Appp says I need 3,000 cal a day!! to LOSE 30lbs, because of what I do for a living

meinstigater

Hey guys, I just started this app/lifestyle change (well that started about 2 years ago, but now I'm trying to incorporate diet to shed the last 20-30 impossible pounds! after the first 70)

Now, back to my problem. When we signed up to myfitnesspal it asked us how active our days are, I chose "VERY ACTIVE", it actually had construction as an example of a "Very Active" career.

I never, ever do any cardio at the gym, because I believe the physical work I do all day, is cardio in and of itself. I pick up and move back & forth and climb ladders and balance on steel 6-8 hours a day (after the breaks). So I put 6 hours of general carpentry into my cardio.

There is NO way I can run on 1600 calories a day with the kind of work I do.
But NOW it's saying I need almost 3,000 calories, because of the 1,290 I burned throughout the day.

That seems way wrong. Like insane.

If you're wondering why I haven't lost the last of the weight if I work "out" so much, it's because I'm a total pig weekends...like probably 20,000 calories between Friday night & Sunday night....and I maintain my weight. Haven't lost or gained anything in years (except a ton of muscle, but no movement on the scale).

What do I do? About the daily calorie intake #s?
Not the weekend binging...obviously that has to stop if I want my weight loss journey to continue.

callsitlikeiseeit

amyrebeccah wrote: »

So you have both a very active activity level and the addition of 6 hours of cardio?

no, OP is saying his activity level is essentially equal to 6 hours of cardio



anyways OP - i would cut the binging on the weekends and see what that does for you FIRST to determine where you need to be.

lynn_glenmont

It sounds like you're double-counting your work activity by considering it in setting your activity AND logging it as exercise. Do one or the other, not both.

marissafit06

Are you currently set to very active? If so, your activity at work doesn't need to be logged separately.

misskarne

If you set your profile as very active because of your job, you don't then log your job! That's double-dipping.

callsitlikeiseeit

ohohoh yeah no i missed that. you cant set your activity to active AND log it as exercise!


nononononoooooooooooooooooo

lynn_glenmont

Also, if you chose "lose 2 lbs a week," you may want to cut that back to 1.5 or even 1 lb a week, because if I understand what you did in double-counting, when you fix that, MFP is going to say to eat 1700 calories, and I can't imagine how you could do a full day's work of the type you describe on 1700 calories a day.

marissafit06

Also OP if those pics are recent losing 30lbs might be unrealistic.

callsitlikeiseeit

The TDEE method would probably work better for you OP

I know others can explain it much better than I can

Merkavar

lynn_glenmont wrote: »

It sounds like you're double-counting your work activity by considering it in setting your activity AND logging it as exercise. Do one or the other, not both.

That's what I'm thinking.

If you set it to highly active because of your job you don't also enter your job as exercise.

Your doubling up.

Exercise is purposeful exercise like going to the gym, going for a run.

Activity level is your everyday stuff like your job, house work etc

meinstigater

ok, gotchya, gotchya gotchya guys!
I will remove that right away then, thanks guys.
Then 1,560 doesn't seem like much....but I'll try it out. I feel like I'll lose too quickly.
But I'll try it out.

THANKS GUYS!
deleting it now

SimoneBee12

meinstigater wrote: »

ok, gotchya, gotchya gotchya guys!
I will remove that right away then, thanks guys.
Then 1,560 doesn't seem like much....but I'll try it out. I feel like I'll lose too quickly.
But I'll try it out.

THANKS GUYS!
deleting it now

I think 1560 is way too low for your job. Somedays I don't leave my apartment at all and I'm losing on 1500. I would go back into your settings and change it to 1lb loss per week, that should increase your calories at least by a bit (theoretically, if you have it set to 2lbs now, it should go up to 2060, which would be MUCH more reasonable).

meinstigater

Yeah, you're probably right about that too. I lost 2lbs a week when I was younger....but I was 70lbs heavier, so it didn't take as severe a cutting. Will change that too.

Thanks for all the help!
Feel a little stupid, but thanks

TexasJade

Merkavar wrote: »

lynn_glenmont wrote: »

Your doubling up.

