Maintenance calories off?
nichell88
Posts: 364 Member
So I've only been maintaining for about 3 weeks now, but I seem to have done well to maintain my weight for the past two weeks successfully, like within a pound. I'm eating about 1700-1800 calories a day. What's confusing is that the exercise I'm doing is supposed burning about 500-700 calories daily, which has me netting at around 1100 something calories daily. So my guess is, because I am actually maintaining my weight, I'm not burning as many exercise calories as mfp is giving me credit for. Has this happened with anyone else? Does this make sense?
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Replies
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Makes sense.
Did you come out of a diet?
Your body may still be slowing you down in your daily activity if it still thinks eating less than it wants in a diet, which is one of the first things that happens to help to burn less calories.
So the daily activity calorie burn estimate could be off.
Which means if you ate those exercise calories back, or some of them - the workouts would become better and better transforming, and daily energy would pick up.
You could also be badly underestimating your intake - do you weigh everything you eat?
Or measure things by volume, and/or eat out frequently?
You could be eating more than 1700-1800.
That estimate of exercise burn could also be way off.
What is the workout, and where is the calorie burn coming from?
Also - before you go batty thinking holding to weight goal means within 1 lb (incase you think that small is good) - for sure pick a 5 lb range to hold to - water weight will change for many good reasons.3 -
My N=1 experience?
The last time I was in weight loss mode, I was eating 1300-1400 to lose 0.5 pound per week. I did that for nine months. When I went to maintenance it was in November, so I decided to just enjoy the holidays without worrying about my weight too much. I ate 30,000 extra calories in the next six months and didn't gain any weight. Thirty thousand over my (projected) maintenance calories. Some weeks I was over by 6,000 calories for the week. For real - I used a digital food scale and logged everything. I have no explanation for this, just lucky I guess.0 -
Your food and exercise diaries are private so a guess is all you will get.
Probably logging inaccuracy on both sides of the calorie balance plus it's still very early on at maintenance to see any trend.
Hope you aren't actually trying to maintain in such a narrow band as 1lb?0 -
Makes sense.
Did you come out of a diet?
Your body may still be slowing you down in your daily activity if it still thinks eating less than it wants in a diet, which is one of the first things that happens to help to burn less calories.
So the daily activity calorie burn estimate could be off.
Which means if you ate those exercise calories back, or some of them - the workouts would become better and better transforming, and daily energy would pick up.
You could also be badly underestimating your intake - do you weigh everything you eat?
Or measure things by volume, and/or eat out frequently?
You could be eating more than 1700-1800.
That estimate of exercise burn could also be way off.
What is the workout, and where is the calorie burn coming from?
Also - before you go batty thinking holding to weight goal means within 1 lb (incase you think that small is good) - for sure pick a 5 lb range to hold to - water weight will change for many good reasons.
I have a 5lb range for maintenance, it's just that I have been maintaining within a pound. It's still new, so who knows, but I use a food scale to measure all of my food except for non starchy vegetables, so I'm more confident in the food calories than I am in the exercise calories. I do cardio three days a week in the form of intervals for 30 minutes (running at 9mph walking at 4mph) and hills on the bike, then I strength train three times a week for about 40-45 minutes and do steady state cardio walking 3.5 uphill on the treadmill and low intensity on the bike.0 -
Makes sense.
Did you come out of a diet?
Your body may still be slowing you down in your daily activity if it still thinks eating less than it wants in a diet, which is one of the first things that happens to help to burn less calories.
So the daily activity calorie burn estimate could be off.
Which means if you ate those exercise calories back, or some of them - the workouts would become better and better transforming, and daily energy would pick up.
You could also be badly underestimating your intake - do you weigh everything you eat?
Or measure things by volume, and/or eat out frequently?
You could be eating more than 1700-1800.
That estimate of exercise burn could also be way off.
What is the workout, and where is the calorie burn coming from?
Also - before you go batty thinking holding to weight goal means within 1 lb (incase you think that small is good) - for sure pick a 5 lb range to hold to - water weight will change for many good reasons.
I have a 5lb range for maintenance, it's just that I have been maintaining within a pound. It's still new, so who knows, but I use a food scale to measure all of my food except for non starchy vegetables, so I'm more confident in the food calories than I am in the exercise calories. I do cardio three days a week in the form of intervals for 30 minutes (running at 9mph walking at 4mph) and hills on the bike, then I strength train three times a week for about 40-45 minutes and do steady state cardio walking 3.5 uphill on the treadmill and low intensity on the bike.
