Calorie needs on super long days (it's 2pm and I don't have many calories left)
Replies
-
TavistockToad wrote: »successgal1 wrote: »TavistockToad wrote: »Stating medical conditions would have been useful in your first post OP.
Why?
Why is it useful for people giving you advice to know if you have medical conditions? Really? :huh:
I don't have "medical conditions" that matter for the purpose of my post. High hamstring issues are from overworking without enough nutrition.i already know this and have remedied the situation. There is no way I'm ever going to eat as low calorie as I did before, I use supplements and also eat way more healthily then I did during that period. My question is about TDEE. The most I have to worry about with my hamstrings is to not over do any particular exercise that involves them. Last time I was alternating cycling days with step box every other day, and not eating enough to support it on top of it.. Doing too much that involved that particular part of my body.0 -
successgal1 wrote: »TavistockToad wrote: »successgal1 wrote: »TavistockToad wrote: »Stating medical conditions would have been useful in your first post OP.
Why?
Why is it useful for people giving you advice to know if you have medical conditions? Really? :huh:
I don't have "medical conditions" that matter for the purpose of my post. High hamstring issues are from overworking without enough nutrition.i already know this and have remedied the situation. There is no way I'm ever going to eat as low calorie as I did before, I use supplements and also eat way more healthily then I did during that period. My question is about TDEE. The most I have to worry about with my hamstrings is to not over do any particular exercise that involves them. Last time I was alternating cycling days with step box every other day, and not eating enough to support it on top of it.. Doing too much that involved that particular part of my body.
My comment was based on your heart issues, not hamstrings...1 -
If you like to eat more on days that you workout then you should probably use the mfp method and not the TDEE method. But definitely pick one or the other and don't try to keep mixing them together. If mfp gives you 1500 per day to lose one pound per week and you exercise 4 days per week and burn 350 calories then you will have 3 days where you eat 1500 and 4 days where you eat 1850. That equals 11,900 calories per week. If you use the TDEE calculator and it gives you 1700 calories per day to lose 1 pound per week then that equals 11,900 calories per week. In the real world the numbers won't work out that perfectly, but the difference between the TDEE method and mfp's method is when you add the exercise calories. TDEE averages them over the week so that you eat the same amount every day. Mfp adds them as you do them so some days you eat more and some days you eat less. That works really well for people who have inconsistent exercise routines and maybe don't exercise the same amount of hours each week.
Thank you. That was actually the most helpful post by far, though I know at least one other person said it, but not with the actual numbers in there. I guess my original concern came from the fact that I did not work out yesterday, but was still hungry because of the length of the day, and 1500 calories wasn't going to cut it for hunger purposes. And yes I know it's because I had too much liquid diet also yesterday, but that was because of logistics all of the morning training and being exhausted because I couldn't sleep and because of that I couldn't plan my meal, yada yada yada.1 -
successgal1 wrote: »I have a female 120lb MFP friend who loses weight when eating 3000Cal a day.
It is NOT just how many calories you eat. it IS the balance between what you eat and what you spend.
Your agitation op has already given the answer: you are currently over restricting and going through the hangriez.
While you may think of yourself as sedentary, your overall daily package doesn't sound like it is.
Driving is actually a MET 2.5 activity. Sitting at a computer is I believe around 1.5 and at the limit of sedentary.
Plus your exercise activity, MFP expects you to **fully eat back** if you keep to your deficit schedule. But you seem to -- going from memory from when I read the thread earlier today -- not be eating back more than an arbitrary 200 or so Calories.
With a history of over restriction going fast is dangerous. A 20% deficit is the maximum you should be aiming for. Which, if you truly are sedentary (thus lower TDEE) means no more than a half pound to a pound a week AT MOST as your goal.
Get yourself a trending weight app or web site.
Eat smarter (apples, boiled eggs, even stupid carrots in a Tupperware container if it comes down to it, and nobody stops you from throwing in a cold meatball, or some salami or some ham, or even cheese -- weighed out the night before. Frankly a bacon and egg McMuffin--no butter--add three times red and three times slivered onions and an extra large coffee with half milk is no more calories than two tiny glucernas).
And then review what you ate to determine if it was worth the calories to you at that time and if a different choice would have been better.
Overall it does sound as if you're overrestricting. Nobody can tell you ahead of time if this is the case or not. You will know in 4 to 6 weeks when you look at your weight trend.
My personal impression is that the risk in your case is in trying to do too much right now as opposed to not doing enough.
