Exercise calorie estimation

steelfallenangel

For those TTDR: can I safely eat calories from the exercise burned side of the equation or can I not trust the app/iPhone when trying to lose 2lb a week.

So I’ve been using this app for about two weeks having previously done the calorie counting just in my head for about two weeks before that (my mental math ended up being pretty close) but I’m curious on one subject that has me worried.

I’m 5”10 220lb and am shooting to lose 20-30lb over the next several months. The app tell me that my goal should be 2050 calories a day to average 2lbs a week.

While 2000 calories is rough for my life (will touch upon this in a moment) it is doable just not really pleasant.

The question however lies in how the app tracks exercise especially in regards to syncing with a iPhone pedometer for steps walked.

The issue is I walk on average 20,000 steps a day with many days touching 28000-30000 and the app telling me I’ve opened up something like 400-800 additional calories (I work in a restaurant in the front of the house and this is simply my basic routine and doesn’t include specific exercise like cycling)

If my goal is 2lb a week how safe is it for me to be touching into those exercise calories. I ask because on days that I don’t touch them I feel completely wiped out and on days I do touch into them I feel far more at peace, still a bit hungry but not lethargic hungry. (before you ask yes the bulk of my diet is high in protein but isn’t specifically keto or Atkins, just simply a whole lot of grilled/boiled/steamed/baked chicken breast meals)

Lietchi

Weight loss should be sustainable. So saying that you feel wiped out when you don't eat your extra calories, is already a bad sign. Also, losing 2lbs a week could be okay at your current weight, but I would definitely suggest slowing it down as you lose weight (losing 0.5-1% of your bodyweight is the general recommendation).

As for the numbers: the thing to understand is that both MFP's calorie goal and the calories your step tracker give you are estimates based on population averages. You, as an individual, may or may not be average: this goes both ways, your metabolism could be slower, but also faster than average. The best strategy is to monitor your weight and adjust accordingly.
An extra 400-800 calories certainly doesn't sound crazy (you are well beyond the highest activity level setting on MFP).

To reassure you: losing 2lbs a week means a daily calorie deficit of 1000 calories. So even if those extra activity calories are somehow exaggerated (or your overall metabolism is slower than average) that's still a huge margin. On the other hand, not eating them, would mean increasing an already aggressive calorie deficit even further, with (as you've noticed) unpleasant side effects.

Since you feel wiped out only eating your base calorie goal, I would recommend eating all of your extra calories for a few weeks and seeing what happens. The worst that can happen is that you lose more slowly than intended - no drama, you can simply readjust your calorie goal if necessary. Weight loss doesn't have to mean suffering. The best weight loss strategy is the one you'll stick with, rather than give up because it's too hard.

sijomial

"The app tell me that my goal should be 2050 calories a day to average 2lbs a week."
That statement needs unpicking a bit.
The MFP app actually works out your weight maintenance calories for a day with no purposeful exercise outside of your daily normal activity.
But with all those steps even picking the highest activity setting isn't high enough for you.
In reality 3,050 plus purposeful exercise calories is still most likely a deficit and you are then choosing to take 1000cals/day off that number so pretty aggressive.

"The question however lies in how the app tracks exercise especially in regards to syncing with a iPhone pedometer for steps walked."
Apple integration to MFP doesn't work well and remember in MFP terms those steps are really in the sphere of activity and not exercise.
You mention biking - if that's road biking be cautious about using MFP's estimates as they are pretty poor, there's much better ways.

"The issue is I walk on average 20,000 steps a day with many days touching 28000-30000 and the app telling me I’ve opened up something like 400-800 additional calories (I work in a restaurant in the front of the house and this is simply my basic routine and doesn’t include specific exercise like cycling)"
That's a huge and very unusual level of activity which is outside the norm of how MFP would set your goals. Doesn't seem an unreasonable adjustment at all.

