Deficit, Still Not Getting It
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Kimegatron wrote: »Ohhhh. I am starting to get it! I just really honestly hate when things don't make sense to me. Is this the deficit you were saying is built in on the "My Goals" part?
Calories Burned / Week 810 Calories
Can you give me your stats, please? Height, weight, goal weight, age?
Your calorie goal that MFP gives you has your deficit built in already. Meaning if you get 1400 calories a day, and you're aiming to lose 1 pound a week - MFP has determined your daily burn to be 1900 - so the deficit (negative) of 500 calories has already been figured for you.0 -
Kimegatron wrote: »Ohhhh. I am starting to get it! I just really honestly hate when things don't make sense to me. Is this the deficit you were saying is built in on the "My Goals" part?
Calories Burned / Week 810 Calories
No, the deficit is set based on how much you tell MFP you want to lose per week. .5 lb/week would be 250 calorie deficit per day, 1 lb/week 500 calorie deficit per day, etc. You get to eat the exercise calories back, most people eat back 50-75% back to account for miscalculations. If you don't eat the exercise calories back, your deficit would be larger than expected.
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TheVirgoddess wrote: »Kimegatron wrote: »This?
Calories Burned / Week 810 Calories
Workouts / Week 5 workouts
Minutes/Workout 20
Exercise Calories
On
This doesn't matter really - as far as I know, it doesn't impact your calories on here.Kimegatron wrote: »It's intentional. I go as briskly as I can. My belly has started to go down a bit and my legs are getting stronger. I can actually get up out of a chair with less leg pain in years, I don't have to push off like a little old lady. I think it may even be helping my plantar fasciitis and heel spurs, because I have been taking pain pills a lot less than when I started walking 3 weeks ago.
Then put your information as sedentary, and add your walks at the end of the day, in the "exercise" tab. If walking is going to be your main form of exercise, you might consider getting a step counter of some sort.
Definitely, If the only exercise you do is walking then I would seriously look into getting a tracker. Then it's one less thing you have to worry about or guestimate, as a lot them are able to sync with mfp.
My fitbit has helped me immensely! Before I got it I was averaging 2000ish steps a day. Now I'm closer to 20,000 +. It's a wonderful motivational tool.
ETA: Oops you posted that you already have a fitbit while I was writing this.
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Kimegatron wrote: »I have a fitbit thanks to suggestions on these message boards. I guess I walked 70 miles in 3 weeks. @TheVirgoddess was part of that showing my deficit?
Can you open your diary for me?
Home - settings - diary settings - diary sharing - public.0 -
Kimegatron wrote: »I WANT TO KNOW WHAT IT IS FOR MYSELF
Then you'll need to find a medical/scientific facility to go get tested at if you really want to know what YOUR RMR is. Otherwise, it's going to be an estimate either way. In that case, just stick with MFP's calculations and work on your goals instead of majoring in the minors.0 -
Here is how I look at it, and maybe this will help someone...
Each body burns calories in 3 ways:
1) BMR - this is what your body burns to live. For your heart to pump blood, lungs to breath, to regulate your temperature & digest food, etc. All bodily functions. BMR is based on gender, age, height & weight.
2) Normal daily activity - this is a little additional energy used to move you thru your day, and is based on gender, age, height & weight but also your lifestyle. This is estimated as a % of your BMR based on whether your lifestyle is active or not. This does NOT count exercise. A person who is sitting at a desk, not very active in their 'off' time would estimate 15-20% of BMR while someone who is on their feet constantly would estimate higher.
3) Intentional exercise/cardio. Determined by gender/age/height/weight but also by type of activity. A larger person burns more than a smaller person. A man burns more than a woman, assuming all other details are even of course.
Keep in mind these are all estimates.
MFP only considers the first 2 in setting you on a plan. You tell it your stats and activity level - and how much weight you want to lose. As an example - lets say MFP calculates that you will burn 1900 per day BEFORE exercise (because MFP doesn't use the 3rd source) and you want to lose 1 pound per week. MFP says 1900-500 = 1400 and tells you to eat 1400 in order to lose 1 per week. If you exercise and log 250 calories burned extra, MFP then thinks: hey, you're on course to burn your usual 1900 + 250 extra, or 2150. 2150 - 500 = 1650 so you can eat an additional 250.
