What's your daily goal?
jjlewey
Posts: 248 Member
Being new to the whole forum thing here, maybe this was posted somewhere else or maybe this is a taboo subject. If so just point me to the existing thread please.
What are your daily goals? At the moment I focus mainly on calories. My daily goal is somewhere between 2000-2500 calories. I also have a fitbit and my set goal is 12k steps. For weight loss the goal in my head is about 5 pounds a week. I am not positive that these goals are realistic or even jive together. Which leads me to another question, where do you guys go for information/research?
I understand that to lose weight you need a calorie deficit, and approximately 3500 calories is 1 pound. I am a little less clear when you get into basal metabolic rates and actual calorie needs. I read an online article one time that said 12-15 calories per pound were needed for maintenance. That's kinda how I came up with a 2500 calorie goal.
What are your daily goals? At the moment I focus mainly on calories. My daily goal is somewhere between 2000-2500 calories. I also have a fitbit and my set goal is 12k steps. For weight loss the goal in my head is about 5 pounds a week. I am not positive that these goals are realistic or even jive together. Which leads me to another question, where do you guys go for information/research?
I understand that to lose weight you need a calorie deficit, and approximately 3500 calories is 1 pound. I am a little less clear when you get into basal metabolic rates and actual calorie needs. I read an online article one time that said 12-15 calories per pound were needed for maintenance. That's kinda how I came up with a 2500 calorie goal.
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Maintenance is the number of calories you would eat with the target of neither gaining or losing weight. I eat a little under my calorie goal for 6 days to bank enough calories so that I can eat more on Sunday. I have done this for 17 months with results consistent to being in a normal 7 day deficit.
My first calorie goal was chosen by calculating my TDEE (https://www.sailrabbit.com/bmr/) for the top of my goal range. I started really heavy so I was losing about 4 pounds a week to for my first 2 months. After that I started feeling it was too aggressive so I added 250 calories per day to slow to 3.5 and stayed there for quite some time.
These days (when I am not preparing for surgery) I shoot for a 1200 calorie deficit which means for 6 days I eat a 1400 calorie deficit. I am about 10 pounds from adjusting that down to a straight 1000 calorie deficit which means for 6 days I will eat a 1167 calorie deficit.
I have been happy enough with my eating that I feel like I have made the right decisions so far. If I were unhappy I would have needed to eat more calories and just lose slower. I have always wanted to stay below the 1 percent rule to make sure I would preserve as much muscle as possible.1 -
Good thread idea. I am going to delete my other reply in the day sharing thread.0
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So for this discussion I guess we need to go over some of the basics.
The 1 percent rule states that you should only try to lose 1 percent of your total body weight each week. Trying to lose more than this could result in muscle loss, fatigue, or malnutrition.
MFP caps the amount of weight to lose each week at 2 pounds per week which creates a 1000 calorie per day deficit. This results in 7000 calories per week and 2 pounds at 3500 calories each.
As Larger Losers it can be healthy depending on stats to lose faster than 2 pounds per week but it is a decision that needs to be made carefully because sustainability is more important than rapid losses.
ETA: As a person gets closer to goal the 1 percent rule doesn't apply as much because their fat stores are less.0 -
This chart is often posted at MFP. It is a good starting place for most people.
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tinkerbellang83 wrote: »
So if I am understanding you correct, you want your net to be -2050. I see the net calculation on mfp homescreen but never paid attention to it. Looking back at it I am usually over 2k in the negative. Interesting, maybe I need to try to use more of the mfp features, maybe even upgrade to premium? Does anyone else use the premium features, are they worth it?0 -
tinkerbellang83 wrote: »
So if I am understanding you correct, you want your net to be -2050. I see the net calculation on mfp homescreen but never paid attention to it. Looking back at it I am usually over 2k in the negative. Interesting, maybe I need to try to use more of the mfp features, maybe even upgrade to premium? Does anyone else use the premium features, are they worth it?
Unless you have specific nutritional goals it's not really worth paying for premium there are lots of workarounds for getting benefits of premium without the price.
You should be aiming to be as close to zero as possible unless you suspect your exercise burns are severely overestimated. Also make sure you have the correct activity level set.
A good starting point is 1-2lb loss per week, correct activity level and eating back 50% of your exercise calories and adjusting after 4-6 weeks based on your actual rate of loss.0 -
tinkerbellang83 wrote: »
So if I am understanding you correct, you want your net to be -2050. I see the net calculation on mfp homescreen but never paid attention to it. Looking back at it I am usually over 2k in the negative. Interesting, maybe I need to try to use more of the mfp features, maybe even upgrade to premium? Does anyone else use the premium features, are they worth it?
Net calories is your calorie goal before adding exercise. If you select to "lose x pounds per week" the net calorie goal will include the correct amount of deficit calories. So if you were trying to lose 2 pounds a week your daily calorie goal is 1000 less than your maintenance calories. The goal for most people would be to eat all of the net calories and then depending on the reliability of the exercise number a portion of those calories too.
