New and this doesn't seem right

justagirl2013

I posted a post on MFP yesterday morning which didn't garner much response: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/563996-do-i-need-to-eat-more

So I came here and read, and read, and then read some more. I am now utterly confused.

I had followed "Helloitsdan" information on finding my BMR and my moderate calories and then I come here and I find different information.

IE here are my stats:

Age: 28
Height: 64 inches
Weight 203.2
Goal 140
Body Fat: 47.3%

BMR:

Katch-McArdle: 1421
Moderate: 2221
20% of 2221= 1777 (calories to be ate)

Now if I follow the formula in the first thread here I get this information

RMR: 655+ (9.6x92)=(1.8x162.6cm)-(4.7x28) = 1699.28 BMR (1700 rounded up)

For my TDEE I am getting 1700*1.55= 2635
With 10% for digestion = 2899 (2900)

Now with a 15% cut I get 2900x15%= 2465

Since February I have had my goal set at 1800. Some days I cannot eat back my exercise calories. (A lot of it is mental, I *hate* the red numbers, but dang it, I don't care anymore). So I have been undereating? My diary is open, feel free to look.

I have lost 2 inches on my hips & waist since 3/26 measurements. I also went from 47.3% BF to 42.1% BF. I have lost 12 pounds (15 according to my dr) and have dropped a pant's size.

For exercise: Horseback ride once per week (pretty strenous), c25k/20 min elliptical 3x per week, strength train with machines at least 2x per week. Every other week i also spend approximately 6 hours mowing our 2.5 acres of hilly thick yard with a non-self propelled mower.

So can anyone offer insight? Am I okay where I am at, or am I just doing damage and need to definitely bump up. I'm just really confused here.

geetabean

I posted a post on MFP yesterday morning which didn't garner much response: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/563996-do-i-need-to-eat-more

So I came here and read, and read, and then read some more. I am now utterly confused.

I had followed "Helloitsdan" information on finding my BMR and my moderate calories and then I come here and I find different information.

IE here are my stats:

Age: 28
Height: 64 inches
Weight 203.2
Goal 140
Body Fat: 47.3%

BMR:

Katch-McArdle: 1421
Moderate: 2221
20% of 2221= 1777 (calories to be ate)

Now if I follow the formula in the first thread here I get this information

RMR: 655+ (9.6x92)=(1.8x162.6cm)-(4.7x28) = 1699.28 BMR (1700 rounded up)

For my TDEE I am getting 1700*1.55= 2635
With 10% for digestion = 2899 (2900)

Now with a 15% cut I get 2900x15%= 2465

Since February I have had my goal set at 1800. Some days I cannot eat back my exercise calories. (A lot of it is mental, I *hate* the red numbers, but dang it, I don't care anymore). So I have been undereating? My diary is open, feel free to look.

I have lost 2 inches on my hips & waist since 3/26 measurements. I also went from 47.3% BF to 42.1% BF. I have lost 12 pounds (15 according to my dr) and have dropped a pant's size.

For exercise: Horseback ride once per week (pretty strenous), c25k/20 min elliptical 3x per week, strength train with machines at least 2x per week. Every other week i also spend approximately 6 hours mowing our 2.5 acres of hilly thick yard with a non-self propelled mower.

So can anyone offer insight? Am I okay where I am at, or am I just doing damage and need to definitely bump up. I'm just really confused here.

If I were you, I would eat 2320 (20% cut) to 2465 (15% cut) and only eat back exercise calories to get you up to BMR if you have a pretty active day. I played around with just netting my BMR and I wish that I had skipped that and jumped straight to TDEE -20% because when I was netting 1900 calories a day I wasn't losing but once I upped it to 2260 I am losing! I am not an expert though.....I only have my own happiness and success as examples. :happy: Good luck!

LittleElephant

I had followed "Helloitsdan" information on finding my BMR and my moderate calories and then I come here and I find different information.

