How long should you stay in a calorie deficit?
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Sounds like a lot of good advice. One other thing to consider is whether you're getting optimal nutrition. As we cut calories, it's harder to get in all your vitamins. Are you taking vitamins now? If not, that could help. I was never a vitamin taker until I needed to cut my calories so low and my doctor told me to start taking them. It makes a bigger difference than I thought it would. It may take a couple of weeks for it to kick in.
Yep I take vitamins every day. Always have.
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MsHarryWinston wrote: »It sounds like you aren't eating back your exercise calories and or are underestimating your daily calorie burn. If you are set to lose 1lb/week but are losing 2/wk it means that your ACTUAL real life deficit is twice as large as what MFP set it to. Just eat more until you are actually losing the 1lb per week that you set yourself as
I do eat back about 75% of my exercise calories. It's probably me having it set at sedentary. Some days of the week I'm real active and walk around 10,000 to 11,000 steps or more. Then other days I'm lucky to get in 5000 steps. So to be on the safe side I set my activity level to sedentary. I'm going to continue to leave it at sedentary but change my loss to .5 to up my calories a little for a couple weeks and see how I feel.
Not seeing why it's "safe" to deliberately under-estimate your activity setting.
Sounds like it's the opposite in reality as "the past month I've been feeling tired/sluggish/weak. When I workout I notice I don't have the energy like i use to".
Cause and effect perhaps?
Because I do spend a fair amount of time sitting. Just like today I've only walked 3694 steps. One week I can maybe get 4000 to 5000 steps in a day everyday and another week I may have 4 days I'm 8000 to 11,000. It's never consistent.
So on average you are well above sedentary. And you have been losing faster than the rate of loss you wanted.
And you are choosing to only eat a proportion of your estimated exercise calories despite losing faster than desired.
Everything is an estimate but your rate of loss is confirming you are under-estimating or have your base setting too low.
"I've been steadily losing 1.5 to sometimes over 2 pounds a week."
You know you can comfortably eat more. Then you may have more energy, your workouts will be better, your recovery will be better, your NEAT will probably up-regulate instead on down-regulate.....
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MsHarryWinston wrote: »It sounds like you aren't eating back your exercise calories and or are underestimating your daily calorie burn. If you are set to lose 1lb/week but are losing 2/wk it means that your ACTUAL real life deficit is twice as large as what MFP set it to. Just eat more until you are actually losing the 1lb per week that you set yourself as
I do eat back about 75% of my exercise calories. It's probably me having it set at sedentary. Some days of the week I'm real active and walk around 10,000 to 11,000 steps or more. Then other days I'm lucky to get in 5000 steps. So to be on the safe side I set my activity level to sedentary. I'm going to continue to leave it at sedentary but change my loss to .5 to up my calories a little for a couple weeks and see how I feel.
Not seeing why it's "safe" to deliberately under-estimate your activity setting.
Sounds like it's the opposite in reality as "the past month I've been feeling tired/sluggish/weak. When I workout I notice I don't have the energy like i use to".
Cause and effect perhaps?
Because I do spend a fair amount of time sitting. Just like today I've only walked 3694 steps. One week I can maybe get 4000 to 5000 steps in a day everyday and another week I may have 4 days I'm 8000 to 11,000. It's never consistent.
So on average you are well above sedentary. And you have been losing faster than the rate of loss you wanted.
And you are choosing to only eat a proportion of your estimated exercise calories despite losing faster than desired.
Everything is an estimate but your rate of loss is confirming you are under-estimating or have your base setting too low.
"I've been steadily losing 1.5 to sometimes over 2 pounds a week."
You know you can comfortably eat more. Then you may have more energy, your workouts will be better, your recovery will be better, your NEAT will probably up-regulate instead on down-regulate.....
Yeah I know, everything was all good and I felt great up until a month ago. Just seems like it's catching up to me.
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Very thorough, evidence-based discussion of it: http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/the-full-diet-break.html/
I would agree with this. Diet breaks are definitely beneficial.1 -
Your general walking around is also cardio - and it's not being recorded. Changing from sedentary to slightly active won't help if you're not consistent. So you need to manually add in more cardio to account for the steps you're walking each day.
I'm pretty sure that, at my stride length, a mile is about 2000 steps. And I know it takes me 15-20 mins to walk that, but I walk faster than 2mph. On that basis, if I had a pedometer that showed 8800 steps, that would mean I'd walked just under 4.5 miles. And I was probably walking for about 75 mins. I would therefore log 75 mins of walking at 3.5mph. That's quite a few calories.0 -
ijsantos2005 wrote: »Very thorough, evidence-based discussion of it: http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/the-full-diet-break.html/
I would agree with this. Diet breaks are definitely beneficial.
