Help Me, if you will

iva001

My diary is public so please offer feedback, I want to catch anything I'm doing wrong now, instead of getting advice months down the line.

Also, I can't afford a HR monitor, so I am using MFP's provided calorie burn for exercise. I know I should eat back my calories but I know the calorie burn provided isn't entirely accurate. What should I do, since I don't have a HR monitor?

I'm 5''4.5, 29 years old, current weight 155, goal weight 125.

gaia3rd

I eat back all my exercise calories and have been steadily losing a pound a week since mid-January. A lot of folks will eat back half or 3/4, to give them a margin for error. I'd suggest you pick something you feel you can live with and give it a try for 3-4 weeks, then adjust up or down as needed.

jenniejengin

bump

iva001

Ok thanks for that. I must say that MFP calore burn matches the readout on the treadmill. I will eat 75% back of my burned calories.

trinitylyons01

I eat back all my exercise calories and have been steadily losing a pound a week since mid-January. A lot of folks will eat back half or 3/4, to give them a margin for error. I'd suggest you pick something you feel you can live with and give it a try for 3-4 weeks, then adjust up or down as needed.

That is actually great advice. It also depends on how much you work out and how many calories you burn. Sometimes I may burn over 1000 calories in a workout. I really don't want to eat that many extra calories in a day so you may want to get in a workout that burns a decent amount of calories so if you do decide to eat them back you're eating a realistic and healthy amount of calories daily.

Good Luck!

SuffolkSally

Looks pretty good on a quick glance. Sending you a friend request as our calorie targets are similar (how did you calculate yours?) so it might be helpful to be able to compare notes? I think MFP overestimates the calories used so although sometimes I do eat all of them, like this weekend because I've eaten out a few times, but mostly I aim to eat about half back.

kdeaux1959

I eat back all my exercise calories and have been steadily losing a pound a week since mid-January. A lot of folks will eat back half or 3/4, to give them a margin for error. I'd suggest you pick something you feel you can live with and give it a try for 3-4 weeks, then adjust up or down as needed.

Great advice here. I don't squabble too much about the eating back calories thing... If I'm full I don't worry about eating it back. Has worked for me. I do make sure my protein is strong though to prevent a lot of muscle loss.

just4u_cara

Ok thanks for that. I must say that MFP calore burn matches the readout on the treadmill.

My treadmill at the gym defaults calorie burn calculations for a 150lb person. I'm way more than that, so I get into the settings and enter my true weight, to get true accurate calorie burn stats.

I eat back about 3/4 of my exercise calories.

JesterMFP

I would at least eat some of your exercise calories back because you know you are burning something while exercising, and your body needs the fuel. I eat all of mine back, but I have a better estimation from my hrm, so I do understand the worry of trusting MFP's estimations. Maybe aim to eat 2/3 of them back and if after a couple of weeks you're not losing, you can adjust.

I can't see much wrong with your diary. Did you know you have the option of tracking more nutrients? (Go to "food" > "settings" and choose from there). You could track eg. fibre, or sodium if you felt like it. A lot of people around these boards feel that the MFP protein goals are quite low, so you also have the option of changing your macro goals ("home" > "goals" > "change goals" > "custom"). Then, you can play around with the macro percentages to get a higher protein ration - if you want. Otherwise, just leave it as it is and keep doing what you're doing, because it looks pretty good to me!

SuffolkSally

Oh, and I should have said that at the moment I aim for a calorie intake that's between my BMR (1612) and my sedentary TDEE (1921) regardless of calories earned through exercise as I don't exercise hard or for very long, it's dog walks and some weights at the gym mainly. This is my sort of balance between wanting to be well-nourished and also wanting to see results on the scale asap!

Sarahing16

I'm not sure how you set up your account from the beginning, but I believe you would be lose much quicker if your daily calorie goal was less. Looking at your weight and height I believe 1500 would be a healthy doable amount. I only looked at a couple of days, If you cut out things like soda, juices, and high fat condiments you would cut out substantial calories. I personally eat some high calorie foods like peanut butter and stuff, but not much because it eats up my calories quick. One of my new favorite things to eat when I want something savory is sauteed veggies in just some low cal butter flavored non stick oil. I steam some broccoli for a couple minutes then toss it in a pan with the spray, salt, pepper, and garlic - its SO good.

Good luck!

