New... done with first week Reset... am I on the right track

shelly_38

Hi All! I'm new to this. Some background. I'm a 41 yr old female, 5'8" and 170 lbs. I've been trying to lose weight for about a year after having my last child who is now 3. Would love to lose 15 lbs and get to 155 but a healthy BMI for me is 165 lbs. Been tracking on mfp since July and sticking pretty closely with 1650 calories.

Starting weight July: 175
Weight now: 170

At 1650 I lost about 5 lbs in a few weeks and I've lost nothing since September 1. I'm watching protein and trying to hit about 120-130 which I hit most of the time. Other macros I don't track much. I've also been weight training 3 times a week since July at home with adjustable free weights. I have gotten stronger! I can do real pushups on my toes now and compound lifts I can do much more than when I started. I did not take initial measurements. But even with just 5 lbs, I noticed a real difference in my clothes and can wear many of the the next smaller size in my closet, which surprises me with such a small scale loss.

Scooby: (moderate exercise)
bmi: 1513
TDEE: 2353

So after being pretty stagnant in weight loss for a month or so I wanted to take a break. A few days after starting a break and purposely eating more, I found this site which kind of confirmed what I was already doing.

So for a week, my calories are averaging 2350 which is kind of a natural place for me to eat. I feel good and energetic at this level. I've lost a pound. I'm also continuing with my 3-4 workouts per week.

Do you think my TDEE is around 2350 then? I guess I thought I'd gain about 5 lbs when I suddenly upped my calories by 600 each day but I haven't. My plan is to continue for another week at this level and continue workouts and then do a cut -- maybe 20%.

Am I on the right track? Anything else I should be doing? I'm hoping that eating at TDEE for a couple of weeks with allow a deficit to actually cause some weight loss.

Thanks for reading!

heybales

Those rough 5 level TDEE tables are asking about only exercise - they don't account for increased daily activity.

You have a 45 hr desk job/commute and outside of exercise are a bump on a log - with that little cutie in your pic being 3 yrs old?
Doubtful.

So you need add the 2 levels together - Lightly active for daily life, and whatever it is for exercise - bump up a level.

And 20% is too extreme for amount to be lost. 15% at most.

Also, think about your TDEE level.

You were eating 1650 and not losing (discount initial water weight everyone loses going into a diet, some real fat there too though).
That was your literal TDEE for your level of activity for a good month or more.

Was it your potential TDEE or suppressed TDEE though?

Well, now eating 2350 and lost a pound.

So that proves 1650 was suppressed TDEE, not potential. If 1650 was potential - you would have gained weight like you thought.

So now is 2350 still a suppressed TDEE, or potential?

How did you discover 1650 was suppressed?

Do the same thing again, because I'll bet it's higher. Though lifting doesn't burn as much as cardio, but it's given the same burn rate in the rough TDEE tables.

Might try this for better initial estimate. Directions to use in top right corner. Rest you'll recognize.
Just TDEE please, better than 5 level TDEE charts.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1G7FgNzPq3v5WMjDtH0n93LXSMRY_hjmzNTMJb3aZSxM/edit?usp=sharing

Good job sticking at higher level - I'll bet it's helped your workouts.

shelly_38

Thank you heybales! I tried your spreadsheet but I'm a little confused. It's really hard to estimate my minutes of weekly activity so I don't have any idea if what I'm doing is right.

I'm not sure if you can see my changes or not:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/179hrFBZSDVm_VJC3YkGZogEHgBQLwrgDheWy2B6Qagg/edit#gid=0

So the spreadsheet gave me a TDEE of 3294! Wow, that is high, right? Way too high?

My scheduled workouts are 4 times a week at home with my adjustable dumbells. They are fitness blender workouts if you are maybe familiar with that. It's usually compound lifts for part and HIIT for the rest, all mixed together with an average of 30 minutes in length. Weights are heavy... what I can do for 8-10 reps in a set. Minimal rest -- usually 25 seconds is common and usually strength exercises are done in supersets because of the short rests. Then there is usually 10 minute or so of HIIT in the video. So I estimated 40 min of strength per week and 30 minutes of cardio per week. ??

As far as walking, I go for walks at a 3-4 mile an hour pace with my family 2-3 times a week, for approximately 30 minutes. I wear an apple watch and I always get 10,000 steps per day. My watch usually tells me my total distance for the day is around 5 miles. And it usually gives me "move" calories of 400-600 per day, if that means anything to you.

I am a SAHM but I don't do a ton of sitting during the day. However, it's still hard to estimate what my actual activity is during the day.

Any ideas? I still think that TDEE is WAY high. I feel I would gain a lot of weight eating another 1000 calories per day!! So I must be way overestimating my activity.

Thanks so much for working through all of this for me! Its hard to figure out TDEE other than by direct experimentation.

Also, yes my workouts are fantastic with more eating! And I definitely have more energy throughout the day! Love eating more!!

heybales

So the daily walking you don't try to figure out based on steps - only the purposeful like you did for 30 min x 2.5 weekly, or 75 min total it sounds like on average.

