i dont think my calorie intake is calculated correctly

stevejones3245

hello to everyone on MFP , I have just joined today .

I have been exercising for about 6 months now trying to build muscle with an excess in calories .
I have quite a large belly which I would like to lose .

37 years old
male
sedentary all day ( desk job at home )
I do cardio 30 mins 3 times a week
weights for 50 mins 3 times a week

I entered my goals when I joined ( 2lb a week weight loss ) and it said 1300 calories

that can't be right can it ?
it seems very low to me

I currently eat
200g protein
200g carbs
40g fat

1960 calories but I have not lost any weight in about 3 weeks ( just got back into training/diet after xmas )

could anyone please help me and advise me what it is I should be doing ?

thanks for reading

rockmama72

It is calculated correctly, but you get extra for your workouts, especially if you used sedentary for your activity level. I also picked sedentary (work at home desk job) and then I TRY to eat all the calories I get from activity.

stevejones3245

hi rockmama
thanks for the reply

still confused here , how many calories a day all together should I be eating ?

acogg

MFP is a calculator based on 3500 calories equaling one pound, so if you set it up to lose 2 lbs. a week, it will suggest 1000 calorie per day deficit which will come out to 7000 calories per week and is supposed to be a two pound loss. This isn't exact, but it is approximate. I suggest resetting your goal to something you feel will be sustainable, 1300 calories is not enough in my opinion.

michealashton

if you look at the chart it'll say (in your case 1300). But then if you notice as you punch in your excersie INTO your daily in will say "you've earned ##### calarories from your workout!" and will subtract it from your total calories consumed. This means you burn 200 cal's and instead of eating "1300" it will be 1300 - calories consumed + calories burned from excercise. As long as your work out routine stays constant and you're doing something every day towards that you should find that you're calories remain at a more stable value. Im' 5'7, male, starting weight 241 (only just got here myself) and I work at a call centre (sedementry all day). my daily "cap" at 2 lbs's a week loss is 1540. So if I do not do any kind of excercise, 1540's all I get. If I go jogging, etc, I can get more for my day. hope this helped.

cwolfman13

If you said 2 Lbs per week then that means a 1,000 calorie per day deficit...so if your goal is 1300 calories, that means MFP is estimating your maintenance calories to be 2,300 calories based on whatever activity level you set...my guess would be that you selected sedentary.

With MFP, you activity level is just your day to day stuff...exercise is additional activity that needs fuel so you get earn exercise calories when you workout and log that activity. So lets say you burn 300 calories in a workout...when you log that, MFP will up your calorie goal now to 1,600 calories. You still maintain a 1,000 calorie deficit though because now your theoretical maintenance would have moved with additional activity as well....2,300 + 300 = 2,600 and 2,600 - 1,600 = 1,000 calorie deficit still.

Word of caution, estimating exercise burn is tricky business. Databases like MFP are notoriously inflated for calorie burn and machines and HRMs are all estimates as well. What I always did was use my HRM and deducted about 20-30% for estimation error and my basal calories that I would have burned anyway just sitting on my *kitten*...and I would compare that number to my perceived level of effort with 10 calories per minute really being my max for a sustained aerobic event.

It's pretty tough to sustain anything above that for any lengthy period of time so that's what I used as my max...basically if I was working out to a level where I couldn't hold a conversation I used a factor of 10. I used a 5 level of effort for a moderately paced walk...and then anything between 5-10 for whatever my perceived level of effort for a given workout was. I would compare this to my HRM less my error % and this worked well for me...though it was likely I burned more than was logging, it's best to be on the conservative side. I now use a different method altogether because I'm much more consistent with my exercise regimen now, but I don't want to muddy the waters explaining that here.

Another note, you really should get a food scale and start weighing anything that can be weighed and measuring out anything else with measuring cups and spoons. It's a bit tedious, calorie counting is about being as precise as possible. Just a few examples of things I did early on before I weighed stuff...I'd grill up a chicken breast and log that as 4 oz because my package said a serving was "one chicken breast; 4 oz"...turns out 1 whole chicken breast was closer to 8 oz...so I was consuming 50% more than I was logging. The list goes on and on...almonds were another big hit for me. Serving size said 1 oz and I looked up online and there was this illustration of how to use our palm and fists for determining this stuff and it said basically a handful. Well...maybe a small handful would be 1 oz and 160 calories...my handful was about double that. So again...I was logging 160 calories for an oz of almonds when in reality I was eating closer to 2 oz and 320 calories. Those things add up quick and can easily wipe out any perceived calorie deficit you may have which is probably why you didn't see any weight loss at 1960 calories.

I myself lost at a rate of about 1 Lb per week with net calories of 1850 and average gross with exercise being around 2100 - 2200 calories.

DirrtyH

I have been exercising for about 6 months now trying to build muscle with an excess in calories? .

I entered my goals when I joined (2lb a week weight loss) and it said 1300 calories

1960 calories but I have not lost any weight in about 3 weeks ( just got back into training/diet after xmas )

So confused. Are you trying to gain weight, or lose?

stevejones3245

thank you for al the replies , some great help given by all .

cwolfman , thank you for the detailed reply , it helped a lot .

Trixie , trying to lose weight now , fat not muscle though .

hill8570

1960 cals / day intake then crediting back the exercise (really roughly 350 for each 30 min cardio and 270 for each 50 min weight session) gives you a net per day of about 1700 cals. Not sure what your base burn is, but that looks to be more of a 1 pound a week loss. If you're lifting for bulk, then you could easily put on a pound a week of muscle, which would net out as no weight loss. In that case, I'd probably take measurements rather than do the scale thing. Or cut back on the weight and go high reps instead of high weight so that you're not bulking up as much...depends on your goals.

stevejones3245

thanks hill . I shall stick to my routine as it is and let you guys know how I get on in a week or 2 .

hill , by that do you mean that eating 1960 , burning 620 through exercise , to lose 1 lb a week I should be eating 1700 per day ?

stevejones3245

apologies, I see what you mean