Adjust plan or keep going with current one?

AigreDoux
Posts: 594 Member
Background: 36 year old female, 5'5", history of very low athletic ability but never overweight until after 2 pregnancies. Started in January at 167 lbs. Started weight training in my home gym 1/4/16 following the "Strong" book by Alwyn Cosgrove and Lou Shuler. So currently 4.5 months in, 3x/week full body routines+intervalsx10 minutes. Making only modest gains in strength.
Started C25K on off days on 2/20/16 and finished that on 4/30/16, and am one week into a Hal Higdon beginner 8k training program 3x/week. So will be working up from current 6 miles/week to 10 miles/week over the next 8 weeks.
My goal is around 130 - I was 120 before kids and happy at that weight, but could have used more muscle.
Have been on a deficit and down now to around 150-151 lbs, but feel like I've plateaued. I am having trouble keeping calories below 1600-1700 though I aim for about 1400-1500, I am always over. In the last week I moved to an intermittent fasting 16:8 schedule to try to keep the calories in check but doesn't seem to have made a difference in my overall intake, plus I am still very hungry in the mornings. I aim for about 100 grams of protein per day.
Any suggestions for where to go from here, or just keep on going with the current calories/schedule and wait for the plateau to break?
Started C25K on off days on 2/20/16 and finished that on 4/30/16, and am one week into a Hal Higdon beginner 8k training program 3x/week. So will be working up from current 6 miles/week to 10 miles/week over the next 8 weeks.
My goal is around 130 - I was 120 before kids and happy at that weight, but could have used more muscle.
Have been on a deficit and down now to around 150-151 lbs, but feel like I've plateaued. I am having trouble keeping calories below 1600-1700 though I aim for about 1400-1500, I am always over. In the last week I moved to an intermittent fasting 16:8 schedule to try to keep the calories in check but doesn't seem to have made a difference in my overall intake, plus I am still very hungry in the mornings. I aim for about 100 grams of protein per day.
Any suggestions for where to go from here, or just keep on going with the current calories/schedule and wait for the plateau to break?
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So you have less weight to lose than before?
And you have increased activity more?
Eating level has gone down?
With only 20 lbs to lose, you taking a reasonable 500 cal deficit at most?
You going for avg weekly TDEE method or using MFP method with exercise logging and eatback?
If doing TDEE method, besides figuring out exercise in there - did you account for fact with kids you started out at Lightly Active, exercise just added on top of that?
If MFP method, are you accurate on logging times of workouts, and base activity level is also Lightly-Active?
Weight lifting is just that in the database, but should not include cardio warmup/cooldown, just lifting and rests between.
Running is actually pretty accurate if you have the pace correct. For the C25K, average pace based on time and distance is close enough.
Sounds like the lifting is suffering if little progress, body may appreciate and let go of some stress-induced water weight if you get out of the diet for a bit - when was your last diet break?0 -
Hi!
I have lost about 17 lbs and would like to lose 20 lbs more.
I have somewhat steadily increased activity since January.
I use the MFP/Fitbit method where I eat back almost all of my calories from my daily activity, so thus have MFP set to sedentary. I usually get ~400-600 calories from Fitbit. I usually try to end the day with 150-200 calories leftover in case of logging errors. I don't add anything extra for Weight lifting since 1 hr 3x/week only adds up to 300 calories/week for me anyway. I let Fitbit take care of the timing, HR, etc.
My weekly Fitbit report usually shows that I am ~1000-2000 calories under my proposed deficit (-3500cal/week), but I think this is necessary since it overestimates some activity. I just returned from a 23 minute walk and it recorded 139 calories. A 2 mile run is logged as 377 calories (this was at 11:30 min/mile).
My last diet break was the last week of March when I spent a week at an all inclusive resort in the Bahamas. I ate a large breakfast, skipped lunch, and ate a seafood dinner, walked an average of 15k steps, didn't run or lift, and maintained for that week.0 -
Those calories burns don't sound unreasonable - sounds like using Fitbit with HRM, so calorie burn is based on that.
Daily living though is based on steps.
So accuracy of steps seen, and more importantly distance, is used to calculate daily moving time.
Non-moving time is given BMR level burn - so actually it underestimates on it's own.
Because when awake you burn more - RMR level burn.
When standing you burn more.