You can select to lose weight faster and set a different goal for yourself if you can handle it and it falls within the 1 percent rule. Taking a look at your diary you have an incredible number of exercise calories that I suspect are inflated. Are you exercising outside of the your step goal?
I am a premium user. I am not sure I get much benefit out of it other than setting a different calorie goal for Sunday when I eat more food. I do not like not having ads too.0 -
I walk alot at work, like I said before most days I am in between 10k and 12k steps without exercising outside of work. My Fitbit is the only thing currently paired with MFP. For settings I selected lightly active. It may be inflated I am not sure how, why, or if it is. I dont know enough about how mfp calculates that number.0
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I walk alot at work, like I said before most days I am in between 10k and 12k steps without exercising outside of work. My Fitbit is the only thing currently paired with MFP. For settings I selected lightly active. It may be inflated I am not sure how, why, or if it is. I dont know enough about how mfp calculates that number.
This is an area I am pretty weak on because I have only owned an Apple watch for a few months. Before then my exercise was so little it wasn't worth recording. But for comparison I had 11,500 steps on Saturday and my paired adjustment was only 339 calories. My current MFP setting is sedentary. I think mine is in the ballpark of being right. My weight loss accelerated a couple of months ago by about 200 calories per day and that is about what my steps calories normally are. I am stuck in a water weight fluctuation at the moment so I am waiting on clean numbers to see where I am now. From what I gather most men can get a fairly clean rate of loss over 3 weeks but because I can retain water abnormally mine typically takes as long as a woman which is 6 weeks.
From what I have read at MFP there is possibility that a higher heart rate can inflate the exercise number but I am unsure how that works or how to account for it if it is happening.
I am pretty good at weight loss math so if you want when you have about a month of weights I can help you determine what your average daily calorie deficit is. I think it is helpful to have actual numbers instead of estimates.0 -
I walk alot at work, like I said before most days I am in between 10k and 12k steps without exercising outside of work. My Fitbit is the only thing currently paired with MFP. For settings I selected lightly active. It may be inflated I am not sure how, why, or if it is. I dont know enough about how mfp calculates that number.
If you're walking more than 10000 steps, you're not lightly active you're Very Active, that's probably why you're getting such a huge adjustment.
MFP uses the activity level you choose to select a multiplying factor for your BMR (BMR is how much energy you'd need if you were at rest for basic body functions).
Sedentary (approx 3000 steps and under ) is BMR x 1.25
Lightly Active (approx 5000-7000 steps) BMR x 1.4
Active (approx 8000-10000 steps) BMR x 1.6
Very Active (approx 10000 steps and over) BMR x 1.75
The adjustment you get from Fitbit is the difference between your predicted burn from MFP (BMR x 1.4) and what your Fitbit thinks is your burn for the day which is usually based on steps, heart rate and any activities you've recorded.
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Thanks for the Mildred image! I changed my setting to very active. It upped my calorie goal alot? From 3000 before to 4100 now? It just seems counterintuitive to eat that much. In fact if eating healthy stuff I am not sure I could eat that much.0
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Thanks for the Mildred image! I changed my setting to very active. It upped my calorie goal alot? From 3000 before to 4100 now? It just seems counterintuitive to eat that much. In fact if eating healthy stuff I am not sure I could eat that much.
Do you have it set to lose 2 pounds a week?1 -
Yes, that is the highest per week it can be set at.0
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Thanks for the Mildred image! I changed my setting to very active. It upped my calorie goal alot? From 3000 before to 4100 now? It just seems counterintuitive to eat that much. In fact if eating healthy stuff I am not sure I could eat that much.
What are your stats (Height/Weight/Age)?
I'd say lose the mentality of healthy stuff, healthy stuff doesn't have to be low calorie, there are plenty of foods that are higher in calorie but still high in nutrients, also once you've gotten the nutrients you need, you don't get extra points for eating more of them.
I can quite easily eat over 3000 calories per day as a 5'7" 240lb female and still lose weight.
Take yesterday for instance, my Garmin is pretty accurate for calorie burns - I burned 3300 calories roughly and ate 3100.
That was basically:
Overnight Oats for breakfast
Tuna Salad Sandwiches, Chocolate bar & a small bottle of Dr Pepper for lunch
Aubergine (Egg Plant), Garlic & Onion Mayo Dip on Toast and Baked Chicken Wings for dinner
Fruit & Nut bars for snacks
I exceeded my fat and protein minimums, got plenty of fibre and a good amount of nutrients.
If I wanted to up the calories, I could have added a glass of juice to breakfast, added some seeds or nuts to my overnight oats and used whole milk instead of oat milk, I could have used normal mayo instead of light for my Tuna Sandwiches and I could have added some butter to my toast.
That would have got me up to about 3600.
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Yes, that is the highest per week it can be set at.
You can lose faster at your present weight if you are comfortable doing it. At your weight I was still losing 3.5 pounds per week to keep myself just below the 1 percent rule. It really depends on how happy you can keep yourself because sustainability is more important than speed.
