Calories...where to start

lnicker

So I am all over the place on calories. For the past 6 years, I have dieted. Started with Weight Watchers which worked great for the first couple years. Then I started to slowly gain weight no matter how hard I tried to stop it. Since then I have been all over the place with calories anywhere from 1200-1700. Some weeks I tried more, the next week I tried less. I just couldn't find the sweet spot again. This past March I found EM2WL and another site Eat to Perform. I jumped right in and upped my calories to TDEE for about 4 months. I gained 15 pounds, went up 2 pant sizes and got really frustrated. Since then I have tried to eat less but not budging on the scale/pant size.

Now comes my question. I am all over the place on how much I eat. Through the week I eat less but come the weekend, I tend to eat a lot more and honestly I am not good at tracking on the weekends so I know I eat way closer to my TDEE if not over. But I'm also more active on weekends too.

Should I start right in at TDEE? I'm not sure how I would work up to TDEE because I don't really know where I am starting at. Make sense?

**My workouts: I've been doing home programs. Recently though I have done Beachbody Body Beast (lifting) and then I switched to the 21 Day Fix (not the diet part) which are 6-7 days a week. I had missed the cardio with Body Beast. Now I am looking at doing a Hybrid of Body Beast and 21DF/Running.

**M-F I have a desk job 8-5.

KickboxDiva

I was pretty much doing exactly what you described as far as calories and long term dieting goes. I bought a fitbit charge HR and it helped me a lot to see where I need to be and my true daily expenditure. It reflects how much effort I put into my workout, if I had a lot of daily movement. Somedays I'd have a really tough workout and be SPENT but then the rest of the day I'd sit at a desk. Normally I'd think I really EARNED lots of calories but I can see the effect of the rest of the day and it reflects all that on my wrist. For me it is really good direction and feedback, even if not exact. It's helped me to determine how to actually eat based on my activity and fuel performance. Are you a member of ETP? I went up 7 lbs after joining ETP but mostly that was due to not following the plan and getting that initial freedom. I'm still up that 7 but looking very defined and leaner. I did feel fluffy 3 months ago at the same weight, now I don't and my clothes feel fine. I'm not looking at the scale any longer except for data and am up to about 2400 calories right now with my weight the same since April when I was eating 1700. I'm tracking very exact. When you go up in calories like that you need to know your exact numbers 7 days a week. I want the data and I finally figured out if I don't have EXACT data I wont know how to reproduce the results. I'm on a mission to KNOW how to manipulate my body fat level. Seeing someone describe their workouts can not possibly tell you their effort. My friends and I train together but I lift more with less rests and recover faster than they do and they burn MORE calories than me. How's that for UNFAIR! But having the FitBit has helped me to come to terms with that and adjust my workouts accordingly.

Firefly0606

You can be all over the place on how many calories your eat....but there is no escaping that you need to know the numbers if your are going to be able to put a number on that true TDEE. Eating 2000 exactly every day for a week is the same as eating 1800 for 5 days and 2500 on Saturday and Sunday. You're going to consume 14000 in the week, and what happens on the scale will give you an indication of whether that is your TDEE or not.

You are only going to know if you are eating the right amount if you know the starting point.

I also work a desk job 8-5 and my exercise is sporadic through the week. Sometimes I do all the exercise I plan to do, sometimes I run out of time to get everything done - so my exact burn each week varies.

Have you considered a metabolic reset? I am doing a metabolic reset at the moment. It's amazing. I am really taking the time to not worry about losing any weight at all at the moment. You say you upped to TDEE for 4 months - did you take the time to figure out if that was your true TDEE, or is that the number that a calculator told you? The calculators are a guide so you have to take the time to figure out your real TDEE from there.

lnicker

I went with what the Eat to Perform Moderator told me to do during those 4 months. I kept gaining so I gave up.

heybales

All those TDEE's are estimates.

If you keep slowly gaining - you are obviously eating more than you are burning - and either the estimate is off or your food logging is off.

It sounds like you know which side is known to be off - which means you'll never be able to get a number on the other side.

While slight increases on weekend can be alright - usually the way it's done is extreme deficit during the week - then binging on the weekend.
This eventually ends up being a slower daily burn - and the weekend doesn't speed it up - it merely makes it easier to eat in surplus and gain fat.
So while a weekly view average can appear decent - how you got it can show it's really not the same.

It's why some can say they gain on 1200 cal diets. Well, that may indeed be the goal, but it's the eating 2400 couple days a week on a body burning 20% less than it normally could that is the killer and fat gain.

You really can't do anything useful without having a handle on where you are eating at right now - so don't even waste effort on that yet - because you have no idea if useful or not.

If the weekends are going to continue to be perhaps eating out so you have no decent estimate of calories eaten - this is going to be a very long process.

You'll have to decide what is most important to you right now.

Just being frank because I could see you easily spinning your wheels for naught for 3-4 months again. Being aggravated that nothing seems to work. When in reality most of them probably could have.