Can’t manage to hit intake goals, I’m not hungry

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  • quiksylver296
    quiksylver296 Posts: 28,442 Member
    edited March 2018
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    labridge71488 wrote: »
    I know very little about cico. However I did the calculations for BMR, TDEE and other random calorie intake calculators and it says my TDEE is 2220, and BMR is 1539. I basically aim to eat 1200-1500 calories a day, but I have no idea how to determine how many calories I’m burning by weight training to factor that in.

    CICO is simple. It stands for Calories In, Calories Out. If your calories in are more than your calories out, you will gain weight. If your calories in are less than your calories out, you will lose weight. If your calories in are equal to your calories out, you will maintain weight.

    The harder part is determining what YOUR calories in and calories out are. Online calculators are a generic guideline for TDEE and BMR. Which isn't bad, it just means you may need to tweak them as you learn more about your needs. One of the best ways to determine if your numbers are accurate is using the food scale, like we've said before. Weigh everything, log everything. When you are pretty certain your calories in are right, you can then start tweaking, depending on how much weight you are losing (or not).
  • jjpptt2
    jjpptt2 Posts: 5,650 Member
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    labridge71488 wrote: »
    I know very little about cico. However I did the calculations for BMR, TDEE and other random calorie intake calculators and it says my TDEE is 2220, and BMR is 1539. I basically aim to eat 1200-1500 calories a day, but I have no idea how to determine how many calories I’m burning by weight training to factor that in.

    CICO parallels very easily with money. Think about your bank account. If you're spending more than you're saving, your balance will go down. If you're saving more than you spend, it'll go up. Money in vs money out. It doesn't matter if we're talking about crispy new bills or old dirty coins. Money is money.

    Your body is similar... it all comes down to calories going in vs calories going out.


    As far as TDEE vs BMR... how much to eat vs how much you burn working out...

    BMR is the number of calories your body needs to sustain itself - to breathe and pump blood and so on. You should always be eating at least that many calories. Lifestyle (job, chores, errands, etc) burn additional calories on top of your BMR cals. Exercise burns additional cals yet. All these things together = TDEE. TDEE is how many cals you burn each day doing everything and anything that you do. To lose weight, you should eat below this number.

    That's the really high level explanation.
  • labridge71488
    labridge71488 Posts: 21 Member
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    So if I can correctly log my food, and I am consuming less than my TDEE, then I should be losing? What should I do to tweak “it” if I am not?
  • jjpptt2
    jjpptt2 Posts: 5,650 Member
    edited March 2018
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    labridge71488 wrote: »
    So if I can correctly log my food, and I am consuming less than my TDEE, then I should be losing? What should I do to tweak “it” if I am not?

    Correct.

    If you're logging correctly
    AND
    If you're under TDEE
    THEN
    First, be more patient. If you've been consistent for a minimum of 2-3 weeks and still not losing, then reduce cals by 10% or so and start again.

    Ultimately, no matter how accurately you log, there's going to be *some* margin of error. But even more so, BMR and TDEE calculators are just approximations based on forumlas, assumptions, and averages. While they are good starting points, people will typically evaluate and adjust over time.
  • JMcGee2018
    JMcGee2018 Posts: 275 Member
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    labridge71488 wrote: »
    So if I can correctly log my food, and I am consuming less than my TDEE, then I should be losing? What should I do to tweak “it” if I am not?

    Tweak it by consuming fewer calories. It doesn't matter what you eat less of, only that you eat less. Start by reducing your calories by 50 or 100/day until you are losing again. If this starts to take you under 1200/day when you know you are accurately tracking, you should see a doctor because you might have a medical condition causing your metabolism to be unusually slow or for you to retain more water than normal (thyroid problems, adrenal or pituitary problems, etc.). You can always get a BMR test to help you determine your actual rate of burn, and then work with a dietician if it is unusually low to help insure that you get enough nutrients on a low calorie diet. Don't dip below 1200/day without a doctor's supervision.

  • mitch16
    mitch16 Posts: 2,113 Member
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    jjpptt2 wrote: »
    labridge71488 wrote: »
    So if I can correctly log my food, and I am consuming less than my TDEE, then I should be losing? What should I do to tweak “it” if I am not?

    Correct.

    If you're logging correctly
    AND
    If you're under TDEE
    THEN
    First, be more patient. If you've been consistent for a minimum of 2-3 weeks and still not losing, then reduce cals by 10% or so and start again.

    Ultimately, no matter how accurately you log, there's going to be *some* margin of error. But even more so, BMR and TDEE calculators are just approximations based on forumlas, assumptions, and averages. While they are good starting points, people will typically evaluate and adjust over time.

    Adding on to this thought--online calculations are estimates... If you have underlying medical conditions (e.g., hypo- or hyper-thyroidism) that will skew your numbers. So if you are correctly logging your food, consuming less than your TDEE, and still not losing, you may have mis-estimated your BMR/TDEE. You *could* have extensive metabolic testing to determine your BMR without a doubt.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,666 Member
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    How sedentary are you outside of the gym? Do you get up from your office chair every hour even for 2-3 minutes? Can you incorporate "bathroom breaks" into your work day? Do you walk, take the bus, drive? Are you chipper and full of energy or listless, nappy, and tired?
  • labridge71488
    labridge71488 Posts: 21 Member
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    PAV8888 wrote: »
    How sedentary are you outside of the gym? Do you get up from your office chair every hour even for 2-3 minutes? Can you incorporate "bathroom breaks" into your work day? Do you walk, take the bus, drive? Are you chipper and full of energy or listless, nappy, and tired?