Sarah.

iva001

I'm not sure how you set up your account from the beginning, but I believe you would be lose much quicker if your daily calorie goal was less. Looking at your weight and height I believe 1500 would be a healthy doable amount. I only looked at a couple of days, If you cut out things like soda, juices, and high fat condiments you would cut out substantial calories. I personally eat some high calorie foods like peanut butter and stuff, but not much because it eats up my calories quick. One of my new favorite things to eat when I want something savory is sauteed veggies in just some low cal butter flavored non stick oil. I steam some broccoli for a couple minutes then toss it in a pan with the spray, salt, pepper, and garlic - its SO good.

Good luck!

Sarah.

Hi thanks, my calorie goal is actually 1500, but what you see is my goal included burned calories. I know I will lose more weight if I cut out the fun stuff but then I will probably gorge if I cut it out completely. That Ting you see was on sale for 49p!!

Im still waiting for that magical moment when I'm suddenly craving sauteed broccoli. Probably will come right before Greek yogurt actually tastes good :sick:

iva001

Oh, and I should have said that at the moment I aim for a calorie intake that's between my BMR (1612) and my sedentary TDEE (1921)

whaaaaa?????

jamiem1102

Looks pretty good on a quick glance. Sending you a friend request as our calorie targets are similar (how did you calculate yours?) so it might be helpful to be able to compare notes? I think MFP overestimates the calories used so although sometimes I do eat all of them, like this weekend because I've eaten out a few times, but mostly I aim to eat about half back.

Me too!

GSCPostBaby

Greek yogurt tastes sooo good with sweet-tart fruits like berries and low sugar granola. My advice would be to try eating more frequently and less calories. Some days the breakfast calories are really high. Try eating a 350 calorie breakfast, an early lunch of another 350 calories, an afternoon snack of 250 calories, dinner at 550 calories and a snack around 8 of 150 calories. If your exercising 200-300 calories off per day you will net around 1300-1400 calories per day give or take. Also, you should increase your protein intake so it is consistently somewhere around 100 grams per day, give or take 20.

How quickly are you losing weight right now?

catpow2

Aim for 30/30/40 (30% from protein and fats and 40% from carbs)--your choices look good--well balanced. You may want to cut back on soda and fats to give you more calories to play around with (soda doesn't fill it you up) but I eat 2 tbsp of butter every morning for breakfast with my English muffin and I'm not changing that! I'm 5'5 aiming for 135ish. I think I'm actually pretty close but haven't weighed myself recently. I always eat back my exercise calories. 1500 is probably good--I wouldn't go any lower actually to make sure your body is getting enough food. I set my goal for 1700 after estimating my BMR and TDEE.

iva001

Looks pretty good on a quick glance. Sending you a friend request as our calorie targets are similar (how did you calculate yours?) so it might be helpful to be able to compare notes? I think MFP overestimates the calories used so although sometimes I do eat all of them, like this weekend because I've eaten out a few times, but mostly I aim to eat about half back.

I calculated my targets by setting my CW as 155lbs and GW as 120lbs. Aiming to lose 1lb a week cuz the calorie restrictions at 2lbs a week was too low for me. I have low endurance I cannot burn that many calories at the gym before getting tired.

You may be bored with my meal plan, I eat the same cheap things everyday almost because I am on a budget :happy:

iva001

Greek yogurt tastes sooo good with sweet-tart fruits like berries and low sugar granola.

Bold-faced lie!!! :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

My advice would be to try eating more frequently and less calories. Some days the breakfast calories are really high. Try eating a 350 calorie breakfast, an early lunch of another 350 calories, an afternoon snack of 250 calories, dinner at 550 calories and a snack around 8 of 150 calories. If your exercising 200-300 calories off per day you will net around 1300-1400 calories per day give or take. Also, you should increase your protein intake so it is consistently somewhere around 100 grams per day, give or take 20.

How quickly are you losing weight right now?

I was trying to eat most of my calories at the beginning of the day but if you say to eat less Greek yogurt then I must
I've been doing this for a week, no weight lost yet (maybe half a pound) but too soon to panic.

iva001

Thanks for the feedback everyone, and thanks for adding me as a friend. I look forward to reading your diaries and chatting

iva001

Aim for 30/30/40 (30% from protein and fats and 40% from carbs)--your choices look good--well balanced. You may want to cut back on soda and fats to give you more calories to play around with (soda doesn't fill it you up) but I eat 2 tbsp of butter every morning for breakfast with my English muffin and I'm not changing that! I'm 5'5 aiming for 135ish. I think I'm actually pretty close but haven't weighed myself recently. I always eat back my exercise calories. 1500 is probably good--I wouldn't go any lower actually to make sure your body is getting enough food. I set my goal for 1700 after estimating my BMR and TDEE.

30% protein and fats, 40% carbs, so what is the other 30%??

what the heck is BMR and TDEE??

