What am I doing wrong

gkh2855
gkh2855 Posts: 8 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
HI Everyone,
This is my first time posting. I have been tracking for sometime. I lost like 20 lbs last year on MFP. In March I broke my shoulder and had surgery. While I was recovering, I gained the 20 lbs back. I had basically 2 months of doing nothing.


Since then, I have been working out 4-5 days a week. I take classes at the gym. There are a few aerobic type classes, one pilaties type class. They all incorperate cardio and weight training. I also meet with a personal trainer once a week. I have been meeting with her for a month.

I have not lost anything!!!! I dont see a difference in my clothes. I don t know what to do. I was originally giving myself 1350 cals. I have bumped it up to 1650. I am counting back what I burn.

I should say that I am a 37 year old female and I am 5 foot tall. I weigh about 160....

Any help you guys can give would be great!!! I dont care about the number per say. I want to get healthy, and I want to go down in clothes sizes....

thank you!

Replies

  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
    What do you mean by
    I am counting back what I burn.

    Does that mean that you are eating the calories you burn in exercise in addition to the 1650 calories?

    When I put your info into IIFYM.com's calculator, your TDEE (based on 4x/wk for exercise) is 1892. If you are eating 1650 calories plus whatever you calculate as your exercise calories, you are likely not eating at a deficit.
  • gkh2855
    gkh2855 Posts: 8 Member
    What do you mean by
    I am counting back what I burn.

    Does that mean that you are eating the calories you burn in exercise in addition to the 1650 calories?

    When I put your info into IIFYM.com's calculator, your TDEE (based on 4x/wk for exercise) is 1892. If you are eating 1650 calories plus whatever you calculate as your exercise calories, you are likely not eating at a deficit.
  • steadk
    steadk Posts: 334 Member
    dont eat back what you burn. and eat protein for breakfast.
  • gkh2855
    gkh2855 Posts: 8 Member
    I am sorry. I do not know what IIFMY.com is... I am eating back the calories when I put the exercise in the MFP app. I thought this was what we were suppost to do? To track everything. I am sorry. This is why I asked :)
  • higgins8283801
    higgins8283801 Posts: 844 Member
    I am sorry. I do not know what IIFMY.com is... I am eating back the calories when I put the exercise in the MFP app. I thought this was what we were suppost to do? To track everything. I am sorry. This is why I asked :)

    eating calories back is tricky! You should know what your TDEE and BRM are because if MFP has you eating near your TDEE and you eat back what you burn, you won't lose much weight at all.

    That site is where you can calculate your TDEE and BMR so you know roughly where you stand.
  • gkh2855
    gkh2855 Posts: 8 Member
    Ok.. So now I have anther question. What is the TDEE?
  • MinnieInMaine
    MinnieInMaine Posts: 6,400 Member
    You are supposed to eat back what your burn - people who tell you not to do that don't understand how the program works. The however to that is, most MFP exercise database listings are overestimates so if you eat all the calories back. you're probably eating too much. Try eating only half of them back and see if that helps.
  • uncle_freizo
    uncle_freizo Posts: 5 Member
    Unless you are losing weight in unhealthy ways (starvation, dehydration, etc.), 2 months sounds like too small a sample size for tracking. It sounds like you have quite a workout routine, so personally I'd recommend giving it more time to see results.

    Thinking about short term goals is great, in my opinion, but being too results-oriented on a daily basis will probably make healthy weight harder to sustain.

    Also generally speaking, I find calculations for caloric burn and intake to be approximations at best. It's great if you can accurately portion food by weight and using a heart rate monitor for calories, but even those measurements have variance.

    If you can't measure to this degree or would rather not bother, try to err on the conservative side of your measurements. That way there's a smaller chance of there being a caloric surplus on any given day. Good luck!
  • gkh2855
    gkh2855 Posts: 8 Member
    :tongue: UGH! Thank you! Now I am really confused!
  • gkh2855
    gkh2855 Posts: 8 Member
    Unless you are losing weight in unhealthy ways (starvation, dehydration, etc.), 2 months sounds like too small a sample size for tracking. It sounds like you have quite a workout routine, so personally I'd recommend giving it more time to see results.

    Thinking about short term goals is great, in my opinion, but being too results-oriented on a daily basis will probably make healthy weight harder to sustain.

    Also generally speaking, I find calculations for caloric burn and intake to be approximations at best. It's great if you can accurately portion food by weight and using a heart rate monitor for calories, but even those measurements have variance.

    If you can't measure to this degree or would rather not bother, try to err on the conservative side of your measurements. That way there's a smaller chance of there being a caloric surplus on any given day. Good luck!

    Thank you!
  • Mr_Knight
    Mr_Knight Posts: 9,532 Member
    I am eating back the calories when I put the exercise in the MFP app.

    Most likely your burn estimates are significantly over-estimated. Stop doing that, and see what happens.
  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
    BMR = basal metabolic rate = how many calories your body burns when you lie in bed staring at the ceiling all day

    TDEE = total daily energy expenditure = how many calories your body burns on a normal day (including exercise)

    The calorie goal set on MFP is your BMR less the number of calories needed in order to attain your chosen deficit. A pound is 3500 calories, or 500 calories per day. So if your BMR is 2000 and you choose to lose one pound a week, MFP will give you a calorie goal of 1500 calories per day. Then when you exercise, it adds back in your exercise calories. You are supposed to eat those calories, with the caveat that MFP may or may not be calculating them accurately.

    One alternate method of calorie counting is based on your TDEE. Since this number includes your BMR plus your exercise calories already, you would not add in your exercise calories on top of that number. You might log your exercise in MFP but then you keep in mind that you don't eat the calories because you would then be double counting them. If you want to use the TDEE method, you would use the Custom feature in the area where you set your goals.

    Back to your specific situation. How did you come up with 1350 as your original calorie goal? How did you pick 1650 as your current calorie goal? Are you now eating 1650 calories plus your exercise calories?
  • deksgrl
    deksgrl Posts: 7,237 Member
    Set MFP to lose 1 pound per week. How many calories does it give you?
    Track your food by weighing / measuring everything.
    Track your exercise and when it gives you more calories on MFP to eat, only eat half of those.

    OR

    Figure out your BMR and TDEE by using online calculators (google it) and eat more than BMR but less than TDEE (do not "eat more for exercise" with this method). Again, be sure you are accurately weighing / measuring / logging your food.
  • gkh2855
    gkh2855 Posts: 8 Member
    If I am 1 lb per week, it says 1370. I bumped it up because I was not seeing results and I was told I was not eating enough! Thank you all for the help. This stuff really confuses me. :noway:
  • kjm3579
    kjm3579 Posts: 3,974 Member
    Step 1: Check out this link: http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/
    Step 2: Use the calculations from this site to set up your goals in MFP.
    Step 3: When you exercise, change the calories burned to 1 since those calories will have already been part of the calculations made in step 1.
  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
    For the sake of making it easy, I would try eating a level 1650 for a couple of weeks. You can either log your exercise on MFP just to see it there or don't log it but either way don't eat the calories that MFP adds for it. Once you've done that for 2-3 weeks, assess whether or not you are losing. If not, reduce your daily calories by 50 or 100 and see how that works.
  • meshashesha2012
    meshashesha2012 Posts: 8,329 Member
    you arent eating at a deficit
  • gkh2855
    gkh2855 Posts: 8 Member
    thank you everyone for the advise....

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