bluefoxicy

I've been passively giving myself a little extra caloric burn. I'm talking about maybe 30 jumping jacks, or intervals of 5 push-ups and 30 jumping jacks in 5 and 4 sets, three mornings per week; two pull-ups now and then (maybe 2-5 times per day); perhaps one or two sets of 3 lifts of a 35 pound kettle bell and 10 reps of curling a 10 pounder; and a few intervals of walking--walking, damn you--around outside for 15 minutes, a total 4-5 miles.

It's not a lot of activity. It's not all at once; the most intense training session is five minutes of doing like 25 push-ups in total.

My Fitbit reports 2700-3000kcal burn total, including my base metabolism.

Now my food sources sometimes go as low as sushi and edamame--350kcal-- for lunch, but frequently include chocolate almond milk (two cups, with four tablespoons ovaltine) and a breakfast sandwich (250kcal english muffin with egg, gouda cheese, and mushrooms on it--a good 300kcal itself), something like a BK whopper for dinner, and a two-piece chicken meal from Popeye's--which is friggin' 1000kcal in one meal. I get a surprising number of calories from tea (two teaspoons of honey or some sugar cubes makes like 120-180kcal in one glass) or chocolate milk, similar to what someone gets from soda--in fact, often I can get a 40oz soda from a fast food joint without inflating my calorie intake.

Despite that, I come in between 500 and 1800kcal under every day. That means some days I eat 600kcal for breakfast, over 1000kcal at lunch, and some 800kcal or so at dinner, and still come in 1000kcal under. I've had 1500kcal intake days--sushi and black beans are surprisingly filling for little intake--but if I've moved around a bit more than usual, I'm usually more inclined to eat an enormous hoagie with a ton of mayonnaise and cheese on it.

I lost five pounds in 4 days with my digestive system slowed to its original state (18-27 days of travel).

More importantly, I just feel...worn out. Sometimes my body aches, sometimes my muscles ache a bit; I'm not sore and broken--when I used to half kill myself bicycling to work every day while immensely out of shape, to the point that my heart would stop for a few beats, I'd feel outright wrecked--just a little... nauseated?

If I'm eating 2200kcal and coming in 1000 under anyway, should I be shoving another burger down my throat? Something just feels like maybe I'm not getting enough food. I was eating 2000kcal breakfasts fried in lard and butter when I was biking everywhere every day. Losing more than a pound a day average just seems wrong, even if my diet is fried chicken, fast food burgers, and half a dozen boiled eggs at once.

Carbonfiberboy 

I admit to not exactly following the logic of your story. However if you're losing 5 lbs. in 4 days, that's too fast. Do you mean that you're constantly losing that much? Do your muscles hurt when you're working out or do you just feel tired? How much sleep are you getting?

bluefoxicy

Muscles hurt at the end of the day, not while I'm doing any sort of physical activity--aside from climbing stairs (I don't use elevators as a matter of habit, and I have offices 4 floors above me to visit), which my legs will protest after enough of that for days.

Not ever getting enough sleep. I'm so poor with sleep that I can lower my heart rate from my resting 63 to the 54 I maintain while actually asleep, without actually sleeping; and I've occasionally failed to send myself to sleep by direct effort in the most spectacular way: triggering muscle atonia, so my body goes to sleep and the only conscious movement I can carry out is rapid (but shallow) breathing and an intentional acceleration of heart rate (which will eventually wake my body back up). My body actually sleeps more than my mind; the implications of that are likely beyond the scope of this forum, but it is a fact my brain needs a period in which to catalog my memories and store them in a more compact form--everything my brain does involves creating and atrophying neurons, which essentially is reshaping the major and minor structures of the brain organ itself. In every sense, I need sleep.

The moderate physical activity I do keep is intended to help regulate my sleep, but I still have insomnia problems. I can't even sleep when exhausted--sometimes especially when exhausted.

I lost 5 pounds in 4 days in one go; it's not consistent, but I'm consistently under. Trying to figure out if I'm supposed to increase my caloric intake if my output is particularly high--insomuch as if, say, 4500 calories output in one day means I damn well better eat 4000 calories, and not take it as a good chance to eat a normal 2000 calories of food and lose a ton of weight. That would be extreme, but it creates the proper perspective.

I think a little more consistency on the rollers (I don't get a lot of high heart rate time) might help with my sleep cycle, but I need to make sure I don't kill myself in the process (far chance of that, but still).

Machka 

I sort of followed the story. It is a similar one to what people post in MyFitnessPal ... and every single one of them uses a FitBit.

I'm fast coming to the conclusion that the FitBit really messes with the whole weight loss situation.


Anyway, the important thing is this ... do not try to lose more than 1 kg (2 lb) per week. If you are losing more than that, your deficit is too great.

Over on MyFitnessPal, we recommend people eat all the calories MFP recommends for us + half the exercise calories (being realistic about how many calories we burn with exercise, of course).

So yes, if you are realistically looking at a 2000 cal deficit ... which would involve a lot of exercise ... then yes, eat more.

bluefoxicy

Makes sense.

I'll keep that in mind then.

beatlebee 

Not sleeping affects the hormone system, and can make it harder to loose fat.

gregf83 

Your diet doesn't sound very healthy. Too much fast food and not enough fruit and veggies. The 5lbs you lost in 4 days is a red herring as that was mostly water not fat.

Best to keep your caloric deficit under 500 Cals/day. You didn't gain weight overnight so there's no particular reason to lose it quickly either. Better to adjust to a healthier, sustainable lifestyle.

edit: And the muscle soreness is likely due to the extra exercise you've been adding in.

OldTryGuy

Agree.