NEWBIE -COUPLE OF QUESTIONS
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sharon9597
Posts: 33 Member
Hello
So I've been vegan for 3 years and after years of struggling with my weight and yo yo dieting, the weight fell off easily when I first went vegan. But the last year I have again yo yo'd half a stone as I've got in bad habits eating rubbish. So tired of it all and have now committed to eating clean whole foods so whole grains, beans, lentils, tons of fruit & veg etc & also low fat such fatfree vegan, engine 2 diet, happy herbivore etc, all white products and processed food has gone from the house, I've bought a Fitbit charge hr and joined here. I want to loose the half stone then manage to finally maintain long term. I am 50, 5ft tall and weigh 115 so my BMR is only 1069 (verified on several different calculators). Entering my details onto MFP and setting 'light activity' and goes 1.5lb per week gives me 760 cals a day! Which again would be correct as it takes a deficit of 500 cals a day to loose 1 pound of fat per week. As my BMR plus light activity give me a daily maintance calorie allowance of 1469, 760 a day to loose 1.5 lb is correct.
Now obviously I can't live on 760 cals a day and would be quite dangerous so to gain calories I have started to walk to and from work each day at a brisk pace which is about 3 miles each way and gives me between 300 - 450 calories each day ( tracked by 'mapmywalk'). The Fitbit adds these plus a few extra for the steps I walk around at work to MFP so it generally tells me I can eat around 1100 -1200 per day which is plenty of food for me with no hunger issues at all.
And so to my questions; I have now seen several people saying you shouldn't eat back all your exercise calories only half of them because MFP over estimates them. Well my calories come from trackmywalk (mainly) and some Fitbit steps and 150 - 175 calories for walking fast (& uphill most on the way coming home) for 3 miles taking 50 minutes doesn't seem excessive to me! So what do you think, can I eat back all the calories?
Second question; as said I eat a lot of veg and about 3 pieces of fruit a day plus blueberries on my porridge and MFP tells me I eat to much sugar! When I enter fruit in the diary it pops up telling me I should be staying under x amount of sugar. Well I never add sugar to anything, am eating no cakes, biscuits or processes food with sugar. There is no way I'm giving up my fruit and it's totally proven and known that fruit does not affect your insulin response (involved in fat storage) in the same way that processed sugar does. (I'm a pharmacy technician). So fellow vegans do you have the same problem, can you change the settings or do you just ignore this.
Sorry for the long post but wanted you to know all the facts
Many thanks for help in advance
So I've been vegan for 3 years and after years of struggling with my weight and yo yo dieting, the weight fell off easily when I first went vegan. But the last year I have again yo yo'd half a stone as I've got in bad habits eating rubbish. So tired of it all and have now committed to eating clean whole foods so whole grains, beans, lentils, tons of fruit & veg etc & also low fat such fatfree vegan, engine 2 diet, happy herbivore etc, all white products and processed food has gone from the house, I've bought a Fitbit charge hr and joined here. I want to loose the half stone then manage to finally maintain long term. I am 50, 5ft tall and weigh 115 so my BMR is only 1069 (verified on several different calculators). Entering my details onto MFP and setting 'light activity' and goes 1.5lb per week gives me 760 cals a day! Which again would be correct as it takes a deficit of 500 cals a day to loose 1 pound of fat per week. As my BMR plus light activity give me a daily maintance calorie allowance of 1469, 760 a day to loose 1.5 lb is correct.
Now obviously I can't live on 760 cals a day and would be quite dangerous so to gain calories I have started to walk to and from work each day at a brisk pace which is about 3 miles each way and gives me between 300 - 450 calories each day ( tracked by 'mapmywalk'). The Fitbit adds these plus a few extra for the steps I walk around at work to MFP so it generally tells me I can eat around 1100 -1200 per day which is plenty of food for me with no hunger issues at all.
