Confused about my calore goals and exercise goals and what t

DawniesLife · January 2011

Okay, here is my situation. I am 5 foot 3, I started all of this at 212 lbs last month. As of last Friday I weighed in at 195 lbs. When I filled out all of my information I was honest about my activity level, on a daily basis my "job" since I am unemployed at the moment is sedentary, besides daily living, being online, taking my dogs outside, cooking, basic things like that I don't burn any extra calories UNLESS I exercise that day and make it a point to do so. So MFP has me eating 1,200 calories a day. Which honestly, has not been very difficult to stay within for me. When I exercise I eat back some of my calories, but not all of them, I give room for error because I am not currently using a hrm so I am not sure exactly how many calories I am burning, I have a close estimate and usually subtract and log it on the low side. Besides that I have heard very conflicting opinions on the whole starvation mode and eating back of calories. - With that said please don't respond if you are just going to post the link that was written about eating back your calories and starvation mode, I have read that several times. The thing is, I used to be an athlete when I was younger and I did not consume a large amount of calories, and I sure exercised a ton, I never starved, gained or stunted my weight loss, so I have a hard time processing in my mind how true this starvation mode is to begin with.

I guess my confusion is I really have no idea what I should be eating calorie wise. I eat 1200 a day, a little more on days I exercise and feel that I am still hungry or want more. But on the days I work out, lets say I burn 700 calories. I am then supposed to eat 1900 calories that day? Then what was the point of exercising at all in terms of weight loss? It would have been the same if I just ate 1200 calories and watched tv or stayed online all day. Right?

In the past when I lost weight. I have lost weight before, yes, my highest weight was 250. I also have gotten back down to 160 before and gained it back in the past few years. In the past I ate low calorie diet and exercised my butt off. I never consumed excessive amounts of calories to make up for all of the ones I burned.

My food journal is public, I am open to others ideas and suggestions. I just want to know what my best option here is. If I am even making sense.

morganadk2_deleted · January 2011

maybe this will help!

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/10589-for-those-confused-or-questioning-eating-your-exercise-calo

Ladyloraella · January 2011

Well for me, excersise in terms of weight loss means I can eat more as in go for a meal, or have something 'bad' at the cinema or when I go out with friends I can have a few drinks but still lose weight (or maintain) thats how I see it anyway.

Plus I think people tend to look a lot leaner and have better skin and mental outlook when you've excersised along with dieting rather than just eating your set limit and doing nothing.

DawniesLife · January 2011

maybe this will help!

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/10589-for-those-confused-or-questioning-eating-your-exercise-calo

If you are going to respond at least actually read what I wrote.

"Besides that I have heard very conflicting opinions on the whole starvation mode and eating back of calories. - With that said please don't respond if you are just going to post the link that was written about eating back your calories and starvation mode, I have read that several times."

Thanks anyway.

erickirb · January 2011

There are 3 ways to create a caloric deficit, exercise alone ( eat maintenance cals and don't eat the extra from exercise) diet alone (MFP gives you this number before you enter your exercise for the day) or a combination.

Having your settings of 2lbs per week is the most MFP will sugest, if that is your goal you should eat your exercise cals or elseyour daily caloric deficit will be too large. (2 lbs/week is 1000 deficit) if you burn 700 cals your deficit is now 1700 cals so you should eat back the 700 to have the max deficit of 1000/day. If you are set to lose 0.5 lbs per week (250 cals/day and burn 700 cals in exercise you should eat at least 50 of those to keep you at 1000 (250+700-50) cal deficit.

Ifyour maintenance cals is 1900 and you burn 700 it is as if you ate 1200 cals. Your exercise becomes your deficit. Since MFP already factors in your goal deficit it suggests you eat those cals back to keep your deficit at your goal amount. (If you do otherwise, why did you pick that number as your goal??) MFP is just trying to adjust your intake to meet your weekly goal.

trixieflow · January 2011

i think you have it correct (from my understanding)
if you eat 1800cals and burn 600 = then you net your 1200
if you eat 1200cals and burn 600 = then you net 600 (and that's not enough!)

you have to feed your muscles. on all of the weight loss shows they talk about how important the diet is and how much they are having to eat. i have been struggling w/this theory for weeks until it was laid out for me as i stated above.

best of luck!

