Question for the veterans - calorie counting

CSARdiver

I primarily used MFP data, but double checked with multiple other sites to confirm the information I received here.

A great site I found (and enrolled in) is the National Weight Control Registry: http://www.nwcr.ws/Research/default.htm

As this is an issue of behavior I modeled the behavior of those who were successful - just tweaked this a bit to suit my needs and goals. Those who are successful in this first realize that they have the control in this and can make changes.

inertiastrength

Since you're asking people years in you're probably going to get a lot of similar replies; their own data. You can guess your tdee to get you started but if you're tracking everything and tracking it accurately you will be able to use your own data to adjust your goals accordingly.

LessCookiess

Interesting question!

mou_254

karahm78 wrote: »

Wanted to wish you luck, and also to mention that since you are considering increasing your activity level and factor in those earned calories, adding something like a Fitbit or Garmin to your plans may be a motivator.

Just bought a Fitbit charge HR today

mou_254

TimothyFish wrote: »

mou_254 wrote: »

TimothyFish wrote: »

It is theoretically possible to eat at maintenance for your goal weight the entire journey, but I don't think many have succeeded at that. Something you might consider is whether you really want to maintain your weight by tracking your calories in the same way that you do when you are losing weight. That doesn't work for me. Also, most people don't have a set maintenance weight but a range of about +/-5 lbs. Are you going to calculate your calories based on the midpoint? The low side? The high side? It would work better if you use the low side, but you will have to increase your calories at some point. At the midpoint it will take you a very long time. At the high point you will never get there.

But part of my theory is that once I have eaten a particular amount of calories long enough ( and it will be long enough, considering I have about 110lbs to lose), I'll be able to eat without exactly counting all the calories ( I mean I'll be able to tell, say after 2 years, isn't it?) That way, I thought maintenance will also be easier, because I'll know when I'm going over.

I too have a range for goal weight, not an exact weight, and yes, I'll stick to the lower end to calculate calories.

I'm all for eating without knowing the exact number of calories. That's what I do when I'm maintaining my weight. But we don't need the same amount of food all the time. Most days, I need over 3,000 calories, but if I sit all day I need less than that. On other days I burn enough calories that 4,000 is closer to what I need.

Yes, that's why I bought a Fitbit today. It'll help me in giving a more precise idea of how much more I can eat in a day.

sympha01

Just be aware that the estimates provided by those things is not necessarily accurate. When I had a Fitbit, it overestimated calorie burns from step-based exercise and under-estimated burns from HR-based workouts.

Not to slam fitbit specifically, but it's important to remember that

1) The wrist-based HR monitors are not actually great at capturing HR accurately, sorry.
2) HR is not a magical way to determine calorie burn. It's still algoritm-based, and there's variation between individuals that is not accounted for by age, height, and weight. Particularly: VO2 max. Unless you have had a medically-administered VO2 max test (and there are lots of non-medically-administered "at home" tests you can do for an estimate, but those too are algorithmically based guesses), the calorie burn estimate provided by any HRM is going to just be pretty close to what you'd see on a database like MFP anyway.

They're fun, especially when you're new to exercise, and I'm always in favor of establishing quantifiable baselines, tracking changes over time, and setting goals, but as for weight loss I'd advise against jumping in to start eating back 100% of fitbit exercise cals. DO eat more on days you burn more, eat less on days you burn less, but keep a skeptical eye on the calorie number as a magic bullet. It's really more like a FICO score for activity vs sedentariness than actual real food calories LOL.

mou_254

sympha01 wrote: »

Just be aware that the estimates provided by those things is not necessarily accurate. When I had a Fitbit, it overestimated calorie burns from step-based exercise and under-estimated burns from HR-based workouts.

