Am I eaing enough?

wyrdsister

Hi I have a vivo fit device which is tracking me exercise, does anyone find that the additional allowed calories are quite high and hard to eat I struggle to eat 1200 calories in a day and now im being added an extra 200 calories as ive exercised. Anyone else have this problem?

_Zardoz_

Hi I have a vivo fit device which is tracking me exercise, does anyone find that the additional allowed calories are quite high and hard to eat I struggle to eat 1200 calories in a day and now im being added an extra 200 calories as ive exercised. Anyone else have this problem?

Are you restricting the types of food to much? People frequently go on 'diets' and cut foods they deem bad for them. You won't have put 40Kg by eating 1200 calories. If youre 40 kg (according to your ticker) over weight i can guarantee that you can eat far more than 1200 and still lose weight. You need to eat sufficient food in order to minimise muscle loss and make what your doing sustainable. Those that over restrict are normally those that end up going backwards at some point.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1175494-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants?hl=guide+to+sexypants&page=1#posts-18361594

wyrdsister

1200 was the base amount of calories it suggested, I the stats I put in and they are correct, what did you get for a caloie suggestion? I agree I think ive been undereating and binging in cycles, On a normal day I only feel like eating 800 calories but can double that on a day when looking for sugar. Thats why ive started this journey to level the whole lot out. Is it normal for additional food / calories to be added if you do exercise?

aylajane

MFP told you 1200 with the assumption you WOULD be eating back exercise calories - it never intended for you to ONLY eat 1200 calories (read the directions). If you dont want to eat them, use TDEE instead, which will still put you at higher calories.

wyrdsister

Yes it looks like I was, fluctuated between 800 and 200 day to day with little exercise. I was just unaware of how much difference there was day to day until I started to journal and track it, i'm quite shocked but it explains the lethargy. 1200 is the base calories mfp has given me but I keep get quite a significant amount from exercise which I was not sure about.

wyrdsister

Thanks its all new to me.

wyrdsister

TDEE?

aylajane

There are two main ways to figure out your deficit in calories to lose weight. You can either

1) eat a certain base amount every day, then eat more when you exercise. This is how MFP is set up - it figures out that you need, say 1600 calories a day to maintain your weight given your current activity level (this is all based on what you input). In order for you to lose about 1 pounds per week, you would need to eat 500 per day less than that. So that is 1100 calories. But that is too little really for almost anyone, so it tells you 1200 to be safe. Then, when you exercise, you log it and get to eat more. If you burn 200 calories, you eat 200 more calories (so 1400 total). The idea is that you actually are using 1600+200=1800 so eating 1400 is still low enough to lose weight. The deficit is built into the base amount it gives you, and does not include any exercise. The more you exercise, the more you "earn" more calories. **Be careful if you do this, the MFP database overestimates calories burned - most people use 50-75% of the calories to eat back to adjust.

2) You could just say that, well you work out 5 days a week and burn maybe an extra 1400 calories through exercise during the week. So rather than eating a different amount every day, you just take your base amount => 1600 + 1400/7 (spread the 1400 calories out over 7 days) = 1800. Then take your 500 off that - so you would eat 1300 every day, regardless of exercise. This is the TDEE method. You can google it for more info, but basically you figure out what you burn with exercise for a whole week, then spread it out so you eat the same amount daily. ** be careful if you use this method that you dont stop exercising without adjusting the number. The number assumes a certain amount of exercise each week. If you start doing more or less regularly, you should recalculate it.

It doesnt matter which way you choose to do it. As long as on average you eat 3500 calories less than you burn after one whole week, you should average about a pound a week weight loss. Look at it as a weekly average, individual daily totals do not matter so much. Whatever works for your personality and lifestyle.

wyrdsister

Thanks for that I am getting the sense I have been under eating every time iv'e tried to lose weight this makes a whole lot more sense.