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Kimegatron wrote: »It was, and I apologize, I am actually having an emotional day and taking things personally... The butthurt has been strong since the moment I woke up. I found out that my BMR is 1761, but I'm not sure about my activity level preference. I walk 2-4 (usually 3.3 but working my way up slowly and depending if I will make it home by midnight) miles at night about 5-6 nights a week(weather permitting), and I'm not sure if that would be considered sedentary still, or lightly active according to this, because I do have a desk job. I usually will hit at least 5,000 steps a day, many times 10,000. I would probably keep mine as sedentary, right?
There are a couple of ways to slice this apple on how to determine activity level vs logging dedicated exercise.
If, on an average day, you don't move around a ton, work at a desk job, that kind of thing, put it at sedentary and log your walks, which will automatically add to your calorie deficit. You can choose to eat all these calories back, but most people only eat half or so. This is likely the most conservative way to determine what your deficit should be.
If you are (like me) active during the day (I am a SAHM to 2 active young kiddos, I barely sit down until 8:30pm) I set MFP to "lightly active" and only log vigorous, dedicated exercise. Not a yoga workout, or 100 crunches. Just jogging or HIIT or something of the like. I figure it all rounds out for me this way. You could set it to "lightly active" and never log your walking, but it won't be as precise.
It's a personal preference. The most conservative way to do things is set yourself to sedentary and consider exercise a bonus, and only eat a small portion of those calories back.0 -
I don't like to be too open to people about my diary or stats(weight). I have a bad self image on my body, so I can tell you that I am 5'8", 32 years old, and need to lose about 60lbs. I have my stats set to lose 2lbs a week, and lost exactly 5lbs in 3 weeks so far. This is now week 5 and we haven't weighed in again at work yet(doing a contest). My BMI dropped 1.2% in the first 3 weeks. I can't honestly remember what it was, I have a horrible memory. I could change my states to 1.5lbs a week, I guess. I weigh as much as I can in grams, like my fruit and breads. If my breads are less in grams, I just count that as the full serving. My english muffins are rarely up to the full grams of serving, so I just count that as a bonus, because I don't want to eat little bits of muffin that I scavenged from another muffin.0
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I used one of those links above, and determined that this is my TDEE 2113, and 1761 (rounded up) is my BMR0
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Kimegatron wrote: »I don't like to be too open to people about my diary or stats(weight). I have a bad self image on my body, so I can tell you that I am 5'8", 32 years old, and need to lose about 60lbs. I have my stats set to lose 2lbs a week, and lost exactly 5lbs in 3 weeks so far. This is now week 5 and we haven't weighed in again at work yet(doing a contest). My BMI dropped 1.2% in the first 3 weeks. I can't honestly remember what it was, I have a horrible memory. I could change my states to 1.5lbs a week, I guess. I weigh as much as I can in grams, like my fruit and breads. If my breads are less in grams, I just count that as the full serving. My english muffins are rarely up to the full grams of serving, so I just count that as a bonus, because I don't want to eat little bits of muffin that I scavenged from another muffin.
Okay, that's fine. If you're losing, keep doing exactly what you're doing, because it's working. I like ALL THE INFO, too - I get it. Doing some reading on the IIFYM page I linked earlier - it explains a lot. You've got this
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Kimegatron wrote: »I don't like to be too open to people about my diary or stats(weight). I have a bad self image on my body, so I can tell you that I am 5'8", 32 years old, and need to lose about 60lbs. I have my stats set to lose 2lbs a week, and lost exactly 5lbs in 3 weeks so far. This is now week 5 and we haven't weighed in again at work yet(doing a contest). My BMI dropped 1.2% in the first 3 weeks. I can't honestly remember what it was, I have a horrible memory. I could change my states to 1.5lbs a week, I guess. I weigh as much as I can in grams, like my fruit and breads. If my breads are less in grams, I just count that as the full serving. My english muffins are rarely up to the full grams of serving, so I just count that as a bonus, because I don't want to eat little bits of muffin that I scavenged from another muffin.
I've seen a few times where people didn't realize that you can change the serving size to a portion, so if something is less than a full serving you can log the exact amount (like .95 of one serving) based on calculating the serving size vs portion size.
If you already knew that, then it's all good 0 -
Kimegatron wrote: »I have a fitbit thanks to suggestions on these message boards. I guess I walked 70 miles in 3 weeks. @TheVirgoddess was part of that showing my deficit?
