Which Strategy for Changing my MFP CICO Settings Would You Recommend?

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MelWick524
MelWick524 Posts: 215 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I've hit a "plateau" (which is 100% due to the fact that my CICO calculations are off). I'm playing around with my calorie settings, and I'm just looking for a little advice. I work a desk job, but I walk or jog on my lunch every day that I can (weather permitting), and I'm a total gym rat, and I know I burn hundreds of calories during each workout. My weekly routine consists of: Zumba 1-2 times per week, weightlifting HIIT 1-2 times per week, Spinning once per week, PiYo once per week and Piloxing once per week. I NEVER hit the gym less than 4 days a week...most weeks it's 6 days.

Originally, I had set my activity level to "sedentary," as, like I said, I work a desk job. I set my goal to lose 2lbs per week, and of course MFP gave me a daily calorie allowance of the lowest possible, 1,200. Then, I'd enter my workouts and usually eat back most of my exercise calories (which were like 600). My weight loss "stalled" after a couple weeks, and I realized MFP really exaggerates calories out. So, for every half hour of exercise, I'd just manually enter it as 50 calories burned, so usually my daily allowance ended up being somewhere between 1,250-1,400.

I'm wondering if it would be better to just set my activity level to "lightly active" so that MFP just gives me about 150 extra calories per day and then I don't have to worry about entering exercise calories and playing around and finagling numbers. The only thing I worry about is, on those days when I don't get to go out on my daily jog and my classes at the gym are canceled and I just don't get to fit in a workout, should I drop to 1,200 for just that day? Or, do you think it will all even out?

Thanks in advance for the advice!!
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Replies

  • envy09
    envy09 Posts: 353 Member
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    In order to quickly and easily switch between "heavy" and "light" exercise days, I just use a personalized recipe that only has calories and no nutrients; I call it my "Off Day Adjustment." That being said, a 50 calorie burn for a workout is really low. I bet I'm smaller than you (and therefore burn less calories) and I know I burn that during an easy, slow 20 minute yoga routine.
  • Mr_Knight
    Mr_Knight Posts: 9,532 Member
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    Your body doesn't know how you set your MFP goals.
  • MelWick524
    MelWick524 Posts: 215 Member
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    envy09 wrote: »
    In order to quickly and easily switch between "heavy" and "light" exercise days, I just use a personalized recipe that only has calories and no nutrients; I call it my "Off Day Adjustment." That being said, a 50 calorie burn for a workout is really low. I bet I'm smaller than you (and therefore burn less calories) and I know I burn that during an easy, slow 20 minute yoga routine.

    Oh yeah, I totally know I burn way more than those low entries. I was just entering those lower calories so that I stopped OVER-estimating them. I probably burn 500ish calories during a good Zumba workout, but MFP calculates it at like 700something. If I don't have my food scale with me and I end up under-estimating calories in and over-estimating calories out, then I'm negating everything. So, I decided to go "drastic"...which is just frustrating.
  • KarenJanine
    KarenJanine Posts: 3,497 Member
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    How much weight do you have to lose?
    How long did your weight loss stall for?
    What is your rate of loss at 1250-1400 cal?
  • MelWick524
    MelWick524 Posts: 215 Member
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    Mr_Knight wrote: »
    Your body doesn't know how you set your MFP goals.

    OK. Yes, I know this. I don't really understand how that helps me answer my question, though. lol. I am just looking for advice from seasoned MFPers on the best way to determine activity level and enter calories out efficiently.
  • envy09
    envy09 Posts: 353 Member
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    To me it sounds like you need to get yourself a HRM. Although it wouldn't be useful for your HIIT training, wearing it during your Zumba and Spinning classes would be a great way to get a feel for your base calorie burn.
  • PeachyPlum
    PeachyPlum Posts: 1,243 Member
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    If you're *really* eating 1250 calories and you're *really* burning 500 calories per workout, you are eating WAY less than you need to be eating.

    But you don't know either of those things very accurately, you're just guessing.

