Confused about numbers

salsagal36
salsagal36 Posts: 91 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I'm sorry for rehashing something that comes up again and again but I'm very confused about numbers. I've used the online Scooby calculator suggested by 'in place of a road map'. The results I got were based on being sedentary with very little exercise and are as follows.

Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) 1795 lose 1.1 lbs 0.5 kg per week

Daily calories to maintain weight (TDEE) 2155 4.3 lbs 2.0 kg per month

Daily calories based on goal in step 6, 1616 lose 56.0 lbs 25.5 kg per year

In reality I workout 5-6 days a week aiming for an hour each time, I also work in a busy hospital on my feet for up to a 14 hour shift.

My confusion is, am I meant to be netting 1600 so eating back exercise calories or is that taken into account. Or should I have worked it out as moderately active and used those results instead?

For the record I'm 5ft 4, weigh 234 lbs and am at 44% body fat.

Replies

  • Mandarz
    Mandarz Posts: 50 Member
    I would have put you at moderate, unless you log our work with a heart rate monitor, and your work outs so you eat back the right num of calories, you don't want to eat below your bmr and slow your metabolism
  • AnvilHead
    AnvilHead Posts: 18,343 Member
    The calculator recommended in Dan's Roadmap thread is at Fat2Fit, not Scooby's. Based on your work schedule and workouts, I'd put you at least at Moderately Active - probably even Very Active.

    Running your numbers there, I get:

    BMR (Katch McCardle): 1656

    TDEE (Moderately active): 2790

    TDEE (Very active): 3105.

    A 20% cut from Moderately Active calories = 2232

    A 20% cut from Very Active calories = 2484

    If you work it as a straight cut from TDEE per the Roadmap method, you don't eat back exercise calories - you eat that number of calories every day. Your exercise is already factored into the TDEE calculations. 1600 calories a day is not going to fuel that kind of work/exercise load.
  • salsagal36
    salsagal36 Posts: 91 Member
    Thank you for you replies. I appreciate it.

    So this all basically suggests I've been eating way too little based on my numbers and may well be the reason why my weight loss is very slow. (21 lbs since May).

    I do work out with a HRM at the gym, and I wear a step/calorie counter at work calibrated with my weight and height.

    It goes against everything I have had drummed into me about losing weight to eat more calories and not starve but in willing to give it a go for a few weeks and see what happens.

    Now to figure out how to customise the settings on MFP.

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