need help with calories in mfp
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zfitgal
Posts: 478 Member
Hi, i need help setting my calories for weight loss...i am 5"5, I weigh 135 and id like to lose .5 a pound a week...i.am currently heavey weight training for and hour 3 days a week and im doing 30 minutes of cardio 3 days a week..
I make sure to hit 10,000 steps a day...
I need help because I was weight training 3 days a week and doing 1 hours of high intensity cardio the other days...i was eating 1650 and I think my body wasn't happy...i began to get very anxious, i felt like I had a constant adrenaline rush...then u started craving all the wrong foods, I couldn't focus, so I think my exercise was to intense for my body...
Can someone help me.find the right balance for me...my fitbit says I burn about 2100 calories a day....help
I make sure to hit 10,000 steps a day...
I need help because I was weight training 3 days a week and doing 1 hours of high intensity cardio the other days...i was eating 1650 and I think my body wasn't happy...i began to get very anxious, i felt like I had a constant adrenaline rush...then u started craving all the wrong foods, I couldn't focus, so I think my exercise was to intense for my body...
Can someone help me.find the right balance for me...my fitbit says I burn about 2100 calories a day....help
0
Replies
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What did mfp tell you is your calorie goal? If you are getting 10,000 steps a day you should probably have your activity level set at Active, is it? Did you log the additional exercise you did and eat back at least some of those calories?3
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I never logged exercise because I never knew the exact number i burnt...my fitbit is not the fancy one, its the one that mainly tracks steps...and i don't know how much I burn while weight training either. I set myself as lightly active and never added anything...mfp gave me a defecit at 1650...my body started holding onto fat, maybe my cortisol levels are high sue to so.much stress put on the body without the propper recovery because my stomach looks like im 6 months pregnant and 2 weeks ago it was flat...
Help lol0 -
What did mfp tell you is your calorie goal? If you are getting 10,000 steps a day you should probably have your activity level set at Active, is it? Did you log the additional exercise you did and eat back at least some of those calories?
I wrote lightly active and never ate back any calories0 -
If i put myself as active on mfp it says I should be eating 2050 to maintain my weight. Is that including my exercise? Or is my exercise separate? Should I be adding in exercise calories.
I just chose active based on walking 10000 steps a day...i want to fuel my body and still lose .5 -1 pound a week...i do want to cut my cardio from 1 hour to a half an hour three days a week...0 -
If i put myself as active on mfp it says I should be eating 2050 to maintain my weight. Is that including my exercise? Or is my exercise separate? Should I be adding in exercise calories.
I just chose active based on walking 10000 steps a day...i want to fuel my body and still lose .5 -1 pound a week...i do want to cut my cardio from 1 hour to a half an hour three days a week...
Exercise is separate - you would log it and eat it back - as long as you followed MFP instructions and set activity level based on daily life activity before exercise.
If your Fitbit says 2100, and you'd like to lose 0.5 pound a week, one option you have would be to try 1850 calories (not adding back exercise initially). The all-day activity trackers tend to be fairly close for most average people, being as they're based on statistical averages. You may find that you need to eat more than that because of your exercise schedule, but I don't think you'd lose dangerously fast at 1850, given all you've said. (I understand that you don't have a HR model; advice isn't based on that.) If you tried that for a month or two, and looked at your average weekly results, you could then adjust intake as needed - or do it sooner, if obviously losing too fast and still feeling bad.
FWIW, at about your size, I've been losing about 0.5lb/week at 1850 plus exercise, but I do tend to be mysteriously high on the calorie-needs scale. (I've gone from upper 130s to upper 120s over the last few months.)
Are you using a weight trending app to help you track? It can be an aid to recognizing slow loss rates in amongst random daily weight fluctuations. It's not a magical crystal ball, just a statistical projection estimate, but once one gets around 30 days of daily weights in there, it can be a help. (There are quite a few free ones: Happy Scale for Apple iOS, Libra for Android, Trendweight with a free Fitbit account, Weightgrapher . . . .).
