Newbie here...please help!
booluviemomma
Posts: 36
Hello everyone!
I'll try to be as brief as I can, but my mind is spinning trying to figure all this out, so I may ramble!
Background:
I am a 30 yo stay at home mom of four. I've always had a poor self image and felt like I was fat. Looking back at my high school pictures and early college, I have no idea what I was thinking! I was a very healthy 140-150 lbs at 5'8" and a size 10. I met my husband at 19, and a few months into our relationship I began steadily gaining weight. By the time we got married two years later, I was 185 and a size 14. We got pregnant just a few months later, and I weighed in at a whopping 203 at my first prenatal. I topped the scale at 240 by delivery time, although I was carrying a ton of water weight. I've since had three more babies, none with such a significant gain, but I've never been able to lose all the baby weight. My first three babies were back to back, and I nursed all of them. I spent around 4 and a half years straight either nursing or pregnant. I just sort of gave up. We had our last baby nearly two years ago, and now that he's fully weaned, I've finally decided enough was enough. I jumped back on MFP and have been logging 35 days now and slowly working my way through 30DS. I got my nice initial 12 lbs in the first few weeks, but I know that's pretty typical.
So my problem is that I have a great knack for gaining weight, but I've never been successful at losing it. The most I've ever lost before throwing in the towel is 10-15 lbs. Not much when you have 80-90 lbs to lose. I haven't been below 207 since before my first pregnancy. But I've always looked for a quick fix: Slimfast, Metabolife, Alli, cleanses, freaky fasting diets. I honestly didn't care how I lost it, just that it came off. And fast! This time, I really want more than those size 10 jeans tucked away in my closet. Well, I really want those jeans, but that's not all. I want so much more than that! I want to be healthy. I want to change how I view food. I want to be strong. And while my patience is a work in progress, I don't really care if it takes a couple years to get there. I want so badly to do this the right way! And as a result of that, I am both terrified of eating too much or eating too little. I am having a difficult time figuring out the right daily goals for me.
I think I finally get the whole TDEE, BMR, TDEG vs net calories. So now I am stuck between two very different numbers. The past several weeks I have had my goal set to 1820, which I thought was my BMR. I logged all my exercise and tried to eat back my calories. But I got to thinking that I may still be netting under my BMR since I'm not accounting for regular daily activity. So I started researching again and stumbled onto this site. So now I've been led to two places to help me figure out my goals. The first one is the spreadsheet on google docs https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Amt7QBR9-c6MdGVTbGswLUUzUHNVVUlNSW9wZWloeUE#gid=14. Their results came out far different than the other BMR calculators I had used. The other site was Scooby which was similar to what I had been using before.
My results:
Spreadsheet/Scooby
BMR: 1600/1828
TDEE: 2539/2812
TDEG: 1739(-30%)/2250(-20%)
Not sure why the different sites gave me to different cut rates, but regardless the numbers are very different. So now what? I should mention that I started at 240, got down as far as 228, but as of this morning (my weekly weigh-in) was back to 234. My measurements have changed drastically since the end of April, but they haven't really budged in the last couple weeks. I do JM 30DS 4-5 days each week.
Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated! I'm so sorry this was so long!
One other quick question: I don't have a gym membership and cannot afford one at this time. I understand that free weights and heavy lifting is probably the best for strength training and building LBM, but can I get at least some of the benefits from a solid body weight routine? I've notice a huge difference even with 30DS in my strength as well as firming and tightening. Thanks!
I'll try to be as brief as I can, but my mind is spinning trying to figure all this out, so I may ramble!
Background:
I am a 30 yo stay at home mom of four. I've always had a poor self image and felt like I was fat. Looking back at my high school pictures and early college, I have no idea what I was thinking! I was a very healthy 140-150 lbs at 5'8" and a size 10. I met my husband at 19, and a few months into our relationship I began steadily gaining weight. By the time we got married two years later, I was 185 and a size 14. We got pregnant just a few months later, and I weighed in at a whopping 203 at my first prenatal. I topped the scale at 240 by delivery time, although I was carrying a ton of water weight. I've since had three more babies, none with such a significant gain, but I've never been able to lose all the baby weight. My first three babies were back to back, and I nursed all of them. I spent around 4 and a half years straight either nursing or pregnant. I just sort of gave up. We had our last baby nearly two years ago, and now that he's fully weaned, I've finally decided enough was enough. I jumped back on MFP and have been logging 35 days now and slowly working my way through 30DS. I got my nice initial 12 lbs in the first few weeks, but I know that's pretty typical.
So my problem is that I have a great knack for gaining weight, but I've never been successful at losing it. The most I've ever lost before throwing in the towel is 10-15 lbs. Not much when you have 80-90 lbs to lose. I haven't been below 207 since before my first pregnancy. But I've always looked for a quick fix: Slimfast, Metabolife, Alli, cleanses, freaky fasting diets. I honestly didn't care how I lost it, just that it came off. And fast! This time, I really want more than those size 10 jeans tucked away in my closet. Well, I really want those jeans, but that's not all. I want so much more than that! I want to be healthy. I want to change how I view food. I want to be strong. And while my patience is a work in progress, I don't really care if it takes a couple years to get there. I want so badly to do this the right way! And as a result of that, I am both terrified of eating too much or eating too little. I am having a difficult time figuring out the right daily goals for me.
