Help me set my new calorie target?

tomatoey

I've been maintaining 135 lbs give or take a lb for months, with intake at 2,234 gross (2049 net, but I'm not sure about this, because I only log cardio), according to my reports here.

My typical activities, using this calculator as a reference, are:

2-4 x /week:
- 40 minutes of light to moderate cardio (low bpm, like 120) - this is the only thing I log
- about 1-1:30 hour of cooking, shopping, cleaning, easy walking
- 30-70 minutes of stretching and bodyweight exercises (every day)
- 8 hrs sleep, rest is sitting

Calculator for these days agrees with my actual average of 2233 (off by 1 calorie!), for those days.

On other days, though, where I'm only doing either just stretching or stretching + calisthenics, I get 2045, on that calculator. Shouldn't I weigh more than I do, if I'm eating almost 200 calories more than my activity warrants for like half the week?

Questions:

1. Am I maybe burning more than I think I am with the calisthenics? Would you log them? I haven't been, because I thought they couldn't burn that much. If I am burning that much, I'd rather just use TDEE, bc I don't have a HRM and have no plans to get one.

2. Does it make sense to go with 1900 gross/1600 net? That's about -15%. I'm 5'7, have a big appetite & just cannot cope with huge deficits, want to lose 8-10 lbs by say Christmas.

I think my intake is reasonably accurate. I don't use a food scale, but I use packaging weights + math to divide out portions & recipes. (eg I'll input a recipe using that math, and divide it out into X servings using measuring cups).

I am just not used to not being able to burn it off, this is totally different than my past experience.

Sued0nim

Add up your total gross calorie consumption over the last 3 months (use the calories report but you'll have to click on and write down each individual daily number unless there's an easier way I don't know about)
Divide by the number of days
That's your TDEE with current activity level

Use that

You know what to do from there with your weight goals

tomatoey

Thanks, rabbitjb - 2234 is my actual average TDEE, based on my reports. I brought the calculator into it to try to work out what my NEAT is, vs loggable exercise.

I still want to burn it off rather than eat less, that's my issue, I think, but again not sure what is really loggable and what isn't.

I think I'll just use TDEE again

WBB55

For me, daily activity like popping in at the grocery store, chores, taking the stairs at work, etc., typically add up to more calories than logged exercise. The days I really don't do anything, just drive to work and drive home, can easily burn 300-400 less than the days I'm busy living life. Without my FitBit, it'd be harder for me to judge all this non-exercise activity an increase my consumption (or have a larger deficit, if you prefer) on those days. If you really want to use extra activity and exercise as the way to create a deficit, I'd recommend a FitBit, so you can determine the daily activity stuff and motivate yourself to simply be more active overall.

tomatoey

WBB55 wrote: »

For me, daily activity like popping in at the grocery store, chores, taking the stairs at work, etc., typically add up to more calories than logged exercise. The days I really don't do anything, just drive to work and drive home, can easily burn 300-400 less than the days I'm busy living life. Without my FitBit, it'd be harder for me to judge all this non-exercise activity an increase my consumption (or have a larger deficit, if you prefer) on those days. If you really want to use extra activity and exercise as the way to create a deficit, I'd recommend a FitBit, so you can determine the daily activity stuff and motivate yourself to simply be more active overall.

Dang. I was hoping to avoid that. But I can see the use for it, definitely. Thanks.

maxit

You know what your maintenance needs are now, thanks to keeping data. So simply do a small deficit - no more than 250 calories a day since you are well within "normal" weight range - accomplished through eating fewer calories and/or bumping up physical activity. If it was me, I would eat 150 calories less and walk more but that's just me. If you have a tracker like fitbit, you can monitor the distance/calorie burn. For 100 calories I would need to walk about 1.25 miles at about 3.5 mph. Christmas is about 18 weeks away - aiming for a third to a half pound a week will get you there or most of the way there. The challenge with a small deficit is to track food carefully

pmm3437

You've been maintaining at current intake for a long duration, which would indicate your at/near maintainence or your recording is off.

Assuming your recording is accurate, for every 0.5 lb./week more you want to lose, you have to reduce your net calories by 250/day.

tomatoey

maxit wrote: »

You know what your maintenance needs are now, thanks to keeping data. So simply do a small deficit - no more than 250 calories a day since you are well within "normal" weight range - accomplished through eating fewer calories and/or bumping up physical activity. If it was me, I would eat 150 calories less and walk more but that's just me. If you have a tracker like fitbit, you can monitor the distance/calorie burn. For 100 calories I would need to walk about 1.25 miles at about 3.5 mph. Christmas is about 18 weeks away - aiming for a third to a half pound a week will get you there or most of the way there. The challenge with a small deficit is to track food carefully

Great insights, advice, and encouragement - thank you so much, @maxit ! Glad to see mathy confirmation from @pmm3437 , thank you.

I'm sure I can cut 150 calories from food

Re FitBit - I just don't trust tech, honestly! Or it's that I'm not good at using it. Half the things I get [e.g. scales] wind up breaking, and there's all this troubleshooting people have to do... I also have done well so far using crude / intuitive estimations of effort, and the measuring cups for food, and I kind of like that approach. But obviously, this is not good enough. I'll at least get a food scale

I could definitely add more walking to my days, e.g. an hour after dinner.

I log the amount of calories the treadmill at my gym gives me for burns, which is for less time than MFP offers, so I'm not sure, but I think it's 45 minutes of 3.0-3.5 mph with varied inclines that gives me 226 calories - does that sound tragically off?

pmm3437

5 calories a minute doesn't sound like a stretch at all, its very reasonable.

lemurcat12

I'm not 100% sure I'm following, but here are my thoughts.

tomatoey wrote: »

I've been maintaining 135 lbs give or take a lb for months, with intake at 2,234 gross (2049 net, but I'm not sure about this, because I only log cardio), according to my reports here.

I think this (and the gross number) is what matters, not what the calculators say or what your activity is (unless you want to increase it). If you have been maintaining for a while at 2234, then -15% is about 1900 (and a loss of about 2/3 of a lb/week).

If the concern is that you want to increase activity vs. cutting calories (or would like to cut calories for only part of it), try cutting to 2100 and adding in 3-4 miles of walking or 30 minutes of cardio/day or the like or some combination -- whatever you think would add up to about 200 calories.

When you know current maintenance, I think it's overthinking it to worry about exercise burn or the calculators, unless the idea is increasing the burn.

2. Does it make sense to go with 1900 gross/1600 net? That's about -15%. I'm 5'7, have a big appetite & just cannot cope with huge deficits, want to lose 8-10 lbs by say Christmas.

1900 makes sense to me. Keep activity as it, and don't worry about net.