Lost..

llfretwell
llfretwell Posts: 218 Member
edited January 31 in Fitness and Exercise
I want a personal trainer SO BAD!! Honestly, I just want someone to give me a personalized plan for my body with the exercise I'm doing. I am so confused as to how many calories I should be eating and what kinds of foods I need. I recently increased my calories because I was told I was eating too little, but I feel like I will NEVER lose weight by eating more calories! :(

Replies

  • AJ_G
    AJ_G Posts: 4,158 Member
    How much do you weigh?

    What is your estimated body fat percentage?

    What are your goals?
  • llfretwell
    llfretwell Posts: 218 Member
    I'm 5'7, weigh 139. I don't know about my body fat percentage. I'm on my 3rd week of Insanity and just bumped my calories to 1700-1800 yesterday , and not adding back my exercise calories. I am so confused at what I should be doing. :( Help..
  • llfretwell
    llfretwell Posts: 218 Member
    Oh, and goals... I would like to lose 8-10 lbs and tone up...
  • AJ_G
    AJ_G Posts: 4,158 Member
    Do you have any clue, or at least a guess of what your body fat percentage is?
  • AllanMisner
    AllanMisner Posts: 4,140 Member
    It is hard to see from your diary what you really eat in a day (quick add calories). The first step I would take would be to record what you're actually eating for about a week (weigh and measure everything). If you stay fairly active (Doing the Insanity videos would do that) and stick to 1800 calories (getting proper macros), you should start dropping weight.
  • Ang108
    Ang108 Posts: 1,706 Member
    For someone your height, depending on your bone structure the statistical normal weight is anywhere from 123 ( for someone with a very light frame ) to 167 pounds ( someone with a heavy frame ). This means that you are perfectly in the middle. With only a few pounds short of what you consider to be a " perfect weight ", it takes patience to lose those last few pounds, if that is what you want for personal reasons. Maybe starting to lift weights will do the trick for you so you will have a shapelier body.
  • llfretwell
    llfretwell Posts: 218 Member
    If I enter my info into an online body fat percentage calculator, it says I'm about 25% body fat. Not sure how accurate that is though..
  • AJ_G
    AJ_G Posts: 4,158 Member
    If I enter my info into an online body fat percentage calculator, it says I'm about 25% body fat. Not sure how accurate that is though..

    That's good enough for a starting point. So based on your body weight and bf%, your BMR is 1390 calories a day. All that you have to do now to find your TDEE is multiply your BMR by one of the activity factors. Just choose one that describes you closest:

    1.2 = Sedentary (Desk job, & Little Formal Exercise)
    1.3-1.4 = Lightly Active (Light daily activity & light exercise 1-3 days a week)
    1.5-1.6 = Moderately Active (Moderately daily Activity & Moderate exercise 3-5 days a week)
    1.7-1.8 = Very Active (Physically demanding lifestyle & Hard exercise 6-7 days a week)
    1.9-2.2 = Extremely Active (Athlete in ENDURANCE training or VERY HARD physical job)
  • llfretwell
    llfretwell Posts: 218 Member
    Well...Im a stay at home mom so I don't do too much THROUGHOUT the day, but I do go for a 1 1/2- 3 or 4 mile walk every day, along with Insanity now. Which category do you think I would fall under? I'd say I burn around 400-600 a day usually with the exercise..
  • llfretwell
    llfretwell Posts: 218 Member
    Probably more like between 500- 700 actually. Sorry..
  • AJ_G
    AJ_G Posts: 4,158 Member
    Well...Im a stay at home mom so I don't do too much THROUGHOUT the day, but I do go for a 1 1/2- 3 or 4 mile walk every day, along with Insanity now. Which category do you think I would fall under? I'd say I burn around 400-600 a day usually with the exercise..

    I usually like to be conservative in estimating, so for you, you're probably around 1.4 or 1.5, so to be conservative, we'll go with 1.4. Using that multiplier, your TDEE is 1950 calories a day. This is the caloric intake you would need to eat at to maintain your weight. Since your goal is weight loss, you should subtract 20% from this number leaving you with a caloric intake of 1560 calories a day. VERY IMPORTANT: Exercise is factored into this number, so don't log your exercise in MFP or it will throw everything off. If you're absolutely adamant about logging exercise to keep track of it, make sure that under the calories burned section, you set it to 1 calorie burned so it doesn't throw off your numbers.

