Really Lost! How many calories? - 3 Fat Chicks on a Diet Weight Loss Community

AmberD · 03-16-2010, 11:01 PM

I've lost 15 pounds since August mostly by winging it. Eating a little better here, exercising a little more there but for the past month, my weight loss has been stagnant. I think I'm really going to have to buckle down on calorie counting to lose the 10-15 pounds I have left. (Too many beers on the weekends and too many sweets during the week have been making it hard, I need to be accountable.)

I have no idea how many calories to eat. I'm 5'10, 172. I'm training for a triathlon, so I work out 5-6 hours a week, running, biking and swimming. This will be ramping up a bit more as the big day draws closer. (May 16th)

So, my questions are:

1) How many calories should I be eating to lose weight and still have enough energy for my workouts?

2) Would zig-zagging calories be a good idea so that I have higher calories on my big work out days? I usually work out twice on Tues and Thurs (swim am and bike pm) and a long run on Sunday (5 miles last week and will start to increase.)

3) Or if I'm zig-zagging would it be better to have the higher calorie days be the day after my bigger work outs. (I always find I'm hungrier the day after.)

I've been really committed to my workout training plan for the last two months and I really enjoy the training. I have a lot of lofty (for me) athletic goals this year and I really want to achieve them. I'd really like to be able to lose these 15 pounds by mid-June-early July, which is when I start training for some bigger races.

I've been here at 3FC for a long time now, I really, really feel like this time, I'm going to make it to goal. Thank you so much for any input you can give me!!!

mkyice · 03-16-2010, 11:09 PM

Since you don't know how many calories you are eating, you might want to start by keeping count of what you normally eat in a week and adjust your calories from there.

Shmead · 03-16-2010, 11:14 PM

Honestly, there are a million ways to compute your calories burned, but they all provide estimates, not data. You can really pick a number out of a hat--total WAG, I'd go 1800 with that schedule--follow it 3 weeks and see what happens. Tweak up or down--up if you are really hungry, irritable, headachey, or have a weaker attention span, down if you aren't losing.