Remaining Calories Making Me Pull My Hair Out!

intermittentwarrior

Hey everyone,

8 months into my transformation and i've been able to drop nearly 40lbs since July 2020..... i've counted every calorie, started aggressively on my deficit for the first 4-5 months then upped my calories and stuck with a smaller deficit and finally hit my goal leanness and physique. I am now currently trying to maintain, HOWEVER.... i've noticed a few things...

1. Appetite has sky rocketed (so i've had more episodes of binge eating lately) I also get hungrier when i up my steps..
2. Still confused and trying to determine what my actual maintenance is.. is it what MFP gives me? is it TDEEcalculator.com gives.. is it current body weight x 15??
3. And i'm wondering if i'm suppose to eat those remaining calories from exercise (10k - 20k steps + jump roping) will i still maintain or do i risk gaining weight? I burn between 300 - 600 calories and yes my appetite does go up so I do listen to my body, but i really don't want it to get in the way of maintaining and or even shredding a small few pounds of fat to get more shredded

Current Activity: I Resistance train (weight train) 3x a week and on other days i focus on abs but keep the same daily steps and jump rope activity (Basically 6 days a week i'm always moving).... Now that i'm looking to eat around my maintenance calories i plan to upping my activity.... between 15 - 20k steps a day... (including purposeful steps, jump roping, and natural daily living!)

Notes:
Height 5'5
Current Weight: Fluctuate between 148lbs - 153lbs
10k - 15k steps a day
Jump Rope 15 mins a day
Total Cals burn through exercise: Between 300 - 600



From my Fitbit, and distance apps = My steps currently burn at least 350 - 600 calories
Maintenance based on BWx15 = 2,200 calories
Maintenance based on MFP = 2,500 calories (based on the "Active" option)
Maintenance based on https://tdeecalculator.net/ = about 2,400 calories


Anyways I do hope this helps gives enough info in advance for the wonderful help... THANK YOU SO MUCH!!

- Raden.

PAV8888

Your activity at 15K would be above MFP very active. if you are currently at 10K then active might be reflective.

Have a look at sailrabit. The issue is that you're guessing about your TDEE. Your Fitbit ALSO gives you a daily guess as to your TDEE. NOT how many calories you burned on your walk... that's a lost cause. But the complete all day estimate. <-- that and your food intake logging and weight change can give you your answers.

Each actual lb of weight change represents approximately 3500 Cal.

Now. A couple of things. You cut hard. You cut low (if your avatar is a current representation of you, you're ripped and have developed an awesome physique!) The fact that you're experiencing rebound hunger... is not surprising. It comes from you decreasing your weight and the degree of lean-ness you have achieved.

The only (acceptable) cure that **I** am aware off to fix this is time.
A good amount of time at maintenance.

I would start my "maintenance guess" based on the amount of calories you thought your were cutting according to Fitbit and MFP vs the actual weight you were losing WHEN YOU FIRST STARTED (not when you were ending). Especially if you're planning on increasing activity (which would increase your caloric needs) I would avoid taking my figures from the tail end of your weight loss as it would be likely to lead to an under-estimate of maintenance.

You do have a "few" too many things moving around here so it does make it a bit harder

Let me give you an example of what I am thinking.

if Fitbit and MFP thought you "cut" 14,000 Cal; but you saw a drop of 3lbs during the time you thought you had eaten 14000Cal less, then your 14,000 Cal were, for the purpose of this exercise, actually only 3500*3=11,500 Cal.

And that would mean that your fitbit was off by 14000-11500=2,500 Cal. You would then take that 2500 and divide it by the total amount of Calories your Fitbit said you burned during the timeframe in which you lost the 3lbs.

You would repeat that at different timeframes and establish a monthly and overall error during your weight loss. That should give you a good idea as to how accurately your Fitbit and your logging have been FOR YOU in general.

Now you can just look at your daily total from your fitbit and apply a correction factor based on your findings and be fairly confident you have something actionable... more or less.

It still won't stop you from being hungry... but hopefully enough time at maintenance will.

Some people slowly increase their intake (allowing for a small increase in weight for the sake of the experiment) in a reverse diet trying to increase their food intake while remaining relatively weight stable. This really is a thing and it does work sometimes to an extent.

Of course full scale weight regain will also fix the extra hunger problem... but it would sort of defeat the purpose of the exercise... so let's not go there!

sijomial

"From my Fitbit, and distance apps = My steps currently burn at least 350 - 600 calories"
Are you sure that's just exercise or is it an all day, exercise and activity correction between Fitbit and MFP?
I'd be more interested in what the Fitbit sees as your average TDEE.

"Maintenance based on BWx15 = 2,200 calories"
That's a very poor method that takes no account of age, gender, activity or exercise. I'd be wasting away if I followed that. I hit x24 one day this week!

"Maintenance based on MFP = 2,500 calories (based on the "Active" option)"
It's saying 2500 + exercise. It's not a TDEE estimate, it's TDEE minus exercise.

"Maintenance based on https://tdeecalculator.net/ = about 2,400 calories"
That's a poor calculator. Try the one on Sailrabbit for a far more nuanced estimate.


