Bit of guidance please

geordiegirl27

Hi there

I've been following EM2WL for a while now and not losing masses of weight but I have been shrinking a little and a throw out of clothes last weekend saw 2 pairs of jeans which were too big moved on and some smaller jeans back in the fold

However I am now wanting to get some weight off, and think February is my month to really make a mark on this.

I have a fitbit and my average burn over the month of December was 2012cal/day and my monthly calories consumed came out at 1765cal/day. (I lost my fitbit on NYE so no stats for January)

Therefore, in MFP should I set my NET calorie goal to be 1500? to give me 500 deficit? And then would I eat back calories burnt in exercise?

I am sorry its taking a bit of getting my head around. Bizarrely enough when I put my net goal to be 1900 back in November December I lost weight. In January I dropped my goal to 1800 and I've put a bit on!! so worried that dropping too far might upset the balance even more.

I am also going to start doing weights now too, I've been threatening it for a long while now and I clock up around 50-75 miles per month.

if it helps I am 5' 4" and weigh 74kgs I'm not chasing a weight target (thanks to you guys the scales dont have the same affect on me as they used too :happy: ) but I'd like to get into a comfortable UK size 12, I'm currently between 12 & 14. Obviously the weights should help with my toning plans.

Anyway enough rambling, if any of you experienced EM2WL'ers can help on my confusion with calorie goal I would be very much appreciative. Thanks

KarenJanine

As you do not have that much weight to lose I would suggest that a 25% cut in calories is too much. I think you would be better off with a 15% cut which would give you 1710 cals per day, or perhaps a 10% cut that would give you 1810 cals per day.

I think the most common method on here is to set your goal to your intake (e.g. set your MFP goal to 1710 or 1810) then do not record your exercise or record all exercise logs as '1 cal' so you have a record of what you've done but then it does not skew your macros. In this instance some fitbit users will unsync their fitbit from MFP and log exercise just on their fitbit account to keep tabs on the exercise burns on that site but not have them interfere with the set up on MFP.


Assuming you've accounted for your exercise in your TDEE calculation (i.e. chosen the appropriate activity level, not sedentary) then you do not need to eat back any exercise cals as they are already taken into account. Therefore 1710 or 1810 would be the total amount you eat, not the net as in the standard MFP set up.

Greenrun99

I am sorry its taking a bit of getting my head around. Bizarrely enough when I put my net goal to be 1900 back in November December I lost weight. In January I dropped my goal to 1800 and I've put a bit on!! so worried that dropping too far might upset the balance even more.

So if your goal was 1900 and you were losing, why would you set your goal lower than that? I think you found your number.. Not eating exercise calories.. eat that number everyday.

GoGoGadgetMum

I have been using my fitbit for nearly a month and have it set to mfp with a -250 cal and eat back all exercise. I probably average eating about 2000-2200. After Christmas I decided I would drop some cals I had been eating at 2000 with no problems just a few Christmas pounds. Dropped to 1850 and increased scal weight too. Since I've eaten this way I have lost 1.2kg which hopefully will carry on. I wanted the fitbit to let me "see" my tdee.

So I guess my advice would be stick to your higher cal and introduce the weights and see what happens. I try to use my body as an experiment as we are all different. But lately my friends have been posting amazing pics after their weights that make me want to go buy something big and heavy.

Feel free to add me

geordiegirl27

thank you all I struggle to get my head around it all.

I've set my MFP number back to 1900 and while I'll add my exercise I will go back to the way I did it before and try to get my net somewhere near the 1900. As you say if it wasnt broken why try to fix it.

I'm not syncing my fitbit with MFP as that confused the hell out of me (it doesnt take much, lol)

s50s

Bump

s50s

thank you all I struggle to get my head around it all.

I've set my MFP number back to 1900 and while I'll add my exercise I will go back to the way I did it before and try to get my net somewhere near the 1900. As you say if it wasnt broken why try to fix it.

I'm not syncing my fitbit with MFP as that confused the hell out of me (it doesnt take much, lol)

Having the same problem but my scale is going up. Going back up to more calories and working like I used to. Good luck