DawniesLife · January 2011

Well for me, excersise in terms of weight loss means I can eat more but still lose weight, thats how I see it for me anyway.

Plus I think people tend to look a lot leaner and have better skin and mental outlook when you've excersised along with dieting rather than just eating your set limit and doing nothing.

I agree with that, I enjoy exercise because it has anxiety and depression relieving effects as well as many other health benefits.

DawniesLife · January 2011

There are 3 ways to create a caloric deficit, exercise alone ( eat maintenance cals and don't eat the extra from exercise) diet alone (MFP gives you this number before you enter your exercise for the day) or a combination.

Having your settings of 2lbs per week is the most MFP will sugest, if that is your goal you should eat your exercise cals or elseyour daily caloric deficit will be too large. (2 lbs/week is 1000 deficit) if you burn 700 cals your deficit is now 1700 cals so you should eat back the 700 to have the max deficit of 1000/day. If you are set to lose 0.5 lbs per week (250 cals/day and burn 700 cals in exercise you should eat at least 50 of those to keep you at 1000 (250+700-50) cal deficit.

If your maintenance cals is 1900 and you burn 700 it is as if you ate 1200 cals. Your exercise becomes your deficit. Since MFP already factors in your goal deficit it suggests you eat those cals back to keep your deficit at your goal amount. (If you do otherwise, why did you pick that number as your goal??) MFP is just trying to adjust your intake to meet your weekly goal.

Okay, maybe this is what is confusing me. Because when I think about it in my head this is how it breaks down. If I net 1200 calories a day (either by no exercise and just eating the 1200 calories a day, or by exercising and lets say burning 400 calories a day so in turn eating the 1600 calories including eating my exercise calories that day) my BMR is 1,599 so this means just doing my normal things all day that is what I burn correct? Which at 1200 calories a day net calorie wise with my BMR only burning 1,599 wouldn't that only be a 399 calorie deficit for the day? Which would be 2793 calorie deficit for 7 days, which is not even a pound (Assuming the imperfect 3500 calories is one pound)?

So in my head if I follow the 1200 calories net a day and eat back my exercise calories it doesn't even seem possible to lose a pound a week. Unless I totally have some sort of this calculation completely wrong. Which is entirely possible. But I think this is what really bothers me because I don't understand this little bit and that makes this whole calculation thing not make any sense to me.

Maybe me explaining that will help describe what I am confused about a bit more.

erickirb · January 2011

BMR is not the same as maintenance, maintenance is BMR plus a daily burn figure of 350 to over 1000 depending on activity level. BMR is the caloric intake you would need to maintain weight in a coma. As soon as you move to get dressed and brush your teeth you burn more than BMR.

If you are sedentary and you BMR is 1600 your maintenance will be around 1950, so if you ate 1950 and burned 750 cals through exercise everyday you would lose 1.5 lbs per week. this is the same as putting your settings at 1200 and burning 750 somedays, and eating those cals on the day you burn them. Both ways will mathematically lead to a 1.5lb loss. but if you are in a 750 cal deficit at 1200 cals and burn another 750 your deficit is not 1500/day more than the 1000 MFP recommends as aggressive. Mathematically you should lose 2.5lbs per week but at this restricted caloric intake your metabolism may slow down holding on to every calorie it gets, not to mention the weight you do lose at a large deficit would largely be from muscle not fat, which would then lower your BMR

DawniesLife · January 2011

BMR is not the same as maintenance, maintenance is BMR plus a daily burn figure of 350 to over 1000 depending on activity level. BMR is the caloric intake you would need to maintain weight in a coma. As soon as you move to get dressed and brush your teeth you burn more than BMR.

If you are sedentary and you BMR is 1600 your maintenance will be around 1950, so if you ate 1950 and burned 750 cals through exercise everyday you would lose 1.5 lbs per week. this is the same as putting your settings at 1200 and burning 750 somedays, and eating those cals on the day you burn them. Both ways will mathematically lead to a 1.5lb loss. but if you are in a 700 cal deficit at 1200 cals and burn another 700 your deficit is not 1400/day more than the 1000 MFP recommends as aggressive.

Thanks for this. I think that explanation makes things quite a bit more clear for me when looking at this all in numbers and trying to make sense out of it. I actually understand what you are saying here and why it is like that. So, thank you.

Confused about my calore goals and exercise goals and what t

Replies

Categories