Calories and activity level questions
Usashimi
Posts: 3 Member
So I was hoping someone could give me some advice on this because I am having some trouble figuring out what to choose as my level of activity for MyFitnessPal app to suggest
daily calories for me . I am a 27 year old female. I am 5"2 and weigh 258 lbs. I started at 272 pounds about a month and a half ago. I have a goal weight of 215 lbs , which I will change to a lower one once I reach that goal. Originally I put " lightly active " but I walk between 10,000- and 14,000 steps a day because of my job and going to the gym, so I am thinking I need to change to " active" ? is 10000-14000 steps a day considered active according to myfitnesspal or " lightly active " ? Also, in regards to calories , With " lightly active" it wants me to eat 1590 calories per day, and with "active" 1900 calories per day. I am finding myself feeling hungry all the time at 1590 c/day so I am thinking should I really select active , and eat 1900? On average , according to my Fitbit inspire HR I burn about 3500 calories per day, ranging from 3000, to 3900 depending on how much activity I do that day. My intention is to have a 1000 calorie deficit everyday (apparently that's what I need to lose 2 lbs a week) and I find that I sometimes have a deficit up up to 2000 . I have read that this isn't healthy and may deter my weight loss efforts in the future ? Sorry my post is a little convoluted I am just confused about a few things .
daily calories for me . I am a 27 year old female. I am 5"2 and weigh 258 lbs. I started at 272 pounds about a month and a half ago. I have a goal weight of 215 lbs , which I will change to a lower one once I reach that goal. Originally I put " lightly active " but I walk between 10,000- and 14,000 steps a day because of my job and going to the gym, so I am thinking I need to change to " active" ? is 10000-14000 steps a day considered active according to myfitnesspal or " lightly active " ? Also, in regards to calories , With " lightly active" it wants me to eat 1590 calories per day, and with "active" 1900 calories per day. I am finding myself feeling hungry all the time at 1590 c/day so I am thinking should I really select active , and eat 1900? On average , according to my Fitbit inspire HR I burn about 3500 calories per day, ranging from 3000, to 3900 depending on how much activity I do that day. My intention is to have a 1000 calorie deficit everyday (apparently that's what I need to lose 2 lbs a week) and I find that I sometimes have a deficit up up to 2000 . I have read that this isn't healthy and may deter my weight loss efforts in the future ? Sorry my post is a little convoluted I am just confused about a few things .
5
Replies
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That many steps would be considered active and I agree that 1590 calories is too few for you at this point.5
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Active, definitely. Do you have your Fitbit synced to MFP? I've found my Fitbit to be highly accurate for me, so I eat all the additional calories it sends over to MFP. Others have found theirs not so accurate. So you may want to aim for eating 75% of your additional calories initially, then reviewing in 4-6 weeks - if you're losing more than 2 lb per week averaged over that time period, increase your calorie intake. If you're losing less, decrease.7
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On the metabolism front:
Short term high deficit days are not really a concern other than creating fatigue and misery. A longer term aggressive deficit can have a very negative impact on your health well beyond potentially affecting future weight loss efforts.7 -
Nony_Mouse wrote: »Active, definitely. Do you have your Fitbit synced to MFP? I've found my Fitbit to be highly accurate for me, so I eat all the additional calories it sends over to MFP. Others have found theirs not so accurate. So you may want to aim for eating 75% of your additional calories initially, then reviewing in 4-6 weeks - if you're losing more than 2 lb per week averaged over that time period, increase your calorie intake. If you're losing less, decrease.
