Am I eating too much?

fedupfatty86

That is the question. I'm 5'6 1/2 and currently weigh 232. My goal is to get down to 165 so I set my MFP goal to lose 1 lb a week. I'm also have my setting for activity set to lightly active. I work at Walmart so I'm constantly walking moving. My diary is public so feel free to look. So my question is should I be eating way less than what I'm eating now. I didn't lose any weight for the month of October and I'm getting frustrated. Although I will say that my clothes are fitting looser.

lilbearzmom

I looked a little ways back (a week) in your diary, and it looks like you are eating closer to maintenance than for loss. There was one or two incomplete days, a few 1900 days, and at least 2 3000 + days. Also, I think you are really overestimating your exercise calories burned. So, it's the classic in vs. out problem. Set your activity to sedentary and don't eat back your exercise calories. That's what I would do. Good luck!

Getawayfromthecake

I think it's great that you haven't gone for the usual 1200 calories diet, which I am always against but it does look like you are eating a lot. The comment above me seems like perfect advice for you.

stt43

I would say you may be overestimating the amount of calories you are burning off through activity. Don't do anything drastic however, stay as active as possible and eat as many calories as possible, especially if your clothes are fitting looser. What I would do is change your activity level, or just consume 200 calories less per day, and see if your weight goes down after a week or two. If not then drop by another 100. You shouldn't need to have any more than a 500 calorie deficit.

rileysowner

First of all great job tracking even the days you go way over in calories.

As to the number of calories I get this TDEE numbers for from Fat2Fit http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/bmr/ using your current weight as your goal weight, So it you at at that calorie level for your activity you would maintain.

Activity Level Daily Calories
Sedentary (little or no exercise, desk job) 2218
Lightly Active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/wk) 2541
Moderately Active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/wk) 2864
Very Active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days/wk) 3188
Extremely Active (hard daily exercise/sports & physical job or 2X day training, i.e marathon, contest etc.) 3511

Based on that you should probably be eating around 1900-2100 calories a day and no more depending on your exercise and no more than that. All the high calorie days I see in your diary, albeit I didn't go back that far, are likely what are hurting you. Also, it is likely your exercise calories are way over estimated.

Now assuming your a weighing and measuring your food portions carefully, my suggestion would be set a goal amount of calories, say 1900, and stick to it. Don't eat back exercise calories, simply eat to that goal and stop. Try that for a couple of weeks and see what happens.

Your BMR is likely around 1850 so avoid eating less than that.

Finally don't forget to recalculate all this after you lose 10 pounds or so.

anewlife1980

Based on what other people are saying, get a heart rate monitor, this will accurately tell you how much you burn. MFP is WAY off, I find its only accurate for walking & even then not always. Everything else it drastically over estimated (ie:MFP said I burned 430 cals on the elliptical, hrm told me it was actually 150cals). At least then you know exactly how much you burn & therefore your calorie count is more accurate. Also try to stick to your allotted calories unless you have exercise calories to use. Not that its a bad thing to go over, but if you go over every single day & its by hundreds of calories then I don't see the point in logging. MFP is a guideline to help you learn how to control what you eat so you eat when you are hungry & not over eat but its just a tool. Good luck, as long as you eat healthy, eat regularly & exercise it will come off, have some patience.

FranceyPants

Yes, I think you are eating too much. I looked back a few days and it seems you are consuming between 2000 and 3000 calories (and sometimes more).

This would be fine to lose weight if you were actually burning off quite a lot of those calories. However, like others have said, you are probably over-estimating the amount you are burning.

If you set your activity level to 'lightly active' you don't need to include daily activities as exercise. However, you should count your actual exercise/work out calories.
E.g. You should not count cleaning, walking around in general (like at work), driving, etc.
You should count going to the gym, going for a run, going for a long walk, going for a swim, etc.

EDIT: I looked at your exercise. What is 'fitbit calorie adjustment'?

fedupfatty86

Thanks for being honest everyone. I really appreciate it, I'm going to cut back to 1900 a day. I've really gotta quit going over my daily goal. I have a HRM, the watch type by sportline. Idk how accurate it is though so I haven't been using it. I've just been wearing my fitbit flex

rileysowner

Based on what other people are saying, get a heart rate monitor, this will accurately tell you how much you burn. MFP is WAY off, I find its only accurate for walking & even then not always. Everything else it drastically over estimated (ie:MFP said I burned 430 cals on the elliptical, hrm told me it was actually 150cals). At least then you know exactly how much you burn & therefore your calorie count is more accurate. Also try to stick to your allotted calories unless you have exercise calories to use. Not that its a bad thing to go over, but if you go over every single day & its by hundreds of calories then I don't see the point in logging. MFP is a guideline to help you learn how to control what you eat so you eat when you are hungry & not over eat but its just a tool. Good luck, as long as you eat healthy, eat regularly & exercise it will come off, have some patience.

HRMs are not nearly as accurate as most people think. They are useless for strength type training, not very accurate for Interval training, and even in steady state cardio, what they are designed for, if you exercise for long periods of time they tend to be off as the longer you exercise at steady state cardio the higher your HR goes even though the intensity is staying the same. For that matter the studies of accuracy of calorie estimation by HRMs is not very encouraging especially if you are female. Witness the following http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/459580-polar-hrm-calorie-burn-estimate-accuracy-study?hl=polar+accuracy

It was the more I realized this, that made me switch to including intended exercise in my calories and taking the deficit off that--what is known here as the TDEE-% method since using my HRM when doing really long bike rides 2+ hours, which I do a lot of though the summer, I was eating way too much even though it supposedly fit in my calories.

wilsoje74

How are your burning 1000 cals through exercise?? That's a LOT of exercise so I'm not sure that is accurate. And yes if you are regularly eating over 2000 cals it will be hard to lose weight,