The best way to see if the calculation is right for you is to get your own numbers which we can help you do. It just takes about a month to get enough of a trend. You can continue doing what you are doing until then.
I would suggest that you use a food scale if you are not already and read this thread to check your logging habits:
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1234699/logging-accurately-step-by-step-guide/p1
The more accurately you log your food the more you can trust your numbers. It will help because your calories and deficit will shrink as you do.
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I am male, 6ft3in, 418 pounds today, 42 years old. When I say unhealthy food, basically I mean pizza, fast food, and soda. Junk food type stuff. For me eating healthier means cooking/preparing the food myself for the most part. Eating stuff like cliff bars and yogurt instead of cookies. Obviously I can eat alot if I weigh over 400 pounds, but that was eating alot of junk food and drinking alot of calories.0
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I am male, 6ft3in, 418 pounds today, 42 years old. When I say unhealthy food, basically I mean pizza, fast food, and soda. Junk food type stuff. For me eating healthier means cooking/preparing the food myself for the most part. Eating stuff like cliff bars and yogurt instead of cookies. Obviously I can eat alot if I weigh over 400 pounds, but that was eating alot of junk food and drinking alot of calories.
Yes you certainly will lose weight eating more, your BMR is 2854 based on your stats. As @NovusDies says because you're a lot higher start weight than most you can likely lose a little more than the recommended 2lbs per week without too much risk to your health.
Perhaps disconnect your Fitbit and use the TDEE method instead (set yourself a manual goal), we know that your TDEE is around 5100 calorie per day, 3 pounds per week would be a deficit of 1500 calories so you could set yourself to 3600 calories manually and wouldn't struggle to eat that if you include some higher calorie items (healthy fats, etc).1 -
One of the reasons why I wanted to start this group was to help people who wanted to lose at over 2 pounds per week discuss how that works safely and whether or not it was a good choice for them. I feel weird discussing it in the main forums because there are so many people coming through there who either want to be too aggressive and they miss the sustainability part or even worse people with eating disorders.
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Yes, that is the highest per week it can be set at.
You can lose faster at your present weight if you are comfortable doing it. At your weight I was still losing 3.5 pounds per week to keep myself just below the 1 percent rule. It really depends on how happy you can keep yourself because sustainability is more important than speed.
The best way to see if the calculation is right for you is to get your own numbers which we can help you do. It just takes about a month to get enough of a trend. You can continue doing what you are doing until then.
I would suggest that you use a food scale if you are not already and read this thread to check your logging habits:
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1234699/logging-accurately-step-by-step-guide/p1
The more accurately you log your food the more you can trust your numbers. It will help because your calories and deficit will shrink as you do.
Good post about logging accurately, I do try to be accurate, I have a scale, I scan everything that can be with the bar code tool. When I log stuff I look for the little green check on the entry (not even sure what that means but it looked positive). If I cant be 100% positive about what I am logging I try to make sure to overestimate rather than underestimate. I wouldnt say I am 100% accurate when I log, but I would say it is north of 90% for sure. Yes, I even add things like cooking oil to try and be accurate.0 -
Yes, that is the highest per week it can be set at.
You can lose faster at your present weight if you are comfortable doing it. At your weight I was still losing 3.5 pounds per week to keep myself just below the 1 percent rule. It really depends on how happy you can keep yourself because sustainability is more important than speed.
The best way to see if the calculation is right for you is to get your own numbers which we can help you do. It just takes about a month to get enough of a trend. You can continue doing what you are doing until then.
I would suggest that you use a food scale if you are not already and read this thread to check your logging habits:
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1234699/logging-accurately-step-by-step-guide/p1
The more accurately you log your food the more you can trust your numbers. It will help because your calories and deficit will shrink as you do.
Good post about logging accurately, I do try to be accurate, I have a scale, I scan everything that can be with the bar code tool. When I log stuff I look for the little green check on the entry (not even sure what that means but it looked positive). If I cant be 100% positive about what I am logging I try to make sure to overestimate rather than underestimate. I wouldnt say I am 100% accurate when I log, but I would say it is north of 90% for sure. Yes, I even add things like cooking oil to try and be accurate.
Sounds like what I do. I do verify the bar code scans with the packaging and I do weigh the item to make sure it matches the packaging too (it often does not). I am not overly anal about logging because it is not time for that yet. I do practice strict logging on occasion for a week because I know at some point when I get much closer to goal I will have to do it all the time. It also helps me tighten up errors or oversights in my normal daily routine.
The higher the calorie or the more often I eat something the more careful I am. Even though fish and seafood is fairly low calorie I eat it all the time. Since it is almost always 20 percent higher than the packaging it would have a big impact on my week. A "pound" of squid yesterday weighed in at 545 grams.
I don't trust restaurant calorie estimates so I almost always enter 1.1 or 1.2 servings. Maybe I am more anal than I realize lol.
My weight loss is always ahead of my deficit by a small amount so either I log higher than needed by 100ish calories per day, my activity is slightly higher than I think, or a little of both. I would rather run slightly hot than cold though as you can imagine.
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