Are my calculations correct?

arnnanz

I’m a woman nearly 40, 5”5’ and 179lb. Athletic/muscular build (tho of course overweight). Wanting to get to where I’m comfortable at 132lb. Currently I walk 45mins in morning and 25mins at night, with my dog. I get in my 10,000 steps a day, not sure what level of activity this makes me. How much will I be burning?

Now refocusing on my latest weight loss effort, I’m dismayed to find I can barely keep below 2000 cal a day without searing hunger. I had 130g protein yesterday and still had it.

I just want some reassurance that eating 1900-2000 cals a day is going to result in fat loss for me.

It seems a huge amount of food and I don’t know how much I’m expending. Thanks.

AnnPT77

Only experience will tell you for sure. TDEE calculator** suggests your maintenance calories could be in the 2200-2500 range, maybe a little higher, which if true would mean 1900-2000 would result in fat loss between half a pound and a pound a week on average, which would be reasonable.

I'm 5'5", 65, not crazy muscular (more than average, I guess), 125 pounds, would lose very slowly at 1900-2000 (but I'm a mysteriously good li'l ol' calorie burner to start with compared to calculator estimates, then do some fairly substantial exercise, though don't usually get 10k steps).

Satiation varies. Is protein for sure sating for you? Some people feel fuller with more fats, or volume foods, or even specific food choices (quite varied, though oatmeal and baked potatoes are a couple of common ones). 130g of protein seems like quite a lot for someone our height. You said you're athletic build: Do you think you have 130 pounds of lean body mass? (I think I have 90-95ish pounds LBM.) Sometimes timing of eating matters, too . . . or even sleep.

How long have you been reducing calories? It's not unusual to have a couple of weeks feeling more hungry, before one gets accustomed to a lower level.

There are quite a few possible factors to consider, honestly. Hope you can find a successful route, though!

** I used https://www.sailrabbit.com/bmr/

Lietchi

To add to what AnnPT77 has said, 10000 steps would put you at active in MFP's activity level settings.

I'd say: simply try it and see if it works. We're all different. It's best to give it a full menstrual cycle to filter out weight fluctuations and see the actual fat loss trend.
1900-2000 calories isn't really 'huge', IMHO. I average around 1900 a day, while still losing weight very slowly and I'm 5ft5 and 139lbs (smaller body needs less calories) but l also exercise fairly regularly on top of 10-15k steps per day.

Machka9

If you go to My Home > Goals > View Guided Setup, you'll see this:

How would you describe your normal daily activities?

• Sedentary: Spend most of the day sitting (e.g. bank teller, desk job)
• Lightly Active: Spend a good part of the day on your feet (e.g. teacher, salesperson)
• Active: Spend a good part of the day doing some physical activity (e.g. food server, postal carrier)
• Very Active: Spend most of the day doing heavy physical activity (e.g. bike messenger, carpenter)

Also, according to some articles I've read, 10,000 steps is about 8 kilometres, and the "average person" may cover 3000 steps in 30 minutes. Google it and you'll see.

So 45 min + 25 min might not = 10,000 steps. But maybe you're walking really fast.


There is no firm answer to your question. Maybe ... maybe not.


Personally, I opted to enter myself as Sedentary and chose to lose 0.25 kg/week. And then I add my exercise in when I do it because I do different things each day. Thus what I eat may vary a bit - slightly more on days when I'm quite active, less on inactive days.

I would maintain or gain on 1900-2000 calories, but you might not. 1600-1700 is a better range for me. Try a range for a month ... if you start to lose weight, great! If not, maybe lower the calorie intake a little bit.

I have found that the hunger fades away after a while. The first week or two it's fairly intense, I think because your brain wants the food. Later your brain is used to less so it's OK. Just my theory.

Lietchi

Machka9 wrote: »

If you go to My Home > Goals > View Guided Setup, you'll see this:

How would you describe your normal daily activities?

• Sedentary: Spend most of the day sitting (e.g. bank teller, desk job)
• Lightly Active: Spend a good part of the day on your feet (e.g. teacher, salesperson)
• Active: Spend a good part of the day doing some physical activity (e.g. food server, postal carrier)
• Very Active: Spend most of the day doing heavy physical activity (e.g. bike messenger, carpenter)

MFP really needs to update its explanations, the activity level covers all regular daily activity excluding intentional exercise (not just a person's job). Even with a sedentary job, a person can be active due to walking to and from work, taking care of children, house chores, walking the dog, hobbies,... Their examples are misleading by only mentioning jobs.
I don't remember the numbers precisely, but sedentary would be around 3000 steps, 10000 steps is certainly in the active range.

Machka9

@Alex ... you're a mod, right?

Has MFP updated their descriptions of what Sedentary, Lightly Active, etc. are?

Machka9

Lietchi wrote: »

Machka9 wrote: »

If you go to My Home > Goals > View Guided Setup, you'll see this:

How would you describe your normal daily activities?

• Sedentary: Spend most of the day sitting (e.g. bank teller, desk job)
• Lightly Active: Spend a good part of the day on your feet (e.g. teacher, salesperson)
• Active: Spend a good part of the day doing some physical activity (e.g. food server, postal carrier)
• Very Active: Spend most of the day doing heavy physical activity (e.g. bike messenger, carpenter)

MFP really needs to update its explanations, the activity level covers all regular daily activity excluding intentional exercise (not just a person's job). Even with a sedentary job, a person can be active due to walking to and from work, taking care of children, house chores, walking the dog, hobbies,... Their examples are misleading by only mentioning jobs.
I don't remember the numbers precisely, but sedentary would be around 3000 steps, 10000 steps is certainly in the active range.

I would count walking to and from work and walking the dog as intentional exercise.

If your hobby is dancing - that would be intentional exercise too.

Taking care of children? Depends ... if you are taking them to the playground and you're running around playing with them, again, intentional exercise.

House chores? If I'm doing a major spring clean, I'll count it as intentional exercise. Otherwise, the half hour of house chores doesn't negate the fact that I spend most of the day sitting.


Today, for example, I ran 6.7 km, walked 0.8 km, rode my bicycle 7.8 km and climbed 34 flights of stairs. 124 minutes. A day has 1440 minutes.

124/1440 = 8.6% of my time was spent exercising. Pretty much all the rest of the time was spent sitting (or lying down sleeping). To me, that's sedentary. Plus 900 extra calories of exercise.

Lietchi

That's your strategy, fine if it works for you. But I'm certainly not logging my commute walks as exercise, nor the steps taken while doing house chores etc. That's just daily life to me.

As long as it's accounted somewhere (activity level or exercise) whatever works for you.
But if OP is not logging her 10k steps as exercise, she should select active as her activity level.

88olds

The calculators and gadgets have their limits. They get their numbers based on averages and statistics. But no one is exactly average. There’s really no way to know how many calories we are burning without being hooked up in a lab. Plus there are always going to be calorie counting gray areas. But it’s all ok. Calorie counting doesn’t have to be perfect to work. But it does help to be consistent.

If you read this board a lot you’ll see folks losing their minds because the numbers put out by the calculators don’t work for them. Then instead of adjusting the numbers based on their own experience they decide that it’s impossible to lose weight because the calculators have proved their bodies are damaged somehow. We lose weight eating in a calorie deficit. It’s not always easy to find the number that works right now. And not always easy to live with once we find it

Long way to say try the numbers the calculators give you and test it for about 4-6 weeks and see how it goes. If you aren’t losing weight by then, tinker with the numbers until you are losing.

Something I’ve found is that even eating high protein, if I fail to eat enough fat, I get this agitated never satisfied thing going that doesn’t feel very good. Might want to look at your fat intake.