Advice needed: how would you set up your activity level/ am I eating too few/ too many calories??

kitsilana

Hi, I need some advice, please!
Sorry this is long... any help would be appreciated!

This is my second try at MFP and I seem to be hitting the same problem I did fist time around, over a year ago!
I seem to lose weight the 1st couple of weeks (yay!), then stall and plateau. I'm currently 5 weeks in and my over-all weightloss is barely 1lbs

I want to figure out what I'm doing wrong before I lose momentum.
Please help!

Here's a bit of background info about me:
1. I'm 5'9" / 175cm and currently weigh 187lbs/ 85kg, which I want to get down to 165lbs/75kg.

2. I generally (even before MFP) eat very healthy, I cook, lots of veggies and fruit, limited red meat but plenty of chicken and fish. I rarely drink pop, and maybe two glasses of beer/wine per week. I do have a sweet tooth, especially for chocolate in the evenings after dinner, and I have had some issues with blood sugar/ sugar addiction/ insulin resistance in the past so i always try to limit my sugar/ high GI foods, which has really helped.
Since starting MFP I weigh a lot of stuff, use the barcode scanner and try to be accurate about what I'm putting in my mouth. This past week I've gotten more of a handle on getting my macros balanced (ie. more protein, less sugar. still working on bringing down the fat quota)

3. I work as a gardener, so for much of the year my job is very active, and underneath my layer of blubber I have muscles. However, it's also seasonal, so in the Summer and winter my work activity-level drops considerably.
I also enjoy exercise, especially swimming, walking, hiking, biking, snowshoeing, etc.
(Before you suggest it- I DO NOT enjoy lifting weights at the gym I know, muscles=good, moar mussls=moar metabolism... but it's just not gonna happen, peeps. I tried. It just feels like wasted time, lifting crap up and putting it down again in a gym. I like being outside. The one thing I do like at the gym is the treadmills.)

so, here's my first problem:
1. How would YOU set your MFP 'activity level' if this is currently your 'normal' week:
-basically unemployed, I can sleep late, lie on the couch all day if I want, might work on my accounts a bit later, but maybe not.
-but also: oooh, look, i have tons of free time, i know, i'll deep-clean my kitchen cupboards, oven & fridge today. And yesterday it was sunny so we went snowshoeing in the mountains. And tomorrow we're going on a hike with our friend's dog...


I originally decided it was best to set my activity level to 'Sedentary' then add every-little-thing-i-do as 'exercise'. I've since moved it up to 'lightly active', but both of these set me a daily calorie limit of 1200.

I've been doing some form of exercise every day and 'eating back' around 50% of those calories.

here's my next question:
a.)Is it bad that I'm not feeling hungry?
Like, at all.
I'm eating healthy stuff, I'm doing some form of exercise every day, I'm a little under my MFP's recommended daily calorie intake...

and b.)
is it possible/likely that I've underestimated my caloric needs and have put my body into starvation mode?
What does that feel like? How would I know?

I had a particularly 'active' day on Monday, didn't bring any lunch (I KNOW, ok??!) and my energy tanked at 1 o'clock. Like, my knees were shaking.
It was stupid, so I made sure I upped my calorie intake for the following days, which has helped.

Okay, last question:
How would you deal with the following 'energy expenditures'?
If I go snowshoeing one afternoon for 4 hours, MFP tells me that equates to 2720 calories!!? In addition to my base level of 1200, there's no way I can 'eat back' even half of this. Not without eating a bunch of sugar and fat, I don't think.
After a normal breakfast of porridge and a lunch of whatever-I-can't-remember that was about 400 calories, when I get home in the evening, I'm left with around 3200 calories to eat before bedtime.
Whaaaatt??! Even with a protein-heavy meal I didn't manage more than about 800, I think.

Should i worry about this??



Okay, that's it, if you read all that, you're a star, and if you have any helpful advice, I'd appreciate it!

queenliz99

Wow, lots of questions. It's all about calories in vs. calories out. Exercise is for health, less calories for weight loss. Sometimes I don't feel hungry so I don't eat all my calories for the day. On other days I may eat over my allotment.

Read this

community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1296011/calorie-counting-101/p1

and thiscommunity.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants/p1

Liftng4Lis

First of all your burns look really high. MFP overestimates, therefore I would only eat half (gives room for error). Second, there is no such thing as starvation mode, there is metabolic adaptation, but at this point I so wouldn't worry about that. If you're not losing, look at your logging. Are you weighing and measuring everything you consume?

