Major sucess with higher calories!

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  • Sarauk2sf
    Sarauk2sf Posts: 28,072 Member
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    Okay awesome! I'm goign to go with the sedentry one but it is hard to tell being a student. I spend most of my time sitting in lectures/driving/sitting on my bed studying but I also work 20 hours a week at McDonalds which is quite a fast paced and energy consuming job. But I don't think that that is enough to raise me to the next activity level on a reliable basis?

    If I am eating back my excersize calories, to get to a net of my sedentry BMR will it matter if some weeks I am burning more through general activity?

    I must say, i LOVE the support on these forums. Even for a poor confused soul with me who's had a bad metabolism for as long as I can remember!

    Keep in mind as a young person, you don't want to under eat and get into bad habits. You are young and want to preserve as much lean muscle mass as possible and with being all day working (even though you are a student) you are better off as lightly active. Or at least in my opinion.

    I would agree with upping your activity level. I know when I was a student (I think I can remember that far back!!) it is not sedentary - with all the walking between campus', to and from classes etc.
  • sedosher
    sedosher Posts: 142 Member
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    bump
  • wahmx3
    wahmx3 Posts: 646 Member
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    It is all about moderation and balance, I would never live a life without chocolate. I am losing weight along with it....
    :drinker: Woohoo! :drinker:

    Welcome to the dark side, where we really do have cookies, and have enough calories to eat them.
  • marshallexi
    marshallexi Posts: 162 Member
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    IT'S WORKING! I've lost another 1lb since I weighed in on Wednesday. 2lbs in total since Saturday.

    I can't decide if I want to jump for joy or weep for the realisation that I didn't have to starve myself.
  • gurl0411
    gurl0411 Posts: 75
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    bump
  • SonicaBE
    SonicaBE Posts: 151 Member
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    if you have a deficit of more than 500 per day..ur bodu will go into satrvation mode and you wont lose. With 1200- u are at a extreme deficit and it will just not come up...yay for upping calories!
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    if you have a deficit of more than 500 per day..ur bodu will go into satrvation mode and you wont lose. With 1200- u are at a extreme deficit and it will just not come up...yay for upping calories!

    Not actually.

    Starvation mode, as in fat burning is disabled or minimized compared to normal and muscle is burned - requires not eating or netting around 200 for a little while.

    Read above posts though, you can reach the same effect you mention by your metabolism slowing so far down that your daily eating level is then maintenance level instead of a deficit.

    And has nothing to do with how big the deficit is, but how far under your BMR you went, which has to do with not only weight loss goal, but also activity level selection, which starts the math.
  • ladyraven68
    ladyraven68 Posts: 2,003 Member
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    IT'S WORKING! I've lost another 1lb since I weighed in on Wednesday. 2lbs in total since Saturday.

    I can't decide if I want to jump for joy or weep for the realisation that I didn't have to starve myself.

    that's great - well done :)
  • malama2913
    malama2913 Posts: 25
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    I have read every page and see why you need to up your calories, but still can't figure out the equation to get it (BMR/TDEE etc, it's like a diiferent language) :embarassed:
    and ladyraven68 you made me understand about the settings, when you put your activity level to sedentary you NEED to eat back your exercise, where if you actually account for what you do exercise you DO NOT eat them back....right?!?!?!? LOL
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    I have read every page and see why you need to up your calories, but still can't figure out the equation to get it (BMR/TDEE etc, it's like a diiferent language) :embarassed:
    and ladyraven68 you made me understand about the settings, when you put your activity level to sedentary you NEED to eat back your exercise, where if you actually account for what you do exercise you DO NOT eat them back....right?!?!?!? LOL

    E = M C ^ 2

    Your Energy needs = Mass moving very quickly. LOL. :drinker: one swig was all I did, honest.

    Hope the PM was helpful.

    3 methods have been discussed in this long Topic that all result in higher calories which protects the BMR, feeds the workouts, and tries to keep things simple regarding exercise calories.
    helloitsdan's encouragement to use fat2fit.com recommendation using bodyfat% calc.
    traditional find TDEE and take off 20%.
    Eating for Future You to nail current activity levels.

