Setting macros

glowgirl14
glowgirl14 Posts: 200 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Ok, so I'm going to try the TDEE/IIFYM approach...I've been stuck for a while within a ten pound range, and would like to lose more. Seems I'm not eating enough. I sometimes hit my goal (which apparently is too low to begin with) and any calories I burned in exercise were just more of a deficit...(Ex. My goal was 1200, and I would try to come in under that...and if I ate 1100, and burned 300 in exercise, I would count that day a success - with a 400 calorie defecit.) More calories burned, more weight lost...except I wasn't losing.

So. I've done my BMR using the Katch McArdle formula, (Using my current weight as my goal, as suggested in another thread.) It's 1332. And here's where I'm confused. I know I'm supposed to set a deficit, and eat the extra calories I burn in exercise. But how do I set this up? I would consider myself sedentary, but I just got a fitbit, and I guess I'm not. Do I just pick an activity modifier, and go for it...and adjust in a week if I'm doing more/less? What if I set a goal of, say, 1500 calories, and my fitbit says I burned 2500? From what I'm reading, that's too much of a deficit. So I should eat more, to account for the extra calories burned...where do those "extra" calories fit into the macros?

I'm sorry if I sound like an idiot. This seems like such a simple approach, if I can get my numbers figured out.

Help?

Replies

  • Mokey41
    Mokey41 Posts: 5,769 Member
    If you rFitBit says you are burning 2500 a day and your BMR is 1350 then pick a place inbetween. You need to eat more than your BMR and less than your TDEE. You also need to give the whole process at least a month before you decide it isn't working. You've been seriously under eating so your body is going to have a knee jerk response if you up your calories to start replenishing lost glycogen stores and you may gain a few pounds.

    You don't have a lot left to lose so having a 1,000 calorie a day deficit is too much, that's a 2 lb a week setting. I don't totally believe FitBit's for accuracy on calorie burn though. I wouldn't worry too much about macros. Probably your best bet is to just use MFP's setting for 1 lb/week or even .5 lb/week and add any intentional exercise separately. It's up to your whether you chose to eat those calories.
  • glowgirl14
    glowgirl14 Posts: 200 Member
    Here's where I get frustrated. I "don't have a lot to lose". But I suspect that my lack of exercise/muscle tone is making me way much less than if I were really toned. When I do the waist/height ratio and waist/hip ratio, I'm still in the "normal" range, but on the high end. And my body fat percentage is larger than I'd like as well. I don't want to be super skinny...But I know that I have a propensity for gaining weight when I don't watch.

    I also have a good friend who is a nutritionist, and she told me that when we are adolescents and while we are pregnant, we make new fat cells. As an adolescent, I was always on the go, and so I progressed like a healthy adolescent. My first pregnancy came just after I lost 45lbs...and I ate like I was trying to replenish all the calories I didn't eat when losing. I gained 75lbs with my pregnancy, and it all went to my hips and tummy. So, I'm a "healthy weight" for my height, but my stomach is enormous compared to the rest of me. I am trying to refocus at the moment. Get some cardio in...something I am conscious of, not just my normal activities of cleaning house and chasing kids...and do some toning. I know that will make me gain weight, as muscle. But I know when I was in high school, I weighed 120-125, and was way smaller than I am now at 130. The difference has to be muscle v. fat.

    My question here is when do you put the exercise calories into the macros? I know a 1150 calorie deficit is too much, and I don't think I'm actually burning 2500 a day. I've upped my calorie goal here to 1450, and plan to eat more for what I burn. At this point, I would be okay if I lost half a pound a week. As long as I am making some progress. I just don't want to put some arbitrary number into my goal, and eat that for a month, and gain ten pound instead of lose or maintain.

    I suppose the easy way to calculate would be to take my macros as percentages, and to eat any extra calories with those same percentages?

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