TDEE / MFP / Fitness Trackers what does it mean to you? How to get that last pesky 10lbs.

mutantspicy

I dropped from 215 to now ranging 195 to 199, target weight is 185lb. based on pictures I guess my BF% is somewhere between 15 and 20%. I would like it to be a solid 15% ranging from 10% to 15%.

So I feel like I can get to 185 without losing too much muscle, I put on a lot muscle mass a few years ago, and then went thru a lazy phase / depression, etc. got chubby. Now I'm back to normal. Now I'm Just trying get past this last little hump, and then find a balanced lifestyle.

So the numbers. I work a desk job, but I walk all day, then take my dog for a minimum of 3 miles, then do a 30 to 45 min workout, usually strength or total body circuits 4 times a week. So for that I put active. Which says 2350 calories for me. First off I have a hard time eating that much food. And then according my trackers, I burn on average 600 to 800 plus my steps extra each day. There's no way I can deal with all that.

So I set it manually to 2150, which I still can't get there without a couple glass of wine. I count my alcohol, because I'm being true to myself. I'm not sweet tooth or a junk food eater, but like my wine and beer so I'm keeping track of the damage.

So I started thinking, well part of being active is all those extra calories I'm supposedly "burning" So I put in Sedentary, which then says 1730 cals, a 600 calorie daily swing from that switch. And Honestly 1750 is closer to my actual food intake not counting wine or beer. I'm usually somewhere between 1500 and 1700 of real food.

So If I use 1750 plus my workout which usually 380 to 500 cals depending, plus my steps??? which range from 17000 to 26000 during the week days. That add about the same amount, which puts me at 2700 cals or so, and for me I'm at about 2000 to 2150 everyday including a couple glasses of wine. But I'm still stuck in the 195 to 199 range, though I've only just started monitoring again for the last 10 days or so.

Thinking on it further walking all day does not exert myself, I'm use to it and so I don't think I should consider trying make up those calories because its not like I'm being depleted of energy walking around all day. Perhaps if I were bulking up, I would consider. But I seriously can't eat that much food anyway, well at least not cleanly. So as of now, I'm eating enough food for a sedentary lifestyle, but more realistically living closer to active. I have seen some progress at 2150 target, but it leveled off. So I'm thinking of aiming at the 1750 target. Which would be easy by knocking off the wine for a month, I probably could get past this last 10 lbs. I say easy, but its not a pleasant thought.

It just makes me wonder How Some of you Philosphise about your make up calories. There's been days where my make up cals are well over 1000 and I'm like that's absolute nonsense. If I have a 30min workout over 500 cals, I know its not real. My rule of thumb based on what I've seen is 100cal for 10min in a weightlifting session, If I see over that avg then I ask myself about my intensity and then it all becomes a guessing game. How do you guys feel about cals from steps? The more I think about it, the more I believe yeah there is no way we should use steps for make up cals at least if you have selected active. However, for sedentary does it make sense? Actually the steps are probably more accurate than my numbers from UA record on my lifting sessions, some of those are insane. I did 50min session and it said 650 and thats way too high. So for now I'm going to target 1750 and try to earn my wine credit thru exercise low. I'll see how it goes for a week or two and I'll adjust from there. I'm hoping not to have to give up my one little luxury.

Please feel free to tell me I'm crazy give me a better path, or tell me your story. I've been using this site since 2014 on and off, I'll monitor for a month or two to get myself on track. Now its even more complicated with all the fitness trackers and apps. BTW. I'm using a gear S3 and S7 phone. So my step number comes from SHealth.

So sorry for the rambling story Just trying wrap my head around it all.

KarenSmith2018

I think you are making it far more complicated than it needs to be. If you are maintaining your weight currently then that is the calories you need for weight maintenance regardless of what any calculator etc says. To loose 1lb per week take off 500 calories from that number. Track the results. If you loose as you should then happy days you have found a suitable deficit to loose the weight. If you loose less/more than adjust a 100 cals or so (loose 100 cals to increase the loss, add 100 cals to slow it down).

I eat to my TDEE which is 2200 a day on average and adjust from there up or down depending on the scale trend (up down or the same)

Donjay23

Fitness trackers are notoriously inaccurate for energy expenditure from what I've read. I would take those numbers with a grain of salt.

sijomial

You really need to step back and have a serious think about your approach - go right back to basics including how you want to account for exercise and activity as you have some really odd ideas such as:
Walking not using energy.
Picking sedentary (meaning seated) when you clearly aren't.
Badly inflated estimates for strength training.

