Does this make sense?

beachbumsteph
beachbumsteph Posts: 5
in Fitness and Exercise
Hi there! I just wanted to share a little background about myself. To date I have lost 100 pounds and I have about 8 more to lose. I did this by joining Weight Watchers and it helped me so much. I began working out when I was about 80 or so pounds down because I realized I needed to tone it up. With all that being said, since I first began working out I have incorporated more and more strength training. So here is what my schedule looks like now (I am a beachbody girl so I am doing ChaLEAN/TurboFIRE)

Day 1:
4 mile run

Day 2:
ChaLEAN Burn Circuit 1
TurbroFIRE HIIT 15

Day 3:
ChaLEAN Burn Circuit 2
TurboFIRE Stretch 20

Day 4:
TurboFIRE 45 or 4 mile run (whichever I feel like doing)

Day 5:
ChaLEAN Burn Circuit 3
TurboFIRE Core 20

Day 6:
ChaLEAN Burn Circuit 1
TurboFIRE HIIT 20

I switch it up so that I am always doing one one circuit two times a week, if that makes sense. Anyway, I have realized that since I have been strength training more days I am always hungry and found myself eating crap so I decided to wear my HRM for an entire day to see how many calories I am burning throughout the day. While doing this I also realized that the Weight Watchers point system does not work for me anymore. It's a great program and I would recommend it to anyone but I'm on a different journey and I don't think that can help me anymore.

So, I figured out I burn about 2300 calories a day and decided to eat 2000 a day for a deficit of 300 which would help me to lose that 8 pounds. My MFP says I should only be taking in 1200 calories a day. I know that I did all of the appropriate leg work to figure out how many calories I need a day, I still feel guilty every time I go in and add more and more calories and I see this red negative number starring right at me! Just need reasurrance I guess :)

Replies

  • Determinednoob
    Determinednoob Posts: 2,001 Member
    You can adjust the calorie and macro settings under Goals>Custom Set it higher and make it green if you like ;)
  • HypersonicFitNess
    HypersonicFitNess Posts: 1,219 Member
    Change your goals to custom using TDEE (I recently joined his group; he has all the cool links/spreadsheets to help)

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/3088-eating-for-future-you

    Gives step-by-step instructions on how to set up MFP for your proper calories (manually)
  • urglewurgle
    urglewurgle Posts: 224 Member
    I changed my goals too... MFP had me at 1200 but Insanity has me at 1800! I know which I'd rather eat... Change your goals as described above and you won't see those nasty red numbers!

    And a huge well done for your worm so far Hun!
  • beachbumsteph
    beachbumsteph Posts: 5
    You guys are awesome! Thank you! I just changed everything and I know I will feel so much better about not seeing that negative, red number anymore. Seriously amazing the things that can play mind games with you!
  • AliciaStinger
    AliciaStinger Posts: 402 Member
    What he said! If you don't want to custom-set your calorie goal, then you could just change your regular goals. Say that you're trying to stay at the same weight, or even gain weight, so that your calorie goal is higher.

    Also, do you log your exercise on MFP? If so, I would think that would get/keep you out of the red, even if you eat well over 1200 calories a day. If they don't have your exercise program in their exercise database, just "quickadd" the number of calories you burned.
  • ejwme
    ejwme Posts: 318
    If you're logging your exercise and adding it in too, it should turn green also. Someone once told me "you can't fix what you can't measure", and man is that right. Measure your food, measure your exercise, measure your body. With all that information, you can't help but succeed.

    And don't feel guilty! Guilt isn't helpful for anything!
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
    what kind of strength training do you do? I would just say maybe through in some squats, deadliest, pullups/chinups..etc...Your plan sounds pretty solid already...good luck!
  • beachbumsteph
    beachbumsteph Posts: 5
    Ok....more questions! So how do I "quickadd" exercise? I tried to enter in my calories burned and didn't know how to do it. Clearly I missed it. So I have just been putting how many calories I burned in the notes section but that won't help my calorie count as I track my food :)

Categories