How I'm dropping the weight

bethvandenberg

So I've been at this for awhile. I have great weeks and horrible weeks and still it's been almost a year since I decided that I didn't want to weigh that much anymore.

I started on MFP and it assigned me 1289 cals a day. I did it for a month. It was hard. I ate back my exercise cals. I lost nothing. Then my gym had free body comp. I found out that my BMR was over 1800. That means that I was not eating near enough. No wonder I wasn't losing. So I changed the numbers around and for the past month/6 weeks I've been eating upwards of 2200-2400 a day plus some of my exercise cals and finally my weight is dropping. In the last month I've dropped 5 pounds.

My next endeavor is training for a Tri. I figure I just want to finish. I"m pleased that I'm strong enough to swim 1/2 a mile, bike, and run. I'm happy that I have a wonderful support network both at home and on here. I think if you take a serious look at what your doing, why you're doing it, and where you want to be then it's so much easier. I also think that education is key to really knowing how/why things work that way. I also would implore you to do some research and find out what your BMR really is so that you're not screwing with your metabolism. It's really a science and I know that I screwed up my metabolism without eating enough and exercising a ton. Now I'm smarter.

I know it's silly but really it took eating more for me to lose. Not bad if you think about it.

Kellysue32

I completely agree with you!!! My BMR is way higher than what MFP thinks I should be eating...so it's kinda fun to eat more to lose

riley22

Interesting. I can't seem to loose on the 1200 calories of which I never eat that much anyway. So I guess I should be eating that much or more.

bwyne03

How do you do on the eating? Do you 'eat clean' or do you do portion control?? I've tried to eat really well and I always cave and go back to craving junk. I try to incorporate fruit and veggies but not near enough :frown:

TankGirl71

MFP did the same thing to me - arbitrarily set me at 1200 cal a day. Months of this and I lost nothing. I did some various BMR calculations and was horrified. I think I spent months screwing up my metabolism by eating so little. I just upped my calories, dropped my carbs and upped my protein. Guess what?

TankGirl71

MFP did the same thing to me - arbitrarily set me at 1200 cal a day. Months of this and I lost nothing. I did some various BMR calculations and was horrified. I think I spent months screwing up my metabolism by eating so little. I just upped my calories, dropped my carbs and upped my protein. Guess what?

katiemarie02

Thanks. I'll check this out. Just might work.

angisnee

When I started using MFP, my daily net calories were anywhere from 1400 to 1600. I gladly ate back my exercise calories, and actually I pretty much only worked out so I could eat more! As soon as I hit the obese/overweight line, my loss slowed significantly. I've only lost 10 pounds in the last 6 months, with many fluctuations during that time. I've recently started zig-zagging, a few low days with around 1700 net and then a high day at 2200 net and repeat. I feel SO much better, I feel like I'm eating all day, and my weight is finally starting to drop again. If I had known this all along, I would have so much rather had less of a deficit and lost 1 pound per week consistently than losing 38 pounds quickly and then 10 frustratingly slowly.

Thank you for posting this. Hopefully it will help some people that are just starting on their journey!

Good luck in the triathalon!!!

spackham

What is a more accurate BMR calculator? Why is it so different than MFP? Very curious since and am quite athletic for my big body and exercise a ton.

bethvandenberg

I eat fairly clean. I eat (or try to) fruits and veggies each day (at least one fruit and 3 veggies). I eat eggs/chicken/fish/pork and some lean beef. I eat what my family eats. I try not to over eat. I measure stuff and make sure my servings are really a serving and not 3. I do drink protein shakes with milk, banana, plain yogurt, and flax. I do try to stay within my calories. I am not stressing about food anymore. I eat. Some days I can't make all the calories (if I wake late, forget to eat, etc) and I find the next day I'm starving. So it's been a balance. I try to cook every night and try to stay away from anything white. I don't really know what's going on but love that I get to eat, and that I fueling my body with what it needs. That's really the goal. I'm not on a diet. I'm eating right and setting a great example for my teen daughters. My 16 yr. old likes to work out with me. They get that it's a slow thing when it comes to weight loss. They see that it takes lots of hard working out to reshape your bod. They also are great eaters (always have been) when it comes to fruits and veggies. We try to have at least two veggies at dinner.

bwyne03

Thanks for sharing! It's nice to know what others are doing to lose! If I restrict myself then I have a hard time shutting my mind off about food (junk). I do well working out and enjoy it, but the food is what I struggle with. Hoping to get a grasp on it soon! Congrats on your loss btw!!!

chevy88grl

I completely agree. MFP doesn't give me enough calories - so I have adjusted it to match what I have figured out I need. I need around 2200 calories a day which seems like a TON of calories - but when I drop lower, I don't lose any weight (and will gain if I go too low for too long). Our bodies are funny things.. who woulda thought eat more = lose weight?