IE here are my stats:

Age: 28
Height: 64 inches
Weight 203.2
Goal 140
Body Fat: 47.3%

BMR:

Katch-McArdle: 1421
Moderate: 2221
20% of 2221= 1777 (calories to be ate)

I think using the Helloitsdan formula you should then be eating 2221 cos the table generated tells you the number to eat. You don't need to subtract anything. Might be wrong but that's the way I understand it.

justagirl2013

If I were you, I would eat 2320 (20% cut) to 2465 (15% cut) and only eat back exercise calories to get you up to BMR if you have a pretty active day. I played around with just netting my BMR and I wish that I had skipped that and jumped straight to TDEE -20% because when I was netting 1900 calories a day I wasn't losing but once I upped it to 2260 I am losing! I am not an expert though.....I only have my own happiness and success as examples. :happy: Good luck!

Any tips on how to increase the calories slowly, yet in a healthy manner? Obviously I could drink my soda now, but I'm trying to get away from that kind of stuff. Would eating 2 servings of oatmeal for breakfast be horrible?

I am imaging I am going to gain weight doing this also, correct? Will I gain back the inches I lost? I am concerned about the fact that I have a wedding to attend in less than 45 days. I fit into the dress now, I don't want to risk not getting into this dress, because the bride will kill me! (She's my best friend lol)

One more question? How long have you been eating your 2260 and losing?

Thanks so much!

geetabean

....snip
Some days I cannot eat back my exercise calories.
.....snip

As far as the above goes.....for the first few days to a week or so, you're just going to have to suffer through and eat all of your calories! I think that every.single.one.of.us hit a point during calorie upping where we felt completely stuffed and didn't think we could consume another bite of food. BUT, after about a week or so your metabolism will speed up, your body will be happier and you will be HUNGRY! I eat a ton of food and I'm still hungry a lot.....not in the "I'm starving myself" kind of way, but in the sense that I'm fueling my body regularly with healthy foods that are easier for it to digest and put to good use.....and then it wants more and more and more. :laugh:

Try adding foods that are calorie rich, but still healthy.....peanut butter and almonds have been life savers for me! If you're eating light dairy products, switch to full and natural ones. 3 TBSP of peanuts have 190 calories! Seeds are good too. I'm sure others will have more/better suggestions. Eat up!

justagirl2013

I had followed "Helloitsdan" information on finding my BMR and my moderate calories and then I come here and I find different information.

IE here are my stats:

Age: 28
Height: 64 inches
Weight 203.2
Goal 140
Body Fat: 47.3%

BMR:

Katch-McArdle: 1421
Moderate: 2221
20% of 2221= 1777 (calories to be ate)

I think using the Helloitsdan formula you should then be eating 2221 cos the table generated tells you the number to eat. You don't need to subtract anything. Might be wrong but that's the way I understand it.

Ahhhh! Now that you say that, it makes more sense. I was confused because the difference in numbers 1777 vs 2465. Now 2221 vs 2465 isn't that much...

justagirl2013

....snip
Some days I cannot eat back my exercise calories.
.....snip

As far as the above goes.....for the first few days to a week or so, you're just going to have to suffer through and eat all of your calories! I think that every.single.one.of.us hit a point during calorie upping where we felt completely stuffed and didn't think we could consume another bite of food. BUT, after about a week or so your metabolism will speed up, your body will be happier and you will be HUNGRY! I eat a ton of food and I'm still hungry a lot.....not in the "I'm starving myself" kind of way, but in the sense that I'm fueling my body regularly with healthy foods that are easier for it to digest and put to good use.....and then it wants more and more and more. :laugh:

Try adding foods that are calorie rich, but still healthy.....peanut butter and almonds have been life savers for me! If you're eating light dairy products, switch to full and natural ones. 3 TBSP of peanuts have 190 calories! Seeds are good too. I'm sure others will have more/better suggestions. Eat up!

Oh I love the heck out of peanut butter. I could easily eat tbsp after tbsp! Funny, my daughter told me last night that I was going to turn into a peanut. Then she wanted to know if PB is on my "diet".