Exercise is purposeful exercise like going to the gym, going for a run.

Activity level is your everyday stuff like your job, house work etc

I have a question about this. If I am set to sedentary and I have a fitbit that is giving me 100 to 350 cals extra excercise cals, do those count? I am not currently excercising. I intially ate them but slowed way down, so as of last week I stopped. In the future as I become more active I may consider eating some but I am confused by your comment.
Are they just part of my activity or is it excercise?

TexasJade

^^^Sorry, don't know why your quote didn't display.

Merkavar wrote: »

lynn_glenmont wrote: »

It sounds like you're double-counting your work activity by considering it in setting your activity AND logging it as exercise. Do one or the other, not both.

That's what I'm thinking.

If you set it to highly active because of your job you don't also enter your job as exercise.

Your doubling up.

Exercise is purposeful exercise like going to the gym, going for a run.

Activity level is your everyday stuff like your job, house work etc

shadow2soul

@TexasJade - Fitbit can take away and add calories. Even on Sedentary, if you are particularly lazy one day (maybe sick in bed), you can lose calories or have no adjustment (if negative adjustments aren't enabled). The thing to remember is that the adjustment is to correct what MFP thought you would burn based on an activity level multiplier to what Fitbit actually tracks you doing. Example:

MFP expects me to burn 1865 calories per day at lightly active.
I'm given a goal of 1365 per day for 1 lb per week loss (1865-500).
Saturday, my full day calorie burn according to Fitbit was 2274.
MFP gave me an adjustment of 409 calories, because I burned 409 calories more than MFP thought I would. Those 409 calories are extra, because I was more than just Lightly Active that day.
Yesterday, however I lost 200 some odd calories because I've been sick and spent most of yesterday in bed.

Basically what I'm saying is that your Fitbit Adjustment is an Adjustment to your Activity Level Calorie burn.
edit: I hope this makes sense. I'm still sick and my thoughts have been really jumbled.

Merkavar

shadow2soul wrote: »

@TexasJade - Fitbit can take away and add calories. Even on Sedentary, if you are particularly lazy one day (maybe sick in bed), you can lose calories or have no adjustment (if negative adjustments aren't enabled). The thing to remember is that the adjustment is to correct what MFP thought you would burn based on an activity level multiplier to what Fitbit actually tracks you doing. Example:

MFP expects me to burn 1865 calories per day at lightly active.
I'm given a goal of 1365 per day for 1 lb per week loss (1865-500).
Saturday, my full day calorie burn according to Fitbit was 2274.
MFP gave me an adjustment of 409 calories, because I burned 409 calories more than MFP thought I would. Those 409 calories are extra, because I was more than just Lightly Active that day.
Yesterday, however I lost 200 some odd calories because I've been sick and spent most of yesterday in bed.

Basically what I'm saying is that your Fitbit Adjustment is an Adjustment to your Activity Level Calorie burn.
edit: I hope this makes sense. I'm still sick and my thoughts have been really jumbled.

Basically what he said.

If you have a Fitbit I don't think activity level matters much. Say your very active and set mfp to sedentary, the fit bit should adjust you calories by a lot.

But if you set mfp to very active it will adjust it to the same point but will be a smaller adjustment.

Asher_Ethan

I'm a dance teacher and I'm losing on 1800 calories a day. If you eat more it will probably help with the binge eating on the weekends

Merkavar

Merkavar wrote: »

shadow2soul wrote: »

@TexasJade - Fitbit can take away and add calories. Even on Sedentary, if you are particularly lazy one day (maybe sick in bed), you can lose calories or have no adjustment (if negative adjustments aren't enabled). The thing to remember is that the adjustment is to correct what MFP thought you would burn based on an activity level multiplier to what Fitbit actually tracks you doing. Example:

MFP expects me to burn 1865 calories per day at lightly active.
I'm given a goal of 1365 per day for 1 lb per week loss (1865-500).
Saturday, my full day calorie burn according to Fitbit was 2274.
MFP gave me an adjustment of 409 calories, because I burned 409 calories more than MFP thought I would. Those 409 calories are extra, because I was more than just Lightly Active that day.
Yesterday, however I lost 200 some odd calories because I've been sick and spent most of yesterday in bed.