Yes my Fitbit is synced to MFP but I actually don't eat any additional calories ever. I tend to go over my calories by about 200 frequently just due to hunger, but I set my fitness pal settings not to increase my calorie allowance. So I don't eat anymore if I burn more. But I am burning an average of 3500 calories per day even if I am not working out, so 1590 feels like too little. I have lost 14 lbs since the first week of January so that's like 3 lbs a week I believe. I am not in a rush, I just want to lose 2 lbs a week and have energy.0 -
Nony_Mouse wrote: »Active, definitely. Do you have your Fitbit synced to MFP? I've found my Fitbit to be highly accurate for me, so I eat all the additional calories it sends over to MFP. Others have found theirs not so accurate. So you may want to aim for eating 75% of your additional calories initially, then reviewing in 4-6 weeks - if you're losing more than 2 lb per week averaged over that time period, increase your calorie intake. If you're losing less, decrease.
Yes my Fitbit is synced to MFP but I actually don't eat any additional calories ever. I tend to go over my calories by about 200 frequently just due to hunger, but I set my fitness pal settings not to increase my calorie allowance. So I don't eat anymore if I burn more. But I am burning an average of 3500 calories per day even if I am not working out, so 1590 feels like too little. I have lost 14 lbs since the first week of January so that's like 3 lbs a week I believe. I am not in a rush, I just want to lose 2 lbs a week and have energy.
MFP is designed so that you eat exercise calories on top of your baseline calories. That's why you're hungry. If you're averaging 3 lb per week, increase your calories by 500 per day. See how that goes. If still losing more than 2 lb per week, increase further.9 -
Nony_Mouse wrote: »Nony_Mouse wrote: »Active, definitely. Do you have your Fitbit synced to MFP? I've found my Fitbit to be highly accurate for me, so I eat all the additional calories it sends over to MFP. Others have found theirs not so accurate. So you may want to aim for eating 75% of your additional calories initially, then reviewing in 4-6 weeks - if you're losing more than 2 lb per week averaged over that time period, increase your calorie intake. If you're losing less, decrease.
Yes my Fitbit is synced to MFP but I actually don't eat any additional calories ever. I tend to go over my calories by about 200 frequently just due to hunger, but I set my fitness pal settings not to increase my calorie allowance. So I don't eat anymore if I burn more. But I am burning an average of 3500 calories per day even if I am not working out, so 1590 feels like too little. I have lost 14 lbs since the first week of January so that's like 3 lbs a week I believe. I am not in a rush, I just want to lose 2 lbs a week and have energy.
MFP is designed so that you eat exercise calories on top of your baseline calories. That's why you're hungry. If you're averaging 3 lb per week, increase your calories by 500 per day. See how that goes. If still losing more than 2 lb per week, increase further.
Ok that makes sense, thanks.0 -
I am in the odd camp of 'I have everything synched to MFP, so I put myself as sedentary and let my devices do my thinking.'
I have a pedometer synched to MFP (but I don't walk enough to really amount to much - my job involves pushing around paperwork), and all of my workouts get logged into Strava (even my Zwift activities port into Strava, just so they can port over here) so those calories as calculated by Strava appear in MFP. Then I have a merry time eating until I don't want to eat anymore, just taking care to not go over my new allowance. So on those days where I put in a solid hour long bike ride blasting up mountains at ridiculous speeds and burn an additional 700 calories, I merrily munch without thought because I've yet to have enough hunger to go over the 2100 calories I'm allotted for the day.
But hey, whatever floats your boat.
If you don't have as much crap synched to MFP as I do, it's probably best to set yourself as 'active' with the number of steps you do, especially if you're a gym rat who doesn't put your workouts into an activity-tracking program. 1 -
Disagree with Nony only in that I would increase even more.
Fitbit is viewing you closer to very active and your steps are in the upper range of active to smack dab in the middle of very active.
There is no real reason to doubt your Fitbit adjustments at this point and you can run a manual double check to get an indication if you want to.
In any case, you won't win a prize by making yourself miserable to lose faster even than your intended target!
Your target is plenty fast enough to get you where you need to be.
And based on your results you can easily eat in the 2000+ range right now and still get the reasonable results you want.
