can't believe the calories!

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  • Oishii
    Oishii Posts: 2,675 Member
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    Quick - you have the best possible setup for continued success, possibly. Very rarely does anyone do this. You know what your maintenance is before starting a diet.

    So many people see 1200 calories recommended (not realizing that is recommended as minimum for sedentary females), and then think that 1500 sounds oh so high of calories to eat, and surely they will gain weight ....

    Have you changed your exercise routine since eating at that level?
    Or was that pretty much non-exercise level, and you will start now?

    Because take that avg eating level, divided by the BMR that MFP is using for you (Apps - BMR Calc).

    That is your activity factor for whatever level of activity you did.

    If no exercise at all, you have what MFP calls maintenance, no exercise included.
    If that includes exercise you intend to keep doing, that is called TDEE, which includes exercise.

    If the former, select the Activity Level that is closest to that multiplier.
    1.25 - Sedentary
    1.35 - Lightly Active
    1.45 - Active
    1.55 - Very Active

    Select a weight loss goal that is reasonable, usually the 1 lb weekly unless you have more than 60 lbs to lose.

    Now you have a goal eating level correct for you, based on actual results. No need for months of testing to discover this after a 6-12 month plateau of no weight loss later.

    Now log your workouts and eat back those calories, minus 20%.

    If you do intend to keep the exercise routine you were already doing during that discovery, then take that avg eaten with no weight change as your TDEE.
    Again find the BMR and activity factor, because as weight drops you'll need that again.

    Manually set your goal to that TDEE - 20% deficit, and eat that daily. Do NOT log exercise since you already were doing it and it's included.

    First method MFP will adjust goals as weight drops.
    Second method you'll need to wait until 5 lbs dropped, look at new BMR, multiply out with your personal activity factor for new TDEE, and take 20% off again, and manually change goal.

    Excellent chance to set it all up based on your given results already. You might enter some more sample days to really try to nail an decent estimate.

    I think that I have worked it out but it doesn't seem right.
    is it TDEE (no exercise as I wasn't doing any) 2600 -20%. = 1820

    are you thinking that I would need to be eating the 1820 instead of the 1300calories? isn't that a lot for someone who isn't exercising like mad and is 41 and 164 cm tall wanting to go from 68 kg to 58 kg?

    I will totally go with what you think and give it a go, but I just wanted to know if this is what you are suggesting would right for me.

    cheers

    How do you come about with TDEE of 2600 cals? Try theses TDEE/BMR calculators >>

    http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/bmr/

    http://scoobysworkshop.com/accurate-calorie-calculator/

    If you have real life statistics, they trump any calculators, and the OP says she was maintaining on around 2600kcal a day, so that figure should be used as her TDEE, and calculations worked out using that, not calculators.
  • laele75
    laele75 Posts: 283 Member
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    Calories wasn't so bad, but my sodium level...*shudders* Small wonder I had high blood pressure even on medication.
  • toofatnomore
    toofatnomore Posts: 206 Member
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    When you eat out 5 times a week and have a home made milk shake after dinner every day its not hard to gain weight. I have no clue what I was eating caloric wise, but it had to be really high.

    Isn't THAT the truth!!!! No holds barred restaurant dining is madness...Just pop into the Cheesecake Factory, where they are bold enough to list the calories on everything, and not flinch. Easy to inhale 2500 in a meal.
  • teamAmelia
    teamAmelia Posts: 1,247 Member
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    For me, I don't think that it was the calories. It was the fat and the types of foods that I was eating. I was eating fast food for every meal. McDonald's mainly. I just SMH when I think back at what I was doing to my body.
  • sunsetzen
    sunsetzen Posts: 268 Member
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    I'm using MFP because I needed to see how much I was eating. Net, I was getting about 500-1000 calories a day. Even with a snack.
  • lyoill
    lyoill Posts: 59
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    I'm using MFP because I needed to see how much I was eating. Net, I was getting about 500-1000 calories a day. Even with a snack.
    just curious how did you eat so little? and how many calories are you eating now?
  • rachaelgifford
    rachaelgifford Posts: 320 Member
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    My first week on MFP I logged everything, but didn't diet. It was scary.
  • sunsetzen
    sunsetzen Posts: 268 Member
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    How I ate so little: I have anxiety related to food because of things that were drilled into my head as a kid, mainly "eat less, exercise more". So I ate less and exercised more... And everytime I gained weight! I ate less ad less. I got used to eating very little so I was never hungry.