I think I finally get the whole TDEE, BMR, TDEG vs net calories. So now I am stuck between two very different numbers. The past several weeks I have had my goal set to 1820, which I thought was my BMR. I logged all my exercise and tried to eat back my calories. But I got to thinking that I may still be netting under my BMR since I'm not accounting for regular daily activity. So I started researching again and stumbled onto this site. So now I've been led to two places to help me figure out my goals. The first one is the spreadsheet on google docs https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Amt7QBR9-c6MdGVTbGswLUUzUHNVVUlNSW9wZWloeUE#gid=14. Their results came out far different than the other BMR calculators I had used. The other site was Scooby which was similar to what I had been using before.
My results:
Spreadsheet/Scooby
BMR: 1600/1828
TDEE: 2539/2812
TDEG: 1739(-30%)/2250(-20%)
Not sure why the different sites gave me to different cut rates, but regardless the numbers are very different. So now what? I should mention that I started at 240, got down as far as 228, but as of this morning (my weekly weigh-in) was back to 234. My measurements have changed drastically since the end of April, but they haven't really budged in the last couple weeks. I do JM 30DS 4-5 days each week.
Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated! I'm so sorry this was so long!
One other quick question: I don't have a gym membership and cannot afford one at this time. I understand that free weights and heavy lifting is probably the best for strength training and building LBM, but can I get at least some of the benefits from a solid body weight routine? I've notice a huge difference even with 30DS in my strength as well as firming and tightening. Thanks!
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Replies
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Bump... I am in the same boat....0
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Thanks for the bump!
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Using the spreadsheet, did you put in your measurements and get a bodyfat%?
Did you enter that figure in the cell asking for it?
Then you received a best estimate Katch BMR based on bodyfat%.
Scooby has a most accurate TDEE calc too that allows you to select Katch and enter BF% too - you'll get the same BMR.
But you used their method of Mifflin or Harris BMR, which is based on averages for gender, age, weight, height - NOT your BF%.
Guess which is better estimate of BMR, which starts the math?
And then which has better change of accuracy - 5 simple levels where it appears 1 hr of walking equals 1 hr of lifting equals 1 hr of running?
Or an activity calculator where you entered in actual time you plan to spend on different types of exercise?
And where does increased job activity go in 5 simple levels, since it does count? There's a place in the Activity Calc.
So using inflated BMR and best guess of TDEE level, you get a deficit goal of eating 2250.
But using best estimated BMR and better TDEE calculation, you get a total TDEE of 2539.
So if you ate 2250, and real best estimate of TDEE is 2539 - you'd have a mere 1/2 lb loss per week.
Don't eat inflated. While slow is better, that doesn't mean that slow.
Why would you weigh foods for accuracy if it wasn't to actually help lose weight?
So also on the TDEE estimate, use best estimates.
Oh, and you got 30% because you have a lot to lose. Which will change, that deficit amount will go down, especially as inches drop and BF figure becomes more accurate.
Make sure you follow the macro setup to confirm getting plenty of protein in.
Right now when starting out, yes your body weight exercise is probably increasing your muscle mass slowly. Your exercise in general will increase your LBM no matter what, of which muscle is merely a part of it.
That's why you'll need to keep doing the measurements.0 -
Using the spreadsheet, did you put in your measurements and get a bodyfat%?
Did you enter that figure in the cell asking for it?
Then you received a best estimate Katch BMR based on bodyfat%.
Scooby has a most accurate TDEE calc too that allows you to select Katch and enter BF% too - you'll get the same BMR.
But you used their method of Mifflin or Harris BMR, which is based on averages for gender, age, weight, height - NOT your BF%.
Guess which is better estimate of BMR, which starts the math?
And then which has better change of accuracy - 5 simple levels where it appears 1 hr of walking equals 1 hr of lifting equals 1 hr of running?
Or an activity calculator where you entered in actual time you plan to spend on different types of exercise?
And where does increased job activity go in 5 simple levels, since it does count? There's a place in the Activity Calc.
So using inflated BMR and best guess of TDEE level, you get a deficit goal of eating 2250.
But using best estimated BMR and better TDEE calculation, you get a total TDEE of 2539.
So if you ate 2250, and real best estimate of TDEE is 2539 - you'd have a mere 1/2 lb loss per week.
Don't eat inflated. While slow is better, that doesn't mean that slow.
Why would you weigh foods for accuracy if it wasn't to actually help lose weight?
So also on the TDEE estimate, use best estimates.
Oh, and you got 30% because you have a lot to lose. Which will change, that deficit amount will go down, especially as inches drop and BF figure becomes more accurate.
Make sure you follow the macro setup to confirm getting plenty of protein in.
Right now when starting out, yes your body weight exercise is probably increasing your muscle mass slowly. Your exercise in general will increase your LBM no matter what, of which muscle is merely a part of it.
That's why you'll need to keep doing the measurements.
Thank you so much!!! You answered my questions! And I realized that I hadn't changed the body fat % in the spreadsheet to my own. Somehow I missed that one, and it made a huge difference! The numbers make a lot more sense now! Thank you again for taking the time to help me!0
