Confusion

kommish777

So when you set up your initial profile, when it asks "How would you describe your normal daily activities," is that including my exercise or not? I started in January and have been dropping crazy weight and feeling very hungry. I told it I wanted to lose .5 pounds a week and I lost 12 in January and about 6 so far in February. I entered Sedentary since I have a desk job, but I do about 45 minutes of running or aerobics 7 days a week. I'm thinking my daily calorie goal is way to low and maybe I'm supposed to chose one of the other categories, active maybe, even though it then asks you to enter the amount of exercise you will be doing each week.

Thanks for the help.

aboldish22

Well, how much do you currently weigh and do you know your maintenance level? Also how many calories is it saying you need to take in?

malibu927

MFP is set up to include your work, home life, errands, socializing...everything except exercise. So if you're losing too fast (the first few weeks are fine, as that was more water weight), then bump your activity level to lightly active and continue logging your exercise. The number of days you told MFP you want to work out doesn't matter.

kommish777

Male, 171 pounds, and it has me at 1890 calories to lose .5 pounds a week. Not sure of my maintenance level.

futuremanda

Are you logging your exercises and eating any of those calories back?

Lifestyle is supposed to be "everything but your exercise" and then you log your workouts specifically. Log them under cardio. Then MFP will add the calories to your daily total.

kommish777

I was eating up to my calories and then exercising. I wasn't eating those calories back. This should make my days a little more bearable lol.

Thanks also for the tips about figuring out my maintenance level as well as bumping up my activity level.

lynn_glenmont

kommish777 wrote: »

I was eating up to my calories and then exercising. I wasn't eating those calories back. This should make my days a little more bearable lol.

Thanks also for the tips about figuring out my maintenance level as well as bumping up my activity level.

Don't do both at once. Up to now it sounds like you haven't been accounting for your exercise at all (either through activity level setting or by logging exercise), but if you start doing both, you may be double-counting your exercise.

When you tell MFP while setting up your profile, MFP only treats that as a goal so that when you log your actual exercise, it can let you see how well you're doing in meeting that goal. It doesn't assume that you will actually meet your exercise goals when it sets your daily calorie goal. It waits until you log cardio exercise, then it adjusts your calorie goal for that day.

To use MFP as intended, you would log your exercise and eat back some portion of those additional calories (most people say that MFP overestimates calorie burns, so you shouldn't eat all of the calories back -- it's common for people to eat back 50% to 75% of the additional "exercise" calories). But if you prefer, you could just adjust the activity level up and not log the exercise (or at least not eat back the extra calories), and see how that works for you. After a while you'll see if you're still losing weight faster than you think is necessary, and whether you're still feeling very hungry. If so, either eat back more of your exercise calories or adjust your activity level up.