You said that you exceed your target currently and are still losing at 3 pounds. Which is above 1% of your body weight a week, so extremely agressive as compared to 0.5 to 1% of your body weight a week (or even 0.25% when normal weight)
Which means that you can add easily 500 Cal to what you've been eating (not your initial target, but the actual higher amount you've been consuming to date) and still hit your goal of 2 lbs.4 -
Sanity check on weight loss using Fitbit MFP and trendweight with integration enabled and every day logged as fully as possible on MFP (even if some are estimated, a consistent estimate is better than nothing)
Connect trendweight to Fitbit.
Enter scale weight on fitbit.
MFP and trendweight will pull the info from there.
You can choose to enable or disable the wall post about losing the same couple of pounds on MFP and make it manually (or temporarily enable it) whenever there is a new low you want to advertise.
On the web version of mfp go to the very bottom of your food report and click on the button that that is below the complete your day button (view full report, printable)
Chose the past 30 days or so and food report.
Select all, copy, and paste in a spreadsheet.
Go down the list selecting the calories eaten. Double check the number of days.
Go to Fitbit then select the same number of days and see what you spend on those days.
Hint: Fitbit used to have an export function. Haven't checked on it lately
Hint: when you click on the web version of Fitbit on your picture there used to be a second page with some graphs of your expenditure the past 30 days
Now look at your weight trend results offset by one day.
If I am looking at January 1 to 31 on Fitbit and MFP, I would look at my trendweight trend number on January 2 and February 1.
Start - end with 500 Cal = 1lb or 7700 Cal = 1 kg = caloric change by evidence of weight change
Double check that any monthly hormonal cycle is not affecting this and select different dates from the beginning if it would making sure beginning and end dates being tested are at same phases in cycle!! (Oopsies!)
Now you can check how closely your Fitbit TDEE, food logging, and weight change correspond to each other and make changes to your goals to get the reasonable and appropriate results you want.
Had I persisted in seeking ultra fast results beyond those that I could get with a 25% deficit as compared to my "actual as determined by logging" tdee I would have given up long before I got to normal weight4 -
Disagree with Nony only in that I would increase even more.
Fitbit is viewing you closer to very active and your steps are in the upper range of active to smack dab in the middle of very active.
There is no real reason to doubt your Fitbit adjustments at this point and you can run a manual double check to get an indication if you want to.
In any case, you won't win a prize by making yourself miserable to lose faster even than your intended target!
Your target is plenty fast enough to get you where you need to be.
And based on your results you can easily eat in the 2000+ range right now and still get the reasonable results you want.
You said that you exceed your target currently and are still losing at 3 pounds. Which is above 1% of your body weight a week, so extremely agressive as compared to 0.5 to 1% of your body weight a week (or even 0.25% when normal weight)
Which means that you can add easily 500 Cal to what you've been eating (not your initial target, but the actual higher amount you've been consuming to date) and still hit your goal of 2 lbs.
Doh, yup, I forgot to take that into account!
Agree with @PAV8888, add 500 to your current average intake
5 -
Sanity check on weight loss using Fitbit MFP and trendweight with integration enabled and every day logged as fully as possible on MFP (even if some are estimated, a consistent estimate is better than nothing)
Connect trendweight to Fitbit.
Enter scale weight on fitbit.
MFP and trendweight will pull the info from there.
You can choose to enable or disable the wall post about losing the same couple of pounds on MFP and make it manually (or temporarily enable it) whenever there is a new low you want to advertise.
On the web version of mfp go to the very bottom of your food report and click on the button that that is below the complete your day button (view full report, printable)
Chose the past 30 days or so and food report.
Select all, copy, and paste in a spreadsheet.
Go down the list selecting the calories eaten. Double check the number of days.
Go to Fitbit then select the same number of days and see what you spend on those days.
Hint: Fitbit used to have an export function. Haven't checked on it lately
Hint: when you click on the web version of Fitbit on your picture there used to be a second page with some graphs of your expenditure the past 30 days
Now look at your weight trend results offset by one day.
If I am looking at January 1 to 31 on Fitbit and MFP, I would look at my trendweight trend number on January 2 and February 1.