Since you're using a fitbit, you may want to look at http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/1290-fitbit-users
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blankiefinder wrote: »
I've seen a few times where people didn't realize that you can change the serving size to a portion, so if something is less than a full serving you can log the exact amount (like .95 of one serving) based on calculating the serving size vs portion size.
If you already knew that, then it's all good
I have tried to guesstimate the portions on that, but I am never sure how accurate it is. Sometimes, food will not have a portion in grams on their boxes, and I had stood in the grocery aisle for 10 minutes debating on whether to get it.0 -
Kimegatron wrote: »blankiefinder wrote: »
I've seen a few times where people didn't realize that you can change the serving size to a portion, so if something is less than a full serving you can log the exact amount (like .95 of one serving) based on calculating the serving size vs portion size.
If you already knew that, then it's all good
I have tried to guesstimate the portions on that, but I am never sure how accurate it is. Sometimes, food will not have a portion in grams on their boxes, and I had stood in the grocery aisle for 10 minutes debating on whether to get it.
If you are using a food scale in grams, sometimes if you look up the product and add Canada, it will bring up the same items with a gram serving size, since we are metric. They are almost always the same product, just different packaging.0 -
ejchapman123 wrote: »
If you are (like me) active during the day (I am a SAHM to 2 active young kiddos, I barely sit down until 8:30pm) I set MFP to "lightly active" and only log vigorous, dedicated exercise. Not a yoga workout, or 100 crunches. Just jogging or HIIT or something of the like. I figure it all rounds out for me this way. You could set it to "lightly active" and never log your walking, but it won't be as precise.
It's a personal preference. The most conservative way to do things is set yourself to sedentary and consider exercise a bonus, and only eat a small portion of those calories back.
I have a desk job, however, I do stand from the moment that I wake up (2.5 year old at home) until I leave for work in the afternoon.0 -
Kimegatron wrote: »blankiefinder wrote: »
I've seen a few times where people didn't realize that you can change the serving size to a portion, so if something is less than a full serving you can log the exact amount (like .95 of one serving) based on calculating the serving size vs portion size.
If you already knew that, then it's all good
I have tried to guesstimate the portions on that, but I am never sure how accurate it is. Sometimes, food will not have a portion in grams on their boxes, and I had stood in the grocery aisle for 10 minutes debating on whether to get it.
If it's food you eat consistently, look it up on MFP or even on the company's website. You'll probably find one with the weight portions. If it's not something you eat often, then go by what's on the box (even if it uses measurements) and don't stress too much about it.0 -
brianpperkins wrote: »If only there were an app or website that would provide a person with a caloric goal with the deficit already factored in ... maybe one day ....
LOL, I'm still looking for one also.
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blankiefinder wrote: »
If you are using a food scale in grams, sometimes if you look up the product and add Canada, it will bring up the same items with a gram serving size, since we are metric. They are almost always the same product, just different packaging.
I will look next time. This happened when I was trying to buy falafel mix. It said 1 patty was such and such calories, but no grams.0 -
When you enter your information into MFP, the caloric value it gives you already includes the deficit. Eat at that.0
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TheVirgoddess wrote: »Kimegatron wrote: »Can anyone give me the equation that you use to determine your deficit?
Sure.
The way MyFitnessPal is set up is: you enter your activity level and your stats, and it spits out a number. That number is your TDEE (I'll explain below) minus the amount of calories you need to not eat, based on the goal you input. So if you chose 1 pound a week loss, your daily deficit will be 500 calories a day, 3500 for the week. 3500 calories = one pound.
So say you're me. I'm 5'5" and I weigh 149 pounds.
My TDEE (total daily energy expenditure), as a sedentary person is 1648, according to this site: http://iifym.com/tdee-calculator/ - this number is based on being living, breathing person that moves around a bit, grocery shops, cleans, etc - but does no intentional exercise.
That means, to lose 1 pound a week, I need to eat 1148 calories a day. Then, MFP will let me "eat back" my exercise calories, because I did not include them in my TDEE calculation. They are a bonus. So if I work out M/W/F, and I get 200 exercise calories, I can more those days.
Does that make sense? MFP does not take your exercise into consideration as it figures your daily calorie goal - but your deficit is already included. Meaning, the calorie goal it gives you is a target to hit, not something to stay under.
I hope this answers your questions. Let me know if I missed something.
Genius! k but now that I know that, I've been under-eating my calories for a while now...
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