This! Take a break. Reset hormones. Give your body a break. You'll be glad you did. More energy and better loss when back in deficit. Do this for a week or 2 every 8 to 12 weeks. 5 months is too long in deficit. It stresses your system and your system adapts.0 -
Strudders67 wrote: »Your general walking around is also cardio - and it's not being recorded. Changing from sedentary to slightly active won't help if you're not consistent. So you need to manually add in more cardio to account for the steps you're walking each day.
I'm pretty sure that, at my stride length, a mile is about 2000 steps. And I know it takes me 15-20 mins to walk that, but I walk faster than 2mph. On that basis, if I had a pedometer that showed 8800 steps, that would mean I'd walked just under 4.5 miles. And I was probably walking for about 75 mins. I would therefore log 75 mins of walking at 3.5mph. That's quite a few calories.
I actually walk at 3mph but for some reason when MyFitnessPal syncs to my Apple Watch it says I walked 2mph
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WendyLeigh1119 wrote: »@JeromeBarry1
LOL @ the "Starvation Mode" Myth. And especially at -500 calories?! Err....no.
Starvation Mode
@WendyLeigh1119 http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/85/2/346.short
The abstract mentions "adaptations in energy expenditure" which is what I was talking about.1 -
WhassgoodSun wrote: »It depends on your goals. If you are hoping to lose weight, a caloric deficit should continue until you meet that goal weight. After, you would keep your caloric intake depending on your target weight.
Incorrect. Please read referenced article from bodyrecomposition.com.1 -
MsHarryWinston wrote: »It sounds like you aren't eating back your exercise calories and or are underestimating your daily calorie burn. If you are set to lose 1lb/week but are losing 2/wk it means that your ACTUAL real life deficit is twice as large as what MFP set it to. Just eat more until you are actually losing the 1lb per week that you set yourself as
I do eat back about 75% of my exercise calories. It's probably me having it set at sedentary. Some days of the week I'm real active and walk around 10,000 to 11,000 steps or more. Then other days I'm lucky to get in 5000 steps. So to be on the safe side I set my activity level to sedentary. I'm going to continue to leave it at sedentary but change my loss to .5 to up my calories a little for a couple weeks and see how I feel.
Not seeing why it's "safe" to deliberately under-estimate your activity setting.
Sounds like it's the opposite in reality as "the past month I've been feeling tired/sluggish/weak. When I workout I notice I don't have the energy like i use to".
Cause and effect perhaps?
Because I do spend a fair amount of time sitting. Just like today I've only walked 3694 steps. One week I can maybe get 4000 to 5000 steps in a day everyday and another week I may have 4 days I'm 8000 to 11,000. It's never consistent.
So on average you are well above sedentary. And you have been losing faster than the rate of loss you wanted.
And you are choosing to only eat a proportion of your estimated exercise calories despite losing faster than desired.
Everything is an estimate but your rate of loss is confirming you are under-estimating or have your base setting too low.
"I've been steadily losing 1.5 to sometimes over 2 pounds a week."
You know you can comfortably eat more. Then you may have more energy, your workouts will be better, your recovery will be better, your NEAT will probably up-regulate instead on down-regulate.....
Yeah I know, everything was all good and I felt great up until a month ago. Just seems like it's catching up to me.
Yeah, it does that - losing fast, everything's good . . . until it isn't.
I agree with everything @sijomial wrote. A conservative weight loss rate is 1% of body weight per week, even less when you reach 25-50 pounds from goal, as a rough rule of thumb.
You might want to eat at maintenance for a couple of weeks to get some energy back (or not - your call), but definitely eat more. You want to fix this before anything more serious happens.
I lost 60+ pounds in 10-11 months of overall deficit eating, losing faster at first and intentionally slowly at the end. I got my deficit too big - lost too fast - for a short time and had some negative symptoms (a little weakness/fatigue). I corrected quickly as soon as I realized, increasing calories in, and recovered, but it took a bit of time (2-3 weeks, maybe? hard to remember exactly).
