I'm terrified

kr1stadee

Hi!
I've been reading into the TDEE/BMR info for about a month. I almost started to increase my calories, but then I got scared and decided against it.

My info..
I'm 5'3.5
177lbs
female
28 years old
Weight goal of 135-140 (I'm not sure yet)

I work 8 hours a day at a desk, I take 3 taekwondo classes for 75 minutes per class (and it's a pretty intense 75 minutes. According to MFP it's roughly 800 cals burned). I have 2 kids, but I'm not constantly up chasing them. I've gone past my couch potato stage, so I'm usually cooking, cleaning, up and about, taking my kids to their activities until about 8pm, when (on non-TKD nights), I park my butt and relax haha. I TRY to get in a little yoga or some walking, but it hasn't been happening lately.

I plugged my info into the Scooby site,
it gave me (set at light activity)
BMR of 1586
TDEE of 2178
-20% would be 1742 cals per day.

Currently I'm at 1390 - I set my activity to sedentary because I wasn't really moving much at all. Now I know better
I have a plan to up 100 calories at a time until I get to my goal.

Does any of this sound right? I'm scared that I'll undo everything I've done so far!!!

kr1stadee

Ohh!!
I've got another question too. As I'm upping, do I still track and eat my exercise calories?

fresh_start59

Welcome! Be sure to read through the threads and decide for yourself if you want to up your calories slowly or quickly. And do be aware that you are likely to gain a bit during the first few weeks, especially if you've been on a low-calorie diet for some time. Do not let the scale changes deter you from continuing with the program! Follow through and you will be very, very happy that you can lose weight without depriving your body or your tastebuds!

And if you've been on a low-calorie diet for awhile, I'd suggest your do a reset (ie: eat at full TDEE for awhile). If you are terrified of increasing your calories to 1,750, then eating in excess of 2,100 is going to sound really scary. But it's worth it to get your body back on track.

You do not eat back your exercise calories as you've figured those into your TDEE.

Which Scooby calculator did you use? The basic is good for an approximate calorie goal. If you know your body fat percentage, then use his "accurate" calorie calculator.

If you (like me) are unsure of your body fat, you might want to check out heybales' spreadsheet and use the "average" body fat percentage that it gives you, based on various measurements.

Here is a link to the spreadsheet that you can download:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Amt7QBR9-c6MdGVTbGswLUUzUHNVVUlNSW9wZWloeUE

Here is a post that tells you how to use the spreadsheet:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/717858-spreadsheet-bmr-tdee-and-deficit-calcs-macros-hrm

BTW ... heybales is a member of this group, too.

heybales

I'd use it for the activity calc too, you are not near lightly active. Chances are just the kids puts you into that level, that long exercise is 225 min, 4 hrs of exercise weekly if you do something else for mere 15 min.

Clearly at Moderately Active. Don't shoot your body in the metabolism thinking you are playing it safe by underestimating.
That's what led so many in to trouble.

Better to overestimate slightly with calories. You'll still have a deficit, just maybe not as much as you think. You can tweak later when your metabolism works well again.

kr1stadee

fresh_start - thank you very much for all of the info!!

Clearly at Moderately Active. Don't shoot your body in the metabolism thinking you are playing it safe by underestimating.

Wow, you think? I hadn't ever thought of it like that, I know I do 3 classes a week, and TRY to get in another bit of exercise.. but I'm slowly realizing I'm more active than I thought!!

I'm for sure going to eat my way above 1700 calories, especially on my "off" days, and on my TKD nights, I'll give myself more, I think? haha

Today, I was beyond exhausted after work, so I jumped up to 150 calories this week. I'll stick with this for a week (or less, I've never been one to wait for changes), and then go from there.

I've been reading thread after thread, but, in all honesty, I can never have enough information. I will be glued to the topics here! haa

Thanks so much, both of you!!

kr1stadee

Hi again!!

I wanted to check back in and give an update!

Thank you for the great information given!

I took 3 weeks of raising my calories, but I decided to stop at 1800. I was at 1390. I did not do a reset (but I will if I need to in time). I didn't think I could EVER make it to 1800 and that I'd be eating junk all day and gain weight. I'm almost a week at 1800 calories, I love it, I've got energy again!!

I'm down 1.5 lbs since I started upping my calories, so that's promising. I'm keeping at this, and I'll never go back as low as I did, that's just insane to me! haha

Thanks again for the help!

heybales

Great work and results.

Hard making the mind over sometimes. But when you can compare, much easier to realize what is best.

marciabwls

Ok heybales, Hi I'm Marcia, Need your opinion.. Could you go to my food page & check it out.. been upping Calories since March 30th, Not sure if I am even doing this right... I KNOW that I haven't been eating enough,but then I wonder if I need to slow my exercise down...Confused.. Thank you

heybales

Ok heybales, Hi I'm Marcia, Need your opinion.. Could you go to my food page & check it out.. been upping Calories since March 30th, Not sure if I am even doing this right... I KNOW that I haven't been eating enough,but then I wonder if I need to slow my exercise down...Confused.. Thank you

Exercise not that bad of a level at all.
Lifting would benefit you more than cardio though. Retain muscle mass easier. Strengthen, smaller eating level, bigger deficit possible. And burn more fat during recovery.

As to way to increase, if you've been eating at much lower level for a while and stalled out on any measurement or weight loss for awhile, I'd increase by 100 per day for a week.
Then another 100 for another week.
Just keep increasing.

Should see initial water weight gain, but that should stop after 1st or 2nd week. Then it's just about the metabolism coming up, if really stalled.

Bring it on up to TDEE level.