"under her calorie goal"

kbodnaruk

Wow! I am overwhelmed (in a good way) about all the advice I have been given today. You guys (and gals) are such a great support team. I have made many new friends on MFP just from this 1 post. I am going to the links listed and adjusting my calorie goals. I do agree that I am eating WAY BELOW what I should and I need to amp that up. I am also going to look into some great weight DVD's - I don't go to a gym but will be incorporating weights 3 times a week. Thank you all! I can't express how much I appreciate all the advice!!

kbodnaruk

So I did the road map and was shocked and disgusted that my BF is 53.2%!!! If I go by entering my goal weight as my current weight it gives me the following

BMR - 1313
TDEE Lightly Active - 2300 ; Moderately Active - 2593

Since I am Obese - I take 30% deficit off the numbers - Lightly Active - 1610 ; Moderately Active - 1818
I do Cardio 6 days a week (includes C25K program or Aerobic DVD or Biggest Loser Boot Camp DVD - which includes weights)

I have changed MFP to 1685 with Carbs at 40%, Protein and Fat at 30%

soooo.....I am hoping I will see a 2 pound HEALTHY weight loss per week. Last week lost 4. This week....none - yet

good info here

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12

To lose weight in a sustainable way that will not rebound back with a few more friends you should be eating less than you burn each day. Your body burns calories just to stay alive this is your BMR or basic metabolic rate - this is the number of calories you would be feed if you were in a coma. Your total daily energy expenditure TDEE is you BMR + what you burn for daily life activities + what you burn when you exercise. You should not eat below your BMR. You should not go above your TDEE. The link shows you have to calculate you TDEE so you will know what your maintenance calories are.

Take the time to do your measurement and calculate your body fat% it is very important to getting and accurate TDEE.

http://www.gymgoal.com/dtool_fat.html

If your BMI is in the obese range you can safely take a 30% cut from your TDEE, If you are over weight then a 20%cut is doable, when you are within 10 pounds of your goal you need to drop down to a 5-10% cut from TDEE.

Look at the activity descriptors and choose the one that fits your activity - do not assume that you are sedentary - this applies to persons that are bedridden. If you are up and about and are doing a work out a few days a week you are at least lightly active. If you get in 10000 steps a day in addition to your workouts you are active.

If you follow the roadmap settings then you deficit and your exercise burn is built into a single daily calorie goal. You do not ned to chase back after your exercise calorie if you do it this way. You will need to redo you TDEE calculations for every 10lbs down.

If you follow MFP plan and have set yourself up with a realistic weekly weight loss goal then only the deficit is included in your calorie target. As you exercise you will need to add back in the calories you burn to maintain a daily calorie deficit that is not too large. If your deficit gets too big it will slow and even stop your loss. You would need to eat to your NET calorie goal.

MFP does this because not every one can exercise due to personal issues but they can still lose weight by having a calorie deficit.

heybales

So I did the road map and was shocked and disgusted that my BF is 53.2%!!! If I go by entering my goal weight as my current weight it gives me the following

BMR - 1313
TDEE Lightly Active - 2300 ; Moderately Active - 2593

Since I am Obese - I take 30% deficit off the numbers - Lightly Active - 1610 ; Moderately Active - 1818
I do Cardio 6 days a week (includes C25K program or Aerobic DVD or Biggest Loser Boot Camp DVD - which includes weights)

I have changed MFP to 1685 with Carbs at 40%, Protein and Fat at 30%

Sadly the fat2fit site may help measure your BF%, may ask for it, may display the Katch BMR based on it - but the eating levels is based on the least accurate and inflated when overweight Harris BMR.

Change the BF% stat - nothing in the table changes.

What is the difference between the Harris and Katch BMR's? I've seen 200-400 inflated on Harris.

Was that BF% based on the gymgoal calc, or fat2fit simple 1 measurement method? If fat2fit, it gets very inaccurate as you go up in %. So while you may be higher, it's inflating it even more.

Double whammy.

Now that you understand the principle, use a spreadsheet to start with best estimates, and a better activity calc. Because with 6 days of exercise, you are no where near lightly active.

