Adopt-a-noob: Fullsterkur_woman + Focusedfitness123
Fullsterkur_woman
Posts: 2,712 Member
This is going to be our thread for discussions, so we can keep track of things and others can benefit from playing along at home. :laugh:
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Replies
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How to deal with strength training logging.
So, it won't count the calories for your sets entered. Annoying, I know, but you can log it as cardio ("Strength Training (weight lifting, weight training)" along with the time spent doing it and it'll estimate your calories burned. Whether or not you want it to track those calories is a different topic.
The option you want to log your sets for a repeated workout is to go to the date that you did the workout, go to Quick Tools, and then Copy to Today (or Copy to Date, if logging the workout for a different day). Then you can edit your sets, reps, and weights for today's workout, if desired, like if you went up in weight or did more reps or sets.
Easy peasy lemon squeezy!0 -
Ok, why would I not want to track the calories I burn when I workout? Would my limiting number I start out with at the beginning of the day change if I burned more calories? Lets say my base goal is 2000 calories. If I workout and burn 800 calories, should I then try to reach 2800 calories or does it just assume that I am going to burn those 800 calories because I said I am an active person?0
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Post, the fourth: In which we discuss such arcane matters as TDEE, NEAT, BMR, and MFP's bizarre calorie burns.
Yes, if your base goal is 2000 calories and that has a deficit already built in (because you burn more than that just going about your day), and you truly burn 800 calories in exercise, you would eat back those 800 calories. That is the MFP way. It's call NEAT, or non-exercise activity thermogenesis.
Then, there's another school of thought, TDEE, or total daily energy expenditure. Basically, it already factors in your exercise, and you eat the same number of calories every day. You don't log additional exercise calories to add to your daily limit, because they're already factored in.
I'll use myself as an example. For the sake of argument, let's say that if I laid in bed all day, I would need 1500 calories to keep my brain and organs alive at my current weight (that is called BMR, or basal metabolic rate). I have a really sedentary job, and I don't do a lot of moving around, so my daily activities of living only burn 300 calories (that is called NEAT, non-exercise activity thermogenesis). That means if I didn't exercise, I would need 1800 total calories to maintain my weight. This is roughly accurate for me, but it's been so long since I was truly sedentary I'm not sure exactly anymore.
If I just joined MFP, and said that I wanted to lose 1 pound per week, they're going to tell me to eat 1300 calories per day, because that's a 500 calorie deficit per day, which is a 3500 calorie deficit per week, which is how much it takes (roughly) to use up a pound of fat. Then let's say that 4 days a week I exercise and burn 300 calories, 1 day a week I do yoga, and it only burns 125 calories. I log my exercise in to MFP on those 4 days and instead of telling me to eat 1300 calories, it will tell me to eat 1600, and on the days I log yoga, it'll tell me to eat 1425 calories. On the two days a week I sit on my kiester, it'll tell me to eat 1300 calories. I will have eaten a total of 10425 calories during the week. My BMR + NEAT caloric needs are 1800 * 7 = 12600. My total EAT (exercise activity thermogenesis, or just "exercise") is 1325. Therefore my grand total BMR + NEAT + EAT for the week = 13925. That's my total weekly energy expenditure, how many calories I burned during the week, being alive, moving around, and working out. That's how many I need to keep my weight constant. But I only ate 10425 calories, and 13925 - 10425 = 3500. Hey presto! I lost a pound of fat*.
Well, I have my total *weekly* energy expenditure... What if I just want to have the same calorie limit for every day? Sure thing! 13925 / 7 ~= 1990 calories. BOOM! TDEE. And I want to lose a pound a week (3500 calories), so I need a daily deficit of 500 calories. 1990 - 500 = 1490. BOOM! That's my TDEE - built-in caloric deficit. So that's what I eat every day, and I *don't* log my exercise calories and eat them back now.
Both ways work out to the same deficit; it's just a matter of how you choose to get there.
I think if you are very consistent with your workouts, it can make sense to do TDEE - built-in deficit. If you're still trying to get back on the horse and get consistent with your workouts, it makes sense to do NEAT, log your exercise, and eat back your exercise calories.
But wait, you say, why did I imply that it might not always be best to log the calories and then eat them back? Ah, my young protege, because MFP's calorie estimates Suck Goat Dong (TM).
So what is the Mohawk to do? There are varying schools of thought on this. Some of us use heart rate monitors, believing them to give us more accurate burns, and we enter those as the calories burned. Some of us wear a BodyMedia armband or FitBit or similar device to track our energy expenditure. I choose this method, and my armband syncs right with MFP and gives what it thinks is my EAT (exercise calories burned), and MFP makes the adjustment from there. Still others use MFP's calorie recommendations, but only log 1/2, 2/3, 3/4 or some other arbitrary number to account for the inflated calorie burn estimates.
In the end, you have to choose what method you'd like to use, but they are all valid and if the calorie burns are accurate and you do the math right, they all come up with the same numbers.
This has gone on WAY too long already, so the MFP calorie limit recommendations and macro recommendations must needs go in a new post. What questions do you have?
*In a later post, we will address the non-linearity property of weight loss.0 -
Alrighty, if you're still with me, then you have the patience of a saint!
Let's talk about MFP's crazy calorie limit recommendations.
As we've already seen, to lose a pound of fat a week we shoot for a daily deficit of 500 calories. MFP will allow you to set goals such as lose 1/2 pound a week, 1 pound a week, or even 2 pounds a week. What kind of idiot says "hey I only want to lose 1/2 a pound a week when I can lose *2* pounds a week!"? Exactly nobody, that's who.