Not too many vegetables then?
Good variety on workouts.
If the strength training is 5-15 reps, and sets 3-5, and rests 1-4 min, then logging as Weights from database is correct. it's low compared to cardio, but correct enough.
The running from database would be correct too if you are correct on the time and that is the avg pace the entire time.
For intervals, correct enough calories will come from using total distance gone and total time to get pace, and using correct one from database.
The uphill will actually be underestimated, amount wrong depends on amount of incline since database entry assumes flat.
Uphill bike and intervals - is that outside or on machine?
You didn't mention where you were getting calorie estimates from.
Database can be good if there is specific intensity.
Things like Spin Bike, where you have no idea if you are at same intensity as the entry - that's iffy.
Curious for the lower body intervals - does that occur the day after strength training with the legs, during what should be recovery?0 -
@heybales I actually eat lots of vegetables. I eat a salad for lunch probably 3 times a week, fruit with breakfast, and 1-2 servings of veggies with dinner daily, plus I sometimes snack on veggies. I'm not going to answer all of your questions because there were too many, haha. Plus I wasn't really looking for an analysis of my workout and diet. Just wanted to see if others had experience with mfp telling you a net calories number but having it be off.0
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Well, there you got the 2 big reasons then so you know it's not at all unusual when incoming is missing food and outgoing is based on questionable accuracy.
And there are differences to the standard formulas anyway.
Just need to merely know a certain number X while likely inaccurate is your maintenance level.
Keep watching results of abdomen inches and scale weight to know if that number X needs to go up or down.1 -
@heybales I'm not sure what you're saying, I'm having trouble understanding. I'm weighing and tracking everything, but I'm not weighing my veggies with dinner, just estimating and tracking. My food intake should be pretty close to accurate. I'm guessing the exercise is off in mfp since it's telling me I'm maintaining at ~1100 calories, which does not make sense.0
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Summary:
- Your food logging is an estimate and most likely the biggest issue.
- Your exercise calories are an estimate.
- The calorie calculation formulae are estimates.
- But good news is it doesn't actually matter if you get the desired result (weight maintenance).
10 -
Nothing wrong with estimating on some food intake while in maintenance. If your weight starts climbing, you would see that something needs to change.
I doubt you are burning 500-700 calories daily in exercise. So more than likely you are burning less in exercise than MFP is crediting you. Its easy to overestimate burn.
Keep on keeping on, as the saying goes. If your weight continues to stay in the range you're aiming for, then keep eating as you are. Adjust as needed.0 -
@sijomial @StaciMarie1974 I honestly don't estimate anything except for the vegetables, which are like 30 calories anyway. I know the whole thing is an estimation, but the food calories are as close as they can be. So I don't think the food is "most likely the biggest issue", there's no reason it would be. But I agree with you, staci. I think mfp is telling me I'm burning far more calories than I am. I'm certainly not netting 1100 calories, or at least I don't appear to be in these early stages of maintenance. But I'll see how it plays out for the next couple of months0
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@nichell88 - I've had a similar experience with exercise calories. I think the expected inaccuracy of the exercise calories burned is why the rule of thumb is to only eat back half your exercise calories. If you divide your average exercise calories in half, then estimate TDEE with the difference, do you come close to the calories you consume?
From personal experience, I had to subtract 3,500 from my Fitbit estimated weekly TDEE to get my actual TDEE for maintenance. I have a similar workout schedule to you - cardio 6x a week of varying levels and strength training 3-4x a week. Hope that feedback helps.1 -
@nichell88 - I've had a similar experience with exercise calories. I think the expected inaccuracy of the exercise calories burned is why the rule of thumb is to only eat back half your exercise calories. If you divide your average exercise calories in half, then estimate TDEE with the difference, do you come close to the calories you consume?
From personal experience, I had to subtract 3,500 from my Fitbit estimated weekly TDEE to get my actual TDEE for maintenance. I have a similar workout schedule to you - cardio 6x a week of varying levels and strength training 3-4x a week. Hope that feedback helps.
That's super helpful, thank you. That does add up if I add half my exercise calories to my bmr, like. That's about the amount of calories I consume. Glad to know it's not just me, haha1 -
Food labels are allowed to be upwards of 20% off.
Even by weight some foods that are natural can vary greatly from database amounts.
That's what people mean by your food calories being off.
