Eating at TDEE

What kills me is if I eat at or more than the calories listed for me on MFP i do not lose. (1420). If I eat 1200 or less, I do, gradually, usually. I started at 285. lost about 22 pounds, stuck for almost 4.5 weeks at 261, started losing again and am now 2 weeks stuck at 247. I walk 1 to 2 miles every day and go to the gym 3 or 4 times a week. I eat 95% healthier now and log every oz I eat. I only lose if I do 1200 or less. Just please explain to me how eating more is a good thing? I have 82 pounds more fat to shed. (BTW: Iam 62, male, 5'9, arhtritis, and bi-polar prosteses in left hip/femur. I can not dead lift or run.)

Lat pull downs, bicep curls, seated row..all great exercises. I cannot imagine a male, even your age, having to eat 1200 calories to lose. Have you gotten your hormones checked?

The post gym has more Nautilis equipment than Golds, inside track and pool. I go several times a week and use the machines for about an hour, then walk 1 or 2 miles, swim, etc. Using my Polar hrm, I burn an avg of 300 to 400 cals per session. I know exercise is not a significant weight loss factor, but helps the body overall stay fit, and healthier. I also walk 1 to 2 miles on the days I do not go to the gym.

I am just stating a fact, that if I eat over 1200 cals, I do not seem to lose weight. I do not understand why. I do not eat junk. I do not eat sugars or salt unless natural. I keep steamed broccoli in the fridge all the time, no salt or butters, just to snack.

No I have not had hormones checked. I have labs done every 3 months for AIC and the major checks like cholestorial, liver, etc, followed by doc appointment for checkup. I am diebetic ll, high blood pressure. Since my last visit, I am off 1 of the 3 meds for diebeties, and the doc said if I continue to exercise and lose the weight, he predicts more meds being stopped. AIC is at good levels. I am not looking for 'Instant Gratification', just would really like to see some results. I am not doing anything I do not intend to continue doing for life. No tricks, gimmicks. Trying to make smart, healthy life style choices I can live with. Suggestions always welcome. If I knew what do to, I'd be doing it.

Using my Polar hrm, I burn an avg of 300 to 400 cals per session. I know exercise is not a significant weight loss factor, but helps the body overall stay fit, and healthier. I also walk 1 to 2 miles on the days I do not go to the gym.

I am just stating a fact, that if I eat over 1200 cals, I do not seem to lose weight. I do not understand why. I do not eat junk. I do not eat sugars or salt unless natural. I keep steamed broccoli in the fridge all the time, no salt or butters, just to snack.

Because you have slowed your metabolism down below where it needs to be.

It will of course slow down because of losing weight, though frankly the amount of metabolism given to fat is insignificant compared to that given to the Lean Body Mass.

Such an extreme deficit for so long without a really strong weight lifting regimen means you've lost LBM, and so your metabolism has gone lower than you needed it to go, or more than you'd probably like it to go.

Besides that, with so few calories available, all your other functions have been slowed down, perhaps not even noticeable to you.

In addition, with less weight to move around, you do indeed burn less calories in daily activity.

You can try to correct 2 of those reasons.

Eat more than an extreme deficit and get your metabolism burning where it could be, and weight lift as focus for exercise. You still have enough to lose that if you eat right and lift, you could in theory actually gain muscle mass. You'd be very hard pressed to do so later with less to lose though.

So the math that says 1200 should be say 1000 calorie deficit to 2200 daily maintenance - is obviously not true, or you could eat up to 1700 and still lose weight.
Since that is not the case, your daily maintenance is whatever you say you eat at and have no loss. So what 1400?

So you really want to keep going in the direction you've gone? How do you eat less or exercise even more? And guess what will happen shortly after doing either one of those things?

You have indeed seen great results over time, but guess what, you could have had them, and potentially better results, eating more the whole time.

Now, you can test the theory that eating even less or exercising even more will be a sustainable method for some weeks, but if your theory doesn't work out (and it won't), it is a bear trying to get out of even a slower metabolism.

But if you slowly raise the calories say 250 a day for a week, let your body know it has regular food and can speed up, you may not lose anything for a short period of time, but the end will be better and likely the same length of time anyway.

Oh, to log your personal stats, see what your daily energy expenditure could be, and what a healthy deficit should be, use the spreadsheet linked in this topic.

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

What kills me is if I eat at or more than the calories listed for me on MFP i do not lose. (1420). If I eat 1200 or less, I do, gradually, usually. I started at 285. lost about 22 pounds, stuck for almost 4.5 weeks at 261, started losing again and am now 2 weeks stuck at 247. I walk 1 to 2 miles every day and go to the gym 3 or 4 times a week. I eat 95% healthier now and log every oz I eat. I only lose if I do 1200 or less. Just please explain to me how eating more is a good thing? I have 82 pounds more fat to shed. (BTW: Iam 62, male, 5'9, arhtritis, and bi-polar prosteses in left hip/femur. I can not dead lift or run.)