Swimgoddess

What is a more accurate BMR calculator? Why is it so different than MFP? Very curious since and am quite athletic for my big body and exercise a ton.

Step 1: Get calipered so you know your body fat %. A 7-point method is the best.
Step 2: Use your BF% to learn what your lean body mass is: ie; I'm 156lbs and 26%BF, 26% of 156=40.56lbs of fat so my lean body weight is about 115lbs
Step 3: Convert lean body weight to metric: ie; 115 divided by 2.2 = 54
Step 4: Plug Step 3 answer in formula: ie; (54 x 21.6) + 370 = a BMR of 1,536 calories per day.

(MFP calculates my BMR at 1,476 calories per day but MFP does not know my body fat %)

Butterflynma

Thanks for posting this Bethvandenberg! I just had a conversation with my friend about this earlier. A couple of weeks ago I weighed in at 148. Today I'm 149. I workout 3-4 times a week and I stick to the calorie limit. I often eat under my limit. I was trying to figure out how I gained a pound if I'm eating at my calorie limit, or less, and exercising. I told my friend I think I need to up my calorie intake. Funny thing happened several weeks ago. During a weekend of celebrating my friends birthday I splurged and ate what I wanted and lost a pound. So I think the theory about MFP giving too few calories is correct. I also checked out the other site Loose It and for my weight and the goal I want to accomplish I was given a calorie limit of 1400, 200 more that I get on MFP. That seemed to make more sense to me. From here on in I'm increasing my caloric intake.

Packerfan23

Thanks Beth! Great information...I have also found that if I have increased calorie intake I do end up losing the weight. I am going to do a little more investingating on this. Now I just have to find a "happy" balance with the sodium! Have a great day! :flowerforyou:

erzsebet_1560

Isn't it amazing to think if we need more calories to lose weight...how many freaking calories were we actually eating to gain! I feel like I'm eating all the time, but when I wasn't dieting, I didn't eat much, but the stuff I was eating was loaded with fatty grossness!! It feels so good to not starve and to be eating wholesome foods. :-)

mjtbb

Bump.. so I can find this later.

lexibelk

This is great! I've made this recent discovery from my own research and school of hard knocks. I think I'm finally going to beat my plateau by eating MORE! Who-da thunk it!

The moral of the story? Eat clean, and don't starve yourself or you will get NO WHERE.

Thanks for posting this!

daniedee81

Isn't it amazing to think if we need more calories to lose weight...how many freaking calories were we actually eating to gain! I feel like I'm eating all the time, but when I wasn't dieting, I didn't eat much, but the stuff I was eating was loaded with fatty grossness!! It feels so good to not starve and to be eating wholesome foods. :-)

i couldn't agree with you more!

and yes - MFP underestimated my calorie intake and so i've been using the Turbo Fire formula to calculate how many calories i should be eating to create a deficit so i actually lose weight. it works out to 110 over what MFP says.

barbiex3

DANG! I want one of the BMR things. I swear I burn way more than that thing tells me!!

sarah307

loved reading what everyone else has said about their experiences with this..

- these past few weeks I have been going back and forth in my mind about 'what the heck should my calorie goal be!?!' and I constantly change it. Glad you posted this. I am only 6 pounds away from my goal weight. And for some reason, for a while, was having a hard time eating the 1200 calories/day. I bumped it up to 1400/day and that was more doable for me. I remember about a month ago, I took a few cheat days (my "cheat" days meaning.. i ate fairly well, but didn't obsess as much over how many calories was in everything..) cause I went on a trip for school/work. And when I came back, I had lost a pound or two (something like that!).. so since then I have been wondering exactly what I need to eat. I would just like to KNOW FOR SURE how many calories I'm supposed to eat! haha!

We'll see how this Monday goes when I weigh in..

krazygloo

Thank you for posting this! It's interesting that MFP had my calories way off, but my husbands was pretty much dead on. Though he thinks he should be eating more? Any advice on loosing weight for guys?

bethvandenberg

Thank you for posting this! It's interesting that MFP had my calories way off, but my husbands was pretty much dead on. Though he thinks he should be eating more? Any advice on loosing weight for guys?

