Is it possible that I am not eating enough?

A

ABBAgirl

New member
Hi from Canada! I have managed to lose 60+ lbs over the past year and a half,:hurray: but have not lost a blessed ounce for the past couple of months. I have been using the Weight Watchers program where by I consume a certain number of "points" per day. I run on my treadmill on the steepest incline + do calisthenics (situps, pushups) and abdominal work (stability ball) 6 x per week for 60-90 minutes. It is a vigorous workout; I am literally dripping with sweat.

It was suggested to me today that I may need to be eating more since my workout is so cardio-aggressive (for lack of a better phrase). Is it possible that I am just not consuming enough calories and this is now hampering my weight loss? Now THAT would be a switch! I am reluctant to eat more. Obviously I would not add in junk, but I do wonder if I should be just eating more LF protein or fruit/veg or what?

Any thoughts would be helpful to me. Thanks!

ABBA
 
First thought...

Have you been eating the same number of points since you started losing weight?

Second thought...

What are your stats?

Third...

Do you have any idea how many calories you are consuming.

Fourth...

Why are you doing so much abdominal exercise?
 
Since it seems you are so close to your goal, I would lower your cardio workout and begin some heavy lifting to maintain + strengthen the muscles you have left.


We can't tell if you're eating too little if you don't tell us how much you're eating. :p But yes, if you're eating too little you'll plateau, I've had 2 of those so far and they suck major popsicles, but stick it out and shake up your eating and exercise and you should get another kickstart.

Whatever you do, make sure you aren't eating anything below -500 caloric deficit, and make sure you're getting enough nutritious food and calories throughout the day.

Good luck
 
Thank you kindly for replying to my question. To clarify, my entire daily workout is 60-90 mins per day, including all cardio and calisthenics (just so you know I am not spending that entire time working on my abs). With the exception of pushups, I do virtually no "weight lifting" to speak of.

I am female, 5'5" and 38 yrs old. My starting weight was 211 lbs :svengo: and I am now bouncing between 147 and 152. I would actually like to get down to 135, but need to simply maintain 150 for a certain length of time in order to become a lifetime WW member and not have to pay anymore dues to them.

As for how much I am consuming, I gather that WW points are roughly 50 calories to each point, give or take a little due to fiber. I am supposed to be taking in 20 points per day, but I have an extra 35 per week I can use, plus 8 extra points per day due to my exercise that I have NOT been consuming. Now that I figure it out that I am roughly eating just 1,000 calories per day, even though I am exercising vigorously, I do think that I am not eating enough!

Thanks again for replying. I gratefully accept any advice you may have for me as I pursue better health.

ABBA
 
Steve, no I have not been eating the same # of points since I started. It depends on your weight, age, and activity level - and the # you can consume decreases as your weight goes down.

Thanks again,
Janice
 
Hey Janice,

Thanks for clarifying everything. I'd say you've answered your own question; you're certainly not eating enough. Couple this with the excessive exercising, lack or weight training (which signals muscle maintenance while dieting), most likely a lack of dietary protein (which also signals muscle maintenance), and the amount of weight you lost... I'd say you need to change things around quite a bit.

With your exercise, you're maintenance is most likely up over 1800, probably closer to 1900-2000 calories.

Obviously without the exercise your maintenance is lower.

When is the last time you too a break from dieting, exercise or both?
 
:svengo:OMgosh, I cannot even imagine eating that many calories in one day, after all this time! I have been on WW since June or so of 2007. I did take one week with my family in disneyland, where we ate totally at restaurants and buffets the whole time - but I still managed to lose a pound that week! So I rarely deviate from my limited calorie intake. As for the exercise, I have not gone more than 2 days in a row without it. My average is 40 mins running and the other 20 or 30 doing the calisthenics.

Steve, what changes would you recommend for me? i recently bought a skipping rope, so could trade some of the treadmill time for jumping. Must I begin a serious weight training regimen?

Thanks for the time you have already spent trying to help me. I appreciate it.

Gratefully,
Janice
 
Janice,

Here's the deal. When you're carrying a bunch of fat, such as when you started this journey, you can do pretty much anything to invoke a caloric deficit which in turn, will trigger fat loss.

Because of the excess of fat, mostly anything will work. It's hard to do too little or too much.

As you get closer to an ideal weight, this premise changes.

