In place of a road map!

jennyfrmthap

bump

LeslieMDoyle

thanks for the info!:flowerforyou:

mukamom

Yes, folks, this is working for me. I was stuck for a month bouncing between 235-239, so I got my feet wet and bumped it up from 1670 to 1800. Didn't seem to make any difference. I read this post, plugged my #'s in and found out I should be eating 2300!!

It seemed to be a bit much.

I wondered about my age of 53....Did I really need that much? Researched a bit and found I should I cut that 2300 by about 300.

You know, the hormone thingy and such.

At 2000/day for a week....voila! 3.6 pounds down this week!!

twhitmore22

bump for later

Time2LoseWeightNOW

jenniejengin

Bump

heybales

I don't have the energy to read all 15 pages of this, but I noticed on the first page that it was suggested that we check our body fat with calipers. I participated in a study many years ago that compared calipers to measuring body fat with water displacement. Calipers lost. It's much more reliable to get your body fat measured somewhere where you can be dunked in a tank of water. It doesn't take long, but nowadays I have no idea where to have it done or what it might cost.

For the purpose of getting better BMR calc - anything within 5% is decent enough and doesn't change the value much at all.

MummyDB

Bumping as I'm going to have to read it over to really absorb it all. Thank you for the info Dan.

lucyhoneychurch

Bump - a great read!

Shenzi03

bump

lee1205

bump

MummyDB

By George ( or Dan) I think I've got it

BMR is 1479
Light activity is 1973

Was going to start with sedentary but I think light may be more accurate. I'll start with that and see how it does.
Scary but going to up my cals and see what happens. Scale hasn't moved in a month. Doesn't hurt to try.

Thanks again Dan for the info.

psuLemon

Good stuff Dan.

carlyholly

Bump.

em9371

Hi dan,

Great post thanks!

I already pretty much use this style of working out cals rather than mfps eat back exercise, but wanted to check ive worked it out right!!!
I just have a quick question:
My bmr is 1587 / body fat 40.4 which gives me 1715 sedentary, 1965 lightly active, 2215 as mod active.
I have a desk job and exercise 4-5 times a week. Exercise is light only due to knee injury so I currently eat at lightly active level of around 1950 and net around 1650.

Maybe I'm just being dumb, but according to the chart the mod active level includes daily activity and workouts, so when you say to add 20% to this number, what is that for?

Thanks :-)

20 % added to that number is your TDEE. It is the number you should never eat above or you will gain.

thanks but im still confused!
if TDEE means total daily energy expenditure, then surely bmr, daily activity and workouts is all there is to count so TDEE would be the number in the chart? how does the extra 20% of energy get used????
as i have a desk job but exercise, would i take the sedentary cals of 1715, add 20% and eat 2058, or choose the activity level of lightly active / moderate so my exercise is already included then i dont add anything and eat between 1965-2215, or add 20% to the 1965/2215 and eat 2358 / 2658 - this seems really high, i seem to lose most eating around 1900?

rswood62

bump

EmeriaDewes

Bump

AuntieMC

bump

CM9178

Not to add too much confusion to it, but wouldn't it be more accurate (and perhaps easier for people to log on MFP) to use the "sedentary" number and then log exercise using a heart rate monitor, and then eat those calories? I mean, I can say I exercise 3-5 days/week, which I do, but if I only exercise for 30 minutes versus 1 hour, obviously I'm burning fewer calories.

Again, not to make it too complicated, but just wondering if you think that might be easier for some/more accurate for calorie tracking?

I completely agree!!

You can do that too - pick the sedentary activity level and 'eat your calories back'. Note however, that the calories for execises in MFP are rough estimates and can be pretty far off what you actually expend.

Or I can use a HRM and get an accurate reading for calories burned.

CM9178

Sorry, I'm still confused how to figure any of this out.
Can someone please explain this in VERY SIMPLE TERMS without 2 paragraphs of explanation?

My question is, what EXACTLY do we need to do to determine how many calories we should eat on a daily basis?
(I understand it gives the chart based on activity level, so lets forget about activity level right now). How do we get an accurate chart of exactly how many calories we should eat in order to consistently lose weight?

dancingdeer

bump for later.

LisaR517

subbing to this one!

heybales

Sorry, I'm still confused how to figure any of this out.
Can someone please explain this in VERY SIMPLE TERMS without 2 paragraphs of explanation?

My question is, what EXACTLY do we need to do to determine how many calories we should eat on a daily basis?
(I understand it gives the chart based on activity level, so lets forget about activity level right now). How do we get an accurate chart of exactly how many calories we should eat in order to consistently lose weight?

You cannot forget about the activity level. You are probably over-thinking this. I think you may not have availed yourself of the reading on the results page, actually read that info to understand what is happening.

1 - visit http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/
2 - Do the Military Body Fat Calc first
3 - then the BMR tool.
3.5 - read the paragraphs under the big bold section heading "How much Calories Should I Eat". If you don't see this, you are doing something very wrong.
4 - The BMR tool will give EXACT calories to eat on a daily basis for the correct activity level that is picked - exercise is obviously included as you can tell from the descriptions. Which of course means you do NOT eat back exercise calories with this system.

julesg100

I have only been on MFP for a week and I want to make sure I'm doing this right.

My military body fat is 24.9%
Katch Mcardle BMR = 1293
Moderately active on chart = 1916 cal.
TDEE = 1916 x 1.20 = 2299

Ok, so I should not eat below my BMR of 1293 and not go above 2299. Did I do this correctly? That's a huge range!

