Posted in reg board and want to see your answers
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mjj79
Posts: 415 Member
So I've done this before without much success. Had a baby 8 months ago and ready to get serious but confused about some things. MFP says my calorie goal should be 1490 based on sedentary lifestyle. (I'm still trying to get into a workout routine.) my BMR , based on diff calculators, is around 1990 (TDEE is around 2300 .) I wear a Fitbit and have been earning several hundred to 1000 calls a day based on everyday activity. (According to my Fitbit my TDEE is more like 2700.) Should I eat those back or only eat back actual exercise calories? Should I just stick to the 1490? I have about 100-110 lbs to lose, which seems impossible:/ (I have searched through many threads but still feel a little confused.)
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The Fitbit is giving you your maintenance (TDEE) calories, what you should eat while doing the activity you are doing to maintain your weight. MFP does not consider your activity until you log in your exercise. After logging your exercise, if you chose maintain weight on MFP, the calorie result should be close.
To lose weight, the sensible approach would be to cut 5 to 15% (at most) from this maintenance (TDEE) value. That's how many calories you should be eating.
Now, before hitting the sedentary level, remember that caring for a baby already puts you in a higher activity level. If you are nursing, you will need more calories (and fluids). MFP doesn't know those details and may underestimate and you will find yourself starving and not losing weight.
Take it step by step. Don't be overwhelmed by how much weight you want to lose. Baby steps. Have you read through our free starting guide? http://training.eatmore2weighless.com/get-your-quick-start-guide
Have you checked our "Start Here" thread above this one? Make sure you check them out!
Tereza
Team EM2WL Member, Certified Trainer and Coach1 -
Thanks! I know I downloaded the introduced guide a couple years ago...so I'm familiar with the material but foggy. I am nursing and I'm a homeschooling , part time working mom of 6 ...so maybe light activity would be better. I think that puts TDEE at around 2700...,so then I guess I would eat at 85% of that. (15%cut)0
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Oops, hit reply to quickly. When I start exercising regularly again is it better to change my TDEE or eat exercise cals?0
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If it's exercise that the database has good chance of being correct on (anything with intensity specific, running, walking, ect that you matched the entire time stated), you can use it and take off same 15%.
If non-specific (spinning, elliptical) - get a better estimate elsewhere, then 15% off.
The MFP activity levels are NOT considered with exercise - they don't ramp up fast enough. They are daily life with no exercise expected.
Hence the need to log when done and eat back.
And ya - easily lightly active. Sedentary doesn't mean a desk job - it means total life not including workouts.
You are no where near for your household duties as mom.0 -
Can I really lose eating 2000 cals?!?! I ate 2000 yesterday and my weight was up 3 lbs today!0
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If you burn more than that daily - you would have to.
The problem is you've probably suppressed your daily burn by undereating for so long, probably lost some muscle mass too.
Reread all the info about water weight fluctuations.
You probably ate more sodium than normal, and you had some missing glucose stores that finally got to top off, that stores in muscles with water attached.
And was it valid weigh-in at both times to even be meaningful change?
Morning after rest day eating normal sodium levels, not sore from last workout.1 -
Can you really lose eating 2000 per day?
I am a 49 year old non-nursing woman, with a desk job. I work out 3-5 times per week. No young kids to chase. I ate an avg of 2650 cals per day last week and had no net gain - and possibly even a net loss of 1/2 lb (I ate some sugar late last night which caused a water gain, plus I have some sore muscles from my workout yesterday - so my weigh in this morning was not a good valid one). I have 25-30 more lbs to lose, but right now I am trying to find how much I actually burn, so not trying to lose. The first thing I did after I started upping my calories was the protein challenge that the web site emailed me, and one of my major daily goals is to hit my 30% protein macro, I usually get to at least 25%, I think this really helps.
So, back to your question, if you have 100-110 to lose, if your body WAS used to eating more (see Heybales post above), yep you would lose a lot at 2k a day (more than what is healthy probably). Especially if your calculated TDEE is 2750, heck if you work your way up to your TDEE calories slowly and reset your metabolism, you could lose at 2500 cals a day! This is still mind boggling to me, but after a month of upping my calories - I see it does work.