    I try to eat 1500 net (mfp recommended for my weight loss goal) although I still struggle to make it above 1200 and have to eat more, or exercise less, daily. I'm still learning how much is actually normal to eat.
  • JustSammi
    JustSammi Posts: 79
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    I wish I had at the beginning. I know that the main reason I put weight on at Uni was from drinking too much and ordering takeaways regularly but I'd like to know for certain how many calories I was eating on average.

    Right now I'm eating 2000 calories (on a break eating at maintenance) and I'm so full all of the time but I can eat a larger quantity of food if it's healthier.
  • CollieFit
    CollieFit Posts: 1,683 Member
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    It's a real learning curve isn't it.

    I was really surprised at the numbers in certain calorific foods like pasta, rice or muesli.

    Then I started to weigh portions and thought "wot that's it???" :huh: and realised that my idea of a portion was about 4x that much. :blushing:
  • jasonalvear
    jasonalvear Posts: 72 Member
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    I entered my food intake before I got a bit more knowledge on the subject on health and fitness and found I was under-eating based on my training and activity level. Thank goodness for the internet and sites like MFP to really help me make those adjustments before I damaged my metabolism :D
  • sarahthin
    sarahthin Posts: 221 Member
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    I was surprised when I started actually measuring and weighing everything. My guesstimations were way off. Always on the more food less calorie side.
  • lady6starlight
    lady6starlight Posts: 127 Member
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    Oh my gosh. I never knew how many calories were in certain items. I had no idea a muffin could be so much!

    What also blows my mind is how much I used to eat with virtually no concern! My boyfriend and I used to eat 4 slices of pizza each. Say, 280 calories a slice: 1,120. And that was just one meal!
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    Thank you so much Haybales!

    I was wondering how I could use that info and it did make me question whether my 1300 calories was infact correct. I wasn't exercising and I'm still not but I'm planning in starting in a few weeks and build up.

    Im a bit lost though in working out how many calories I should look at eating and was wondering if you could help.

    MFP has my BMR at 1,346
    and if my rough daily intake before was say 2600.

    I divided them and got 1.93 which didn't fit onto the activity chart.

    So always keep in mind, and we'll round down for ease of use.

    You could eat 2500 calories at current weight and maintain with current level of activity and exercise (which is none).

    You merely need to eat less than that to lose weight, that's it. You wouldn't even need to exercise, as you must be pretty active with that multiplier to BMR being 1.93.

    Now, as weight lowers, your BMR goes down, if able to maintain muscle mass, actually hopefully not much, but we'll use MFP's BMR which assumes average ratio of fat to non-fat mass. And as you log weight loss, the BMR will be lowered, and at 10 lbs MFP will ask if you want to lower eating goal - you do.

    So in MFP Diet/Fitness profile, set Activity level to Very Active, as high as it will go. You may not feel like it, but look at what you could maintain on again.

    Set weight loss goal to 1 lb weekly and MFP will take 500 calories daily off your non-exercise TDEE, what they call maintenance, which they'll calculate to 2086.

    Daily eating goal will be 1586. Don't worry about the fitness goals, rarely does anyone even notice or use those on the Fitness diary. They have no bearing on the math for eating anyway.

    I'd suggest hold at those settings, don't worry about the exercise yet, for a good 3 - 4 weeks.

    Because MFP's maintenance actually is not high enough, you are getting extra deficit there of 500 calories, then the 500 more they take out for weight loss goal.

    Reach your goal daily. Go over on protein actually, at the expense of carbs, meet your fat goals.
    You should see on avg about 2 lbs weekly.

    If you exercise outside your normal routine, log it, and eat it back. The trustworthy database entries are strength training, and walking and running flat at the pace stated. More accurate than HRM if you really did the pace level.

    Others will vary depending on how intense you make them. I've found swimming very correct, I go slow but my form is so bad I log vigorous, which matches a correctly setup HRM with complete stats.
    Outside biking at lower speeds is pretty good as long as any hills or wind was matched on coming and going.

    Exercise with no description of intensity or a pace is a crap shoot, if you don't do much of them, don't worry about it. 3 hrs a week out of 168 (1.8% of time) or 1500 calories a week out of 19700 (7.6% of calories) isn't worth the worry.

    Weigh all foods except liquids for a good 2 weeks to see how far off guesses of serving size may be.
    Weigh-in on valid day, morning after rest day eating normal sodium levels, not sore from previous strength training.
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