And so to my questions; I have now seen several people saying you shouldn't eat back all your exercise calories only half of them because MFP over estimates them. Well my calories come from trackmywalk (mainly) and some Fitbit steps and 150 - 175 calories for walking fast (& uphill most on the way coming home) for 3 miles taking 50 minutes doesn't seem excessive to me! So what do you think, can I eat back all the calories?
Second question; as said I eat a lot of veg and about 3 pieces of fruit a day plus blueberries on my porridge and MFP tells me I eat to much sugar! When I enter fruit in the diary it pops up telling me I should be staying under x amount of sugar. Well I never add sugar to anything, am eating no cakes, biscuits or processes food with sugar. There is no way I'm giving up my fruit and it's totally proven and known that fruit does not affect your insulin response (involved in fat storage) in the same way that processed sugar does. (I'm a pharmacy technician). So fellow vegans do you have the same problem, can you change the settings or do you just ignore this.
Sorry for the long post but wanted you to know all the facts
Many thanks for help in advance
0
Replies
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The very first calculator I used with the numbers you provided gave me 1249. The next 4 gave 1063 (twice so same formula), 1202, and 1203. You're pretty small so it isn't like your BMR is going to be high, but even with your figures I'd be unhappy to recommend under 1200 for anybody. At your current weight (which is pretty fine, even taking into account your height) I also wouldn't advise going for 1.5lb a week. You don't need to lose much, and 1lb will be both much easier and more practical.
The issue with going under 1200 (ignoring energy requirements) is that it's pretty damn hard to get everything you need in that. You need to eat a variety of foods to get all your macro and micronutrients needed to be healthy each day, and when you're only eating a little that spectrum is basically impossible. I'd try having a net calorie intake of 1200 to start with, and after a few weeks seeing what weight changes you have. The 'net' bit is important - if you eat 1200 but burn off 500, for example, you're only getting 700 calories to live on a day, which is very unlikely to be enough to keep your body running properly and long term. Another important note is that myfitnesspal and fitbit estimates can be... exaggerated. The calories burns they give are often quite a bit over what is realistic - a general rule of thumb I've seen around here is to eat back half the calories it gives (so 1200 a day with a 500 estimated burn = eat 1450 that day). This will mean you don't accidentally eat too many back, but makes sure you are eating back some of those calories, which is extra important with such a low calorie diet.
Also, the sugar from fruit is fine. Sugar is hounded far more than it needs to be - it isn't some evil nutrient villain, and even if sugar were unhealthy the micronutrient benefits from fruit would more than outweigh it. Just take MFPs guidelines on things like that with a pinch of salt - as long as you're eating well it's fine. Personally I just ignore sugar unless it's an insane amount.0 -
sharon9597 wrote: »Second question; as said I eat a lot of veg and about 3 pieces of fruit a day plus blueberries on my porridge and MFP tells me I eat to much sugar! When I enter fruit in the diary it pops up telling me I should be staying under x amount of sugar. Well I never add sugar to anything, am eating no cakes, biscuits or processes food with sugar. There is no way I'm giving up my fruit and it's totally proven and known that fruit does not affect your insulin response (involved in fat storage) in the same way that processed sugar does. (I'm a pharmacy technician). So fellow vegans do you have the same problem, can you change the settings or do you just ignore this.
Sorry for the long post but wanted you to know all the facts
Many thanks for help in advance
Eat 1200 or more. You can change your settings to one half pound a week.
Make sure you get your protein and fat.
Fitbit is probably overestimating your calories just like MFP does.
Ignore the sugar settings. You are doing fine with your eating plan.
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Ok thanks, I'll reset my goal to a pound a week & see what happens. Regarding my weight even my GP says I'm skinny fat meanin small boned with still 27% body fat probably due to years of yo yo dieting! Anyway I'm now determined to get it right!
Many thanks0 -
BMR is the amount you burn just being alive without any activity or exercise. It is irrelevant to weight loss. The relevant number is TDEE .(Total Daily Energy Expenditure. Eat less than that and you will lose weight0
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