Calorie Question

kialea22

johnboy916 wrote: »

I did not read everyone's reply. If I cover something that has been talked about already, my apologies. I'm not a dietitian. I can tell you what I have done.... and what I'm doing successfully. I have lost 39lbs in body fat. I eat what I want.... not necessarily healthy..... Hell, I'm enjoying my Doritos as I'm writing this.... my day is 1770 calories split into 6 eating times..... breakfast, lunch, dinner, 2 snacks in between those and a very tiny snack before bed..... I have done a lot of homework on this stuff and this has been the most effective way for me to lose weight..... I use the App faithfully. I log all my meals and calories faithfully. .... never going over. Sometimes I am under..... I do get Friday cheat day to satisfy my gluttony. When I first started this it had taken 2 weeks before I seen the scale budge....... my weight would fluctuate thereafter with a continued gradual decrease. So when a Doctor says "eat healthy" I think that is stupid. Eating healthy doesn't mean broccoli carrots and giving up everything you love... Have your ice cream, candy bars, pizza, burgers, tacos and so on......... it is eating"right" that matters...... Eating the foods you love means eating less.... Pasta = 1 CUP....... chicken = 6 oz..... and so on...... do the math. Meal plan...... count your calories. If you waste 250 calories on a snicker bar or some soda so be it..... but that will leave you hungry. ... choose wisely and enjoy food. Oh, and very important. STAY AWAY from "LOW FAT " " NO FAT"and "SUGAR FREE"....... the flavor in those foods are added by FAKE sugar..... our bodies don't know how to process these sugars properly and turns them into carbs which then turns into fat.
ADD me, GOOD LUCK and enjoy the process.

Haha,

thanks for making me laugh! Oh trust me I will still enjoy my hot cheetos sometimes! Just once in a while and a small bag. I use to binge eat two large bags of chips on the weekend(i just love them that much)

I know I do need to cut back, but heck no I still eat real food.
I try to eat as much chicken and fish as possible, I just love veggies so that comes natural to me.

Yes I am not a fan of sugar anyway, I dont care for sweets so thankfully I dont have to reach for those sugar free cookies, or low fat yogurt...bleh!

Bread and chips are my obsession as you can see.

I am beginning to record daily, it can be difficult sometimes.

Thank you!

SeptemberFeyre

Kialea, Do you like oatmeal? If so, I really like Bob's red mill gluten free old fashioned rolled oats. I get them at Walmart in the gluten free section. I don't eat gluten free but my family and I like these better than any other oats.

Yi5hedr3

Just ran your numbers on 3 different leading calculators, and without knowing your percent body fat I will guess 35%, it shows that for 1.5 lbs loss/week, eat between 1180 & 1268 cals/day. MFP won't record below 1200 though, so maybe try 1220 ish???....

veganbaum

I would seriously suggest with starting by using MFP as it is designed until you get used to it. Down the line you can start tweaking things.

MFP is designed so that you enter your exercise and then eat your exercise calories. Most people will recommend eating only a percentage due to inaccuracies (usually around 50-75%), however, some people can eat back 100%.

If you are always between 8,000-10,000 steps a day, you may want to consider changing your activity level from sedentary to lightly active. Then, you should enter any intentional exercise that is not step-based and eat some of those calories. Weigh your solid foods, measure liquids, and choose correct entries. Do this for around 6 weeks. Then adjust ONE thing at a time as necessary (such as, lowering or upping your activity level OR eating fewer or more exercise calories), do that for around 4-6 weeks. You get the picture.

Alternatively, regarding activity level, if you have a tracker you can link to MFP, you could try doing that and enabling negative calories adjustments. Eat those. Log your intentional exercise as usual, eat a percentage of those.

Point being, you're on MFP and new to the whole calorie counting thing. Why not start by using the tool as intended rather than confusing yourself with lots of other information? Many successful people have done just that. Some of them continue with MFP's method, some will later adjust their calorie goal based off of their TDEE once they learn more. But you have a good tool right here.

SingRunTing

veganbaum wrote: »

I would seriously suggest with starting by using MFP as it is designed until you get used to it. Down the line you can start tweaking things.

MFP is designed so that you enter your exercise and then eat your exercise calories. Most people will recommend eating only a percentage due to inaccuracies (usually around 50-75%), however, some people can eat back 100%.

If you are always between 8,000-10,000 steps a day, you may want to consider changing your activity level from sedentary to lightly active. Then, you should enter any intentional exercise that is not step-based and eat some of those calories. Weigh your solid foods, measure liquids, and choose correct entries. Do this for around 6 weeks. Then adjust ONE thing at a time as necessary (such as, lowering or upping your activity level OR eating fewer or more exercise calories), do that for around 4-6 weeks. You get the picture.

Alternatively, regarding activity level, if you have a tracker you can link to MFP, you could try doing that and enabling negative calories adjustments. Eat those. Log your intentional exercise as usual, eat a percentage of those.

Point being, you're on MFP and new to the whole calorie counting thing. Why not start by using the tool as intended rather than confusing yourself with lots of other information? Many successful people have done just that. Some of them continue with MFP's method, some will later adjust their calorie goal based off of their TDEE once they learn more. But you have a good tool right here.

+1

I use a fitbit and have it linked to MFP. I set my calorie goal to my BMR and disabled negative adjustments simply because I don't want to eat below my BMR even on an off day. I do this understanding that if I have a lazy day, I'll lose a little slower that week. But you can avoid that by enabling the negative calories if you prefer that.

With that in mind, I get about 12k steps a day and usually get 300 or so extra calories from my fitbit that I can eat.

With the step count that you are getting, you are most certainly not sedentary. Either link your device to MFP if able (more accurate method) or change your activity setting in your MFP goals to "active" for that level of steps. 10k steps is generally considered 'active', but you could go for "lightly active" if you want to try that.

Other than that, accuracy in your food logging is the key. You lose weight in the kitchen. Activity can give you more calories to play with, but inaccurate food logging will hold you back.

Also second the advice on adjusting the numbers to match your rate of loss, but only doing so with a month or so of data behind you. All calculators are based on population averages and aren't going to be spot on for everyone, but you need the data over the longer term in order to adjust properly.