my first 3 days. howd i do?

focuseddiva
focuseddiva Posts: 174 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Can you let me know if I'm on track? I set a goal of losing 2 lbs a week. I am 41, female, 5'8 and 180 lbs. Mfp set calorie goal if 1200. First two days, I ate around 1400 caps but still had leftover cals due to exercise. So that would be the net, right? Yesterday I ate 1800 cals but also had net cals left because I exercised a lot. It shoes I burned 700 cals yesterday. Imworried about eating 1800 cals yesterday even though I still had 100 cals left that I could have eaten. I tried to take the approach of eating back half my exercise cals but I was hungry yesterday. My bmr is about 1500. Any analysis or thoughts on how I fared these first three days is appreciated.

Replies

  • hwoeltjen
    hwoeltjen Posts: 199 Member
    Ate 1800
    Exercise - 700
    Net - 1100

    If your calorie goal is 1200 and your net was 1100....you did great!

    However, remember that MFP puts out a starting point as far as BMR. These are general guidelines to follow. You may need to adjust your calories in order to achieve a 2lb loss per week.

    After a week or two step on the scale and see how you did. Adjust your calorie intake from there.
  • Mokey41
    Mokey41 Posts: 5,769 Member
    That's great but how did you calculate your exercise calories burned? Just a note that MFP and most machines over estimate calorie burns so eating back 50% is a good place to start until you see how it goes.

    1200 is the lowest number MFP will spit out and if you're comfortable with that for now it's fine but you probably could eat the 1500 and get the same results.
  • focuseddiva
    focuseddiva Posts: 174 Member
    I calculated my exercise caps conservatively and based on what mfp had. For example, yesterday I had an hour session with a personal trainer. Circuits. She said I probably burned 400 cals in that hour. When I entered circuit training in mfp for an hour, it said cal burn was over 600. There us no way. So I put in that I did 30 min, it about 300 cals. I also did the elliptical for 35 min at a resistance level of 12. That machine goes up to a level if 2o. 12 is hard. I used what mfp suggested which was around 350 cals, which sounds right to me. My heart rate never dipped below 130 while on the elliptical. So its all kind of an estimate but I try to be conservative when doing so. Once upon a time I wad quite a runner so I sort of know appx how many cals I burn doing certain exercise. I know for sure I dint burn 600 in an hour of doing lunges and kettle bells and tricep dips though.
  • focuseddiva
    focuseddiva Posts: 174 Member
    Apologies for the awful typos. Auto correct on phone plus fat fingers equals big fail!
  • hwoeltjen
    hwoeltjen Posts: 199 Member
    It's difficult to get accurate results when you measure caloric expenditure from exercise. The only way to really measure this is by sticking to a routine and then stepping on the scale. You can then relate your exercise and caloric intake to your results.

    So stick to an exercise plan and measure your calorie intake. This will start giving you a good picture of how you are doing on the current plan.

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