I've been pretty pleased with my weight loss efforts so far- on average, about a pound a week, so I'm chugging along ok. My concern is that I kind of lost it over the weekend. Towards the end of the week I was feeling exhausted and having a tough time keeping up in my classes at the gym, and on the weekend I ate EVERYTHING. I tried to curb the damage, but it was pretty bad. On Friday, I weighed 223 pounds. On Monday, I weighed 230. It's gone down again to 224, but it's looking like weight loss (beyond last Friday's 223) isn't gonna happen this week.

ANYWAY, I am concerned that the exhaustion + extreme appetite may have been a result of the way I've been eating. I've always heard not to eat your calories back, because calorie calculators aren't reliable, but I'm burning a lot of calories some days- today I've walked 6 miles and plan to walk 6 more, which a calorie calculator estimates as 1600 ish calories burned for today. I also went to a gym class. Most days of the week, I do some sort of strength training or aerobics class at the gym and walk about four miles. Four miles is only about 400 net calories burned, but one class the instructor looked at her fitbit and said it told her she had burned 1000 calories. Even if I'm only burning half that in gym classes, that leaves me with a net calorie consumption for the day of 300 since I aim for 1200.

Does anyone have any information or experience about whether exercising a lot and not eating calories back has a negative impact on your metabolism or hunger or anything like that? I could honestly see it going either way.

Edit: apparently I am pretty diet brained because I typed my weight wrong like four times

i believe if you're that exhausted and cannot keep up with your w/o's, then you're not eating enough. Try incorporating a bit more cals into your every day and hopefully you won't go on an all out binge on the weekends. If lower carb works for you, then try adding in more proteins and fats, for some, more carbs are more energizing but i would try to keep it all on the healthy side!

Thanks! I think I'll raise my calorie intake a little- the hard decision is how much, since I have a hard time telling when I'm tired from exercise and when I'm tired from not eating enough. Maybe I'll try going up to 1400 on exercise days and see how it goes.

First off, congrats on how active you've been!

I would encourage you to eat back at least half of your calories from your exercise, possibly more depending on how confident you are in the calorie expenditure estimate. You've chosen a low level of calories to consume, so your diet alone is already giving you a significant calorie deficit. It's not necessary to also add in such a large energy deficit with exercise. It's making things harder than they need to be and also is potentially unhealthy.

Also, the more sustainable and pleasant the weight loss portion of your experience is, the easier it is to transition into successful long-term maintenance because it becomes more about a lifestyle change and not two different ways of life, with one being "weight loss" living and the other being "normal" living. The more similar those two phases are, the less likely regain is. So the sustainability of your weight loss method is vital. It's smart to ask ourselves if we could live like this, or close to it, forever. Because that really is the way to maintain.

For me it has never worked to try and eat back calories burned. But I understand needing some more on really active days. But just even adding say 300 cal snack with a lot of protein could help your energy and not make too much of an impact on overall calories

Calorie counting is something that I advise against. I know a lot of people do it - most people do it. I've never counted calories. If you eat clean, eat frequently, then the weight should fall off of you and you should also not be hungry. If you're eating clean you have no reason to count calories because everything is naturally low calorie. This is just my opinion...

Sometimes I get mega hungry, but then I know to increase my vegetables and also water intake. Sometimes I increase my protein a bit, but food is never stressful for me because I don't have to worry about those pesky calories.

Maybe do some research into clean eating and see if that's the right thing for you.

I never plan to eat back exercise calories. If I'm feeling particularly weak/hungry one day, I'll eat a little extra, but for me it is more about how my body feels then eating back a certain number.

For me, I tend to go with how I feel. If im very hungry or feel run down/tired/lethargic I will have a healthy extra 500 calories or so from my workout cals. The next day, I evaluate again and see if I need to repeat or am good to go.

I've gained a ton of weight due to a previously untreated thyroid issue and a year long recovery from major back surgery, so don't let my current numbers fool you. I was a fit gym rat, gained pregnancy weight, and lost it successfully with exercise and diet. I love 2 scoops of plain, organic Teras Whey Protein Powder in 1 cup of OJ 30 minutes prior to a workout. You need some fructose and protein before a workout. After a strenuous workout drink up to a liter of water and prepare a lean protein + veggie meal. (You can get precooked chicken breasts to microwave and steam in the bag veggies if you are in a rush.)

Find a Protein you like for preworkout: Greek Yogurt blended with frozen blueberries and peaches is also great. There are plenty of Protein Shakes with stevia or splenda. I am not a fan, but a lot of the very lean bodybuilders will use these products because they are flavored and just add water or milk etc.

I hope this helps