I don't even know where I'm going wrong - please help : (

wilsoje74

It is so very confusing!
I've had lower goals in the past and still gained on them. I stuck to 1600 a year or two back and after losing 2 kg in the first month gained 8 over the next 4. I weighed and logged everything. OK it was plus exercise but even the overestimation of exercise that MFP is known for wouldn't have amounted to an extra 1000 calories a day to go from a lb loss to a lb gain, right?!

I'm sure it was the "plus exercise" that caused you fail. It only takes an extra 500 calories a day to gain a lb a week. It's very easy to let those 500 slip by you - a treat at Starbucks with your coffee, someone brings doughnuts to work, you grab a bag of trail mix when you stop for gas, an extra helping of something tasty...I know, I did it for years and would have sworn on a stack of bibles that I wasn't eating a bite over 1800 calories a day TOPS, but when I started counting it was more like 2500.

I don't do that, what I meant was more just to confirm that I ate my "exercise calories".

So, 2100 PLUS exercise cals??? Seems really high to lose.

lilacinfinity

It is so very confusing!
I've had lower goals in the past and still gained on them. I stuck to 1600 a year or two back and after losing 2 kg in the first month gained 8 over the next 4. I weighed and logged everything. OK it was plus exercise but even the overestimation of exercise that MFP is known for wouldn't have amounted to an extra 1000 calories a day to go from a lb loss to a lb gain, right?!

I'm sure it was the "plus exercise" that caused you fail. It only takes an extra 500 calories a day to gain a lb a week. It's very easy to let those 500 slip by you - a treat at Starbucks with your coffee, someone brings doughnuts to work, you grab a bag of trail mix when you stop for gas, an extra helping of something tasty...I know, I did it for years and would have sworn on a stack of bibles that I wasn't eating a bite over 1800 calories a day TOPS, but when I started counting it was more like 2500.

I don't do that, what I meant was more just to confirm that I ate my "exercise calories".

So, 2100 PLUS exercise cals??? Seems really high to lose.

Oh, no - 1600 + exercise back then

jonnythan

OP uses a Fitbit. The entire point of the Fitbit is to calculate your actual calories burned every day for you, so you don't have to mess with calculators and estimations and TDEE and activity levels.

If the OP logs accurately and consistently, and consistently eats fewer calories than the Fitbit says she's burned, she will lose weight.

lilacinfinity

OP uses a Fitbit. The entire point of the Fitbit is to calculate your actual calories burned every day for you, so you don't have to mess with calculators and estimations and TDEE and activity levels.

If the OP logs accurately and consistently, and consistently eats fewer calories than the Fitbit says she's burned, she will lose weight.

But everyone is telling me that the ~2100 that my fitbit gives me on work days is too much to eat because I'm sedentary?

PinkNinjaLaura

OP uses a Fitbit. The entire point of the Fitbit is to calculate your actual calories burned every day for you, so you don't have to mess with calculators and estimations and TDEE and activity levels.

If the OP logs accurately and consistently, and consistently eats fewer calories than the Fitbit says she's burned, she will lose weight.

But everyone is telling me that the ~2100 that my fitbit gives me on work days is too much to eat because I'm sedentary?

How aggressively do you have your weight loss goal set within fitbit? It gives me way fewer calories than that and I'm pretty active.

jonnythan

OP uses a Fitbit. The entire point of the Fitbit is to calculate your actual calories burned every day for you, so you don't have to mess with calculators and estimations and TDEE and activity levels.

If the OP logs accurately and consistently, and consistently eats fewer calories than the Fitbit says she's burned, she will lose weight.

But everyone is telling me that the ~2100 that my fitbit gives me on work days is too much to eat because I'm sedentary?

Trust the Fitbit.

Does it say you've burned that much or that you should eat that much? How much does it say you've burned on work days?

ellew70

Skip MFP's NEAT method (which is a royal PIA, IMHO because then you have to throw exercise calories into the mix and make it more difficult), and try this one: http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/

And for an excellent overview of this whole thing, read this: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/819055-setting-your-calorie-and-macro-targets

Yup someone else has given me that and I asked her to help but I took too long so she's gotten angry and gone...
So...
I get stuck when having to choose the activity factor... I don't do much "exercise" but nor do I have a desk job. I don't do 7-21 hours of strenuous exercise, but more than 1-3 hours of light movement

I would go with sedentary and err on underestimating your exercise calories. If you find that you are really hungry and bonking out, you an always go up. Either that or figure it for sedentary and the next one up and average it out.

