What do you do about calorie over/under estimation?

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jess6742
jess6742 Posts: 146
in Health and Weight Loss
How do you balance out any inaccuracies in the calorie counts? I've read that people underestimate thier calorie intake by 20% and over estimate thier calorie burn. I'm already pretty small 5'1 109lbs. I've lost 30 pounds already and trying to lose the last few pounds so there is not that much room for error. I ordered a food scale, but I don't have the money yet for a HRM.

Should I try to net less than 1200 to counterbalance the possible inaccuracies? Right now I normally eat around 1500 and burn about 200 but I'm afraid that I'm actually eating 1800 and burning 50. I definitely won't lose the weight if that is the case.

What do you do?

Replies

  • PepperWorm
    PepperWorm Posts: 1,206
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    I'm confused. You're only 109 pounds and you want to lose 14 more??
  • jess6742
    jess6742 Posts: 146
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    It doesn't have to be 14 more. I just put it as that because a lot of the ideal weight calculators said 92-95lbs would be ideal since I have a small frame.
  • ltl_leah
    ltl_leah Posts: 57 Member
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    Weigh all your food on a digital scale. Seriously, I've been doing that for years and it helped me.
  • SarahRea32
    SarahRea32 Posts: 167 Member
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    quote "I'm confused. You're only 109 pounds and you want to lose 14 more??" quote

    She's 5 foot 1!!! That is seriously tiny so of course her weight is going to be low!

    I have found that the calorie estimators for exercise burn on MFP seem to be way way out for me. If you can't afford a HRM, maybe figure out your TDEE using one of the online calculators including your normal exercise activity and then use TDEE minus 10-15%. Having said that, if what you are currently doing is working keep doing that.

    I agree with Itl_leah - the digital scales in the kitchen should be very helpful. People tend to underestimate the amount of food they are eating.

    Good luck :)
  • herblackwings39
    herblackwings39 Posts: 3,930 Member
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    A kitchen scale will help you with not under or over estimating your calorie intake. The rest you may just have to pay attention and track the trend. If you eat back all your exercise calories and find after a week or two you aren't losing then you'll know to try eating back 75% or 50%. It will probably require some tweaking.
  • jess6742
    jess6742 Posts: 146
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    Thanks for the feedback. That's good news because my scale will get here next week :-)
  • kathleennf
    kathleennf Posts: 606 Member
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    How did you lose the first 30 lb? Sounds like you just need to do more of the same. I think that will give you a better idea than trying to imitate someone else.

    Having said that- since you asked- I have been on MFP for almost 3 years, and have logged every single day minus Christmas, 2012 (Christmas Day- one day). I do a LOT of "guesstimating" because I travel to a lot of weird places and eat a lot of weird food. Sometimes I have pretty much no idea what it is (does this have meat? bread? potatoes?). I do not own a food scale or HRM. I just give it my brutally-honest-to-myself-or-why-am-I-here-anyway best guess. And you know what? It works great! I can be away for 6 weeks straight, with no scale and no food labels, and my weight is within 1-2lb of what MFP predicted when I get back. There ya have it.
  • jess6742
    jess6742 Posts: 146
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    kathleennf I lost the first 30 pounds by eating a much healthier diet and started doing Jillian Michaels workouts. I was at an unhealthy weight so it came off relatively easily. I can maintain this weight well, but since it's lose last few pounds it seems harder to get off. My body doesn't burn as many calories at 109 as it did at 139 so I'm having a harder time getting a solid deficit.
  • lina011
    lina011 Posts: 427 Member
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    id keep what your doing with foods, measuring and all but amp up your exercise routine lets say if you where doing 30 min make it 45 -1 hr or if your walking ,run or intervals, incorporate weights or some other form of fitness you have not done, keep that body guessing :)
  • JoJo61612
    JoJo61612 Posts: 21 Member
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    I try to underestimate my exercise as much as possible.
  • jess6742
    jess6742 Posts: 146
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    Thanks for the advice! I will bump up the exercise and underestimate it.

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