Adjusting MFP goals after 11 months - help

EszterNZ
EszterNZ Posts: 51
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi guys

When I first started MFP i set myself as Sedentary as i did no exercise, and set my loss to 600-800 grams per week (i think thats about 1lb). It gave me a daily calorie limit of 1390.
Any light exercise i did on top of that, I added in separate.
In 10 months i've lost 22kg/48lbs .. my question is.. do I leave the calorie limit the same?

I now exercise 6 out of 7 days a week, burning on average at least 350 calories, usually more like 450-500. I still add these in separate though and my profile is still set to sedentary.

My question is - do I need to change this? Do I now need to make my lifestyle the slightly more active one? If I do - does this mean I no longer log my exercise calories because choosing the higher activity lifestyle covers this?
Or is it that now with higher activity lifestyle say my cals go from 1390 to 1590 ...and I still log exercise on top of that, I can eat back those calories too?

Does a more active body actually need more calories as their base line?
My BMR according to MFP has been steadily going down as I lose weight, which means If i want to maintain the same rate of weight loss, its lowering my calorie requirements even further.

Adding 6 x 50minute workouts under my goals also makes no difference to the final calculation vs 0 x 0 minute workouts.

I am so confused by how this all works. The reason I ask is because my weight loss progress has slowed down SO SO much. I probably lose around 1lb every 2 weeks..sometimes more. Is it possible that I am not eating enough based on my activity levels?
After I eat back some or most of my exercise calories, I'd say I'd never eat more than 1900 calories max.

Any help would be appreciated :)

Thanks guys

Replies

  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,942 Member
    You are fairly close to goal? It seems to me your weight loss is just as it should be.

    Weight loss slows often down when you get closer to your goal. Weight loss is not linear.

    Make sure you are eating enough to fuel those workouts.

    I work at an office job and initially was set to sedentary but I was losing weight too quickly. I exercise six hours a week, including weight lifting.l I have been set at active for ages now and I eat my exercise calories back.
  • kdeaux1959
    kdeaux1959 Posts: 2,675 Member
    As you lose weight, your body requires less energy (calories) to keep it alive, therefore, you burn fewer calories. Try changing up your exercise routine... incorporate lifting or change your lifting routine to enhance lean body mass... That being said, this may make the scale go up a bit for a while until your body adjusts, but stay the course. If you do the same thing for long enough, the body tends to accommodate it and you see less change... I keep my activity level as sedentary and log my exercise in atop that... Seems to work for me.
  • EszterNZ
    EszterNZ Posts: 51
    Thanks!
    In theory it seems silly that my "net" calories are still the same now when I am so active, vs when I did nothing.
    the MFP deficit alone should be enough to lose weight, even without exercise, so one would think if you kept to that mfp goal with the deficit built in, and exercised, and didn't eat all of it back I'd lose weight, or maybe its just not enough food.
    Is 1200 net too low? SO confusing! haha

    I have about another 10kg to go..2/3 of the way there!
  • EszterNZ
    EszterNZ Posts: 51
    bump
  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,942 Member
    Thanks!
    In theory it seems silly that my "net" calories are still the same now when I am so active, vs when I did nothing.
    the MFP deficit alone should be enough to lose weight, even without exercise, so one would think if you kept to that mfp goal with the deficit built in, and exercised, and didn't eat all of it back I'd lose weight, or maybe its just not enough food.
    Is 1200 net too low? SO confusing! haha

    I have about another 10kg to go..2/3 of the way there!

    With your workouts, 1200 is too low. With only 22 pounds left to lose, you need to set your goals to lose 1 to a half pound per week. Depending on your height, that would be around 1500, give or take. Also, you need to eat a portion of your exercise calories back.

    Do you weigh your food? Do you log everything that goes into your mouth? Where do you get your exercise calories counts from?

    Most of the time if we're not losing weight at the rate we set up in our goals we are eating too much by overestimating calorie burns and underestimating calorie intake.
  • EszterNZ
    EszterNZ Posts: 51
    yup I weigh food and yup I log everything religiously.
    I have a polar FT7 heart rate monitor to track my calories burned during exercising.

    Will try to aim for 1500 net ... i'm possibly just being paranoid / inpatient, but thought it might be time to re-evaluate food goals considering how much things have changed since the start !

    Just had a look through a couple of weeks worth of diary and my net food intake (after exercise), is usually somewhere between 1000-1300.
  • editorgrrl
    editorgrrl Posts: 7,060 Member
    Will try to aim for 1500 net ... i'm possibly just being paranoid / inpatient, but thought it might be time to re-evaluate food goals considering how much things have changed since the start !
    Your focus should be on finding the maximum number of calories at which you lose weight, not the minimum.

    The closer you are to goal, the more slowly you lose. Set your goal to the lowest (in pounds, it's .5 lb. per week). The smaller deficit will also help you transition to maintenance.

    Read this: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    Keep in mind that as you've lost weight, your body's calorie requirements have become less...therefore your maintenance number is less than it would have been a year ago...therefore your deficit, even though you haven't changed anything is smaller (you've narrowed the gap with losing weight)...which is one of the reasons it goes slower as you lean out, particularly the last 10- 20 Lbs or so.

    Basically this means you no longer have the fat stores to just drop weight off at the clip you were before. In my experience, it often comes quite abruptly.
  • EszterNZ
    EszterNZ Posts: 51
    my initial maintenance calories was around 2100 and it's gone down to about 1900.
    Thanks guys for advice. I might experiment with various things for the next few weeks... see how it goes.
    :)
  • montoyarenee
    montoyarenee Posts: 15 Member
    To answer your question about lifestyle, think of it this way. The lifestyle pertains to how active you are not including added exercise. It's easier to think of it in terms of your job. Does your job require a lot of activity? A teacher may be considered "lightly active" and a kickboxing instructor would be "very active". These are daily calories burned that we don't necessarily count (unless you constantly wear a heart monitor). Any extra burned calories should be added separately.

    So if you have a desk job but exercise 5 x week, you would still be sedentary and add the exercise in manually. You can always eat back those exercise calories if you need, but on the days that you don't exercise and only sit at the desk you would need to reduce intake.

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