Not new but fell off the wagon

joybedford

hi my name is Joy some of you are friends of mine from this group and continue to be a inspiration. As the total states I recently fell off the wagon. Until recently I had never done a low calorie diet and was doing well on MFP. I was a half marathon runner who lifted weights and looked good but then I got ill. I was encouraged to try paleo which worked great initially but then I started to get all these food obsessions there were so many foods I couldn't/wouldn't eat that eating became a chore. I got too sick to run (fibromyalgia) and stared to gain weight. I panicked and hired a bikini coach she kept reducing my calories till I was on 1350 and miserable I then started bingeing again. I also did a meal replacement shake thing as well at some point. Now i am fat miserable and my confidence/self esteem is rock bottom. Time to take control. Just been on holiday eaten my weight in icecream and alcohol and today is the beginning back to basics with 1900 calories to start with and see how it goes. Could use some friends on this mission though.
I am 43, 5ft 4 and weigh 157lbs I think will let you know tomorrow. I have 3 children 2 with autism/adhd. Married work fulltime as a midwife. I run, lift weights and dance. I have a dance show Monday/Tuesday. My life is a bit crazy as you can see.

mymodernbabylon

Are you willing to try the entire programme with a reset for 8-12 weeks? Cause that would mean eventually getting your calories up higher than 1900 calories (as I don't know how much you actually exercise in a week, I couldn't figure out your TDEE on Scooby, but I know it'll be more than what you are currently eating).

FRJM

Hi Joy, friend request sent. Im 41, 5'5, have 2 kids, run, want to lift weights and have just upped cals to 2400....hopefully we can help each other :-)

joybedford

I workout 6 days a week about 30-40 minutes at the moment. Have s dog that I walk for about a hour a day and a fairly active job. The reset terrifies me to be honest I don't want to put on any more weight.

MandaLeigh123

Hi Joy- I am working on a full reset at the moment. I work out alot, like you and I just bumped my calories up to 3,000 today. I boosted from 1200 to 2800 with no weight gain yet. There are a group of us now supporting each other in increases!

Jennbecca33

Joy, we are already friends and I see your posts often. Can you let go of any of that exercise? You've got a lot going on - lots of exercise, too low of calories, lots of personal stuff with family - and that equals lots of stress on the body and mind. If you can balance your calorie intake better with your activity, you'll feel much better and see better results. Moving up to 1900 is a great start, but I'm guessing with all your activity, you'll still need to eat quite a bit more than that even at a 15% deficit for fat loss. If you have a problem eating more than that, then you can always decrease your exercise which can free up some stress on your body and then you won't have such a high calorie burn. But at minimum, slowly increase your cals up to 1900+. You will get hungrier for more calories as you increase. Refigure your calories on Scooby again and choose an honest activity level. You should be at least 5-6 hr level probably, maybe even the highest once you add your daily life activity into it. You'll see that you need to be eating more. Eating more consistently will help eliminate those long binges.

Unless you need to for health reasons, stay away from that paleo stuff. You said it right...obsession. No need for that to lose weight. You don't have to torture yourself to lose.

joybedford

Hi I haven't been working out as much as usual due to ill health but I am intending to start running again next week. Working out actually relieves my stress and without it these past few weeks I have really struggled.
I don't think I will need to do a slow increase as I have just eaten what I have wanted for the past few months. Certainly this week my calories must have been at least 2500 most days.
I have one question I use a fitbit which is linked to MFP would I eat back the calorie adjustment or just ignore it. So excited to get started.

Jennbecca33

That sounds good. Yes, you do eat the calorie adjustment. It's adding in calories for you based on your activity. Also, for Fitbit to be more accurate, be sure to manually enter calories for exercise that is non step based (cycling, elliptical, weight training, etc.)

joybedford

I didn't think you added calories when working on TDEE I thought they were already figured in.

heybales

Don't guess from 5 rough levels though when you have a device giving you infinite levels based on what you actually do (with corrections as Jen stated).

If you have been correcting what needs to be, use your Fitbit weekly reports for 2 weeks to figure out your TDEE.
Then take a deficit.
And unsync your accounts.

Jennbecca33

I think you're confused about the two different methods. If you are going to use your Fitbit, then let it calculate your TDEE for you. You can leave them synced, but it's like a moving target and you never know how many calories it's going to tell you to eat everyday. If you do leave them synced, you should have Fitbit set to a calorie deficit, right? So whatever extra activity calories it gives you on MFP, you would eat them - bc it's already figuring your deficit for you. That's kind of confusing though.

Easier way and better way as stated by Heybales - unsync them and take an average using your Fitbit weekly reports to get your average TDEE. Then subtract 15% and manually set that number as your calorie goal in MFP and eat that same number of calories every day. You can take a new average every month or so in case your activity level changes. What is your average TDEE from your Fitbit?