Compromising your metabolism?

Training and losing weight is a double edged sword.  Eat enough to fuel but restrict my intake enough to lose.


In Jan 2010 I started and I weighed-in that day at 297 I had been over 300 lbs easily. I lost 22 lbs in the first 9 weeks. I was exercising everyday for at least 30 min of hard cardio. I was trying to hit a caloric goal of 2300 calories which was a 500 calorie per day deficit. I wasnt eating my calories back that I burned during exercise. I continued to lose.

By Oct 2010 I was down to about 225 and over the next couple months it seemed to me that it was harder for me to lose weight. If I missed a workout I wasnt losing so I had to be very strict. I still was not eating my exercise calories. 


In reviewing my diary now, I was taking in roughly 1200-1600 calories a day and exercise burning 450 - 1100 calories a day. There were some days where my net caloric intake was less then 200 cals Net after exercise. I was starving myself.  How long had I been doing this?


 I never ate back my calories. 


Feb 2011, I was at my lowest weight yet. 197 lbs Woohoo! From over 300lbs to 197lbs I felt and looked amazing. I hurt my knee running and was layed up for 6 months. Because I couldnt do cardio I did upper body strength training and Kept my calories low. I managed to maintain and only inched back up to about 205. By the time I had recovered and I was back to training for my triathlon. I was 198 the day of my race. But I couldnt lose anything more. I was trying hard I was eating very carefully. Burning 1000+ cals 4-6 days a week and eating about 1500 total. This had gone on for months. All of 2011 I essentially stayed the same or gained 5 lbs.


As the 2011 holiday season approached and triathlon season ended I relaxed my diet and my exercise as I was mentally spent from the constant grind of not making progress for a year. The fat fell off of me all through 2010 but in 2011 It was all I could do it shave 5 pounds. 
Jan 2012 I weighed-in after abandoning diet and exercise for 2 full months. Scale was 221 lbs. I dropped 7 lbs in 2 days (water). I had to get back under I started again doing what I had done again.... Nothing 1 lbs loss ... a single cheat meal. 3 lbs gain for 4 days (not just water). That continued... I was up down, up down, up down.


Everyone was telling me..."Massive, your not eating enough! You are starving yourself!" I bought a BodyMedia Fit about a month ago and basically what I've found is that my daily TDEE is at or exceeds 3000+ Calories a day without exercise. So If I'm only eating 1500 calories a day my body, without exercise, is at a 1500 calorie per day Deficit, add a 1000 calorie workout in there and your looking at some serious nutrition issues. A week before I got my Bodymedia fit I started eating a total of 2000 cals ( or trying to make sure I ate that minimum) That wasn't my net but just a total


Is starvation mode real?  I think it is I definitely wasn't eating enough to properly fuel my body.  Its hard because quite honestly it scares me to eat lots because I'm actually afraid to eat to much and gain the weight back.  I dont ever want to go back to where I was and eating calories in excess really scars me so I'm still struggling with it.  I'm trying harder to make sure I eat 2000-2400 cals on days I workout so I'm taking in 1500ish total.  According to estimation If I did No workouts My maintenance calories should be around ~2200 calories/Day.  so by my estimation I should be at a 600-900 calorie deficit.   a little more then normal but everything is an estimate anyway.   I do calorie load when I do long bikes and runs so I take into consideration my caloric needs based on activity levels.


Eat more to lose weight Crazy!  I've dropped almost 6 lbs since trying this approach.


Starvation mode Myth?  - interesting  read