Getting confused with deficit!!!!

kayveebee7

That's may useful, but note that it's not needed to find out what your maintenance level is.

Once you figure that out you can then tackle the deficit you want to operate on by increasing your activity level or cutting some food.

I don't know of anyone that tracks every single calorie burned during the day, but I'm sure there are some that may do that. Don't really think you need to.

Best of luck

Thanks so much BG. I can tell you for certain that I can maintain. I've been this weight since April :-).

kayveebee7

You will lose weight if you are in a calorie deficit.

If you're hungry (or think you are) try:
1) planning meals and snacks in advance
2) eating more protein
3) reducing the percentage of your calories from carbohydtrates and try getting them mostly from green veggies

Re: sleep
If you can't get more sleep, try improving the qiality. Something as simple as sitting still and staring at a wall or laying in savasana for a few minutes each day can really improve sleep quality.

High five on the sleep thing! I probably could also go to bed about an hour earlier too. Thank you for your advice.

DebbieLyn63

Portion control can be very difficult for some people to master. There are many tips that can help you with that.

My hubby had the same problem. I would normally fix enough food so that there would be leftovers for another meal the next day, but then he would always go back and eat the rest of it after his first plate. I started either cooking just enough for that meal, or I would immediately put the extra in the fridge.

Drinking a large glass of water before a meal helps some people.
Pre logging your food for the day helps a lot. If you prefer to eat more at the end of the day, then eat fewer calories thru out the early part to leave yourself those calories for night time.
Use smaller plates.
Slow your eating down so that you give time for your food to reach your stomach.
Add lots of salads or steamed veggies to your meals to bulk up the volume.
Don't let your foods touch each other on the plate. That sounds weird, but some people have found that helps cut down the portion sizes.
Start with only one serving of everything, then make yourself wait 20 minutes before you can go back for second helpings. You may find you don't want it by then.

And my favorite- Wear tight jeans when you eat!

I have a tendency to snack at night myself. We eat at 5, so by 8 I am wanting something. Back when I first started here in 2012, I discovered EAS protein drinks. They are high in protein, without all the sugar and carbs that some drinks can have. And they taste good.
I started making frozen smoothies with the strawberry flavored drink and a cup of frozen strawberries in my Ninja blender.
For 150 calories, I get a huge cup of yummy that is like frozen yogurt. If you want it sweeter, you can add a pkg of Truvia or other sweetener.
After eating all that, there is no way I can eat anything else for a couple of hours. So an 8pm smoothie keeps me out of the chips til bedtime.
That little trick was my savior in the beginning. And it satisfied my sweet tooth as well.

psuLemon

Although MFP's number can be a good reference point, it is only a reference point. It may be accurate for your particular system, or it may be way off.

Personally, I would have taken one or two weeks tracking the calories in your pre-existing diet as well as your weight.

After two weeks if you had maintained your weight you would then know that the calories you were averaging per day were your "Maintenance Calories" for the activity level in your life.

Anything below that level and you are operating at a deficit. It is as simple as that.

3,500 calories is another reference point for the amount of calories to add/drop a pound of weight. Thus, if you cut 500 calories a day over a week, you'll THEORETCALLY loose a pound of weight. Alternatively, you can maitain your calories and increase your activity level to burn that amount of calories. You can reference this article from the Mayo Clinic:

http://www.mayoclinic.org/calories/ART-20048065

You are an individual and what works for others may not work for you. Take these online calculators as just one reference point. You should not be feeling hungry all the time within the context of losing a pound a week.

I was actually thinking of doing this. I got a Polar watch for Christmas. I was thinking of wearing it all day to see how many calories I burn in a normal, minus planned workouts.

Sugar is a carb and is processed as one. Don't even worry about tracking it. Second, wearing a HRM all day won't provide you any good insight. HRM are designed only to work with intense cardio. They are pretty useless outside of that. Fat is very good for you. In fact, increasing fat will increase satiety. If anything, your account shoudl be lightly active and you should lower your carb intake and substitute protein, fats and fiber.

kayveebee7

Portion control can be very difficult for some people to master. There are many tips that can help you with that.

My hubby had the same problem. I would normally fix enough food so that there would be leftovers for another meal the next day, but then he would always go back and eat the rest of it after his first plate. I started either cooking just enough for that meal, or I would immediately put the extra in the fridge.

Drinking a large glass of water before a meal helps some people.
Pre logging your food for the day helps a lot. If you prefer to eat more at the end of the day, then eat fewer calories thru out the early part to leave yourself those calories for night time.
Use smaller plates.
Slow your eating down so that you give time for your food to reach your stomach.
Add lots of salads or steamed veggies to your meals to bulk up the volume.
Don't let your foods touch each other on the plate. That sounds weird, but some people have found that helps cut down the portion sizes.
Start with only one serving of everything, then make yourself wait 20 minutes before you can go back for second helpings. You may find you don't want it by then.

