76 Days.....Why Isn't This Working?

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  • tbrown1974
    tbrown1974 Posts: 30 Member
    What do your burns look like, according to Nike? The general rule of thumb is to eat back 50-75% or so of your calories burned, so you can refuel (and meet your cal goal) without eating more than you actually burned (when your burn number is inexact).

    Exactly! If my burn number is incorrect and that's what I input and I'm eating 50 to 75 percent back that's where it all goes downhill. When I do then I am overeating or in any case eating at maintenance or above my deficit. Because I'm not gaining any weight now I'm simply maintaining. The scale just won't move. Day in, day out same number.
    As far as a typical burn..lets use my numbers from yesterday: a 44 minute trail walk/run (2.89 miles) yielded a 298 cal burn, the day before a 50 min (3.22 miles) measured 332 calories burned. Now mind you this will vary significantly if I do a little more running or a little less, give or take. But I am going up hills throughout this work out. I'm not sure if Nike Plus takes that into consideration as there is no specific setting for hills and such.

    Those burn numbers don't seem too unreasonable for the exercise so the culprit is likely your weighing. The HRM will still give you a better estimate of your burn. I have a Polar H7 and love it. The scale and HRM have really helped. I think you will see a difference with your logging and weight loss with both, especially the scale.
  • dollforlife
    dollforlife Posts: 41 Member
    1000 calories is less than my six year old is supposed to eat. dont try eating like that please.

    that is all.

    :-)
  • dollforlife
    dollforlife Posts: 41 Member
    Hey all! I was wondering if you might have some quick advice for me? I've been on MFP for about two and a half months. I haven't lost anything. I'm trying to lose twenty pounds or so. I'm 5'1 and my starting weight on here was 135.9 pounds.
    (snip)
    Over the past 2 weeks I've tried to come in at at least 1200 by "eating back" some of my exercise calories. What am I doing wrong? Is it possible that I need to go below the 1200 calorie mark...meaning should I be netting less than 1000 calories a day? Any advice or information would be helpful. I would especially love to hear from some other small frame shorties trying to lose 20 pounds or so. I have an open diary for viewing to give anyone some insight as to my journey so far. Thanks.
    DoIt;
    As is often the case on this (and other) Forums, you've received a bunch of really good suggestions, some a little off topic but relevant none the less (Congrats on beating back C!!!), and some (sorry, no "nice" way to say it), just pure BS.

    Tracking calories, every single day and every single morsel really is a MUST (daily weight log as well), if you are going to get "real" numbers (not "guesses").

    An accurate bathroom scale ($30 or so), accurate kitchen scale ($15 - 20), measuring cups and spoons, and a good "tracking" app are really ALL you need.

    Some are fans of the various incarnations of "techy" exercise counters - I'm not, at least at first.
    You can "pin down" your Cals In number close enough by accurately tracking cals and weight and "estimating" cals out by adjusting the "factor" by which BMR is increased depending on which level of "normal" daily activity you choose.
    Later on (after you've determined daily target "goal" of cals in, if you want to play around with cals in, have it, but in the beginning it's really not worth the effort (IMO).

    No way of knowing (as others have said) buy my guess is that your 1200/day cals in "guess" is probably low.
    Set up one of the trackers (MFP is as good as any but there are many available free) and just "play" with it for a couple days. Learn how it works and plug in some "typical" days food (don't worry about the exercise numbers for now) and get an idea of how many cals in you have "actually" been consuming.

    Once you have that number (let's say it's 1450), reduce it by 150 or 200 and use that as your "goal".
    Track every cal for two weeks or so, weigh and measure, and log your weight daily - but DO NOT worry about day to day weight changes (either UP or DOWN) - they will happen, it's totally "normal", and meaningless until you have at least a couple weeks data.
    Focus on the weight TREND over time.
    If, after a couple weeks, there's still no change, drop another couple hundred cals/day and WAIT for it to take effect (2-3 weeks again). Sooner or later you'll find the "sweet spot".
    Recognize though that it's all a "moving target" - as you lose the numbers will change, both loss/wk and cals required (both will go down), so at least once a month reevaluate and adjust as needed.

    As to the "total BS" parts of the thread (1200 cals and starvation mode), you might want to read this rather than taking my (or anyone else's) word for it. Inside the googlemachine there are countless other "cites" debunking the "myths" that seem so pervasive in some venues.
    http://tinyurl.com/k9hrfyh

    There's a lot of good, solid information here. I will try to implement some of the strategies advised.

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