Plateau - and exercise calories are sometimes 2000

iwatts3519

Plateau Over - lost 1.5kg all of a sudden.

LuLuChick78

Watts, basically ignore what MFP says from now on concerning your weight. It's doing that only because you changed your goal.

The joy of TDEE is that the calories burned in exercise no longer need to be tracked because they've been included based off the exercise level you chose.

You are completely right when you stated you are overthinking it - wow. What the above poster stated is the easiest way to go about it, in my own opinion. There will always be debate about the best way to go about weight loss, you just need to find what works for you. What you were doing was not working for you.

Out of curiosity, what did you do recently that broke through your plateau?

jblackjr

Where did you get this information from? My HRM has me burning anywhere between 425-550 calories on a 35 minute run, depending on speed / distance covered. I've always ate mine back and have always lost weight doing so... 49-51% seems way to high of a % mistake, what would even be the point of using such a device? 10 - 15% error rate would be a little more believable.

Hey,

What I usually tell my patients is to get a HRM to accurately see how many calories you are burning. If you don't have that, I would still log the exercise but I would not recommend eating the extra calories it allots for you as most of the time they overestimate (studies show that they overestimate calories burned by about 49-51%). So you could actually be undoing all your work by eating those calories if it is not an accurate and reliable HRM.

Try getting a good HRM and see how it goes, but for now do not eat the extra calories.

Cheers

iwatts3519

Endomondo publish their formula for working out calories for sports activities - I thought others might like to see it - this is based on not having a HRM:

"The formula looks like this: Calorie consumption in kcal = X kcal * body weight in kg * distance in km For instance, the factor for walking is 0.8.

For a person with a weight of 75 kg taking a walk of 5 km, the formula looks like this:
Calorie consumption in kcal = 0.8 kcal * 75 kg * 5 km
Calorie consumption = 300 kcal"

iwatts3519

Out of curiosity, what did you do recently that broke through your plateau?

I had two days on a family holiday - one day I ate 500g of belly pork with all the trimmings, the next day ate a 22 oz T-Bone steak with all the trimmings. 3 days later weighed myself and had lost 1.5 kg.

PearShapedProgress

So, just because you CAN eat those extra 2500 calories each day doesn't mean you HAVE to... On days when I do a tonn of exercise, my personal trainer says to just reward yourself with some yogurt, and a tuna sandwich. You can be in a deficit, without starving yourself.

Try to just add some more oatmeal, tuna sandwiches, and yogurt on those days!


congrats on the great work!

iwatts3519

I did two calculations for you based on two different levels of activity.

TDEE-20% at 5-6hours of strenuous exercise:
- BMR: 2279
- TDEE: 3913
- TDEE-20%: 3145
You would therefore set your daily calorie goal to 3100.

TDEE-20% at 3-5 hours of moderate exercise:
- BMR: 2279
- TDEE: 3532
- TDEE-20%: 2826
You would therefore set your daily calorie goal to 2800.

With TDEE, you do not eat exercise calories back...you don't need to log anything but food. You also need to recalculate every 10lbs or so lost seeing as, as you lose, your caloric needs will change. Keep the -20% as your loss percentage until you get to around 30lbs from goal. At that point reduce your loss pecentage to -15% and once you're within 10lbs of goal to -10%.

Good luck!

Can I say a huge thank you to everyone who commented on this post, especially Silken555. I was at about 117kg when I started it. I followed the TDEE route and am now at 114.5 kg, losing about a kg a week. That makes much more sense and really works. I feel like a new person. Thank you all.

davidflavell2001

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/872212-you-re-probably-eating-more-than-you-think

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1105036-article-on-flexible-dieting-by-armi-legge?page=1#posts-17068746

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1122891-9-reasons-fat-loss-is-always-slower-than-you-d-like

Thanks - I have already read these, but surely the point of MFP is that it does the Maths for you. I use food scales as we are used to it anyway as my daughter is T1 diabetes so we have to count carbs.

I have used one of the calculators on the above links and:

BMR is 2276
TDEE is 3528

MFP has me on 1510 calories on a day with no exercise. I feel like the more I try and understand this the more confusing it gets. Am I really meant to eat 2000 calories extra etc if I do a 20 mile bike ride. I'd be stuffed.

There's no way a 25 mile cycle is 2500 calories - I started off at 118KG and am now 98. . .I cycle a lot with HRM and have calculated the following.

Gentle pace - HR at <140 is 500 cals hour (this is an average speed of around14mph)
Easy pace - HR at 140 ish is 600cals/hour (avg ~ 15/16mph)
Moderate pace - HR ~150 hour is 700 cals/hour (avg ~ 17/18mph)
Hard pace - HR regularly aboue 160 > 800 cals/hour (avg ~ 20mph)
Racing - HR at 170 or above - 900cals/hour (avg >20MPH)

I regulary cycle for 4+ hours and I have to eat some calories when on the bike (SIS GO Gels - 1 per hour @ 80 cals) and I replace some calories. If I burn 2500 cals - ON A FOUR HOUR 60 MILE RIDE - I will eat ~ 2500-3000 cals on that day - My allowance would be 4000 cals.

There are two questions:

1. Are you burning 2500 cals - NOT A CHANCE
2. Should you be replacing these - NO, eat tlll you're full then stop.

iwatts3519

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/872212-you-re-probably-eating-more-than-you-think

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1105036-article-on-flexible-dieting-by-armi-legge?page=1#posts-17068746

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1122891-9-reasons-fat-loss-is-always-slower-than-you-d-like

Thanks - I have already read these, but surely the point of MFP is that it does the Maths for you. I use food scales as we are used to it anyway as my daughter is T1 diabetes so we have to count carbs.

I have used one of the calculators on the above links and:

BMR is 2276
TDEE is 3528

MFP has me on 1510 calories on a day with no exercise. I feel like the more I try and understand this the more confusing it gets. Am I really meant to eat 2000 calories extra etc if I do a 20 mile bike ride. I'd be stuffed.

There's no way a 25 mile cycle is 2500 calories - I started off at 118KG and am now 98. . .I cycle a lot with HRM and have calculated the following.

Gentle pace - HR at <140 is 500 cals hour (this is an average speed of around14mph)
Easy pace - HR at 140 ish is 600cals/hour (avg ~ 15/16mph)
Moderate pace - HR ~150 hour is 700 cals/hour (avg ~ 17/18mph)
Hard pace - HR regularly aboue 160 > 800 cals/hour (avg ~ 20mph)
Racing - HR at 170 or above - 900cals/hour (avg >20MPH)

I regulary cycle for 4+ hours and I have to eat some calories when on the bike (SIS GO Gels - 1 per hour @ 80 cals) and I replace some calories. If I burn 2500 cals - ON A FOUR HOUR 60 MILE RIDE - I will eat ~ 2500-3000 cals on that day - My allowance would be 4000 cals.

There are two questions:

1. Are you burning 2500 cals - NOT A CHANCE
2. Should you be replacing these - NO, eat tlll you're full then stop.

Like I said above David - i've got past my plateau and am not worrying about calories burnt - following TDEE rather than letting MFP work everything work out for me. Given the fact I've lost a couple of kg in a couple of weeks I am happy.