Some other advice: Don't make all your cardio high intensity. If you enjoy whatever activity you're doing at high intensity, maybe do it at lower intensity on most of the days. High intensity is more exhausting (could foster some of the symptoms you mention, if overdone), but the calorie burn really isn't proportionally higher in compensation, and it's not the best way to build well-rounded fitness, either. Even elite athletes don't do all their cardio at what for them is an intense level: We regular people aren't well served by doing so, either. Intensity is best a spice or condiment in the fitness menu, not a main dish.
Also: How is your nutrition? Enough protein, healthy fats, micronutrients and fiber? Short-changing those can foster the symptoms you report, too. How is sleep quality and quantity? Ditto. Total-lifestyle stress management? Ditto.
Best wishes!3 -
If i put myself as active on mfp it says I should be eating 2050 to maintain my weight. Is that including my exercise? Or is my exercise separate? Should I be adding in exercise calories.
I just chose active based on walking 10000 steps a day...i want to fuel my body and still lose .5 -1 pound a week...i do want to cut my cardio from 1 hour to a half an hour three days a week...
Exercise is separate - you would log it and eat it back - as long as you followed MFP instructions and set activity level based on daily life activity before exercise.
If your Fitbit says 2100, and you'd like to lose 0.5 pound a week, one option you have would be to try 1850 calories (not adding back exercise initially). The all-day activity trackers tend to be fairly close for most average people, being as they're based on statistical averages. You may find that you need to eat more than that because of your exercise schedule, but I don't think you'd lose dangerously fast at 1850, given all you've said. (I understand that you don't have a HR model; advice isn't based on that.) If you tried that for a month or two, and looked at your average weekly results, you could then adjust intake as needed - or do it sooner, if obviously losing too fast and still feeling bad.
FWIW, at about your size, I've been losing about 0.5lb/week at 1850 plus exercise, but I do tend to be mysteriously high on the calorie-needs scale. (I've gone from upper 130s to upper 120s over the last few months.)
Are you using a weight trending app to help you track? It can be an aid to recognizing slow loss rates in amongst random daily weight fluctuations. It's not a magical crystal ball, just a statistical projection estimate, but once one gets around 30 days of daily weights in there, it can be a help. (There are quite a few free ones: Happy Scale for Apple iOS, Libra for Android, Trendweight with a free Fitbit account, Weightgrapher . . . .).
Some other advice: Don't make all your cardio high intensity. If you enjoy whatever activity you're doing at high intensity, maybe do it at lower intensity on most of the days. High intensity is more exhausting (could foster some of the symptoms you mention, if overdone), but the calorie burn really isn't proportionally higher in compensation, and it's not the best way to build well-rounded fitness, either. Even elite athletes don't do all their cardio at what for them is an intense level: We regular people aren't well served by doing so, either. Intensity is best a spice or condiment in the fitness menu, not a main dish.
Also: How is your nutrition? Enough protein, healthy fats, micronutrients and fiber? Short-changing those can foster the symptoms you report, too. How is sleep quality and quantity? Ditto. Total-lifestyle stress management? Ditto.
Best wishes!
My nutrition is great! Macros are perfect! I wasn't feeling tired before I started doing all this hiit training and I was still eating 1650...based on mfp I was eating way to low, if thats the case then why wasn't I losing a pound a week? I am going to increase my calories and see what happens...i bought the fitbit during this pandemic because i needed to move more...so i don't know exactly how much i was moving before but my workouts were pretty similar to what they are, but not so much hiit. Im just curious how can i lose .5 a poind a week eating 1850 and i didnt lose 1 pound a week at 1650
I am going to track my weight on happy scale as well and see my weekly average0 -
If i put myself as active on mfp it says I should be eating 2050 to maintain my weight. Is that including my exercise? Or is my exercise separate? Should I be adding in exercise calories.
