Need advice on setting calorie goal

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baciodolce18
baciodolce18 Posts: 113 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I need some advice on picking a calorie goal. I haven't lost weight since the end of January so I need to reevaluate my calorie goal I guess to be sure I'm in a deficit.

My stats- 5'7, 30yr old, 215ish. Started working out in March (6-7 weeks ago now). Am currently doing 3-5 days at the gym. Mostly cardio. Started a body weight circuit routine as well last week.

It'd be nice to lose 2lbs/week considering I'm still over 200lbs but I'll settle for anything at this point.

I was aiming for 1500 cals which by all calculations should be a decent deficit for myself.

I'm a little nervous posting here because I've seen the responses so... Just please be constructive.

I do use a scale to weigh my food at home. And I do my best to calculate outside the home. I've lost weight successfully in the past on weight watchers (45 pounds), weighing and measuring my food so I feel confident I know how to be accurate.

So yeah. Would love some advice on where to set my calorie goal.
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Replies

  • AJ_G
    AJ_G Posts: 4,158 Member
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    Honestly, you should absolutely be losing weight at 1500 calories. I'd stay at 1500 calories for a few more weeks and really really dial in the accuracy in your logging. Weight and measure every single thing before you eat or drink it, try to keep eating out to a minimum, etc. If you're still not losing weight after that, then reevaluate.
  • Maxematics
    Maxematics Posts: 2,287 Member
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    I just want to make sure I understand this post before I issue any advice.
    • You haven't lost weight since January. Did you stop trying between January and March when you started working out or have you been actively trying since January but not losing weight?
    • If the answer to the prior question is that you've been trying since January, have you been eating 1500 calories the whole time?
    • If the answer to the first question is that you actually restarted in March, have you noticed any change in weight since then?
    • If the answer to the prior question is no, have you been eating your exercise calories back and, if so, how are you calculating them?
  • baciodolce18
    baciodolce18 Posts: 113 Member
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    @synacious I've been actively trying to lose weight. I started the first week of January and lost about 7lbs pretty easily and then I've just been gaining and losing about the same 3-4 pounds since then (going between 213-217). So yes I've been trying to eat 1500 calories since then. Even less sometimes out of frustration. Some days are over but I try not to do it more than once a week with the exception of a week on vacation and my birthday weekend. My weekly averages are always 1500-1300 cals.

    And as far as exercise calories- sometimes I eat them back, sometimes I'll eat just an extra 100-200 cals. Sometimes not. I sort of let my hunger/energy be my guide on that.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    1500 is probably that 1000 cal deficit on days with NO exercise - but you do 3-5 days worth.

    On days you do more, should really aim to keep that 1000 cal deficit - by eating more when you do more.

    Make a body stressed about undereating too much while it's trying to recover, and it'll elevate cortisol and retain water - probably masking your weight loss.

    First big loss was water weight. Some increases to water weight probably happened from exercise, especially if cardio only.

    Might log your workouts and eat back your calories if not - and cause less stress to your body.
    Likely to get the whoosh effect and drop some stress related water that way - giving better indication where you are really at.

    You could gain upwards of 20 lbs from retained water from cortisol - would that be stressful for however many weeks that slowly happened hiding fat loss?

    You measuring too. Scale may be the same, but inches going down - indicating the above is indeed happening. Except tummy may go up where water is held.
  • sunflowerhippi
    sunflowerhippi Posts: 1,100 Member
    edited April 2016
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    I am 5'6.5 and started out at 212. I was loosing weight at 1750 calories a day NET, so I ate back my workout calories. Figured those out via HRM and fitbit. MFP overestimates calories burned.

    Do you weigh you food or measure it? If not a scale I would get one and weigh out your foods. It is annoying but I found I was eating enough calories over to basically void my deficit by using measuring cups. Sorry missed that part in your post it says you did.

    Estimating eating out though can be just as bad. You don't know how they cook a food. What might seem a healthy option can be hundred more calories.
  • Maxematics
    Maxematics Posts: 2,287 Member
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    Okay, thank you for clearing that up.

    The next thing is if you'd be willing to temporarily make your diary public. This would help immensely in trying to figure out the issue. I'd normally ask if you weigh your food, but you already specified that you currently weigh all of your food. The open diary would help in locating possible inaccurate database entries that you may be unintentionally using. When it comes down to the actual calorie allowance, you absolutely should be losing weight at 1500 calories and should not be at a stall. This is why my feeling is that the issue will make itself present through your food/exercise diary.
  • baciodolce18
    baciodolce18 Posts: 113 Member
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    I definitely do weigh my food at home and I find it the easiest thing in the world. I don't mind it at all. My only frustration is in logging it because sometimes it's hard to find entries that use weight instead of volume for foods.

    I thought my diary was public so let me check those settings now.
  • baciodolce18
    baciodolce18 Posts: 113 Member
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    Yep it's set to public.
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,268 Member
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    baciodolce18 wrote: »
    @synacious I've been actively trying to lose weight. I started the first week of January and lost about 7lbs pretty easily and then I've just been gaining and losing about the same 3-4 pounds since then (going between 213-217). So yes I've been trying to eat 1500 calories since then. Even less sometimes out of frustration. Some days are over but I try not to do it more than once a week with the exception of a week on vacation and my birthday weekend. My weekly averages are always 1500-1300 cals.

