Advice please :)

ellend17
ellend17 Posts: 58
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi all,

I've been doing MFP for about 3 and a half months now and have lost around 12lbs so far, with an ultimate goal of losing another 10 so i'm smack bang in the middle of the healthy BMI range for my height. I started off on 1200 cals a day, then upped it to 1400 by calculating my TDEE - 20% and eating back exercise cals as i set the TDEE calculator to little or no exercise ( i did this because the amount of exercise i do varies weekly so i didn't want to add it it and be eating too much)

I stuck with this method until a few days ago when i came back from a holiday, and i was losing maybe half a lb a week up to that point. So now i'd like to start moving to a more sustainable eating/exercise plan that i am able to maintain but i'm looking for some advice on the best method of doing this as i'm no where near an expert!

Typically, I do an hour of zumba a week, 15 minutes of walking each day in my lunch break, go for an hours walk with a friend each week, and get on the cross trainer/exercise bike when i can which i aim to be for at least two or three half hour sessions, although i would love to have the time to do more ( and will do when i move out, hopefully by the end of the year, but anyhoo..)

I'm 5'7, current weight is 144.4 lbs and am aiming for 134lbs (ideally by November when i turn 21!) but my main goal is to tone up, especially my stomach/hips and thighs, and to be able to maintain this.

I'm not sure whether doing TDEE - % set as sedentary and eating back exercise cals is best , or whether setting it as lightly active and not eating back exercise cals would be better.

Any advice welcome!
Thank you in advance, really appreciate any feedback!

Replies

  • ellend17
    ellend17 Posts: 58
    Bump, would love some thoughts :flowerforyou:
  • bullsfan22
    bullsfan22 Posts: 104
    Hi there, here are my thoughts (disclaimer: not a pro at this, don't even want to think I know anything scientific about my method but here it goes).

    I work at a desk, about 10 hours a day and for the most part don't move much during the day while working. I set my goals for sedentary but workout 6 times a week. I do also walk and hope that my fitbit (soon to arrive) will help me track my walking and force me to get up during my breaks. I try to eat back all my exercise calories and have set my goals to 1.5lb/week as I still have approx. 38 or so to lose.

    I think the best thing would be to go with sedentary option and eat back exercise calories for those days you don't exercise you just eat less.
  • ttippie2000
    ttippie2000 Posts: 412 Member
    Ellend17, I'm not an expert on diet either. To me your food journal looks healthy, and it looks like you're going out of your way to exercise in the time you have. It all looks pretty good to me. I suspect that over time you will be pleased. But I can also identify with not seeing the progress you would like in any given week.

    One question I have is: are you having any issues with energy? (1000 calories would have me in a snippy, quivering lump of goo.) I have found that I feel better when I up my activity and calories, even when the overall calorie deficit comes out the same.

    As far as workouts, I think of varying them along 3 lines: frequency, duration or intensity. It sounds like you are time constrained, so duration may not be the first thing you vary. Maybe intensity would work. You might turn one of those walks into a jog, just one of two a week. Alternatively, you could up your game on that cross trainer/exercise bike. Getting out of steady state cardio might help. For example, rather than riding at a constant rate, maybe you can stand up, up the resistance and hill climb until your heart rate gets to 160 beats per minute (bpm), then ease up, spin fast like you're going downhill and slowly let it go back down to 120 bpm. If you throw three intervals like that into your ride you'll be doing a number of good things for your body in addition to weight management.
  • michelle7673
    michelle7673 Posts: 370 Member
    It seems that what you're doing is working at the pace you want, right? Do you feel like you are not eating enough?
    I personally use the sedentary assumption and eat back exercise calories....because (a) I don't want to bet on being that consistent or to rely on what is a pretty broad characterization of activity and (b) it pushes me to exercise more. I think either methodology basically works, though.
    So I guess ultimately you would end up at sedentary TDEE plus exercise calories, which would be maintenance. You could start reducing your deficit (like TDEE minus 15%, plus exercise calories), but if you are comfortable where you are, you could maintain that over the summer and you'd be closer to your goal by the fall.
  • ellend17
    ellend17 Posts: 58
    Thanks for your replies :)

    I guess I am just being impatient..I meant to add in thaat now i've returned from holiday i've upped my calories to 1600 daily which is closer to my TDEE-10% to try and make the transition to maintenance a bit easier, and because on days i exercise i had trouble netting enough calories, so hopefully thatll balance them out a bit.

    Will stick with it for a few weeks and see how i get on :)
    Thank you for the support!

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