I would assume protein shakes with whole milk, peanut butter, and maybe some chocolate syrup would be an acceptable way of consuming calories, fat and protein? I just checked that on MFP and it would be close to 450 cals...

justagirl2013

One more thing. I do NOT eat my exercise cals back on a normal day. Now let's say I mow the grass for 6 hours. MFP says this will burn 3,036 calories. So how do I figure out exactly how many additional cals I would need to eat on this day?

geetabean

If I were you, I would eat 2320 (20% cut) to 2465 (15% cut) and only eat back exercise calories to get you up to BMR if you have a pretty active day. I played around with just netting my BMR and I wish that I had skipped that and jumped straight to TDEE -20% because when I was netting 1900 calories a day I wasn't losing but once I upped it to 2260 I am losing! I am not an expert though.....I only have my own happiness and success as examples. :happy: Good luck!

Any tips on how to increase the calories slowly, yet in a healthy manner? Obviously I could drink my soda now, but I'm trying to get away from that kind of stuff. Would eating 2 servings of oatmeal for breakfast be horrible?

I am imaging I am going to gain weight doing this also, correct? Will I gain back the inches I lost? I am concerned about the fact that I have a wedding to attend in less than 45 days. I fit into the dress now, I don't want to risk not getting into this dress, because the bride will kill me! (She's my best friend lol)

One more question? How long have you been eating your 2260 and losing?

Thanks so much!

If it was me, I wouldn't do it slowly! The faster you jump to feeding your body correctly, the faster you'll be done with your metabolism repairing itself. You may have weight gain for a little while or you may retain water and feel bloated. It really just depends on how messed up your metabolism is right now. Have you been yo-yo dieting for a long time, have you been severely restricting calories and over exercising for a while, do you binge eat? It really all depends on how you've been treating your body for the past months/years. I have never done anything drastic to my metabolism (other than over eat, HA!) so for me this journey has been pretty painless. When I was eating at what MFP told me to I hardly lost anything and then stalled for weeks. When I upped to 1900 I didn't gain weight, but I lost and gained the same stupid pound over and over again for a couple weeks. Once I finally upped to TDEE -20% (about a week ago) I lost 2 pounds and I have also lost inches.....I really need to measure, because I'm not sure exactly how many inches, but pants fit me that didn't used to!

Feel free to look at my food diary....it's open. I'm not perfect with my eating, but I think I'm doing pretty good....except for the stoopid sodium. Blah. I think that if you have oatmeal with a banana sliced up on it, maybe a cup of yogurt and a hard boiled egg you'd have a great start to your day and all of that (give or take a few cals depending on what choices you make) is 412 calories. You could also substitute the hard boiled egg for a scrambled egg and saute spinach and bell peppers in it and throw some diced chicken breast in for added protein. I know it sounds like a lot, but trust me.....your body will adapt to it and you will LOVE being able to eat this much!

justagirl2013

If it was me, I wouldn't do it slowly! The faster you jump to feeding your body correctly, the faster you'll be done with your metabolism repairing itself. You may have weight gain for a little while or you may retain water and feel bloated. It really just depends on how messed up your metabolism is right now. Have you been yo-yo dieting for a long time, have you been severely restricting calories and over exercising for a while, do you binge eat? It really all depends on how you've been treating your body for the past months/years. I have never done anything drastic to my metabolism (other than over eat, HA!) so for me this journey has been pretty painless. When I was eating at what MFP told me to I hardly lost anything and then stalled for weeks. When I upped to 1900 I didn't gain weight, but I lost and gained the same stupid pound over and over again for a couple weeks. Once I finally upped to TDEE -20% (about a week ago) I lost 2 pounds and I have also lost inches.....I really need to measure, because I'm not sure exactly how many inches, but pants fit me that didn't used to!