    Start weighing your food. Get a HRM and start calculating your actual calorie burns. Eat back most of your exercise calories.
  • MelWick524
    MelWick524 Posts: 215 Member
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    I think everyone is missing my question. Crap. OK. Here's my question, absent of all of the personal details I gave:

    For someone who exercises daily but has a desk job and is looking to lose 2lbs/week, do you personally think it is better (meaning, easier, more accurate, less stressful) to:

    a) enter your activity level as sedentary, log workouts (as accurately as possible), and eat back some exercise calories?

    or

    b) just set your activity level as "lightly active" and then don't worry about calculating exercise calories and just eat the calories MFP gives you for being a lightly active person w/ a goal of losing 2lbs/week?

    Sorry if my question was confusing or seemed like I'm new to MFP or the forums.
  • Mr_Knight
    Mr_Knight Posts: 9,532 Member
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    My suggestion would be to improve the logging before worrying about changing your calorie goals. Most of your entries are serving size or volume based, rather than weighed - that is a very common way of under-estimating intake.
  • PeachyPlum
    PeachyPlum Posts: 1,243 Member
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    Nobody is missing your question.

    But, if you just want us to tell you how to set MFP, I'd set it at lightly active, enter your exercise calories as accurately as possible, and eat most of them back which I'd calculate by weighing my food as accurately as possible.

    I'd also change my goal to 1lb/week. 2 is unrealistic.
  • MelWick524
    MelWick524 Posts: 215 Member
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    PeachyPlum wrote: »
    If you're *really* eating 1250 calories and you're *really* burning 500 calories per workout, you are eating WAY less than you need to be eating.

    But you don't know either of those things very accurately, you're just guessing.

    Start weighing your food. Get a HRM and start calculating your actual calorie burns. Eat back most of your exercise calories.

    OK, so it's better to keep myself set at sedentary and log workouts, rather than just set it to "lightly active" and not worry about the guessing game?

    I do weigh everyyyything I possibly can (solids to the gram, liquids usually in measuring cups). I had a HRM that broke, but I do remember the average calorie burns from when it was still working.
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
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    MelWick524 wrote: »
    I think everyone is missing my question. Crap. OK. Here's my question, absent of all of the personal details I gave:

    For someone who exercises daily but has a desk job and is looking to lose 2lbs/week, do you personally think it is better (meaning, easier, more accurate, less stressful) to:

    a) enter your activity level as sedentary, log workouts (as accurately as possible), and eat back some exercise calories?

    or

    b) just set your activity level as "lightly active" and then don't worry about calculating exercise calories and just eat the calories MFP gives you for being a lightly active person w/ a goal of losing 2lbs/week?

    Sorry if my question was confusing or seemed like I'm new to MFP or the forums.

    A) but if using the MFP database only eat back half
  • MelWick524
    MelWick524 Posts: 215 Member
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    Mr_Knight wrote: »
    My suggestion would be to improve the logging before worrying about changing your calorie goals. Most of your entries are serving size or volume based, rather than weighed - that is a very common way of under-estimating intake.

    Most entries that are serving size are because I manually create recipes and then log them as 1 serving (I weigh all ingredients of everything I make). lol
  • MelWick524
    MelWick524 Posts: 215 Member
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    rabbitjb wrote: »
    MelWick524 wrote: »
    I think everyone is missing my question. Crap. OK. Here's my question, absent of all of the personal details I gave:

    For someone who exercises daily but has a desk job and is looking to lose 2lbs/week, do you personally think it is better (meaning, easier, more accurate, less stressful) to:

    a) enter your activity level as sedentary, log workouts (as accurately as possible), and eat back some exercise calories?

    or

    b) just set your activity level as "lightly active" and then don't worry about calculating exercise calories and just eat the calories MFP gives you for being a lightly active person w/ a goal of losing 2lbs/week?

    Sorry if my question was confusing or seemed like I'm new to MFP or the forums.

    A) but if using the MFP database only eat back half

    Thank you :)
  • MelWick524
    MelWick524 Posts: 215 Member
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    I'm not like at a point where I'm hopeless or anything, lol. I've had people tell me "just log every exercise as 1 calorie and just stick to your original calorie goal." Really? So, my goal is 1,200...you're telling me to go ahead and burn 600, and eat only 1,200 anyway? Net 600? I think NOT!!!! lol
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
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    MelWick524 wrote: »
    For someone who exercises daily but has a desk job and is looking to lose 2lbs/week, do you personally think it is better (meaning, easier, more accurate, less stressful) to:

    a) enter your activity level as sedentary, log workouts (as accurately as possible), and eat back some exercise calories?

    or

    b) just set your activity level as "lightly active" and then don't worry about calculating exercise calories and just eat the calories MFP gives you for being a lightly active person w/ a goal of losing 2lbs/week?