    And as far as exercise calories- sometimes I eat them back, sometimes I'll eat just an extra 100-200 cals. Sometimes not. I sort of let my hunger/energy be my guide on that.

    okay since your diary is open and I took a peek.

    Usually no weight loss is an issue with the logging.

    I see you log lots by weight but some are by servings...1.33 or 0.75...did you make those yourself? create the recipe in MFP and log it that way because you knew that's what you ate?

    Other things like medium banana etc.

    Weighing and measuring is great but you have to log it like that too...tighten up the logging.
  • evildeadedd
    evildeadedd Posts: 108 Member
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    If you have been within the same 3 to 4 pound range for months, then you are eating at maintence. You say that you weigh all solids and are accurate, have you double checked the entries you are using? Sometimes they can be off hundreds of calories. Could be that the days you are going over are wiping out your deficit. The only advice is to make sure you are using accurate entries, and you do not overestimate exorcise burns. Try to go 4 weeks without any over days. if you know there a special event coming, look at your calorie goal for the week not just the days and try to bank some extra to cover the event. But for those 4 weeks try not to eat anything you didn't make, so you know exactly what is in it. If after four weeks of super strict loging you are still in the same place, might be time to talk to doc and have tests done.
  • baciodolce18
    baciodolce18 Posts: 113 Member
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    @SezxyStef like I said I do weigh everything at home so like the banana I ate while I was out so I couldn't weigh it. What does everyone do for those things when they don't have a scale with them?

    And as for the portions- the pasta I've been eating the past 2 days I did input manually into the recipe builder. Though I will say I'm new to that and I'm not sure how to calculate servings since it just wants me to divide the recipe and not make portions by weight which would obviously be better/easier. If that's what you're referring to regarding the servings.
  • baciodolce18
    baciodolce18 Posts: 113 Member
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    @mangamadayan I like running and cardio and want to improve my cardio/heart health/general fitness so I can do activities without getting winded. I don't find it to be a waste of time at all. And right now I'm not at a fitness level where I can burn more calories with resistance training over what I can do cardio wise. Neither is the calorie burn during resistance training accurately measureable. Not that cardio is either but it's closer.
  • knitty46
    knitty46 Posts: 2 Member
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    Could someone please explain "eating back your exercise calorie". So if I exercise and my calorie exercise is say 200 do I eat the 200 calories on top of my 1350 calorie for that day?
  • baciodolce18
    baciodolce18 Posts: 113 Member
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    @knitty46 Simply speaking, yes. But it's important to make sure you're calculating your exercise calories correctly. Some advise to just eat 50% back to account for discrepancies.
  • evildeadedd
    evildeadedd Posts: 108 Member
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    knitty46 wrote: »
    Could someone please explain "eating back your exercise calorie". So if I exercise and my calorie exercise is say 200 do I eat the 200 calories on top of my 1350 calorie for that day?

    In a perfectly accurate world yes you would eat the 200 back, but depending on how you are measuring that burn it could be off. So most recommend only eating around half of you exorcise calories back.
  • baciodolce18
    baciodolce18 Posts: 113 Member
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    Still though would like advice on what to set calorie goal at. MFP says I can eat 1900 cals (under lightly active) and lose a pound a week. I'd be thrilled to be able to eat 1900 cals and still lose a pound a week.
  • zoe6724
    zoe6724 Posts: 30 Member
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    I apologize that I can't offer advice as to what is happening in the present but for the long term goal, definitely start doing weight/resistance training. Increasing muscle increases metabolism and is the only way to make sure you can keep losing fat without having to go down to 1400, 1300, etc. because who could do that forever and not gain back the weight? An interesting topic to research is reverse dieting. It is upping calories little by little after hard dieting without gaining weight, so as to increase the number of calories the body uses without storing as fat. Again this is all long term but metabolism health (muscle) is so important.
  • evildeadedd
    evildeadedd Posts: 108 Member
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    baciodolce18 wrote: »
    Still though would like advice on what to set calorie goal at. MFP says I can eat 1900 cals (under lightly active) and lose a pound a week. I'd be thrilled to be able to eat 1900 cals and still lose a pound a week.

    How are you measuring that you are lightly active? Are you including your exorcise into that? Or do you have a more active job ?
  • zoe6724
    zoe6724 Posts: 30 Member
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    baciodolce18 wrote: »
    Still though would like advice on what to set calorie goal at. MFP says I can eat 1900 cals (under lightly active) and lose a pound a week. I'd be thrilled to be able to eat 1900 cals and still lose a pound a week.
    Try IIFYM.com where you input your stats and it tells you your total daily energy expenditure, and what you need to eat to lose, etc. and manually change your nutrition goals in MFP.
  • mama000
    mama000 Posts: 5 Member
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    Fitness pall will calculate calorie needs but I've found 10 times weight wanted works. Want to weigh 150 = 1500 calories. Most people, including myself, don't always track honestly by weighing and measuring food. Exercise is also usually over valued as far as calories. Age or less activity ... multiply by less ... 8 xs =.

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