Advice on calorie intake and sedentary vs. lightly active.

I posted this to my friends yesterday - reposting it here:

I wanted to share something that has made this all a little easier for me. I used this post: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12 and came up with the number of calories I shoot for every day to lose weight (1500), but I also came up with my TDEE and using this as an "upper limit" for weekends and parties feels like I'm getting wiggle room but still keeps me from actually eating more than I burned off that day. I don't know if this will help anyone but instead of feeling like a failure that i am going over a diet max, I get a little space and can still stay under my TDEE max. The glass is half full more often that way and I'm a little less harsh on myself.

Hi Desi, I've always found that when my calorie intake is too low my body goes into "starvation mode" and I don' lose anything. Your calorie intake is definitely way too low! For instance when I started I weighed 190 lbs and my calorie intake was set at a little over 1400 per day (using the tools MFP provides to arrive at this amount). I have been following this and have been consistently losing 1-2 lbs per week - it takes time to take it off! MFP will decrease your calorie level as you lose the weight. You might try doing higher calorie swaps to increase your calorie intake such as whole milk instead of skim or full fat yogurt instead of light or fat free. Hope this helps somewhat... best of luck in your weight loss journey..this is a wonderful sight for tips and support!

I posted this to my friends yesterday - reposting it here:

I wanted to share something that has made this all a little easier for me. I used this post: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12 and came up with the number of calories I shoot for every day to lose weight (1500), but I also came up with my TDEE and using this as an "upper limit" for weekends and parties feels like I'm getting wiggle room but still keeps me from actually eating more than I burned off that day. I don't know if this will help anyone but instead of feeling like a failure that i am going over a diet max, I get a little space and can still stay under my TDEE max. The glass is half full more often that way and I'm a little less harsh on myself.

Thanks for putting in this link!

All right, I'll bite. So, I walk back and forth to work daily (it's about 20 minutes either way over a bridge three days a week, and about ten minuted either way over level ground twice a week), and two days a week, I'm on my feet for three hours teaching a class.

Is that enough to be considered lightly active if I'm not actually "working out"? Or should I be considered sedentary and add the exercise (such as it is), which is what I've been doing? I always though "lightly active" meant you had to be lifting weights or jumping in Spandex or something, and nothing else counted.

=Betty=

Lightly active here on Myfitnesspal would be pretty much what you described. As stated above sedentary is a sitting job, sitting in the car/bus/taxi too and from work, and sitting at home most of the time watching TV and the like. It is basically not walking, standing for the vast majority of the day. It is your choice. I have mine currently set at sedentary but include my activity as exercise and eat the calories. I do this because of a recurring knee problem which will hopefully be corrected by surgery on Oct 31st. When my knee acts up, all activity is gone and my day consists of lying down with my leg up, and as few times moving around as possible until it settles down. When that is passed, I will probably change things up and go with the In Place of a Road Map calorie setting.

Finally, If I do need to increase calories what are some ways to do it healthily? I'm so used to 1200 calories a day I often only eat a little over 1000 and don't have the appetite. There has to be something going on to account for my lack of recent weight loss! Thanks!

As to what to eat, without seeing your food diary it is almost impossible to comment.

:bigsmile: :drinker:

Hi Desi, I've always found that when my calorie intake is too low my body goes into "starvation mode" and I don' lose anything. Your calorie intake is definitely way too low! For instance when I started I weighed 190 lbs and my calorie intake was set at a little over 1400 per day (using the tools MFP provides to arrive at this amount). I have been following this and have been consistently losing 1-2 lbs per week - it takes time to take it off! MFP will decrease your calorie level as you lose the weight. You might try doing higher calorie swaps to increase your calorie intake such as whole milk instead of skim or full fat yogurt instead of light or fat free. Hope this helps somewhat... best of luck in your weight loss journey..this is a wonderful sight for tips and support!

Thank you! I suppose I should just trust what the website says. It's hard to wrap your mind around that sometimes! Thank you for the tips, and perhaps I'll add a food favorite of mine I have avoided-- peanut butter! Lol.. we'll see how it goes, thanks for your advice and encouragement.

Why do you avoid peanut butter. Unless you are allergic it simply requires measuring it out and not eating huge amounts of it so you go over your net calories. Basically if you start cutting out the fat free stuff and eat a moderate amount of normal fat or lower fat options you would probably find your calories go up. You are definitely lightly active based on what you described, and don't forget to eat the exercise calories if you exercise. That 1600ish calories includes your calorie deficit already and does no include exercise calories.

Basically you need to realize you don't have to starve yourself or completely avoid foods you enjoy, you just need to cut back to a moderate deficit. The only exception about cutting stuff out is if eating that food triggers a desire to keep eating so you go over your calories. Then you would be better avoiding it completely.

I've always assumed if you didn't workout consistently everyday you were not lightly active, don't ask me where I got these assumptions from... haha. I also read somewhere to always 'set it one below where you think it should be' and that is why I always used sedentary. Honestly, when I first started I assumed anyone as fat as me couldn't be active in the least! I see now that perhaps I should think of myself as lightly active. I just have to remember if upping my calories a little doesn't help or makes things worse, I can always take a step back. Thank you for your input.

That's okay, I've always made the same assumption. I think it has to do with the diet and fitness industry telling us for decades that nothing counts unless it involves handing them money for a gym membership. We're just brainwashed is all. *grin*

I second HelloItsDan's great road map thread. He explains it in a way that makes sense. I'm eating somewhere between 1450-1600 calories a day with a target of 1500 because I can't function on 1400 or less. I never really knew why until I saw that my Katch McArdle BMR is only around 1250 calories, so at 1375 (which another site suggested), I was literally on the edge of starving once I factored in my activity.. Unless you are about three foot nothing, you can't survive on 1,000 calories a day long term unless your diet is nothing but protein and fat. And the lack of any variety will drive you mad long before you make any progress.

Mostly my calorie add back ins are fruit, nuts (almonds and cashews and sunflower seeds, mostly), cheese, pickles, garlic sausage, and smoothies made with pure whey protein, fruit and yogurt. Your mileage may vary.

Riley'sOwner: Thanks for clarifying on the lightly active issue. Like you, I have a bum knee, and some days on the weekend, it decides we're not walking, or it's too cold to walk (I live in an area where -40C highs in the winter are not unheard of), so my exercise level does fluctuate somewhat. But it's good to know I'm on the right track with tracking it manually. I generally only worry about eating it back if it's enough that eating normally would put me under 1300 - usually if it's 1/3 or more of my calorie intake in exercise, I'll eat half of it back. I went through this kind of stupid thing for a few weeks where I was packing and moving 40-50 pound boxes for delivery at work and then I was eating most of it back because my net calories would have ended up being <500 a day for weeks on end if I hadn't.

=Betty=