It really is trial and error, but it seems as if over estimating your activity level hasn't helped to date and may be responsible for your issues..

Oh, and log and weigh everything. Yeah, me too. But its shocking that first week you do it and what you thought was a tablespoon of dressing is really a 1/4 cup. and there is a mobile app for your phone which makes it much easier if you have a smart phone. No excuses.

lilacinfinity

How aggressively do you have your weight loss goal set within fitbit? It gives me way fewer calories than that and I'm pretty active.

The lowest intensity one - 250 deficit I think it is? I don't have a huge amount I want to lose.

ETA: I might be a lot heavier than you?

ellew70

It is so very confusing!
I've had lower goals in the past and still gained on them. I stuck to 1600 a year or two back and after losing 2 kg in the first month gained 8 over the next 4. I weighed and logged everything. OK it was plus exercise but even the overestimation of exercise that MFP is known for wouldn't have amounted to an extra 1000 calories a day to go from a lb loss to a lb gain, right?!

I'm sure it was the "plus exercise" that caused you fail. It only takes an extra 500 calories a day to gain a lb a week. It's very easy to let those 500 slip by you - a treat at Starbucks with your coffee, someone brings doughnuts to work, you grab a bag of trail mix when you stop for gas, an extra helping of something tasty...I know, I did it for years and would have sworn on a stack of bibles that I wasn't eating a bite over 1800 calories a day TOPS, but when I started counting it was more like 2500.

I don't do that, what I meant was more just to confirm that I ate my "exercise calories".

Unless you wear an HRM -- and even then (and I include the FitBit) -- its very difficult to track your exercise calories in an accurate enough way to eat them back. I hate MFPs calculator for that reason and would go with the TDEE, which doesn't required it. Which I understand you are trying to do, although lots of people get confused and try to eat back calories under TDEE when its already built in.

lilacinfinity

OP uses a Fitbit. The entire point of the Fitbit is to calculate your actual calories burned every day for you, so you don't have to mess with calculators and estimations and TDEE and activity levels.

If the OP logs accurately and consistently, and consistently eats fewer calories than the Fitbit says she's burned, she will lose weight.

But everyone is telling me that the ~2100 that my fitbit gives me on work days is too much to eat because I'm sedentary?

Trust the Fitbit.

Does it say you've burned that much or that you should eat that much? How much does it say you've burned on work days?

Last week daily burn was:
1972 (had a negative adjustment, but can't remember what it was cos I changed my goals and now my diary for anything earlier than today is all screwy)
2494
2321
2211
2460
2379
2367 (I did an extra day at work that week, normally it would be much the same as Sunday's total so another negative adjustment)

PinkNinjaLaura

How aggressively do you have your weight loss goal set within fitbit? It gives me way fewer calories than that and I'm pretty active.

The lowest intensity one - 250 deficit I think it is? I don't have a huge amount I want to lose.

Since you're not losing at that setting, I would recommend bumping it up. Try the -750 for a few weeks and see how that works out. If you start losing too fast you can always drop it back down again.

jonnythan

Since you're not losing at that setting, I would recommend bumping it up. Try the -750 for a few weeks and see how that works out. If you start losing too fast you can always drop it back down again.

She's not logging. We can draw no conclusions about whether her targets are appropriate or not.

Taem2

Have you ever seen a bird in the wild, so fat it couldn't fly? No, do you think it counts calories, probably not. =] If logging food is tough, then you should avoid refined, processed foods and foods like cheese, oils, meats and stick to foods like veggies and fruits. I promise you can eat as much veggies and fruits and you won't have to count calories and lose weight. As soon as you eat processed foods, meats, dairy, oils and seafood though, you have to start counting.

Logging is fun because it does give you an approximate gauge of how many calories you are consuming, but these are not 100% accurate (this is my opinion). Use the tracking as a tool not a crutch.

jonnythan

OP uses a Fitbit. The entire point of the Fitbit is to calculate your actual calories burned every day for you, so you don't have to mess with calculators and estimations and TDEE and activity levels.

If the OP logs accurately and consistently, and consistently eats fewer calories than the Fitbit says she's burned, she will lose weight.

But everyone is telling me that the ~2100 that my fitbit gives me on work days is too much to eat because I'm sedentary?

