat for fuel. I have always thought that to be a second order effect, though. The gains from strength training plateau fairly quickly (unless on 'roids) so it is possible that you would be down a couple of lbs a month from now if you just keep doing what you are doing.
However, another approach is to drop down to 3 classes a week and run on the other 4. How long is your longest run of the week? If it is not 2 -2.5 hours, try increasing your LR to that level. Consistent weekly long runs always led to weight loss for me.
Mmmmm...beer
No, if you want to drop weight, you need to eat less (or workout more, whichever way you want to create a deficit). Refeeding can help if you've been on a deficit for a while, but you haven't been. Whatever number the app/site is giving you for calories is wrong, that's obviously your maintenance level since you haven't lost or gained weight. Cut whatever amount you've been eating by 10-15% and you'll start dropping weight. Make sure you don't have any calories sneaking in, like in coffee, etc.
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How many calories per day are you eating? If you aren't eating enough, it can make weight loss tough.
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It is true that if you aren't eating enough to sustain you and your workouts it can be hard to loose weight. Also are you sure you're logging everything? I mean everything. The calories in the sugar in your coffee are still calories. A lot of people log calories and are very general about it. Being general helps you to get started and realize how much you eat but when it comes to weight loss, if you want to get a true deficit you need to see every calorie going in your body. It also common for people to over estimate how much they are burning during exercise. If you want to really get into it look up TDEE. This http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/heybales/view/spreadsheet-ver-3-for-bmr-tdee-deficit-calcs-macro-calcs-hrm-zones-426221 is a great side and if you really want to get into it.(I don't hae enought patience to get this indepth, but it know it really works for some people). And on the second page of this article it show more realistically how much your body burns while running. http://www.runnersworld.com/weight-loss/how-many-calories-are-you-really-burning-0
If you don't want to get into that deep just try changing things up. Are you hungry throughout the day? If so eat more for a week. Healthy food of course and don't go nuts, maybe 300 extra calories. Or like another poster said try cutting some BC days and replacing with running.
Hope you find something that works.
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I would also look at your portion size--a lot of times a serving is much smaller than you would think. If you're doing things like weighing your food then this likely isn't your issue, but if you're just relying on your eyes to judge that you had 1 serving of something then you may be misleading yourself and actually eating quite a few more calories than you think you are. And don't assume that because you ate 1 frozen dinner (or something else that seems intended to be eaten all at once) that it was 1 serving--things like that look like they ought to be a single serving but if you read the label you'll sometimes find it was really 2 servings, etc (very deceptive on the part of the food companies!)
rectumdamnnearkilledem
That is really good advice! My favorite way of looking at servings for things like meat are the deck-of-cards measurement...but I've even seen that described as 3 or 4oz, depending upon the source...which is it?! 1oz could easily be the difference of 100 calories. I hate when a serving of something is listed as so many ounces, instead of by volume (like peanuts). I don't want to deal with a food scale...it's a lot easier to measure things out with a simple measuring cup.
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~ Sarah Kay
More good advice! I don't like to muck about with scales either so my rule of thumb is to visualise each portion of food fitting in to the palm of my hand. For example, a handful of rice, a handful of vegetables and a handful of what ever protein you eat. I don't know where I picked that up from but it has stuck and seems to work for me. The other biggie is liquid calories, it is amazing how many calories you can drink especially if you like smoothies and juices or soda. Ditch the soda and stick to water, coffee/tea with no sugar/little or no milk, and eat your fruit instead of drinking it. Good luck!
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Sorry, but it doesn't make any sense to say that not eating enough can make it hard to lose weight. If you are not eating enough TO MAINTAIN YOUR CURRENT WEIGHT then you will lose weight. If you are counting calories honestly and still not losing weight, then you must eat less calories. Anything else anyone says is just mumbo jumbo.