Without getting into too much detail as to the mechanisms at play here, suffice it to say that your body's ability to handle stress associated with dieting and exercise diminishes a) the longer you are doing it continuously and b) the less body fat you are carrying (or the more body fat you lose).

With this in mind, your approach must change as your body progresses.

What are some of these changes?

Well, for starters, managing the level of stress placed on your body systemically is critical. This is just a fancy way of saying you need to be cognizant of allowing your body periods of time to recover. Breaks from exercise and diet are important. Often times people who find themselves in your position hit a plateau and keep pushing harder and harder in terms of diet and exercise. The mentality of, "if I beat my body into submission enough, I will win" just doesn't work, unfortunately.

Compare this to where you are?

You've been at this for a long time with no real concern for stress management. Invariably things get out of whack when this is the case, especially for women who've been pushing it hard for an appreciable period of time. These 'things' that are out of whack tend to slow metabolism down beyond what would be expected given your weight loss. Put differently, we know that caloric requirements go down as weight is lost. But if things aren't done properly, metabolism can fall even further even though weight remained the same.

A good indicator of this can be your waking body temperature. You might want to take it first thing in the morning for a few days and average your temp to see where you are.

To reverse such a thing, often times you need to take what seems like a few steps backwards in order to make future progress using more intelligent methods. A lot of people have a lot of trouble with this b/c they're so locked in the mindset of, "I can't stop pushing myself b/c I might gain a pound or two and that's not what I want."

Unfortunately they're too focused on the 'right now' and not the 'big picture.'

Be that as it may, it's important that you focus on giving your body what it wants for a while, primarily rest and food. I would drop your exercise for a week or so and bump your caloric intake up closer to maintenance (keeping in mind your maintenance will be lower without the exercise since you're resting.) Something like 25-30% off of maintenance should be your goal focusing on balanced diet.

After a week or two of this (I'd shoot for two) I'd actually focus on progressively, systematically ramping up your intake toward maintenance over the course of a few weeks.

You can start easing back into low intensity exercise after a few weeks too, but nothing too strenuous.

Once at this stage, we can discuss further programming which, IMO, should entail some resistance training.
 
Steve
Wow, I never even considered what you are suggesting. It does seem radical to me, but I am all about making positive changes, so I will give it a try. I will immediately tone down my exercise routine (i.e. basically drop it) for this next week or so, and also eat some more. I admit that I do have a HUGE fear that I will gain; but if I follow what you are saying, it would just be temporary, and hopefully will aid in jump-starting me back on my weight loss.

I am pleased with my loss thus far, and feel pretty good when I look in the mirror, but there is a nagging sense of "unfinished business" because I know that I can be healthy at a lower weight. I want to feel full of energy and strength!

Thanks again for your time and insight.
Sincerely,
Janice
 
Just make sure you rest well. Get good night's sleep, maybe get a massage during this time, and try and keep the stress low. You want your body (primarily your hormonal system) to get back to a state of 'comfort.'

This is time more than ever to be precise with your nutrition. You might even consider ditching the point system for a bit and track calories... at least until you get this all sorted out.

Heed my recommendations for caloric intake if you're serious about this.

1. calc your new maintenance with the reduced activity expenditure
2. eat 70-80% of this amount sticking with a healthy balance of protein, carbs and fats.

Your body adapts based on it's tab of energy which consists of fat stores and food intake. Simply resting isn't enough. You need to feed your body properly.

If anything, I'd take this next month to focus on normalizing your body.
 
It is very interesting that you would bring up my hormone levels, as their "wonky-ness" is what started me on this journey in the first place (hair loss, skin changes, etc). My hair loss has slowed significantly. I am now taking thyroid meds + vits B6, C, D, and iron. Being in my late 30s I do find my hormones highly suspect.

As for calculating my caloric needs at this point, I am embarrassingly ignorant of such. I have relied so much on the WW points system that I still tend to think that way. I know you are very busy (indeed, I can't believe how much time you have already given me gratis), but I will ask you if you can suggest a ballpark figure for me. I understand if you are too busy or if you don't have enough info from me to help in this regard, or even if you don't want to because my health is my own responsibility.

Again, thank you for all of your valuable insights thus far. I really don't know how I can thank you, other than continuing to pursue better health for myself, and encouraging others to do likewise.

janice
 
Janice,

It's not a problem offering you the advice.