And my favorite- Wear tight jeans when you eat!

I have a tendency to snack at night myself. We eat at 5, so by 8 I am wanting something. Back when I first started here in 2012, I discovered EAS protein drinks. They are high in protein, without all the sugar and carbs that some drinks can have. And they taste good.
I started making frozen smoothies with the strawberry flavored drink and a cup of frozen strawberries in my Ninja blender.
For 150 calories, I get a huge cup of yummy that is like frozen yogurt. If you want it sweeter, you can add a pkg of Truvia or other sweetener.
After eating all that, there is no way I can eat anything else for a couple of hours. So an 8pm smoothie keeps me out of the chips til bedtime.
That little trick was my savior in the beginning. And it satisfied my sweet tooth as well.

Printing this.....:-)

kayveebee7

Although MFP's number can be a good reference point, it is only a reference point. It may be accurate for your particular system, or it may be way off.

Personally, I would have taken one or two weeks tracking the calories in your pre-existing diet as well as your weight.

After two weeks if you had maintained your weight you would then know that the calories you were averaging per day were your "Maintenance Calories" for the activity level in your life.

Anything below that level and you are operating at a deficit. It is as simple as that.

3,500 calories is another reference point for the amount of calories to add/drop a pound of weight. Thus, if you cut 500 calories a day over a week, you'll THEORETCALLY loose a pound of weight. Alternatively, you can maitain your calories and increase your activity level to burn that amount of calories. You can reference this article from the Mayo Clinic:

http://www.mayoclinic.org/calories/ART-20048065

You are an individual and what works for others may not work for you. Take these online calculators as just one reference point. You should not be feeling hungry all the time within the context of losing a pound a week.

I was actually thinking of doing this. I got a Polar watch for Christmas. I was thinking of wearing it all day to see how many calories I burn in a normal, minus planned workouts.

Sugar is a carb and is processed as one. Don't even worry about tracking it. Second, wearing a HRM all day won't provide you any good insight. HRM are designed only to work with intense cardio. They are pretty useless outside of that. Fat is very good for you. In fact, increasing fat will increase satiety. If anything, your account shoudl be lightly active and you should lower your carb intake and substitute protein, fats and fiber.

Thanks! My Polar tracks my calories. I've worn it for regular activity and saw my caloric usage, such as taking in groceries, cleaning around the house, etc. Is this not helpful? I actually don't pay much attention to the HRM feature unless I am working out. Is your advice still the same? I would think if I wore my Polar all day I could actually see if what MFP has for my daily burn is accurate.

Greytfish

No, your Polar is not meant for general life activities and is just as much guessing randomly as MFP.

Snow3y

What are you activity levels like?

I'd personally suggest no less than 1800 calories a day for your current weight... ( this is if you are exercising about 3 times a week..)

DebbieLyn63

The HRM/calories burned thing confused me for the longest as well. I couldn't understand WHY you couldn't use it all day to determine your calorie burn.
Finally someone explained it in a way that made sense.
Simply having an increase in heart rate doesn't burn more calories. (Heck, my resting rate is around 90, so I should be a stick by now)
The HRM assumes that you are actually taxing your muscles and organs with strenuous exercise when your HR goes up. It uses your HR as a way to measure assumed physical activity.
It is the physical activity that burns the calories, NOT just the increased HR.

For this reason, the HRM cannot be an accurate way to determine calorie burn thru out the day.
It also explains why people who are a lot overweight, don't actually burn the amount of calories that a HRM says they do. The increased HR comes more from being out of shape, than from actually intensity of exercise.

kayveebee7

No, your Polar is not meant for general life activities and is just as much guessing randomly as MFP.

I think you may have misunderstood my responses and usage, but I appreciate your comments none the less. They are still helpful.

kayveebee7

The HRM/calories burned thing confused me for the longest as well. I couldn't understand WHY you couldn't use it all day to determine your calorie burn.
Finally someone explained it in a way that made sense.
Simply having an increase in heart rate doesn't burn more calories. (Heck, my resting rate is around 90, so I should be a stick by now)
The HRM assumes that you are actually taxing your muscles and organs with strenuous exercise when your HR goes up. It uses your HR as a way to measure assumed physical activity.
It is the physical activity that burns the calories, NOT just the increased HR.

For this reason, the HRM cannot be an accurate way to determine calorie burn thru out the day.
It also explains why people who are a lot overweight, don't actually burn the amount of calories that a HRM says they do. The increased HR comes more from being out of shape, than from actually intensity of exercise.

