Calories! Oy!

RedPanda had a good comment in the previous post:

"I think people often over-estimate the effect that stress has on weight loss. If you're stressed out of your mind for an extended period - sure - your body may produce extra cortisol which makes it easier to gain weight. Day-to-day stress and lack of sleep may encourage you to reach for sugary snacks for energy, or produce a lacklustre workout. But I don't think regular day-to-day stress will inhibit your weight loss."

I would agree with that to an extent. One stressful day or two here and there, or one or two nights of bad sleep are not going to cause weight-loss issues. But I think I fall more into the "stressed out of my mind" category, and I've been on that ride for quite a few years now. It's one of the reasons I started therapy. It's better now, but I've got a long way to go before I can handle stress better. Also, lack of sleep gives your body even less time to recuperate from exercising, and when you've been hitting it 300% like I have, your body needs all the rest it can get. But it's not the sleep itself, it's the combination of too much exercise & not enough sleep.

I know I said last week's small loss didn't bother me, but something's been on my mind for a few days. Actually, more like a few weeks. The more I think about it, the more I realize it's not the small weight loss or previous losses that get to me. It's the constant fatigue that I hate so much.

One of the main reasons I started this change was for my health & energy levels. I suffered from high levels of fatigue, so crippling I couldn't do more than the bare minimum chores around the house. And after the first few weeks of exercise, calorie & carb adjustments, I did find that energy. I was almost bouncy, which is unheard of for me. I felt good mentally and physically.

I don't know when exactly this went away. Looking back, I suspect the energy rush only lasted 2-4 weeks at most. After that point, I've gradually been feeling more and more fatigued.

Some of it is major amounts of stress. Major financial issues, college, switching around schedules & having less rest time. My therapist is not surprised that I am so fatigued based on the major stress level I'm dealing with right now and have been for about a month now.

But it's been something more than that. I can feel it. But when I was dropping weight quickly, I was able to push through the exhaustion, because I was meeting at least one of my goals. But now I'm not losing weight AND I feel like crap. I've got to have at least one ;) Actually, the ideal is both, based on the success stories I've seen at Fitday, SparkPeople, and 3 Fat Chicks, that is an attainable goal. You don't have to be miserable to lose weight.

So we're going to try upping the calorie intake. I know, AGAIN. But SparkPeople's recommendations have been scolding me for weeks that I need to eat more calories to sustain the huge amounts of exercise I'm doing. I've been ignoring it, but it looks like I've been going through a wonky weight loss since I started adding more exercise without upping the calories. Based on what I've seen from other people warning about this & based on how I feel, I worry that my body is trying to hold onto whatever fat & energy it has because I'm not fueling it with enough calories.

So I'm going to follow SP's recommendations of 1820-2120 calories a day, staying on the lower end on low activity days & higher end on big workout days. I've also dropped down my calorie burn to 4000 a week, and I'm going to try to stick to that and not blow by it like I have been, logging 5000 calories or more burned each week. It means cutting out a little bit of exercise, but I think it's worth it. I want to exercise & enjoy it & be healthy, but there's no point in killing myself with exercise and not having energy to do more with my family & around the house.

Plus, I've got to create a do-able exercise schedule that I can continue with when I start school on the 30th. I'm not going to be able to work out 7 days a week, or probably even 6...so now is the time to make sure I have a good 5 day a week routine.

I'm not going to stress if my Monday weigh-in shows bad results. I know it's going to take a week or two for my body to readjust. And this will probably mean that I will have a more "average loss" of a pound or two a week. But you know, if I feel great, am eating right & exercising, then I can be patient.