Hi I'm Anni...few questions

Shabbyrose

I'm extremely overweight...I was just wondering if I need to add the calories I burn working as a shop assistant to my burned calories? 1200 if I'm doing nothing, but if I'm working 7.5-8hrs on my feet doing light shop work. Also I'm netting between 900-1050 calories a day. I'm eating all the right things and keeping portion controls down, and I don't feel hungry. If I don't feel hungry is that a sign that my body is doing okay with the calorie intake? I'm also doing around 30 min light strength training and cardio rotating the days I do each..burning betweenn 90-140...can someone please help me..I have about 7st or 100lbs to loose, hopefully in a year...

Nice to meet you all..
Xx
Anni

XanthePersephone

If you go to your goals page and don't use the custom settings there's a place to set your daily activity level - pick the level that best describes your work day. It should calculate everything else out for you. Also, if you're interested in tracking what effect your cardio and strength training have on how many calories you take in this site is designed to calculate all that out for you and adjust to your needs - aka how fast you want to lose the weight. I suggest you take a few minutes to look around the site, browsing the tabs and the many features of the site.

Good luck and welcome to MFP

Ben2118

Hi Anni,

First of all you sound like you're doing awesome!!

There different views on this, some people who shout at you and call you nasty names because you aren't netting 1200 cals a day, some people will say that what you're doing is fine. Which is right? Who knows!!

To lose 2lbs a week, on paper you should be at a 1000 calorie deficit a day. So based on you entering you details into MFP it should tell you what calories you should be consuming if you want to lose 2lbs a week. If that's more than 1200 then aim to hit whatever MFP says, if you find after 3 weeks of been on top of you calories, you're not losing that much, reduce them a little.

There is really no right or wrong answer in the long run. You just have to find what works for you. You sound very active so maybe upping your calories wouldn't hurt? I have a friend who upped her calories on here and started losing more weight!

Whatever you do though, stick at it a couple of week before deciding to change something, keep it simple and good luck!

Ben.

Shabbyrose

It's only part time it's an average of 23 hours a week. I have fibromyalgia and ME so I don't do too much on my days off..light walking and my 30 min on the bike or UFC personal trainer for strength.

Roslyn923

Hi Anni
Eat at least 1200 calories a day otherwise your body goes into starvation mode and you will hold onto all that you eat and not lose the weight. Also make sure that you put in your profile what type of job you have. I have a desk job so I make it a point to walk to other people's offices/desks so that I can move around a bit. Get yourself a pedometer and try to walk 10,000 steps everyday! I was surprised at how little I was moving around. I work on the 4th floor so I walk down the stairs everyday and I can walk UP at least 2 1/2 flights of stairs before I get winded. My goal is to be able to walk up all 4 flights of stairs by June. Remember to take small steps to change your life. We didn't get here over night so it will take a while to get where we want to be. Keep up the good work!!

HeatherHoskins

Hi Anni,

Welcome to MFP!! I do not have a wealth of knowledge to give you but I would say to only log the calories that you burn while working out. I don't think that at work (although on your feet) you heart rate would be high enough to count as a workout. Now if you really go to town cleaning, move boxes around, raking leaves in your yard, etc you could count that as a workout if you had a great sweat going on.
There is a great debate whether or not to eat your excersise cals back. The best answer I have is trial and error. I would eat if I am hungry and if you don't loose weigh start cutting back. I do know that it is not safe or productive to drop below a net of 1000 cals in a day.
Thats all I can tell you, good luck and we are here for you if you need us

JesterMFP

If it was me, I would go to "Goals" > "Change goals" and adjust the "normal daily activities" to "lightly active", if it is not already. If you work as a shop assistant, on your feet, you aren't sedentary. I would not try to log this as exercise as it's too difficult to work out how many calories you're burning, and it's just part of your normal daily life.

By eating "all the right things" do you mean you're only eating low calorie "diet" food? If so, that might be why you're finding it difficult to meet your calorie goal. Don't be afraid of dietary fat. Calorie dense foods like cheese, nuts, avocados, nut butters, full fat dairy etc can help you meet your goal.

