Am I getting enough calories?

JamiBoo78

Hi all. I have done weight watchers for a couple of years and my weight has been a yo-yo.
I am trying out MFP for a bit to se if there is a difference. I have researched a little and figured out that on WW I was only getting 1200-1450 calories. I was not eating my weekly or fitness points. When I put my info into MFP it says I should be eating 2060 calories a day. I am 6 ft, currently 181, but want to be 170, and I work out 1.5 hours 4 days a week and roughly 30- 45 minutes 2 days week.
I only want to lose 1 pound a week. I don’t think I eat enough protein so I’m adjusting that. Do I eat my workout points?? Please help!

RelCanonical

Yes, eat your exercise calories back. Sometimes the calories burned through exercise are overestimated, so evaluate after a couple weeks, and if you’re not losing at the rate you want, eat less exercise calories back. For your stats, the MFP calories seem more appropriate. 1,200 to 1,450 is what I eat to lose as a pretty sedentary, 5’1’’, 125lb woman, so for your height and weight, you will need more to fuel your day.

AnnPT77

Yes, if MFP calculated your calorie goal, and you told it you wanted to lose a pound a week, it has figured that into your base 2060 calories. (It thinks your maintenance calories without exercise would be 2560, in that scenario.) In other words, it's included a 500 calorie deficit in the calculation of the base.

So, when you do exercise, you burn X number of calories, eat X calories more, and the arithmetic works out to keep you at that same 500 calorie deficit for one pound a week loss.

Some people worry that the exercise is overestimated, so they start by eating back only a portion of those calories.

Either way, the best approach is to test-drive the calorie goal (with whatever fraction of exercise calories you decide to eat back) for 4-6 weeks, and see if your weight loss is the sensibly moderate rate you're trying for. If it isn't, you adjust calorie goal based on that personal experience. If you're premenopausal, it's good to compare weights at the same point in two or more different menstrual cycles, because hormone levels can lead to significant water weight changes that affect scale weight (but not body fat) at certain times during the month.

JamiBoo78

I’m so frustrated. I have stayed within my calories this week, am consistently working out and I’m up 3.6 pounds this week. I’m over this BS.

janejellyroll

JamiBoo78 wrote: »

I’m so frustrated. I have stayed within my calories this week, am consistently working out and I’m up 3.6 pounds this week. I’m over this BS.

If I understand correctly, you were probably undereating and now you're eating a more reasonable goal? Some people find that when they first increase their calories, they see a slight temporary weight gain. One, there's more food in your system. And two, when most people eat more, they increase carbohydrates and that can also result in additional water weight.

It also sounds like you're working out. Depending on how new and intense your exercise routine is, that could also account for some of the weight.

What didn't happen is that you gained 3.6 pounds of fat by following that calorie goal for a week. I know it's hard to see an increase on the scale, but there are going to be weeks where it happens, even if you do everything right.

cmriverside

Stay the course.

I think 2000 + a reasonable number for exercise (so, say, like an additional 300-400 calories per hour of moderate exercise on days you exercise) seems like a very good number.

You don't have much to lose. You cannot afford to continue to under-eat like you've been doing on WW. It will work against you in so many ways. You need a small sensible deficit right now.

I'm 5'8"ish and I lost that last 15 pounds over a period of nine months at 1800-2200, and I'm a retired older woman and the only exercise I do is walking the hills around my neighborhood. Stay the course, it's slow going at the end - for everyone.

How have you been feeling at 1400, though? Tired? Anxious? You really do need to eat more. Stay with it for 3-4 weeks, this temporary gain is temporary.

Trust the process. You've nearly cracked it.

NovusDies

JamiBoo78 wrote: »

I’m so frustrated. I have stayed within my calories this week, am consistently working out and I’m up 3.6 pounds this week. I’m over this BS.

Try not to make decisions based on a week of results. You can be losing fat weight while your weight on the bathroom scale goes up or stays the same for a period of time.

Read this:
https://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations/

PAV8888

JamiBoo78 wrote: »

I’m so frustrated. I have stayed within my calories this week, am consistently working out and I’m up 3.6 pounds this week. I’m over this BS.