Start - end with 500 Cal = 1lb or 7700 Cal = 1 kg = caloric change by evidence of weight change
Double check that any monthly hormonal cycle is not affecting this and select different dates from the beginning if it would making sure beginning and end dates being tested are at same phases in cycle!! (Oopsies!)
Now you can check how closely your Fitbit TDEE, food logging, and weight change correspond to each other and make changes to your goals to get the reasonable and appropriate results you want.
Had I persisted in seeking ultra fast results beyond those that I could get with a 25% deficit as compared to my "actual as determined by logging" tdee I would have given up long before I got to normal weight
Fitbit still has its export function, and it does everything, so you can skip the MFP report bit. Click wheel thingy, select settings, choose data export from list on left1 -
The way I do it (far superior to Pav's way, of course) is download the file from Fitbit, total the calorie burns (Activities tab) for my selected timeframe (NB, you need to change the entries to 'number', they copy over as text), plug that into calculator. Total calories in from 'Foods' tab, subtract that from first number. Divide by 3500. That gives you number of pounds you should have lost according to numbers. Compare to actual loss over the given timeframe.1
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Fitbit Foods tab is unreliable unless double checked and edited as multiple times complete log sections from MFP are doubled up there if you log as you go along your day and then make changes (or prelog and then make changes to reflect what you did)
YMMV, but I prefer to get the info from each source to avoid potential extra errors 0 -
Fitbit Foods tab is unreliable unless double checked and edited as multiple times complete log sections from MFP are doubled up there if you log as you go along your day and then make changes (or prelog and then make changes to reflect what you did) YMMV, but I prefer to get the info from each source to avoid potential extra errors
Well that's why you make sure each day that your Fitbit cals in haven't been corrupted, dear @PAV8888
(I pay more attention to Fitbit in terms of where I am on cals and deficit throughout the day, so notice pretty quickly if there's been a double up)1 -
Fitbit Foods tab is unreliable unless double checked and edited as multiple times complete log sections from MFP are doubled up there if you log as you go along your day and then make changes (or prelog and then make changes to reflect what you did) YMMV, but I prefer to get the info from each source to avoid potential extra errors
I draw your attention to the little 'x'...
1 -
Pffft, Ms @Nony_Mouse
Click View Full Report Printable
CTRL-A to select page
CTRL-C to copy
CTRL-V to paste into Clean Excel Sheet number 1
Secret Sauce CTRL-T (not ready for prime time, manual macro) to step through and suck out the totals to a new sheet)
Sub MFP()
'
' MFP Macro
'
' Keyboard Shortcut: Ctrl+t
'
Cells.Find(What:="TOTAL:", After:=ActiveCell, LookIn:=xlFormulas, LookAt _
:=xlPart, SearchOrder:=xlByRows, SearchDirection:=xlNext, MatchCase:= _
False, SearchFormat:=False).Activate
Rows(ActiveCell.Row).Select
Selection.Copy
Sheets("Sheet2").Select
ActiveSheet.Paste
Selection.Offset(1, 0).Select
Sheets("Sheet1").Select
Selection.Offset(1, 0).Select
End Sub
Optional Second Secret Sauce CTRL-SHIFT-T (same caveats as above) to convert text to numbers and get you quick totals so that you can make insightful comments:
Sub MFP_Second_Clean()
'
' MFP_Second_Clean Macro
'
' Keyboard Shortcut: Ctrl+Shift+T
'
Range("A1").Select
Application.CutCopyMode = False
Selection.EntireRow.Insert , CopyOrigin:=xlFormatFromLeftOrAbove
Range("A1:I5000").Select
Selection.Replace What:="g", Replacement:="", LookAt:=xlPart, _
SearchOrder:=xlByRows, MatchCase:=False, SearchFormat:=False, _
ReplaceFormat:=False
Selection.Replace What:="m", Replacement:="", LookAt:=xlPart, _
SearchOrder:=xlByRows, MatchCase:=False, SearchFormat:=False, _
ReplaceFormat:=False
Range("B1").Select
ActiveCell.FormulaR1C1 = "=AVERAGE(R[1]C:R[5001]C)"
Range("B1").Select
Selection.Copy
Range("C1:I1").Select
ActiveSheet.Paste
Range("A1").Select
Application.CutCopyMode = False
ActiveCell.FormulaR1C1 = "AVERAGE"
Range("B1").Select
End Sub
Allows you to (with minimal effort) make insightful comments such as:
A certain Mouse logged 31 days in January (good job), with an average logged 1435 Cal, 102gC, 60gF, 127gP (good job there), 120mg chol, 2890mg sodium (woohoo) and 20g fiber (boo, eat more fiber you!)
