Input welcome on tweaking my intake

Soybeaner

Hi All! I would appreciate some help on tweaking my intake. I started back with fitness July 2014 at 3 months post partum and have been back it ever since.

Starting weight was 184 lbs. Current weight is 167. Loss to date is 17 lbs. I am proud of this. Except it has been 28 weeks and I have been stalled for the past 12 weeks bouncing around the same 3 lb window of 166 - 169. The tape measure has also stalled out for much of that time frame. My rate of loss is currently 0.6 lbs/week over the entire 28 weeks. While this is not bad, I would like to see if I can get a little better progress!

I am stalled.

My goal is 145 lbs or so as well as the ability to do a handstand and run a 5K in under 33 minutes. None of this is lofty. I will evaluate weight goal as I get closer.

My average intake over this exact 28 week time frame is 1961 calories. I have logged everything except for the first 3 days in January. I weigh and measure my food using a scale where possible, build my recipes in MFP, do not eat out much, log the snacking and treats.

Stats - female, 36 years old, 167 lbs, 66 inches tall.

Scooby's calculator puts me at ~ 1936 for a 20% cut if I use the highest activity level.

@heybales spreadsheet puts me at ~ 1800 calories for a 22% cut. (Side note, I love a good formula and spreadsheet. I am in awe on this one! Really nice work.)

Below is a description of my day and activity level during the week. This has been the same since January 4.

4:40 am Jillian Michaels Body Revolution (30 minute weights w/ a touch of cardio)
5:15 am Get ready for the day
6:00 am Girls up, get ready, out the door
7:00 am Drive 30 minutes to work
7:30 am - 4:30 pm Desk job
4:30 pm Drive 30 minutes back and pick up the girls
5:15 pm - 8:30 pm Supper prep, play with girls, pick up house, prep for next day
8:30 pm Sit down and relax
9:00 pm Collapse into bed. My youngest still does one night feed but I am not breast feeding.

My weekend is the same with the exception of the desk job. I am very busy during the weekend days chasing the girls, cleaning the house, errands, food prep, spending time with my husband, etc. I probably sit for 2 hours a day/evening on the weekends instead of just 30 minutes.

I wore my BodyMedia Link for 27 of the 28 weeks above. My non running days my calorie burn was estimated at 2400. Running week days took it to 2700. Running on a weekend day took it to 2900.

I do not have running in the schedules above as I am currently side lined with an inflamed hip flexor. However, I generally only run 3 miles 2 or 3 times a week over lunch for fun. I have built up the conditioning and don't want to lose it. I have no plans on taking it to the next level. I like fun 5K runs or runs with friends.

With probably way to much information above, does anyone have a thought on what my daily calorie goal should be? I have cut it closer to 1800 the past two weeks and not seen a change. I am admittedly getting frustrated and would love opinions!

Summary - based on the past 4 weeks outlined above what should my intake be to make the tape measure and scale move? Keep at 1800? Raise?

Jennbecca33

So right now, your current workout schedule is 30 minutes a day Jillian Michaels? So that would be 2.5 hours weekly formal workout. Until you add running back into your schedule, I would go with the 3-5 hour activity level on Scooby (that takes into consideration the rest of your busy schedule) and no more than a 15% deficit. Since you don't have much to lose, stay with 15% deficit or less. This gives you 1933 cals daily for fat loss. You'd probably come up with about the same number using Heybales spreadsheet if you used a 15% deficit rather than 22%. Of course when you add back in running, you'll probably need to increase your calories a little. I'm not sure if this is much different that what you've been doing? Perhaps at first, you were eating at more of a steep deficit and your body decided it didn't like it. I think 1800 would be a little low. I hope this helps!

http://scoobysworkshop.com/accurate-calorie-calculator/

heybales

I would suggest the 1961 became TDEE at some point.

I'll bet you are more active than you put in to the Activity Calculator, and that 1961 was bigger deficit than you thought.

So the TDEE was about 2307 then (if 1800 is 22%) in spreadsheet. And it would probably be more with some hours in the daily activity section.

Only other direction would be the food logging leaves a lot to be desired for accuracy. But that would be a big gap for that, when you do weigh some it sounds like.

Despite fact you are eating at maintenance now, you probably need to slowly increase calories up to potential TDEE, be that 2300 or whatever.

That should help body heal faster too. If body has indeed slowed down system to conserve calories for most important functions, that may not include healing as fast as possible.

