Burning too much? Eating too little?

[MindiK]

Ok, so I've been losing weight pretty consistently (about 1 pound per week) for quite some time, keeping track of my calories eaten and expended through exercise on sparkpeople.

For weeks and weeks, I was (according to the site) burning around 1,800 calories per week and was losing a pound. For the past month or so I've upped the workout intensity a little, and I've been burning more than 2,000 calories per week, every week, while eating the same amount (1,400 to 1,500 calories daily).

It may have nothing to do with the workouts, but for the past month I've had increasing trouble getting a consistent pound per week off. And my weight fluctuates more now than it did before.

So my question is: Would the slightly increased workout intensity cause a slower weight loss if the food intake isn't increased as well? Or should I just stick with what I'm doing and see what happens?

 

[paydirt]

I'm not an expert. If you've figured your loss to be 1 pound per week, weigh 180, and bumped it up so you lose 1.1 pound per week, that by itself will not cause your body to slow down.

Your post does not mention your BMR & your caloric intake. You would need to be in a weekly 1500 calorie deficit for: intake - BMR*1.2 in order to lose 3500 calories (or 1 pound) per week (2000 + 1500 = 3500). I'm guessing your already have this part figured, if not that's the missing link for you.

It could also be that you are nearing your goal and it will take longer for those last 20# to come off?

 

[MindiK]

Thanks, Paydirt... I thought I had a handle on my BMR and all, but I went in and recalculated, just to be sure.

I calculated my BMR at , for a 5'9" female, 180 pounds, at the age of 27 (since I will be in about a week). My BMR is 1,635.4, then calculated my daily caloric needs on the same site using the formula for a moderatetely active person (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.55

Which leaves me at 2,534.87 calories for my daily needs, to maintain a weight of 180 pounds.

So to LOSE weight, I need to reduce the intake by 10 to 20 percent. 20 percent of my BMR is 506 calories. So I need to eat around 2,000 calories per day to lose a pound a week, according to the site.

Sound right to anyone? Or am I off?

 

[paydirt]

The sounds right.

I do mine a little different since I am sedentary at work and sedentary at home (except for my workouts). So I take my BMR multiply by 1.2, and then add my individual workouts to the total expenditure.

Maybe you shouldn't multiply by 1.55 if you wanna stay at a 1 pound per week for another 10 pounds?

 

[MindiK]

What should I multiply it by? I did the 1.55 because I work out 5 times a week, every week....

 

[Blancita]

Sometimes you'll find the numbers and calculations mean absolutely nothing. My calculations/deficits matched up precisely with my weight loss for 1 year. But for the past 6 months I've pretty much done the same thing as before (exercise and similar calorie deficit) but I have not lost one pound. All of a sudden I went from consistently losing to losing nothing. Yes, perhaps my body was smaller and needed less food, but on the calories in v. out model that should have just had the effect of slowing, not stopping, my weight loss (say going from 1 lb a week to 1 lb a month). But I can't even lose the 1 pound a month! Once you're body's fat burning decides to shut down, it takes drastic measures (which I haven't been able to find and/or do yet) to get things moving, and I've personally found that consistently earning calorie deficits each week wont fix it. Hopefully you wont have this problem since this just started with you and it could be related to the increased exercise. How about just going back to what you were doing before (or eat a bit more so you have the same calorie deficit) and see if the weight starts moving again?

 

[paydirt]

My strategy for calculation is to take BMR*1.2 and add the individual workouts. So, (BMR*1.2*7) + (all workout calories) = weekly calorie expenditure. subtract 3500 from weekly expenditure and divide by 7 to get calories to eat daily to have a loss of 1#/day.

Let's say each workout you do is 300 calories and you do 5 of them, then workout calories for the week = 1500.

If the new result is lower, maybe you need to lower your calories by a little bit. Or you may want to change your workouts to shake things up with your body (interval training or weights)...?