Having realized that by tediously correcting and examining her Fitbit, said Mouse:
logged 19 days in February (WTG!) with an average logged 1558 Cal, 118gC, 70gF, 121gP, 55mg chol, 2223 sodium, and 29g fiber, WTG YOU--you listened to me even though I hadn't even told you anything!!!
Some "guilty" parties who should be trying to lose 2lbs but haven't done so, may have clocked 2806 Cal, 374C, 100F, 121P, 244mg chol, 3960mg sod, 120g Sug, 38g fibre so far in Feb with no trending weight change, and 2956 Cal, 361C, 114F, 125P, 259mg chol, 3933mg sodium, 161g Sug, and 35g fibre in Jan with a loss of 0.2lbs per Trendweight in Jan.
Now... since my little girl is starting to drop balls and is contemplating smacking me upside the head, and a certain ankle-biter who thinks today is tomorrow is slacking with her cats instead of heading up the knoll... I am gonna go out and double up on your steps for the week, unless you wake up and head out to prevent it! 0 -
Pffft, Ms @Nony_Mouse
Click View Full Report Printable
CTRL-A to select page
CTRL-C to copy
CTRL-V to paste into Clean Excel Sheet number 1
Secret Sauce CTRL-T (not ready for prime time, manual macro) to step through and suck out the totals to a new sheet)
Sub MFP()
'
' MFP Macro
'
' Keyboard Shortcut: Ctrl+t
'
Cells.Find(What:="TOTAL:", After:=ActiveCell, LookIn:=xlFormulas, LookAt _
:=xlPart, SearchOrder:=xlByRows, SearchDirection:=xlNext, MatchCase:= _
False, SearchFormat:=False).Activate
Rows(ActiveCell.Row).Select
Selection.Copy
Sheets("Sheet2").Select
ActiveSheet.Paste
Selection.Offset(1, 0).Select
Sheets("Sheet1").Select
Selection.Offset(1, 0).Select
End Sub
Optional Second Secret Sauce CTRL-SHIFT-T (same caveats as above) to convert text to numbers and get you quick totals so that you can make insightful comments:
Sub MFP_Second_Clean()
'
' MFP_Second_Clean Macro
'
' Keyboard Shortcut: Ctrl+Shift+T
'
Range("A1").Select
Application.CutCopyMode = False
Selection.EntireRow.Insert , CopyOrigin:=xlFormatFromLeftOrAbove
Range("A1:I5000").Select
Selection.Replace What:="g", Replacement:="", LookAt:=xlPart, _
SearchOrder:=xlByRows, MatchCase:=False, SearchFormat:=False, _
ReplaceFormat:=False
Selection.Replace What:="m", Replacement:="", LookAt:=xlPart, _
SearchOrder:=xlByRows, MatchCase:=False, SearchFormat:=False, _
ReplaceFormat:=False
Range("B1").Select
ActiveCell.FormulaR1C1 = "=AVERAGE(R[1]C:R[5001]C)"
Range("B1").Select
Selection.Copy
Range("C1:I1").Select
ActiveSheet.Paste
Range("A1").Select
Application.CutCopyMode = False
ActiveCell.FormulaR1C1 = "AVERAGE"
Range("B1").Select
End Sub
Allows you to (with minimal effort) make insightful comments such as:
A certain Mouse logged 31 days in January (good job), with an average logged 1435 Cal, 102gC, 60gF, 127gP (good job there), 120mg chol, 2890mg sodium (woohoo) and 20g fiber (boo, eat more fiber you!)
