Lightly active or active?

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  • cocobot2013
    cocobot2013 Posts: 46 Member
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    I've been about 120 every Friday for like two months but it comes from eating low 6 days a week then that one high calorie day...Like a so 100 a day so instead of 1300 a day it'd be 1400 a day for a week then see? My main problem I have also is trying to fit treats into maintenance.. I love chocolate and one piece is never enough, and I also like to go out to eat once a week. How do you guys incorporate treats and eating out into maintenance? But thank you so so much for all your help!
  • Faithful_Chosen
    Faithful_Chosen Posts: 401 Member
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    Sweetheart, you have nearly 2000 calories to eat every day, and that is before counting exercise calories! It should be entirely possible to fit anything in there you might like :wink:
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    When your body is truly burning at normal high speed not being in a diet - one meal of eating more than the day needs just causes your body to speed up even more and it's taken care of.

    Obviously doing that day after day will slowly result in fat gain - but your current method is too each time you do it.

    Suppressed body is given a huge calorie surplus 1 day - doesn't speed it up - adds the extra as fat after your carb stores are topped off.

    Then you go back in to diet.

    There are people that live all the time with suppressed systems. Shoot, a whole way of thinking from a group that thinks it'll help them live longer.
    But it's a terrible way to attempt to lose weight then (which you obviously don't need to worry about) - but it's also stress to the body.

    But if you got the body burning fully, you could be eating more.

    And ditto's to setting as Active with that job - you didn't even mention evening time, if kids or pets involved that keep you more active then too.
    So exercise sure counts - and treadmill is perfectly fine calorie estimate to log when you log the workout.
  • cocobot2013
    cocobot2013 Posts: 46 Member
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    Thank you so much for taking the time to answer all my questions! It makes me feel better, I just need to switch the mindset of "bad food" and going over on my micronutrients! If I start eating more throughout the week but still have one higher calorie day in my weekly goal limit, how much do you think the scale would go up? Cause usually after Sunday when I eat a lot my weights up 5-7 but it goes back down by the next Sunday. So if I eat more everyday how much of an increase is 'safe'? Sorry that's kinda confusing lol and the evenings I don't do much if I don't have to workout besides clean up around the apartment then I'm usually laying on the couch lol should I still set it to active??
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    edited September 2015
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    Fat is not fast, gain or loss.

    Water weight is fast.

    If truly at maintenance - then you don't have muscle glucose stores to refill from some level of depletion - so not many weight fluctuations.

    If like now where you are undereating - then those top off with 1-2 lbs easily.
    Throw in eating more sodium and water retained there - another 1-4 lbs.

    Just be aware that if you ate 250 calories more than right now each and every day, and right now was truly your maintenance calories - you would only gain 1 lb slowly in 2 weeks time.
    Reread that.

    You gain more or faster then it's just water weight.

    And that water in the muscles attached to glucose is increased LBM, and increased metabolism as body deals with it.

    Edit - Active is work that is on your feet, constantly moving - sounds about right.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    As to the big meal day - eat 200 less the day before, and 200 less the day after - compared to normal.

    That day can also have smaller breakfast and lunch, right?
  • Faithful_Chosen
    Faithful_Chosen Posts: 401 Member
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    cocobot2013 wrote: »
    Thank you so much for taking the time to answer all my questions! It makes me feel better, I just need to switch the mindset of "bad food" and going over on my micronutrients! If I start eating more throughout the week but still have one higher calorie day in my weekly goal limit, how much do you think the scale would go up? Cause usually after Sunday when I eat a lot my weights up 5-7 but it goes back down by the next Sunday. So if I eat more everyday how much of an increase is 'safe'? Sorry that's kinda confusing lol and the evenings I don't do much if I don't have to workout besides clean up around the apartment then I'm usually laying on the couch lol should I still set it to active??

    Yep, still active.

    If you have a big meal, the weight of the food and the added water weight from digestion etc are going to up the scales, but it's not fat. Log all your food accurately, log all your exercise accurately and you will be able to say exactly if you have lost, maintained, or gained--but for now, I think gaining is not really a thing that is going to happen with your habits.