Not to slam fitbit specifically, but it's important to remember that

1) The wrist-based HR monitors are not actually great at capturing HR accurately, sorry.
2) HR is not a magical way to determine calorie burn. It's still algoritm-based, and there's variation between individuals that is not accounted for by age, height, and weight. Particularly: VO2 max. Unless you have had a medically-administered VO2 max test (and there are lots of non-medically-administered "at home" tests you can do for an estimate, but those too are algorithmically based guesses), the calorie burn estimate provided by any HRM is going to just be pretty close to what you'd see on a database like MFP anyway.

They're fun, especially when you're new to exercise, and I'm always in favor of establishing quantifiable baselines, tracking changes over time, and setting goals, but as for weight loss I'd advise against jumping in to start eating back 100% of fitbit exercise cals. DO eat more on days you burn more, eat less on days you burn less, but keep a skeptical eye on the calorie number as a magic bullet. It's really more like a FICO score for activity vs sedentariness than actual real food calories LOL.

Yes, I'm new to fitness trackers and I was thinking about starting a discussion in the forums and asking Fitbit charge HR users what amount of accuracy they have had while using the device. I would eat back 50%of exercise calories anyway, and adjust from there.

middlehaitch

Do a search for questions on your particular device. There are questions with lots of answers posted almost daily.

There are also Fitbit 'groups' you would probably get a lot of detailed knowledge from them.

Cheers, h.

Christine_72

There's hours of reading pleasure (and confusion ) on mfp's fitbit group, also check out the FAQ section.

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/1290-fitbit-users

mou_254

Christine_72 wrote: »

There's hours of reading pleasure (and confusion ) on mfp's fitbit group, also check out the FAQ section.

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/1290-fitbit-users

Thanks

elisa123gal

I've often thought why not just eat the amount of calories you should at your goal weight and call it a day! Glad to see a post on this obvious solution.

Sara1791

elisa123gal wrote: »

I've often thought why not just eat the amount of calories you should at your goal weight and call it a day! Glad to see a post on this obvious solution.

It works but may be too few calories for someone with a lot to lose and it could be very slow for someone with only a little to lose. I do like the idea though.

mou_254

Sara1791 wrote: »

elisa123gal wrote: »

I've often thought why not just eat the amount of calories you should at your goal weight and call it a day! Glad to see a post on this obvious solution.

It works but may be too few calories for someone with a lot to lose and it could be very slow for someone with only a little to lose. I do like the idea though.

It might just be the right amount of calories for me, at my current stats

Afura

elisa123gal wrote: »

I've often thought why not just eat the amount of calories you should at your goal weight and call it a day! Glad to see a post on this obvious solution.

If you want to see me turn into a absolutely jerkface, give me 1250 calories to eat. There's a reason that calculators give us a deficit for the amount we're trying to lose based off our current weight. Because it's a reasonable deficit that helps us lose weight at a responsible rate.

Sara1791

mou_254 wrote: »

Sara1791 wrote: »

elisa123gal wrote: »

I've often thought why not just eat the amount of calories you should at your goal weight and call it a day! Glad to see a post on this obvious solution.

It works but may be too few calories for someone with a lot to lose and it could be very slow for someone with only a little to lose. I do like the idea though.

It might just be the right amount of calories for me, at my current stats

Cool! I think if I had that kind of patience, I'd do it too.

Francl27

I ate 1700ish the whole time. It was basically TDEE-20%, except that my activity level went up, so that made up for the lower weight. 1700 is my maintenance now if I'm pretty much sedentary (but I'm far from it so I can still lose at 2000).

jessiferrrb

@Verity1111 eats this way too i think. i plan on doing so on my diet break in july. i mess around with my calorie goals occassionally depending on how i'm doing. i was set to 1 lb per week and eating some / most exercise calories back and my rate of loss wasn't panning out. either my ci or co was inaccurate, so i switched to 1.5 lb per week on the week days and all exercise calories back and 1 lb per week on the weekends to give myself more room for bad estimates. we'll see how that goes for a while. as it stands right now if i eat at maintenance for my goal weight i'll be eating more than at the 1 lb per week goal. tooooo slooooooow.

mou_254

I see both ends of the spectrum here; people who think it is too little and people who think it is too much. I'll see how I cope with it!