Think you need to simplify not complicate, dump the tracker and either use a TDEE style same every day goal or the MyFitnessPal method but realise you don't have to be quite so precise about your varied activity day by day. An average activity setting works fine.

steveko89

Agree with the others on tracking/measuring/estimating TDEE and/or activity; I've tried a variety (UA39 HR monitor, apple watch, Polar H7 HR monitor) and they all overestimate most activity for me. The most success I've found is to gather a statistically relevant amount of data on daily calories and weight fluctuations and "black box" TDEE in a spreadsheet (pretty good one on the wiki of r/fitness made by u/nSuns). My TDEE hasn't deviated week-to-week since last July, as @karenbeckwith5 said, try cutting 500-600 calories off whatever number that is and stick to it. TDEE includes exercise so don't try to "earn" back indulgences, make them fit under that limit. In my experience, it takes much more diligence to get under 15%bf than it does to get under 20%. Make sure you're logging is on point, get a food scale if you don't already have one, and you'll be good to go.

mutantspicy

sijomial wrote: »

You really need to step back and have a serious think about your approach - go right back to basics including how you want to account for exercise and activity as you have some really odd ideas such as:
Walking not using energy.
Picking sedentary (meaning seated) when you clearly aren't.
Badly inflated estimates for strength training.

Think you need to simplify not complicate, dump the tracker and either use a TDEE style same every day goal or the MyFitnessPal method but realise you don't have to be quite so precise about your varied activity day by day. An average activity setting works fine.

sijomial wrote: »

You really need to step back and have a serious think about your approach - go right back to basics including how you want to account for exercise and activity as you have some really odd ideas such as:
Walking not using energy.
Picking sedentary (meaning seated) when you clearly aren't.
Badly inflated estimates for strength training.

Think you need to simplify not complicate, dump the tracker and either use a TDEE style same every day goal or the MyFitnessPal method but realise you don't have to be quite so precise about your varied activity day by day. An average activity setting works fine.

Well I chose sedentary, so that when my work out cals come in its not like double dipping.
And yes I'm getting frustrated with fitness trackers being so inflated. So yeah I take the numbers with a grain of salt. That said, I appreciate the sentiment about simplifying. However, using the TDEE method with MFP. Setting my stuff to active and set to lose 1 lb per week. Put me at about 2350 total cals, I was always maintaining. So that wasn't quite right. When I set to 2150 I'm not sure if I'm losing or not. Its completely comfortable, and do I'm do think I'm losing very slightly. Maybe 1750 is a little too low, perhaps around 1900 will get me the results.

mutantspicy

steveko89 wrote: »

Agree with the others on tracking/measuring/estimating TDEE and/or activity; I've tried a variety (UA39 HR monitor, apple watch, Polar H7 HR monitor) and they all overestimate most activity for me. The most success I've found is to gather a statistically relevant amount of data on daily calories and weight fluctuations and "black box" TDEE in a spreadsheet (pretty good one on the wiki of r/fitness made by u/nSuns). My TDEE hasn't deviated week-to-week since last July, as @karenbeckwith5 said, try cutting 500-600 calories off whatever number that is and stick to it. TDEE includes exercise so don't try to "earn" back indulgences, make them fit under that limit. In my experience, it takes much more diligence to get under 15%bf than it does to get under 20%. Make sure you're logging is on point, get a food scale if you don't already have one, and you'll be good to go.

It definitely seems that way. So that's why I started logging again. The first 15 lbs came off easy, just started lifting again. The next 5 was tough. This last little bit feels like its gonna be really challenging, and detailed with the food prep.

So I appreciate everyone's comments. Just trying to establish my strategy to get over the hump.

sijomial

This is real and useful data....
"Put me at about 2350 total cals, I was always maintaining. So that wasn't quite right. When I set to 2150 I'm not sure if I'm losing or not. Its completely comfortable, and do I'm do think I'm losing very slightly. Maybe 1750 is a little too low, perhaps around 1900 will get me the results."

All the estimates just give you a start point which may or may not be accurate and then it gets compounded by inaccurate food/exercise/activity estimates.

Go for your 1900, be consistent, re-evaluate after a number of weeks, adjust if required based on results, energy levels, ease of adherence. It really doesn't have to be any more complex than that.