    I'd recommend 110g of protein per day, and 56g of fat per day. With a calorie intake of 1560 calories a day, that leaves 154g of carbs. If you'd like me to explain where I got these numbers I can.
  • llfretwell
    llfretwell Posts: 218 Member
    That is about what I thought I should be eating, but the Insanity program gives me different numbers. It says I should be eating AT LEAST 1700. MFP and Beach body have 2 different numbers.. :( What do you think?
  • AJ_G
    AJ_G Posts: 4,158 Member
    I'd go with the numbers that I gave you, as they are calculated with the Katch McArdle formula which is the best available method of determining an estimated TDEE number. I'd eat 1560 calories a day, and track your weight over the course of at least 3 weeks and see how you progress. If you lose more than a 1.5 pounds a week, I'd suggest increasing calories a little. If you don't lose any weight over that 3 weeks, then you should increase exercise, or slightly decrease calories.
  • lorigem
    lorigem Posts: 446 Member
    Well...Im a stay at home mom so I don't do too much THROUGHOUT the day, but I do go for a 1 1/2- 3 or 4 mile walk every day, along with Insanity now. Which category do you think I would fall under? I'd say I burn around 400-600 a day usually with the exercise..

    I usually like to be conservative in estimating, so for you, you're probably around 1.4 or 1.5, so to be conservative, we'll go with 1.4. Using that multiplier, your TDEE is 1950 calories a day. This is the caloric intake you would need to eat at to maintain your weight. Since your goal is weight loss, you should subtract 20% from this number leaving you with a caloric intake of 1560 calories a day. VERY IMPORTANT: Exercise is factored into this number, so don't log your exercise in MFP or it will throw everything off. If you're absolutely adamant about logging exercise to keep track of it, make sure that under the calories burned section, you set it to 1 calorie burned so it doesn't throw off your numbers.

    I'd recommend 110g of protein per day, and 56g of fat per day. With a calorie intake of 1560 calories a day, that leaves 154g of carbs. If you'd like me to explain where I got these numbers I can.

    Hmm...I don't think that a deficit of 20% would be quite right for her being at 139 pounds. Since she's close to her goal weight (if she only wants to lose 8 to 10 pounds), I'd put her under a 10% deficit at most which would give her a calorie goal of 1750. But that's just me...
  • AJ_G
    AJ_G Posts: 4,158 Member
    Well...Im a stay at home mom so I don't do too much THROUGHOUT the day, but I do go for a 1 1/2- 3 or 4 mile walk every day, along with Insanity now. Which category do you think I would fall under? I'd say I burn around 400-600 a day usually with the exercise..

    I usually like to be conservative in estimating, so for you, you're probably around 1.4 or 1.5, so to be conservative, we'll go with 1.4. Using that multiplier, your TDEE is 1950 calories a day. This is the caloric intake you would need to eat at to maintain your weight. Since your goal is weight loss, you should subtract 20% from this number leaving you with a caloric intake of 1560 calories a day. VERY IMPORTANT: Exercise is factored into this number, so don't log your exercise in MFP or it will throw everything off. If you're absolutely adamant about logging exercise to keep track of it, make sure that under the calories burned section, you set it to 1 calorie burned so it doesn't throw off your numbers.

    I'd recommend 110g of protein per day, and 56g of fat per day. With a calorie intake of 1560 calories a day, that leaves 154g of carbs. If you'd like me to explain where I got these numbers I can.

    Hmm...I don't think that a deficit of 20% would be quite right for her being at 139 pounds. Since she's close to her goal weight (if she only wants to lose 8 to 10 pounds), I'd put her under a 10% deficit at most which would give her a calorie goal of 1750. But that's just me...

    I suggested she start at 20% as the TDEE is just an estimate, and if over the course of a few weeks, she's losing faster than 1.5 pounds per week that she should then increase calories.
  • llfretwell
    llfretwell Posts: 218 Member
    Thanks so much for the advice, ya'll!
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