So eat sufficiently so that you don't bite the head off people who, flawed or not, are taking the time to try and help you reach your goals and evaluate your results once you've tracked your Caloric intake vs your purported Calories expenditure vs your weight trend over time.
And yes, your Fitbit is an external constant and at the very least a baseline. If it is showing you a higher TDEE than you log even though you don't always wear it...then consider that it ought to be a base level.
I'm not hangry or agitated Nor have I bitten anyones head off, I'm not sure why that is your perception. I thought I added enough smiley faces in my most recent post to show that. I'm actually speaking quite calmly.
I do eat back all of the exercise calories, assuming MFP is correct at calories burn as sent by Fitbit. Around 380 for a 55 minute ride. Sometimes Fitbit sends more after the ride because of heart rate and I'm literally sitting on the couch after having just eaten a nice big post workout dinner when this happens. My heart rate can go up after big meals. So if you're looking at my diary and seeing uneaten calories, that is probably why. There was also a day where I shopped alot and got some step calories.
I like drinking breakfast. We make a kefir smoothie, though I have the kefir logged as milk having never been able to ascertain if the sugar caloiries are still in milk though the lactose was eaten by the kefir...
It's basically just prechewed food, not super liquid like a protein drink. And gives me 4 hours of not hungry so I know is substantial.
My soup is also not liquidy. It's homemade squash and lentil with those things measure before making then split into portions after cooking. I do vary what I eat as much as possible, but I am busy, and a picky eater, so if my meals seem to suffer from sameness, that is why. I was eating these things prior to dieting, the variations that have caused weight gain, besides lack of exercise are alcohol, popcorn with butter, and eating out for dinner or making dinner more caloric.
I've been reading around and haven't been able to figure out what my tdee is on fitbit. I'll go look online and see if I can figure it out. Since I've only paid attention to it when set in workout mode for the most part... I don't pay that much attention to it.
Fitbit doesn't send workout calories to MFP to display.
Fitbit sends total calories burned up to that point in the day.
MFP does the math for estimated rest of the day, plus what Fitbit sent.
So that is not workout calories, merely the difference.
The special training I thought was in reference to workouts - must have been reference to work.
Anyway - why don't you go look at your Fitbit stats in Fitbit account right now - and get what the average daily burn is over a big chunk of time.
Put an end to this confusion.6 -
If you are seeing an adjustment from Fitbit to mfp this means you have connected the two and you don’t have to worry about your TDEE.
The Fitbit adjustment that you see at the end of the day is an adjustment to equalize MFP to the TDEE that was detected by Fitbit. So even though MFP chooses the word “exercise adjustment” it really is a “Detected TDEE adjustment”.
So in terms of detection of your TDEE We are now left with variation from person to person Versus the population average used by Fitbit, And the fact that you say that you don’t always wear your fitbit therefore it probably under estimates you a bit.
Where that comes out in the wash we will not know until you have more data.
What we do know is that it sure sounds as if you’re having a hard time keeping to your calories with relative ease. And if your deficit Is less than 20% with relatively optimal food choices, then most people would be able, especially in the beginning, to keep to it with relative ease.
Ergo your food choices are not optimal or your deficit is higher than it should be... And you just did indicate that you Believe your food choices to be fairly appropriate.
Just a reminder that weight loss is the result of accumulated deficits overtime And just as with interest, time Is a major factor. One week here or there is only a small difference over the years... In other words “adherence” is a primary consideration Over and above the size of your deficit.
4 -
Also I note that most weight loss journeys Involve a period of learning what Happens when you make sub optimal choices. I know now, for example, that I over eat substantially when I under sleep. I sort of always knew it but I was never as aware How much of a difference it makes. Every day does not have to be a perfect day and cannot always be a perfect day. If the conditions are not right, yeah, you can call it a maintenance day As opposed to trying to hang in by the skin of your teeth.2
-
Honestly, you have to try to see what works. MFP is a guideline and it should be used as such. Just because it offers something, doesn't mean it's 100% correct for your body. If 1500 sometimes feels too low, then give yourself a range instead of a set number. Everyday, eat somewhere between 1500 and 1700 calories. At the end of the week, add them all up and get an average number that you ate. You'll use this number later for your data.
Monitor your weight too. See if you are losing, gaining or maintaining and then adjust as needed. If you are losing 2lbs a week, then that average number of calories is about a 1000cal/day deficit for you. If you are losing 1lb a week, then that average number of calories is about a 500cal/day deficit for you. Same goes for gaining, except it's a surplus not a deficit. If you are maintaining, then that is about your maintenance calories. In order to adjust your calories to meet your weight goals, subtract from that average number and create a new range of calories around that average.