    This is me, except that I haven't been trying to lose 2 lb/week for a while and don't believe it would be realistic for me. (Which causes me to wonder if it's realistic for you, which I can't know without your stats, at least.)

    But I'll answer the question you actually asked, as best I can.

    I've done it a few different ways over time.

    First, activity as sedentary, eating exercise back, and simply adjusting burns a realistic amount (which means for me eating most running calories except for especially long runs, cutting circuit training and group class things and weight lifting by about 50%, and spinning/outdoor biking by 25% (or leaving about 67-75% of the calories)). I found that this worked well.

    Second, once I got tired of eating ridiculously low on non-workout days and had various days (due to long runs/bikes) where I couldn't eat all my calories, I did TDEE--which is my preferred method for the most part now--where I used past results plus some checking with the calculators at IIFYM.com and scooby to figure TDEE and subtracted 500 (aiming at 1 lb/week). That worked--I lost a bit more at first and eventually 1 lb/week for a while.

    Just doing lightly active is similar to the second method but will underestimate your activity substantially, I think, especially if you ALSO walk a good amount. I'm pretty sure I'm lightly active as MFP defines it just because I live in a city even before exercise. If you did this I'd try "active," but I think simply estimating your TDEE from past results and the calculators and then putting in a custom goal is a better method.

    As for workouts being different than anticipated, this way doesn't work if you vary a ton per week on amount of exercise, but if it's largely the same it averages out. I'm currently trying something where I eat less on rest days again, but I don't think I like it (giving it a chance, though).
  • Mr_Knight
    Mr_Knight Posts: 9,532 Member
    edited April 2015
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    MelWick524 wrote: »
    Mr_Knight wrote: »
    My suggestion would be to improve the logging before worrying about changing your calorie goals. Most of your entries are serving size or volume based, rather than weighed - that is a very common way of under-estimating intake.

    Most entries that are serving size are because I manually create recipes and then log them as 1 serving (I weigh all ingredients of everything I make). lol

    "Homemade mashed potatoes 1/2 cup" is not a meaningful logging entry.

    A 2000 calorie quick add is not a meaningful logging entry.

    You're looking for an answer in the wrong place...your body doesn't care whether you get to your 1500 calorie average by picking 1500 as a goal and not logging exercise, or picking 1200 as a goal and logging exercise. What it does care about is how much you're feeding it, and right now, your logging isn't good enough to answer that question.

    Good luck!

    :drinker:

  • beemerphile1
    beemerphile1 Posts: 1,710 Member
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    Calorie burn inaccuracy is why the standard recommendation is to eat half of the calories burned.

    Rather than tweaking the settings, I would recommend you use it as designed and consume half or less of the calories burned.
  • PeachyCarol
    PeachyCarol Posts: 8,029 Member
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    beemerphile1 wrote: »
    Calorie burn inaccuracy is why the standard recommendation is to eat half of the calories burned.

    Rather than tweaking the settings, I would recommend you use it as designed and consume half or less of the calories burned.

    This and the advice to tighten up your logging.

    The scale not moving is almost always about someone eating more than they think they are. Playing with your diary settings isn't going to fix that problem.

    Accurately accounting for how much you're eating will enable you to get a handle on how many calories you're really consuming.


  • segacs
    segacs Posts: 4,599 Member
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    Sounds like you're asking about the difference between NEAT and TDEE. There are some good threads on this board if you want to read up more. Basically, they should come to the same thing, it's just a matter of whether you want to set a consistent calorie target each day and average out your workouts, or whether you like to log and eat back workout calories as a motivator. Personal preference.

    Agree with everyone else that says that neither of these things are causing you to plateau. Most likely, you want to look at the accuracy of your food logging as the culprit here. Most of us tend to underestimate our food calories, and using a scale religiously for a few weeks is a good way to figure out how much you're really eating.

    Also, how long has this "plateau" been? If it's been less than 3 weeks or so, then just be patient.

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