Good luck!7 -
cmriverside wrote: »MsHarryWinston wrote: »cmriverside wrote: »MsHarryWinston wrote: »MsHarryWinston wrote: »It sounds like you aren't eating back your exercise calories and or are underestimating your daily calorie burn. If you are set to lose 1lb/week but are losing 2/wk it means that your ACTUAL real life deficit is twice as large as what MFP set it to. Just eat more until you are actually losing the 1lb per week that you set yourself as
I do eat back about 75% of my exercise calories. It's probably me having it set at sedentary. Some days of the week I'm real active and walk around 10,000 to 11,000 steps or more. Then other days I'm lucky to get in 5000 steps. So to be on the safe side I set my activity level to sedentary. I'm going to continue to leave it at sedentary but change my loss to .5 to up my calories a little for a couple weeks and see how I feel.
Changing your goal to 0.5 makes no sense because your actually loss rate will STILL be off. Yes you'll be eating more calories but if you want to do that you could also simply adjust your calorie intake specifically up by 100-200 calorie a day under goals while leaving your rate goal set to 1lb loss.
Try that for a month and see if it balances out.
Also, if you know how many steps you're taking is that because you have a Fitbit or something? Is it connected? Is it giving your adjusted step calories? Are you eating those adjusted step calories?
The above poster was right. If you have a day with 10k steps but you are set to sedentary, you could easily be adjusted an extra 1,300 calories for the day just from walking, not specific "exercise".
I know this becauss my account is set up similarity. 1.5lb deficit, sedentary setting, Fitbit hooked up. I get HUGE adjustments. This is because my activity days can swing wildly due to my workout split and work schedule. Some days it says to eat 1,550, some days 1,800 then heavy workout days 3,000+.
You don't need to keep changing your goal to eat more calories, you just need to understand and use the information that is being given to you.
I think you were referring to me, I just wanted to clarify.
I wasn't saying she would (necessarily) get an additional 1300 calories. Although I suppose that is possible it isn't what I meant by her 5000-10000 steps giving her more. I would think if one is set at Sedentary and is also walking 5000-10000 steps, that would result in an adjustment of a couple or three hundred calories ABOVE her base of 1300. It is the same as saying she is moderately active instead of sedentary.
Anyway, it would help if we could see her FOOD diary. She hasn't really given us much to go on here. I think anyone who is trying to stick at 1300 calories and then exercise on top of that and not eat more is going to fail either by non-compliance or by illness. So her initial thought of eating more is definitely, "Yes."
...and this:You don't need to keep changing your goal to eat more calories, you just need to understand and use the information that is being given to you.
Exactly.
Yes I was quoting you. We are actually saying basically the same thing. Depending on her stats she very well COULD get an extra 1,300 cals a day. (Obviously not guaranteed). While it may not have been what you intended to say I confirmed this based on my stats and the calorie adjustments I am given on a regular basis. I am set to sedentary but if I walk 10k steps a day, with a bunch of stairs in there I easily get a bonus 1,000+ cals.
I'm just trying to give input based on what little info she has given. But luckily my account is set up similarly to hers so I see the "set at sedentary when you are nowhere near sedentary" adjustments and how they can fluctuate from day to day.
I think the biggest problem here is the Sedentary setting when one is nowhere near sedentary. Obviously OP is more active than Sedentary, and she is only eating back 75% of her actual Exercise calories according to her story. My suggestion would be either set it for Moderately Active, OR start eating at maintenance AND eat back Exercise calories. I guess she doesn't want to open her FOOD page.
If it were me (and I did lose 70 pounds ten years ago and I've kept it off) I would eat 1500-1600 as a base amount, plus exercise calories. I would do that for six weeks and adjust using the data collected from that experiment. That would give her 1800-2000 on exercise days.
Speaking from only my personal experiences, setting it at sedentary when your activity is above that is only a problem if you're not eating back your calorie adjustments. When your activity varies wildly from day to day it can be easier to have a constant daily baseline plus eating UP, instead of dealing with negative adjustments and seeing days where you are meant to eat less than you're used to.
It looks like one of the issues here is that she is not getting credited for steps through her linked app so she's not even seeing a large chunk of the extra calories she should be eating ALONG with extra calories from "intentional" exercise. With her set up she should have base calories + step calories + intentional exercise calories.7 -
Yep.1
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MsHarryWinston wrote: »cmriverside wrote: »MsHarryWinston wrote: »cmriverside wrote: »MsHarryWinston wrote: »MsHarryWinston wrote: »It sounds like you aren't eating back your exercise calories and or are underestimating your daily calorie burn. If you are set to lose 1lb/week but are losing 2/wk it means that your ACTUAL real life deficit is twice as large as what MFP set it to. Just eat more until you are actually losing the 1lb per week that you set yourself as
I do eat back about 75% of my exercise calories. It's probably me having it set at sedentary. Some days of the week I'm real active and walk around 10,000 to 11,000 steps or more. Then other days I'm lucky to get in 5000 steps. So to be on the safe side I set my activity level to sedentary. I'm going to continue to leave it at sedentary but change my loss to .5 to up my calories a little for a couple weeks and see how I feel.