Feel free to look at my food diary....it's open. I'm not perfect with my eating, but I think I'm doing pretty good....except for the stoopid sodium. Blah. I think that if you have oatmeal with a banana sliced up on it, maybe a cup of yogurt and a hard boiled egg you'd have a great start to your day and all of that (give or take a few cals depending on what choices you make) is 412 calories. You could also substitute the hard boiled egg for a scrambled egg and saute spinach and bell peppers in it and throw some diced chicken breast in for added protein. I know it sounds like a lot, but trust me.....your body will adapt to it and you will LOVE being able to eat this much!

Okay, starting today I'm going to start eating 2,320 calories. Crap I still have 1800 calories to go. I've never really dieted in the past. I started last august but never got anywhere so I quit. In January I tried on a bridesmaid dress and realized that i do not want to be this size anymore. So I started researching. February I started eating 1800 cals per day and doing c25k. I have not been netting 1800 every day though, so that is maybe an issue right there....I don't really binge eat. My diary is open, it's pretty accurate. I log everything, and measure everything too. Even the freaking peeps from last night <Sigh>. Water is 2 32oz bottles per day and usually and additional 16oz bottle on workout days.

For breakfast I generally eat 3 eggs, 2 servngs spinach (170 g), 100g of mushrooms, cottage cheese (or plain greek yogurt/fresh strawberries/fresh blueberries). Or I'll eat one serving oatmeal, 1 serving canned pumpkin, 2-3tsp brown sugar, dash of cinnamon, cottage cheese, and a fruit.

Thanks so much. You have given me a sense of excitement about this, and I'm hoping to make this change for good. I'm glad that I can do this when my SO is not home also. He means well, but a few times he has said you are going to eat that much? I told him trust me, but I don't think he quite understood it still. It's okay, because I don't fully understand either! I'm going to soon though!

geetabean

One more thing. I do NOT eat my exercise cals back on a normal day. Now let's say I mow the grass for 6 hours. MFP says this will burn 3,036 calories. So how do I figure out exactly how many additional cals I would need to eat on this day?

I would suggest wearing a heart monitor to calculate your actual calories burned. I find it to be much more accurate than what MFP says. As far as the lawn mowing.....that is a ton of calories burned! You go girl. If it was me, I would probably hire a gardener. :bigsmile: But if you really are burning that many calories, maybe that day could be your "cheat" day where you eat decadent things you normally stay away from....that would help you to recover all of those burned calories. Someone else might be better able to answer this question for you.

geetabean

....snip
Some days I cannot eat back my exercise calories.
.....snip

As far as the above goes.....for the first few days to a week or so, you're just going to have to suffer through and eat all of your calories! I think that every.single.one.of.us hit a point during calorie upping where we felt completely stuffed and didn't think we could consume another bite of food. BUT, after about a week or so your metabolism will speed up, your body will be happier and you will be HUNGRY! I eat a ton of food and I'm still hungry a lot.....not in the "I'm starving myself" kind of way, but in the sense that I'm fueling my body regularly with healthy foods that are easier for it to digest and put to good use.....and then it wants more and more and more. :laugh:

Try adding foods that are calorie rich, but still healthy.....peanut butter and almonds have been life savers for me! If you're eating light dairy products, switch to full and natural ones. 3 TBSP of peanuts have 190 calories! Seeds are good too. I'm sure others will have more/better suggestions. Eat up!

Oh I love the heck out of peanut butter. I could easily eat tbsp after tbsp! Funny, my daughter told me last night that I was going to turn into a peanut. Then she wanted to know if PB is on my "diet".

I would assume protein shakes with whole milk, peanut butter, and maybe some chocolate syrup would be an acceptable way of consuming calories, fat and protein? I just checked that on MFP and it would be close to 450 cals...