    As for micronutrients: unless you have a medical reason not to, you can go over. No worries <3
  • cocobot2013
    cocobot2013 Posts: 46 Member
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    Okay I'm gonna switch it to active today and I'm gonna try to up daily calories and simmer down that one high calorie day (it's usually like 6,000...) And not worry so much about seeing some red in the micros. My mind has gotten so wrapped around staying under/within every little thing and its been driving me crazy! I think it'll take time to adjust but I definitely think I'll have a better relationship with food and be happier.
  • DWBalboa
    DWBalboa Posts: 37,259 Member
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    First off, no one should make a negative remark about anyone else on this site rather over or under, it why we are all here; we all have work to do. Just ignore the negative and move on, no need to ever respond to them.

    As to you’re settings I would say yes you should set it to active. As others have stated to eat back your exercise calories but figuring out you true Ex calories is not so straight forward. Even with a HRM there are little variances that may cause inaccurate readings. My answer to that is that when I was accurately measuring everything I ate I would eat back about 50-75% of my exercise calories. This worked for me I have lost weight, fat, put on muscle, I am stronger and have better endurance, maybe not all in that order but those are the results. At times I would actually go over what my calorie count was because even after I had eaten my daily allowance I was still starving. There are too many reasons that could be to go into that but the takeaway should be “listen to your body.”
    Sorry if I was longwinded, good luck with reaching you goals, I’m sure you’ll do great.
  • cocobot2013
    cocobot2013 Posts: 46 Member
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    Thank you so much! I've been trying to figure everything out and it's hard because my friends only like 5 ft tall so I can't really relate with her calories or anything, and I also used to only eat like 800 calories a day and only had a treat meal once a month. I don't know how I even did that because now even with 1200-1400 I'm hungry every couple hours! And I've actually gained about 5-10 pounds since July. I used to be reading at 114-116, and I got over that I'm not at the weight now so hopefully some fluctuations that might happen I can get over that as well.. But thank you all so much for the support, it makes me feel way more relaxed about this! Hopefully all goes well..
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
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    cocobot2013 wrote: »
    But I'm never sure on how many calories I've actually burned to log in? And I don't want to guess and overestimate! The treadmill usually is 260 but that's the only number I know of.. but should I switch it to active now instead and work with those calories? And just see how that goes without adding in exercise calories of any sort yet?

    Just because you don't have an exact figure is not a good reason to pick zero.

    Zero certainly isn't a closer estimate than the number on the treadmill.
  • ilovesweeties
    ilovesweeties Posts: 84 Member
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    Hi,
    I am also 5 9, trying to maintain on >2500/day (but I weigh a good bit more than you). I get what you mean though, its hard to imagine you can eat that much after cutting calories for so long! We are lucky girls though, being tall, means we have a lot of calories to play with. I try to enjoy them and understand that while I worked hard to get the weight off, the game now is just keeping it off, not trying to my lowest number on the scale! I have a sedentary office job, but I walk at least 10,000 steps/day and I run three times a week as well.

    If you really are interested in what your burn is, you could try a FitBit or some other wristband. I get that they are a bit of financial outlay, but I get piece of mind from knowing a bit better what my burn is. I had the Flex while I was losing and have had the Charge HR for my first couple of months maintenance. I had been eating at ~250/day less than what FitBit says I burn, and I seemed to be losing at roughly that rate (like I said, I am trying to maintain, but that much food it taking a while to get my head around).

    Good luck!
  • cocobot2013
    cocobot2013 Posts: 46 Member
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    I'm thankful for being tall for that reason too lol! I love food so much, I don't think I could do it if I was 5 ft and under... Lol, but thank you for the advice! It is hard to up calories and play around with them after having a set calorie range for so long.. (not complaining about more food though lol) its mainly a mind thing for me I think.. I still think adding more each day will result immediately in weight gain lol but how accurate would you say your fitbit is though? I gotten one months back but I was still losing so I ended up giving it away, completely forgot that once I got to a certain weight I needed to switch to maintenance lol
  • Cynthiamr2015
    Cynthiamr2015 Posts: 161 Member
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    Active and you are doing GREAT. Keep up the good work!
  • ilovesweeties
    ilovesweeties Posts: 84 Member
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    cocobot2013 wrote: »
    but how accurate would you say your fitbit is though?