Changing your goal to 0.5 makes no sense because your actually loss rate will STILL be off. Yes you'll be eating more calories but if you want to do that you could also simply adjust your calorie intake specifically up by 100-200 calorie a day under goals while leaving your rate goal set to 1lb loss.
Try that for a month and see if it balances out.
Also, if you know how many steps you're taking is that because you have a Fitbit or something? Is it connected? Is it giving your adjusted step calories? Are you eating those adjusted step calories?
The above poster was right. If you have a day with 10k steps but you are set to sedentary, you could easily be adjusted an extra 1,300 calories for the day just from walking, not specific "exercise".
I know this becauss my account is set up similarity. 1.5lb deficit, sedentary setting, Fitbit hooked up. I get HUGE adjustments. This is because my activity days can swing wildly due to my workout split and work schedule. Some days it says to eat 1,550, some days 1,800 then heavy workout days 3,000+.
You don't need to keep changing your goal to eat more calories, you just need to understand and use the information that is being given to you.
I think you were referring to me, I just wanted to clarify.
I wasn't saying she would (necessarily) get an additional 1300 calories. Although I suppose that is possible it isn't what I meant by her 5000-10000 steps giving her more. I would think if one is set at Sedentary and is also walking 5000-10000 steps, that would result in an adjustment of a couple or three hundred calories ABOVE her base of 1300. It is the same as saying she is moderately active instead of sedentary.
Anyway, it would help if we could see her FOOD diary. She hasn't really given us much to go on here. I think anyone who is trying to stick at 1300 calories and then exercise on top of that and not eat more is going to fail either by non-compliance or by illness. So her initial thought of eating more is definitely, "Yes."
...and this:You don't need to keep changing your goal to eat more calories, you just need to understand and use the information that is being given to you.
Exactly.
Yes I was quoting you. We are actually saying basically the same thing. Depending on her stats she very well COULD get an extra 1,300 cals a day. (Obviously not guaranteed). While it may not have been what you intended to say I confirmed this based on my stats and the calorie adjustments I am given on a regular basis. I am set to sedentary but if I walk 10k steps a day, with a bunch of stairs in there I easily get a bonus 1,000+ cals.
I'm just trying to give input based on what little info she has given. But luckily my account is set up similarly to hers so I see the "set at sedentary when you are nowhere near sedentary" adjustments and how they can fluctuate from day to day.
I think the biggest problem here is the Sedentary setting when one is nowhere near sedentary. Obviously OP is more active than Sedentary, and she is only eating back 75% of her actual Exercise calories according to her story. My suggestion would be either set it for Moderately Active, OR start eating at maintenance AND eat back Exercise calories. I guess she doesn't want to open her FOOD page.
If it were me (and I did lose 70 pounds ten years ago and I've kept it off) I would eat 1500-1600 as a base amount, plus exercise calories. I would do that for six weeks and adjust using the data collected from that experiment. That would give her 1800-2000 on exercise days.
Speaking from only my personal experiences, setting it at sedentary when your activity is above that is only a problem if you're not eating back your calorie adjustments. When your activity varies wildly from day to day it can be easier to have a constant daily baseline plus eating UP, instead of dealing with negative adjustments and seeing days where you are meant to eat less than you're used to.
It looks like one of the issues here is that she is not getting credited for steps through her linked app so she's not even seeing a large chunk of the extra calories she should be eating ALONG with extra calories from "intentional" exercise. With her set up she should have base calories + step calories + intentional exercise calories.
I noticed today it gave me credit of 14 calories for walking 6075 steps. But I went back months worth in my food diary and I may get a very low calorie adjustment on days I don't work out, and on days I do work out and have 8000 to 11,000 steps I do not have a steps adjustment only my exercise is logged.
My Apple Watch breaks it down by total calories and then active calories. I have mine set to burn 350 calories a day. I usually always exceed the 350 at least 4 to 5 days a week some weeks 6 or 7 days. So should I just subtract my exercise calories from that and whatever is left over add to my calorie allowance?