When eating you burn more, about 10% of calories eaten.
None of that is accounted for - you don't need to create extra deficit unless you just think your food logging is awful, done by measurements and guesses.
As female, 1 week isn't a valid data point, as your BMR literally changes through the month. So the fact you maintained seems to say your maintenance is higher than you think though - ate more and exercised less.
I think an accurate 1 lb weekly would be more reasonable with only 20 lbs to go - if you have good sleep habits and not many other stresses in life. Change to 500 deficit at 10 lbs left though.
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So when Fitbit calculates the amount of calories burned during a workout, it adds BMR into it? So if my BMR is 1375, I burn ~115 calories/hour just laying in bed.
Running 2 miles in 23 min, Fitbit says I burned 275 calories, does that include the 38 BMR calories (115/3) or is it on top of that? Runners world calculator says that workout should be 225 calories, so that would make the two pretty close (225+38=263). Is that why the Fitbit calories seem so high to me?
I think logging is ok through I go through spurts when I am more or less OCD about low calorie density foods like veggies. I'm pretty good about logging all high calorie density foods by weight though. I obviously have days when I eat take out or go to a party or out to dinner where the logging is more of an estimate though.
I sleep on average over a week 7-7.5 hours/night. I could sleep more. I am a typical mom of 2 little kids with a full time career, so not particularly low stress. But no major stressors like poverty, abuse, major illness, divorce, etc.
Anyway, so you think that I should continue at the level of 1600-1700, which is eating back all of my Fitbit calories, and hope I can eventually start losing again?0 -
Fitbit is estimating total daily burn - as such your BMR is indeed in there.
Rarely will you find a HRM, machine, database, ect, that gives you the estimated calorie burn of just the workout. (bikes with watt meters being the exception, or machines that convert from watts seen in their formula to calories).
Because frankly, is it above BMR - would you have been sleeping if not working out?
Or above RMR - because you would have been sitting otherwise?
Or above lightly active because you would have been playing with kids or pets or housework, ect?
Nope - BMR should be in there for something reporting the calorie burn during a block of time.
So Fitbit estimate is indeed that block of time - total burn, just as any other device/database would be reporting.
You can only compare the Runners World calc if the distance you used there is correct.
Fitbit could seem high, and indeed could be too high - if the HRM isn't accurate - at least it sounded like you had the HRM version. Now, good formula with true values (flat on inclines or wind), avg pace, ect - are more accurate than HRM.
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/773451-is-my-hrm-giving-me-incorrect-calorie-burn
Do you use your activity record from Fitbit to tell you the distance to use in that other calculator?
If distance is wrong, then pace in the calc is wrong too, so would be calories.
Also look at purpose of calc - they could be saying here is the extra amount you could eat based on what you did - in which case that is correct way of doing it - leave some calories out. (275-38 = 237, close to 225).
But if they are doing it that way - that's a perspective of what have you done extra above and beyond (without actually knowing what you would have done otherwise).
But Fitbit is also being accurate for that block of time - and that count is accurate too.
But not if you were to lift that 275 burn figure out and plop it down on a daily burn already accounting for the day. It would need to replace whatever was in that block of time already.
And that's what a manually logged workout synced into Fitbit or added to Fitbit does - replaces the total burn for that block of time.
I would indeed stick with the program unless you find some glaring inaccuracy in Fitbit's logging.
Like if you find the HR during workouts is way higher than manual measurement.
The distance method isn't used during workouts - only HR for calorie burn.
Besides, what % of your time and calorie burn is the exercise?
Compared to % of time and burn doing the active family stuff?
That small amount difference during the exercise is nothing compared to your daily activity burn.
If stride length is off there by decent amount - there's some error to your daily burn.0 -
Ah, I see. In my case, I workout at 5 am so I would have been sleeping
but I understand what you're saying.
The run in question I used MapMyRun GPS to calculate the distance. Fitbit doesn't seem to give me my distance for any given "workout" just a total for the day. I've never bothered to figure out if that is accurate. The steps are accurate as far as I can tell and I did enter my stride length as best as I could measure it, which is fairly average for my height. The HR is accurate as I have checked it with a chest strap monitor and they are never more than ~5 bpm different from each other.