I just chose active based on walking 10000 steps a day...i want to fuel my body and still lose .5 -1 pound a week...i do want to cut my cardio from 1 hour to a half an hour three days a week...
Exercise is separate - you would log it and eat it back - as long as you followed MFP instructions and set activity level based on daily life activity before exercise.
If your Fitbit says 2100, and you'd like to lose 0.5 pound a week, one option you have would be to try 1850 calories (not adding back exercise initially). The all-day activity trackers tend to be fairly close for most average people, being as they're based on statistical averages. You may find that you need to eat more than that because of your exercise schedule, but I don't think you'd lose dangerously fast at 1850, given all you've said. (I understand that you don't have a HR model; advice isn't based on that.) If you tried that for a month or two, and looked at your average weekly results, you could then adjust intake as needed - or do it sooner, if obviously losing too fast and still feeling bad.
FWIW, at about your size, I've been losing about 0.5lb/week at 1850 plus exercise, but I do tend to be mysteriously high on the calorie-needs scale. (I've gone from upper 130s to upper 120s over the last few months.)
Are you using a weight trending app to help you track? It can be an aid to recognizing slow loss rates in amongst random daily weight fluctuations. It's not a magical crystal ball, just a statistical projection estimate, but once one gets around 30 days of daily weights in there, it can be a help. (There are quite a few free ones: Happy Scale for Apple iOS, Libra for Android, Trendweight with a free Fitbit account, Weightgrapher . . . .).
Some other advice: Don't make all your cardio high intensity. If you enjoy whatever activity you're doing at high intensity, maybe do it at lower intensity on most of the days. High intensity is more exhausting (could foster some of the symptoms you mention, if overdone), but the calorie burn really isn't proportionally higher in compensation, and it's not the best way to build well-rounded fitness, either. Even elite athletes don't do all their cardio at what for them is an intense level: We regular people aren't well served by doing so, either. Intensity is best a spice or condiment in the fitness menu, not a main dish.
Also: How is your nutrition? Enough protein, healthy fats, micronutrients and fiber? Short-changing those can foster the symptoms you report, too. How is sleep quality and quantity? Ditto. Total-lifestyle stress management? Ditto.
Best wishes!
My nutrition is great! Macros are perfect! I wasn't feeling tired before I started doing all this hiit training and I was still eating 1650...based on mfp I was eating way to low, if thats the case then why wasn't I losing a pound a week? I am going to increase my calories and see what happens...i bought the fitbit during this pandemic because i needed to move more...so i don't know exactly how much i was moving before but my workouts were pretty similar to what they are, but not so much hiit. Im just curious how can i lose .5 a poind a week eating 1850 and i didnt lose 1 pound a week at 1650
I am going to track my weight on happy scale as well and see my weekly average
Are you logging consistently, weighing food, all that jazz? How long were you not losing at all? How long were you doing the HIIT (weeks)? <= rhetorical questions, you don't need to answer: Just suggesting you think about them.
If you're looking at a time period of less than one full menstrual cycle (assuming you're premenopausal), you're possibly not going to see slow fat loss in amongst the routine water-retention fluctuations. You mention craving nutrient poor foods (assuming that's what "wrong foods" means? I don't understand "wrong foods"). If you had some off days, cheat days, whatever you want to call them, as a consequence, it's extremely easy to wipe out a small calorie deficit completely, or put a major dent in a bigger one, that way.
Increased exercise (volume and/or intensity) can also increase water retention, and make the scale results misleading.
If you're eyeballing food amounts, using cups/spoons, not checking accuracy of database entries you log, that's another way to wipe out a small deficit.
A small deficit - for very slow loss - can be a good way to go, but realistically it has tighter tolerances, i.e., requires more accuracy/precision to make it work.
I guess given your reply, I'd underscore the idea of backing off intensity a bit, maybe only doing an intense workout once a week? Or even skip it for a few weeks, in favor of steady state?