Today my active calories is 285 out of 350 as I didn't work out. So im assuming this is calories burned from my steps alone?
I just always assumed since I worked out that's why MFP wasn't giving me extra calories for my steps taken.
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I don't understand why you're not getting credit for your steps.
I have a fitbit and am set at sedentary on here, and I start getting positive adjustments once i hit 2000 steps.0 -
This was yesterday. I only ate back about 250 of those calories. As 266 of them was synced to MyFitnessPal from working out.
I just don't want to start over eating and my weight loss stall. I only have 18.8 pounds left to lose. Again I'm 5'3 and weigh 158.8.
But I don't want to feel cruddy either. Some days I feel fine but others I can just tell something is off. My carbs, fats and protein are all in good ranges as well. I've been to the doctor and blood work and everything else was good as well.
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OMG anything Apple related may as well be written in Chinese for me!
Hopefully someone with an Apple watch can help figure out what's going on.0 -
Christine_72 wrote: »OMG anything Apple related may as well be written in Chinese for me!
Hopefully someone with an Apple watch can help figure out what's going on.
Her daily Move goal is set at 350 calories, but she burned 476 calories through movement/exercise. Total calories (2,079) is her TDEE so far for the day. "Move" calories are basically anything you do as far as purposeful movement above and beyond your BMR (so NEAT + EAT).
Her daily exercise goal is 30 minutes and she did 58 minutes of exercise. The Apple watch counts basically anything at a brisk walk or above as exercise (in addition to any structured exercise you do with the Workout app). Out of the day, she spent a total of 14 hours and 8 minutes active (in other words, NEAT + EAT).
So far this week, she's hit her Move goal (red ring, burn at least 350 calories (for her)) 4 of 6 days. She's hit her Exercise goal (green ring, 30 minutes of exercise) 4 of 6 days. She's hit her Stand goal (blue ring, stand up/move around at least 12 hours out of the day) 5 of 6 days.
You receive a summary notification of your week every Monday morning. When you hit/exceed your Move goal 7 out of 7 days, the Watch will prompt you to bump up your Move goal for the following week. The more active you are, the higher it will prompt you to set your Move goal. For instance, mine is currently set at 650 calories (but I'm a lot larger than OP, so all my calorie figures (BMR, NEAT, EAT, TDEE) are probably considerably higher than hers.
As far as her not getting credit for her steps, I recall recent conversations about MFP doing something wonky with step counts in one of the recent updates and the numbers being off. I honestly don't pay a lot of attention to mine, but I know the counts on MFP are a lot lower than what Apple Watch shows for "Move" calories.2 -
Your Apple posts show 1800 and 2000 burned total and you said you're losing 1.5 to 2 pounds a week. With 18 lbs left to lose, you are losing too much too fast. If your average daily burns are between 1800 and 2000 and you continue with the rate of loss you've had, you should be eating more.
I am set to sedentary based on my job description (which gives me about 1550 calories - I'm 5'8"), but most days I am not sedentary. I know that I can eat at least 1800/day and still have extra to eat on Saturdays and meet my weekly deficit goal (.5 lb/week). While my days may vary, with as long as I've had my fitbit I still know that 1800 is likely to be under my goal for most, if not all, days (I make it to my weekly goal on Saturdays). It just doesn't matter if I have one or two days of 6,000-8,000 steps vs. the 11,250 I aim for. Because I have the data, I know 1800 is fine.
All these numbers are estimates - you have your results with your rate of loss, and your fatigue. You need to eat more. Choose a number based on your data, go with it for 4-6 weeks. Reevaluate at that point if need be.
ETA: To the actual question of a diet break, they can be very beneficial. If you even think it might help you, try it for a week. It's one week, no big deal in the scheme of things. Then get back to working on losing with a small deficit.0 -
I can always rely on you to explain *kitten* to me @AnvilHead
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Here is my example. First is a high activity day, second is a low activity day.
Can you imagine how hard it would be to estimate how much to eat day to day if I set myself at a higher activity level with negative adjustments enabled?
Now, I start getting adjustments by the time I hit about 750 steps. That's because I work graveyards so Fitbit sees me about to hit 1,000 at 3am and sees I still have an entire day ahead of me. But if I don't keep active it slows down my adjustments.
My Fitbit is new so I'm still learning how accurate it is.
*Also ignore the fact that I didn't bother to eat back 1,700 workout calories. My anniversary is this week and there is a 1,500 chocolate toffee cake at the restaurant with my name on it. I ate tacos all day today, got full, banked the rest. It's all good.
