Generally confused about calorie count

MsOpus

MFP gave me a calorie limit of 1460 daily. On a normal day, that's okay, but on days that I work, I need a heck of a lot more. Tons more. I work 12 hour shifts and am literally on my feet for 10.5 of those hours, walking, running, lifting, pulling, pushing, whatever, I rarely stop moving in shift except on my breaks, when I get a break. I can't really account for that as exercise, but I could eat another 1000 calories just to keep up at work.
How do I manage this?

ukaryote

You might have been calculating the Basil Metabolic Rate (BMR) the calories needed to sustain life if you lay down 24 hours a day.

Try calculating the Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE). It sounds like a very vigorous job. Here is a calculator:

http://iifym.com/tdee-calculator/

If it was me doing all that, in the calculator I would choose "Daily Exercise + physical job"

SnuggleSmacks

MFP calculates your calories according to the info you put in. If you put in "lightly active," you may need to change that to a higher activity level. It also calculates your deficit according to your choices. It will give you a deficit of 250 calories if you choose to lose .5 lbs per week, 500 calories to lose 1 lb per week, and 1000 calories if you choose 2 lbs per week. Your deficit might be too aggressive.

Sued0nim

You could log your work days as exercise - possibly invest in an HRM and wear it while you work then log the calories and eat back 75% (in which case keep your activity settings low)

change your MFP settings activity level to higher to accomodate when you work

reduce your weight loss target

TimothyFish

Rather than just assume that you are burning an extra 1000 calories, it would be better to enter your activities into calories burned estimator, or to use the estimate from a heart rate monitor. Be aware, however that you need to subtract your BMR for those hours. So, if the the estimate for your 12 hour shift comes back as 2100 calories, you would need to subtract 700 (or whatever it is for you) calories from that. And you might need to subtract more, to account for inaccuracies in estimation.

Liftng4Lis

First, go check the data you put in. You should have your goals set at 1 pound a week and you probably put 2. Also, you should have your activity level set as active, since your daily activity is so hectic. Additionally, any exercise not in your normal daily routine will earn you extra calories to eat.

lemurcat12

You could account for it as exercise, as others are saying. Or what I would probably do is put in active as your activity level--or very active if you think that description fits, but I'd probably start with active--and use that for your work days. If you really aren't active on your other days, I'd try to stay around the 1460 number for those. It's probably easier to use MFP's numbers to start.

In the alternative, you can average the work day activity over the whole week and eat more every day to account for it. That's what the TDEE method does.

WalkingAlong

MsOpus wrote: »

MFP gave me a calorie limit of 1460 daily. On a normal day, that's okay, but on days that I work, I need a heck of a lot more. Tons more. I work 12 hour shifts and am literally on my feet for 10.5 of those hours, walking, running, lifting, pulling, pushing, whatever, I rarely stop moving in shift except on my breaks, when I get a break. I can't really account for that as exercise, but I could eat another 1000 calories just to keep up at work.
How do I manage this?

Does the extra 1000 calories you want to eat on work days really help you keep up at work? Or is it more of an intellectual/entitlement thing: "I worked hard today, I deserve a thousand calorie dinner"? A lot of people find a heavy meal weighs them down for heavy activity after it. But the psychological and emotional aspects of dieting are very real, too. I used to struggle with wanting caloric 'rewards' at the end of a hard day (usually in the form of wine or beer).

How long have you been dieting? It's normal for the first couple weeks to feel uncomfortable. But if you're losing more than 1% of your weight per week at the 1460 level, you probably should increase it.

Good luck!

MsOpus

Thank you everybody for the help. It does help alot. I do actually need more calories for work days. At home doing the usually housewife thing, a salad is plenty for lunch, plus I have access to snacks if needed. I've tried salads for lunch at work and I'm starving 2 hours later with 2 more hours to go until another break. (if I can even get a break on time or at all).
I calculated the TDEE which gave me 2000+ calories. and 1500+ BMR calories. Using this knowledge, Is is safe to assume I can go approx 500 calories over on work days? (As long as its not the donuts and goodies that magically appear in our break room?)
I'd like to be able to count it as exercise, but not sure how I do that. I don't exercise on work days because I'm usually too exhausted when I get home anyway.

aylajane

How about not using a calculator at all? Just log everything you eat for 2 weeks without trying to "diet" - whatever you normally would have eaten. Then after two weeks see if you lost weight, gained or stayed the same. If you lost weight, use the average calories over those two weeksas your target goal. If you gained or stayed the same, take 3-500 less than what you averaged as your target goal.
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- Every week or two, weigh yourself. If you find you stop losing, drop your calories a little more the next week.
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- If your work days are very different than non work days, arrange your calories in such a way you eat more on work days, but the average for the week comes out to what you want.
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- No calculator is going to be more accurate for you than your actual body.