If you don't eat enough a large % of your weight loss will come from lean muscle, you may end up with malnutrition, have lack of energy, etc.

can't download the spreadsheet.

can't download the spreadsheet.

If you don't have Google account, you can only Save as Excel.
If you have Google account, you can Make a Copy.

Notice the 2 lines near the top about how to save it.

I did see the two lines that explained how to down load it and I tried but it isn't working.

I do have a google account and there is no option to make a copy. The only option is to download and my computer doesn't recognize the XLXS format and there's an error when I try to open it up on excel on my iPad.

Strange, the only time it doesn't give the option to make a copy is if it doesn't think you are logged into your Google account.

Not sure what happens if never used Documents before, but I see the stats of other downloads going.

Those spreadsheets just totally and utterly confuse me. I had a look at several linked from mfp and just had to give up. Only used fat2fitradio, but if anyone has the time to have a go at my TDEE, I am 5'10, 126Ibs, bodyfat %(according to military calculator) 16.5%, I do hard cycling or elliptical for between 6 and 9 hours per week(75-86% of max heart rate), and outside of that, I walk at a moderate pace for around 45mins per day, and am usually on my feet doing stuff(looking in shops, housework, cooking etc) between 11am and 8pm. I walk at least 8000-10,000 steps most days(fitbit generally gives me 350-500 calories just for my daily walking about).

Those spreadsheets just totally and utterly confuse me. I had a look at several linked from mfp and just had to give up. Only used fat2fitradio, but if anyone has the time to have a go at my TDEE, I am 5'10, 126Ibs, bodyfat %(according to military calculator) 16.5%, I do hard cycling or elliptical for between 6 and 9 hours per week(75-86% of max heart rate), and outside of that, I walk at a moderate pace for around 45mins per day, and am usually on my feet doing stuff(looking in shops, housework, cooking etc) between 11am and 8pm. I walk at least 8000-10,000 steps most days(fitbit generally gives me 350-500 calories just for my daily walking about).

according to scooby's workshop your TDEE is 2683.

Right, thanks for that

Those spreadsheets just totally and utterly confuse me. I had a look at several linked from mfp and just had to give up. Only used fat2fitradio, but if anyone has the time to have a go at my TDEE, I am 5'10, 126Ibs, bodyfat %(according to military calculator) 16.5%, I do hard cycling or elliptical for between 6 and 9 hours per week(75-86% of max heart rate), and outside of that, I walk at a moderate pace for around 45mins per day, and am usually on my feet doing stuff(looking in shops, housework, cooking etc) between 11am and 8pm. I walk at least 8000-10,000 steps most days(fitbit generally gives me 350-500 calories just for my daily walking about).

Holy cow, you gotta eat a lot for that level of activity. That will be hard to estimate correctly really.

You got enough recovery time in there to actually improve from the hard workouts? Body can't get stronger without rest afterall, and if every single workout is hard, you aren't getting near the improvement you could be getting in performance or changes.

Sounds like not looking for weight loss, just maintenance?
So have to try this for a few weeks, and add on as required.

I will suggest, if any of the rides is over 2hrs in a day, the TDEE should be estimated using 2hrs, anything over is eaten back during/after the workout. Otherwise you have 4 or 5 days where the extra eaten is excess, for the 2 or 3 days it's really required.
So I'm going for 6 hrs hard cycling, if it's 9, you eat extra after/during those workouts.

If training like an athlete, gotta rest and eat like one too.

So you didn't include age, but caught elsewhere you said approaching 40. So using 38. Actually, with bodyfat% BMR, age doesn't matter.

63 hrs work or similar on feet.
315 min moderate walking.
360 min heavy cardio.


Got ya just a tad above Very Active.
TDEE 2419 for all exercise, except for any hrs above 6 heavy cardio.

So if that 6 is 3 rides at 2 hrs each, and sometimes throw in a few extra days, need to eat more on those days.

Now of course, you hold to that for a month, logging calories and workout time, and if you lose weight, TDEE is higher by calculated amount.

Thanks for that, and yes, I enjoy cycling, though not training for anything or even an athlete lol. I get an hour most days, but usually once a week I end up doing a 2 hour ride, sometimes several 90 minute rides, with a lot of hills, lol, hence the high heart rate. I think also, because I have mild emphysema, I have to put in more effort perhaps, than someone with healthy lungs.

Definitely looking to maintain weight. Usually my hrm and fitbit gives me between 2200 and 3100 to eat depending on exercise but I get a bit tired of eating different amounts on different days. I do have a rest day a week where I only do some walking or when and as I start to feel overtired and over hungry. Thanks again for running those numbers for me

bump