"If my goal is 2lb a week how safe is it for me to be touching into those exercise calories."
Safe is an interesting choice of words!
For someone not morbidly obese and in imminent threat of weight related illness then the safe option is picking a moderate deficit and being cautious about avoiding an excessive deficit. There's really nothing unsafe about taking a bit longer to lose 20 - 30lbs in your situation.
Activity and exercise are perfectly normal caloric needs of your body and if you are calorie counting then count (estimate) calories in and out because it's your calorie balance you are trying to manage.

" I ask because on days that I don’t touch them I feel completely wiped out and on days I do touch into them I feel far more at peace, still a bit hungry but not lethargic hungry."
Don't make dieting feel like a punishment! It doesn't have to be hateful.
If you are feeling like that so soon it's only get worse the longer you persist.


PS - I lost c. 30lbs at 1lb / week and it was pretty painless and the transition to long term weight maintenance at goal weight was a breeze as it wasn't a huge contrast between dieting and maintaining.

steelfallenangel

sijomial wrote: »

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I guess I only set the app a active instead of whatever the final choice was since I remember reading somewhere that they treated anything between 10k-40k steps as “active and only over 40k as intense daily activity. Should I move up the activity level to the final tier or leave it alone?

And as for your comment near the end about health risks. I guess I just was aggressive because by many metrics I am classified as obese. BMI puts me half way between obese and extremely obese while hip to waist also marks me as obese. (Note my blood pressure however is within the healthy range) so I have a number of metrics all pointing to obesity and not simply to being overweight. Like to reach what BMI would view as “healthy” i would have to lose minimally 60lbs (something I feel is a bit absurd given my build). And the frustration that more balanced approach’s failed to achieve any visible results.

What I mean is that I started taking better care of myself about 4 years ago. Really cut back on soda, cut out fried food nearly entirely out of my diet, rarely get sweets and transitioning heavily over from burgers and fries nearly every lunch (cause restaurant) to broiled chicken and sautéed vegetable side and upping my daily walking game outside of work. And while I hadn’t expected huge results, having maintained those kinds of life changes over multiple years only to find I was still merely maintaining the same weight that I stated with (and no it wasn’t simply muscle build replacing since I was conscious but not extremely so about excess fat around my midsection, and saw no change in paint size or belt size over the 4 years) was very disheartening. Like I have the same Dunlap I had when I started taking better care of myself that I do today. Thus my more aggressive stance of calories in this context. But I am being vigilant of outright starving myself since some of my coworkers are suggesting not going far enough even at 2050 and should be going down to 1600-1800, something that just struck me as dangerous.

sijomial

Yes I would suggest switching to Very Active setting.

Being 60lbs overweight does mean picking 2lbs/week loss becomes far more reasonable as a start.
For sustainability (which is more important than speed) rapid loss does make a hard job harder but it does sound you need the boost of seeing some tangible results after 4 years of eating more healthily.

After a few weeks whatever you pick as a deficit you will see your actual trend weight start to emerge and you can adjust based on both results and how you are feeling.

Retroguy2000

After four years of eating healthier as you've described, I would expect you to lose weight. Have you compared pictures then and now? You may look different while around the same weight.

Did you track calories then? I wonder if you were having a lot of some snack or drink that was much higher in fat or sugar than you thought.

If you are consistently under TDEE for calories and not getting results, it may be worth checking for other health issues like thyroid.

AnnPT77

steelfallenangel wrote: »

For those TTDR: can I safely eat calories from the exercise burned side of the equation or can I not trust the app/iPhone when trying to lose 2lb a week.

So I’ve been using this app for about two weeks having previously done the calorie counting just in my head for about two weeks before that (my mental math ended up being pretty close) but I’m curious on one subject that has me worried.

I’m 5”10 220lb and am shooting to lose 20-30lb over the next several months. The app tell me that my goal should be 2050 calories a day to average 2lbs a week.

While 2000 calories is rough for my life (will touch upon this in a moment) it is doable just not really pleasant.

