I have a physical job and am not able to eat my calories.

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mjbowman821
mjbowman821 Posts: 66 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I have a physical job, I move heavy boxes and do a LOT of walking while pushing big metal carts (15-21 miles a day as tracked by my phone) I have been trying to have a BIG breakfast with a protein shake and will bring a yogurt and fruit with me to snack on at break. I get home and have 1000 calories for lunch but I burn anywhere from 1100-1700 calories a day at work. I have my profile set at the highest setting I get 2630 a day. And for example right now I have eaten 2200 burned -1616 and have a net of 584 with 2046 to eat. Suggestions?

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  • psych101
    psych101 Posts: 1,842 Member
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    Do you feel like you're eating enough? How are you measuring your burn at work?

    You can always pack some nuts to take with you to work? Some cheese? A peanut butter sandwich?
  • taeliesyn
    taeliesyn Posts: 1,116 Member
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    If you have your activity level set at the highest, then you shouldn't be counting the 'burn' from your work. This is included in your activity level.
  • mjbowman821
    mjbowman821 Posts: 66 Member
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    I am going by my bodymedia link that is telling me how much I am burning. RIGHT NOW it is reading that I have burned 4172 calories on the day and it has adjusted my calories that I need to eat by 1616 more. What is it that everyone is preaching that I have to eat back my calories? Someone PLEASE clue me in.
  • vismal
    vismal Posts: 2,463 Member
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    If your body media device is telling you you've burned around 4200 calories a day then that is your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE). Providing you trust the device, in order to lose weight you must eat less then 4200 calories a day. If you ate around 3200 calories a day, that would set you up for about 2 lbs a week weight loss. I'm assuming you burn less on your days off so if you still wanted to lose the 2 lbs a week, eating maybe 3000 or 2800 might be in order. It simply depends on how much you burn on your off days compared to work days.
  • Loralrose
    Loralrose Posts: 203
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    I have a physical job, I move heavy boxes and do a LOT of walking while pushing big metal carts (15-21 miles a day as tracked by my phone) I have been trying to have a BIG breakfast with a protein shake and will bring a yogurt and fruit with me to snack on at break. I get home and have 1000 calories for lunch but I burn anywhere from 1100-1700 calories a day at work. I have my profile set at the highest setting I get 2630 a day. And for example right now I have eaten 2200 burned -1616 and have a net of 584 with 2046 to eat. Suggestions?

    You might want to double check the results from your phone... those numbers seem a bit high. 21 miles a day is walking at a good clip for 6-7 hours solid. It seems unlikely you'd walk that much unless you work very long shifts or don't stop walking for more than a few minutes per hour.

    How's your progress been? Are you losing weight at a reasonable rate (less than 2 lbs/week)? If you're not losing too fast then you're eating enough. If you are losing too fast then disregard the above, you need the extra calories.
  • Rayman79
    Rayman79 Posts: 2,009 Member
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    As Loralrose said, the best way to tell if you are progressing on track is to look at yourself.

    Rather than trusting an online calculator, take regular measurements such as weight, site measurements (stomach, chest, thigh) and take some pictures.

    If you are losing less than a pound a week then reduce your calories a little, if you are losing more than 1.5 - 2 lbs per week then up your intake a bit. Ultimately if you are between these ranges and you're not feeling hungry then you are progressing well!
  • psych101
    psych101 Posts: 1,842 Member
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    If your body media device is telling you you've burned around 4200 calories a day then that is your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE). Providing you trust the device, in order to lose weight you must eat less then 4200 calories a day. If you ate around 3200 calories a day, that would set you up for about 2 lbs a week weight loss. I'm assuming you burn less on your days off so if you still wanted to lose the 2 lbs a week, eating maybe 3000 or 2800 might be in order. It simply depends on how much you burn on your off days compared to work days.


    ^^ this. Your body media device is telling you your TDEE - you should eat less than that to lose weight. Maybe take a running average of your days, minus about 20% of that and eat those calories day in day out for a month. Weigh in and reassess as necessary taking into account any weight loss that occurred, how you felt during that time and adjust your calories as necessary.
  • SolitudesMuse
    SolitudesMuse Posts: 67 Member
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    I use a Body Media device. You need to make sure MFP has your correct activity level because of the way the two apps integrate with each other to make sure that your exercise calories are accurate. So if your job is as physically demanding as you say it is, make sure that you're activity level is the highest MFP allows.

    For example:

    If you set MFP to Lightly Active and it estimates the calories you burned per day at let's say 2500, if Body Media says you're burning 3500 in a day... then Body Media will tell MFP that you have 1000 exercise calories.

    But that's not really true, since you're body is used to doing you're job, so that's not considered exercise.

    However...

    If you set MFP to Very Active... And it estimates your calories burned per day to be 3000, and Body Media says you burned 3500 in a day... Then it'll only tell MFP you have 500 exercise calories for the day which seems more reasonable.

    I hope that makes sense and helps
  • mjbowman821
    mjbowman821 Posts: 66 Member
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    As far as the walking I have 2 different counters (bodymedia and my S5) I usually record 30000 steps working for almost 3 1/2 hours by myself retrieving shopping carts after stocking for 4 1/2. The 21 miles was a personal best not including the 2.3 miles I did on the elliptical as warm up before working out.
  • Loralrose
    Loralrose Posts: 203
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    As far as the walking I have 2 different counters (bodymedia and my S5) I usually record 30000 steps working for almost 3 1/2 hours by myself retrieving shopping carts after stocking for 4 1/2. The 21 miles was a personal best not including the 2.3 miles I did on the elliptical as warm up before working out.

    Gotcha. I was mainly wondering because I've had pedometers give crazy numbers of steps for my shifts at work, when I haven't walked much at all - I mostly load paint cans into boxes, so lots of bending/shifting but little walking. Sometimes they'll pick up other motions as walking.

    Still, if you don't feel hungry and you're not losing too fast don't worry about it. Your body can adapt to do certain activities more efficiently. No need to stress unless you notice a problem :)

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