I have some total noobish questions

DaniH826

First off I've never dieted in my life (well, briefly when I was like 18 but I don't count that). I did have an eating disorder (bulimia) but that was 20 years ago and is no longer an issue. I've never counted calories either, and only this month started actually keeping track what I put into my mouth (which is working out much more swimmingly than anticipated). I'm roughly 30 lbs overweight, but am really more worried about doing the healthy thing and how my clothes are going to fit than what the scale has to say (I have secret dreams of using my scale as a discus and tossing it into outer space ... eventually).

I recently set my daily cals to 1/2 lb loss per week and find that much better than the 1 lb loss I started with, which had me under my BMR (I still don't understand why MFP would recommend such as nonsensical calorie goal based on their own BMR calculator, but I digress).

I've never had any sort of exercise routine but lost about 20 lbs of weight just walking regularly about 5 years ago or so. Then I quit moving my butt regularly and got lazy and put 15 pounds back on (took 5 years but here we are).

I quit smoking back in December (had the flu and just couldn't go back to it), which prompted me to get a grip on things cause I certainly didn't want to gain more weight, and so here we are.

Since starting on MFP a few weeks ago I also started lifting 3 times a week (doing a combo of Starting Strength and Stronglifts) which I'm absolutely committed to and love. I just this week started adding in semi-regular cardio and plan on doing some of that roughly 2-3 times a week or so on non-lifting days (nothing drastic, just light jogging and whatnot, just to get moving for 30-60 minutes or so).

Anyway, with that background, here's my noob questions:

1. Do I need to do a calorie reset? I wouldn't even know what 1200 cals look like and I've never put my body into sustained starvation mode, except as a teenager and during the occasional illness or purposeful fast day here and there. I think my metabolism is alright, personally but then again what do I know?
2. Is it okay if, rather than the TDEE method, I just follow MFP's recommendations and log my exercise calories and then eat most of them back since my cardio and non-lifting days activity level varies pretty greatly and I'm actually trying to not stick to a rigid exercise/activity routine during non-lifting days? I'm happy with my current caloric intake and with things the way they are right now. Have others had success doing it this way?
3. If I'm not super sticklerish about meeting my macros every day but rather aim for general ballpark, how badly is that going to hurt? I did set them to 40/30/30 and am already seeing that I need to lower carbs and up protein (no big surprise there). But, I'm not a min/maxer and I don't want numbers controlling my life. I'm using MFP as a tool to help me get a general idea how to eat properly as far as carloric estimates and portions are concerned but I'm not trying to make a religion out of this whole eating/exercising business, because I want it to be manageable and sustainable for years and years to come.
4. Basically if I end up losing 20-30 pounds in the next year or so and can find a reasonable way to maintain it, I'll be happy with that since I alreay know that lifting 3 times a week will go a long way to get my body looking and feeling the way I've long dreamed for it to but never had a plan to actually make it happen.

Anyway, pardon my ramblings and run-on sentences, I hope they make sense and that somebody can answer my incoherent questions in a coherent way. I joined this group cause being hungry and cranky all the time under the banner of making my scale show smaller numbers isn't something am ever going to be able to do, and I appreciate the company of people who aren't afraid to eat, and eat well, while not letting their bodies turn into marshmallows.

Gapwedge01

First off I've never dieted in my life (well, briefly when I was like 18 but I don't count that). I did have an eating disorder (bulimia) but that was 20 years ago and is no longer an issue. I've never counted calories either, and only this month started actually keeping track what I put into my mouth (which is working out much more swimmingly than anticipated). I'm roughly 30 lbs overweight, but am really more worried about doing the healthy thing and how my clothes are going to fit than what the scale has to say (I have secret dreams of using my scale as a discus and tossing it into outer space ... eventually).

I recently set my daily cals to 1/2 lb loss per week and find that much better than the 1 lb loss I started with, which had me under my BMR (I still don't understand why MFP would recommend such as nonsensical calorie goal based on their own BMR calculator, but I digress).

I've never had any sort of exercise routine but lost about 20 lbs of weight just walking regularly about 5 years ago or so. Then I quit moving my butt regularly and got lazy and put 15 pounds back on (took 5 years but here we are).

I quit smoking back in December (had the flu and just couldn't go back to it), which prompted me to get a grip on things cause I certainly didn't want to gain more weight, and so here we are.

Since starting on MFP a few weeks ago I also started lifting 3 times a week (doing a combo of Starting Strength and Stronglifts) which I'm absolutely committed to and love. I just this week started adding in semi-regular cardio and plan on doing some of that roughly 2-3 times a week or so on non-lifting days (nothing drastic, just light jogging and whatnot, just to get moving for 30-60 minutes or so).

