Close to my Goal is it time to switch gears?

kellicci
kellicci Posts: 409 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I only have about 3 more pounds to lose to reach my original gaol weight. So exciting!

I have my calorie goal on MFP set at 1300 and I eat back most of my exercise calories and I use a HRM so I think I'm doing a good job there. Since August I've lost 7 pounds doing this working out 3-4 times a week. The last couple weeks I've stalled but I also didn't expect to lose much over the holidays and mentally changed my goal to maintaining my current weight to Jan 1, so I'm not too upset about that.

I'm 35, 5'1" tall and weight 130.5 right now. I filled out the spreadsheet to calculate my TDEE (the awesome one I think heybales shared it). It says my TDEE is around 1700 with working out 4 days a week and my sedentary office job.....so if I'm eating 1300 on days I don't wrok out (2-3) and up to 1600-1700 on days I do work out I'm not getting much of a deficit overall.. Am i?

So I was thinking maybe it's time to go to TDEE minus 20%? But I did the math and that's 1360 a day! Not enough for days I work out so maybe TDEE minus 15%? That's 1445....in theory that works out tio .5 pounds a week.

Any words of advice or encoragement?

Replies

  • DanaDark
    DanaDark Posts: 2,187 Member
    0.5 pounds or less a week would be best. Especially being so close.
  • kellicci
    kellicci Posts: 409 Member
    Thanks Dana. I forgot I think I had my goals set higher...but jsut to checkI put in .5 pound and it gave me 1400 calories per day witht he normal eating back exercise calories....right now 1300 (and eating bcak exercise calories) doesn't seem to be doing th trick....so I'm hesitant to go with the pre-set calculations. I'd rather use my own...woth some expert help of course. =)
  • kellicci
    kellicci Posts: 409 Member
    bump
  • DanaDark
    DanaDark Posts: 2,187 Member
    Using your own is fine.

    The way MFP works is simply it calculates your TDEE (just as you would anywhere else), and then puts in the deficit needed for the goal.

    TDEE - 250 for 0.5 pounds
    TDEE - 500 for 1.0 pounds
    TDEE - 750 for 1.5 pounds
    TDEE - 1000 for 2.0 pounds
    TDEE - 0 for Maintenance
    TDEE + 250 for 0.5 pounds gain
    TDEE + 500 for 1.0 pounds gain

    From there, any exercise you add in via logging, those calories get added to your TDEE (which will result in more available calories to eat during the day).

    This way uses a goal weight loss per week in mind. Alternatively, doing TDEE - % is more geared towards simply making weight loss as a proportion of your overall weight.

    Whichever works for you best. But as you get closer, you should have a smaller caloric deficit.

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