Should I really be eating this many calories!?

psuLemon

jenniator wrote: »

Thank you so much That is unfortunate about the HRM, but at least I havent bought one yet. I was considering to buy one for when I use the elliptical since I heard they over estimate by 30%. Wow 2,200 calories seems like an extremely amount to eat for a women that wants to lose 2 pounds a week. I don't know if I could bring myself to eat that many calories a day ha ha. But today I am aiming for around 1663 to 1763 calories which I still feel is such a huge amount and I feel extremely bad for eating so much. I have been getting a lot of protein I believe I eat eggs for lunch some days and meat at night. Not sure about the carbs or fats though.

You maintain your weight around 2200... to keep losing 2 lbs, don't change anything. And the HRM can work if you start running instead of walking. But for walking or resistance training or HIIT, HRMs just aren't accurate.

Cortneyrenee04

It looks like you would do well eating about 1820 a day as long as your exercise is very consistent. I would definitely recommend bumping up calories slowly to make sure that number is right for you. Drastic changes are generally not the best idea good luck!

pinkiezoom

jenniator wrote: »

Hi Cortney I'm actually not sure how many calories a day I should be eating (without counting the exercise) since everyone I talked to said the amount i was eating was too less. I actually really do enjoy walking and don't mind that it takes so long. I enjoy the fresh air and listening to my music, but I've been a little depressed lately since I'm having trouble losing 1 pound for weeks, so it really is affecting my attitude and I don't enjoy walking as much as I did because of it. But normally I really do love it. But my husband bought me a elliptical to use for my birthday, so I plan to use that instead of walking when it arrives Especially with the rainy season coming. I was also thinking of starting a beginner jogging routine from Sparkspeople Monday and it's a 5 week program. It's about 25-30 minutes of walking/jogging for 3 days a week.

What is TDEE? I have never heard of that term. My height is 5'6 and I'm 201 pounds if that helps

that elipictical trainer will help your weight start shifting as my goodness they make you sweat and raise your heart rate, i am the same height and weight as you, but probably older,and after a lot of just using the treadmill i have moved on to the eliptical trainer, and if you pelt it out, the calories you burn are much more than walking.
Do you measure yourself? as on the weeks I dont lose any weight i shrink in size lol!
Not all wins are shown on the scales.

Sued0nim

Ok I burn around 350-400 calories in 5 miles ...using a fitbit and a HRM

MFP would give me around double that

So I would increase your calorie consumption slowly ..say a 100 a day for a week then again until you hit the MFP plus 50% of exercise calories ...yes you should lose at a higher number

Also the weight you've put on is just from upping your calories so quickly ...don't worry it's just water fluctuation

Good luck ...and enjoy eating sensibly to lose your weight

jenniator

Omg rabbitjb, are you seriously?! So MFP says I burn 312 calories, so it's actually 156 calories for 51-53 minutes!? I thought a mile was 100 calories? Wow that is actually really sad to hear. I thought I was getting 600 a day, but it's really only 312 calories for 2 hours of walking?

And here I was so proud of myself for burning so many calories...I thought.

lemurcat12

jenniator wrote: »

Omg rabbitjb, are you seriously?! So MFP says I burn 312 calories, so it's actually 156 calories for 51-53 minutes!? I thought a mile was 100 calories? Wow that is actually really sad to hear. I thought I was getting 600 a day, but it's really only 312 calories for 2 hours of walking?

And here I was so proud of myself for burning so many calories...I thought.

It's great you are walking a lot and you should be proud of yourself for being active and burning all those calories, as compared with what would be happening if you were sedentary, but when you calculate an estimate of calories burned to figure out what calories you need to lose weight and take into account calories burned from exercise, especially activities like walking, you have to be careful.

First, there's a certain amount of physical activity that it's assumed that a person will have even without intentionally exercising. For example, for a while I put myself down as "lightly active" and didn't log all the walking I do on a daily basis, even though I was otherwise eating back exercise calories and even though I walk a lot (I live in a city and walk basically everywhere). I still think that's probably the best way to handle walking calories--you might want to see what MFP recommends if you call yourself "lightly active" and don't bother eating back the exercise.