    I definitely wouldn't live or die by the quality of my FitBit data! It's just a fancier way of guessing, really. However, I've estimated my TDEE with an online calculator and FitBit bit tallies up with it, perhaps giving me a little more than TDEE would.

    As I said, I have still been losing, despite aiming to maintain- I've dropped 4-5 lbs since I started maintenance (10 weeks ago). My logging tells me I have been at an average 250/day deficit compared to my FitBit burn for that time... so the weight loss is roughly equal to what FitBit would predict!

    As everyone else in the thread (and elsewhere) says, there is a little trial and error involved and a your weight might go up by a pound or two as you add calories. We need to remember there is no way all those lbs can come back overnight! I like maintenance aim of being able to eat as much as possible at a stable weight- seems like a great reward for the hard work of losing. So perhaps taking a deep breath and accepting a gain of a pound or two in the short term is really worth it for a healthy, happy relationship with food, where you can choose and enjoy the food you want and know you are doing a good thing for body and mind. At least that is what I am trying to tell myself!

  • segacs
    segacs Posts: 4,599 Member
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    Reading through the responses here, I'd say you should set it to active, log your activity and eat back those exercise calories on top of that, AND set your goal to gain ~10lbs or so. You're underweight and need to gain back some weight for your health.

    Also, it seems to me like you might be overdoing it on the cardio. Too much is not better for you. Maybe cut back on some of the cardio workouts and integrate some strength training instead? That's a good way to ensure that more of your gain will be muscle as opposed to fat.
  • nxd10
    nxd10 Posts: 4,570 Member
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    See how it goes. Everyone is different. I set myself to active because that's what everything said I should be, but then wasn't losing until I went to lightly active.

    Also, do invest in a fitbit zip. I got mine for $39 on ebay. It just does steps. It syncs with MFP and you can eat back your calories. You may be using more than you think.

    (I was under 130 at 5'10" when I was in my teens - not because I tried, but because I just moved a lot. I got up to 150 by the time I was in my 20's and that became my stable adult weight - and what I am now. Bodies change.)
  • cocobot2013
    cocobot2013 Posts: 46 Member
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    I've really considered getting a fitbit again, if I do should I keep it at lightly active and then add in what the fitbit says? I've been eating a bit more through the week and not so much one specific day, I'm trying to learn moderation, not binge and restrict! Its hard because I've done it the other way for months and months, but I feel like easing up and learning moderation will be better long term to keep this weight off! And about my health, I really don't feel bad usually, some days I'm extremely hungrier for no reason but I eat every few hours and I never skip meals, I eat when I'm hungry and sometimes still eat my snack or whatever when I don't feel hungry! I also increased my weights a little bit! Thank you for the responses!
  • segacs
    segacs Posts: 4,599 Member
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    cocobot2013 wrote: »
    I'm trying to learn moderation, not binge and restrict! Its hard because I've done it the other way for months and months, but I feel like easing up and learning moderation will be better long term to keep this weight off!

    Yes, this! Exactly!

    As for determining the exact number, any caculator number -- on MFP, on IIFYM, on Fitbit -- will just be a guess. Take your best guess, try eating that for 4-6 weeks, and then if you're losing weight, adjust upwards. If you're gaining too much, adjust downwards. Trial and error.
  • cocobot2013
    cocobot2013 Posts: 46 Member
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    Should I first only eat half back of what it says? I think I'm gonna buy a fitbit this week! Do I include all calories burned for the day as well? I'm also curious if I workout in the afternoon, I dont wanna eat too much extra for breakfast and lunch incase my burn isn't what i thought it'd b

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