Lost & Need Simple Instructions Please

Headley82

I'm a former athlete that never had to pay attention to calories. Now I'm a 35 year old, stay at home Mom of 2 children & looking to regain some of my athletic build. The only exercise I really do is taking brisk 3-4 mile walks Mon-Fri with my 19 lb baby attached to me, of course the typical errands & household chores do seem to add up cause my step count is generally 14-17,000+ on those days & the occasional ab or butt workout if there is down time, so I don't just sit on my butt all day eating bon bons lol! I will be honest & say I did eat whatever/whenever I wanted to until I saw my family Dr last month & I realized I had to change my way of thinking for my future health.
-On 11/14/17 I saw my family Dr for a routine physical & blood work. I weighed 198 & all blood work numbers came back with good numbers but I was unhappy with the scale number. I've never been a scale person because even when I weighed 150 in college my body fat was only 16% so for me scale weight has a lot to do with muscle weight.
-I sought help from a weight loss Dr & here is what her numbers said on 11/30/17:
Height: 5'5"
Weight: 195.1
Lean Body Mass: 111.6 lbs
Body Fat Mass: 83.5 lbs.
BMI: 32.5
PBF: 42.9 (% of body fat)
BMR: 1462
Now with all that said she asked me to eat 1200 calories 5 days a week & 1500 two days a week.
-Went back to my family Dr for routine prescription refill on 12/13/17 & weighed 191. I told her where I went & what I was told & she said she thought even 1500 calories a day was too low for me with my activity level.
---Now I'm completely confused! Would somebody please tell me how many calories is right for me for slow, long term weight loss (1/2-1 lb a week). I hear people say I need to eat back calories lost & that adds to my confusion because some days my exercise total is 600-1,000 depending on what I've done (I really don't see how these numbers are accurate) or people talk about TDEE which confuses me even more. -I called the weight loss Dr back & told her about the activity level numbers & she told me to up my calorie intake to 1500 for 5 days & maybe 1600 the other 2. Even after upping the numbers I'm still not eating more than 1300 a day because I just don't feel the hunger pains because I'm trying to eat something small every 3-4 hours.
-I weighed myself today & it said 189. So obviously I am losing weight but am I doing it the healthy way?
Sorry for the long story but I just need some simple help so I don't over think this. Just give me a simple number & that's what I'll use, don't tell me to add or subtract anything just give me the bottom line number of calories per day even & average would keep me honest.

pamfgil

Rough estimate is 1600 per day, to lose at one pouund per week but if you want to check google for a tdee calculator, that's total daily expended energy

Nony_Mouse

You should definitely be eating more than 1200 cals with your stats and level of activity. I'm assuming you have a Fitbit or similar that you know your daily steps? Enter your stats into MFP, select 1 lb per week as your weight loss goal. If you have a fitbit/garmin/apple watch/whatever, sync if to MFP and it will transfer all your step and exercise burn data over. Eat the calorie goal MFP gives you, plus 50-75% of the additional adjustment calories from your device. Evaluate in 4-6 weeks and adjust calorie intake if necessary (increase cals if losing too fast, decrease if losing too slowly).

Is there a reason you are trying to eat every 3-4 hours? This isn't necessary for weight loss, so if you're happier eating full meals with maybe some snacks if you want them, and it will make it easier for you to reach your calorie goal, then do that. Also, you may have fallen into the trap many do when starting out of cutting out all higher cal things and filling up too much on low cal stuff.

Headley82

Thanks for the tips! Eating every 3-4 hours makes me feel better & I don't feel tired during the day. When I eat big meals I feel really drained & want to nap which this Mommy can't do with my busy family lol.
I'm gonna check the stats I have imputed in MFP & go with the Calorie Goal + 50% of my activity! That makes a bit more sense to me! Thank you for making it simple & not throwing TDEE, Net or any other acronyms in there! A calorie is a calorie & even though my Garmin Vivoactive HR is great, I just don't trust activity numbers completely because everyone is different.

Nony_Mouse

Headley82 wrote: »

Thanks for the tips! Eating every 3-4 hours makes me feel better & I don't feel tired during the day. When I eat big meals I feel really drained & want to nap which this Mommy can't do with my busy family lol.
I'm gonna check the stats I have imputed in MFP & go with the Calorie Goal + 50% of my activity! That makes a bit more sense to me! Thank you for making it simple & not throwing TDEE, Net or any other acronyms in there! A calorie is a calorie & even though my Garmin Vivoactive HR is great, I just don't trust activity numbers completely because everyone is different.

