My Fitness Foe, Part Deux

I have a love/hate relationship with counting calories & using MyFitnessPal.  Read more here.  Alas, the saga continues.

*Disclaimer:  I am not a medical professional, nor am I in a position to give medical advice.  This post is based solely on my experiences.  Please consult with a doctor before embarking on a training or meal plan.

I've been using MyFitnessPal again regularly in an effort to lose about 15 lbs.  It worked great initially & I was losing about a pound a week, but then a month in, I stopped losing weight.  Also, because I work-out so much, my daily calorie goal changes dramatically from day to day, which leaves me starving on some days & full past capacity on other days.  I was kind of on a hunger roller coaster.  It didn't feel natural.  And it clearly wasn't working.

I started asking around & found out some of the people I work-out with are trying a new way to track calories/work-outs.  They went online, filled out this questionnaire & got a calorie goal that stays the same every day, regardless of how many calories you burn working out.  So no more hunger roller coaster.

Prior to doing this, to lose 1 lb a week, MyFitnessPal was giving me 1,440 calories a day.  Now, with this questionnaire, I put in that I do 5-6 hours a week of strenuous exercise & want to lose fat at a 20% calorie reduction.  It says I have 2,182 calories a day with the same goal to lose 1 lb a week.  Really?  I mean, I'm all for eating more, but 1,440 to 2,182 is a big jump.  Although, if this is right, it definitely explains why I'm *hangry all the time.

*My friend Jenn uses this word for when she's so hungry she's angry -- hangry.

Ya'll, why is this so hard!  I work-out like a frigging Olympian & eat like a normal woman with years of diet & weight loss experience.  Am I juicing, or, god forbid, cutting out gluten - no.  But I'm eating 1,440 calories a day, so I'm doing alright.  I definitely try to stick to the 80/20 rule - good 80% of the time, good-ish the other 20% of the time.  I typically save up my 20% for Saturday night - Sunday night, which is also when I burn an insane amount of calories because of my long runs.

In a normal week, I burn 3,993 calories & consume 13,458.  If you take the calories I burn a week (3,993) & divide that by 7, you get 570.  Then if you add 570 + 1,440 (my current daily calorie goal), you get 2,010, which should be the number of calories I need a day.  I think...

So, regardless of which one is the correct calorie goal for the day (2,182 or 2,010) I'm not eating enough.  I'm going to set MyFitnessPal to 2,000 calories a day for this week & see what happens.

To be continued....

P.S. If you want to be my friend on MyFitnessPal, my user name is theblondemule, but tell me who you are in the friend request.