In your position I'd actually work back from my own data rather than start from scratch.
Add up the totallity of all your calories eaten in last four weeks.
Add 3500cals for every pound lost in that time.
Divide that total by 28.

That's your average TDEE and also takes your food logging accuracy into account.
It may still need adjusting but should give you a decent start point.


On the broader point of taking your exercise into account - yes you do have to take it into account but you get to decide how. Either wrapping it up into an average (TDEE) or a varied daily amount (Fitbit and MFP).
There are pros and cons to each method, what have you done to date?

FitAgainBy55

sijomial wrote: »

In your position I'd actually work back from my own data rather than start from scratch.
Add up the totallity of all your calories eaten in last four weeks.
Add 3500cals for every pound lost in that time.
Divide that total by 28.

+1 to this. Use your real data to calculate your maintenance calories and probably even use that to get a better feel for your actual calorie burns from exercise, if you are willing to crunch the data.

I've done this and determined that my garmin daily adjustment is 300 calories too low for me.

You should be eating ALL of your exercise calories in maintenance. The question, of course, is what is the most accurate estimation of those calories. I personally have always used 100% when tracking exercise discretely. Since I'm in weight loss mode now, I don't do that, I just set my budget at an average deficit based on my average activity level.

intermittentwarrior

FitAgainBy55 wrote: »

sijomial wrote: »

In your position I'd actually work back from my own data rather than start from scratch.
Add up the totallity of all your calories eaten in last four weeks.
Add 3500cals for every pound lost in that time.
Divide that total by 28.

+1 to this. Use your real data to calculate your maintenance calories and probably even use that to get a better feel for your actual calorie burns from exercise, if you are willing to crunch the data.

I've done this and determined that my garmin daily adjustment is 300 calories too low for me.

You should be eating ALL of your exercise calories in maintenance. The question, of course, is what is the most accurate estimation of those calories. I personally have always used 100% when tracking exercise discretely. Since I'm in weight loss mode now, I don't do that, I just set my budget at an average deficit based on my average activity level.

got, did you find by eating 100% of those exercises to cause some weight gain? like actual weight gain or was it the general water i can easily get rid of from a short cut? this is probably where my mind keeps running around in circles

heybales

If you do the calc's as explained, you aren't eating over maintenance - you are in effect eating the exercise calories - think about it.

If you are thinking do the calc's - and then add exercise on - think over the process again.

Yes, eating at maintenance generally causes water weight gain - same fast water weight lost when people start a diet.
Also more food remains in the body in a holding pattern, but also more stored glucose and attached water weight.
That is generally all over water added if using muscles that way - won't see it.

A 1 week diet (not even as extreme as it sounds like you were doing) will do that initial drop of water weight if you need to hit some weight limit for an event.

sijomial

intermittentwarrior wrote: »

FitAgainBy55 wrote: »

sijomial wrote: »

In your position I'd actually work back from my own data rather than start from scratch.
Add up the totallity of all your calories eaten in last four weeks.
Add 3500cals for every pound lost in that time.
Divide that total by 28.

+1 to this. Use your real data to calculate your maintenance calories and probably even use that to get a better feel for your actual calorie burns from exercise, if you are willing to crunch the data.

I've done this and determined that my garmin daily adjustment is 300 calories too low for me.

You should be eating ALL of your exercise calories in maintenance. The question, of course, is what is the most accurate estimation of those calories. I personally have always used 100% when tracking exercise discretely. Since I'm in weight loss mode now, I don't do that, I just set my budget at an average deficit based on my average activity level.

got, did you find by eating 100% of those exercises to cause some weight gain? like actual weight gain or was it the general water i can easily get rid of from a short cut? this is probably where my mind keeps running around in circles

Maintenance needs a longer perspective and realisation it's just a numbers game and not life or death if the scales jump up a couple of pounds.
If you are "running around in circles" you need to take a deep breath, set a number and stick to it for a few weeks and then adjust if required. Be prepared to experiment.
Fluctuations in weight are normal, expected and continue for the rest of your life, don't fall into the trap of over-reacting or over-managing what is normal.

WPBullock

If your picture is an accurate representation, you may be on the verge of going sub-10-12% body fat? I've read things that say if you go to low, you lose testosterone. Too high is bad too. Compare yourself to some Google images for percent body fat that show a spectrum of body fat. You may be hungry because your body knows you've gone far enough.

Just a thought. Looking great, dude!

Wes

mylittlerainbow

What has worked best for me is not TDEE, not MFP suggestions, but simple experimentation. When I eat X calories per day (my exercise level doesn't fluctuate a lot from day to day), I lose weight slowly. When I eat X+Y calories per day, I gain weight slowly. So next I'll try X + Y/2. And so on. I am pretty stable now within a 2-lb range for the most part. (Down a little just now because I needed a cushion for something, but for the most part, I have figured out how much to eat each day.)

SnifterPug

My approach to maintenance is to set an acceptable channel of weight numbers with, say, a spread of 7lb. So long as my weight falls within that channel all is good. If it moves out of that channel I go on alert (may just be a fluctuation) and possibly adjust calories a tiny bit, but if it stays out of that channel for more than a week I take more drastic action.