Trust the Fitbit.

Does it say you've burned that much or that you should eat that much? How much does it say you've burned on work days?

Last week daily burn was:
1972 (had a negative adjustment, but can't remember what it was cos I changed my goals and now my diary for anything earlier than today is all screwy)
2494
2321
2211
2460
2379
2367 (I did an extra day at work that week, normally it would be much the same as Sunday's total so another negative adjustment)

IMO you should switch to the -500 goal since you have more than 5 or 10 pounds to lose.

But, again, logging is absolutely critical and your lack of logging is the reason you're not seeing results.

jonnythan

Have you ever seen a bird in the wild, so fat it couldn't fly?

That does happen... you just never see them because a predator eats them first.

PinkNinjaLaura

How aggressively do you have your weight loss goal set within fitbit? It gives me way fewer calories than that and I'm pretty active.

The lowest intensity one - 250 deficit I think it is? I don't have a huge amount I want to lose.

ETA: I might be a lot heavier than you?

You're not much heavier than me right now...and I've lost 25kg (if the Google conversion calculator is to be believed) so I started out quite a bit heavier than you are. I think if you set your goals a little more aggressively (either -500 or -750) and start logging again you'll see results. You need that 500 calorie deficit every day to lose a pound a week, so looking at your burn for the past week you're pretty much eating at maintenance, which is why you're not losing.

lilacinfinity

You're not much heavier than me right now...and I've lost 25kg (if the Google conversion calculator is to be believed) so I started out quite a bit heavier than you are. I think if you set your goals a little more aggressively (either -500 or -750) and start logging again you'll see results. You need that 500 calorie deficit every day to lose a pound a week, so looking at your burn for the past week you're pretty much eating at maintenance, which is why you're not losing.

I'd be happy with 1/2 lb per week. I'd even be happy with maintaining right now because I maintained on 3000ish, rather than this steady down-1-up-3 gain.

But yeah, loggy log log log. Must log better so everyone believes me I logged for yesterday and have logged today now.

FlaxMilk

This is my favorite TDEE calculator (though I just use MFP's system):

http://www.exrx.net/Calculators/CalRequire.html

I agree that consistent logging is probably the answer. If that doesn't work, I'd have some bloodwork done. (You may have said you already have, I can't remember.)

Check out these videos from another thread for how poor most of us are at logging/estimating:

http://youtu.be/KA9AdlhB18o
http://youtu.be/eTr1JUvEiUU

To be honest, since you lose and then gain, my guess is that you do really well, lose, gain some satisfaction, loosen up on the vigilance on your intake, and regain. Rinse and repeat. (That's my biggest downfall. There's no mystery when I gain weight--I'm slacking on something, pure and simple.)

snazzyjazzy21

OP uses a Fitbit. The entire point of the Fitbit is to calculate your actual calories burned every day for you, so you don't have to mess with calculators and estimations and TDEE and activity levels.

If the OP logs accurately and consistently, and consistently eats fewer calories than the Fitbit says she's burned, she will lose weight.

But everyone is telling me that the ~2100 that my fitbit gives me on work days is too much to eat because I'm sedentary?

I can easy burn 2500 cals on a work day, before any exercise, so I don't think it's a stretch by any means.

EmmaOnTrack

Well what a mighty sh!tstorm this has created!

You're getting plenty of good advice here so I wont repeat any of it, but in response to one of your earlier posts...I'LL be your friend if you're still looking for some. Feel free to add me so I can kick your butt in private...us Kiwi's gotta stick together!!

:happy:

wilsoje74

Wow I can't imagine maintaining on 3000!! You must be tall!!

RenshiG

You'll be fine... just start to get into the habit of weighing, measuring, logging everything, then start the habit of doing it every single day. It'll soon be second nature - and well worth the effort when you see those kilos drop off you!

Good luck! :-) x

One thing that helped me a little is taking a day during the weekend and pre-measuring portions of quinoa, rice etc and put them away in zip bags or other containers. I do that with my "take to work" food. Not really possible for the family batches.

Also, I noticed that after only doing it for a couple weeks I have gotten a much more reasonable and realistic understanding of portion sizes so even when I don't have my scale I am a lot less likely to overestimate now..... I ..... think.... :grumble:

Hildy_J

Yes I will log better

Yay! Smart lady. :-) xx