The breakdown of the workouts is correct idea. Though you can't really lift heavy if supersetting or doing hard cardio during the normal rest time. Doing heavy weight while fatigued just doesn't happen, even if the supersets are supposedly using different muscles. I mean, it feels heavy sure like you are giving all you got - but attempt doing it with true rest and you'll notice the difference. Muscle is only overloaded by weight as stimulus to grow more. If fatigued the improvement is to store more glucose in muscle to endure longer.
But 4 x 30 min = 120 min.
You only accounted for 30 + 40 = 70 min.

The daily stuff is taken care of by selecting the 3rd option, SAHM like slow moving job.

So this is exactly what I mean by ya, I can truly believe your potential TDEE is much higher.

And you probably lost some water weight from stress increased cortisol retaining it. That's the lb, though I wouldn't be surprised if there was more to be lost as you kept slowly increasing calories and body unstressed more.

Just confirm the personal stats are correct, and time is right. I requested access to look at spreadsheet BTW.

shelly_38

I guess I'm confused and I'm sure I didn't estimate on the spreadsheet correctly. I gave you access so you can look at it. You still think my potential TDEE could be higher than 2350? Do you think I should slowly increase cals to see where my TDEE is?

What I really want to do is lose another 10-15 lbs so when and how should I start a deficit? Should I wait until I think I've reached my potential TDEE? Originally I was planning to eat at TDEE for only 2 weeks so I could get back to a deficit.

I can't always track exactly. For instance, yesterday I was at a family birthday party with lots of homemade food. I have no idea how to track that stuff so I just ate what I wanted. And I am down another half pound this morning. And I enjoy not having to worry about tracking every morsel during my little diet break right now!

Thanks again heybales!

heybales

Ah - found issue.
On daily activity section is says check only 1 box if any even apply.

You checked both boxes for SAHM - like slow moving job, and like moving constantly physical job or several kids. Likely difference between 1 kid and more than 1.

Now the math on the exercise section is also off from what you wrote above and I commented on.

2-3 times a weeks is 2.5 times on average then, unless you know it's normally 3 and an unusual odd week it's 2 - in which case it's 3 x 30 min = 90 min as you did.

But the 3-4 times Fitness Blender, or you say 4 x in next section, needs some better math.

4 x 30 min is 120 min total.

If 10 min is HIIT cardio then 4 x 10 = 40 min.
That leaves 80 min lifting then.

You have 40 + 30 = 70 - you are missing 50 min under lifting.

Does 2500 TDEE sound better if only 1 kid?

I'd suggest move on up to there for several weeks after this week of increased eating - perhaps during these upcoming months where it's harder to keep a deficit anyway, allow any weeks with bigger eating to average that 2500 - only pull a deficit when you can eating the 15% deficit.
When you go to straight deficit all the time, 10% is better for 15 lbs to go, or whatever it is then.

So body sounds like it's getting unstressed, keep it up by going all the way to potential.
Perhaps even testing that by going higher.

If you ate 250 more than potential TDEE every day for 2 weeks - you would only gain 1 lb slowly.
And while lifting - not even fat at that point.

Anything faster is water weight because it's still not potential TDEE yet.
No gain means your system sped up at same rate.

shelly_38

Thanks again. I redid the spreadsheet and I checked the box of SAHM with one kid. I do have 3 kids, but two are in school. So maybe that is closer to the actual? Also, I estimated 105 minutes total working out minutes for an average of 3-4 times weekly and an average of 30 minutes per session. So my exercise minutes add up to 105 minutes. And I average 60 minutes of walking per week. I get 2501 TDEE which is right on what you predict.

I will try it out at 2500 and see how it goes! I'm just not sure I want to do increased eating for several more months, since I would love to lose those 10-15 pounds! Maybe several weeks at 2500?

That said, I'm having trouble eating that much! The last 3 days I'm averaging around 2000 and really full. But I'm trying to eat more often, even when I'm not that hungry. Is that how it's supposed to work? It's hard to eat that much when I've gone a couple of months eating 1600.

heybales

You increase slowly for sure.

Because whatever level you were eating at with no weight change - that's your actual suppressed TDEE right now. Eating a huge amount over is surplus and fat gain until body decides to speed up.
2500 is estimated potential TDEE - if it was literal you'd be losing almost 2 lbs weekly right now but you aren't.

So couple weeks adding 100 extra daily to current level, then weekly increase by 200 until there.

Let's body adjust better, both metabolism and daily burn, and also stomach. And lets you sort out where to add it.

KickboxDiva

That said, I'm having trouble eating that much! The last 3 days I'm averaging around 2000 and really full. But I'm trying to eat more often, even when I'm not that hungry. Is that how it's supposed to work? It's hard to eat that much when I've gone a couple of months eating 1600. [/quote]

I remember feeling that way and guess what?? Now I'm going to bed starving if I didn't eat over 2000 calories and eat recently. Kinda scary! I feel bad most nights because my hubby is all ready to go to sleep and I'm thinking I need a snack.. #fitgirlproblems