Once you have a few weeks of logging and weight loss data under your belt, you can compare that to the data from your Garmin and adjust if necessary. For some people, their devices are highly accurate (my Fitbit is about spot on for me), others, not so much! You may be quite surprised though.

If you're happy with little and often for food, that's fine too. Maybe try to include some higher calorie, nutrient dense things in there to make it easier to reach your target. This thread has some great suggestions: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10142490/a-list-of-calorie-dense-foods#latest

Lastly, while you don't have to weigh your food, it really is the best way to know that you are not over or underestimating your calories, so if you don't have one already, you may want to invest in a digital food scale that weighs in grams (more accurate than ounces). Also have a look at the "Most helpful posts" thread sticked at the top of the forum for links to lots of other handy info to get you started

Headley82

Oh yes! I said if I was going to do this, I was going to do this right! I bought a good scale & have weighed everything that needs weighing (meats, fruits, etc) & portioned out everything I eat in the fridge! I love it, no guessing! Time consuming yes, but I was the crazy natural Mom that has made all my kids first foods so I'm use to prepping & portioning. I even bought a new scale that has body measurement read outs & set a timer to step on the scale once a week.

As for the eating every 3-4 hours, the meals aren't always small persa. I do eat the normal breakfast, lunch & dinner amounts (eggs for breakfast, turkey sandwich for lunch, fish/meat & veggies for dinner) I just don't have huge portions of starchy sides like I did before. Also when I'm on the go I have my quick snacks like nuts or Shamrock Protien Milk with me so I don't feel the need to stop at a drive through & eat my calorie goal in one sitting lol.

I just keep chanting to myself that I'm not in my 20's or playing & coaching volleyball year round so if I eat too much of anything I can't burn it off like I use to. I'm very stubborn, so when I make my mind up about something I stick to it, even if it's not easy some days!

Again, thanks for more info & tips! I appreciate it!

lucerorojo

You sound so lively! It's amazing how that seems to come through in your writing. I found it inspiring. All the best to you in reaching your goal weight

Nony_Mouse

Headley82 wrote: »

Oh yes! I said if I was going to do this, I was going to do this right! I bought a good scale & have weighed everything that needs weighing (meats, fruits, etc) & portioned out everything I eat in the fridge! I love it, no guessing! Time consuming yes, but I was the crazy natural Mom that has made all my kids first foods so I'm use to prepping & portioning. I even bought a new scale that has body measurement read outs & set a timer to step on the scale once a week.

As for the eating every 3-4 hours, the meals aren't always small persa. I do eat the normal breakfast, lunch & dinner amounts (eggs for breakfast, turkey sandwich for lunch, fish/meat & veggies for dinner) I just don't have huge portions of starchy sides like I did before. Also when I'm on the go I have my quick snacks like nuts or Shamrock Protien Milk with me so I don't feel the need to stop at a drive through & eat my calorie goal in one sitting lol.

I just keep chanting to myself that I'm not in my 20's or playing & coaching volleyball year round so if I eat too much of anything I can't burn it off like I use to. I'm very stubborn, so when I make my mind up about something I stick to it, even if it's not easy some days!

Again, thanks for more info & tips! I appreciate it!

You are going to do just fine

Tacklewasher

Headley82 wrote: »

Thanks for the tips! Eating every 3-4 hours makes me feel better & I don't feel tired during the day. When I eat big meals I feel really drained & want to nap which this Mommy can't do with my busy family lol.
I'm gonna check the stats I have imputed in MFP & go with the Calorie Goal + 50% of my activity! That makes a bit more sense to me! Thank you for making it simple & not throwing TDEE, Net or any other acronyms in there! A calorie is a calorie & even though my Garmin Vivoactive HR is great, I just don't trust activity numbers completely because everyone is different.

As one data point, my Vivoactive HR is pretty much spot on. Give it 6-8 weeks of tracking and see how your weight loss is. I'm guessing you will lose a bit more than goal and will need to eat a bit more of your exercise calories, but only time will tell.

Headley82

I'm glad to hear the Vivoactive HR is accurate! All the active numbers don't always show up on MFP, for example the watch will say I had burned 200 calories but MFP will only factor in 150 calories burned so I'm guessing they are setup with different equations or factors. Not a be deal to me though! Thanks for the heads up on its accuracy!