Having realized that by tediously examining her Fitbit, said Mouse:
logged 19 days in February (WTG!) with an average logged 1558 Cal, 118gC, 70gF, 121gP, 55mg chol, 2223 sodium, and 29g fiber, WTG YOU--you listened to me even though I hadn't even told you anything!!!
Some "guilty" parties who should be trying to lose 2lbs but haven't done so, may have clocked 2806 Cal, 374C, 100F, 121P, 244mg chol, 3960mg sod, 120g Sug, 38g fibre so far in Feb, and 2956 Cal, 361C, 114F, 125P, 259mg chol, 3933mg sodium, 161g Sug, and 35g fibre in Jan with a loss of 0.1lbs per Trendweight!
No Trendweight yet for Feb as I don't have the new scale app connected even though, as you can tell, I've been a bit "less naughty"
Now... since my little girl is starting to drop balls and is contemplating smacking me upside the head, and a certain ankle-biter who thinks today is tomorrow is slacking with her cats instead of heading up the knoll... I am gonna go out and double up on your steps for the week, unless you wake up and head out to prevent it!
That first part isn't even English, dear @PAV8888!! However, I am very impressed with your computer wizardry skills. If I wanted to know my averages for nutrients, that would be very handy! Or, I could just aim to hit them every day, and improve what needs improving, as you can see I've done with fibre - thanks, chia seeds! (highly disappointed with my drop in protein, must do better). If all you want is total deficit for the time span in question, mine is way easier.
But, please feel free do do your wizard thing for me every month!
It's dinner time, then walk, so as to avoid the need for vast amounts of sun protection. And I have a chronic illness, you meanie!!!
OP, apologies for hijacking your thread with our banter! Hope you learned something, or were at least amused!1 -
Hey, I now logged my weight stuff because of you guys... hold on... I will do a quick take on % error by Fitbit
Will edit in a sec! What time is it there anyway @Nony_Mouse ? I thought you were 5 hours earlier but tomorrow, so like 15:30?0 -
Hey, I now logged my weight stuff because of you guys... hold on... I will do a quick take on % error by Fitbit Will edit in a sec! What time is it there anyway @Nony_Mouse ? I thought you were 5 hours earlier but tomorrow, so like 15:30?
Tis 5.32 PM here, dear @pav8888. We're only 3 hours different (but tomorrow) currently.1 -
Time scale matters and averages work better in the long run as random errors tend to cancel each other.
January 31 days, In per MFP 2956, Out per Fitbit 2922, Balance +34 a day or 1054 Cal for the month, Weight change -0.2, TDEE "under-estimated" by 1.93%
Feb 18 days, In per MFP 2806, Out per Fitbit 2950, Balance -99 a day or -1782 Cal, Weight change 0.0, TDEE "over-estimated by 3.4%
But now look at the complete total of 49 days in 2020: Caloric balance: -728, predicted weight change -0.208lbs, trending weight change per TW: -0.2lbs. So an error of 28 Cal a day, or 0.95% of Fitbit TDEE.
Most of it probably related to eating out multiple times in January and ending up slightly over-estimating, or sodium, or, as I want to believe, localized gravitational anomalies! I also feel that I am trending slightly down right now; but the weight trend is not reflecting it as of yet.
In any case, I would call this pretty even in terms of logging Cal in and Out and Fitbit and MFP. And it looks like I can keep eating all of my Fitbit adjustments based on how I log!
Ask me anytime to run your numbers @Nony_Mouse , only limitation is the time that MFP allows us to go back in a single transaction.3
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