SuffolkSally

You can and should calculate your BMR on this site- go to Tools tab and select BMR. That's waht your body would burn if you were in a coma - i.e. what your organs, brain, and system as a whole need just to keep functioning. MFP advice is never to eat below it. TDEE is total daily energy expenditure - for this you need to google, there's loads of free calculators.

You enter some basic stats and select your usual activity level. The result gives you what you burn daily - obviously higher than your BMR as you're moving about! To lose weight you need to eat less than your TDEE, creating a calorie deficit which will force your body to burn its own resources - obviously again you want this to be as much suplus fat as possible, rather than muscle tissue, which is why MFP advises slow steady weight loss and excercise to help maintain your muscle mass.

Most people think it's unhealthy to eat below your BMR, and there are thoeries about that if you do your body will start to cling to its reserves as much as possible, thus actually slowing your weightloss and messing up your metabolism.

On MFP there are countless people with all sorts of opinions which they are passionate about, and are more than happy to share with you, often for hours!

However the above is a summary, and as it makes sense to me, and enables me to eat really very well without any faddiness or sense of deprivation, and lose weight, that's the approach I'm pursuing.

Hope that makes sense and my apologies for being confusing! I've only been on the site a short while myself and look at me adopting the jargon already!

iva001

You can and should calculate your BMR on this site- go to Tools tab and select BMR. That's waht your body would burn if you were in a coma - i.e. what your organs, brain, and system as a whole need just to keep functioning. MFP advice is never to eat below it. TDEE is total daily energy expenditure - for this you need to google, there's loads of free calculators.

You enter some basic stats and select your usual activity level. The result gives you what you burn daily - obviously higher than your BMR as you're moving about! To lose weight you need to eat less than your TDEE, creating a calorie deficit which will force your body to burn its own resources - obviously again you want this to be as much suplus fat as possible, rather than muscle tissue, which is why MFP advises slow steady weight loss and excercise to help maintain your muscle mass.

Most people think it's unhealthy to eat below your BMR, and there are thoeries about that if you do your body will start to cling to its reserves as much as possible, thus actually slowing your weightloss and messing up your metabolism.

On MFP there are countless people with all sorts of opinions which they are passionate about, and are more than happy to share with you, often for hours!

However the above is a summary, and as it makes sense to me, and enables me to eat really very well without any faddiness or sense of deprivation, and lose weight, that's the approach I'm pursuing.

Hope that makes sense and my apologies for being confusing! I've only been on the site a short while myself and look at me adopting the jargon already!

Thanks.. My BMR is 1450, and MFP set my calorie goal for 1lb/wk loss at 1570. My TDEE is 2300. I really want to invest in a cheat HRM, I thought John Lewis had one for £15...

JesterMFP

I wouldn't recommend getting one that just has a watch, they are apparently not very accurate at all. Try to get one that has a chest strap and transmitter. They are more expensive. I think I heard a while ago that Lloyd's chemist were selling quite a cheap one, but I'm not sure how cheap or how good. Might be worth looking into though.

chevy88grl

Since you aren't that heavy to start off, you might want to consider aiming for a .5lb weight loss each week. This will give you more calories per day and will help you to ease into maintenance when the time comes.

If your TDEE is 2300, I think I would aim to have your calories a bit higher. I know it seems that creating a larger deficit would result in greater weight loss at a faster pace, but it doesn't work that way for most people (unless you are very obese). For people who are closer to their ideal weight, you want to create less of a deficit. This will result in a healthy, sustainable weight loss.

JCCarroll1968

The only advice that I would give based on what I saw is I would increase water consumption. I know that I can get lazy and either forget to log it or forget to drink it. I was not much of a water drinker before I started my diet, but I find that if I drink between 9 to 12 cups of water a day I get much better loses. I also keep a good eye on my sodium intake. The more sodium I take in, the more I tend to retain water, so I do everything I can to stay away from prepared foods. I am on a low carb, high protein diet and I have found it to be very successful for me. Best of luck!!

iva001

Since you aren't that heavy to start off, you might want to consider aiming for a .5lb weight loss each week. This will give you more calories per day and will help you to ease into maintenance when the time comes.

If your TDEE is 2300, I think I would aim to have your calories a bit higher. I know it seems that creating a larger deficit would result in greater weight loss at a faster pace, but it doesn't work that way for most people (unless you are very obese). For people who are closer to their ideal weight, you want to create less of a deficit. This will result in a healthy, sustainable weight loss.

I'm not that hungry... 1570 + 200/300 exercise calories is enough to satisfy me.

And maybe I don't sound that heavy but I look it. The weight is concentrated on my stomach, upper arms and thighs.