So you put in 2 pounds a week, and MFP trundles off and does its estimate for what it thinks your BMR + NEAT is (which is a pretty horrible estimate, but anyway), then scoops 1000 calories right off the top. For a large person who's burning 3000 calories a day, that's pretty doable. Most people can stick to 2000 calories a day fairly easily.
But what if your not so big and you're really sedentary? What if you're only 5 feet tall and weigh about 130 pounds? You might only need 1400 calories a day to maintain your weight. Well then, you get to eat 400 calories a day! Right? Wrong. Even MFP knows that's dumb. They know it's difficult to get all the necessary nutrients in under 1200 calories a day, so it automatically sets that as the floor. Good for your health, not so good for you sitting there all confused wondering why you're losing less than half a pound a week when you put in 2 as your goal! Even folks as big as me and bigger are going to be told to eat 1200 calories a day if they put in 2 pounds a week as their goal. And they will most likely be hungry, crabby, lose nothing and give up or worse, give up and gain more weight after they quit!
I hate that story! So why not inject a little sanity and reality into what your recommended loss should be, based on how much weight you have to lose to get to your goal weight? I have no idea; it's not that complicated of an algorithm!
In your case, with only 10 pounds you want to lose, a reasonable goal is 1/2 a pound a week. That's a daily deficit of 250 calories.0 -
OK! Now that we've established what a reasonable deficit is, how do we know what our starting point is to subtract that number from?
Good question. I don't know your stats, so I will have to make some guesses and we can refine it with your real numbers, mmk?
I'll assume for the sake of argument that you are 5' 10", are 180 pounds, and 20% body fat. And we know your age.
I'm going to use the calculator at http://scoobysworkshop.com/accurate-calorie-calculator/ because it's widely used. I am going to use the Katch-McArdle formula there because I like it, so there. I'll assume you have a desk job, with little to no activity, because it's easy to adjust upward from there.
That would give a BMR of ~1700 calories, and a TDEE of ~2050. To lose 1/2 pound a week, you'd want to eat 1850 calories a day. If you exercise on top of your normal routine activities, you can log those and then eat them back.
Now let's say you get consistent with your exercise, and you get 3-5 hours of moderate activity a week. The calculator predicts your TDEE at ~2650 calories. To lose 1/2 pound a week, you would eat 2400 calories a day. Your exercise is already taken into account, so you don't log or eat back your exercise calories in MFP.
So we can play around with this and come up with real numbers for you, and get a much better calorie limit than MFP will give you, which is basically a crapshoot.
Later on, we can discuss Scooby's calibration process to determine your very accurate TDEE estimate. But that requires you to commit to 30 consecutive days of scrupulous weighing and logging of your food, eating a calorie limit exactly, and weighing of yourself. I'm doing that with another person already.
Next, we need to discuss macros, like protein intake. Stay tuned!0 -
MACROS!!! *chimpplayingominouspianochord.gif*
MFP is set up for sedentary individuals, who maybe go for a leisurely stroll occasionally. DYEL, bro?
Yes, yes we do even lift. Therefore, we need MOAR PROTEIN.
My personal eating style, which I will use for illustration purposes, is If It Fits Your Macros (IIFYM), not If It Fits Your Mouth, as is commonly held. :laugh:
That means that as long as I get my necessary vitamins and minerals (micronutrients) and carbohydrate, protein, and fat (macronutrients, or macros for short), however I choose to achieve that is just peachy. Pop-tarts, spinach, cheeseburgers, banana splits, Greek yogurt, and Skittles? Sure thing, boss. Knock yourself out. It doesn't have to be all quinoa, chicken breast, and low-fat, chocolate skim milk! If you wanna "eat clean", whatever definition you've dreamed up for that is, you can still do that too. But you still fit it into your macros. (NB: alcohol is also a macronutrient, technically, as it contains calories that your body can use as energy, but I don't drink, and it isn't a macro *technically* necessary for survival
, so I leave it out)
So how do you figure this stuff out? I'm glad you asked! Let's go over to IIFYM.com and use their calculator.
I'm going with body weight as opposed to lean mass, our 2400 calorie estimate, choosing IIFYM recommended ratios (1.0 g/pound of body weight in protein, 0.4 g/pound of body weight in fat, balance in carbs), and clicking calculate. Here's the result:
CARBS PROTEIN FAT FIBER CALORIES
GRAMS per day 258 180 72 36 - 45 2400
So however you want to break up your diet to get 180 grams of protein, 72 grams of fat (these are minimums) and the rest in carbs, you are welcome to do that anyway you like. I recommend getting your 5 servings of fruit/veg a day or more, regardless of how you do it or what you choose for your macro ratio.
You don't have to do IIFYM, but I won't pretend I'm not biased in its favor. It just makes freakin' sense. Anything else seems needlessly restrictive, but your body, your results, your call.0 -
Adjusting Diary Settings
Your diary is set to private by default, so nobody can see it, your calorie limit or macro settings. To adjust it, go to http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings, scroll to the bottom and you can change it to public, friends-only, or locked with a key, whatever you wish (or leave it private; it's your diary!).0 -
Here's a picture guide to bodyfat estimations for men. I'm super-horrible at visual estimation, especially for men, but wanted you to have the information.
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Hey there, my young paduan, I have found you someone you can work with about the bodybuilding competition stuff.
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1161976-adopt-a-noob-official-mfp-thread?page=4#posts-18179251
Her username is USMCMP.0 -
How's the pre-BL contest bulk going?0
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I (re)discovered a great resource that Evgenyztx posted last year, that is great for data analysis! You might find it helpful.
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1122752-export-and-analyze-your-own-data-in-excel0
