[vonvonnie]

Hi all! I'm new here (but for some odd reason I already had a login...go figure!). I have tried everything under the sun to lose weight and nothing has worked. I am really trying to count seriously now, and don't know who to listen to as far as numbers.

I eat fairly good, I don't drink sodas, no caffeine, very little fast food & watch my sugar & in general am pretty healthy & fit. I really don't drink all the water I'm supposed to (i do maybe 60oz a day) I'm so frustrated I can't stand it. I've been at a size 14 plateau for over 7 months now, and nothing I do is breaking it. I could probably not eat for a week & not lose In general I'm not a loser...I've gone from a very near size 20 to a 14 and lost eehh...5lbs (and that may be a stretch).

My Stats:
33 years old next month, 200-203lbs, 5'6, very muscular - BMI handheld reader at the gym reads 34% though
Workout M-Sat & average about 10 workouts per week. 1 per morning + double up 4 nights for classes. About 5 hours of weights per week/5hrs cardio.
My monitor usually averages 6,600 cals per week burned.

Lose It tells me I'm supposed to eat around 1339 cals per day to lose 2lbs per week/hit 165 by April 25. When I add in workouts, it will add on all the calories i burned to what I need to eat. Just great, except if I enter in that last workout at 6pm, getting dinner + 500 new calories in just isnt happening!

I had a consult w/a trainer @ the gym who told me I needed to be eating 1950 cals per day (eat more because of the 600cal workout, end up with 1350). So, I bumped my Lose it calories up by 600 (lose it now aims me at 1950 per day, yet it still makes me eat more when I add in my 600 cal workout - any way to get it to stop adding?)

Livestrong - I went to livestrong.com because I'm considering the app over the Lose It (just for a change). Livestrong told me based off of my lifestyle answers that I need to eat 2280 cals per day (geeeeze louise!). Are they still gonna add more cals needed when I put in my workouts???!!

Now, honestly, eating 1950 was a stretch, I'm just not a hungry person in general...I don't eat a lot during the day, i have a computer job where I sit mainly & don't use a lot of calories (i double up workouts to make up for my desk job/lack of energy expended for 8 hours). If I drank all the water I'm supposed to, I surely wouldn't be able to hold them all. Now, Livestrong says 2280, and I have no idea HOW in the world to eat that much healthy food per day. I am also trying to follow Jillian Michael's Master your Metabolism plan, which cuts out a bunch of *fake foods*, but fruits & veggies in general don't have a ton of calories .

So....which one is more accurate? Does anyone else eating that many calories w/success (2000+), and just what healthy foods could I eat to make that # per day? I generally try to avoid most processed foods.

Sorry for the long post...This year I told myself that I was going to count, and count like I mean it... consistently for at least a month & see what happens, but I need to know where is the right aim (and if livestrong isn't gonna cut it, I don't need to buy the app!).

[Iconised Ghost]

I find that trying to guess how much you burn, how much you can eat is pretty hard going if you are wanting to be super accurate. Really what you need to do (or rather, what I did) is to get a vague idea of what you might be needing to eat in order to lose. So far your estimates are between 1339 and 2280. So maybe try eating around the middle there, 1500/1600ish and see what happens. I never really added on my workouts when thinking about how much i should be eating. You sound like you are getting plenty of exercise, so if you eat around 1500/1600 and dont lose try reducing it by another 100 and see what happens. And make sure you are tracking every little thing with as little guesswork as possible- check labels, dont just rely on the internet or livestrong etc to give you an estimate. If you do have to estimate, go for over estimating rather than underestimating. I'm not sure what Jilian's diet says, but you can try boosting your calorie intake with things like potatoes, small amounts olive oil, nuts, brown rice etc.

Sorry if this is stuff you have heard before but its what i used to beat my 9 month plateau

[Sskar]

I have compared Livestrong to other sites and think it is off -- especially because the quick one does not allow you to enter your sex. No, not the number of times per week.

[bensempress]

Originally Posted by vonvonnie

Livestrong - I went to livestrong.com because I'm considering the app over the Lose It (just for a change). Livestrong told me based off of my lifestyle answers that I need to eat 2280 cals per day (geeeeze louise!). Are they still gonna add more cals needed when I put in my workouts???!!

I believe 2280 are the calories you would eat in order to maintain your current weight. So you will want to lower that by about 500 calories to get the average calorie amount you should be eating. I'd say you should shoot for 1600-1700 per day.

[mulder1921]

If you have the money and want to get a really good idea of where you are at metabolism wise you could get a body bugg or a Go wear Fit. I got a GWF and finally figured out why eating 1500 cals a day isn't working. When I ran my BMR online and then figured out what my calorie burn was it showed me at 2400 a day with little to no excercise. The GWF shows I burn on average 3100 as a baseline with no added excercise. No wonder 1500 a day wasn't working because I was starving myself. Sometimes you need to eat to lose. The units aren't cheap, but I figured that the money I was throwing away on a monthly WW plan I wasn't using paid for the unit in no time. If you can't afford one, maybe you know a friend who would let you borrow one for a day to see where your baseline is at. Another option to find an accurate BMR is to have it professionaly tested. I found a program at a local hospital where they tested it. For $40 they administered the test and gave me a bunch of information about how many calories I should be eating. I did it a few years ago and it also showed that I burned a lot more calories than I thought. I guess at the time I was such a huge believer in WW that I thought that was the only way for me and I just stuck with that. Now, I am not saying that WW doesn't work, it just works better for some than others. Turns out that I wasn't eating even close to enough points for my actual calorie burn.

Good luck on your journey!

[toobig]

This may sound simple minded but all I did with the calorie calculator was figure maintance calories for my current weight and goal weight and I eat the calories in the middle. So far it is working for me.

[vonvonnie]

Thanks ladies, I thought that LS was a bit high, I'll aim around 1800 for now & see how that works & adjust. I've looked at the Gofit & BodyBugg both and still haven't decided if I want to go that route yet.

I think I did know for sure that around 1300 was going to be too low for my activity though. We have tons of hospitals around here, I am sure someone does BMR testing. For the longest time I've suspected I have a crazy slow metabolism, but I don't want to be just another fat girl who says that without some type of proof. I finally went back to see when I first registered here... 2004, and the weights in my profile are from then. I was 205 when I joined...trying to get to 165 (same as now...go figure). This weight has to leave this time!

I think I'm going to try eating all the calories and see if NOT eating enough is the real problem. I've suspected for a long time that it is, but still can't push to eat all the calories. Gonna just have to try harder.