setting calories

superhelga

I'm confused.. So I adjusted my weight loss goal as recommended to maintenance, as recommended and I got 1200 extra calories to consume per day (total 2600). 1200 more... really? Doesn't seem right. And then in 2 weeks I have to add yet another 300 calories for 2nd trimester. Does this match your numbers?
The only way I can eat these many calories, and exercise calories too is to go back to bad old habits of muffins, pizza and chocolate..

stephysd

My maintenance is 1730, but I am 5'3" and currently 148 lbs. Everyone's maintenance will be different depending on their height and current weight. Oblivious don't start going back to your bad habits. Do you have a lot of morning sickness? It may currently be hard to hit your maintenance amount when you are not feeling the best. I was only eating about 1000 to 1200 until I was put on an anti-nausea medicine. Now I usually hit my goal for the most part. Another thing to watch instead of just your calories, check your macros and micros. I don't put in my prenatal vitamin even though I am taking it daily. I try to watch my macros and micros and adjust my diet to get as close to the recommended percentages without the supplement. Since starting to do that, I have noticed that I usually get close to my goal.

ETA: Also it will make a difference what your activity level is and if you have marked that you work out. My activity level is sedentary as I work a desk job 4 days a week. I do not have any workouts planned, and when I do get out and about and do some activity that is above my normal daily living I will note it. Sometimes I eat back the calories and sometimes I don't. It depends on the day, but most of my workouts are a 20-30 minute walk which is usually just 150-200 calorie burn.

superhelga

Thanks. I think my estimated activity level was too high. Ive definitely been rather sluggish lately due to all of these hormones. . Adjusting that helped. It also seems that mfp sometimes exaggerates the calorie burn on work outs.

So what are the micros and macros? vitamins?

jenluvsushi

I personally set my activity to sedentary and my calories to maintenance (2140)....then I eat most of my exercise calories back if I am hungry. 2600 sounds like a lot to net to me....Last pregnancy I was almost the same weight as now and the dietician told me to eat anywhere from 2000-2200 a day as well so this is pretty spot on for me. I am in the obese catagory as well (ugh I hate that word!). They also told me to eat as much protein as I could so I set mine up to 40/30/30 (p/c/f).....It doesn't always work out that way but I do try to stick with it. I aim to get at least 100 grams of protein in no matter what, if not more. As far as the rest, I aim for 200% calcium and 300% iron (I'm almost anemic)............everything else is usually close to or over 100%. I try to stick to under 2000 mgs of sodium as well.

lisapr123

I'm overweight and somewhat active (I teach 3 days a week so those days I'm standing for 7+ hrs a day, and I'm one of those people that doesn't actually sit down that often). I have mine set at maintenance, which gives me around 2100 calories a day.

Recently, I was diagnosed with a (very easily controllable thru spacing carbs out properly) case of gestational diabetes and I met with a nutritionist. She has me eating about 1800-1900 calories per day at 33 weeks pregnant and not eating back exercise calories (unless, of course, I'm hungry...in which case I eat!). I'm never hungry, as I'm eating every 3 hrs. I'm up about 23 lbs so far, with a 1/2 lb gain in the last 2 weeks. 2600 sounds like a lot!

stephysd

So what are the micros and macros? vitamins?

'Let’s start at the beginning. Nutrients, at their most basic definition, are chemicals that any living organism needs to continue their survival. They help give us energy to perform daily functions, as well as fuel to build tissues and grow. These nutrients, however, are broken up into two distinct categories.

First, macronutrients are substances that provide caloric value (calories) which are metabolized for energy. Macronutrients are called “macro” because we need them in large amounts and because they are large in molecular standards: -macro literally means very large in scale, or in its Greek understanding, “big” or “far”. Essentially, we need more of these large nutrients, making them ‘macro’.

On the other hand, micronutrients are nutrients we need in smaller quantities: hence, -micro, which is Greek for “small”. These are just as important as macronutrients in the sense that we need them, but the key difference lies in the sheer amount of the nutrients we need to digest.'

Quote taken from this website which has more info if you want. Or you can google macros and micros in nutrition and check around.
http://www.organicsoul.com/macro-and-micronutrients-what-they-are-and-why-we-need-them/

When you want to view this on the website you look under Report and then Nutrition. I plan on just checkin it on my phone now with the new update as it has a section where it breaks it for all nutrient details for the day and how many you have left to obtain goal.

nan199678

I never added 300 more calories. I did usually eat all my exercise calories but my numbers were way lower. I was doing terrific until the past 2 weeks. I did add more calories because I was hungrier but I think I may have added too many because I've used it as an excuse to eat garbage! I'm 34 weeks & 3 days and just hit 8pound gain. I was doing great at 4-5 until my changes.