Spreadsheet in this topic in a group for this method. I wouldn't be surprised if you find the eating goal you mentioned is actually at or above your best estimated TDEE. Meaning you would have actually been eating at maintenance.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/717858-spreadsheet-bmr-tdee-and-deficit-calcs-macros-hrm

katy_trail

the fat to fit ratio fat percentage was inaccurate for me.
best to compare different calculators, get a general idea of what they are saying consistently.
the more measurements they ask for the more accurate they are.
I think there was a 10 percent difference in the fit to fat ratio and my preferred website cathe dot com.
you don't have to go to that website though, there are many really good calculators.

kbodnaruk

I went to the excel spreadsheet for what heybales posted and that seems more realistic for a TDEG for food which is 1332. Which means if I ignore the "eat back your calories" rule that MFP says then last week I ate on average 1327 calories which would explain why I lost weight. This week the average is 1450....which would explain why the scale hasn't budged. Thank You so much HeyBales!!

So I did the road map and was shocked and disgusted that my BF is 53.2%!!! If I go by entering my goal weight as my current weight it gives me the following

BMR - 1313
TDEE Lightly Active - 2300 ; Moderately Active - 2593

Since I am Obese - I take 30% deficit off the numbers - Lightly Active - 1610 ; Moderately Active - 1818
I do Cardio 6 days a week (includes C25K program or Aerobic DVD or Biggest Loser Boot Camp DVD - which includes weights)

I have changed MFP to 1685 with Carbs at 40%, Protein and Fat at 30%

Sadly the fat2fit site may help measure your BF%, may ask for it, may display the Katch BMR based on it - but the eating levels is based on the least accurate and inflated when overweight Harris BMR.

Change the BF% stat - nothing in the table changes.

What is the difference between the Harris and Katch BMR's? I've seen 200-400 inflated on Harris.

Was that BF% based on the gymgoal calc, or fat2fit simple 1 measurement method? If fat2fit, it gets very inaccurate as you go up in %. So while you may be higher, it's inflating it even more.

Double whammy.

Now that you understand the principle, use a spreadsheet to start with best estimates, and a better activity calc. Because with 6 days of exercise, you are no where near lightly active.

Spreadsheet in this topic in a group for this method. I wouldn't be surprised if you find the eating goal you mentioned is actually at or above your best estimated TDEE. Meaning you would have actually been eating at maintenance.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/717858-spreadsheet-bmr-tdee-and-deficit-calcs-macros-hrm

heybales

I went to the excel spreadsheet for what heybales posted and that seems more realistic for a TDEG for food which is 1332. Which means if I ignore the "eat back your calories" rule that MFP says then last week I ate on average 1327 calories which would explain why I lost weight. This week the average is 1450....which would explain why the scale hasn't budged. Thank You so much HeyBales!!

6 days a week exercise, with BMR around 1300, and your TDEG was only 1332?

Did you get minutes of exercise in a week, or in a day?

That doesn't sound high enough, unless that 1300 BMR was greatly inflated too.

kbodnaruk

I did minutes of exercise a week for the walking/jogging I do on 3 days and the DVD with weights I do on 3 days. I don't know - I am so confused at this point with the calories and TDEE and TDEG and BMR....

wahmx3

Never eat below your BMR and eat back back at least half of your exercise calories. You can lose 2 pounds a week and keep it off for the first little while but after that, it is best to switch to 1-1.5 pounds a week to help you maintain the loss. Every 10 pounds or so, get your BMR recalculated as your calories will lower each time.

prokomds

So I did the road map and was shocked and disgusted that my BF is 53.2%!!! If I go by entering my goal weight as my current weight it gives me the following

BMR - 1313
TDEE Lightly Active - 2300 ; Moderately Active - 2593

Since I am Obese - I take 30% deficit off the numbers - Lightly Active - 1610 ; Moderately Active - 1818
I do Cardio 6 days a week (includes C25K program or Aerobic DVD or Biggest Loser Boot Camp DVD - which includes weights)

I have changed MFP to 1685 with Carbs at 40%, Protein and Fat at 30%

soooo.....I am hoping I will see a 2 pound HEALTHY weight loss per week. Last week lost 4. This week....none - yet

I think this is a smart plan. You can get a ton of conflicting opinions here, but I support the whole "road map" idea.

