Still struggling with Goal/Food = NET

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themusicdude
themusicdude Posts: 35 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Current calorie goal is 2570/day, which based off of MFP would be a loss of 2 pounds a week. I've cut that down a bit further to 2000/day, as that would result in one extra pound loss each week. I'm working out 6 days a week and burning between 400-700 calories most day, so I bumped my daily activity to "lightly active." What's tripping me up is whether I should just eat my 2000 calories and consider my workouts additional calories burned (which would take me to (1200-1500ish a day(), or do the controversial MFP "eat back."

For instance, yesterday I "earned" 409 calories from my workout, bringing my total to 2979 and I ended up eating a total of 2105 for the day. That means for the day I actually took in 1696 calories. Some people sen to think that's a bit too low and others said my numbers must be wrong. What do you all think?

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  • themusicdude
    themusicdude Posts: 35 Member
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    Bump.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    Do one or the other (MFP eat back or TDEE) but don't confuse the two. Both methods work and calories may well be pretty similar overall.

    If you follow the MFP eat back method you don't increase your activity setting for your exercise or you are double counting your exercise.

    MFP method suits me best as I have large and varied burns, but my activity setting would still be sedentary (job / lifestyle).
  • themusicdude
    themusicdude Posts: 35 Member
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    I'm trying to lose more weekly than MFP will allow me to select, so I am trying to do the math; you'd suggest setting it back to sedentary?
  • itsbasschick
    itsbasschick Posts: 1,584 Member
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    i leave mine set to sedentary and add activity, usually via an app like endomondo. i eat back exercise calories if i feel weak or hungry, usually protein like non-fat greek yogurt or a protein drink.

    losing more than 2 pounds per week can mean burning muscle,. which in turn will mean your body will burn less calories when resting. stick with a loss of 2 pounds per week for a sustainable loss.
  • VeryKatie
    VeryKatie Posts: 5,953 Member
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    I like doing the eat back method. I use sedentary and then manually enter my exercise at 50% of the MFP burn. I do this because I can be flaky when it comes to exercise and doing it manually gives me a bit more motivation to do it.

    Honestly, if you don't find yourself hungry at that 1700 net mark, I wouldn't worry about it being too low. If you find yourself binging once a week, maybe eat back more of your exercise calories. You can eat less one day, more another and not really worry about it too.

    Net shouldn't be lower than 1200 (and I know I for one always crave sugary snacks when I eat that low so it is hard! I think because I start to lack energy when its that low).

    But if you have your settings at lightly active, you don't enter any manual exercise calories at all. They're already included in the daily total.
  • Lleldiranne
    Lleldiranne Posts: 5,516 Member
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    Since you're custom setting your goals, it doesn't really matter if you have it set at sedentary or lightly active. You're overriding it anyway.

    Generally, it's not considered great/healthy to try to lose more than 2 pounds a week. Is there a reason you feel such urgency to go beyond that (I do see, from your ticker, that you still want to lose around 150 pounds, so you could potentially lose 3 pounds a week for now, but expect that to slow down as your weight drops).

    Anyway, with that in mind, I would suggest that you eat back those exercise calories. That will keep you at NET 2000 a day (or so), which will still give you 2+ pounds a week lost. If you eat less than that, you risk burning yourself out, both physically (your body needs calories to function, and nutrients too) and emotionally (too much sense of deprivation can lead to binges and giving up). Make sure you're paying attention to macro and micronutrients as well as calories. I would honestly suggest that you could do well on 2500 a day ... "only" 2 pounds a week is still really great.

    If you aren't already, consider adding weight training to help maintain muscle mass.
  • themusicdude
    themusicdude Posts: 35 Member
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    Yeah, I've still got a long way to go and I'd really like to hit 300 by the end of the year, so 3ish pounds a week would do that.

    I do cardio (29-90 minutes) six days a week and do Stronglifts 5x5 three days a week. Most of my cardio is the treadmill, but I've started riding a bike some as well.
  • AliceDark
    AliceDark Posts: 3,886 Member
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    If you're custom-setting your goals, I would go to Scooby's (http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/) or IIFYM (http://iifym.com/iifym-calculator/) to find your target and then just not record exercise burns in MFP. You'd be eating the same number of calories per day whether or not you exercise, because your exercise burns are averaged out over the week. This method works best if you are consistent with the amount of exercise you do per week; if your exercise schedule changes, you'll need to recalculate your allowance.
  • colors_fade
    colors_fade Posts: 464 Member
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    i leave mine set to sedentary and add activity, usually via an app like endomondo. i eat back exercise calories if i feel weak or hungry, usually protein like non-fat greek yogurt or a protein drink.

    losing more than 2 pounds per week can mean burning muscle,. which in turn will mean your body will burn less calories when resting. stick with a loss of 2 pounds per week for a sustainable loss.

    This is exactly what I do.

    My caloric goal every day is 2,000. I consider this my caloric "budget". I can add more "money" to the budget by adding exercise.

    My underlying goal every day is a 500 calorie deficit. I never want to "spend" my entire budget of calories. So the goal every day is to go home with some "money".

    I keep my setting at sedentary and use Endomondo to track calories burned during my exercises.

    Some days are like this: 1900 calories of food, 400 calories of exercise = 500 calorie deficit (2000 - 1900 + 400)
    Other days are like this: 2400 calories of food, 800 calories of exercise = 400 calorie deficit (2000 - 2400 + 800)

    So yeah, my advice to you would be the same; Keep it at sedentary, add the exercise, eat for a deficit every day.

    And don't try and go too fast. Slow and steady wins this race. Fast weight loss strategies are difficult to maintain over time (if not impossible). There's no deadline here. Just take it slow, develop proper habits, form a positive relationship with food, and be consistent.

    Consistency is easier when you aren't trying to create too large a deficit.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
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    I'm trying to lose more weekly than MFP will allow me to select, so I am trying to do the math; you'd suggest setting it back to sedentary?

    If you want to do this (and are at a weight where it's reasonable, as I recall you are), that would be a reason to follow MFP but then also exercise for about 500/day (or what you are doing) without eating it back. I would not cut your calories down by 1500 and then also exercise without eating it back--that gets you to a deficit of 2000.

    In the alternative cut the calories by 1500 and then eat back the exercise.

    If you want to use MFP and not eat back exercise just manually put in 1 calorie or don't log it. (I like logging so I know what I did, but I also eat back exercise.)
  • amberkhan75
    amberkhan75 Posts: 11
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    I don't think it's unreasonable to lose more than 2-3 pounds a week. I have coached people to even much greater losses - and their bodies are thriving. Are you eating when you are hungry or are your feeding yourself something like every 2 hours so you can fit all of those calories in? Are your calories nutrient dense or just plain ol' calories, regardless of nutrient content?

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