It's not uncommon for people who are under-eating to not feel hunger. That is not a sign that your body is quite happy and getting all the nutrient it needs. It just means the hunger signals aren't there. With the amount you have to lose, you may get away with having a larger calorie deficit, more so than someone who is closer to their goal weight. You may run into problems over time though. Having a calorie deficit that is very big can mean that you lose more lean mass than you should as you lose weight. Not getting enough nutrients over the long-term can also cause you problems. If I was doing this all over again, I would start off netting at least 1200, more like 1500. You haven't said how tall you are, but I expect your BMR (the calories your body needs just to stay alive) is higher than that.

If you look at the "success stories" section, you will see people who have managed to lose 100 lbs in a year, so it's definitely possible. Don't be in too much of a hurry though. Faster is not always better.

Shabbyrose

Thanks for the advice guys...I really want this to work..I'm 5'3 and 1/2..BTW

Siege_Tank

Hi Anni,

I want to address your post on several levels. When we think about extremely overweight people, and how they got there, we have to take into account a few considerations. The most important is that our bodies have a complex energy system going on, and all things being equal, without emotional issues, we would probably be 10-20 pounds above or below our "healthy" bodyweight.

If you are extremely overweight, you have created a situation where you are keeping your weight artificially high. Emotional eating, Stressful eating, Eating to cope, or eating out of addiction are all ways that you can consume so much more food than you need, that you get very overweight.

You don't need to be eating at 1000 calories per day, your liver and your body can only use and process a certain amount of fat each day. Eating drastically less than -20% calories below maintenance is NOT going to show you any accelerated FAT loss, you will see Lean body mass decrease with that extreme of a cut. I could go into assenine detail about all this, but I want to keep it short and simple.

From your profile you have 100 pounds to lose, give or take.. If you use those calorie calculators that are posted all over these boards and found in quick google searches, you will see that your own BASE metabolic rate, the rate at which you burn calories laying in bed 24 hours a day, as if in a coma, is probably in the neighborhood of 1600-1800 calories. Add to that any exercise or daily activity, and your calorie needs are probably over 2000 per day, and that's with rough estimates, it's in no way any kind of numbers you should go by.

My point is, if you are very overweight, simply cutting out a few snacks and any binge eating behaviors, you will see weight drop off. The Idea is to cut calories at a reasonable rate, something you can stick with. Every ten pounds you lose, you should recalculate your cut based on your new weight. What you SHOULDN'T do is PRESS ALL THE BUTTONS, THOUSAND CALORIE BIGGEST LOSER DO IT NOW!!! cut. You want to have tools left in your bag, you want to have SOMEWHERE to go with your eating, and sticking to a thousand a day.. you have nothing left to employ.

I did the same thing as you are doing, and trust me, it's not worth it. I ate as little as I could at first because I was tired of being FAT. I hated myself and I hated my body, and I wanted to feel sexy and confident. That's not what happens. I am still struggling to eat more each day, because I know I should and I need more protein to preserve my lean muscle mass on my cut, but I wasn't hungry, once I got used to the calorie cut. I'm still not hungry. That's your body shifting into a different way of carrying out life. I won't use the term starvation mode, because I think it's BS, but I do notice that, more often than not, I'm not bounching full of energy, ready and willing to do the tasks I want to do for the day. I'm usually.. tired. not sleepy but not willing to do more than what I've laid out for myself. Sometimes my workouts are a drag, sometimes they're explosive.

If I were you, I'd eat a bit more protein on your workout days, but I wouldn't eat back every calorie you burn. You should be eating closer to 1500 for right now, and once you get lighter you can cut more if you want, but you'll have much more experience about fitness by then.

Cutting harder doesn't make the fat drop off faster, it vampries your body. In the same way that you can't eat thanksgiving dinner 7 days in a row and gain 25 pounds of fat, you can't starve yourself and lose it quicker.

Shabbyrose

Thanks so much for the detailed advice siege..I will up my calories...I could be eating more fruit, but it takes so much off the sugar for the day..I know about good sugars and bad sugars, but this app is just general sugar. Also my lunches are pretty much just a bit salad.

Sharoncipi

I am in the same situation, or close to it Anni. But there is some great advise here, and lots of people like us , for encouragement I wish you and everyone else on here the very best of luck .