This gives you some flexibility and you can see what will work best for you body. Good luck.3 -
successgal1 wrote: »I have a female 120lb MFP friend who loses weight when eating 3000Cal a day.
It is NOT just how many calories you eat. it IS the balance between what you eat and what you spend.
Your agitation op has already given the answer: you are currently over restricting and going through the hangriez.
While you may think of yourself as sedentary, your overall daily package doesn't sound like it is.
Driving is actually a MET 2.5 activity. Sitting at a computer is I believe around 1.5 and at the limit of sedentary.
Plus your exercise activity, MFP expects you to **fully eat back** if you keep to your deficit schedule. But you seem to -- going from memory from when I read the thread earlier today -- not be eating back more than an arbitrary 200 or so Calories.
With a history of over restriction going fast is dangerous. A 20% deficit is the maximum you should be aiming for. Which, if you truly are sedentary (thus lower TDEE) means no more than a half pound to a pound a week AT MOST as your goal.
Get yourself a trending weight app or web site.
Eat smarter (apples, boiled eggs, even stupid carrots in a Tupperware container if it comes down to it, and nobody stops you from throwing in a cold meatball, or some salami or some ham, or even cheese -- weighed out the night before. Frankly a bacon and egg McMuffin--no butter--add three times red and three times slivered onions and an extra large coffee with half milk is no more calories than two tiny glucernas).
And then review what you ate to determine if it was worth the calories to you at that time and if a different choice would have been better.
Overall it does sound as if you're overrestricting. Nobody can tell you ahead of time if this is the case or not. You will know in 4 to 6 weeks when you look at your weight trend.
My personal impression is that the risk in your case is in trying to do too much right now as opposed to not doing enough.
So eat sufficiently so that you don't bite the head off people who, flawed or not, are taking the time to try and help you reach your goals and evaluate your results once you've tracked your Caloric intake vs your purported Calories expenditure vs your weight trend over time.
And yes, your Fitbit is an external constant and at the very least a baseline. If it is showing you a higher TDEE than you log even though you don't always wear it...then consider that it ought to be a base level.
I'm not hangry or agitated Nor have I bitten anyones head off, I'm not sure why that is your perception. I thought I added enough smiley faces in my most recent post to show that. I'm actually speaking quite calmly.
I do eat back all of the exercise calories, assuming MFP is correct at calories burn as sent by Fitbit. Around 380 for a 55 minute ride. Sometimes Fitbit sends more after the ride because of heart rate and I'm literally sitting on the couch after having just eaten a nice big post workout dinner when this happens. My heart rate can go up after big meals. So if you're looking at my diary and seeing uneaten calories, that is probably why. There was also a day where I shopped alot and got some step calories.
I like drinking breakfast. We make a kefir smoothie, though I have the kefir logged as milk having never been able to ascertain if the sugar caloiries are still in milk though the lactose was eaten by the kefir...
It's basically just prechewed food, not super liquid like a protein drink. And gives me 4 hours of not hungry so I know is substantial.
My soup is also not liquidy. It's homemade squash and lentil with those things measure before making then split into portions after cooking. I do vary what I eat as much as possible, but I am busy, and a picky eater, so if my meals seem to suffer from sameness, that is why. I was eating these things prior to dieting, the variations that have caused weight gain, besides lack of exercise are alcohol, popcorn with butter, and eating out for dinner or making dinner more caloric.
I've been reading around and haven't been able to figure out what my tdee is on fitbit. I'll go look online and see if I can figure it out. Since I've only paid attention to it when set in workout mode for the most part... I don't pay that much attention to it.
Fitbit doesn't send workout calories to MFP to display.
Fitbit sends total calories burned up to that point in the day.
MFP does the math for estimated rest of the day, plus what Fitbit sent.
So that is not workout calories, merely the difference.
The special training I thought was in reference to workouts - must have been reference to work.
Anyway - why don't you go look at your Fitbit stats in Fitbit account right now - and get what the average daily burn is over a big chunk of time.
Put an end to this confusion.
Well, that adds information I did not know. I guess thats why my fitbit says I burned a whole bunch but it reflects about 200 calories less when it gets to MFP.