    And then I've given some tweaks to MFP because someone wanted to eat back their exercise calories on their own, but still eat above BMR, and have MFP manage the math.
  • marshallexi
    marshallexi Posts: 162 Member
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    I'M CONVERTED!

    After having no movement on the weighing scales for almost 6 weeks I upped my calories last Saturday and today I weighed in 3lbs lighter and down 0.5% in body fat.
  • jennytree
    jennytree Posts: 210 Member
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    I'm still confused :noway:

    My TDEE (from Fitness Frog) is 2402, so I should be netting 1402 for 2lb/wk weightloss, right? On my excercise days, if I was burning ~300, I'd have to eat 1700?

    The Fat2Fit threw this at me:
    Lightly Active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/wk): 2069, so is that telling me to eat 2000 cals?

    For reference, at the moment, I'm on 1400 cals a day (just about make that a day, I must be honest) and I'm not eating back my exercise calories, so I net too little.
  • kristi_asco
    kristi_asco Posts: 183
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    yay great job! i upped my cals as well :)
  • Sarauk2sf
    Sarauk2sf Posts: 28,072 Member
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    I'm still confused :noway:

    My TDEE (from Fitness Frog) is 2402, so I should be netting 1402 for 2lb/wk weightloss, right? On my excercise days, if I was burning ~300, I'd have to eat 1700?

    The Fat2Fit threw this at me:
    Lightly Active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/wk): 2069, so is that telling me to eat 2000 cals?

    For reference, at the moment, I'm on 1400 cals a day (just about make that a day, I must be honest) and I'm not eating back my exercise calories, so I net too little.

    The difference is due to the fact that you have picked a 2lb weight loss. Fat2Fit wil only be giving you a deficit of about 500 calories = 1lb per week. Unless you are more than 50lb overweight you should aim for 1lb a week.
  • nszocinski
    nszocinski Posts: 156 Member
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    bump for later
  • mmckee10
    mmckee10 Posts: 405 Member
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    :drinker: Woohoo! :drinker:

    Welcome to the dark side, where we really do have cookies, and have enough calories to eat them.

    lol LOVE this. recently upped my cals as well.. from 1200 to 1500. feel great!
  • ejechols
    ejechols Posts: 98 Member
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    This is SO counter-intuitive. I'm struggling with the same issue. I actually tried to stay negative in calories. If I did, I felt like the day was a success. I lost 40 pounds, and STOPPED. So, I worked out more. 90 minutes on the treadmill.

    Question: Should we eat back our calories? Please answer with small, clear words so I understand.

    This is really hard to get my head around.
  • sal0118
    sal0118 Posts: 84
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    Bumb
  • KellyBurton1
    KellyBurton1 Posts: 529 Member
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    I know for me when I first started MFP gave me a higher number of cals, as I lost ,MFP keep lowering and lowering and I hit a brick wall. People need to be informed that you have to elevate your own calorie intake. I think this is where some might be a little afraid to up there intake considering what MFP gave them in fear that they might gain. But they dont think about how much there indurance and activity level has increased since. Which in turn will bring there calorie intake up a little higher.
  • jennytree
    jennytree Posts: 210 Member
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    I'm still confused :noway:

    My TDEE (from Fitness Frog) is 2402, so I should be netting 1402 for 2lb/wk weightloss, right? On my excercise days, if I was burning ~300, I'd have to eat 1700?

    The Fat2Fit threw this at me:
    Lightly Active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/wk): 2069, so is that telling me to eat 2000 cals?

    For reference, at the moment, I'm on 1400 cals a day (just about make that a day, I must be honest) and I'm not eating back my exercise calories, so I net too little.

    The difference is due to the fact that you have picked a 2lb weight loss. Fat2Fit wil only be giving you a deficit of about 500 calories = 1lb per week. Unless you are more than 50lb overweight you should aim for 1lb a week.

    I have more than 50lb to lose alright, thanks for explaining the difference! I think I should be aiming to net 1400 cals a day!

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