Weight loss without energy loss

[Itsamountain]

I need to lose a stone.

I run 3 times a week: Saturday Parkrun, Weds 15 miles and hill/trail run 8 miles Monday.

I do 1 hour of exercises at home with 20kg barbell Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Includes squats, compound moves, lunges, etc, full body, with 10 mins on core.

Friday, Tuesday and Thursday I work 8 hour shifts with a very active job. 20k steps.

A diet app says to lose 1lb a week, I need to eat 1200kcal. After 3 days I feel weak and light headed when I get up.

How on earth am I going to do this!

The diet app is ridiculous. MFP wanted me to eat 1,200 cals for weight loss too.

I was unable to exercise due to illness but lost weight regularly on 1,400 cals per day.
work our your tdee and reduce the maintenance calories by 20% to get a weight loss target
tdeecalculator.net/

I just wouldn’t go that low with that much exercise. What were you eating before the drastic calorie cut. I would be looking to make healthy changes rather than trying to have such a low target.

How tall are you and what do you weigh now?

Thanks I'll check it out

You need to maximise your protein intake to do it. I eat eggs, fish, chicken and turkey. I miss breakfast and then 1,200 calories is an ok amount for the rest of the day. I'm more relaxed at the weekend.

Don't you get extra calorie allowance when you exercise?

I used Nutracheck which initially gave me 1400 calories a day (extra 200 were because I was breastfeeding). I linked my Fitbit to the app and it allowed me more calories on days when I was more active. Some days I was eating more than 2000 but still lost weight.

You can input your exercise into mfp and then it will increase your calories for food.

I'd estimate that I eat 1800 usually, with the odd day of 2200. I'm quite fussy with food and do focus on a healthy diet 80/20 wholefoods, loads of veg, lentils, limited fruit, nothing processed, just homemade food, good fats, lean protein, complex carbs etc etc. Treats are dark chocolate, banana ice cream, homemade pizza, gin, crisps.

I'm 5'1 and 8.12, but definitely flabby. 1 stone would make a huge difference I think, I carry weight on my top half. Fed up of feeling overweight despite 80% healthy diet and exercising!!!

Don't you get extra calorie allowance when you exercise

I read that eating back exercise calories is counter productive.

Eating so little when you are as active as you are is not going to be sustainable. You need to listen to your body, it's telling you it's struggling! You don't need to eat all your exercise calories but I definitely think you should be having more than 1200. Maybe increase it a little and see how you get on? Find the happy medium where you are losing weight but don't feel like crap.

You need to work out what you actually expend and then eat in a manageable deficit. 500 calories a day is the deficit needed to lose roughly a pound a week. I exercise hard and usually run to a deficit of max 300 calories, accepting that weight loss will be slow. The big problem is actually working out your deficit. You can get an app called MacroFactor (but you do have to pay for it) which is great if you are prepared to log all of your food and drink and weigh regularly (ideally daily). After a couple of weeks of data it can work out how many calories you are actually expending and then gives guidance on how many to eat to serve whatever your goal is. I find it really handy because it is quick and easy to log all food and it does not "shout" at you if you don't adhere precisely to its recommendations.

I'm struggling with this too! I joined the RHFitness group but honestly it's sucked all the pleasure out of food for me, made exercise become a chore and I barely lost any weight whilst constantly being hungry!!
They allocated me 1700 calories a day (with an emphasis on hitting a fairly high protein target) based on 10k steps a day and 3 weights workouts a week. (But i'm taller and heavier than you). On the days I do my steps as walking I'm not hitting 2200 calories burnt to get a 500 deficit, even with a weights session and some of those steps on the cross-trainer in the gym. But at weekend I run more and can hit 3000 calories burnt and find I need more carbs to fuel my runs, and the whole thing just doesn't balance out evenly for me. 1700 calories also leaves absolutely no run for proper for any sort of treat or a glass of wine as far as I can work out! I'm taking a week off tracking to decide what I do.

I lost 3 stone on MFP without feeling weak or hungry. The trick is to eat loads of protein. I am on 1200 kcal/day, 120g protein/day, 10k steps/day, 3 weights workout/week. I am 5’9 and 12st currently.
I rarely eat carbs. Breakfast is eggs and ham, lunch is chicken, cottage cheese, tomatoes, cucumber OR a prawn salad and homemade soup (no fat), snack is 0% Greek yogurt and strawberries dinner is lean protein and vegetables. Sometimes I may have enough kcals for rice or a sneaky G&T.
i never eat my exercise calories, I just don’t add them to my allowance.
You need A LOT of protein so that you don’t loose lean muscle and feel weak and hungry.
Well done on the exercise regimen, it’s super impressive!!

No pain no gain....
Same way, you will lose some energy during your workout for weight loss. You can use some simple workouts for weight loss, without losing rich amount of energy in your body.

How overweight are you?
1 lb/week is relatively fast if you don't start fairly large.