I just started with protein shakes today. I made a smoothie this morning! I didn't really love it, and it didn't keep me feeling full for very long. It's only 11:30 and I already feel like I've eaten a lot of food and I'm starting to feel hungry again.....700 calories down, 1558 to go! Actually probably more than that because today is a gym day. Can you imagine that if I were on the typical 1200 calorie "diet" I'd only have 500 more calories left to eat today? That's just crazy! I like the idea of peanut butter in the protein shake......I probably wouldn't add the chocolate syrup unless I could find a natural syrup, but I've read that peanut butter, banana and cooked oatmeal make a good shake. Mmmm.....now I'm gonna go off and search protein shake recipes! I'm also gonna friend request you!

justagirl2013

One more thing. I do NOT eat my exercise cals back on a normal day. Now let's say I mow the grass for 6 hours. MFP says this will burn 3,036 calories. So how do I figure out exactly how many additional cals I would need to eat on this day?

I would suggest wearing a heart monitor to calculate your actual calories burned. I find it to be much more accurate than what MFP says. As far as the lawn mowing.....that is a ton of calories burned! You go girl. If it was me, I would probably hire a gardener. :bigsmile: But if you really are burning that many calories, maybe that day could be your "cheat" day where you eat decadent things you normally stay away from....that would help you to recover all of those burned calories. Someone else might be better able to answer this question for you.

Maybe I can eat sushi and have mojitos that night.

LOL on the gardener! My neighbor's son used to cut it, but I wanted to burn more calories, so I said I would do it.

I really need to get a HRM. As it is, I only take MFP's calories burned with a grain of salt and say that I only burned 75% of calories it says. Sometimes even 60%.

justagirl2013

....snip
Some days I cannot eat back my exercise calories.
.....snip

As far as the above goes.....for the first few days to a week or so, you're just going to have to suffer through and eat all of your calories! I think that every.single.one.of.us hit a point during calorie upping where we felt completely stuffed and didn't think we could consume another bite of food. BUT, after about a week or so your metabolism will speed up, your body will be happier and you will be HUNGRY! I eat a ton of food and I'm still hungry a lot.....not in the "I'm starving myself" kind of way, but in the sense that I'm fueling my body regularly with healthy foods that are easier for it to digest and put to good use.....and then it wants more and more and more. :laugh:

Try adding foods that are calorie rich, but still healthy.....peanut butter and almonds have been life savers for me! If you're eating light dairy products, switch to full and natural ones. 3 TBSP of peanuts have 190 calories! Seeds are good too. I'm sure others will have more/better suggestions. Eat up!

Oh I love the heck out of peanut butter. I could easily eat tbsp after tbsp! Funny, my daughter told me last night that I was going to turn into a peanut. Then she wanted to know if PB is on my "diet".

I would assume protein shakes with whole milk, peanut butter, and maybe some chocolate syrup would be an acceptable way of consuming calories, fat and protein? I just checked that on MFP and it would be close to 450 cals...

I just started with protein shakes today. I made a smoothie this morning! I didn't really love it, and it didn't keep me feeling full for very long. It's only 11:30 and I already feel like I've eaten a lot of food and I'm starting to feel hungry again.....700 calories down, 1558 to go! Actually probably more than that because today is a gym day. Can you imagine that if I were on the typical 1200 calorie "diet" I'd only have 500 more calories left to eat today? That's just crazy! I like the idea of peanut butter in the protein shake......I probably wouldn't add the chocolate syrup unless I could find a natural syrup, but I've read that peanut butter, banana and cooked oatmeal make a good shake. Mmmm.....now I'm gonna go off and search protein shake recipes! I'm also gonna friend request you!

You would love these!

http://www.dashingdish.com/2010/03/i-cant-believe-its-not-a-milkshake/

I cannot consume any artificial sweeteners due to allergies (stevia is pushing it even), but I keep meaning to try some of these out.

I bet peanut butter and banana would be awesome in a protein shake! Hmm what about cocoa powder to sweeten? I used Hershey's last time because that's what I had on hand.

Sunbeam0904

Hey ladies - so let me give you my stats and tell me what u think:

Age: 30
Wt: 216
Goal: 150
Ht: 62
BF 42%
Workout 2-3x/wk, moderate cardio for about 45 min each.