Not that you are bad or being dishonest on logging them, merely it's impossible (just like calorie burn) - to hit 100% accuracy.0 -
I'll give you my perspective January 1st 2016 I weigh 288 pounds my current weight is 208 and I've been maintaining for approximately nine months. I decided to go into maintenance at 2:20 and I totally screwed it up my weight drop down to 204 pounds before I figured it out and my current weight is about 208 which I like.
In my opinion maintenance is not an exact science but it's a learning process. When I went into maintenance I never ate back my calories but I did go about two to three hundred a day sometimes more over that number and I was still losing weight. I wait all my food I logged honestly and I was still losing. I had to up by about 500 calories before my weight started to stabilize.
I also exercise about 4 to 5 times a week 3 days of lifting and two days of cardio. What you have to remember is that the Fitbit calculations for exercise are based on a large population group and everyone is going to lose and burn calories at a different rate it's just a matter of educating yourself it takes a little while to figure it out. Also as far as another poster said to be wooden one pound is insignificant that's just drinking an extra liter of water a day. Your body will fluctuate and there are days my weight will fluctuate by 5 pounds depending on what I ate bathroom habits so on and so on1 -
@nichell88 - I've had a similar experience with exercise calories. I think the expected inaccuracy of the exercise calories burned is why the rule of thumb is to only eat back half your exercise calories. If you divide your average exercise calories in half, then estimate TDEE with the difference, do you come close to the calories you consume?
From personal experience, I had to subtract 3,500 from my Fitbit estimated weekly TDEE to get my actual TDEE for maintenance. I have a similar workout schedule to you - cardio 6x a week of varying levels and strength training 3-4x a week. Hope that feedback helps.
That's super helpful, thank you. That does add up if I add half my exercise calories to my bmr, like. That's about the amount of calories I consume. Glad to know it's not just me, haha
you dont add exercise calories to BMR-BMR is what your body burns just to function.you would add them back to your TDEE(TDEE is your BMR+ any exercise/movement you do) so if your BMR is say 1400 and you are active and burn say 1000 calories in a day your TDEE would be 2400. so you would need to eat 2400 calories to maintain your weight.so since you are eating 1700-1800 and burning 500-700 calories your tdee is around 2200-2500 calories. thats what you would need to eat calorie wise to maintain your current weight.
if you are losing weight you would eat more,if you are maintaining (2 weeks is too early to tell if its your true maintenance-give it more time) then you are on track.if you are netting only 1100 then your TDEE is a lot lower than you think.
its really easy to underestimate calories you eat if you dont weigh and measure everything.I learned that the hard way.as with everything its all an estimate but the more accurate we can try to be the easier it is.0 -
CharlieBeansmomTracey wrote: »@nichell88 - I've had a similar experience with exercise calories. I think the expected inaccuracy of the exercise calories burned is why the rule of thumb is to only eat back half your exercise calories. If you divide your average exercise calories in half, then estimate TDEE with the difference, do you come close to the calories you consume?
From personal experience, I had to subtract 3,500 from my Fitbit estimated weekly TDEE to get my actual TDEE for maintenance. I have a similar workout schedule to you - cardio 6x a week of varying levels and strength training 3-4x a week. Hope that feedback helps.
That's super helpful, thank you. That does add up if I add half my exercise calories to my bmr, like. That's about the amount of calories I consume. Glad to know it's not just me, haha
you dont add exercise calories to BMR-BMR is what your body burns just to function.you would add them back to your TDEE(TDEE is your BMR+ any exercise/movement you do) so if your BMR is say 1400 and you are active and burn say 1000 calories in a day your TDEE would be 2400. so you would need to eat 2400 calories to maintain your weight.so since you are eating 1700-1800 and burning 500-700 calories your tdee is around 2200-2500 calories. thats what you would need to eat calorie wise to maintain your current weight.
if you are losing weight you would eat more,if you are maintaining (2 weeks is too early to tell if its your true maintenance-give it more time) then you are on track.if you are netting only 1100 then your TDEE is a lot lower than you think.
its really easy to underestimate calories you eat if you dont weigh and measure everything.I learned that the hard way.as with everything its all an estimate but the more accurate we can try to be the easier it is.
I understand about tdee, but what I'm saying is if I only eat back half my calories that I "burn" via exercise using mfp and add that to my bmr, it ends up being what I eat every day. Same thing, if I take my tdee and subtract about half of what I "burn" on mfp, I end up at that same number.0 -
CharlieBeansmomTracey wrote: »@nichell88 - I've had a similar experience with exercise calories. I think the expected inaccuracy of the exercise calories burned is why the rule of thumb is to only eat back half your exercise calories. If you divide your average exercise calories in half, then estimate TDEE with the difference, do you come close to the calories you consume?