So I will ask the same thing I've asked some of my friends before.

You're over this BS. Excellent.

So what's the plan now?

If you think that eating 2000 calories is too difficult and makes you gain weight... what are the options?

You can eat more than 2000 Calories, but if 2000 make you gain weight, what will more do?

You can go back to eating less calories, but if 2,000 calories is already too difficult for you to continue eating at this level long term (and presumably 1400 was not sustainable because you were already not feeling well doing it) it leaves you having to do something that is more difficult than what you've already pronounced difficult, and presumably will also not be sustainable.

Concentrate on finding something that's sustainable.

Time is a variable you control. Rate is a variable you control.

Being able to come up with a plan that will someday get your there beats a plan that will never get you there because you gave up.

Was the 2000 difficult, or was not seeing a drop in weight what was difficult?

BTW and just to be sure: you are weighing and counting everything, right? Nothing remains unlogged on mfp, even ww free foods get logged and counted. Heck even gum and vitamins.

JamiBoo78

Thanks for all the replies.
I’m frustrated that I’m logging my food, staying in my perimeters, working out and I’m not seeing the loss. I’m up and down from one week to the next. The older k get the worse it gets plus I’m dealing with menopause. Nothing works like it used to in terms of getting the weight off.
Doing nothing is not an option. Eating less calories just results in me being more hungry and making bad decisions. I don’t think that eating this amount of calories is too much I just want someone to tell me what to eat and how much, lol!
I retain water and I don’t know how to get past that.
I’m uncomfortable in my clothes and my own skin.

PAV8888

Patience (feel free to slap my mug!!!)

Exploration of long term eating and moving methods within your calories*

Using weight trend over time as opposed to just scale weight.

*Play. Roast some veggies. Make something off the wall yet lower calorie. Do something active that is not necessarily gym related.

Definitely avoid over restricting and then rebounding which I think you hint at. That last one ensures a bad spiral

kshama2001

JamiBoo78 wrote: »

Thanks for all the replies.
I’m frustrated that I’m logging my food, staying in my perimeters, working out and I’m not seeing the loss. I’m up and down from one week to the next. The older k get the worse it gets plus I’m dealing with menopause. Nothing works like it used to in terms of getting the weight off.
Doing nothing is not an option. Eating less calories just results in me being more hungry and making bad decisions. I don’t think that eating this amount of calories is too much I just want someone to tell me what to eat and how much, lol!
I retain water and I don’t know how to get past that.
I’m uncomfortable in my clothes and my own skin.

Are you officially in menopause, i.e., no periods over the last year? If not, you're describing how I used to feel premenstrually (now that I've peri-menopausal my PMS has mostly gone away but I still go up a few pounds, and I also retain water when I ovulate.)

Also, if the working out is new, my scale jumped up 7 pounds when I started lifting weights again.

babyluthi

Get the free Libra or Happy Face app, weigh daily, that way you can see and learn the normal weight fluctuations your body has. Weight loss is not linear. So long as you end up with a downward trend you will be on the right track. Trust the process as others have said. Also consider using a tape measure. I hope this helps:)

vampirequeen1959

Are you drinking enough fluids? Sometimes the brain tells us we're hungry when we're actually thirsty.

PAV8888

What is your activity level in general and how "accurately" do you weight/measure your food, log and keep track of Calories in?

I just popped your stats in a couple of calculators and you're looking to be at the top end; but definitely within the normal weight range. Thus your expectation of weight loss should be fairly slow (as in, realistically in the -250 to -500 range at most)

Also, assuming your exercise is consistent and you don't do much of anything other than what you discuss, you are coming somewhere along an activity factor of 1.6 (maybe a bit less, maybe a bit more). This would put your TDEE in the 2500 to 2600 range, and a maximum 20% cut would have you eating somewhere north of 2K calories, but not much more depending on accuracy of logging.

So all in all the eat somewhat more than 2K accurately counted calories approach really should yield results sooner or later Especially if you look at weight trend over time...