Calories?!

shortied89
shortied89 Posts: 7
in Health and Weight Loss
I need some help understanding this whole calorie thing. I have been "eating better" the last two weeks and continuing with my regular gym routine. By eating better i mean smarter snacking (fruits and veggies) a less chocolate and breads. I'm never hungry and don't feel unsatisfied by any means.

I have been logging my daily intake with MFP and am frustrated by the "you need to eat more" messages I'm getting at the end of the day. MFP has my calorie goal set to 1360. I am eating on average 1200 calories (with out minusing my exercise) I understand that MFP uses a "net" total of calories but i feel like if i ate back all my calories i would feel sick by trying to eat too much.

Any suggestions? Advice?

Replies

  • CindyMarcuzAdams
    CindyMarcuzAdams Posts: 4,007 Member
    I have read on the forums here to try to eat half back. Hope this helps...
  • AnthonyThrashD
    AnthonyThrashD Posts: 306 Member
    When I started, I wouldn't eat back exercise calories, for fear of not losing. I recommend two things, a digital scale to weigh your food, so you are more accurately logging your calories in. and a heart rate monitor (HRM) that monitors calories burned for your cardio...a lot of people on MFP use the Polar FT4. I use an ironman HRM, but I'm sure both work about the same.

    Something to be aware of, heart rate monitors tell you the gross calories burned, which is too high. I adjust the gross calories burned by multiplying my BMR calories per hour, by the fraction of the time I did cardio and subtracting from gross burn. For example, I do cardio for 45 minutes...
    my HRM tells me I burned 414 calories. I know my BMR calories per hour is 106 cals. My net cals burned would be
    334.5 net cal = 414 - ((45/60) * 106)

    EDIT: 334 cals is what I would log in exercise diary

    You see people on the forum saying "only eat half of burned cals back!", but you can eat more, just adjust down to net!

    I've been eating back calories for 3 weeks. My MFP goal is to lose 1.5 lbs per week. I've averaged losing1.5 lbs a week for 3 weeks, eating back calories!

    And yes, sometimes it is a lot of food. My MFP goal limit is 1810, some days I eat over 2500 calories! I actually have 600 cals left around 9PM, and don't know what to eat some nights! It's crazy.

    To find your BMR that MFP is using, take your pounds you want to lose per week, for me 1.5 lbs..convert it to calories
    5250 = 1.5 * 3500.
    Multiply your daily calories by 7 my daily goal is 1810....
    12670 = 7 *1810
    Add your pounds to lose calories
    17920 = 12670 + 5250
    Divide this by 7
    2560 = 1790/7

    2560 is the BMR calories MFP calculated for me. To get the BMR calories per hour, divide this by 24
    106 = 2560/7

    106 is my BMR cals per hour

    I hope this helps you.
  • AnthonyThrashD
    AnthonyThrashD Posts: 306 Member
    2560 is the BMR calories MFP calculated for me. To get the BMR calories per hour, divide this by 24
    106 = 2560/7

    That should be 2560 divided by 24
    106 = 2560/24
  • shortied89
    shortied89 Posts: 7
    Thank! That actually is very helpful! I'll try it!
    I'll let you know the results of my calculations when I have them.
  • sammycat1
    sammycat1 Posts: 56 Member
    Bump to digest later. Looks great!
  • AnthonyThrashD
    AnthonyThrashD Posts: 306 Member
    UPDATE
    I've had 2 check-ins since posting. One I dropped 1.3 lb and the most recent 0.2 lb. The 0.2 lb is misleading, I only check-in Monday mornings, and Sat. & Sun. before I drank lots of cans of diet soda. Tuesday morning, the scale showed a 1.4 lb drop.

    I forgot to mention my activity level is set to sedentary.
  • ereck44
    ereck44 Posts: 1,170 Member
    I see by your ticker that you have only 10 pounds to lose. Are you planning on eating 1200 calories for life?

    I also have 10-11 pounds to lose after having lost 48 pounds in 2 years. It is so tempting to try to decrease calories to 1200 to lose it faster but don' t think that I could maintain at those calories and will gain it back. I have lost and gained a lot of weight over the years, but this time, I am losing it for good.

    Since you have so little to lose, maybe you can try lifting weights 3 x per week and get some muscle tone. You might try eating at 1500 calories instead. You need to eat at least enough to maintain your Bmr.

Categories