Am I doing this right???

BGM325
BGM325 Posts: 78
edited 11:09AM in Health and Weight Loss
I started "dieting" on January 15th. I began by eating breakfast everyday (never did that before, and I'd spend the day snacking on crappy food.) and having Weight Watcher Smart Ones for lunch & dinner. Then I found MFP and after doing some reading I decided to cut back on the WW foods although I still have them for lunch or dinner once or twice a week. I began exercising on January 26th (also something I hadn't done regularly in a looooooong time!!) and by early February I was down 10lbs. I began tracking my food here on MFP and stopped counting WW points. I was doing the recommended 1200 calorie MFP diet and feeling pretty good about it but then I started reading the boards and the varying opinions and questioning myself on whether I was doing things wrong. Add to that the fact that it's February 22nd and I haven't lost a single pound since the original 10. Sometimes I'm up 4 and then then down 3 the next day so that was starting to pi$$ me off so I stopped getting on the scale. I am losing inches, my clothes are way looser and I'm fitting into a pair of size 6 jeans that hadn't seen the light of day in way over a year so I'm not complaining but there's always room for improvement, right?!

My exercising has consisted of a daily 2 mile walk, which I've recently upped to 3 miles. (On weekends I do 4) I do some bike riding and some jump roping but not regularly, just every now and then to shake things up. I'm currently doing Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred, I'm on day 10 of Level 1. It was kicking my butt in the beginning and I'm still seeing a difference in my body so I will stick to it even when I feel like I'm on the brink of death. :grumble:

So then this week I figured out my BMR, TDEE, etc thanks to http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/ & so I plan to eat my BMR which is 1437 (my TDEE is 2228) and since my suggested daily calories are at 1783 I was thinking I could eat between 1437 to 1783 calories a day. How's that sound?? When I was doing the 1200 calories a day I would sometimes eat back my exercise calories but eating between 1437 and 1783 per day I don't see the need to add back my exercise calories since that would give me back 300-500 calories per day. I eat 3 meals, a mid-morning snack, and afternoon snack and a dessert/evening snack at around 9ish.

My question is: Do I need to tweak my plan? Is it good? Bad? Too much? Too little? Suggestions welcomed!! Thank You!
Happy Friday!!! :drinker: :flowerforyou:

Replies

  • wibutterflymagic
    wibutterflymagic Posts: 788 Member
    I would go with what the scooby site says. Most often people are eating too little. So that brings up what you think you were eating. You said you had a 1200 calorie goal and after exercising were eating 1400-1700. That's actually kind of wrong. Example: you have a 1200 calorie goal, you exercise and burn off 300 calories.....that brings your calorie intake to 900. If you eat back your 300 calories your body is back to getting the 1200 calories it needs. Or you can look at it this way. You've eaten 1400 calories worth of food but then exercised and burned off 200 calories....your body is getting 1200 calories of nutrition. Understand??

    I would go with the calorie goal that scooby states is good for you and then you eat back the calories that you've burned. All the calorie goals that scooby and mfp give us have a built in deficit so if you exercise on top of it you are creating a higher(most often) unhealthy deficit. You're body need fuel to function. If you are getting too little your body will hold onto any and all food it does get.
  • BGM325
    BGM325 Posts: 78
    Thanks! :flowerforyou:
    Anyone else? Please?! :cry:
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