Anyway, with that background, here's my noob questions:

1. Do I need to do a calorie reset? I wouldn't even know what 1200 cals look like and I've never put my body into sustained starvation mode, except as a teenager and during the occasional illness or purposeful fast day here and there. I think my metabolism is alright, personally but then again what do I know?
2. Is it okay if, rather than the TDEE method, I just follow MFP's recommendations and log my exercise calories and then eat most of them back since my cardio and non-lifting days activity level varies pretty greatly and I'm actually trying to not stick to a rigid exercise/activity routine during non-lifting days? I'm happy with my current caloric intake and with things the way they are right now. Have others had success doing it this way?
3. If I'm not super sticklerish about meeting my macros every day but rather aim for general ballpark, how badly is that going to hurt? I did set them to 40/30/30 and am already seeing that I need to lower carbs and up protein (no big surprise there). But, I'm not a min/maxer and I don't want numbers controlling my life. I'm using MFP as a tool to help me get a general idea how to eat properly as far as carloric estimates and portions are concerned but I'm not trying to make a religion out of this whole eating/exercising business, because I want it to be manageable and sustainable for years and years to come.
4. Basically if I end up losing 20-30 pounds in the next year or so and can find a reasonable way to maintain it, I'll be happy with that since I alreay know that lifting 3 times a week will go a long way to get my body looking and feeling the way I've long dreamed for it to but never had a plan to actually make it happen.

Anyway, pardon my ramblings and run-on sentences, I hope they make sense and that somebody can answer my incoherent questions in a coherent way. I joined this group cause being hungry and cranky all the time under the banner of making my scale show smaller numbers isn't something am ever going to be able to do, and I appreciate the company of people who aren't afraid to eat, and eat well, while not letting their bodies turn into marshmallows.

Welcome. To me it just sounds like you need to be a little more deligent in your food logging. One, record EVERYTHING that goes into your mouth that has calories, and 2) as a suggested option purchase a digital food scale if you don't have one and weigh your food that you are trying just to "eyeball" the portion size. I can attest to the fact that on many of my "eyeball" portions I was adding 200-300 calories a day that if I had been measuring would not have happened.

You may not need to do a reset. If you have calculated your BMR and TDEE the best you can just take a deficit off your TDEE and eat that without eating back your exercise calories. As an option if you can get your net calories set up on MFP (you can customize your goals on MFP btw) and want to eat back your exercise calories you can do that provided that you recorded burns are accurate. Two things seem to get people in trouble: underestimating their calorie intake and overestimating their exercise calories.

Hope this helps.

DaniH826

Welcome. To me it just sounds like you need to be a little more deligent in your food logging. One, record EVERYTHING that goes into your mouth that has calories, and 2) as a suggested option purchase a digital food scale if you don't have one and weigh your food that you are trying just to "eyeball" the portion size. I can attest to the fact that on many of my "eyeball" portions I was adding 200-300 calories a day that if I had been measuring would not have happened.

Two things seem to get people in trouble: underestimating their calorie intake and overestimating their exercise calories.

Hope this helps.

Thank you and yes it does. Problem is with heavy lifting, there's really no way to be exact in caloric expenditure measurements. Which may be the point: Stop sweating the numbers. Which is difficult to do for me, being a slave to that stupid scale my entire adult life. But, I've nobody to blame but myself here, really. First world problems, right? :laugh:

I think I'm going to need to retrain my thinking altogether and just focus on healthy eating and on lifting and keeping my butt moving, and then going by what I see in the mirror and how my clothes fit and how I feel overall.That's rough to do when you've been conditioned a certain way for decades. Well alright then, nothing I can't handle. :happy:

Gapwedge01

Welcome. To me it just sounds like you need to be a little more deligent in your food logging. One, record EVERYTHING that goes into your mouth that has calories, and 2) as a suggested option purchase a digital food scale if you don't have one and weigh your food that you are trying just to "eyeball" the portion size. I can attest to the fact that on many of my "eyeball" portions I was adding 200-300 calories a day that if I had been measuring would not have happened.

Two things seem to get people in trouble: underestimating their calorie intake and overestimating their exercise calories.

Hope this helps.

Thank you and yes it does. Problem is with heavy lifting, there's really no way to be exact in caloric expenditure measurements. Which may be the point: Stop sweating the numbers. Which is difficult to do for me, being a slave to that stupid scale my entire adult life. But, I've nobody to blame but myself here, really. First world problems, right? :laugh:

I think I'm going to need to retrain my thinking altogether and just focus on healthy eating and on lifting and keeping my butt moving, and then going by what I see in the mirror and how my clothes fit and how I feel overall.That's rough to do when you've been conditioned a certain way for decades. Well alright then, nothing I can't handle. :happy:

MFP calorie burn for lifting is pretty accurate. Using a HRM for lifting is very inaccurate. Lifting will do a lot to tone your body. Good idea on that. Good luck.