1200 calories & Exercise

[mangogirl205]

Hello everyone, I am new to the Fitbit community but have always struggled with weight issues.

Here is my Bio:

175Lb (3weeks ago I was 179) So I must be doing something right.

5'0

Caucasian/Asian

Diabetic (Diagnosed 3 years ago)

Metformin 1000mg twice

My doctor has been on my case. My A1C use to be in the 6's but have risen to 8.6%. This is not goot. As you can tell,my frame is small and I am carrying alot of weight. I want to lose weight,my goal is 150Lb. for now and then maybe more later. That way I don't feel too preassured.

As of now I am eating ALMOST 1200 calories a day but seem to hover in the 900's. I try to eat more but I'm not hungry. This is with the new diet I had started(3 weeks ago). I eat two meals a day.And If I have that "starving" feeling before bed I eat a sugar free fat free pudding or greek yougurt that way my glucose does not spike.And my hunger is satisfied.

Breakfast-Do not eat.

Lunch- Tortilla wrap 8",chicken breast strips 4oz,olives,bananna peppers,lettuce NO sauce. (NO spike in Gluclose)

Dinner- 4 to 6oz chicken breast, squash,mushrooms,jalapeno, sometimes brocolii and cauliflower (NO spike in Gluclose)

Drinks: Unsweetend Tea, Diet Mtn.Dew,Diet Cherry Pepsi,Water

My delima is, how much calories do I need to burn with what I am currently eating? To lose weight. My fitbit averages at 1600-2100 calories burned ALL day. And max 6000 steps. I am not very active I know people walk alot more but I feel like I am at a good start. I try to do 5000 steps or more a day.

I have started weight lifting 20lb bench press 15 minutes as much as I can do. Situps,brisk walking 20-30 min,I purchased a epolitical stepper.I could hardly do a minute but now worked my way up to 7 minutes. It seems like I am very unfit reading all this since I do not do it for so long. :-(. I have a heart murmur and high blood preassure so I try to take my time but I can push myself.

It's just hard, I can't eat what others eat because of my diabetes. I have to be careful with what activites I do because since I started this diet my gluclose dips lower then 100 but 3 weeks ago was in the 250's sometimes 300's so I feel I have progress in that area. I just need the weight to come off.

I don't understand how many calories to eat ( I want to stay at 1200) and how much should I burn and does that include my daily calories burned that myfitbit is telling me?

Hopefully I explained myself well enough and thank anyone who can help me. 🙂 If anyone has questions just ask.

Thanks in advance!

-Christina

[Heybales]

Are you thinking you are supposed to exercise more than what you eat?

"My delima is, how much calories do I need to burn with what I am currently eating?"

No exercise! Because you are eating too little.

Your Fitbit is underestimating your activity already with that lifting. So you are burning upwards of 1600-2100 calories daily already, actually tad more with lifting being corrected.

And you are eating only 900?

That's a 1-2 lb loss weekly until your system slows down from shock.

Why don't you give your body a fighting chance at working with you, not against you.

Your body is already dealing with the stress of a disease - don't add more stress by making it think you aren't going to feed it enough too for your level of activity.

Too much stress and it'll fight against weight and fat loss. It's a fight you'll lose, and not fat loss either.

Take a 500 cal deficit goal loss from whatever you burn daily, log your food accurately. Manually log non-step based exercise like lifting or rowing or biking.

Then meet your eating goals.

You feeling full has nothing to do with your body being fully fed for your level of activity.

Eating too little will mess with your hormones (want a thyroid problem too?) and cause you to not be hungry - so that is a terrible guide actually. Good you asked, so you can use your brain.

You could be on your way to doing this to yourself in links below. And how little do you think you could eat then? And no, your Fitbit won't realize your body has done this, at that point it will be reporting inflated calorie burns. You'll just be eating so little and maintaining, you'll wonder how exactly you can eat less, or how you can exercies so much more, to make up for what it's done.

Not a good life, having a terrible relationship with food, with your body, and likely regaining some or all the weight and starting a lifetime of yo-yo dieting because you burned off muscle mass. Ugh.

Don't do it to yourself.

Only need to do light cardio, use your time wisely for strength training instead. That will improve the diabetic issues. Bench press is decent, but those aren't the biggest muscles, especially not the stomach muscles. You want leg workouts, using as much weight as you can muster, body weight to start perhaps, moving to single legged perhaps.

If gym is available to do some hard circuit training, even better, burn up those carb stores, train body to get better at restoring them.

