Which diet when really active?

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I’ve lost 2.5 stone over the last year, very gradually by cutting calories and increasing my activity. It’s been much tougher than before due to hypothyroidism but yay 🥳

I’m now 12 stone and have 11 stone as my goal (I’m 5ft 6 and quite muscly so that’s fine with me). I’m also training for a marathon and currently run and walk around 30 miles per week with a lot of hills.

I’ve been considering the fast 800 or BSD but find I need some carbs to run. I’ve tried without and struggle to do more than 4 miles. I can do an easy 13 on a bacon sandwich

I’m currently using MFP and it suggests 1200 a day which is fine when I’m not running or just do a short run. I know it adds on the calories you burn but I’ve read on here not to add exercise calories back. Is that the same when you exercise a lot?

I’ve just run 9 miles at an estimated 1200 calories (over 1000ft of incline involved). Do I really need to just stick to the 1200? Can I sensibly use some of those burned calories on a balanced meal?

Thank you

MFP over estimates cals that’s why it’s not wise to add, they give you back too many. However, as you are so active, work out your tdee (maintenance cals) then just reduce by 15-20% to find weight loss target. It will probably give you loads more than MFP due to your activity level.
tdeecalculator.net/

Thank you. I’ve been adding calories from my garmin rather than calculating in MFP. I’ll try the calculator!

If you are not in a hurry you can start slowly reducing so you get to level where you can run with no problem but also losing.
Let's say 2 weeks on 2k
2 weeks on 1800
If it doesn't budge move to 1600.
(Example numbers)

Also. You don't need to have same calories every day. You can do weekly a erage of what you need to lose and then spread them as needed for when you run, when you don't, when it's a short run

@SchrodingersImmigrant

If you are not in a hurry you can start slowly reducing so you get to level where you can run with no problem but also losing. Let's say 2 weeks on 2k 2 weeks on 1800 If it doesn't budge move to 1600. (Example numbers)

Thank you... that sounds sensible rather than my impatience!

I’m wondering whether 5:2 might work (avoiding running on the 2 days)

Yeah if you run 5 days only, you can move some calories to them. I move them to my day off for wine😂
If you run every day though, it might be shame to stop.

@SchrodingersImmigrant

Yeah if you run 5 days only, you can move some calories to them. I move them to my day off for wine😂 If you run every day though, it might be shame to stop.

I’d rather have wine and not run two days a week 😂