Would you guys help me figure this out?

[PiratesBooty]

I'm over 40. i"m somewhere between 5 foot 9 and a half and five foot ten. I weigh 177 pounds as of today and the bodyfat scale says I am 26.4 percent bodyfat, although goes up and down a decimal point or two from morning to evening.

I have a Body Media thing that I've been watching and it says I burn between 2100 - 2500 calories per day.

I read a lot about the Body Media band before I bought it and was convinced it was very accurate. But...okay. I do a lot of walking around at my job. I park very far away from my office and according to Body Media on an *extremely low* day unless I'm sick or something I walk at least 6,000 steps a day, plus I do hard Pilates about four times a week.

However: today I laid around basically and did nothing and burned 2000 calories. At work on Friday I walked across a field, went shopping on my lunch hour, climbed a couple of sets of stairs and did an hour and a half Pilates reformer workout when I got home and burned 2096 calories, according to Body Media.

Does that seem right to you?

I think I'm burning more than that because I know I eat quite a bit more than 2000 calories and my weight has stayed steady all year -- well, for about six months.

Also, I was looking on the bodyspace "pick your body" images and decided I wanted to look like bikinigirl. In order to look like bikinigirl, it said I had to weigh 134 pounds and have 18 percent bodyfat.

I believe this is impossible. The last time I weighed 134 pounds I think I was in fifth grade. Right now according to my body fat scale my LBM is 130, so how could I conserve 130 pounds of muscle and get down to 134? There is just no way you could fit me into 134 pounds without absolutely starving myself in a concentration camp like fashion for a year or so. Plus I am *really hungry* almost all the time and can barely keep my calories under 2500.

I am so confused.

My questions:

1. What is up with Body Media? Is it possible that it's underestimating my calorie burn? If I am 400 -- 500 calories over every day it seems to me I should be packing on all kinds of weight and weigh at least 30 more pounds than I do.
2. Does it make sense for a person who was 5 10 and weighed 155 pounds in high school to have a goal weight over age 40 of 134?
3. HOW MANY CALORIES SHOULD I BE EATING? At 1500 calories, I am starving to death and feel like I'm about to expire. At 2000, I lose nothing. At 2500, I lose nothing.

I feel like I might be at a seriously stubborn setpoint. My reasonable goal would be about 155 ( 22 pound loss) and *maybe* if I could find a plan that worked, 143.

What do you think? Any advice for me? I'm really stuck.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP IN ADVANCE!

[Miranda]

here's a sticky on how to calculate your calorie needs:

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showth...hp?t=121703921

here's an in-depth review on bodybugg:

http://www.fitlifesf.com/2010/06/bod...notable-flaws/

^^ the makers of bodybugg say it can be up to 10% off, so it's possible it over/underestimates how much you burn.

on average one's maintenance is 14-16 cals x BW so based on that yours would be ~ 2,600 calories.

anyway, if your weight has been stable for the past 6 months, then you have found your maintenance if you count calories already (and 'more than 2,000' doesn't sound like you're very accurate) then eat 300-500 cals or so less than that number and see where it takes you.

don't gauge by 'hunger' as it correlates poorly with the body's actual needs. if everyone ate whenever they felt 'hungry' no-one would ever lose any fat

being a certain weight or BF% doesn't correlate with having a specific look. it all comes down to your build, how much muscle you have, where you store your fat (pear/apple) and such, although pictures with stats can give you some guidance.

your BMI puts you just slightly in the overweight category, so it's quite feasible you'd need to lose quite a bit of weight/fat - and build muscle - to get where you want to be. there's a sticky on training program basics in the training section, too. i suggest you check it out.

[PiratesBooty]

Thanks, really, so much. Is there a sticky somewhere about measurements and such? I have a 37 inch hip, 27 waist, 38 on top but I have broad shoulders, b cup. My thighs are 20.5 inches each. I don't know, maybe I'm thinking about this the wrong way but I do see maybe 20 pounds that has to go all over to be really cut -- other than that, there just seems to be something off about all these calcs. 2500 is probably about what I'm eating. I guess I'd love to see myself in the 140's but this would mean getting rid of muscle too, right?

I'm not one of those posters -- I'm at my wit's end! Nothing works!

I'm just confused about what to do to get it to work. Except try to eat less, which is possible of course in the short term, but to lose 47 pounds it's six months at least of eating a lot less. Not sure if I could stay so low for that long without rebounding.