Thanks, pertaining to the PP, I would use it to get a "normal" and a baseline, not to track a deficit.

stealthq

Just to give you a rough idea, I'm 5' 3", 39, female. I am sedentary - desk job at work, a couch potato at home. I do one 30min heavy lifting session a wk (don't laugh, it actually has been effective for increasing strength - just slow).

At 143 lbs, I was losing 1 lb per week averaging 1500 cals per day.

You are starting with a lot more weight to lose, are younger, and are a heck of a lot more active than me. It is no wonder you would be hungry eating 1500 cals. It shouldn't be necessary (barring medical issues). I think the advice to log your maintenance diet and adjust from that is excellent. I believe you will find you have a couple of hundred more calories available to you - at least until you lose a fair amount.

KimberlyinMN

One thing to try when it comes to food - stop when you are satisfied, not FULL. Also, don't wait until you are famished to eat.

Weighing my food has given me the best option for portion control. I am not a good estimator when it comes to how much food I actually eat. It's also too easy STUFF food into a measuring cup to get that one cup of whatever. Once you know how much a serving should weigh, use the food scale and only eat that serving size.

I'm definitely a pro-snack person. Those mini bags of microwave popcorn (Orville Reddenbacher SmartPop), good protein bars (Quest), or even a protein shake (Syntrax Nectar) are snacks that I like.

linnilu

This may not work for those with a larger family, but since it is just my husband and me, I no longer put the food on the table. I leave it on the kitchen counter, buffet style. I find that if I actually have to get up and go to the kitchen for a second helping, I am more apt to think it over and decide if I am really still hungry or if I just think I want more. When we are done, I immediately put it away so it doesn't keep 'calling' to me. I also quite often have a light snack such as a piece of string cheese, in the mid afternoon.

nhoffman26

I am actually overweight. And I don't think my HRM shows that I burned more calories due to my size. I go into the gym 6 days a week for 2 hours. And my resting heart rate is perfect. And I weight 370. My routine is 44 minutes on the stair climbing elliptical, 33 minutes on the jogging elliptical, and the rest is weights. And after I'm done my heart rate drops back down within mere minutes. I think someone told you wrong.

Greytfish

This may not work for those with a larger family, but since it is just my husband and me, I no longer put the food on the table. I leave it on the kitchen counter, buffet style. I find that if I actually have to get up and go to the kitchen for a second helping, I am more apt to think it over and decide if I am really still hungry or if I just think I want more. When we are done, I immediately put it away so it doesn't keep 'calling' to me. I also quite often have a light snack such as a piece of string cheese, in the mid afternoon.

I make the food, portion and plate it, and immediately put the rest in containers and put them in the fridge/freezer.

psuLemon

Although MFP's number can be a good reference point, it is only a reference point. It may be accurate for your particular system, or it may be way off.

Personally, I would have taken one or two weeks tracking the calories in your pre-existing diet as well as your weight.

After two weeks if you had maintained your weight you would then know that the calories you were averaging per day were your "Maintenance Calories" for the activity level in your life.

Anything below that level and you are operating at a deficit. It is as simple as that.

3,500 calories is another reference point for the amount of calories to add/drop a pound of weight. Thus, if you cut 500 calories a day over a week, you'll THEORETCALLY loose a pound of weight. Alternatively, you can maitain your calories and increase your activity level to burn that amount of calories. You can reference this article from the Mayo Clinic:

http://www.mayoclinic.org/calories/ART-20048065

You are an individual and what works for others may not work for you. Take these online calculators as just one reference point. You should not be feeling hungry all the time within the context of losing a pound a week.

I was actually thinking of doing this. I got a Polar watch for Christmas. I was thinking of wearing it all day to see how many calories I burn in a normal, minus planned workouts.

Sugar is a carb and is processed as one. Don't even worry about tracking it. Second, wearing a HRM all day won't provide you any good insight. HRM are designed only to work with intense cardio. They are pretty useless outside of that. Fat is very good for you. In fact, increasing fat will increase satiety. If anything, your account shoudl be lightly active and you should lower your carb intake and substitute protein, fats and fiber.

Thanks! My Polar tracks my calories. I've worn it for regular activity and saw my caloric usage, such as taking in groceries, cleaning around the house, etc. Is this not helpful? I actually don't pay much attention to the HRM feature unless I am working out. Is your advice still the same? I would think if I wore my Polar all day I could actually see if what MFP has for my daily burn is accurate.

Essentially, HRM are limited by their algorithms. They aren't designed to work under daily movements. If you want to know more, below is a good post.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/965362-accuracy-of-heart-rate-monitor-calories