Basically what I'm saying is that your Fitbit Adjustment is an Adjustment to your Activity Level Calorie burn.
edit: I hope this makes sense. I'm still sick and my thoughts have been really jumbled.

Basically what he said.

If you have a Fitbit I don't think activity level matters much. Say your very active and set mfp to sedentary, the fit bit should adjust you calories by a lot.

But if you set mfp to very active it will adjust it to the same point but will be a smaller adjustment.

Or maybe mfp/fit bit is more complicated than I thought and the facts I thought I had aren't facts.

editorgrrl

meinstigater wrote: »

1,560 doesn't seem like much....but I'll try it out. I feel like I'll lose too quickly.
But I'll try it out.

The less you have to lose, the more slowly it comes off. That's just the way the human body works. Choose an appropriate activity level, and set your goal to .5 lb. per week for every 25 lbs. you're overweight: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/change_goals_guided

Then log any actual exercise you do. Work (including commuting, childcare, housework and yardwork) is part of your activity level, and should never be logged as exercise.

Do you have a Fitbit? If (and only if) you enable negative calorie adjustments in your diary settings, choosing an activity level is a matter of personal preference. You can learn more in the Fitbit Users group: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/1290-fitbit-users

Merkavar

editorgrrl wrote: »

meinstigater wrote: »

1,560 doesn't seem like much....but I'll try it out. I feel like I'll lose too quickly.
But I'll try it out.

The less you have to lose, the more slowly it comes off. That's just the way the human body works. Choose an appropriate activity level, and set your goal to .5 lb. per week for every 25 lbs. you're overweight: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/change_goals_guided

Then log any actual exercise you do. Work (including commuting, childcare, housework and yardwork) is part of your activity level, and should never be logged as exercise.

Do you have a Fitbit? If (and only if) you enable negative calorie adjustments in your diary settings, choosing an activity level is a matter of personal preference. You can learn more in the Fitbit Users group: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/1290-fitbit-users

That's what I thought. I tested it earlier expecting the Fitbit adjustment to change so the net remained the same.

Adjusting mfp calorie goal to match Fitbit. It didn't work as expected.

Liftng4Lis

You're double dipping.

Werk2Eat

Seems like your over estimating your activity level. I do roofing and siding and MFP would consider that very active but i always pick lightly active and eat back 1600 to lose and 2000 to maintain.

TexasJade

Merkavar wrote: »

shadow2soul wrote: »

@TexasJade - Fitbit can take away and add calories. Even on Sedentary, if you are particularly lazy one day (maybe sick in bed), you can lose calories or have no adjustment (if negative adjustments aren't enabled). The thing to remember is that the adjustment is to correct what MFP thought you would burn based on an activity level multiplier to what Fitbit actually tracks you doing. Example:

MFP expects me to burn 1865 calories per day at lightly active.
I'm given a goal of 1365 per day for 1 lb per week loss (1865-500).
Saturday, my full day calorie burn according to Fitbit was 2274.
MFP gave me an adjustment of 409 calories, because I burned 409 calories more than MFP thought I would. Those 409 calories are extra, because I was more than just Lightly Active that day.
Yesterday, however I lost 200 some odd calories because I've been sick and spent most of yesterday in bed.

Basically what I'm saying is that your Fitbit Adjustment is an Adjustment to your Activity Level Calorie burn.
edit: I hope this makes sense. I'm still sick and my thoughts have been really jumbled.

Basically what he said.

If you have a Fitbit I don't think activity level matters much. Say your very active and set mfp to sedentary, the fit bit should adjust you calories by a lot.

But if you set mfp to very active it will adjust it to the same point but will be a smaller adjustment.

Thank you both.

FFfitgirl

I wear a body bugg and I've worn a fit bit. My body bugg says I burn over 3000 cals a day. My calorie goal is 2500