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..