How do I know if calorie limit set is good for weight loss when just starting out?

aqscott87

Just starting, I’m a wheelchair user so how do I know if calorie count is appropriate for weight loss?

csplatt

None of us quite know when starting out. We give it a try for about two months then reassess how effective it was!

PAV8888

It does depend on how much activity you actually do with your wheelchair especially whether it's manual or mechanized.

https://pacompendium.com has an updated section on manual wheelchair activity and there is some support that base activity may be about .2 met or so less than for someone not on a wheelchair

I don't know how much weight you need to lose, age, height, activity level etc but my off the bat expectation would be that you may need to "keep things conservative" and that you may see slightly less dramatic effects because your actual deficits may end up proving to be a bit smaller then expected.

That said: there is no timeline for results. Start with a reasonable target and adjust based on longer term results and trends.

I have this thing about large deficits where I think they often end up being counter productive. But you may find yourself aiming for 500 to get 250 or shooting for 750 to get 500 sort of thing. If you do, then it is unlikely that your tdee would support anything more aggressive than that anyway because a minimum level of nutrition still has to be achieved.

totameafox

I am disabled. I am not wheel chair bound. I am looking to get a wheel chair but fingers crossed it will just be helpful for times when I need to travel long distances. My standing time is pretty short. But I have always been disabled. I can promise you that you can lose weight sitting on your bottom without one lick of exercise. I've lost 32 lbs without any meaningful activity. I'm not even sure that the 'exercise' I am doing now is meaningful. I still consider myself to be sedentary when I put my numbers into mfp or any tdee calculator.

the weight I've mentioned was lost back in 2008. Of course I found it again. But I have lost 15.6lbs so far and my daily exercise is chair yoga and chair tai chi. so it's doable. just trust the numbers that mfp gave you when you filled out your goals.

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/147555-speak-friend-and-enter

Kiwi2mfp

Simply put, you try it out! Track your calorie intake and weight for a few weeks as see what happens. If you lose, then you are on the right track, if you'd like to lose more then you adjust your calories down a bit and try that out for a couple weeks. As you lose weight, your weightloss will likely slow a bit. If you would like to maintain that original pace then you might need to lower your calories a bit. But don't go too low! Be sure to stay hydrated also. Water retention can really mess up your ability to rightly track your weight because water loss and retention can make a huge impact on your weight. If I have a bad day where u eat a lot of carbs and salty foods and neglect my water...it might take me 3 days to get back down to my weight before the bad day. That's not because I ate 3500-7000 calories above maintenance in one day...it's because I am retaining water! But don't let the unknowns stop you from starting. You will come to know the process and your body well enough once you get started and going on this journey.