Hormones are the primary driver behind all this mess. When we diet for extended periods of time, especially when our body fat levels get closer to 'normal' yet we continue dieting without break, hormones levels go all over the place.

It's such an amazingly complex system that is genetically hardwired into us. It's what kept us alive way back when food was scarce.

Hormones such as leptin, gherlin, insulin, peptide yy, etc, etc. If you really want to learn about some stuff, do some research on Leptin. Actually, let me know if you're interested and I'll link you to some pretty intense reading. If that's not your thing though, I certainly understand.

Now you tell us that you have metabolic issue to begin with and are taking thyroid meds... so this is even more reason to listen up.

Your calorie needs are rather simple to calculate. There are many, many calculators available online. I prefer to use the Harris Benedict forumula.

You can use this to determine your BMR, and then use an activity multiplier to figure out your maintenance.

The HB formula is:

BMR = 655 + (9.6 X wt in kg) + (1.8 X ht in cm) - (4.7 X age in years)

There are 2.54 cm in one inch. There are 2.2 lbs in one kg.

Once you determine your BMR from the above equations, you need to multiply it be an acitivty factor. BMR is comprised of the energy you expend at rest, doing things such as breathing, digesting, circulation, etc. Obviously, if we are calculating maintenance, we need to add in the energy we expend moving around, working, exercising, etc.

Hence, you have the following activity factors, which can be modified:

Sedentary = BMR X 1.2 (little or no exercise, desk job)

Lightly active = BMR X 1.375 (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/wk)

Mod. active = BMR X 1.55 (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/wk)

Very active = BMR X 1.725 (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days/wk)

Extr. Active = BMR X 1.9 (hard daily exercise/sports & physical job or
2 X day training, marathon, football camp,

Oviously while you're resting, you'll use the lowest activity factor to determine your maintenance.
 
STEVE
I hope you read this; I know you are super busy! I have upped my caloric intake to about 1750 per day (up from 1350) just for the past few days. I have continued working out in my usual manner, though no more than 1 hour per day. However, it looks as though my weight is now going up rather than down.

Do you have any idea how long I should continue with my increased caloric intake? At what point do I decide it is crazy to be gaining weight in an effort to reboot my metabolism? I am not willing to go up to the 160s again! My goal is to get down to 135.

I know it will take my body a little while to sort itself out if I truly have been eating too little (though I am NEVER hungry) and exercising too much. Other than my one hour workout, I really don't do anything else for exercise.

I am trying not to panic :svengo: but having worked so hard to lose the weight, and now having plateaued for half a year, it is mentally hard to watch that scale creep back up!

Thanks again for any insight, even if it involves lashing me with a wet noodle.

Janice
 
I sometimes wonder this very question too. I think I'm maybe doing waaaaay to much cardio and not eating enough. I ran over 50 miles in the last 2 weeks and I've lost ONE pound!

I guess I want to continue to shock the body!
 
Hi Steve
Thanks for replying. Yes, I went from basically the 1350 calories to 1750 overnight. Was this a horrendous mistake? I have found it challenging to eat enough to get to 1750 and would happily reduce that amount if that would be helpful.

Refusing to give in to panic
Janice
 
yea, that's a relatively large jump considering your past. i'd much sooner, as noted earlier, jump up in small increments over a number of weeks.
 
[QUOTE=Steve

"I would drop your exercise for a week or so and bump your caloric intake up closer to maintenance (keeping in mind your maintenance will be lower without the exercise since you're resting.) Something like 25-30% off of maintenance should be your goal focusing on balanced diet.

After a week or two of this (I'd shoot for two) I'd actually focus on progressively, systematically ramping up your intake toward maintenance over the course of a few weeks."


OMg I cannot believe I missed this info! I have even recently re-read your posts to me, but somehow this did not reach my brain!? :banghead:

Okay, I will drop my calories back down to maybe 1500 and slowly increase. Do you think it vital that I drop my workouts for a time? They are really my Prozac (love those endorphins). What if I just go from 60 mins down to 30?

Okay, I simultaneously feel A) Relieved and B) Like a total tool for missing what you told me earlier! I think maybe I was blinded by my own fear of regaining...:dupe:

Thank you again, very much.
Most sincerely,
Janice
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top