Body Composition today

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bethvandenberg
bethvandenberg Posts: 1,496 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Ok so went and had my body composition done this morning. Not as bad as I thought it would be and he dropped my goal weight by 3 lbs so I can live with that. :)

32.9% body fat (that means that I have 133lbs of lean muscles mass, and 67 lbs of fat. Said I was low on hydration (which really I'd been up about 20 mins so how much water can you drink in that time.) And my BMR is 1802. So that's much higher than MFP had calculated. I've put on 4lbs since starting P90X and am thinking that I wasn't eating enough.

So here's the ? I'm thinking I should aim for around 1800 cals a day and not eat back exercise calories. That should be about a minus 3000 cals per week. That's almost a pound. I would really like to be at 2 lbs a week but ....

What do y'all think I should set my calories at?

Replies

  • wendywc
    wendywc Posts: 3 Member
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    I don't know, if you have lost 25lbs, hurray for you! You are the expert in my eyes. lol How did you gain the 4lbs? Was that muscle or from eating. I agree that you shouldn't eat back the calories you burn from exercising. For me some days are better than others, and it is so tempting to eat after being told I earned it!! lol
  • rnroadrunner
    rnroadrunner Posts: 402 Member
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    your BMR is the amt of cals to maintain your current weight. 3500cals to a lb to lose a lb mfp subtracts 500 cals from your bmr that would be 1302 cals a day. if you want to lose 2lbs a week thenthat would be 802 not good. however if you exercise 500cals a day worth and only eat back 250cals to keep above 1200 net roughly you will average 1.5 lbs and it will be healthier.
  • bethvandenberg
    bethvandenberg Posts: 1,496 Member
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    I think the 4 lbs came from not eating enough and my body freaking out. I was only eating about 1200-1400 cals a day. That's with a burn on adv. of 800 cals a day. I think my body thought I wasn't eating enough and held onto stuff.

    I'm hoping by uping my cals that it will come back off. Have to change my target weight to 177 lol.
  • ladyhawk00
    ladyhawk00 Posts: 2,457 Member
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    I'm no expert at working the numbers, but BMR is only what it takes for you to exist (breathing, blinking, wiggling toes) and doesn't take into account your activity level and exercise. If you plan to be bedridden, 1800 might work. But I doubt that's the case. If MFP was estimating your BMR too low, you might try adjusting your activity level higher, setting loss goal at 2 lb/week. But don't get too set on 2 lb/week. For women that's often a hard level to lose at.

    Personally, I'm a firm believer in eating at least some exercise cals. Sounds like you just need to tweak things and see how it goes. But make sure to give whatever you try a while to work.

    Good luck!
  • rnroadrunner
    rnroadrunner Posts: 402 Member
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    looking at your profile I see that you are basiclly on the down hillside of your weight loss. It is better to lose only a lb awk since you need to go slower and learn how to begin a maintenance lifestyle. did you just start the p90x? your muscles will hold water while they are repairing. I think bf% is a much better way to measure results and your clothes.:wink:
  • rnroadrunner
    rnroadrunner Posts: 402 Member
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    one last thought , if you lose to rapidly you will sacrifice muscle. then even though you lost weight you change your bf% for the worst. good luck you sound determined and will do awesome!!! cheers to your previous weight loss:drinker:
  • mmtiernan
    mmtiernan Posts: 702 Member
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    In the P90X Nutrition Guide it gives a formula for figuring out how many calories you should eat while doing the program. It is based on the Harris-Benedict equation. Once you calculate how much you need to eat, you can manually set that in MFP as your goal. Note that if you calculate it this way, it already takes your exercise into account so you would not be eating back your exercise calories in this instance.

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