Advice for someone witg high TDEE

kam3190

So like many I gained the pounds recently lol. I lost 75 lbs 1.5 years ago with mfp but now my job is even more active and my TDEE is higher.

Stats : female 30 years old 5ft 6 current weight 248. My tdee is somewhere between 3700 and 4000.

I've been eating around 2500 to 3000 a day and in 2 weeks I've lost 12 lbs! I know some of that is water weight, but if I'm still eating that much and losing 3+ lbs a week should I up my calories? Is it ok to lose faster if you eat over 2000 calories still?

kam3190

My daily numbers

kam3190

IronIsMyTherapy

I would increase cal allowance. If you start too low, it gets harder to reduce as weight is lost. You back yourself into a calorie corner. I'd suggest you ease it up slowly, then you're able to slowly decrease from there without starving.

kam3190

I just feel like i eat alot already im eating close to 3000 calories a day and lost 4 lbs this week. Im all for eating more though. Obviously I love food lol

cmriverside

I would stay at 2000-2500.

In my opinion it's more important to get that weight off when you're that much over-weight.

2000-2500 is plenty of calories.

When you're obese, it's okay to lose more than 2 pounds per week. When you've gotten closer to 200, worry about it.

I took a peek at your diary...you are using a lot of generic weights and measures, so it's even possible you are eating more than you think. A cup of cheese isn't particularly accurate, neither is "a" cookie or "a" pizza, and you're eating things like two slices of meat.

So at this early juncture, I would focus on accurate logging. Buy a $15 digital food scale on amazon. Any one will do.

Learn to log food, hit your 2000-2500 every day and make sure you're eating up to those Protein Goals. (Not under.)

Here's a good step by step logging guide.

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1234699/logging-accurately-step-by-step-guide/p1

harper16

Looking at your diary you have a lot of days where you have lots of uneaten calories.

Are you using a food scale and weighing everything that you eat? Are you sure your calorie counts are accurate?

nanastaci2020

I'd stay at the current calorie level for 3-4 more weeks, see how things level off. Then adjust if necessary.

NovusDies

Unless you are feeling fatigued it is way too soon to tell if you need to be eating more. Now is a good time to be concentrating on nailing down your logging and keeping your habits fairly consistent for the next 6 weeks. At that time you can establish a trend.

But do keep an eye on your energy levels. It is easy to overlook low calorie fatigue and blame it on not sleeping well the night before. Losing a little faster than recommended is not a problem normally over short periods of time. However, my experience with high calorie burns has been that my body is not as forgiving and my days are rarely in the 2k range.

cmriverside

The other thing is, how are you coming up with 2500 Exercise calories?

It seems that you must be using a Fitbit or some tracking device and then it looks as though you are ALSO adding in additional exercise manually on Myfitnesspal.

I'll let someone else tackle that part because I have not used a fitness tracker device.

Here is the FAQ about syncing and exercise for Fitbit, it looks to me like you're double dipping AND have yourself set to Sedentary when you're clearly not sedentary....dunno.

Here's the Fitbit FAQ::

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10098937/faq-syncing-logging-food-amp-exercise-calorie-adjustments-activity-levels-accuracy/p1



You can join the Fitbit group here:
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/1290-fitbit-users

IronIsMyTherapy

cmriverside wrote: »

I would stay at 2000-2500.

In my opinion it's more important to get that weight off when you're that much over-weight.

2000-2500 is plenty of calories.

When you're obese, it's okay to lose more than 2 pounds per week. When you've gotten closer to 200, worry about it.

I took a peek at your diary...you are using a lot of generic weights and measures, so it's even possible you are eating more than you think. A cup of cheese isn't particularly accurate, neither is "a" cookie or "a" pizza, and you're eating things like two slices of meat.

So at this early juncture, I would focus on accurate logging. Buy a $15 digital food scale on amazon. Any one will do.

Learn to log food, hit your 2000-2500 every day and make sure you're eating up to those Protein Goals. (Not under.)

Here's a good step by step logging guide.

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1234699/logging-accurately-step-by-step-guide/p1

If her TDEE is 3700-4000, 2000-2500 target is too much a deficit, imo. You're not doing your metabolism, performance or LBM retention any favors there.

kam3190

Ok Im not sure how to tag or reply to each person individually.

I do have a fitbit and my daily calories are in the range of 3700 to 4000 for the last 2 weeks. I Do Not manually add any exercise in MFP separately just the fitbit adjustments. I do know I need to get a food scale Im just procrastinating because I havent been having trouble losing. 1.5 years ago I lost 75 lbs going from 265 to 190 in 6 months eating 2000 cals a day. I didnt buy a scale because I was still losing pretty regularly. I then had another baby this year. He is 11 months.

I get between 13000 and 20000 steps a day(less on days off but I try to get the 10k). I work an active job on my feet all day and I have 5 children under 10.Im a fidgetter and Have a high NEAT. I rarely sit still ever lol. I have always surpassed MFPs very active stats.

My biggest concern was that losing too fast increases loss of muscle mass and other medical issues, but I wasnt sure if that was as big of a concern if Im eating as much as I do.

NovusDies

kam3190 wrote: »

Ok Im not sure how to tag or reply to each person individually.

