Am I eating too little? Constantly tired/lethargic....

[BRISTOL86]

Hey Folks

Apologies if this is a stupid question but I'm relatively new to the concept of eating less/exercising more and would appreciate some thoughts!

Since the turn of the year I have been going to the gym 2-3 times per week in addition to making wholesale changes to diet.

The long and short of it is that I now burn somewhere between 1,600 - 2,400 calories per week from exercise (whereas before it was zero) and on average consume around 1,500 per day (unmonitored prior to the turn of the year so no idea what it was beforehand, but I'd estimate minimum of 2,000-2,400 per day).

My exercise normally consists of 5k on the rowing machine (~ 20mins) in addition to 40 mins or so on the cross trainer, 2-3 times per week.

I've always eat reasonably healthy meals, the main difference now is drastic reduction in alcohol consumption (red wine) in addition to pretty much zero of the usual culprit foods (cakes/sweets/biscuits in the office being the main offender). We also used to snack a lot at home on evenings/weekends, things like big bags of crisps and biscuits which has all gone out the window. We now have one bottle of wine between us per week, and that's it on the alcohol front.

I've lost around 1 stone in the five weeks since I got started, which I'm really pleased with, but I feel really tired/lethargic all the time. I don't know if this is just normal reaction to the double whammy of reduced energy in vs more energy out or whether I need to up my food intake? I wake up feeling as if I've not been to bed most mornings.

It's having the desired effect on my body (i.e. lose body mass!) but I want to ensure I'm doing it in a healthy way.

Thanks all

[BRISTOL86]

Meant to add, I'm a 30 year old male, 5ft11, now weigh 11st8

I'm really skinny framed (really thin wrists/fingers/ankles etc) but have always carried fat in stomach and chest which is what I'm trying to address (though I wanted to make healthy changes to my food and drink intake anyway, not just for weight loss per se)

[BRISTOL86]

944fan said:

Use MyFitnessPal, it will work out target calories for you based on current weight and weight loss goals. You can then track your progress. You should eat back the exercise calories you burn.

Thanks will check it out. I know the missus uses it - we basically eat the same except I have more snacks now and again (mainly fruit) so if she's eating the right amount I guess I'm eating too little. She's lost pretty much exactly the same amount of weight.

I find it hard to get out of the 'I can't eat more as I won't keep losing weight' mindset.

[BRISTOL86]

FredClogs said:

Are you getting enough sleep?

Probably 6.5-7 hours on average during the week.

[BRISTOL86]

Ok so MFP reckons I should be eating 1,730 per day and that's before considering the defecit caused by exercise. So realistically that's 14,000+ per week depending on exercise levels.

I'd say I'm some way below that at the moment so will start tracking...

[BRISTOL86]

FredClogs said:

If you're tired why not try sleeping more?

I wish...busy job and home life so I already get as much as possible! 7ish hours a night is pretty respectable isn't it? I don't even have kids...I imagine most who do get a lot less!

[BRISTOL86]

Thanks for the info and feedback guys, appreciated. Don't see much chance of drastically increasing my sleep in the foreseeable but will ramp up the calories for a while and see what difference it makes.

Re water - I drink water all day every day, I'm permanently thirsty so I probably drink 8 pints of water a day minimum I reckon!