Hi guys
So I follow the 1300-1400 a day nhs calorie recvomendation but once I do my exervise my net calories fall to about 1000 calories... Does that mean I'm going in starvation mode? If so how am I supposed to exercise to lose weight if my body will just store the fat once I do my exervise? It's not fair
To lose weight, your calorie intake needs to be the your target, not minusing the exercise off. If you do this and eat plenty of fresh fruit and veg and drink plenty of water, i am sure this may help you. If you are snacking, try to have 'good' snacks instead of sugary. Ideas are fruit like banana, low fat yogurt, a slice of wholemeal toast, watermelon or a few nuts and seeds. Hope this helps x.
It's my personal experience that should always "Fuel" your exercise, the metabolic damage from not doing so correctly can not only scupper your long term weight loss goals but also be detrimental to your long term health.
The problem with this type of damage is that it does not necessarily show in the short term. In starvation mode as you put it, it is believed that your metabolism is much more likely to burn muscle rather than fat, this is believed to be due to the fact that muscle is more energy dependent that fat, so by dumping muscle you're reducing your Basal Metabolic Rate, which will help with survival during a period of Famine.
Sure some will disagree with me but if you are using exercise to lose weight or maintain a weight loss then your diet is wrong, it's as simple as that.
I've spent over 2 years now maintaining a considerable weight loss, trying various things for set periods, during one of those periods I ended up doing around 20 hours of hard Cardio a week, which occurred after killing my metabolism to point where I was having to eat less and do more each week to just maintain.
My personal advice is to exercise for Health and Change your eating habits (Diet) for weight loss. The two should not be included in the same sentence, easier said than done as we conditioned from every direction to think we need to move more and eat less to lose weight.
Good Luck with it.
I think this is very sensible advice OlsBean! I have started the 12 week plan and I'm losing weight through calorie counting but have not done any exercise outside my normal activity (and I'm quite busy, not sedentary!)
I do get concerned on here that some people are exercising but not changing their eating habits, which is the opposite to what I'm doing. I felt bad that I was not running around all over the pace in my shorts and trainers with a bottle of water in my hand. Now you've made me feel not only less guilty but quite pleased I'm not saving up problems for the future!
The rule is not to eat back your exercise calories if you want to lose weight, so ignore them on MyFitnessPal.
Oh thank goodness for that. I thought I was quite alone and never admitted that I don't eat my exercise calories! I guess they are there if I want to justify one square of chocolate or a couple of ritz crackers but it isn't often I find myself wanting them. I used to find that watching Masterchef I had to eat while viewing, but since starting the weight loss journey, I haven't done it. I always used to ask my husband why was it that I needed to eat while watching the cooking programmes, to which he replied "Well watch the sports instead". Okay, so now I exercise!!!
Hi kez17,
Starvation mode is literally that. It's what happens when people are not taking in any nourishment and have used up all their available energy stores. The body then selectively converts the protein in muscle and tissue into energy to keep alive until it has no option other than to use up an essential bit of protein thus causing the person to die of starvation.
If you are eating a reasonable, nutritious diet each day of a sensible - though reduced - calorie input, you're not realistically going to go into starvation mode.
If you seriously ignore the sensible advice you'll get from the better / more reputable sources of information such as the NHS, etc., about rates of weight loss, daily calorie intake levels and nutrition, then you could just feasibly get into that problem, but it would be pretty unlikely.
I would also agree OlsBean. Really the thing about weight loss and exercise is not about 'burning calories'.
Increased levels of exercise (or even just increased activity like walking, car-washing, housework, etc.) causes some of your hormone levels to change, including various specific hormones which impinge upon such bodily functions as feelings of hunger, feelings of satiation (being 'full'), fat storage and fat burning. And those levels of various specific hormones usually change in a beneficial way to aid the weight loss process.
That might be why, usually, people who just try to diet alone with no increase in activity/exercise levels, often aren't very successful in their weight loss efforts.
Remember your body adapts to the situations it is put into. Weight loss is about getting it to adapt to new different situations about food and activity, so that it stops storing excessive amounts of body fat.
Basically, I'm saying what OlsBean said. Don't exercise to lose weight.
Lose weight by controlling your food input / diet - especially portion control and calorie intake - and use increased levels of activity/exercise to promote the hormone level changes that will aid that process of your body re-adapting to those changes.
The primary need is to change the underlying eating habits that caused you to become overweight and therefore in need of losing weight.
(Or to put it another way, your body became overweight as it adapted to the eating situation that you put it into. For most people that's too much food and/or too much of the wrong types of food), You're now in the ballgame of reversing that.)
The exercise/activity thing is something different that happens to help the re-adaptation process along.
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