Eat X number of calories for X weeks and see what happens
Polo265
Posts: 287 Member
I've seen this a lot throughout the threads. For me, I don't want to wait 4-6 weeks to see what happens. For me, that's a month or month and half of progress I could be having rather than merely monitoring. Just saying.
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Replies
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What is the alternative?6
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Need2Exerc1se wrote: »What is the alternative?
Why, ALL CAPS, of course.3 -
I think is mostly referring to eating back exercise calories. If you properly set your goals in MFP and eat those calories, then you should lose weight.1
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I've seen this a lot throughout the threads. For me, I don't want to wait 4-6 weeks to see what happens. For me, that's a month or month and half of progress I could be having rather than merely monitoring. Just saying.
But there's no other way to do it! All the formulas and calculators out there just guesstimate based on generalizations of the typical person with your stats. And because the weight on the scale is more than just fat, judging by what the scale does on any one day isn't giving you an accurate gauge of whether what you are doing is working or not. If you keep changing the plan every week you will never know what's working.
What is your suggested alternative?6 -
You can do whatever you want. It is just a suggestion.
Losing weight is a long term process though and there will often need to be adjustments made on real world results that you will not be able to see until you have enough data. Sometimes that takes a month of consistent effort to see what is working best.
People who decide their calorie goal is wrong after a week or two might be mistaken and lower or raise it unnecessarily.
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Agreed with the above. These things (the calculators) only give you a general starting point that may need to be tweaked. I found them to be close enough (for me) that I don't bother tweaking them, but that's not true of everyone.
It's not like they will be so far out that you will gain instead of lose. They will be close. Better to be close and adjust than to not do anything as it's not perfect.1 -
When people say this, they don't mean that you pick some totally random number and try it. You can use MFP or a TDEE calculator to get an estimate. Then you may have to tweak.5
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Okay, but a month or a month in a half is nothing in the grand scheme of things. I mean, presumably you've got YEARS of working to do to maintain and improve upon your results.7
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Starve yourself for a month then. Guaranteed weigtloss and feeling terrible. No monitoring required.5
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But there's no other way to do it! All the formulas and calculators out there just guesstimate based on generalizations of the typical person with your stats. And because the weight on the scale is more than just fat, judging by what the scale does on any one day isn't giving you an accurate gauge of whether what you are doing is working or not. If you keep changing the plan every week you will never know what's working.
What is your suggested alternative?
Start lower than the theoretical suggestion (for example, don't eat back exercise calories) and adjust upwards only if you feel energy lagging. You'll know if you're too low on calories within days and you can start increasing your calories immediately (vs. having to wait a 2-3 weeks to what your loss trends look like and then waiting another 2-3 weeks after that to see if you got the adjustment right).
This way, you'll find the minimum amount of calories you need and maximize your rate of safe loss the entire time.
I realize that eating too few calories isn't good, but we're not talking long-term here. It's literally a matter of hours that you'll feel a bit drained (or less if you happen to have snacks at hand). Absolutely not recommended for those with medical conditions but for healthy adults, I don't see a problem with it as long as they're aware enough to recognize when they need to increase their levels.4 -
But there's no other way to do it! All the formulas and calculators out there just guesstimate based on generalizations of the typical person with your stats. And because the weight on the scale is more than just fat, judging by what the scale does on any one day isn't giving you an accurate gauge of whether what you are doing is working or not. If you keep changing the plan every week you will never know what's working.
What is your suggested alternative?
Start lower than the theoretical suggestion (for example, don't eat back exercise calories) and adjust upwards only if you feel energy lagging. You'll know if you're too low on calories within days and you can start increasing your calories immediately (vs. having to wait a 2-3 weeks to what your loss trends look like and then waiting another 2-3 weeks after that to see if you got the adjustment right).
This way, you'll find the minimum amount of calories you need and maximize your rate of safe loss the entire time.
I realize that eating too few calories isn't good, but we're not talking long-term here. It's literally a matter of hours that you'll feel a bit drained (or less if you happen to have snacks at hand). Absolutely not recommended for those with medical conditions but for healthy adults, I don't see a problem with it as long as they're aware enough to recognize when they need to increase their levels.
This was very helpful to me. Thank you. I didn't mean to sound snippy in my original post, but from a couple of responses apparently I did. I apologize.0 -
This usually happens when someone says they're eating 1,000 calories per day then binge eating all weekend and seeing no weight loss. At that point we tell them to try just eating an appropriate amount for 4-6 weeks because we KNOW it will work. It wouldn't be merely monitoring, there will be progress and the people who make that suggestion know there will be progress.3
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But there's no other way to do it! All the formulas and calculators out there just guesstimate based on generalizations of the typical person with your stats. And because the weight on the scale is more than just fat, judging by what the scale does on any one day isn't giving you an accurate gauge of whether what you are doing is working or not. If you keep changing the plan every week you will never know what's working.