RodaRose

Edited

kitsilana wrote: »

If I go snowshoeing one afternoon for 4 hours, MFP tells me that equates to 2720 calories!!? In addition to my base level of 1200, there's no way I can 'eat back' even half of this. Not without eating a bunch of sugar and fat, I don't think.
After a normal breakfast of porridge and a lunch of whatever-I-can't-remember that was about 400 calories, when I get home in the evening, I'm left with around 3200 calories to eat before bedtime.
Whaaaatt??! Even with a protein-heavy meal I didn't manage more than about 800, I think.

Should i worry about this??



Okay, that's it, if you read all that, you're a star, and if you have any helpful advice, I'd appreciate it!

Instead of focusing on each day individually, some people look at the weekly averages.

TheVirgoddess

Liftng4Lis wrote: »

First of all your burns look really high. MFP overestimates, therefore I would only eat half (gives room for error). Second, there is no such thing as starvation mode, there is metabolic adaptation, but at this point I so wouldn't worry about that. If you're not losing, look at your logging. Are you weighing and measuring everything you consume?

This - and also if you only get 1200 calories a day, you've set your weight loss goal too high. Try adjusting down to 1.5 or even 1 pound a week. With only 20 pounds to lose, you don't need to be so aggressive.

oORosadaOo

TheVirgoddess wrote: »

Liftng4Lis wrote: »

First of all your burns look really high. MFP overestimates, therefore I would only eat half (gives room for error). Second, there is no such thing as starvation mode, there is metabolic adaptation, but at this point I so wouldn't worry about that. If you're not losing, look at your logging. Are you weighing and measuring everything you consume?

This - and also if you only get 1200 calories a day, you've set your weight loss goal too high. Try adjusting down to 1.5 or even 1 pound a week. With only 20 pounds to lose, you don't need to be so aggressive.

This!

Sent f/r as I can totally relate to your struggle!

Mauigirl62

Don't try to "eat back" your exercise calories. Just pick your activity level that you do on average and don't keep track of every little thing you do. In my case I am only 5 feet tall and it tells me to eat 1200 calories a day to lose weight. Since you are 5' 9" and have less to lose, 1200 seems low to me. If you are trying to "eat back" all the calories you burn that is why you aren't losing weight. Just stick to your daily calorie limit once you establish a higher level and ignore the number of calories burned until you see progress on your weight loss.

kitsilana

Liftng4Lis wrote: »

First of all your burns look really high. MFP overestimates, therefore I would only eat half (gives room for error). Second, there is no such thing as starvation mode, there is metabolic adaptation, but at this point I so wouldn't worry about that.

thanks for the feedback!
Yup and yup.

I agree, the calorie burns for the activities I've been doing are huge according to MFP. I don't really understand how these things are calculated (hiking cross country vs hiking, climbing hills, for example) but the numbers just seem way too high, so I've been decreasing the amount of time for each activity, to something that seems more reasonable to me.

For example, we went snowshoeing (climbing hills) for 4 hrs one day. MFP calculates that at 2720 calories, which is huge and doesn't ring true. It didn't feel THAT strenuous. So I decreased the time to 2 hours in my diary entry, which is still 1363 cals, though... then 'ate back' half of those calories.

Am I doing that right?

Liftng4Lis wrote: »

If you're not losing, look at your logging. Are you weighing and measuring everything you consume?

No, but as close as I can get. I am weighing everything I cook or prepare. When we eat out, I do my best to get an accurate calorie value, plus I add about 20%. We haven't eaten out much, so over a week I don't think it makes a big difference.
When my wife cooks she goes through the list of ingredients with me and i enter them as closely as possible. She's not as diligent about weighing things, but again, I prepare and portion 70% of the food I eat throughout the day, so...


you've made me wonder though...
I'll re-check some of my most frequent foods over the next week and make sure they're accurate. Like, is the glass of orange juice I've picked from the list really the right one and the right amount...



Thanks again for the feedback!

kitsilana

TheVirgoddess wrote: »

This - and also if you only get 1200 calories a day, you've set your weight loss goal too high. Try adjusting down to 1.5 or even 1 pound a week. With only 20 pounds to lose, you don't need to be so aggressive.

okay, great tip.

I'll do that.
Thanks!