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Your Apple posts show 1800 and 2000 burned total and you said you're losing 1.5 to 2 pounds a week. With 18 lbs left to lose, you are losing too much too fast. If your average daily burns are between 1800 and 2000 and you continue with the rate of loss you've had, you should be eating more.
I am set to sedentary based on my job description (which gives me about 1550 calories - I'm 5'8"), but most days I am not sedentary. I know that I can eat at least 1800/day and still have extra to eat on Saturdays and meet my weekly deficit goal (.5 lb/week). While my days may vary, with as long as I've had my fitbit I still know that 1800 is likely to be under my goal for most, if not all, days (I make it to my weekly goal on Saturdays). It just doesn't matter if I have one or two days of 6,000-8,000 steps vs. the 11,250 I aim for. Because I have the data, I know 1800 is fine.
All these numbers are estimates - you have your results with your rate of loss, and your fatigue. You need to eat more. Choose a number based on your data, go with it for 4-6 weeks. Reevaluate at that point if need be.
ETA: To the actual question of a diet break, they can be very beneficial. If you even think it might help you, try it for a week. It's one week, no big deal in the scheme of things. Then get back to working on losing with a small deficit.
I know when you get to a certain point and have under a certain number of pounds to lose you should aim for a smaller rate of loss a week. Mines been steadily at 1 pound a week. I kept my activity level set to sedentary but changed my loss to .5 a week. I'm in no big hurry to get the remaining 18 off. It put my calories at 1490 a day. But like you said I may eat closer to maintenance for a week to refeed my body and then start eating at 1490 and do that for a couple weeks to see how things are going. I know in the past week the scale hasn't moved it's went up a little then back down but I haven't had a loss. Again I know it's not because I'm not in a calorie deficit, it's probably because from the months of under eating its finally catching up with me and I need to reset my metabolism.
I looked into why MyFitnessPal doesn't give me a adjustment for the steps I've taken and they claim it's because I haven't exceeded what is already built into my calories. Which if I have my level set at sedentary and I'm walking 6000 steps you would think there would be a larger adjustment then 14 calories. I dunno. I'll try what I said and make adjustments along the way.
Just when you think you have it all figured out you get hit with a curve ball lol.
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It sounds like some of your issues are related to you not being credited for your activity properly from your Apple Watch. Have you considered a Fitbit? You could clip the One onto your bra to not have two things on your wrist.
I have my settings to Sedentary for similar reasons, some days I have much less activity than others. I do get significant adjustments on my active days from my Fitbit, and I eat back 50-75% of what I am given. I lose right on schedule or just slightly better.0 -
Your Apple posts show 1800 and 2000 burned total and you said you're losing 1.5 to 2 pounds a week. With 18 lbs left to lose, you are losing too much too fast. If your average daily burns are between 1800 and 2000 and you continue with the rate of loss you've had, you should be eating more.
I am set to sedentary based on my job description (which gives me about 1550 calories - I'm 5'8"), but most days I am not sedentary. I know that I can eat at least 1800/day and still have extra to eat on Saturdays and meet my weekly deficit goal (.5 lb/week). While my days may vary, with as long as I've had my fitbit I still know that 1800 is likely to be under my goal for most, if not all, days (I make it to my weekly goal on Saturdays). It just doesn't matter if I have one or two days of 6,000-8,000 steps vs. the 11,250 I aim for. Because I have the data, I know 1800 is fine.
All these numbers are estimates - you have your results with your rate of loss, and your fatigue. You need to eat more. Choose a number based on your data, go with it for 4-6 weeks. Reevaluate at that point if need be.
ETA: To the actual question of a diet break, they can be very beneficial. If you even think it might help you, try it for a week. It's one week, no big deal in the scheme of things. Then get back to working on losing with a small deficit.
I know when you get to a certain point and have under a certain number of pounds to lose you should aim for a smaller rate of loss a week. Mines been steadily at 1 pound a week. I kept my activity level set to sedentary but changed my loss to .5 a week. I'm in no big hurry to get the remaining 18 off. It put my calories at 1490 a day. But like you said I may eat closer to maintenance for a week to refeed my body and then start eating at 1490 and do that for a couple weeks to see how things are going. I know in the past week the scale hasn't moved it's went up a little then back down but I haven't had a loss. Again I know it's not because I'm not in a calorie deficit, it's probably because from the months of under eating its finally catching up with me and I need to reset my metabolism.