Here's where you can be headed with your misunderstandings.

http://www.t-nation.com/diet-fat-loss/truth-about-metabolic-damage

http://skepchick.org/2014/02/the-female-athlete-triad-not-as-fun-as-it-sounds/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2i_cmltmQ6A

[mangogirl205]

Okay, that was very imformative! Thank you. That is why I wanted to ask and get some insight from someone who is more knowledgeable about this subject.

And yes, I always thought I had to exercise more and burn more calories then what I ate. I guess that's what's in every overweight persons mind? I don't know..but I'm glad you let me know what to do and not to do

And I read the one link and I do NOT want that happening. I'm just starting & learning along the way.

Thank you Heybales, I really do appreciate your help.

[Hats26]

Good luck & keep going @mangogirl205 its great to ask questions. I'm still constantly doing that.. My running style needs to be improved, but its to the point I need a run coach I think. 

[Walkinggirl]

Breakfast is the most important meal.  Your body thinks you are starving.  If you eat breakfast and go for a walk or do oome sort of exercise it increases your metabolism.  Also, have you had your thryoid checked?

Good luck and do not give up.  Sometime you hit a plateau but if you eat breakfast and exercise you will begin lossing again.

[Hats26]

Yeah I should have mentioned the necessity about breakfast, it slipped my mind. I'm glad you mentioned that @Walkinggirl! You certainly want to eat over 1000 calories. My standard intake is 1200 on a day where I do walking and no particular exercise.  Do try to keep up to the 1200 if you can. 🙂 you can do it! 

[mangogirl205]

Thanks to everyone, you are all so very nice and positive. And I actually just had blood work done up last week, I am waiting for the results to come back.It wasen't because I was complaining or anything but my Doctor always does bloodwork for everything every 6 months and it said "Boarderline" so she's rechecking.

I guess I will try to incoperate breakfast in, I just have to find something I can eat that won't let me glucose spike. Maybe plain cheerios & skim milk and splenda...lol. and a piece of fruit.

I will continue to do walking and some weight lifting, the weight lifting keeps my insulin levels steady..I'm so glad I found something that does.

Thanks everyone and also goodluck too! If anymore questions come to mind I'll ask.

[Heybales]

Why all the sugar for breakfast? Except splenda, that's all sugar except for bit of protein in milk, but not even any fat to slow down digestion? - sure your insulin is going to spike with that.

Fat does NOT make you fat. Eating more than you burn makes you fat. Fat is needed for many hormones.

Don't be afraid of fat.

If breakfast helps you to be compliant to your diet, then enjoy it. If you go straight to work and sit and not hungry - don't worry about it.

You body does NOT think you are starving if you skip breakfast, takes 72 hrs for that. If you work on a farm, sure breakfast is important. Most don't anymore.

Breakfast does NOT kick start your metabolism. Waking up your brain increased it, getting out of bed increased it, moving around increased it. The energy needed to process your food is going to be spent whenever you eat those calories. And within 2-3 hrs it's done, and your normal sitting metabolism is back.

There have been no studies that showed an improvement based on meal timings, including breakfast.

In fact, if just walking, you are in the best fat burning state you'll be after waking up, go for a walk then and you won't be burning what you just ate, you'll be burning a great % of fat, depending on your pace.

If you just ate, you'll be burning what you ate. 

If it makes you hungrier and causes lunch to be bigger then it should, than not a useful thing.

If it takes calories you really enjoyed at dinner, then not useful.

Personal preference.

For sure get the weight training in.

http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/29/8/1933.full

"Recent recommendations in the ADA technical review (9) support the American College of Sports Medicine guidelines (59) that resistance training be included as an essential component of a well-balanced physical activity program for those with type 2 diabetes who do not have contraindications to exercise. Specifically, the American College of Sports Medicine advocates that resistance training should be performed on at least 2 days per week, with a minimum of 8–10 exercises involving the major muscle groups for 10–15 repetitions to near fatigue. The American College of Sports Medicine further highlights that increased intensity or additional volume of training could produce greater benefits and may be appropriate for some individuals (59). Similarly, Sigal et al. (9) recommends that resistance training should be performed with all the major muscle groups, three times a week, progressing to 8–10 repetitions at a weight that cannot be lifted >8–10 times. The primary difference between these two prescriptions is the higher intensity recommended for all individuals by the ADA, which is in light of recent reports suggesting that high-intensity resistance training is both feasible and appropriate for older individuals with type 2 diabetes (9)."