Now that I'm exercising...

Hello everyone! This is my first post in the forum. My name's Jonathan and I'm currently 18, 5'11 and 237-240 (has been flucuating) pounds.

I started my diet back in August, and since then have lost 60 pounds (my highest was 299). Over the winter I hadn't been too good with my diet, but fortunately didn't gain anything.

My diet was very low calorie, and included mostly fruit and vegetables, with the occasional chicken or fish (not very often). Over the past month, though, I've tried to raise my caloric intake up to a healthy level (1200 is my current goal. I find it hard to get up there, though, since I'm used to eating only 700 calories a day). On average, I've reached up to about 1100 calories daily since I revised my diet.

I hadn't exercised long enough/hard enough during that time, but was still losing weight on account of my diet. So now that I've raised my caloric intake, I've been exercising a lot more. I now spend 30 minutes on my elliptical doing intense cardio (before I was doing maybe 10 minutes, moderate effort), and over the past week I've been taking walks in the morning, and in the evening (hour long each, moderate effort). I've also been doing very light weight lifting for about 30 minutes a day. (I'm talking very light. 1-5 pound dumbbells are what I use right now to gain some stregnth). I've also been doing a large amount of yardwork this past week.

So over this past week I've spent about seven hours a day exercising (four hours working out, three doing intense yardwork). Last sunday I weighed in at 237 pounds, and at that point, I hadn't exercised so much. Today the lowest I weighed was 238, and I've gotten up to 242 pounds so far today. So I'm a bit frusterated over the fact that my weight hasn't been going down at all this week, considering all of my exercise. Hopefully it's just water weight!

Anyways, now that I'm exercising more, what should my daily caloric intake be? 1200 is supposedly the minimum for anyone, regardless of how active they are, and I'm still trying to work my way up that much a day. Should I continue raising my intake?

Oh my goodness.

You need a LOT more than 1,200 calories a day! First of all, 1,200 is the bare minimum for a sedentary adult woman. You're a teenager, male, and by the sounds of it are getting pretty active. 

I have no idea what your intake should be, but I'm guessing it's definitely above 2,000. Try out some of the calculators on this site to figure out what it should be.

I don't mean to sound rude, but you've been STARVING yourself, and that's a pretty stupid thing thing to do at your age, and you need to stop! No teenaged boy should be able to survive on the amount of food you've been eating - the only reason you have is because you've probably severely slowed your metabolism and lost quite a bit of muscle mass.

So to answer your question, YES you should keep raising your intake. When you do, you'll probably put on some weight at first as your body adjusts, but the way you're eating right now isn't healthy and you can't keep it up. I'd suggest increasing your calorie intake by 100-200 calories per day per week... so if you insist on eating 1,200 this week, then try 1,300 next week, etc... that way you can minimise any initial weight gain, but still kick your metabolism back into action.

It's good that you've started some weight training, you might want to focus on that rather than cardio to build up muscle mass. That will help increase your metabolism, aiding in future weight loss. I'm sure you know that muscle weighs more than fat, so again it will slow your weight loss... you might want to start taking your measurements as well as weighing yourself, to get a better look at the picture.

Some other members of this site have written some great answers to questions like these, I suggest you search the forums for any topic such as "What's wrong with my metabolism?!?!" or "Why can't I eat 1,000 calories/day?!?!" for more information.

Thank you so much for your reply. You're right - I have been very stupid about my intake. Well, I can't change the past! So as of now, I'm going to focus on slowly raising my daily caloric intake. I don't think I can do over 1200 calories as of now, because my body is used to less, and right now I'm stuffing myself when I get up to 1200 calories. You definitely bring a good idea, though. If I can raise my intake up to 100-300 calories a day, then I'll be on the path to success.

Not losing weight as of now is kind of hard for me, though I do have to be patient. It seemed like when I was eating low calorie the pounds would melt off, but I now have to focus on my general health instead of just focusing on weight loss. My goal is to get atleast one hour of vigorous cardio in a day (30 minutes in the early morning, 30 minutes in the evening) with possibly a light cardio walk after dinner. As of now, my upper body is quite weak, so I'm still building up my muscle with light dumbbells, but one step at a time.

A handful of nuts, a tablespoon of olive oil in your cooking... you can up your calories without stuffing yourself.

In addition to what was said above, it doesn't sound like you are eating a well-balanced diet if you are really only eating fruits and vegetables with only some occasional chicken or fish.  You may not be getting adequate protein or fat in your diet.  Aim for 20-30% of your calories as protein and 20-35% of your calories from "good" fats (limit saturated fats and avoid trans-fats).

Based on your stats, my guess is that you are burning over 2500 calories per day without the recent exercise and well over 3000 calories per day with the recent exercise so you really do need to eat more and make sure you get enough protein and fat.

Oh my - you need to eat a whole lot more! 1200 is the absolute minimum for a small sedentary adult woman. As a big active teenage male, you need a whole lot more. According to the tools on this site, you should be burning at least 3600 calories/day, possibly more. You need to get your caloric intake up to 2600, minimally. You will see an initial weight gain as your body gets used to no longer being starved, but you will feel great and within a few weeks the weight should start dropping off again.

If you are eating mainly fruits and vegetables, of course it is hard to get to 1200 calories! You need to add more calorie dense foods to your diet - whole grains, low-fat (not fat-free) dairy, good fats (olive oil, avocados, nuts), and more fish or chicken are all good options.

Just as a friendly suggestion - get some heavier dumbbells! 1-5 lbs isn't going to do anything for you unless you were previously bedridden or in a coma. Try lifting heavier weights to see significant results. I am a small nonathletic female with very little upper body strength (as in I can't do a single pushup) and I was able to start with 10 lb weights.