Im doing South Beach and im trying to watch my caloric intake too...I havent been able to get my total supposed consumption of calories in my diet..apparently i need 2084 calories a day.. I only seem to get 1200-1600 and on top of it.. i do a workout each day that ranges from 700-900 calories burned..

However, the scale is moving quite slowly..so im wondering if im not eating enough??? or im working out too much??? burning too many calories???

What is your workout that burns that much????

I dunno if my thing will help your process. But here goes.

I was getting annoyed because at my weight, my AMR was guesstimated at 2900, so 2300 was a -600 drop and should have given me the -1 lbs a week but it wasn't. It was on the paper food log, but not in real life. I wasn't being crazy and I had data for a YEAR.

But I have endoc stuff like hypothyroid and PCOS. And I complained at my endoc and together we looked at the food log. So since I was maintaining at 2300, call that the AMR then and -500 calories from THERE for 1800. Now my food log is matching my reality and I'm getting the nice little -1 lbs a week I wanted. I probably should have complained sooner than sticking it for a year, but hey, I was thorough! Nobody could tell me I wasn't giving it the time to work or not keeping a food log diligently!

I am 5'8". Weight in the ticker.

My goal is to earn a PALA, and that means 5x a week, 30 min at a pop. Sometimes it is longer like and hour because I play Wii "walk It out" with DH at night. But I burn an average of 400 calories per hour this way according to my HRM.

http://www.presidentschallenge.org/

I'm using it just to get back into the swing of regular exercise, but later I'd like to get back to harder fitness challenges -- jogging, lifting, etc. I made the mistake of trying to be where I used to be instead of spending some time working my way back to being a 4x a week hard jogger.

I've joined a gym but my pattern there is not as regular yet. I'm trying to learn the gym scene there and the least crowded times to go and all that. That will be my next step -- earn a PALA from the gym rather than from my living room.

At your height, weight and energy burn, assuming you don't have endoc issues throwing a monkey wrench in there... I think you could afford to eat more or change the exercise intensity and try those tweaks and see how it is.

But the scale is moving... what's "slow" to you? Maybe all is fine and it's just a question of patience?

GL!
A.

1200-1600 calories per day should be fine for weight-loss. If you're burning 700-900 calories a day on top of that, however, then your net calories are 500-700 per day, and that's not healthy. Your body could go into starvation mode at that many calories per day, resulting in no weight-loss, or even weight-gain.

Amount of calories burned will vary from person to person, depending on their weight, the intensity of the workout, etc. What do you do that burns 700-900 calories each day? For example, for me to burn that many calories, I would have to do a vigorous elliptical workout for 2 hours.

How slowly is the scale moving? A healthy, normal rate of weight-loss is 1-2 lbs per week.

Do not believe what machines at the gym tell you. They are inaccurate and generally overestimate for most people.

What a timely question for me! I am currently trying out 5, yes 5, online food/exercise trackers. Just today I was inputting my elliptical time and my treadmill time and thought the numbers were just not correct. Not to mention it was inconsistent across the board. So I have no idea how much I really burn!

BTW - I am walking slowly, post-surgery, and at I my weight for 70 minutes the sites said I burned just over 200 calories. One had me at 100 something. For 15 minutes on the elliptical the number ranges from 88 to 133. I believe the former is closer.

And, our treadmill manual even said not to go based on those numbers. They were for comparison purposes only in considering your workouts. Huh.

Exercise machines and videos can be off by more than 40%. Don't add an extra 700-900 calories per day simply because that is what the machine says you burned. Eat when you're hungry -- within reason, of course.

I dont go to the gym..I actually stay home and use my wii fit.. I do 1 hour of cardio/calethestics using the biggest loser workout game..I do a 12 week program for FAST weight loss as said on The Biggest Loser.. Then i do 20 minutes of Box-Fit at a Challenging level and then i do yoga for 10 minutes to stretch and then I do a wii fit plus free run for 10 minutes and later in the afternoon i go for a walk for 30 minutes with my hunny..So all in all..i spent about on average between.. 1 hour and 20 minutes to 2 hours +..and i do it all at home with the exception of the walk.. I dont actually use machines.. The biggest loser workout uses your own body weight to tone and condition..

Oh..and i jumped on the scale today and i had lost 9 pounds in 13 days..and i jump on the scale every day..and today.. and realized that ive been weighing myself with different clothes on every time..and so..im thinking the scale isnt moving..but its actually because my clothes are affecting the scale..so i decided to just weigh myself naked from now on..cause i foget that im always wearing differnt weight of clothes..each time..So its not moving that slow..its just me being silly with not wearing the same thing.

I never figure exercise-burned calories into my calorie plan because I never really know how much I actually burn. I kind of think of them as "bonus dollars" - just an extra little bit to get me closer to goal.

Also, if you've just started working out, your muscles may be retaining water to heal themselves so you may not see a loss right away. Expect a "whoosh" sometime in the future, though!

And regarding the "starvation mode" scare... I don't subscribe to that theory at all. If it were true, anorexics would never lose weight. I am NOT advocating eating an extremely calorie-limited diet, but sometimes you have to drop below the "normal" low calorie limit to see some results. I've actually had the best luck with varying calorie intake per day. I'll go for a weekly average of 1200 and some days will be 1000 and some will be 1400 and some will be 1250 and some will be 1050, etc., so it works out to be an average of 1200 per day. I've found the same for exercise - changing up the routine makes your body work the hardest. If I do the elliptical every morning for a half hour, my muscles get super good at the elliptical workout and they don't burn as many calories because they rely on their own memory to complete the exercise. If I do the elliptical sometimes and run sometimes and walk sometimes and bike sometimes, then I see results faster. Plus, I use different muscle groups so I get a better overall workout for my body.

Hope that helps a little!

Ah, that would do it. The weight of the actual clothes.

So carry on. I also do wii games and things but I wear my heart rate monitor to get a more accurate calorie count.

GL!
A.

I agree with Kara about not counting exercise calories burned - right now I'm tracking points, and I'm not counting my activity points at all. I just think of exercise as good for my health and to tone my muscles.

Having said that, you are exercising quite a bit, but I don't think you are burning anywhere near 900 calories a day. Probably more like 500 or so, which is great.

What you burn depends on the workout. I have been using a BodyBugg to track my calorie output for over a year now and the numbers have also gone down a bit with my loss.

Closer to my high weight, one hour of TurboKick kickboxing easily burned 700+ calories for me. Now I do BodyCombat instead, and while the workout is comparable, I usually burn around 500 calories in a sixty minute class since I am smaller.

Running/walking intervals on the treadmill usually gets me an average around ten calories per minute. That is mostly running and with a slight incline.

An hour BodyPump class (weightlifting with barbells) only gets me about 200-250 calories, but I keep doing it because it's important to do strength workouts too.

I'm glad you figured out about the clothes, and hopefully my info helps some.

Yeah 9 lbs in 13 days is actually INSANELY FAST weight-loss! Congrats girl!

oh lol.. i thought it was like..avearage for people on phase 1 to lose between 9-12 pounds.. i thought i was at the bottom of average

PHG, everybody is different. There is no "average weight loss" on Ph1. You can't measure your own success by comparing it to others. I say, if you're losing weight, be happy!