From personal experience, I had to subtract 3,500 from my Fitbit estimated weekly TDEE to get my actual TDEE for maintenance. I have a similar workout schedule to you - cardio 6x a week of varying levels and strength training 3-4x a week. Hope that feedback helps.
That's super helpful, thank you. That does add up if I add half my exercise calories to my bmr, like. That's about the amount of calories I consume. Glad to know it's not just me, haha
you dont add exercise calories to BMR-BMR is what your body burns just to function.you would add them back to your TDEE(TDEE is your BMR+ any exercise/movement you do) so if your BMR is say 1400 and you are active and burn say 1000 calories in a day your TDEE would be 2400. so you would need to eat 2400 calories to maintain your weight.so since you are eating 1700-1800 and burning 500-700 calories your tdee is around 2200-2500 calories. thats what you would need to eat calorie wise to maintain your current weight.
if you are losing weight you would eat more,if you are maintaining (2 weeks is too early to tell if its your true maintenance-give it more time) then you are on track.if you are netting only 1100 then your TDEE is a lot lower than you think.
its really easy to underestimate calories you eat if you dont weigh and measure everything.I learned that the hard way.as with everything its all an estimate but the more accurate we can try to be the easier it is.
I understand about tdee, but what I'm saying is if I only eat back half my calories that I "burn" via exercise using mfp and add that to my bmr, it ends up being what I eat every day. Same thing, if I take my tdee and subtract about half of what I "burn" on mfp, I end up at that same number.
first of all what is your BMR estimated at? the way you state its around 1350-1450. unless my math is off-say your TDEE is 2200 and you subtract half of the 500 that would be 1950(2200-250),if your TDEE is 2200 and subtract half of the 700(350) that gives you 1850. so its not what you are eating its more. if your TDEE was 2500 and you subtract half you would get 2250(250 which is half of 500/2150(350 which is half of 700).
so you are not arriving at 1700-1800. if you are eating 1700-1800 and burning 500-700 you are netting lower than what your BMR probably is, even eating calories back,it doesnt come out to 1700-1800 calories. its actually less. I dont know how you are maintaining weight either.
if you are eating less than your tdee(if its the 2200-2500) even eating back some of your exercise calories you should be in a deficit eating 1700-1800.so I would say your calories in are off as well.To maintain your weight you should be eating at maintenance which is your TDEE. again 2 weeks is too early to tell if its your maintenance or not.0 -
CharlieBeansmomTracey wrote: »CharlieBeansmomTracey wrote: »@nichell88 - I've had a similar experience with exercise calories. I think the expected inaccuracy of the exercise calories burned is why the rule of thumb is to only eat back half your exercise calories. If you divide your average exercise calories in half, then estimate TDEE with the difference, do you come close to the calories you consume?
From personal experience, I had to subtract 3,500 from my Fitbit estimated weekly TDEE to get my actual TDEE for maintenance. I have a similar workout schedule to you - cardio 6x a week of varying levels and strength training 3-4x a week. Hope that feedback helps.
That's super helpful, thank you. That does add up if I add half my exercise calories to my bmr, like. That's about the amount of calories I consume. Glad to know it's not just me, haha
you dont add exercise calories to BMR-BMR is what your body burns just to function.you would add them back to your TDEE(TDEE is your BMR+ any exercise/movement you do) so if your BMR is say 1400 and you are active and burn say 1000 calories in a day your TDEE would be 2400. so you would need to eat 2400 calories to maintain your weight.so since you are eating 1700-1800 and burning 500-700 calories your tdee is around 2200-2500 calories. thats what you would need to eat calorie wise to maintain your current weight.
if you are losing weight you would eat more,if you are maintaining (2 weeks is too early to tell if its your true maintenance-give it more time) then you are on track.if you are netting only 1100 then your TDEE is a lot lower than you think.
its really easy to underestimate calories you eat if you dont weigh and measure everything.I learned that the hard way.as with everything its all an estimate but the more accurate we can try to be the easier it is.