    I sit in my vehicle for my half hour drive to work, I go to my desk and I only take “breaks” for bathroom and to heat up my lunch. I work 10 hour shifts and then drive half hour home to the gym for 1.5 hours. I work through my actual 15 minute and 30-minute lunch break because my workload never diminishes. I drink a lot of water so I’d say I get up to go to the bathroom every 1-2 hours but it’s a short walk. I’m normally pretty energetic. Rarely am I lethargic or tired(unless no sleep).

  • deannalfisher
    deannalfisher Posts: 5,600 Member
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    even if your workload never diminishes you have to take care of you - i found that i was significantly more productive when i started taking a 5min walk break every hour - fill up the water bottle, go and pee - and was getting as much, if not more work done in slightly less amount of time
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 9,981 Member
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    evileen99 wrote: »
    labridge71488 wrote: »
    Apparently people can’t read when I say I have a food scale lol

    I’m sure I can do more to try and figure out how to change 1/4 cup of broccoli to whatever that equates to on a scale and somehow figure out the calories macros that way based on a label that measures in cups, not grams/ounces, but I do weigh my turkey or chicken. Apparently I am wrong to think that a package that has 5 servings when split into 5 servings isn’t actually what is on the nutrition label.

    Oh well I guess I’ll just wing it?

    Most bags will say "serving size 1/3 cup (1 oz/28 grams) All you do is divide the number of calories per serving by the number of grams per serving and that gives you the calories per gram of the item. Then you weigh out how much broccoli you want to eat and multiply that by the calories per gram. Example: apples are 0.5 calories per gram, a 156 gram apple is 78 calories.

    I have a sheet of paper with the weights per gram of all fruits, vegetables, and meats that I eat (I don't log on MPF; I use a paper diary).

    I assume you mean calories per gram, not weights per gram?

    Are you just quick adding calories using the per-gram amounts you've worked out?

    For fruits, vegetables, and meats that haven't been packaged with added ingredients, why not just use the USDA 100 gram serving entries, log the number of grams you ate (e.g., if you ate 156 grams of apple, log 1.56 servings of a 100 gram serving -- just move the decimal point over two places)? Let MFP do the math for you, plus it gives you the macro and micro information as well.
  • labridge71488
    labridge71488 Posts: 21 Member
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    deannalfisher wrote: »
    even if your workload never diminishes you have to take care of you - i found that i was significantly more productive when i started taking a 5min walk break every hour - fill up the water bottle, go and pee - and was getting as much, if not more work done in slightly less amount of time

    I find that I am more stressed out if I don’t work through my breaks and stress can cause other complications, not just in weight loss. I use to take breaks where I’d walk outside but then I noticed it would take me about another 15 minutes just to get back focused on what I’m doing and in turn put me tremendously behind in my work. My company is currently trying to hire 5 more people to help with my workload as they finally have listened after two years that it is highly impossible to keep up let alone get anything accomplished with just me doing my job.

    When I go to the bathroom that’s usually when I fill up my water but like I said it would stress me out to not be at my desk when I’m at work. I have the “there’s so much more I could get done in that time” mentality.

    Luckily I don’t bring work home with me. I leave it at the door before I walk out, I go home, workout, eat, relaxing for a few minutes and go to bed and sleep a solid 8-9 hours. I sleep really good(I love sleep) and always wake up refreshed and energized

  • the8BitGirl
    the8BitGirl Posts: 38 Member
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    Op, I just wanted to send some good vibes your way and wish you good luck with the new information this thread has now armed you with. I was also a staunch low-carber for a very long time, and I have keto to thank for helping me to overcome cravings and blood sugar high/lows. I never consistently lost weight eating almost exactly the way you do, however - and that came down purely to inaccurate logging, in my particular case.

    Since incorporating weight training, I have let go of my fear of carbs and reduced my ridiculously high fat intake to more moderate levels. In fact, adding carbs back into my diet has actually helped me tremendously with increasing my 1RM weight on all my sets. I just feel like I can lift more when I've had some carbs. I have also started consistently losing weight, at the nice predictable .5kg (about 1lb) weight MFP said I should have been losing.

    I now have cheesecake, pizza and other miscellaneous treats once a week, while still losing - but I track absolutely every bite meticulously. I wish you well on your journey. :smile:
  • collectingblues
    collectingblues Posts: 2,541 Member
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    labridge71488 wrote: »
    Okay well then someone please enlighten me on what protein I can eat that actually has flavor so that I don’t fall off the wagon if I’ve been doing it so wrong. Mind you these are all things I’ve previously been advised to try doing by other fitness “guru’s” so get the right protein needed for building muscle cutting fat.

    Everything that “tastes good” is high in carbs and that is not my goal.

    Eating chicken and only chicken. Bad. Eating turkey instead. Bad. Eating turkey bacon/sausage instead of real bacon and sausage. Bad. Red meat. Bad. Egg beaters vs real eggs. Bad. The list of things I’ve heard now I might as well give up because no one seems to know what’s good or bad based on science.

    Regular eggs = 70 calories per egg. Plus a protein powerhouse.

    So maybe your breakfast omelette won't have just 265 calories now. But then you also won't be worrying about not hitting your calorie goals.
  • inertiastrength
    inertiastrength Posts: 2,343 Member
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    For what it's worth it took me a good couple months to iron out the kinks and inaccuracies in my logging. I promise you it's worth the effort. Once you have solid data that you can rely on you will never again wonder why you're not losing :)

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