The question however lies in how the app tracks exercise especially in regards to syncing with a iPhone pedometer for steps walked.

The issue is I walk on average 20,000 steps a day with many days touching 28000-30000 and the app telling me I’ve opened up something like 400-800 additional calories (I work in a restaurant in the front of the house and this is simply my basic routine and doesn’t include specific exercise like cycling)

If my goal is 2lb a week how safe is it for me to be touching into those exercise calories. I ask because on days that I don’t touch them I feel completely wiped out and on days I do touch into them I feel far more at peace, still a bit hungry but not lethargic hungry. (before you ask yes the bulk of my diet is high in protein but isn’t specifically keto or Atkins, just simply a whole lot of grilled/boiled/steamed/baked chicken breast meals)

This is not new in this thread, but I want to underscore what others have said about the bolded:

If you're getting lethargic hungry, that's a sign that your target is probably too aggressive for your personal situation.

Whether you think of the solution to that as eating your exercise calories, or resetting your goal to something like a pound a week, or increasing your activity level setting - not super important, compared to paying attention to the flashing caution sign and eating more somehow.

Think about it: Lethargy is counter-productive for weight loss. Bodies are smart. If we eat too little, to the point that energy drops, either our body will down-regulate activity level (perhaps in subtle ways) so we burn fewer calories, or there will (probably) be a compensatory over-eating episode (or a full quit) in the future.

According to research, just fidgeting can burn low hundreds of calories per day. Would you notice if your movement patterns became less lively, in ways like that? If your hair growth was slower (before it started to thin, which is also possible, but is usually a delayed effect), or your core body temperature dropped a fraction of a degree, or something like that? Resting more or sleeping longer are more obvious impacts. Gradually feeling less interested in active social events, or complicated/effortful home chores, are other examples.

One way or another, I'd strongly encourage you to eat more. Lethargy is a warning sign.

Retroguy2000

Ignore my earlier post. I replied to the wrong thread, sorry.

steelfallenangel

AnnPT77 wrote: »

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That was kinda my reason for asking here. While it may come off as dangerous or me being reckless with some of my wording or comments, in truth I’m am trying to be observant of warning signs for bad habits or other pitfalls. The whole reluctance to do calorie counting originally and try to tackle the problem sideways was because I knew how many ways entering in such a system can fail or cause bad outcomes, especially after seeing so many friends and family look like they were suffering through it back in the 90s and early 00s with more traditional examples like weight watchers. Add to that asking people in person about their own experiences led me to think it wasn’t out of the question to feel absolutely drained or effected like this. With one coworker informing me that she still battles constantly every hour of every day with hunger to keep her weight off describing it in vicious detail.

For me it was more that I wasn’t trying to add more exercise to allow me to eat more but rather I was trying to work in reverse. How much can I eat given my level of activity and goals. Like I wouldn’t look at the end of a day if I was 100 over my goal and feel I need to jog around the block. But instead work from the perceptive of I have 200 calories left today what can I eat that would satisfy and keep me under or only just over that target goal.

And yes I was trying to be observant of what I think they call compensatory habits (the whole I went to the gym so I don’t take the stairs but the elevator). When I first started calorie counting I was trying to be super mindful to try and notice shifts in my speed and activity engagement. The lethargy comment was me in a roundabout way of asking is this simply a hump I need to overcome or is this something different. Which the consensus being no this is not a hump you are simply not consuming enough. And I have moderated my eating to more closely follow the expanded ange that the apps “exercise” calories offer. I will also over the next few weeks look into switching to the highest activity level, I’m just waiting on doing that because I’m trying to book a appointment with a nutritionist to try and get a measurement of my metabolism to give me some peace of mind instead of just looking at what a simple math equation says it should be roughly, and to help better gauge any results I can expect. While I know it’s not a exact science if they can give me a far more nuanced or specific caloric goal that would be helpful.