Calorie setting help!

mkdm291
mkdm291 Posts: 139 Member
edited November 14 in Health and Weight Loss
Sorry if this is a commonly asked question. I am 5'4 and 142 pounds. I am hoping to go down to 130. I currently have my daily calorie allowance set at 1330. Here's my question:
I have a "desk job" where I am on my feet here and there, but certainly not a ton. When I get home I am on my feet a lot with small children. However, I exercise four times a week for an hour, including a longer run on Saturdays as I am 1/2 marathon training (although I am only up to 7 miles at this point).
Any day I exercise I am under my calorie goal and comfortably... not hungry at all. However, on "rest" days, I almost constantly go over. Sometimes by a lot, sometimes by a little. Depends on cravings.
I have my setting set at "lightly active". Is that the right setting based on what I do?
I have not been consistent with this long enough to ascertain if I am losing weight on my current path. I just thought I would ask.

Replies

  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,267 Member
    Lightly active is when you know you are getting in 10k steps a day without exercise. For MFP and their settings your activity level is without exercise. Then you log your exercise and eat 50-75% of those back (mainly because MFP burns are high) to get to your daily allotment.

    As for going over on rest days yah I get hungry after my exercise days...ie rest days. Just look at your weekly totals not daily...it's a lifelong process not a day long one.
  • Phrick
    Phrick Posts: 2,765 Member
    my guess is you selected 2 lbs a week as your target weight loss - with only 12 pounds to lose in total, that's not realistic. 0.5 lbs per week is much more attainable, sustainable, and will give you a greater calorie budget to work with. Also you need to be (as accurately as you can) recording your exercise and eating back a minimum of 50-75% of the calories you earn, in order to adequately fuel your body and be able to perform your next workout.
  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
    Lightly active seems like a good start to me. If you're under in workout days and/or not using your extra exercise calories those days, it's totally okay to shift those calories to a day when you are hungrier. What matters is whether or not you stay in a calorie deficit for the week. Once you've logged for a little while, you'll be able to adjust based on your results.
  • mom2ava07
    mom2ava07 Posts: 186 Member
    Your stats are very similar to mine. I'm 5'5, weigh 146, and have a desk job. I have to walk around the office some and go up and down the stairs a few times per day. Howeever, on the evening I'm running around all evening picking up after the kids, bathing them, cooking, etc. I run 4 days per week. Very similar it seems to you.

    I am set at sedentary because personally I feel sitting at a desk the majority of the time isn't really lightly active. I have a fitbit and i tend to average 5000-7000 steps on non workout days. I could likely get away with lightly active, but play it safe with sedentary. I am alloted 1240 calories per day, and then I eat back half of my exercise calories on workout days. I've lost 21 lbs in 2 months. My weight does fluctuate some, particularly I lose on workout days and tend to gain some of it back on 1240 calorie rest days.

    Everyone is different though, so really only time will tell for you. However, roughly 100 calorie difference isn't that big so sounds like you are on track. Just weigh all your food if you aren't...eye opening!
  • mkdm291
    mkdm291 Posts: 139 Member
    Thanks everyone! I really appreciate the input!
  • dawnmcneil10
    dawnmcneil10 Posts: 638 Member
    I typically eat more the day after a good run took me a while to figure that out but now I just know the day after a run I need to have more food available. You may want to look at more the weekly average for a bit instead of each day.
  • paxbfl
    paxbfl Posts: 391 Member
    Not sure if this will directly answer your question, but some stuff to think about... to find my TDEE on a calculator like this (http://scoobysworkshop.com/accurate-calorie-calculator/) I use "Desk Job With Little Exercise". For me that comes out to 2350. Then I set my goal to lose a pound a week (500 calories a day x 7 = 3,500) so I set my goal to 1850.

    I log my exercise carefully (using a heart-rate monitor). I'm usually over 500 calories a day in exercise (I'm training for a half like you!) so generally if I eat just under my TDEE I'm under my goal for the day.

    Now I've struggled with rest days - I've done everything from starving myself to just calling it a "free day" and going hog wild. What I've discovered is if I eat just under my TDEE like a normal day, I usually end up losing that pound a week (at least). I think it's because of my other activity that I don't log (walking the dog, playing with my kids, etc).

