Struggling with Weight Loss Concepts

UntypicallyJia

I feel really stupid for asking these questions and it may be because I'm tired and can't think it out myself, or because Google is being slow and I can't figure it out some other way LOL...

Okay, so the amount of calories that MFP allows me to eat will help me lose weight (2 lbs per week is what I've set it at) and is that if I don't exercise at all? (Mind you, I do exercise).

So is it really true that the more you exercise the more you can eat? Cause honestly, I've been struggling to find meals in my budget for 1200 calorie diet that are sustaining, and I'm totally willing to go walking everyday a little longer or ride the stationary bike if it means I can eat more (and I do eat fairly healthy as well. Not going to go for a jog so I can eat a cheeseburger - that would be a long jog LOL).

Just not understanding how weight loss works I guess.

elyelyse

yup! that's the idea.

but.... things to watch out for... MFP is notorious for overestimating exercise and underestimating calories so... lots of people decide to just eat back some, maybe half of their exercise calories, at least at first, to make sure they aren't accidentally sabotaging themselves.

edited to add: that is correct If you set yourself to "sedentary"

UntypicallyJia

Yeah I did set to sedentary because while I plan to exercise progressively through this, I haven't done it on a regular basis.

Is there anywhere you can get a decent estimate of the calories burned?

Carol_L

MFP seems to underestimate calories, and set up the macros to be carb heavy.

You want to look at 2 numbers, your BMR and your TDEE.

BMR is your base metabolic rate - this is the number of your calories needs to exist even if you were in a coma. No activity is taken into account, just what your body needs to pump blood, breathe, and keep your body temperature in a normal range.

TDEE is your Total Daily Energy Expenditure. This is the number of calories that your body needs to maintain your current weight based on your daily average activity levels.

You can find calculators for these numbers here: http://www.fitnessfrog.com/calculators.html

Your BMR is the very minimum calories you should be eating. For weight loss, a good rule of thumb is to use 85% of your TDEE to figure out your calorie deficit.

Of course, as you lose weight, you will want to revisit those numbers. I look at them at around 15 lb intervals myself.

Hope this helps.

zechks

I feel really stupid for asking these questions and it may be because I'm tired and can't think it out myself, or because Google is being slow and I can't figure it out some other way LOL...

Okay, so the amount of calories that MFP allows me to eat will help me lose weight (2 lbs per week is what I've set it at) and is that if I don't exercise at all? (Mind you, I do exercise).

So is it really true that the more you exercise the more you can eat? Cause honestly, I've been struggling to find meals in my budget for 1200 calorie diet that are sustaining, and I'm totally willing to go walking everyday a little longer or ride the stationary bike if it means I can eat more (and I do eat fairly healthy as well. Not going to go for a jog so I can eat a cheeseburger - that would be a long jog LOL).

Just not understanding how weight loss works I guess.

It's calories in versus calories out. Eat less than your maintenance calories per day, say 500cals under per day, and in a week that's 3500 cals which is equivalent to a pound. Actually you should basically have to know your maintenance calories per day then eat less than that, or if you workout, eat on your maintenance level then the caloric deficit will come from the workout you did. And weigh yourself weekly, if you're losing weight according to what you're expecting then you're doing the right thing, but if not, you need to adjust your food intake or you may want to do extra cardio sessions.

gldnlark

I think the calorie intakes here are set high also.

I'm supposed to be 1200 a day. At the time, I often kept it under that + 350-400 calorie-burning exercise daily... I lost NOTHING. I've had to go on a juice-fast 5 days a week and seriously cut my calorie intake in order to loose any weight at all. It's perfect for me because currently I get very little exercise a day while I'm writing and researching a project I'm working on. I've lost over 12lbs in 4 weeks as of Friday. Yes, I gained over the weekend due to way too much sodium intake, but generally I find I'm loosing that in 2 days + more the rest of the week - thus peeling off about 3lbs a week.

Yes, due to my circumstances, I'll probably have to do this for life, but that's okay. Everyone's body is different and you just have to make adjustments to find out what will work for you. The "norm" didn't for me.

UntypicallyJia

I'm still not really understanding (I suck at math for the record) if anyone wants to work it out for me, have at it LOL!

Weight: 230
Goal: 150
BMR: 1829
TDEE: 2195

I'd like to lose 2 pounds per week (or more but you know how that goes).

MFP says my calories should be 1240 everyday.

geekyjock76

First and foremost. Your calorie goal, according to MFP is your net calories (TDEE minus exercise calories). It is not the amount of calories you actually need to eat.

TDEE x sum deficit (amount of dietary calories reduced and exercise calories)

2195 x .75 (25% sum deficit) = 1646.

2195 - 1645 = 550 calorie sum deficit.

A sum deficit of 550 calories a day will put you on track to lose 1.1 lbs of body weight per week.

You can create this sum deficit several ways:
1)Eat your TDEE and engage in 550 calories of total exercise (strength training and cardio) a day.
2)Eat TDEE minus 550 calories and engage in 0 exercise - not recommended.
3)Reduce TDEE calories by 300 and engage in 250 calories of total exercise (strength training and cardio) a day.

Because you have 80 lbs to lose to reach your determined goal weight, you can afford to set a more aggressive deficit to start. However, over time you should reduce the deficit as you lose more and more body fat. In fact, if you set a deficit of 40% to start, I would raise it after the first week or two to something more sustainable. The less body fat you need to lose, the smaller the deficit you need to implement as there is a cap to how much true fat you can actually burn per day. For women of near average weight, the cap is 2 lbs of true fat per month. For someone as yourself, your cardiorespiratory system will work extremely hard to lose the extra weight so you can realistically expect true fat loss to be 4 lbs or so. Again, once you get closer to your goal weight, true fat loss will approach 2 lbs per month or even less.

smokinjackd

I'm starting to feel like a broken record a bit here because I'm telling everyone the same thing...lol
Get a Fitbit Ultra or one of the other high tech pedometer gadgets. They will track all of your exercise, whether working out or walking the dog, that way there is no guessing. It's been a godsend to me, I knw every day whether I'm on track or not.

YoYo1951

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