I looked into why MyFitnessPal doesn't give me a adjustment for the steps I've taken and they claim it's because I haven't exceeded what is already built into my calories. Which if I have my level set at sedentary and I'm walking 6000 steps you would think there would be a larger adjustment then 14 calories. I dunno. I'll try what I said and make adjustments along the way.
Just when you think you have it all figured out you get hit with a curve ball lol.
I think you need to give *any* changes you make more than two weeks.
Are you logging somewhere your food (intake) and you exercise estimates? Try making a graph or table or spreadsheet somewhere off this site. Just pick a number. Like I said, I would go with 1500-1600 on regular days and 1800-2000 on days you exercise purposefully for one hour. Weigh yourself every day. Just record data and don't make it complicated.
Do that for one month to six weeks.
Picking one way and logging faithfully is the only way this will ever make sense to you. All the Apple watch and weekly changes does is give you numbers you don't trust. You need consistent data over a period of time.0 -
cmriverside wrote: »Your Apple posts show 1800 and 2000 burned total and you said you're losing 1.5 to 2 pounds a week. With 18 lbs left to lose, you are losing too much too fast. If your average daily burns are between 1800 and 2000 and you continue with the rate of loss you've had, you should be eating more.
I am set to sedentary based on my job description (which gives me about 1550 calories - I'm 5'8"), but most days I am not sedentary. I know that I can eat at least 1800/day and still have extra to eat on Saturdays and meet my weekly deficit goal (.5 lb/week). While my days may vary, with as long as I've had my fitbit I still know that 1800 is likely to be under my goal for most, if not all, days (I make it to my weekly goal on Saturdays). It just doesn't matter if I have one or two days of 6,000-8,000 steps vs. the 11,250 I aim for. Because I have the data, I know 1800 is fine.
All these numbers are estimates - you have your results with your rate of loss, and your fatigue. You need to eat more. Choose a number based on your data, go with it for 4-6 weeks. Reevaluate at that point if need be.
ETA: To the actual question of a diet break, they can be very beneficial. If you even think it might help you, try it for a week. It's one week, no big deal in the scheme of things. Then get back to working on losing with a small deficit.
I know when you get to a certain point and have under a certain number of pounds to lose you should aim for a smaller rate of loss a week. Mines been steadily at 1 pound a week. I kept my activity level set to sedentary but changed my loss to .5 a week. I'm in no big hurry to get the remaining 18 off. It put my calories at 1490 a day. But like you said I may eat closer to maintenance for a week to refeed my body and then start eating at 1490 and do that for a couple weeks to see how things are going. I know in the past week the scale hasn't moved it's went up a little then back down but I haven't had a loss. Again I know it's not because I'm not in a calorie deficit, it's probably because from the months of under eating its finally catching up with me and I need to reset my metabolism.
I looked into why MyFitnessPal doesn't give me a adjustment for the steps I've taken and they claim it's because I haven't exceeded what is already built into my calories. Which if I have my level set at sedentary and I'm walking 6000 steps you would think there would be a larger adjustment then 14 calories. I dunno. I'll try what I said and make adjustments along the way.
Just when you think you have it all figured out you get hit with a curve ball lol.
I think you need to give *any* changes you make more than two weeks.
Are you logging somewhere your food (intake) and you exercise estimates? Try making a graph or table or spreadsheet somewhere off this site. Just pick a number. Like I said, I would go with 1500-1600 on regular days and 1800-2000 on days you exercise purposefully for one hour. Weigh yourself every day. Just record data and don't make it complicated.
Do that for one month to six weeks.
Picking one way and logging faithfully is the only way this will ever make sense to you. All the Apple watch and weekly changes does is give you numbers you don't trust. You need consistent data over a period of time.
I think this suggestion is the way to go honestly.
I've seen a LOT of users in the feedback forum mentioning getting far fewer calories for their activity if they're using an iPhone/Apple Watch. From what I've seen, MFP staff have reported that things are working as expected, but I sure don't buy it! They may have overestimated compared to Fitbit in the past, but they've swung things too far the other way imo.
Record your data somewhere else - I record my TDEE from Fitbit, my calories in according to MFP, and calculate the difference. I weigh myself daily and log it in the spreadsheet, and I don't make any changes over the course of a month.