I understand about tdee, but what I'm saying is if I only eat back half my calories that I "burn" via exercise using mfp and add that to my bmr, it ends up being what I eat every day. Same thing, if I take my tdee and subtract about half of what I "burn" on mfp, I end up at that same number.
first of all what is your BMR estimated at? the way you state its around 1350-1450. unless my math is off-say your TDEE is 2200 and you subtract half of the 500 that would be 1950(2200-250),if your TDEE is 2200 and subtract half of the 700(350) that gives you 1850. so its not what you are eating its more. if your TDEE was 2500 and you subtract half you would get 2250(250 which is half of 500/2150(350 which is half of 700).
so you are not arriving at 1700-1800. if you are eating 1700-1800 and burning 500-700 you are netting lower than what your BMR probably is, even eating calories back,it doesnt come out to 1700-1800 calories. its actually less. I dont know how you are maintaining weight either.
if you are eating less than your tdee(if its the 2200-2500) even eating back some of your exercise calories you should be in a deficit eating 1700-1800.so I would say your calories in are off as well.To maintain your weight you should be eating at maintenance which is your TDEE. again 2 weeks is too early to tell if its your maintenance or not.
My bmr is about 1500, a bit under. Half of 600 is 300, which brings me to just under 1800. My tdee is around 2100. Take 300 from that and it's 1800. No, I didn't do the calculation with every possible number in the range. It's close enough to make sense.0 -
CharlieBeansmomTracey wrote: »CharlieBeansmomTracey wrote: »@nichell88 - I've had a similar experience with exercise calories. I think the expected inaccuracy of the exercise calories burned is why the rule of thumb is to only eat back half your exercise calories. If you divide your average exercise calories in half, then estimate TDEE with the difference, do you come close to the calories you consume?
From personal experience, I had to subtract 3,500 from my Fitbit estimated weekly TDEE to get my actual TDEE for maintenance. I have a similar workout schedule to you - cardio 6x a week of varying levels and strength training 3-4x a week. Hope that feedback helps.
That's super helpful, thank you. That does add up if I add half my exercise calories to my bmr, like. That's about the amount of calories I consume. Glad to know it's not just me, haha
you dont add exercise calories to BMR-BMR is what your body burns just to function.you would add them back to your TDEE(TDEE is your BMR+ any exercise/movement you do) so if your BMR is say 1400 and you are active and burn say 1000 calories in a day your TDEE would be 2400. so you would need to eat 2400 calories to maintain your weight.so since you are eating 1700-1800 and burning 500-700 calories your tdee is around 2200-2500 calories. thats what you would need to eat calorie wise to maintain your current weight.
if you are losing weight you would eat more,if you are maintaining (2 weeks is too early to tell if its your true maintenance-give it more time) then you are on track.if you are netting only 1100 then your TDEE is a lot lower than you think.
its really easy to underestimate calories you eat if you dont weigh and measure everything.I learned that the hard way.as with everything its all an estimate but the more accurate we can try to be the easier it is.
I understand about tdee, but what I'm saying is if I only eat back half my calories that I "burn" via exercise using mfp and add that to my bmr, it ends up being what I eat every day. Same thing, if I take my tdee and subtract about half of what I "burn" on mfp, I end up at that same number.
first of all what is your BMR estimated at? the way you state its around 1350-1450. unless my math is off-say your TDEE is 2200 and you subtract half of the 500 that would be 1950(2200-250),if your TDEE is 2200 and subtract half of the 700(350) that gives you 1850. so its not what you are eating its more. if your TDEE was 2500 and you subtract half you would get 2250(250 which is half of 500/2150(350 which is half of 700).
so you are not arriving at 1700-1800. if you are eating 1700-1800 and burning 500-700 you are netting lower than what your BMR probably is, even eating calories back,it doesnt come out to 1700-1800 calories. its actually less. I dont know how you are maintaining weight either.
if you are eating less than your tdee(if its the 2200-2500) even eating back some of your exercise calories you should be in a deficit eating 1700-1800.so I would say your calories in are off as well.To maintain your weight you should be eating at maintenance which is your TDEE. again 2 weeks is too early to tell if its your maintenance or not.
My bmr is about 1500, a bit under. Half of 600 is 300, which brings me to just under 1800. My tdee is around 2100. Take 300 from that and it's 1800. No, I didn't do the calculation with every possible number in the range. It's close enough to make sense.
You cannot measure or quantify your BMR, it is an estimate. Just as caloric intake and expenditure is.0 -
@trigden1991 right, which is why I use words like "about" and "around", which would indicate estimation. I know it's an estimate, but those are the numbers I use.0
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