Hi Susan! I haven't been online all weekend;( I have alot of catching up to do
It would be helpful to me if I knew how much you weighed and how long you have been eating 1300-1400 calories! Under eating can be a setback! Restricting your caloric intake could cause your body to store food as fat versus burning it as an energy source. I have some calculations for you to get an idea of calories needed to not only function at optimal performance but to further assist you in learning when to eat more and when to eat less depending on your activity output! You will have to overcome your fear with extra food consumption, this can be done by still making healthy choices in addition to what you already eat! With this new behavior modification keep in mind that you are fueling your body while at the same time rebuilding your relationship with food intake and exercise output! Below is with moderate exercise than with heavy training days you will need to consume more calories!
Now for 125 lbs. and you have a" moderate" activity level:
Your BMR is (125/2.2)*.9*24 = 1227 calories.
Your Activity level lower limit is 797 calories
Your Activity level upper limit is 920 calories
Your calories per day = 2025 to 2147 calories.
At heavy activity
Your Activity level lower limit is 920 calories
Your Activity level upper limit is 1227 calories
Your calories per day = 2147 to 2454 calories.
Now for 130 lbs
You weigh 130 lbs. and you have a moderate activity level:
Your BMR is (130/2.2)*.9*24 = 1276 calories.
Your Activity level lower limit is 829 calories
Your Activity level upper limit is 957 calories
Your calories per day = 2106 to 2233 calories.
At heavy activity
Your Activity level lower limit is 957 calories
Your Activity level upper limit is 1276 calories
Your calories per day = 2233 to 2552 calories.
Now for 140 lbs
Your BMR is (140/2.2)*.9*24 = 1374 calories.
Your Activity level lower limit is 893 calories
Your Activity level upper limit is 1030 calories
Your calories per day = 2268 to 2405 calories.
At heavy activity
Your Activity level lower limit is 1030 calories
Your Activity level upper limit is 1374 calories
Your calories per day = 2405 to 2749 calories.
For those who have other(Lbs)to calculate you can do it easily at
http://op1.prosourceonline.com/bmr.asp
As for my caloric intake it is based on my activities through the day always eating more protein towards the night! I do follow a particular method , This is my own personal preference! I hope you don't find it confusing( I went in to this awhile back and had several pm's for this info),I'll go into detail for those interested too. Just to let you all know that there's a way to lose fat and still maintain a reasonably high BMR so your fat loss process can continue smoothly. It's called the "zigzag" method of fat loss, and it works better than any fat loss method there is(IMHO). Why? It's permanent. Permanent, that is, if you continue to eat 5 or 6 smaller meals per day and exercise regularly. It also allows you to maintain (or improve) your lean muscle mass.The Zig-Zag method keeps your body off guard so it never knows what caloric level will be intaken for the day. It will burn calories as it assumes that there will be more coming in when in fact there may be only a limited amount for that day so fat stores are used for energy! You'll notice that as you reduce your caloric intake and increase your caloric burn your percent bodyfat drops correspondingly. But so does your BMR. Then, to force your BMR back to a normal level, you begin eating normally again for a brief period. What happens is that your bodyfat level again begins to climb, but not so high as it was at the beginning. Then you lower your caloric intake again; down goes your bodyfat. Eat normal again, and up the bodyfat goes - again, not so high as it was before. This process continues until your bodyfat percentage is at healthful levels(which yours are).By zigzagging your caloric intake like this, you ultimately allow periodic BMR adjustments to take place, bringing it back to a level corresponding to your new (lower) body weight. Then it's easy to begin losing fat again, and again. If you simply trying going down, down down in bodyfat, your BMR never has a chance to adjusted and your fatloss efforts become harder and harder until, in thorough frustration, you binge out and get fat again - forever
The key to the entire process, is weight training. Without the weight training your lost weight will be from lean tissue, NOT only fat! And don't try to do it too quickly! Even with weight training starvation diets will cause too much lost muscle rather than only fat. Walking is OK for those considered "chronically" fat. For those of you who are only slightly overweight other forms of aerobic exercise are excellent for maintaining great cardiovascular fitness. Even for such people weight training stands out as the single best method there is for ensuring that gradually lost weight will come from fat stores, and not hard-won muscle tissue. This is because aerobic training simply does not build muscle to the extent that weight training can. When you couple the zigzag method and weight training with moderate aerobic exercise and a careful diet and proper supplemenatation, you will be amazed at how easy it is to lose fat, and how enjoyable it is to keep it off or just maintain your current weight. So to put it all in a nutshell, you have 7 days in a week, out of the 2 days during the week choose which ones you want high calorie(of course around family functions,hanging with friends or eating out) then the other 5 days eat cleaner and lesser calories! This is "my" guideline, you can have 3 higher calories days(hopefully on high active days
and the other 4 varying in lower caloric intake! No more than that if you want to maintain current weight or lose weight! You don't want to jeapordize your metabolism by undereating over a long period of time!You'll be surprised how the high calorie days shock your metabolism and improve your bodyfat composition!Just an added note- For someone who wants to lose weight safely 2 lbs max is recommended by dropping 7000 calories from your caloric intake during the week-you can minus that factor into your caloric needs! HTH
