Calories as a Wheelchair User

thediamonds

Hey all,

I'm looking to lose some weight but not sure if I should eat as mfp says or deduct some calories due to the fact that I don't do any activity at all?

Anyone got any advice?

Thanks

fuzzylop72

you should be fine with sedentary activity level.

1houndgal

thediamonds wrote: »

Hey all,

I'm looking to lose some weight but not sure if I should eat as mfp says or deduct some calories due to the fact that I don't do any activity at all?

Anyone got any advice?

Thanks

What kind of wheel chair? Motorized or old school you use you arms to roll?

If motorized, you should probably go sedentary.

SCoil123

I’m currently on crutches with a broken knee ...not the same but also can’t move much for an indefinite period of time. I lost 1lb this week eating what MFP gave me set to sedentary

yirara

Your base metabolic rate doesn't go down because you're in a wheelchair. That's the calories your body needs to keep you alive: organ function, brain especially, to keep your temperature, nervous system and all the other useful things. Your activity level is low it seems, thus set that one to sedentary. All done

Btw, can you move your arms and propel yourself forward in your wheelchair? Are you able to leave the house yourself? Maybe that's the way to work out some more. A friend of mine is in a wheelchair and wheels around outside an hour every day.

MissyCHF

thediamonds wrote: »

Hey all,

I'm looking to lose some weight but not sure if I should eat as mfp says or deduct some calories due to the fact that I don't do any activity at all?

Anyone got any advice?

Thanks

I'm sedentary because I'm old, yet can average 1lb per week loss. I just eat the calories mfp recommend.

Good luck.

Wendyanneroberts

I'm disabled, often in wheelchair, with other health issues. But have also successfully lost weight, through diet alone by using mfp as a tool. If you have put in your statistics and enter sedentary, MFP gives you a calorie target. Log accurately and aim to hit this target everyday and you should lose weight.

Be patient, don't know how much weight you would like to lose, but for me slow and steady has won. After a few weeks, you will have your own data to look back at and adjust as needed.

megs_1985

You can lose onndiet alone but maybe look into figuring out how to increase your activity. Maybe one of those hand pedalers or some light weights to do some basic arm movements. Look up chair exercises or chair yoga that might give you some ideas. I remember seeing a success story from someone in a wheelchair. It was really inspiring.

Seffell

Sometimes I'm completely sedentiary (like wheelchair sedentiary) and MFP calories for sedentiary are too many for me by about 150-200cal per day (based on 2+ years of logging plus spreadsheets of data). This is because the sedentiray includes about 5k steps. It has to be by trial and error for you.

cmriverside

Yeah, like has been said, pick sedentary and use those numbers for 4-6 weeks and then adjust based on your results.

We all have to do that, the numbers are general and meant to be used as a starting point. We all have slightly different activity levels and you just have to run the experiment.

Welcome to the site. :flowerforyou: