starting again For real this time...Need some advice

chezrated

Hi all
Iv had mfp for over 2years but never used it properly. I have always used fad diets to lose weight and once im at target I stop and gain weight again.
I want to change my eating habits to eat healthy and lose weight. Iv took the first step joined a gym and bought there eat clean train dirty book.
In the past iv counting calories and tried to stick to 1200 a day I dont no why or where that number came from so from the book iv worked out my BMR 2150.62 - 500 to lose weight 1650.62 (age 26 5ft2 8stone13 light activity) Does this sound right it seams to many calories to lose weight? The book talks about the cals I should get from each food group do I need to take notice of this to lose weight?
Any advice or guidiance would be really appreciated I want to start on the right track.

AJ_G

Don't eat clean. Clean eating is a restrictive diet and completely unnecessary. It's actually easier to fall off the wagon when you eat clean because you deprive yourself of foods that you love and eating the same "clean" foods over and over again gets boring and tired.

I think you have mixed up TDEE and BMR. Your TDEE is your Total Daily Energy Expenditure. Your BMR is your Basal Metabolic Rate. The BMR is just the calories your body burns everyday for life preserving functions such as brain function, heart function, respiration, etc, basically non movement calorie burn. 2150 sounds about right if you're talking about your TDEE. May I ask what you used to calculate that? There are different ways of getting your TDEE, some more accurate than others. It's usually recommended that you don't exceed a calorie deficit of 20% below TDEE. If 2150 is accurate, then that would put your calorie goal at 1720. It's important to make sure you are eating enough protein and enough dietary fat as they are both really important when losing weight and otherwise. These are calculated based on body weight. For your body weight of 119lbs, your recommended protein intake would be 98g and your recommended dietary fat intake would be 48g. The calculations are 0.82g of protein per lb of body weight, and 0.4g of fat per lb of body weight. If your calorie goal is 1720 and that would leave you 224g of carbs.

_HeartsOnFire_

Don't eat clean. Clean eating is a restrictive diet and completely unnecessary. It's actually easier to fall off the wagon when you eat clean because you deprive yourself of foods that you love and eating the same "clean" foods over and over again gets boring and tired.

I think you have mixed up TDEE and BMR. Your TDEE is your Total Daily Energy Expenditure. Your BMR is your Basal Metabolic Rate. The BMR is just the calories your body burns everyday for life preserving functions such as brain function, heart function, respiration, etc, basically non movement calorie burn. 2150 sounds about right if you're talking about your TDEE. May I ask what you used to calculate that? There are different ways of getting your TDEE, some more accurate than others. It's usually recommended that you don't exceed a calorie deficit of 20% below TDEE. If 2150 is accurate, then that would put your calorie goal at 1720. It's important to make sure you are eating enough protein and enough dietary fat as they are both really important when losing weight and otherwise. These are calculated based on body weight. For your body weight of 119lbs, your recommended protein intake would be 98g and your recommended dietary fat intake would be 48g. If you set these as your goals.

+1

LVCeltGirl

I agree, don't "eat clean" rather "eat right for you". In my book, right for you is learning to incorporate the foods you don't want to do without into your daily calories, or weekly calories, or perhaps monthly calories (depending on how often you "need" these foods).

I stick with the 80/20 rule. I'm good 80% of the time and not so good 20% of the time. My weight loss to date has been changing the eating habits and attempts at becoming an emotional exerciser. In changing the habits, I still go and have my fast food because there are days that for one reason or another I cannot go without the "junk". I've found that if I give myself permission to workout the way I like to, then I really like being at the gym. Of course for me it's rather time consuming which is why I'm still learning to give myself permission. I like to spend an hour on a cardio machine (elliptical is the easiest on my knees) and then go and do my weights (usually in machine form and both arms and legs). I will give myself at least 1 rest day before I do weights again. I've found that I get on a roll with my weights which is why I do upper and lower body on the same day. I am working toward alternating which will give the body the rest time while also enjoying a shortened gym time.

Find a good TDEE calculator if you wish to have a set calorie goal daily. If you let MFP set it, then you need to make sure to eat back at least 1/2 your exercise calories because otherwise you're not eating enough fuel and you won't get the results you want.

Yes, eating certain amounts in certain categories daily is recommended. The main one I always hear about is Protein which makes sense. Lean protein helps when you're strength training. I'm not a doctor, dietician or nutritionist so I hope I've read it right in that the lean protein helps with the building (which looks mainly like toning on women) of muscle.

Also on a lifestyle change (rather than just fad diets), water is your friend. It's really amazing how not drinking enough really can mess up weight loss. It's usually a temporary thing (think water retention here). But again, reading up on it, a lot of habitual dieters (and perhaps most people) mistake thirst for hunger.

You can do this but don't fall into the "diet" mentality you've grown accustom to. Learn to eat everything in moderation. It can be done.

glowgirl14

Like the others have said, I don't think there is a need to eat clean. (Lots of people here do it, and like it...but it's not necessary.)

I know the 1600 seems like a lot. One thing that really helped me to eat more was getting a fitbit. It's generally agreed that the fitbit comes up with a pretty accurate estimate of what you burn on a daily basis (using your age/sex/height/weight and counting your steps for you.) They're also great for helping motivate you to move more.

But you seem like you're off to a much better start this time. Coming at this armed with knowledge as well as motivation will give you much better success than either of those alone.

Lake_Po

I'm 5'2" and lose weight consistently eating 1650 calories as long as I eat my version of "clean". For me, personally, it was about more than cals in vs. cals out and switching to a more whole food diet suited me more. I had to cut out a lot of the things that fall into the "not clean" category due to health reasons, I'm allergic to most of it. As long as I eat real foods most days (6 out of 7) I will always lose weight. =D I think you'll do fine at 1650 and find what works for you!

fitandworking

Glad to see others talked about the "eating clean" thing. Of course it is good to eat well but at the same time I think people stress over it so much that it backfires. I started off being very overweight and even after losing 86 pounds I'm "obese" just on the lower end finally but focusing on the calories for me was actually better than focusing so much on how "perfect" my diet was. I find if you go based off of calories, then you are more likely to make smarter decisions with your eating habits. I have about 1400 calories. I could eat 6 candy bars and feel like crap or I can have things like grilled chicken, salad, soups, oatmeal, etc and feel more satisfied and able to do my workouts. I feel it's better to go to a natural progression of eating right as opposed to doing everything right out of the gate.

chezrated

Thank you everyone for replying .
AJ_G I think I have mistaken BMR for TDEE I used the formula in the book I got from the gym but I'm going to look on here to see the calculations. I get even more confussed when I look at g of protein ect per meal/day. Going to try get the correct calories first then concentrate on the food groups.
I agree with everyone saying eating clean may not be the best option and I can see its not for me long term so healthy eating it is .
Im going to look into getting a fitbit thanks for the idea glowgirl.
Keep up the good work fitandworking good to hear from someone the same hight there's alot of conflicting information out there for shorter women when it comes to dieting and calories.

chezrated

I have realised why iv always gone towards ww or sw style diets it takes all the confusion away.
Now sorry in advice for the stupid questions.
What is the most accurate TDEE online calculator? Iv used my book and two online and got three differet results.
When I set my goals in MFP it says 1200cal to lose 1lb a week? Does this not take into account BMR/TDEE?
*Confused *