BMR woes

[stacy_19201325]

I've been trying to use the fitbit tools to track my calorie intake / calories burned for a couple weeks now.  I feel like I get a decent amount of exercise, my 28-day average is 13,274 steps per day.  But it is such a STRUGGLE to get my daily goal of 1800 calories burned. 

I just got back from a just shy of 5 mile walk.  I'm at 16,105 steps today and 1,555 calories burned (at 7:55 pm).  I haven't had dinner yet, and fitbit tells me I have 165 calories left to eat today.  I'll admit it - today I ate a snickers bar for a snack.  But DANG, a 250 calorie snack preventing me from having dinner sucks the big one.

I'm down 1.5 lbs since 3/18 and have 3.5 lbs to go to meet my goal of 120.  I've been told it's hard to lose 5 lbs but wow, I just want to eat two decent meals and a pop tart for breakfast.  Just frustrated that I have to walk over 4700 steps to burn 100 calories.  Why do I have to be so darn fuel efficient?

[SunsetRunner]

Hi Stacy,

It does get harder the leaner you get.  Maybe try upping the intensity and doing something a little more impactful thatn walking?  Wind sprints or other HIIT workouts will get you the same burn in far less time.

Cheers.

[JohnRi]

I haven't gotten to the last 10 lbs or 5 yet, but I can tell you that every pound I get closer to my goal, it's getting harder and harder to lose. 

You didn't mention your height, but you essentially said your weight is 123.5.  That's pretty low, so you are probably going to have to exercise like mad to lose that last 3.5 lbs.

I have to exercise at least 90 to 120 minutes every day to have dinner.  And I'm 48 lbs down, and with 40 more to lose! 

Good luck and keep active!

[OCDOC]

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@SunsetRunner wrote:

Hi Stacy,

It does get harder the leaner you get.  Maybe try upping the intensity and doing something a little more impactful thatn walking?  Wind sprints or other HIIT workouts will get you the same burn in far less time.

Cheers.

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Agree from my own experience.  Kinda stalled about ten pounds/5 weeks ago, then started a very challenging dumbbell HIIT routine: 20 mins Mon-Wed-Fri..pulse is 'max' during the bursts. Ten more pounds lost in about 5 weeks (the only change in diet/activity was the addition of those 3 short workouts).

[sketchdoll]

I hear ya.  It can be depressing to see how many calories you have left to eat in a day, but I think that is part of the magic of keeping track of your caloric input.  I don't plan on writing down my calories forever, once I hit my goal I'm going to figure out maintenance and just choose healthy meals and foods to eat.  But one nice thing about keeping track of calories is you begin to realize how many calories are in things! For example, everyday at work I would swing by a co-workers desk and grab at least 2-3 mini reeces pieces peanutbutter cups.  They are so tiny and gone in like two bites that you would think they wouldn't amount to much. Once I started tracking, I realized there are 44 calories in just one! One! I've since stopped eating them because I would rather put that 44 calories to something better.

Take a close look at what you are actually eating. You said pop tarts in the morning? I love love love pop tarts. Especially the chocolate ones and brown cinnamon sugar. But I haven't had a poptart in years. They are calorie heavy and chock full of chemicals and preservatives and nothing nutritional.  I have no problem with us treating ourselves during our weightloss journey, but maybe re-evaluate what you eat? Try healthier alternatives? I made some super delish grain-free brownies last night that were 100 calories a brownie. You can get pretty creative if you start recipe searching!

Another thing to keep in mind, if you are just shooting to lose 5 lbs, you may have your caloric deficit set to high. I've read in numerous spots on the forums that it should be set to the lowest (is it -250?) a day. I'm sure someone else can chime in and talk in more detail about that.

For me, I'm trying to lose 10lbs. My deficit is set to -500. My breakfast and lunch are averaging 300 calories or less per meal with snacks around 200 calories each.  Then I alot whatever is left for dinner/after dinner.  I only average 10k steps a day too.  Somedays I'm hungry after meals, but once I started focusing on adding in protein and healthy fats, I've seen progress. My weightloss has been slow, but steady. It's always easier said than done, but you got this!

[FitBeforeFifty]

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@SunsetRunner wrote:

Hi Stacy,

It does get harder the leaner you get.  Maybe try upping the intensity and doing something a little more impactful thatn walking?  Wind sprints or other HIIT workouts will get you the same burn in far less time.

Cheers.

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What @SunsetRunner said is key.  I'm fairly small for a guy ... At 49, 5'7" and 151 lbs my BMR is 1508 but I have no trouble losing weight while eating well over 2000 calories a day. The key for me is running and weight lifting which burn a lot more calories than walking.  I lost 37 lbs about 5 years ago and have maintained my weight around 145 since. Every once in a while my weight creeps back up if I don't log my food and I have to start tracking my food intake again. I've been tracking consistently for the last 4 weeks and I'm losing about 1 lb per week eating an average of 2354 calories per day. 

I personally don't feel like being lean is a disadvantage at all. It allows me to be more active and engage in higher intensity workouts. Higher intensity means less time. This week my total exercise time was 6:24  ... a little less than an hour a day.

[FitBeforeFifty]

I'll pass on another tip that will probably be contraversial but it's very useful in my opinion.

Snacking is a learned behavior and not a biological requirement. The concept of eating frequent small meals to "increase metabolism" is urban legend. 

If you eliminate snacks you can increase the size of your breakfast, lunch and dinner which makes a smaller budget much more sustainable.

In the beginning, you will still get hungry around your normal snack time but after 3 weeks you should have retrained your body to your new 3 square a day meal frequency.

I used to snack and I used to have a workout recovery supplement. I no longer do either.  I like food too much to waste it on protein bars, greek yogurt etc...