Second, one reason you have to cut calories from stuff like walking and long slow bike rides--basically any longer, low-intensity exercise--is that you burn lots of calories just existing. The estimates you get for calorie burns typically do not adjust to remove the calories you would have burnt during the same time period even if you were inactive.

Finally, congrats on the 40 lb loss! But the effect of that is that you burn less just existing and less from exercise, and that could be one reason you are doing the same thing and not losing so much.

brandigyrl81

Here's my advice:

1. If you want to invest in a heart rate monitor, then I say go for it. I use a heart rate monitor (Polar FT4 brand) and I love it! It's way more accurate then using MFP's estimated numbers.
2. Since you've been walking for a good while now, it's probably time to switch your exercise routine. Try incorporating some strength training.
3. As far as your exercise calories go (the calories you've earned from exercising), try to refrain from eating all of them back. This creates a larger deficit.

sofaking6

I've found that when *running*, I can burn up to 100 calories per mile, but for walking it's less than half that. You're probably not too too far off though, if you're walking two hours a day. And how AWESOME that you are doing that for yourself, that shows so much dedication, it's really impressive to me!

Since you've done well so far, you're definitely on the right track. Ask people who have successfully lost similar amounts to you and they will tell you, sometimes you just don't lose for awhile. Bodies are complicated and we barely understand them.

I would however start eating back at least some of your exercise calories. As suggested, make little changes and see what happens. You'll feel better and it won't hurt your weight loss. And I think it's great that you're planning to up the intensity of your exercise - walking is awesome and yes it's burning calories, but you'll see once you start with the elliptical that getting your heart rate up will really improve your fitness quickly. You'll start feeling the results of your hard work as daily life gets easier, and you won't have to rely on the scale so much to tell you how you're doing.

Congrats on your weight loss so far and what I'm sure will be continued success.

WinoGelato

If the majority of your activity is walking, maybe running - you may want to invest in a FitBit. You can wear that for the full day to track your activity and a reasonable estimate of your calories burned, it syncs with MFP and helps determine how many calories you should be eating based on your activity level that day. I have found mine to be fairly accurate with predictable results when I use the two tools together.

jenniator

Thank you so much lemurcat! Honestly I was so depressed and hurt when I found out I wasn't burning as much as I believed. Thank you so much for the encouraging words, it really does help me feel so much better. I really am proud of myself for losing as much weight as I have. It actually is amazing that I've lost 39-40 pounds just from walking alone! I didn't realize how careful I needed to be with calculating walking calories. I thought I had such a high amount since both MFP and my walking app said similar things. I mean at least I am doing something about my weight and trying my best even if it's a small amount of calories for such a lot of time spend exercising.

I put myself as Moderately active, but I might need to change it to lightly active if I'm only burning 312 calories a day. I only calculate the calories from what I call my "exercise period." That's when I exercise exclusively to lose calories and walk for 51-53 minutes non-stop. If I go to the store, walk some where, or bike some where, I don't count that as exercise so I don't count the calories. I heard you shouldn't count the calories you burn doing what you would normally do, but you should count the calories you go out of your way to specifically burn.

Thank you! It's actually 39 pounds from this morning since I'm back to 201, but I'm hoping that will change soon

jenniator

Thank you for your advice Brandi

I heard HRM are not good for elliptical's since they don't count the resistance. So I might pass on it

Yeah I figure my body has got use to walking after 5 months. My husband was able to find one 5 pound weight, so I got that to work with I do want to start a bit of strength training. My husband ordered me a Elliptical for my birthday and I'm hoping that will arrive soon. Monday I plan to start a beginners jogging routine for 5 weeks. It's really simple. Walk 4 minutes, jog 1 minute, repeat for about 25-30 minutes. But I figure it will help get me started in the right direction and the amount of time jogging increases over week while the time of walking decreases.

jenniator

Hello Sofaking,

I absolutely can't run at all unfortunately I've tried jogging a little, but my legs get incredible sore and painful. So I stopped jogging until Monday so my legs can hopefully heal up. Then I plan to start a beginners jogging routine. Walk 4 minutes, jog 1 minute for about 25-30 minutes and it's 3 times a week. It gets harder every week Thank you so much for the kind words!! Dedicated is one word that really describes me and something I'm really proud of. I refuse to give up and will keep trying until my weight budges. I can get discouraged when my weight doesn't change for a while and want to give up, but I refuse too I really do think 2 hours of walking is a pretty long time, so I'm proud of that.
I'm glad I'm not the only one that sometimes has trouble losing weight. Bodies really are complicated.