You can check out my thread in the motivation/journal section if you want details, but the biggest change I notice is how much more energy I have to work out. I have also decided not to cut calories till I know what I actually burn so I am working on finding my real TDEE with upping calories every week.
The guides they post here in the welcome section are really great too. Baby steps like Tereza said! Eating more food is worth the time and effort in my book. But then again I LOVE food hehe. Overall this is a GREAT place to hang out - the people here are awesome and so helpful, so glad you are here.1 -
PS I am betting your activity level is active... not light and for sure not sedentary! Mine actually falls under active as well even with a completely sitting down all day job.0
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@Naturalnut Yes, being able to simply eating more is totally worth it! The key is to be your leanest and strongest self while eating as much as you can! Maybe that may sound a bit gluttonish or selfish, but seriously, having to barely eat and still gain or not lose weight is not something I signed up for.
Eat more, have more energy, push harder, gain muscle, burn more, look leaner is definitely the positive cycle I like being stuck on
Quick recap on why we should eat more: http://eatmore2weighless.com/is-em2wl-an-excuse-for-gluttony/
And: http://eatmore2weighless.com/why-eating-less-and-exercising-more-can-backfire/
Tereza
Team EM2WL Certified Trainer and Coach1 -
You have such a lot going on in your life I am getting you are active! Your Fitbit is telling you you need at least 2700 but that's hard to believe right? Does that include any extra calories for nursing?
I know it will sound counter intuitive but you need to be increasing your calories!
Just take it gently, adding 100 calories per week until you get up to TDEE. Then just sit there for a while and see how you feel.
Enjoy the extra energy, better moods, ability to start killing workouts etc.
Ichel
Team EM2WL0 -
You have such a lot going on in your life I am getting you are active! Your Fitbit is telling you you need at least 2700 but that's hard to believe right? Does that include any extra calories for nursing?
I know it will sound counter intuitive but you need to be increasing your calories!
Just take it gently, adding 100 calories per week until you get up to TDEE. Then just sit there for a while and see how you feel.
Enjoy the extra energy, better moods, ability to start killing workouts etc.
Ichel
Team EM2WL0 -
Can I really lose eating 2000 cals?!?! I ate 2000 yesterday and my weight was up 3 lbs today!
Yes.
I weighed 190 when I started calorie counting here. Picked "lightly active" because I teach for a living and that's what it told me to do. Picked "lose 1 pound/week". It told me to eat 1600 calories/day. I actually ate ~1750 calories/day and lost upwards of 2 pounds/week. Math says that means I was burning ~2750 calories/day.
Was skeptical of that number, but was clearly not eating enough. So, increased calories to ~1900/day. Still lost ~2 pounds/week. Seems to confirm that I burn a lot of calories.
Fine. Raise calories to ~2,000/day. *Still* lost over 1.5 pounds/week. (Yeah, I know. The math said this wasn't enough. I had a hard time believing it. Particularly since I was now down 20 pounds and knew that had to have dropped my calorie burn at least a little.
Bit the bullet and raised calorie goal to ~2,250/day. Have been crazy busy at work, so haven't been able to attend my workout class - but that's only 2 hours/week and ~800 calories/week. So, total calorie burn is currently sitting around 2,600/day. It should be back up to 2,700/day once I start working out again.
And, yes, I'm still losing weight. I've finally got it down to the rate I want, but I weighed 153 the other morning. So, I've lost 37 pounds eating close to, at, and above 2,000 calories/day.
About 25 pounds in, I got a FitBit Charge 2. The calorie burns it reports are consistent with all the numbers above. The burns are about right. Yours probably are too. *And* if you're breastfeeding, FitBit doesn't know about that so you should add calories for that. Having young children can result in a really high activity level without you even really thinking about it. And that activity level means you get to eat!!!
Edited to say that, if you're like me (high activity level but not a lot of "working out"), TDEE calculators will not work for you. They all insist that intensity of activity must ramp up with active hours - which simply isn't true for many of us. Go with the FitBit numbers for your TDEE until you have a good reason not to.5 -
Wow. Thanks! It's good to hear concrete details! Gives me hope!1