[Miranda]

obsessing about weight and measurements won't get you far. what makes a person look 'cut' is having a good amount of lean mass with little bodyfat on top. the scale and measuring tape can't see what your numbers consist of - that is, your body composition. and BF scales are pretty much a joke anyway.

you could put two women next to each other who are of the same height and weight but look nothing alike due to differences in frame size, the amount of lean mass they have, how much bodyfat they have and where they store it.

think about it - medical recommendations (based on BMI) for your height range from 132 to 174lbs. it doesn't mean you'll automatically be ript at the lower end. it's possible to be underweight and carry a lot of bodyfat (= small frame+undermuscled) and it's possible to be in the mid-range and have moderate amounts of bodyfat (large frame+good amount of muscle) for example. there is no one-size-fits-all.

if you've never lifted weights, it's likely you don't have a lot of muscle - ie you carry more bodyfat than you think you do. read the stickies in the training section and choose an appropriate training program geared toward beginners. you need to lift weights when dieting to maintain and preserve lean mass - it is essential for looking good at low-er BF levels. you might even make some noob gains along the way. stick with it for at least 3-4 months and see what happens. then reassess and readjust if necessary. building a good physique takes years.

tracking calories can be a pain. read the calories sticky and then re-read it . . . several times, until it sinks start by tracking what you eat for a week or two to get a reliable baseline number. 'about XX calories' means you're not accurate enough. it is important that you WEIGH EVERYTHING you eat and drink except water, calorie-free drinks, black coffee and tea. do not use measuring cups or 'serving sizes'. they are not accurate.

keep your tracking methods consistent. pick a number that is roughly ~ 500 lower than what you maintain with and stick with it. start taking monthly process pics in comparable lighting/clothing/posing etc and start tracking measurements. the scale should start to move, too, even if slowly. if you can't see changes in 6-8 weeks, eat less. it doesn't really matter what number you *think* you're at. what matters is consistency and that you see a downward trend on the scale, your measurements go down and less goop in the pictures over weeks and months.

[wakechica]

Miranda hit the nail on the head.

I've had a bodybugg and at the time I was losing on it. Yes it can be 10% out either over or under but for me it worked well for a lot of the time. My job is far more sedentary at the moment so I've re-calculated (should dig out BM and see how accurate I was).

I also second the hunger thing. Everytime I ate if I was hungry I'd be huge. I drink water to subside hunger. I've also found a lower carb diet has helped a lot. I eat more fats and find I'm better. Also I find early morning hunger so much easier to ignore - I just have a cup of tea now (I'm going to try coffee.....) and then 2-3hrs after waking I'll have a protein shake. And that keeps me going until lunch, no crashes no hunger. All down to FOOD choices.

1500 cals probs way to low for you, you found your maint - take some cals off ~200 and weigh and track everything

[PiratesBooty]

Thanks so much for your focused and thoughtful advice.

I'm not sure how muscular I am frankly. I have been doing hard, consistent studio Pilates for about ten months. This included workouts on the reformer, wunda chair and cadillac/trapeze four days a week; without missing a week and barely missing a session. You all seem pretty savvy and I'm sure you probably know already that there's a fair amount of muscle building going on there in those workouts, it's not all stretching. I'm way into "advanced" Pilates series on the mat and and the floor -- I mean what I'm saying is I think I'm pretty strong. I also lost forty one pounds this year by eating six small meals a day and going from a desk job to more of a walkaround job.

Two things I haven't been doing -- much real cardio or the "lifting heavy things" deal ( except myself, lol). I still do Pilates but I had to stop the studio because I couldn't afford it anymore - actually I couldn't afford it in the first place but I really wanted to change my body. I never thought I would see 177 again so I'm looking at this trying to figure out what my next stage goals and program should be. All your thoughts are appreciated.

I want to keep training with Pilates but it seems like this might not be enough. Add an additional weight routine onto the Pilates routine? Add cardio?

Thanks!

[Miranda]

I'm not sure how muscular I am frankly. I have been doing hard, consistent studio Pilates for about ten months. This included workouts on the reformer, wunda chair and cadillac/trapeze four days a week; without missing a week and barely missing a session. You all seem pretty savvy and I'm sure you probably know already that there's a fair amount of muscle building going on there in those workouts, it's not all stretching. I'm way into "advanced" Pilates series on the mat and and the floor -- I mean what I'm saying is I think I'm pretty strong.

i know next to nothing about pilates. there's a thread on it in the general chat section atm so you might want to chime in.

what builds muscle is increased local tension overload. you place an unfamiliar tension on the muscle and overload its capacity to perform a contraction. it then responds by increasing the size of fibers and/or cell volume and machinery (muscle damage plays a part as well).

to reiterate: you need to increase tension overload over time - you will have to lift more weight as you progress. now, noobs will pretty much respond to anything, because for them anything is significantly 'more' tension/damage than nothing at all. so it's conceivable you have built *some* muscle and developed strength (which is neural in beginners) but if pilates won't allow you to increase tension overload - how do you do that with fixed machines? - you won't progress further after a certain point.

you can keep pilates if you enjoy it and you can incorporate some cardio into your routine, but if you've lost weight/fat without, there's no need to add it in 'just because'. if you decide to do cardio, don't 'eat back' the calories you *think* you burned. see cardio more as an added extra to your energy expenditure to help assist in fat loss, not as an excuse to eat more.

[PiratesBooty]

Thanks for your input. Very much appreciated

Maybe I just need to get used to the idea that I was fatter than I thought