I do sometimes run on a treadmill, which is very old, and I have reason to believe is very off in terms of pace or distance or incline. Outside, I run about 11:30-12:00 min/mile. At the same HR on the treadmill, I run 14:17 min/mile (4.2 mph). For instance, it took me 4000 steps to cover 2 miles outside (measured with MapMyRun GPS), and 4700 steps to cover 2 miles on the treadmill. I don't think my stride is that drastically different. Fitbit gave me 333 calories for 2 miles on the treadmill this morning.
I disagree that the exercise is not a substantial component of my daily burn though. 2 miles on the treadmill, 2 15 min walks to different locations at work, and that is adding up to 531 calories extra for the day, from a starting point of 1240.
Anyway, I seem to have so very little success in decreasing calories any further than currently, so I guess I'll just have to stick with it and see what happens. Hopefully the scale will begin to move again soon.0 -
Yeah, treadmills have to be calibrated for belt stretch and sensor losing it - so not always accurate.
MMR on a flat route would actually be more accurate.
Fitbit either at the moment can have an activity record started - or if you note the time and duration you can create one later.
That takes a snapshot of the stats for that block of time - calories, steps, distance, HR profile.
You should indeed do a known route of at least 1/2 mile at average daily moving pace - not grocery store shuffle and not exercise pace walking.
The Fitbit adjusts stride length for each step you take - based on amount of impact and your stride length figure.
But it's best if the stride length figure is in the middle of the range it must adjust for, not on one extreme or the other.
Then with MMR distance known, and steps from the Activity Record - you can calculate the stride length you should use for best daily calorie burn calculation.
miles x 5280 / steps taken = stride length in feet.inches (say 2.4)
Record the 2 feet.
Take the 0.inches (0.4) x 12 = decimal inches (4.8) to record.
So exercise pace may be off a tad, grocery store shuffle may be off a tad - but the vast majority of your day walking/moving not exercise will be best estimate.
I didn't mean the exercise isn't substantial, though for most it isn't - the difference in accuracy isn't - because it's not the difference between getting a calorie burn for exercise and not getting one.
It's the difference between getting perhaps a high one and a low one. If the accuracy is off by 50 calories as you mentioned above - that's minor to the daily burn. And minor to the amount of inaccuracy in your food labels.
But - if that 531 example was the Fitbit calorie adjustment - you are misunderstanding what that is.
It is NOT exercise you do. May include some of it.
It is merely the difference between what Fitbit saw for your movement that day - and what MFP thought you'd burn with no exercise and your selected activity level.
You could get a big adjustment with no exercise at all, but more active day.
You could get no adjustment with some exercise, but especially lazy rest the day.
Yep, just stick with it, let go of the stress caused by it - and take measurements to see changes there.
All sorts of good reasons for water weight changes in the body increasing because of exercise, but one bad one too related to stress. So hopefully you got the good ones.0 -
Yes, that is how I calculated my stride length. Went for a walk around the block with MMR on and then did the math.
The 531 was the total of the "activities" I did. The 333 cal run on treadmill of unknown distance. And then Fitbit automatically added in an activity when I walked over to a different building at work, and back (99 and 104). The total for the day was 776, so the extra 245 was the rest of my activity (cooking dinner, chasing kids, walking around the office, etc.) Right?
For some reason my Fitbit Dashboard always shows "N/a" for distance for a given activity. Not sure why that is.0 -
That is strange to start the activity automatically, which is somewhat based on steps - but then not give a distance.
Do you manually log any workout records?
If those are entered without distance, it leaves it as such.
That's correct math on what was extra daily activity if it catches those walks as separate.0 -
Hi @heybales
I log some things manually like if I go for a run, I push the button on the side of the watch to stop and start the workout period. I don't add anything to the log. I think I messed it up somehow by overanalyzing and using too many different programs to make sure the results were accurate and they are all linked together. I start MapMyRun and iSmoothRun at the beginning of a run, plus the Fitbit workout button. Then iSmoothRun exports the data to Runkeeper. And I think all three programs are linked to Fitbit and MFP. So I am ending up with duplicates in my Fitbit log which I then have to delete. I should probably pick one but still making the decision which one I like best.
Anyway, I went away for the weekend and ate sort of at maintenance (~2000 calories/day, but not logged very accurately), walked a bunch but didn't do any additional activity. Now down to 148 so happy about that for now! Thanks for the advice!0
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