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How much should I be eating at my activity level?!


rChristine

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I just began the WHOLE30 on February 6th and so far it is going good and I have had no cheats BUT I have a history of binge eating disorder which I have overcome for the most part but still struggle with.. From this I picked up extremely bad eating habits which I am slowly but surely learning to break. In the morning right when I wake up I do 30 minute walking/jogging/sprinting of moderate intensity intervals on the treadmill then I usually eat breakfast within and hour right after. I have school all day where I eat lunch then I have a boiled egg before I go to Crossfit around 4pm (one WOD), then half a can of salmon with about a palm size of sweet potato immediately after, then about an hour after or so I have supper. I just want to make sure I am eating enough as I tend to stick to the "smaller portion sizes" (which I believe is causing my "cravings/desire to binge 4pm and on through the night) as I have it ingrained in my head that I cannot possibly make progress with that much food intake, so just wanting to make sure I am not starving my body of any nutrients that it needs. ANY help or advice on how often to eat or anything at all would be beyond greatly appreciated!

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When you are exercising twice per day as you describe, eating at the top of the range is more likely to be appropriate than eating at the bottom of the range. The fact that you are having cravings is a likely signal that you are not eating enough now. The Whole9 meal template is a reliable friend... http://whole9life.com/book/ISWF-Meal-Planning-Template.pdf

If you follow the meal template, adjusting up or down across the range based upon your feelings of hunger, you will move to your ideal weight. I know it seems logical that eating less will make you lose weight faster, but the royal route to your body reaching its set point weight is getting your hormones in line and that won't happen if you keep yourself hungry or swing between hunger and binges.

It is not clear how often you are exercising twice per day, but you have to be careful about training too much. I know it seems logical that you will lose weight faster if you train a lot, but it is not true. Excessive training puts your body in conservation mode and slows weight loss. You have to find the sweet spot of challenging your muscles without going so far that your body becomes fearful of running out of fuel and slows your metabolism. I can tell you that doing twice daily workouts five days per week will slow weight loss. Three days per week would be a lot closer to the sweet spot.

I'm not making this stuff up or even just telling you something I've heard. I've tested it. When I started this journey about 3 years ago, I tried to speed my weight loss by eating less and exercising more. My weight loss stalled when I tried too hard. When I relaxed and just followed the program, I lost weight steadily for 15 months until I stopped losing weight right at my original goal weight.

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Tom Denham that's all really helpful info, thank you! I do Crossfit 3 days on and 1 day off, then about 4 days a week I add in treadmill intervals which consist of 2 minutes fast paced walk, 1 minute sprint, 1 minute jog and repeat 5 times, then sprint for 1 minute, fast paced walk for 1 minute repeated 5 times, then 5 minute high incline walk, and 5 minute average paced walk to cool down. I do it on an empty stomach as I do it first thing in the morning when I wake up and eat breakfast directly after.. for the meal after since it wasn't too "intense" of a workout am I fine to keep the fat portion in!? After Crossfit I always go for lean protein and maybe a starchy carb, but this is only moderate intensity for 30 minutes. Thank you greatly for all of your insights, they are appreciated!

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