A couple things to think about --

Since you have a good amount of weight you'd like to lose, you can afford to be a little more aggressive in the early parts of your weight loss. Your body has more fat to work with, so you can afford to eat less (for now). As your body has less fat, you need to have a smaller deficit. So while you can try to lose 2 lbs/week right now, you have to keep in mind that eventually it'll be less than that

Another thing, losing 2 lbs/week is a deficit of 1000 calories per day. Keep in mind, that means if you exceed your goal for the day... well, even if you overeat by 1000 calories, you're still (at worst) maintaining your weight. I see people who've gone over by 200 and think they've ruined the whole thing... That also means that if you find yourself hungry (especially as you up your exercise routine!) you can definitely eat a little more. For me, 200-300 calories is the difference between being grumpy and low energy and being much happier. Of course you want to lose weight as quickly as possible (who doesn't?!), but don't do it at the expense of your happiness right now. And a routine that keeps you happy is a routine you can maintain in the long run

Mainly, just take care of yourself! If you don't do it right you'll be much more tempted to quit. Good luck!

kbodnaruk

Prokomds - thanks! I think another reason my numbers haven't budged that much this week is because my sodium was WAY over for 2 days which I believe accounts to water retention. I have to remember that I am still getting to know my body and my body is resistant to change (who's isn't) and as long as I continue to workout and give it my all and eat healthy that I have conquered half the battle - because that in itself is better than the "old" me who wasn't active and just "sat on the couch" and wasn't mindful of what I put in mouth! .

heybales

I did minutes of exercise a week for the walking/jogging I do on 3 days and the DVD with weights I do on 3 days. I don't know - I am so confused at this point with the calories and TDEE and TDEG and BMR....

Then your more accurate Katch BMR must be lower.

Just wanted to make sure you entered in total minutes a week. Since it's walking some of the time, it must not be for hours on end, so that is valid TDEG then.

If you want more descriptions of BMR/TDEE and why some of the differences you might see, read through this.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/813720-spreadsheet-bmr-tdee-deficit-macro-calcs-hrm-zones

Just know that BMR is calories your body would like to burn daily if you slept deep all day. If it gets them. If not, something is going to be slowed down so it gets what it needs. Since it is literally energy supplied to all the cells, you can't really get it ultimately from ONLY the cells, that would be perpetual motion, and you could just stop eating and lose only fat. Which doesn't happen.
TDEE is what your body does burn daily with ALL activity, more easily figured and expressed as a multiplier to the BMR, which is the foundation.

There are 3 different BMR formulas, Harris from 1919, Mifflin from the '80's about 5% more accurate, and Katch based on actual amount of the most metabolically active part of the body, Lean Body Mass.

The TDEE estimate is most easily done with taking average weekly activity and dividing by 7 for daily average. Or MFP method (though they don't start with BMR as foundation to stay above) where exercise is entered daily and changes your daily TDEE figure.
There's the Harris TDEE table again from 1919, there's the non-exercise TDEE levels MFP uses, there's an '80's study the spreadsheet uses for different types of exercise and daily activity.

Then you take a deficit. MFP uses blocks of calories with you selecting potentially a wise or very unwise size. Other methods say 15%, some say 20%, of your total TDEE value, so less active means less deficit. Some use sliding scale so the less to lose the less deficit too, the spreadsheet does that method. Spreadsheet also uses fact that if you are lifting, you will retain muscle mass, so the deficit can be a tad more with no issues. If no lifting, less deficit.

So as long as you entered in the stats correctly and didn't leave something already there, like bodyfat%. And you got the Activity calculator correct with hrs of work weekly beyond a desk job type work, and exercise minutes weekly total, then the results are good.
That's why there is a check in the activity calc as to hrs of exercise weekly, since we tend to think that way normally.
And the TDEG says how much left to lose, to confirm you got goal weight figure correct.