Intensity is a physical stress. Reduced calories are a physical stress. Your reported symptoms are symptoms of stress. Stress can increase water retention, which makes scale-weight results more confusing.
Best wishes!2 -
I started doing this in March right when I was quarentined in New York...it was fine for a while but as time went in I developed digestive issues, which turns out to be nothing my dr says. He thinks its all stress related.
I measure everything down to my lettuce lol...i don't eye ball anything...As far as food cravings I stopped the desire to workout anymore and diet...all i wanted was fast food, sugar and an abundance of it...i do believe it was all from the high intensity of my workouts and I guess no fueling properly.
Before this I was at 15% body fat..so i just want to get back to that
1 -
If i put myself as active on mfp it says I should be eating 2050 to maintain my weight. Is that including my exercise? Or is my exercise separate? Should I be adding in exercise calories.
I just chose active based on walking 10000 steps a day...i want to fuel my body and still lose .5 -1 pound a week...i do want to cut my cardio from 1 hour to a half an hour three days a week...
Exercise is separate - you would log it and eat it back - as long as you followed MFP instructions and set activity level based on daily life activity before exercise.
If your Fitbit says 2100, and you'd like to lose 0.5 pound a week, one option you have would be to try 1850 calories (not adding back exercise initially). The all-day activity trackers tend to be fairly close for most average people, being as they're based on statistical averages. You may find that you need to eat more than that because of your exercise schedule, but I don't think you'd lose dangerously fast at 1850, given all you've said. (I understand that you don't have a HR model; advice isn't based on that.) If you tried that for a month or two, and looked at your average weekly results, you could then adjust intake as needed - or do it sooner, if obviously losing too fast and still feeling bad.
FWIW, at about your size, I've been losing about 0.5lb/week at 1850 plus exercise, but I do tend to be mysteriously high on the calorie-needs scale. (I've gone from upper 130s to upper 120s over the last few months.)
Are you using a weight trending app to help you track? It can be an aid to recognizing slow loss rates in amongst random daily weight fluctuations. It's not a magical crystal ball, just a statistical projection estimate, but once one gets around 30 days of daily weights in there, it can be a help. (There are quite a few free ones: Happy Scale for Apple iOS, Libra for Android, Trendweight with a free Fitbit account, Weightgrapher . . . .).
Some other advice: Don't make all your cardio high intensity. If you enjoy whatever activity you're doing at high intensity, maybe do it at lower intensity on most of the days. High intensity is more exhausting (could foster some of the symptoms you mention, if overdone), but the calorie burn really isn't proportionally higher in compensation, and it's not the best way to build well-rounded fitness, either. Even elite athletes don't do all their cardio at what for them is an intense level: We regular people aren't well served by doing so, either. Intensity is best a spice or condiment in the fitness menu, not a main dish.
Also: How is your nutrition? Enough protein, healthy fats, micronutrients and fiber? Short-changing those can foster the symptoms you report, too. How is sleep quality and quantity? Ditto. Total-lifestyle stress management? Ditto.
Best wishes!
My nutrition is great! Macros are perfect! I wasn't feeling tired before I started doing all this hiit training and I was still eating 1650...based on mfp I was eating way to low, if thats the case then why wasn't I losing a pound a week? I am going to increase my calories and see what happens...i bought the fitbit during this pandemic because i needed to move more...so i don't know exactly how much i was moving before but my workouts were pretty similar to what they are, but not so much hiit. Im just curious how can i lose .5 a poind a week eating 1850 and i didnt lose 1 pound a week at 1650
I am going to track my weight on happy scale as well and see my weekly average
Are you logging consistently, weighing food, all that jazz? How long were you not losing at all? How long were you doing the HIIT (weeks)? <= rhetorical questions, you don't need to answer: Just suggesting you think about them.
