What now?

SharonSA63

Hi everyone,

I have been throwing this dilemma around in my head for a few hours now. Thinking I am going to look like a total idiot. asking the question I need to ask.
Firstly let me explain, I am from a huge family. 6 blood siblings, and 6 step siblings. There was never a thing of counting calories etc etc....
We weren't the richest of people in fact we battled more than I care to remember. The point I am trying to make is... We ate what was on our plate, end of story.
When I moved away from home, got married had my own family, there was no calorie counter etc, we lived a good life.
Hence the weight gain, and it is huge now.
So now I am 56, and feel I need to stop this in my life.
Good job, I started gym, doing the best I can. No one really showing me what to do, and I thought OMG they thinking 'she isn't going to last here' I have been going to gym since the 22 January 2019. Every week Monday to Friday.
I get weighed and my body measurements are taken. I have not lost one 1kg yet, but have come down loads of cm.
I get told watch your calories, huh... my what... lol
So I started reading more about this, I am still clueless. So I joined here.
I started logging my meals, and then learnt to add in the exercise I do.
What I am not getting with exercise all of a sudden says *You've earned 1,557 extra calories from exercise today
My diary is open to friends, so if anyone can guide me would be great thanks.


What am I suppose to do now, I am lost and feel like an idiot not understanding what to do.
Any help would be appreciated please.

quiksylver296

MFP is set up for you to eat back (some of) your exercise calories. I highly doubt you are burning 1500 calories per day in exercise, though. That's a crazy amount.

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants/p1

TavistockToad

SharonSA63 wrote: »

Hi everyone,

I have been throwing this dilemma around in my head for a few hours now. Thinking I am going to look like a total idiot. asking the question I need to ask.
Firstly let me explain, I am from a huge family. 6 blood siblings, and 6 step siblings. There was never a thing of counting calories etc etc....
We weren't the richest of people in fact we battled more than I care to remember. The point I am trying to make is... We ate what was on our plate, end of story.
When I moved away from home, got married had my own family, there was no calorie counter etc, we lived a good life.
Hence the weight gain, and it is huge now.
So now I am 56, and feel I need to stop this in my life.
Good job, I started gym, doing the best I can. No one really showing me what to do, and I thought OMG they thinking 'she isn't going to last here' I have been going to gym since the 22 January 2019. Every week Monday to Friday.
I get weighed and my body measurements are taken. I have not lost one 1kg yet, but have come down loads of cm.
I get told watch your calories, huh... my what... lol
So I started reading more about this, I am still clueless. So I joined here.
I started logging my meals, and then learnt to add in the exercise I do.
What I am not getting with exercise all of a sudden says *You've earned 1,557 extra calories from exercise today
My diary is open to friends, so if anyone can guide me would be great thanks.


What am I suppose to do now, I am lost and feel like an idiot not understanding what to do.
Any help would be appreciated please.

Do you have a fitness tracker synced or did you add some exercise manually?

garystrickland357

Congratulations on your decision to change your situation. Your question is a good one to ask.

You enter your information into MFP and it will generate a calorie suggestion that will allow you to lose weight according to the goal you selected. MFP uses a NEAT calculator. All that means is that the calories it tells you to eat are what you need if you lay on the couch like a slug, lol. Any exercise calories burned are not included. That means if you burned 300 calories in intentional exercise, then you need to eat back those 300 calories. Don't allow this to be over complicated.

Now here's the problem we all have: It takes a while to learn how to log food accurately. We all *think* we do - but very often we under report our food intake. To make matters worse, it is exceedingly easy to over estimate your calorie burn by exercise. For example, you may well have burned 1557 calories in the gym, but I'm skeptical if you are new to exercise. I recently ran a 1/2 marathon and burned fewer calories than that...

The point is that you lose weight by being in a calorie deficit - you have to eat less than you burn. If the calories you eat and burn are not logged accurately it's difficult to know what's happening. Ultimately if after several weeks you are not losing - it means you are not in a deficit and need to eat a bit less. It's that simple. Don't look for internet woo and bro science to explain how you are magically different than everyone else and need to follow plan X...

Hang out here and ask your questions. There are many folks here who have successfully lost weight and kept it off. They will help you gladly.

SharonSA63

Thank you for the awesome feedback.
First answer I do have a fit-bit, I get just under 10 000 steps in a day, it has become my mission.
Thanks Gary, I will keep this in mind. I think once I have mastered the art of adding in exercise I might be more accurate.
I appreciate you saying eat a little less, some nights I feel so full and uncomfortable.
Today I got a scale so maybe measuring everything will be helpful as well.
Thanks again

angelsja

SharonSA63 wrote: »

Thank you for the awesome feedback.
First answer I do have a fit-bit, I get just under 10 000 steps in a day, it has become my mission.
Thanks Gary, I will keep this in mind. I think once I have mastered the art of adding in exercise I might be more accurate.
I appreciate you saying eat a little less, some nights I feel so full and uncomfortable.
Today I got a scale so maybe measuring everything will be helpful as well.
Thanks again

Is your Fitbit synced with mfp? If it is you don't need to manually add any exercise

SharonSA63

Angelsja, I am not sure how to link the two... lol

angelsja

3 lines at the top, apps and devices find Fitbit click link and that should take you to Fitbit page where it asks for permissions select all and that should do it. Sometimes there are syncing issues though but when they work together they work well if your entering the calories Fitbit gives you on the exercise part of your app I'm afraid your doing it wrong as that number isn't what you burned just doing that exercise it's what you burned being alive (BMR for that time) + what you burned exercising. Once they are synced you will see a + calorie adjustment this is this difference between what mfp thought you would burn at that point in time and what Fitbit is telling mfp you burned, if you then sit for the rest of the day your adjustment goes down

Machka9

quiksylver296 wrote: »

MFP is set up for you to eat back (some of) your exercise calories. I highly doubt you are burning 1500 calories per day in exercise, though. That's a crazy amount.

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants/p1

SharonSA63 wrote: »

Thank you for the awesome feedback.
First answer I do have a fit-bit, I get just under 10 000 steps in a day, it has become my mission.
Thanks Gary, I will keep this in mind. I think once I have mastered the art of adding in exercise I might be more accurate.
I appreciate you saying eat a little less, some nights I feel so full and uncomfortable.
Today I got a scale so maybe measuring everything will be helpful as well.
Thanks again

Yes, 1500 calories per day in exercise would be like about 7 hours of walking or about 4 hours of cycling ... not 10,000 steps.

What are you typing in when you log your exercise in order to get that many calories?