~Lyssa0 -
cmriverside wrote: »Your Apple posts show 1800 and 2000 burned total and you said you're losing 1.5 to 2 pounds a week. With 18 lbs left to lose, you are losing too much too fast. If your average daily burns are between 1800 and 2000 and you continue with the rate of loss you've had, you should be eating more.
I am set to sedentary based on my job description (which gives me about 1550 calories - I'm 5'8"), but most days I am not sedentary. I know that I can eat at least 1800/day and still have extra to eat on Saturdays and meet my weekly deficit goal (.5 lb/week). While my days may vary, with as long as I've had my fitbit I still know that 1800 is likely to be under my goal for most, if not all, days (I make it to my weekly goal on Saturdays). It just doesn't matter if I have one or two days of 6,000-8,000 steps vs. the 11,250 I aim for. Because I have the data, I know 1800 is fine.
All these numbers are estimates - you have your results with your rate of loss, and your fatigue. You need to eat more. Choose a number based on your data, go with it for 4-6 weeks. Reevaluate at that point if need be.
ETA: To the actual question of a diet break, they can be very beneficial. If you even think it might help you, try it for a week. It's one week, no big deal in the scheme of things. Then get back to working on losing with a small deficit.
I know when you get to a certain point and have under a certain number of pounds to lose you should aim for a smaller rate of loss a week. Mines been steadily at 1 pound a week. I kept my activity level set to sedentary but changed my loss to .5 a week. I'm in no big hurry to get the remaining 18 off. It put my calories at 1490 a day. But like you said I may eat closer to maintenance for a week to refeed my body and then start eating at 1490 and do that for a couple weeks to see how things are going. I know in the past week the scale hasn't moved it's went up a little then back down but I haven't had a loss. Again I know it's not because I'm not in a calorie deficit, it's probably because from the months of under eating its finally catching up with me and I need to reset my metabolism.
I looked into why MyFitnessPal doesn't give me a adjustment for the steps I've taken and they claim it's because I haven't exceeded what is already built into my calories. Which if I have my level set at sedentary and I'm walking 6000 steps you would think there would be a larger adjustment then 14 calories. I dunno. I'll try what I said and make adjustments along the way.
Just when you think you have it all figured out you get hit with a curve ball lol.
I think you need to give *any* changes you make more than two weeks.
Are you logging somewhere your food (intake) and you exercise estimates? Try making a graph or table or spreadsheet somewhere off this site. Just pick a number. Like I said, I would go with 1500-1600 on regular days and 1800-2000 on days you exercise purposefully for one hour. Weigh yourself every day. Just record data and don't make it complicated.
Do that for one month to six weeks.
Picking one way and logging faithfully is the only way this will ever make sense to you. All the Apple watch and weekly changes does is give you numbers you don't trust. You need consistent data over a period of time.
I had a Fitbit but the heart rate reading on it was wonky. I really only like the Apple Watch because I can pair my polar chest strap to it when I work out and get a more accurate heart rate reading.
Now it's just getting myself to eat. This past month I haven't had much of a appetite. Going back and looking through my diary I've had days where I've only net like 1057 calories a couple days a week because I just wasn't hungry and other days I may net close to 1330 and others 1270. It's possible that may be the reason I'm feeling the way I am the past month.
0 -
This is the past 7 days
0 -
You feel awful and you're undereating by a LOT.
No wonder.
Jus' sayin'.5 -
Sounds like you need more protein in your diet! I take a supplement called Xyng which picks me up and gives me an energy boost rest of the day! I take it after my morning snack.0
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How long to stay in a deficit would be greatly impacted by how big your deficit is. As a general rule of thumb, losing at a rate any greater than 1% of your body weight per week is considered by many to be getting towards the aggressive side of weight loss goals.
Even those general rules of thumb are impacted by your current size. As you lose weight and get leaner, you have less fat reserves to pull from, and might have to adjust your calorie goals beyond that 1%, unless you are OK with being more hungry, possibly tired, etc.
I would say for the OP, even if backing down to 1 pound loss per week for now, those months of more aggressive loss might have caught up to the point where you are feeling it, and the idea of eating at maintenance sounds solid to me.2 -
solamentechica wrote: »Sounds like you need more protein in your diet! I take a supplement called Xyng which picks me up and gives me an energy boost rest of the day! I take it after my morning snack.
because it has caffeine in it thats why you have an energy boost.also it has bitter orange extract has a stimulant like effect too and not to mention the side effects it can cause. http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/weight-loss/expert-answers/bitter-orange/faq-20058283 I would not take the product as the ingredients in it can cause some severe health issues1
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