If you're looking at a time period of less than one full menstrual cycle (assuming you're premenopausal), you're possibly not going to see slow fat loss in amongst the routine water-retention fluctuations. You mention craving nutrient poor foods (assuming that's what "wrong foods" means? I don't understand "wrong foods"). If you had some off days, cheat days, whatever you want to call them, as a consequence, it's extremely easy to wipe out a small calorie deficit completely, or put a major dent in a bigger one, that way.
Increased exercise (volume and/or intensity) can also increase water retention, and make the scale results misleading.
If you're eyeballing food amounts, using cups/spoons, not checking accuracy of database entries you log, that's another way to wipe out a small deficit.
A small deficit - for very slow loss - can be a good way to go, but realistically it has tighter tolerances, i.e., requires more accuracy/precision to make it work.
I guess given your reply, I'd underscore the idea of backing off intensity a bit, maybe only doing an intense workout once a week? Or even skip it for a few weeks, in favor of steady state?
Intensity is a physical stress. Reduced calories are a physical stress. Your reported symptoms are symptoms of stress. Stress can increase water retention, which makes scale-weight results more confusing.
Best wishes!
and when i say started this i mean just the hiit cardio...ive been trainig otherwise for years1 -
Stress seems to be a key variable in all of this. If I were you, I'd focus there. I can't tell you what's stress-reducing for you, but perhaps you have some insights.
In practical terms, I think your idea of dropping the HIIT, and eating a little more for a while, are good ideas.
Wishing you well!1 -
Stress seems to be a key variable in all of this. If I were you, I'd focus there. I can't tell you what's stress-reducing for you, but perhaps you have some insights.
In practical terms, I think your idea of dropping the HIIT, and eating a little more for a while, are good ideas.
Wishing you well!
Thanks will do!!0 -
I started doing this in March right when I was quarentined in New York...it was fine for a while but as time went in I developed digestive issues, which turns out to be nothing my dr says. He thinks its all stress related.
I measure everything down to my lettuce lol...i don't eye ball anything...As far as food cravings I stopped the desire to workout anymore and diet...all i wanted was fast food, sugar and an abundance of it...i do believe it was all from the high intensity of my workouts and I guess no fueling properly.
Before this I was at 15% body fat..so i just want to get back to that
Does "digestive issues" by any chance mean chronic constipation? Food that goes into your body and doesn't come out as waste increases your weight on the scale.1 -
lynn_glenmont wrote: »I started doing this in March right when I was quarentined in New York...it was fine for a while but as time went in I developed digestive issues, which turns out to be nothing my dr says. He thinks its all stress related.
I measure everything down to my lettuce lol...i don't eye ball anything...As far as food cravings I stopped the desire to workout anymore and diet...all i wanted was fast food, sugar and an abundance of it...i do believe it was all from the high intensity of my workouts and I guess no fueling properly.
Before this I was at 15% body fat..so i just want to get back to that
Does "digestive issues" by any chance mean chronic constipation? Food that goes into your body and doesn't come out as waste increases your weight on the scale.
Yes that is whats happening but I physically look different...it has physically affected me everywhere...hips, thighs, abs nd chest...everything became bloated0 -
lynn_glenmont wrote: »I started doing this in March right when I was quarentined in New York...it was fine for a while but as time went in I developed digestive issues, which turns out to be nothing my dr says. He thinks its all stress related.
I measure everything down to my lettuce lol...i don't eye ball anything...As far as food cravings I stopped the desire to workout anymore and diet...all i wanted was fast food, sugar and an abundance of it...i do believe it was all from the high intensity of my workouts and I guess no fueling properly.
Before this I was at 15% body fat..so i just want to get back to that
Does "digestive issues" by any chance mean chronic constipation? Food that goes into your body and doesn't come out as waste increases your weight on the scale.