I just found the place in MFP where I can manually set my goals. Do I put anything in for exercise since it's included in these numbers? I would like to know what numbers to use and where they should go. Also, if I go this route vs. MFP, do I stop entering my exercise?

Thanks!!

SweatpantsRebellion

Wow. Thank you for all of this information. As a yo-yo ever since I can remember, the info. on the Fat 2 Fit site makes sense to me. The numbers also make sense. I had been using MFP's calculations, but usually eating back my exercise calories. That being said, I found that some of my losses were right after having a "bad" (over calorie) day and had started questioning whether or not MFP's calorie level was too low for me. I think I'm going to try this. According to this, if I'm lightly active I should have 2101 calories a day. I'm working on ramping up my exercise routine, so I will likely be switching to moderately active soon, but I admit that scares me because 2368 (the moderate activity calorie level) sounds like so much. But in theory it all makes perfect sense. I know that there's been many days with MFP's numbers that my net was under 1352 (which is my BMR number). Since I've yo-yo'd so many times, I know that I'm doing something wrong, so I feel I have nothing to lose in trying this.

One question, I do have hypothyroidism. In fact I gained 40 pounds in 3 months because my thyroid went downhill postpartum. So I've lost 20 of that in the last month and a half. I honestly think it came back off so quickly because of my adjustment with the thyroid medication. BUT I do worry because my metabolism can be so sluggish. I admit that I'm very afraid that eating so many calories will cause me to start gaining like crazy. How do I get over the mental hump and do you think the hypothyroidism affects the numbers in any way?

heybales

I have only been on MFP for a week and I want to make sure I'm doing this right.

My military body fat is 24.9%
Katch Mcardle BMR = 1293
Moderately active on chart = 1916 cal.
TDEE = 1916 x 1.20 = 2299

Ok, so I should not eat below my BMR of 1293 and not go above 2299. Did I do this correctly? That's a huge range!

I just found the place in MFP where I can manually set my goals. Do I put anything in for exercise since it's included in these numbers? I would like to know what numbers to use and where they should go. Also, if I go this route vs. MFP, do I stop entering my exercise?

So you got it right. The range is huge because your exercise calories are included in there.
You should set the goal for like even 1900, and that does indeed include exercise planned/done.
The numbers under Goals you see is goals for exercise, it has no bearing on math for eating. So you can enter how many workouts you plan to do, how many calories you hope to burn. And then receive that goal encouragement for the week.
And then when you log exercise, which you can, just remember you are eating to 1900 everyday only, no extra's since it's included.
If the credit calories for exercise gets confusing and you want to visually just see 1900, you can log exercise time/activity with 1 calorie. Look at my Food Notes to see what I do.
Obviously this means MFP's math on deficit is totally off, but TDEE - eating = deficit, so about 400 for you. No matter what MFP says, you know this.

ScarletShopaholic

Bump

Sarauk2sf

Hi dan,

Great post thanks!

I already pretty much use this style of working out cals rather than mfps eat back exercise, but wanted to check ive worked it out right!!!
I just have a quick question:
My bmr is 1587 / body fat 40.4 which gives me 1715 sedentary, 1965 lightly active, 2215 as mod active.
I have a desk job and exercise 4-5 times a week. Exercise is light only due to knee injury so I currently eat at lightly active level of around 1950 and net around 1650.

Maybe I'm just being dumb, but according to the chart the mod active level includes daily activity and workouts, so when you say to add 20% to this number, what is that for?

Thanks :-)

Adding the 20% gets you to your TDEE without the calorie deficit for weight loss - i.e. maintenance

big_eye

Fantastic!! I love the science and formulary calculations... Just need to apply it, I have printed off the original thread/post and surely you will hear from me with questions...

I have a friend who sent me this link and swears by the science of it, she has spelled it out in "lay terms" , but thanks to all of you big hugs...

Sarauk2sf

Hi dan,

Great post thanks!

I already pretty much use this style of working out cals rather than mfps eat back exercise, but wanted to check ive worked it out right!!!
I just have a quick question:
My bmr is 1587 / body fat 40.4 which gives me 1715 sedentary, 1965 lightly active, 2215 as mod active.
I have a desk job and exercise 4-5 times a week. Exercise is light only due to knee injury so I currently eat at lightly active level of around 1950 and net around 1650.

Maybe I'm just being dumb, but according to the chart the mod active level includes daily activity and workouts, so when you say to add 20% to this number, what is that for?

Thanks :-)

20 % added to that number is your TDEE. It is the number you should never eat above or you will gain.

thanks but im still confused!
if TDEE means total daily energy expenditure, then surely bmr, daily activity and workouts is all there is to count so TDEE would be the number in the chart? how does the extra 20% of energy get used????
as i have a desk job but exercise, would i take the sedentary cals of 1715, add 20% and eat 2058, or choose the activity level of lightly active / moderate so my exercise is already included then i dont add anything and eat between 1965-2215, or add 20% to the 1965/2215 and eat 2358 / 2658 - this seems really high, i seem to lose most eating around 1900?

The number given in the table of the fat2fit tool is AFTER a deficit - if you read the blurb above the table on the page it explains that this is the amount you need to eat to lose. Your actual TDEE is 20% above this - the 20% being your deficit. If you are lightly active, just eat 1965. Do not eat calories back as they are already included in the number.