I don't have a big chunk of time yet, I just restarted all this about a week and a half ago. But, after I poked around on the fitbit site, I found that it still was set at my old, more aggressive, weight loss goal, and was only giving me about 1340 calories to eat. I switched it to a 1lb a week weight loss, and it readjusted my eatable calories upward. For the past week it says I burned 15,832 calories. Divided by 7 I get an average of 2261 calories burned per day on average. I hope I'm looking at the right stats. I haven't done anything else this week that is outside normal activity with workouts. No gardening or anything like that. Though fitbit gave me step and calorie adds apparently just for walking around the yard, picking up 2 avocados that fell off the tree, then pulling a few weeds from around my pumpkin vines. I think its overgiving and that my fat stomach is causing my heart rate to go up when I bend over to pull weeds, and that, along with the 95 degree weather, is showing as some sort of more intense activity.0 -
You are doing the math right.
You can tell if Fitbit is slipping into workout mode and incorrectly using HR-based calorie burn for daily activities.
You can look at daily graph per 5 & 15 min and see where HR spikes, and matching graph to see if calories spiked too.
Usually Fitbit has to see elevated for 5-10 min to decide you are working out, than it like back-tracks to start of that time to start a workout activity.
Shot's of elevated don't do that, still step based.0 -
You are doing the math right.
You can tell if Fitbit is slipping into workout mode and incorrectly using HR-based calorie burn for daily activities.
You can look at daily graph per 5 & 15 min and see where HR spikes, and matching graph to see if calories spiked too.
Usually Fitbit has to see elevated for 5-10 min to decide you are working out, than it like back-tracks to start of that time to start a workout activity.
Shot's of elevated don't do that, still step based.
"You are doing the math right." is literally something never said to me before in my life, unless its in a surprised tone. :-)
Thanks for your help, I need to explore the desktop version of fitbit more, and disregard things like clapping when it thinks I'm stepping.
1 -
Made me review your math
All good - those weekly emailed reports from Fitbit start to make it easier, if you get them.
Fitbit uses the hang time between steps and the impact of a step, compared to stride length setting and weight to calculate the length of each step. For level walking, up or down inclines messes that up slightly.
From length and time and mass come calories.
So while bogus steps may mess with stats of steps - the distance seen from them are usually so minor, the calories given for them so small, they merely balance out the fact you have no steps when standing or sitting, and are burning more than sleeping BMR rate of calories burned that are assigned to non-step time.
That's why Fitbit when you select Sedentary sets a burn rate barely above BMR to initially calculate a daily burn and give an eating goal, corrected as the day progresses and movement is seen.
Whereas MFP Sedentary is 1.25 x BMR and includes some level of expected movement and being awake and asleep so much, some steps (usually below 4K), and other things.1 -
How much water are you drinking? I only ask as I do IF (intermittent fasting) and eat twice a day in my 8 hour window and occasionally a snack in there as well and I dont ever feel hungry. With that said I drink a ton of water 6-8 32oz bottles throughout the day. I also eat high fat/low carb/no sugar, so I am not sure if its the fat/protein or the amount of water I drink daily that keeps me feeling full throughout the day. I don't focus on a calorie goal as much as I do a macro goal. Avocados, nuts, eggs, celery w/cream cheese or almond butter travel easy. I personally, would rather eat my food than drink it. (unless its titos and seltzer that is)
its more of a mind over matter thing for me, but everyone is different and you need to find what works for you as what works for some may not work for others. I too am up and out the door at 630am (not as early as you) and home around 630pm (9pm on football nights) My feeding window as they say is 12pm-8pm. I do plan/prep my food the night before so that I am prepared for the day. I also have a small cooler that I pack so that when I am out on the road, training session or football game/practice, I have healthier options available. I am no expert and won't pretend I know the formulas or the TDEE BMR stuff. I am just a girl who was pushing 265lbs and decided to make a change to my lifestyle. I have tried a few things along my weight loss journey which aided in my weight loss but finally found a way of eating that makes me feel energized, has eliminated years of unexplained inflammation and joint pain and insomnia. The 60+lbs gone is just a bonus at this point. Still have 30lbs to lose but slow and steady it will come off 
Find what works for you, change up your eating habit a little and see what helps to satisfy you. It took me a while to figure out the difference between actual hunger and just being thirsty, bored, sad, happy, depressed, stress... I am an emotional eater, hunger was never the reason I ate (even thought I swore it was) it was always an emotion that triggered my need to eat. Good luck to you, stay strong, you can do this!!! 0 -
HeyBales and PAV have already delved into the details of your numbers and how FitBit works but I’m just chiming in to say that my vote is for trusting your FitBit and MFP to work together to provide you a reasonable calorie adjustment based on your total activity that you should attempt to follow, combined with accurate logging of calories in and tracking of actual results for a period of several weeks.