Yes that is whats happening but I physically look different...it has physically affected me everywhere...hips, thighs, abs nd chest...everything became bloated
If it were me, I would make addressing the constipation my first priority. Chronic constipation for months (if I'm understanding the timeline) accompanied by full-body bloating doesn't sound like "nothing" to me. Have you checked back with your doctor? Does he understand how long this has been going on?1 -
lynn_glenmont wrote: »lynn_glenmont wrote: »I started doing this in March right when I was quarentined in New York...it was fine for a while but as time went in I developed digestive issues, which turns out to be nothing my dr says. He thinks its all stress related.
I measure everything down to my lettuce lol...i don't eye ball anything...As far as food cravings I stopped the desire to workout anymore and diet...all i wanted was fast food, sugar and an abundance of it...i do believe it was all from the high intensity of my workouts and I guess no fueling properly.
Before this I was at 15% body fat..so i just want to get back to that
Does "digestive issues" by any chance mean chronic constipation? Food that goes into your body and doesn't come out as waste increases your weight on the scale.
Yes that is whats happening but I physically look different...it has physically affected me everywhere...hips, thighs, abs nd chest...everything became bloated
If it were me, I would make addressing the constipation my first priority. Chronic constipation for months (if I'm understanding the timeline) accompanied by full-body bloating doesn't sound like "nothing" to me. Have you checked back with your doctor? Does he understand how long this has been going on?
I tried...i have had an upper endoscopy, blood tests, stool sample tests everything came out fine...My dr says to.much stress can affect the digestive system...its weird because when I over eat I end up going, but when I go back to my normal daily calories of 1650 I can't go...0 -
I increase my calories tonight to 1800 from 1650. I really hope that this choleric adjustment helps me. I have been maintaining 15% body fat between 1650 and 1700 calories A-day. I have never eaten 1800 calories consistently in my life. I really hope that this high calorie adjustment will allow me to get back down to 15% body fat. I don't understand how that is possible but based on my stats my fitness pal says to lose half pound a week I should be eating 1800 calories. So I don't really understand how 1650 was too long when I was unable to lose anymore and in fact it turned the opposit for me. If anyone knows why please enlighten me0
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You say your macros are perfect, but how much fibre are you getting? I know it's lower in the US but, here in the UK, the recommendation is 30g a day.0
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I increase my calories tonight to 1800 from 1650. I really hope that this choleric adjustment helps me. I have been maintaining 15% body fat between 1650 and 1700 calories A-day. I have never eaten 1800 calories consistently in my life. I really hope that this high calorie adjustment will allow me to get back down to 15% body fat. I don't understand how that is possible but based on my stats my fitness pal says to lose half pound a week I should be eating 1800 calories. So I don't really understand how 1650 was too long when I was unable to lose anymore and in fact it turned the opposit for me. If anyone knows why please enlighten me
How long were you eating at 1650 calories?0 -
If Fitbit says you burn 2100: eating 1850 would be 250 deficit for .5 pounds per week weight loss. But have you used the Fitbit long enough to have an idea of how accurate it is for you? If not then 1650-1750 would allow some wiggle room in case it is estimating high.
If getting back to feeling better/in a good head space/etc. ranks higher then eating at 2000-2100 (potential maintenance) for 4-6 weeks may be the way to go. Test your Fitbit's accuracy, fuel your body & your workouts and just not focus on 'weight loss' temporarily. If you continue to lose at a slow pace over the 4-6 weeks then you'll know your TDEE is actually a little higher than the Fitbit #s, and since its a basic model it may not be able to accurately estimate your intensity.
1 -
I increase my calories tonight to 1800 from 1650. I really hope that this choleric adjustment helps me. I have been maintaining 15% body fat between 1650 and 1700 calories A-day. I have never eaten 1800 calories consistently in my life. I really hope that this high calorie adjustment will allow me to get back down to 15% body fat. I don't understand how that is possible but based on my stats my fitness pal says to lose half pound a week I should be eating 1800 calories. So I don't really understand how 1650 was too long when I was unable to lose anymore and in fact it turned the opposit for me. If anyone knows why please enlighten me
How long were you eating at 1650 calories?
Over a year...0
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