What is your suggested alternative?
Start lower than the theoretical suggestion (for example, don't eat back exercise calories) and adjust upwards only if you feel energy lagging. You'll know if you're too low on calories within days and you can start increasing your calories immediately (vs. having to wait a 2-3 weeks to what your loss trends look like and then waiting another 2-3 weeks after that to see if you got the adjustment right).
This way, you'll find the minimum amount of calories you need and maximize your rate of safe loss the entire time.
I realize that eating too few calories isn't good, but we're not talking long-term here. It's literally a matter of hours that you'll feel a bit drained (or less if you happen to have snacks at hand). Absolutely not recommended for those with medical conditions but for healthy adults, I don't see a problem with it as long as they're aware enough to recognize when they need to increase their levels.But there's no other way to do it! All the formulas and calculators out there just guesstimate based on generalizations of the typical person with your stats. And because the weight on the scale is more than just fat, judging by what the scale does on any one day isn't giving you an accurate gauge of whether what you are doing is working or not. If you keep changing the plan every week you will never know what's working.
What is your suggested alternative?
Start lower than the theoretical suggestion (for example, don't eat back exercise calories) and adjust upwards only if you feel energy lagging. You'll know if you're too low on calories within days and you can start increasing your calories immediately (vs. having to wait a 2-3 weeks to what your loss trends look like and then waiting another 2-3 weeks after that to see if you got the adjustment right).
This way, you'll find the minimum amount of calories you need and maximize your rate of safe loss the entire time.
I realize that eating too few calories isn't good, but we're not talking long-term here. It's literally a matter of hours that you'll feel a bit drained (or less if you happen to have snacks at hand). Absolutely not recommended for those with medical conditions but for healthy adults, I don't see a problem with it as long as they're aware enough to recognize when they need to increase their levels.
Many people who are trying to lose weight have been ignoring their natural hunger cues for years.
Many people with a lot of weight to lose can go two or three weeks eating very low cal feeling no hunger, there are posts about this all the time.
Eating too low for a day or two can cause a hunger rebound where you want to eat everything in the house for several days. For people who have no idea what a normal amount of food is, this can be demoralizing.
This is also far easier for a guy with a decent calorie allowance to try, as opposed to a woman who picked a 2 lb per week goal and gets a 1200 cal target.
These are all reasons this alternative might be a bad idea. It could work as you stated too. Regardless, this is still picking a number and seeing what happens, you are just assuming you will get clues that it's not the right number faster. The advice to give it 4-6 weeks is often given to posters who have already said they have been switching from one plan to another, one calorie level to another week after week upset they aren't seeing the loss on the scale "I ate 1600 calories to start but after a week I didn't lose anything so then i gave up bread and pasta but still nothing so a week ago I switched to 1200 calories and I'm starving but still no weight loss. What am I doing wrong??? Should I eat less?"3 -
The estimate MFP gives you will work for the overwhelming majority of people.
In one study of the kind MFP is based on, 68% of the people's resting metabolic rate was within 5-8% of the group average, and 96% were within 10-16%. So, if you set a rational goal, log carefully, and stick to it, odds are excellent that you'll lose weight. (https://examine.com/nutrition/does-metabolism-vary-between-two-people/)
Some people will lose a little faster or slower than expected, and a very, very few will lose much faster or slower.
As someone who lost much faster than expected on MFP's target, I emphatically don't recommend that "start low" strategy. I was was eating at a calorie goal that should've resulted in losing a pound a week; instead I lost more than 2, which was unhealthily fast. I certainly didn't feel drained in "a few hours": It took longer until I felt weak/fatigued, and it took quite a while - 2-3 weeks, IIRC - to recover.)
Frankly, far more people fail to lose because of compliance problems (cheat days, going off course, etc.) or inaccuracy (failing to log calorie-laden cooking oils or beverages, eyeballing portions, wildly over-estimating exercise, etc.) than fail because of inaccurate calorie goal estimates.
The latter can happen, but it's not common, and the likelier result is a slower loss, not no loss at all, let alone gain.
Also: Some people believe they're not losing, or are losing too fast, because of water weight weirdness in the first weeks. That's one of the reasons behind the "wait 4-6 weeks" advice - and the longer time is often recommended so that premenopausal women get through a whole monthly cycle (plus a bit), because that can cause whacky water weight changes at any time from ovulation through menses.
Just set your MFP profile accurately, track carefully, stick to it. You'll be fine.
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You're a grown up. You can do whatever you want. You certainly don't need our permission.1
This discussion has been closed.
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