Still using the BML for daily burn?
Mind checking if the sensors are working well for you?

Soybeaner

Thanks for the input!

@Jennbecca33‌ yes, that would be similar to what I am doing now

@heybales‌ yes, I still have the BML. How do I check the sensors? It never occurred to me to double check. I agree that 1961 or so has become TDEE. Frustrating. Suggestions on how to increase calories in a controlled fashion? This admittedly makes me nervous. However my frustration level trumps my nerves.

heybales

100 extra calories daily for a week at a time.
Then another, ect.

And keep firmly in the back of the back of the mind, that if your body sped up so slowly that there really was a true 100 calorie surplus during these increases, it would take 35 days to see a slow 1 lb increase in weight.
Reread that.
And if lifting, not even fat.

But body will usually speed up unless some medical reason why it shouldn't. Even some on thyroid meds for weak hormones, have gotten out off them. They messed up their own hormones.

BML - not sure if the pages look the same as when I had the BodyMediaFit.
In the daily graph of your calorie burn per min, look at your average lowest night-time burn. So if bouncing between say 1.1 and 1.2, you know it's trying to show 1.15.

1.15 x 1440 = 1656 BMR they are using.

Now, they do base that BMR starting on calculated - age, weight, height, and adjust it based on the heat sensor.
Which you could sleep really warm because you are really cold from undereating. Or vice-versa. Several ways that can be thrown off.
But it can only adjust so much.

But is that used BMR even close to Katch or Mifflin?
If way off, those sensors may not be working well for you.

Now look at your bar graph of Total Activity METS, moderate and vigorous. If you look at some specific time, does it show the level increasing when you actually started a workout, and does the level seem to match the intensity of the workout.
For instance, default setting of Vigorous is 6 METS, 6 x your resting calorie burn.
Walking about 4.5 mph accomplishes that, running really does.
Does the start and end time of increased activity really match your workout time, and the intensity level?

Soybeaner

Thanks for talking me through this!

My average night MET is 0.9. It is the same for when I'm sitting at my desk at work. When I run it is 8.8 and when I do the Body Revolution program it is 4.6. Shouldn't it be about 1.0? Am I really that stagnant at my desk? I do more than sit completely still.

The start and end time of exercise/driving/sleeping/getting up at night with my youngest does match very well.

According to the Scooby calculator my BMR is 1467 and my TDEE is 2788 is I use the highly active category. With only using 5-6 hours of strenuous exercise my TDEE is 2500.

For December according to BodyMedia I burned 2507 and consumed 2062. November I burned average of 2632 and consumed 1949. October I burned 2680 and consumed 1991. December is representative of how the rest of my winter will go. My job becomes more active during the growing season and I get outside more on the weekends. The winter I sit at my desk most of the day.

I have been stagnant weight loss wise since October.

heybales

They only show METS now instead of calorie burn on that daily graph?

Because 1 MET means resting calorie burn. Which isn't really helpful to figure out what BMR they are using.

0.9 just means slightly below RMR, which is correct for sleeping, not so good for being awake. But there are no calories associated with a MET in that manner.

Rough figures are 3.5 mL/kg/min of O2 (VO2).
Or 1.2 calories / kg / hr.

But those are rough estimates for calculations.

I was hoping they kept the calorie burn per minute. That's good the sensors for movement seem to see the exercise correctly, that's good.

Of course your BML is giving you daily infinite levels of TDEE, not a weekly average based on best guess of 5 rough levels.

You would need to unsync, but just take a 2 week average of TDEE from BML, take 15% deficit, and manually adjust the MFP eating goal.
Which sounds more like the 2200-2300 level.

Soybeaner

I misunderstood!

Yes, the calories are still shown. Middle of the night calorie average is 1.1 per minute, standing at my desk is 1.2 calories per minute,when I am home chasing after small people it is 2.5 to 3.0 calories per minute, running is 11.0 calories per minute.

When I am sleeping it is 1.1 by 1440 minutes per day is baseline of 1584. Not to far off scooby BMR of 1467.

I am increasing calories. Really not hard to add 100 per day. A cup of milk at supper instead of water.

heybales

I'd suggest then that it has adjusted from calculated BMR because the sensors work well for you. When I did a poll a while back in MFP when it was a bigger contender, about 1/2 did work well, other half not at all like me.

Milk is super easy way to add it. And 2% is good ratio of carbs:protein too.