I'm keeping my calorie limit to around what MFP suggests, so hopefully that will help me I just hope I'm not over eating. Today I reached 1,563 calories and I feel like that's a high amount. MFP says I'm suppose to eat 1,672 calories a day, but I'm pretty full right now so I don't think I should try to eat another 109 calories. I do feel a lot better eating a little more calories and I'm a lot more full. Normally on my other diet, I always feel hungry. I really am excited to get started with the elliptical once it comes! I think it will turn my body into a lean mean burning machine ha ha! At least that's the hope I lost a lot of calories with just walking, so I'm so excited to try the elliptical.

jenniator

My calories are logged in at 1,563 and I have finished drinking 10 cups of unsweetened tea I always love seeing my water cup overflow. I'm so glad I didn't go over my calorie limit since I was putting myself 300 calories higher than I really am. But I changed it to 312 for the whole day and I'm within my calorie limit which is wonderful!

I do feel like I'm eating a lot since I'm not use to this many calories, but I really do feel a lot better. On my other diet, I was constantly hungry. Now I am actually full!

jenniator

I also wanted to ask a question. I heard the elliptical is way over estimates the calorie burned as well. When I start using it, how much calories should I reduce the amount by to get a estimated calorie burn rate? Should it be 30% or 50% reduce? Or even another percentage?

lemurcat12

jenniator wrote: »

I put myself as Moderately active, but I might need to change it to lightly active if I'm only burning 312 calories a day.

I think moderately active is fine given all the walking you've described. Are you referring to MFP? (I didn't actually realize it had a moderately active option, but thought it went from lightly active to active, which I've always thought was weird.) I'd say do that and then don't worry about also eating back walking calories.

astrose00

I have found that eating most of my calories earlier in the day works for me. I have a low carb dinner (lean protein and green leafy veggies cooked in olive oil). I work out after that so I am sure it's all burned off before I go to bed. I follow a bodybuilders "diet" and do 45 mins of intense cardio (elliptical, spinning, bike on a trainer, rowing) and push myself hard with free weights and machines. I do that 5 days a week and rest on weekends, although I might take a walk. I lost a ton of weight before (40lbs in 4 months) and was very lean and fit. Then aliens must have taken my brain because I gained it all back and then some! Either way, this worked for me and I was about 150lbs but almost in a size 6 (I have thick, muscular legs). I also don't go to bed within 2.3-3 hours of my last meal. The only carbs I might eat at night are the simple variety (e.g., fruit) because it has benefits when doing heavy weights and also will get burned off super fast and before I go to bed.

The smaller you get the harder it will be to burn the same amoun tof calories from the same activity. That's why larger people can lose weight faster than smaller people (all other things being equal). I agree with other posters that you should change up your exercising to keep your body guessing and also keep up your interest. You didn't mention if you do strength training but you pretty much have to in order to maximize your fat burning capabilities as you get smaller. HIIT is also effective for that as well. Just my opinion but I don't think walking is going to cut it a major way to lose fat. It can't hurt. But if you follow figure and fitness models and what they do to burn fat you will see they do major amounts of intense cardio.

Good luck.

rainbowbow

Here's my suggestion.

You are still obese. As you have 70+ you need to lose you should be able to lose 1% body weight per week safely. This would be 2.1 pounds per week.

Obviously as you get closer to your goal (and into the overweight/average weight range) you should drop it down to 1 pound per week to .5 pounds, etc. As you prepare for maintenance.