That addresses the “long day” anomalies as FitBit is on you at all times and registers that you are awake longer, more active (although maybe not if your work training has you sitting when you’re normally on the go), etc. it requires some implicit trust as you’ll likely never get the numbers to match each other and your expectation and you’ll drive yourself crazy if you attempt to (heybales and PAV being the exceptions to that statement!) but I and many others have calmed our analysis paralysis (and achieved good results!) by trusting, tracking, eating, monitoring and adjusting.4 -
WinoGelato wrote: »HeyBales and PAV have already delved into the details of your numbers and how FitBit works but I’m just chiming in to say that my vote is for trusting your FitBit and MFP to work together to provide you a reasonable calorie adjustment based on your total activity that you should attempt to follow, combined with accurate logging of calories in and tracking of actual results for a period of several weeks.
That addresses the “long day” anomalies as FitBit is on you at all times and registers that you are awake longer, more active (although maybe not if your work training has you sitting when you’re normally on the go), etc. it requires some implicit trust as you’ll likely never get the numbers to match each other and your expectation and you’ll drive yourself crazy if you attempt to (heybales and PAV being the exceptions to that statement!) but I and many others have calmed our analysis paralysis (and achieved good results!) by trusting, tracking, eating, monitoring and adjusting.
You are right. I definitely wasn't trusting the Fitbit enough. I figured out how to change my calorie goal on MFP to 1700 which more closely matchs the calories Fitbit is giving me at the start of the day. I've also begun wearing it more with GPS and Bluetooth on. I assume so it can figure out my stride better as well as catch my heart rate so it will learn better
I did already switch to weighing 85% of food by the gram. Instead of by the ounce or by volume. And I'm paying close attention to macros.
Yesterday was bike/cardio day. I'm up to my old 12 miles in about an hour and 20 minutes. Slower then my old hour and 10 but keeping an eye on the heart rate and not wanting to hurt my hamstrings again. We ate late last night but I had a big steak, small potato with butter and a big helping of broccoli. Since I went to bed a couple of hours later I didn't get hungry enough to need more calories before bed. So I have a few extra to use today if needed for recovery. Plus Friday is food truck night so having a few spare calories banked is a good thing.
I did finally hit a weight benchmark for me though. Getting past the newbie workout gains/water retention extra weight on the scale. I wear two rings that let me know I'm retaining water! They are as tight as ever today, the say after a workout, but my weight is finally under 180. Just barely 179.8 but I'll take it since I've been closer to 182 the day after a workout, while my body adjusts to exercise again. Theoretically, tomorrow, as the water retention subsides, I might see a solid 178 or less, my last lowest weigh in was 178.6 . So I do appear to be on the right track.
😁😁😁😀😀😀😎😎😎3 -
Good attitude.
I wouldn't worry having GPS on constantly though, just a battery drain. It still uses stride length setting with measured impact to calculate a more accurate distance. GPS can be 3m off at best, many times worse, and that's for straight line movement.
I hope none start doing auto-stride length setting.
But HR historical is useful for it.
Is Fitbit giving initial eating goal using Sedentary or Historical setting?
Nice way of telling if water retained to keep a sound mind on what's going on.
0 -
Good attitude.
I wouldn't worry having GPS on constantly though, just a battery drain. It still uses stride length setting with measured impact to calculate a more accurate distance. GPS can be 3m off at best, many times worse, and that's for straight line movement.
I hope none start doing auto-stride length setting.
But HR historical is useful for it.
Is Fitbit giving initial eating goal using Sedentary or Historical setting?
Nice way of telling if water retained to keep a sound mind on what's going on.
It just took me forever to find that setting on fitbit.com. It's set at Personalized (historical), not sedentary.0
This discussion has been closed.
Categories
- All Categories
- 1.4M Health, Wellness and Goals
- 393.6K Introduce Yourself
- 43.8K Getting Started
- 260.3K Health and Weight Loss
- 176K Food and Nutrition
- 47.5K Recipes
- 232.6K Fitness and Exercise
- 431 Sleep, Mindfulness and Overall Wellness
- 6.5K Goal: Maintaining Weight
- 8.6K Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
- 153K Motivation and Support
- 8K Challenges
- 1.3K Debate Club
- 96.3K Chit-Chat
- 2.5K Fun and Games
- 3.8K MyFitnessPal Information
- 24 News and Announcements
- 1.1K Feature Suggestions and Ideas
- 2.6K MyFitnessPal Tech Support Questions