I have gone up and down with how many calories I eat and I am definitely interested in eating more. :-)

How did u get the 2320 number for Raz? And so Raz are you going to keep adding in your calories burned and eat those too? Is that why u said u want to get a HRM?

ANewLucia

Hey ladies - so let me give you my stats and tell me what u think:

Age: 30
Wt: 216
Goal: 150
Ht: 62
BF 42%
Workout 2-3x/wk, moderate cardio for about 45 min each.

I have gone up and down with how many calories I eat and I am definitely interested in eating more. :-)

How did u get the 2320 number for Raz? And so Raz are you going to keep adding in your calories burned and eat those too? Is that why u said u want to get a HRM?

Take a look at the TDEE article at the top of the topics list. It has calculators for your BMR and TDEE that will get you your cut val and bmr.

justagirl2013

Hey ladies - so let me give you my stats and tell me what u think:

Age: 30
Wt: 216
Goal: 150
Ht: 62
BF 42%
Workout 2-3x/wk, moderate cardio for about 45 min each.

I have gone up and down with how many calories I eat and I am definitely interested in eating more. :-)

How did u get the 2320 number for Raz? And so Raz are you going to keep adding in your calories burned and eat those too? Is that why u said u want to get a HRM?

I read this post : http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/512956-tdee-what-is-it-and-why-you-should-not-eat-below-your-bmr

It gives you the formula for coming up with the numbers. Here are yours for you

BMR=1738

TDEE 2963

15% cut: 2519
20% cut: 2370

So you can choose to eat 2,370 calories or 2,519 calories.

I'm not going to eat any calories burned back, as this takes your activity in already for you. The only calories that I will eat back (If I am understanding this correctly) are going to be the ones when I mowed the lawn. In which case I will eat to at least get my BMR. I think if this is right, I will need to eat

2320 cals ate - 3,036 burned = -716. I would need to eat approximately 2,450 more calories to be consuming at my BMR, or a total of 4,470 calories that day. I'm hoping that i figured that out right...

I'm going to try it, so you can follow along my my profile

Sunbeam0904

Thanks so much Raz for calculating it for me! I think I'm more of a lightly active person than moderately active so that gave me 2233 (15%) or 2102 (20%) for my numbers. I think I'll go with the 15% so I have somewhere to go if I'm not losing well after a while.

But I tried doing this for my hubby who's also on MFP and for his TDEE - 15% I got 2903. Would you mind double checking this for me?

His #'s
Age: 32
Wt: 240
Ht: 72
BF% 35
He's lightly active, works out like me, 2-3 days a week.

Thanks!

justagirl2013

Thanks so much Raz for calculating it for me! I think I'm more of a lightly active person than moderately active so that gave me 2233 (15%) or 2102 (20%) for my numbers. I think I'll go with the 15% so I have somewhere to go if I'm not losing well after a while.

But I tried doing this for my hubby who's also on MFP and for his TDEE - 15% I got 2903. Would you mind double checking this for me?

His #'s
Age: 32
Wt: 240
Ht: 72
BF% 35
He's lightly active, works out like me, 2-3 days a week.

Thanks!

I got 2,903 for your DH. I didn't use decimals and rounded though, but it's close enough

In that TDEE link I gave you, it said most people underestimate their activity levels. Since you are on your feet a lot, and walking around, I really think I would work with a moderate activity level. That's just my opinion. I went with a higher activity level than I think too, but I think that it is more accurate now that I put it all out there for what I am doing. I would say that lightly active is the normal person. A moderate active person would be one who is like you and I, working out in addition to life happenings. You can always go back down if it doesn't work for you, but from what I've been reading today it's harder to go up.

ANewLucia

Yep moderate fits most here.

Sunbeam0904

Thanks so much Raz!!! U rock. :-) SO...I decided to take the plunge and made both me and hubby moderately active. So I'm going to be eating 2519 calories!!!!!!! Crazy!!!!!!!!!!!! I'll try not to chicken out :-) Keep me strong Raz :-) And I'll try to keep my hubby strong. hehe - that is assuming he'll even try it :-)