    In any event, I look at it this way - eating just under my TDEE isn't doing me any harm, it's not like it's going to cause me to gain weight. So yeah, I'm not at my goal that day but it's ok - over the long-term I'm still consistently losing. As "sexysteff" says, it's a lifelong process so you have to be able to live with the program you set for yourself.

    Good luck on your half-marathon training! Which race are you doing?
  • mkdm291
    mkdm291 Posts: 139 Member
    paxbfl wrote: »
    Not sure if this will directly answer your question, but some stuff to think about... to find my TDEE on a calculator like this (http://scoobysworkshop.com/accurate-calorie-calculator/) I use "Desk Job With Little Exercise". For me that comes out to 2350. Then I set my goal to lose a pound a week (500 calories a day x 7 = 3,500) so I set my goal to 1850.

    I log my exercise carefully (using a heart-rate monitor). I'm usually over 500 calories a day in exercise (I'm training for a half like you!) so generally if I eat just under my TDEE I'm under my goal for the day.

    Now I've struggled with rest days - I've done everything from starving myself to just calling it a "free day" and going hog wild. What I've discovered is if I eat just under my TDEE like a normal day, I usually end up losing that pound a week (at least). I think it's because of my other activity that I don't log (walking the dog, playing with my kids, etc).

    In any event, I look at it this way - eating just under my TDEE isn't doing me any harm, it's not like it's going to cause me to gain weight. So yeah, I'm not at my goal that day but it's ok - over the long-term I'm still consistently losing. As "sexysteff" says, it's a lifelong process so you have to be able to live with the program you set for yourself.

    Good luck on your half-marathon training! Which race are you doing?

    Thank you! That was a very helpful link! I am running the Long Island Hamptons 1/2 Marathon in September. Nervous, but very excited!
  • ncfitbit
    ncfitbit Posts: 1,058 Member
    Good luck with your marathon! I agree with what others said above, and also use the Scooby Calculator and have found it very accurate, but I do it differently than the poster above. I exercise about as much as you do so I set my activity level to 3-5 days moderate. Then on MFP I just manually set my food goal and ignore whatever it says I earn for exercise since it's already figured into the TDEE. I like this approach because I'd rather have a set amount to aim for most days, regardless of whether I exercised that day or not and this way I don't have to worry about knowing the precise burns of my workouts. I'm not sure if this would work for you, but just throwing that out there as one other way to do it.

    I will advocate for looking at your numbers over the course of a week, especially if you're not seeing the results you want. I was recently stuck for about a month, after losing close to 20 pounds in about four months, and was starting to question my numbers because I thought I was doing pretty well. When I looked at my calories over the course of a week, though, I saw that I was pretty darn close to my maintenance numbers. I guess I'd gone "over" by enough days that it was making up for being on target other days. No wonder I wasn't losing! So now I know now how many calories I need per week to lose about about a pound a week so if I go over that I'll be less surprised next time! I like this because it's another good motivation for tracking carefully!
  • paxbfl
    paxbfl Posts: 391 Member
    bandbmc wrote: »
    Thank you! That was a very helpful link! I am running the Long Island Hamptons 1/2 Marathon in September. Nervous, but very excited!

    That sounds like a fun race! I've always wanted to do a race at a beach. I'm doing the St. Luke's Half Marathon in Allentown, Pa in April, and my FIRST full marathon in October - Marine Corps in DC.
  • paxbfl
    paxbfl Posts: 391 Member
    ncfitbit wrote: »
    Good luck with your marathon! I agree with what others said above, and also use the Scooby Calculator and have found it very accurate, but I do it differently than the poster above. I exercise about as much as you do so I set my activity level to 3-5 days moderate. Then on MFP I just manually set my food goal and ignore whatever it says I earn for exercise since it's already figured into the TDEE. I like this approach because I'd rather have a set amount to aim for most days, regardless of whether I exercised that day or not and this way I don't have to worry about knowing the precise burns of my workouts. I'm not sure if this would work for you, but just throwing that out there as one other way to do it.

    Interesting... I've never thought of doing it that way. It would be nice to not have to stress over the calorie burn numbers (I get annoyed at my heart-rate monitor when it doesn't work right). However, I will say I find my calorie-burn goals to be motivation for days when I'm not feeling super energetic at the gym. I can't leave until I hit x number of calories. :)

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