I do have a fitbit and my daily calories are in the range of 3700 to 4000 for the last 2 weeks. I Do Not manually add any exercise in MFP separately just the fitbit adjustments. I do know I need to get a food scale Im just procrastinating because I havent been having trouble losing. 1.5 years ago I lost 75 lbs going from 265 to 190 in 6 months eating 2000 cals a day. I didnt buy a scale because I was still losing pretty regularly. I then had another baby this year. He is 11 months.

I get between 13000 and 20000 steps a day(less on days off but I try to get the 10k). I work an active job on my feet all day and I have 5 children under 10.Im a fidgetter and Have a high NEAT. I rarely sit still ever lol. I have always surpassed MFPs very active stats.

My biggest concern was that losing too fast increases loss of muscle mass and other medical issues, but I wasnt sure if that was as big of a concern if Im eating as much as I do.

As far as I know the amount of food you eat doesn't matter if it still leaves you with a very steep deficit. However, I would not be concerned about muscle loss or health issues unless this goes on for a very long time. 6 weeks to 2 months should not be a problem unless... again... it causes you energy management issues.

ETA: I do not doubt your energy burns are possible. You should know if this is not your first rodeo. I will say that my 7 day average is always over 20k steps and my average burn is ~1300. I have a sedentary job though and while I have done a good job of improving my NEAT, fidgeting does not come naturally to me.

kam3190

NovusDies wrote: »

kam3190 wrote: »

Ok Im not sure how to tag or reply to each person individually.

I do have a fitbit and my daily calories are in the range of 3700 to 4000 for the last 2 weeks. I Do Not manually add any exercise in MFP separately just the fitbit adjustments. I do know I need to get a food scale Im just procrastinating because I havent been having trouble losing. 1.5 years ago I lost 75 lbs going from 265 to 190 in 6 months eating 2000 cals a day. I didnt buy a scale because I was still losing pretty regularly. I then had another baby this year. He is 11 months.

I get between 13000 and 20000 steps a day(less on days off but I try to get the 10k). I work an active job on my feet all day and I have 5 children under 10.Im a fidgetter and Have a high NEAT. I rarely sit still ever lol. I have always surpassed MFPs very active stats.

My biggest concern was that losing too fast increases loss of muscle mass and other medical issues, but I wasnt sure if that was as big of a concern if Im eating as much as I do.

As far as I know the amount of food you eat doesn't matter if it still leaves you with a very steep deficit. However, I would not be concerned about muscle loss or health issues unless this goes on for a very long time. 6 weeks to 2 months should not be a problem unless... again... it causes you energy management issues.

ETA: I do not doubt your energy burns are possible. You should know if this is not your first rodeo. I will say that my 7 day average is always over 20k steps and my average burn is ~1300. I have a sedentary job though and while I have done a good job of improving my NEAT, fidgeting does not come naturally to me.

my calorie adjustments everyday are about 2000. Fidgeting comes overly naturally to me lol. Sometimes I wish i could stop.

nanastaci2020

To help offset muscle loss:

Eat lots of protein. Personally my aim is 100g daily but my calories consumed are 1400-1700. You'd probably want to go a little higher.

Strength train.

For boosting protein without taking in a lot of other stuff, my go to options are Protein20 'protein drink' but its like flavored water. 90 cals, 20g protein. Premier Protein vanilla/chocolate 'shake'. 160 cals, 30g protein. Keep in mind, protein is 4 cals per 1g. So you can't get more basic in my opinion. I don't use these to replace meals, but fit them into my calories if my protein is lacking. Like today lunch was potato soup, which is pretty low in protein. So I had a Protein20. I buy both at Costco but they're sold elsewhere also. The Premier Protein may be under different names at different stores. Mainly I would look for drinks that did not have a lot of calories from carbs or fat.

cmriverside

kam3190 wrote: »

Ok Im not sure how to tag or reply to each person individually.

I do have a fitbit and my daily calories are in the range of 3700 to 4000 for the last 2 weeks. I Do Not manually add any exercise in MFP separately just the fitbit adjustments. I do know I need to get a food scale Im just procrastinating because I havent been having trouble losing. 1.5 years ago I lost 75 lbs going from 265 to 190 in 6 months eating 2000 cals a day. I didnt buy a scale because I was still losing pretty regularly. I then had another baby this year. He is 11 months.

I get between 13000 and 20000 steps a day(less on days off but I try to get the 10k). I work an active job on my feet all day and I have 5 children under 10.Im a fidgetter and Have a high NEAT. I rarely sit still ever lol. I have always surpassed MFPs very active stats.

My biggest concern was that losing too fast increases loss of muscle mass and other medical issues, but I wasnt sure if that was as big of a concern if Im eating as much as I do.

You say you're not adding exercise calories manually, yet there are entries in your Exercise diary that say, "Dog walking" and other custom exercises that don't get swept in from Fitbit, at least I don't think they do...I saw several manually added exercise entries like this.


Bottom line? Tighten up food logging, understand how your Fitbit transfers calories and how to set up your Fitbit sync by reading that thread I posted above, the FAQ one.

Then give it a month before you raise calories any higher than 2500. You really need to get that Protein UP. On a calorie deficit THAT is where you need to focus your calories. You have plenty of body fat to burn for energy, but protein is muscle-sparing when eating at any amount of a deficit. Your current nutrition is super low on protein and that's going to cause you a problem.