Starvation, Calories, and Adaptations - Page 9

Steve · #**121** (**permalink**) September 30th, 2008, 06:02 PM

First, refeeding is a specific way of eating with a specific goal.

What I'm talking about in this thread is simply eating sane. People go around eating far too few calories and I'm talking about reversing that. In my world, that's not refeeding. But that's not important to this discussion either.

I've actually seen people lose weight while ramping up their calories.

On the flipside, I've seen people gain too.

But never ridiculous amounts, assuming intelligent tactics are used.

If someone is dieting using a huge deficit and they're realizing success. it's hard to get them to 'see the light.' If someone is dieting using a huge deficit and they're plateaued, it's easy to 'get them to see the light.'

Whatever the case may be, it's simply a matter of ramping up the calories steadily while tracking the metrics and tweaking exercise. There's no clear cut way of going about it. It's a tough & feel process based on individual response.

sharoo · #**122** (**permalink**) October 13th, 2008, 01:24 PM

Thanks for printing the formula. It works for me, except for the exercise factor. At my age/weight/sex (59/215/F) my BMR calculation comes out to 1613, or 1913 at "sedentary" (about right). But when I try to add in the exercise factor, I come out with way too high a calorie count.

I exercise 5 or 6 days per week, typically an hour of ice skating or biking. I would characterize that as "moderate exercise." But the calculation for "moderate" adds a calorie burn of almost 900 per day! There's no way that can be right. According to the calorie estimators I've checked, an hour of biking or skating at my weight should burn 600-700 calories (which seems to match my experience).

Am I misunderstanding the levels of exercise implied by the descriptions?

Steve · #**123** (**permalink**) October 14th, 2008, 05:32 AM

It's not just exercise.

It's all activity.

sharoo · #**124** (**permalink**) October 20th, 2008, 09:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shygemini

I guess i don't really understand why people find it is necessary to go to such low calories to lose weight. I"m eating 2300 calories/day and losing 2lbs a week. It isn't difficult, i took off 250calories from maintenance and then i'm exercising 4 or so days a week, and i'm not hungry.

*sigh* Must be nice. You have a high metabolism, and that's wonderful. Not everybody does. You may find that your metabolism slows down A LOT when you hit middle age. Mine sure did.

I'm still not sure how you could be losing 2 pounds a week by cutting out 250 calories a day and exercising. You'd have to be burning an additional 750 calories per day, 7 days a week, for that to work. That's some exercise program! Or maybe you have actually cut back your calories more than you realize.