IDK but I'm thinking he should be lifting. The higher the muscle mass the higher the calories I'm thinking the calories are the same for women/men as BMR and deficits etc.

kumarprabhat

Interesting read and discussion.

My 2 cents: MFP does not do such a bad job. with some googling and reading on various websites, here are my observations:
- Thumb of rule: My Body wt (lb) * 10 = 1593
- www.body-perfect-fitness.com: The Harris-Benedict Equation: 1615
- Bodytransformation.com: BMR - 1578
- MFP (with my target wt loss of 1lb /wk) - 1470

I think they are all very close.

Now coming to the general observation, why we do not lose wt the way MFP tells us we will (and this is happenning to me as well":
- we are not disciplined enough to exercise the way we think we will (yah, we cheat too)
- we do not track all that we eat (lazyness, inaccuracy in measurement, memory retention, etc)
- in thought of victory, we reward ourself, and often go overboard. (we binge)
- every recipe and food is different - no two salads and their calories are same, ingredients will vary.
- and last but not the least: we are not robots, we are living being. Our body has a mind of its own, and a complex one.

Whatever and however we plan, we can't force body to act the way think it should. Every day will be different, and results will vary all the time.

What will happen for sure is that if we are disciplined and motivated enough, results will come. There is no way it can't. Just that time taken will be different. If output cal - input cal is more than zero, wt loss is bound to happen. There is no other way - starvation, retention, whatever...

That is my observation and matches my story and seems similar to the story to many of us here. It has been 3 months in MFP for me and I have just lost only about 3 KGs (7 lb). But I can say that I am satisfied the way it has worked so far. I know I am much more disciplined now, my wt loss is gradual but permanent, my cloths fit me better, and I feel good.

So, why worry...if we have been harsh on our bodies for so long, we need to give it time to recover as well...deterioration went on for sooooo long, I am sure recovery will be much quicker..... I AM SURE....

Pebble321

Great post, it's good to hear your story, thanks.

I think a lot of people fall into the trap of wanting to lose weight FAST so select "lose 2 pounds a week" which for most women seems to mean the minimum of 1200.

When I started, I knew that if I went too low in calories I would last about 3 days before I binged and gave up. So, I started with 1/2 pound weight loss, and the minute I started recording and keeping my calories around 1660 net cals I started losing weight, much faster than 1/2 pound a week. Now I've lost some weight and dropped my calories a bit (anywhere from 1500 - 1600 net cals a day) and am still losing.

I agree, it can be a case of eat more, lose more! My guess as to why this works is that once we start monitoring what we are eating, we are making healthier choices and finding out that this means a whole lot more quantity of food than if we eat junk. So, we're probably eating more quality, reasonable quantity and less empty calories!

cmriverside

MFP is a "dumb" tool. So if you ask it to help you lose more than is healthy, it's gonna try to help you do that.

You can't make a wizard that will impart common sense.

kumarprabhat

@cm..: You are absolutely right. But that applies to any tool or teacher.. that's why god has given everyone a brain and common sense inside that to use....we are what we desire for ourself, not what others (living and non-living included)...

Ladyrabc

All of these messages are music to my ears as I believe my body has been in starvation mode for years, after breakfast I can go all day without getting hunger pains or eating so have changed to ensure i eat every 3hrs at least and then eat and good meal in the evening. Nothing seems to be happening on 1200 cals a day let alone when I exercise which is regularly it could go up to over 2500 a day. how do I go about finding out how many calories my body actually needs a day to get it out of starvation mode?

Any suggestions would be soooooon appreciated, I only want to loose a 1 to 1 1/2 but nit even a pound is coming off.......

Rachel

kumarprabhat

Most accurate way would be to meet a nutritioninst/dietician in person and get a good idea about it. Rest will all be debatable...

krazygloo

Any suggestions would be soooooon appreciated, I only want to loose a 1 to 1 1/2 but nit even a pound is coming off.......

Rachel

Rachel, I've been experimenting with lowering my acidity to loose weight. There are tones of info on the web about how to do this, but one of the easier ways is to increase the amount of Green Food you consume. You can even get kits to test what PH balance you are, you'll probably find that you are very acidic. I am trying a Green drink 2 x a day, but that could even be increased to 3 x i'm sure. Good luck and keep on it!

bcklee

bump to read for later