Here are your numbers. To maintain your current weight you would need roughly 2,400 calories per day. (Assuming you are sedentary)
To lose 2 pounds per week you would need 1,400 calories per day.

As far as walking is concerned the calories burned are significantly less than you are thinking. Generally walking burns a little over what you would burn laying around doing nothing, especially if it's low intensity. A heart rate monitor IS accurate for steady-state cardiovascular activity, however, walking may not raise your heart rate enough to accurately calculate calories burned.

My advice at this point would be to eat 1,400 calories and NOT log your walking as exercise. It's not burning as much as you think, AND myfitnesspal already assumes you're walking as part of your daily activity. I.e. Getting ready, going to work, grocery shopping, etc. MFP calculates your calories based on your TDEE.

TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) means the calories you burn on a regular day doing normal activity. When you set up MFP you selected "sedentary" "lightly active" "active", etc. So MFP took your BMR (calories you'd burn doing NOTHING aka breathing, pumping blood, etc.) and said "okay, she burns this much doing NOTHING and according to her she's active, so that means she burns x amount during the day with her walking, working, etc. Let's do her deficit off of that."

Does that make sense?

Anyway, unless you're running and really really pushing it above what you'd normally do in a day I wouldn't log it as exercise. It's very easy to overestimate how much you're actually burning, and MFP gives you the calories back to eat because it keeps your deficit the same...

Example: you maintain on 2,400 calories on an average day.
You want to lose 2 pounds per week so you'd eat 1,400 calories.
But wait today you burned your normal 2400 PLUS a really hard workout of 500 calories. You are now taking 2,900 calories to maintain your weight, so you'd need to eat 1,900 calories to maintain the "2 pounds per week" calorie goal.

Get it?

I hope this helps. You still got a ways to go, so keep at it!

sofaking6

I think you'll love the elliptical, don't worry if it seems really hard at first because you'll improve very quickly. When I used to do the elliptical at the gym, I would put in my weight (it asks for weight and age to calculate calories burned) as 10% under my actual weight to get a more accurate count. I would burn between 6-10 calories per minute on it - like 6 during my warmup/cooldown, 7-8 during the bulk of the workout and 9-10 when blasting it for a minute here or there. I'm short and 170 at my heaviest if that helps compare burns.

jenniator

Hello Rainbow,

I know I'm still obese, but in exactly 16 pounds, you will never be able to call me that again I will just be fat. Also please don't say 70 +, it makes it sound like I have a lot more weight to lose than I really do. I need 71 pounds exactly left to lose.

I know as I get closer to my goal that it will take longer to drop the pounds.

I ate a little over 1,500 calories today so that is good I realize now that I am actually burning a lot less than what I really am from walking. I am losing about 312 calories a day from my walking of 2 hours

It does make sense and I changed my ranging to the lowest since walking isn't a high intense exercise Thank you for explaining the calories of a average day. I'm still pretty new to this, so I was confused a bit.

rainbowbow

jenniator wrote: »

Hello Rainbow,

I know I'm still obese, but in exactly 16 pounds, you will never be able to call me that again I will just be fat. Also please don't say 70 +, it makes it sound like I have a lot more weight to lose than I really do. I need 71 pounds exactly left to lose.

I know as I get closer to my goal that it will take longer to drop the pounds.

I ate a little over 1,500 calories today so that is good I realize now that I am actually burning a lot less than what I really am from walking. I am losing about 312 calories a day from my walking of 2 hours

It does make sense and I changed my ranging to the lowest since walking isn't a high intense exercise Thank you for explaining the calories of a average day. I'm still pretty new to this, so I was confused a bit.

There's no "fat" weight range! Morbidly obese range, Obese range, overweight range, healthy range, underweight range, etc. Is how the scale goes. And it is over 70 pounds :P It doesn't matter if "obese" sounds demonizing or "over 70" sounds bad, it is what it is. Enough semantics though.

I just have one question because I'm really confused.. What do you mean by "I am losing about 312 calories a day from my walking of 2 hours "? You mean you are burning 312 extra calories a day?

Anyways, good luck on your journey!