Do I add my exercise, or is it already added?

prettypeach790
prettypeach790 Posts: 27 Member
edited August 2016 in Fitness and Exercise
Hello,

I have recently hit a plateau (i have gained around a lb in 3 weeks and now the scale won't budge at 170), and so I went in to my settings of my fitness goals, and changed my goals a little. I've lost around 45 lbs in around 4 months, and am only a few lbs away from my goal weight. I noticed I didn't have everything filled out properly. I changed my goal weight to be 165 instead of 160 (I just felt like I would change it back after I see what I look like at 165 (I am 5'10). I added that I work out 5 days a week for around 30 minutes, and changed the goal weight to 165. It made my calorie intake 1200 which is less than before (it was 1280). Not sure why it would do that? I was thinking maybe I wasn't eating enough and that was why I hit this tough spot. So I figured when I added that I workout every day it would give me more. Currently I manually add my exercise every day, but I rarely eat all the extra calories it gives me for the calories burned. I normally eat between 1200-1400 a day. It is 1200 a day more than not. I will have a high calorie day normally that will be 1300-1600 every once in a while. MFP never puts me in the red calorie wise though. I always have extra calories.

So does it add calories to my daily base amount based off the fact I stated I work out 5 days a week, or do I still go in and add WHAT exercise I do and that is when it adds the workout calories? I am a little confused about that.

Could that be causing this? Some days I eat more than others, sometimes less... What could I be doing wrong? Why did it take my calories away when I changed those goals?

Replies

  • prettypeach790
    prettypeach790 Posts: 27 Member
    I work in an office, so I am sure that plays a huge role in the calorie intake it gave me. I didn't take that into account that I changed my daily activity level (job) to that, and added the exercise thinking it would counter balance. I can post my food diary for sure. I would love to know. I know I eat a lot of sugar (fruits are my weakness).

    I try to log 100% of the things that enter my mouth (even my chewing gum/pickles/mustard/ etc)

    I will make my diary public and see if anyone has any pointers. I am not good with knowing what I am doing outside of trying to stick to calories, but I know I go over on some and under on the other nutrition goals.

    Let me know if you see any red flags! :)
  • prettypeach790
    prettypeach790 Posts: 27 Member
    Due to the stop in weight loss, I have tried to eat more and even had a few high calorie days to throw it off, and it hasn't worked.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    prettypeach790 wrote: »

    Let me know if you see any red flags! :)

    Using cups and spoons are definite red flags!

    Epically useless way to estimate food - see how much grated cheese you can get in and then press it down and get twice as much in.

    Spoons - flat or heaped? I'm an elite athlete at getting as much PB on a spoon as humanly possible. :)

    The calories are related to the weight of your food not the volume.
    Buy some digital scales and use them. Even if just for a short time to learn what portion sizes really are.
  • SueInAz
    SueInAz Posts: 6,592 Member
    It sounds like you changed your activity level from lightly active to sedentary? That would account for the reduction in daily calories. To answer your original question, if you are set to Sedentary you should be manually entering any exercise you do. However, your actual issue goes well beyond that question.

    The fact that MFP gave you 1200 calories as a daily goal indicates that you're attempting to lose more weight per week than you really can at this point. 1200 is as low as MFP will go for females and MFP giving you that goal can be misleading. If you are currently at a healthy weight, you won't be able to lose weight as quickly as someone who is very overweight. Here's a good set of guidelines for how many pounds you should be attempting to lose each week. The number in parentheses is how many fewer calories you should eat than your body burns each day to reach that goal:

    Pound per week goals
    75+ lbs: set to lose 2 lb range (-1000 calories per day)
    Between 40 - 75 lbs: set to lose 1.5 lb range (-750 calories per day)
    Between 25 - 40 lbs: set to lose 1 lb range (-500 calories per day)
    Between 15 - 25 lbs: set to lose 1 -.50 lb range (-500 to -250 calories per day)
    Less than 15 lbs: set to lose 0.5 lbs range (-250 calories per day)

    As you can see, to lose 2 pounds per week you need to be eating 1000 calories per day fewer than your body burns. If you don't have a lot to lose it's pretty hard, if not impossible, to meet the 1000 calorie deficit unless you are spending hours at the gym. What all of this means is that even if you set MFP for 2 pounds per week, if you aren't reaching that 1000 calorie deficit daily you aren't actually going to lose that much because you aren't creating the necessary calorie deficit.

    Another thing that can cause problems is inaccurate logging. I see that you aren't using a food scale in the kitchen and you've already had a lot of recommendations to start using one. I echo that. You'll be very surprised at the actual calorie counts of some of the things you've been measuring with cups and spoons. Also, you mentioned that you're not eating back all of your exercise calories, which is wise. How are you validating those calories burns, though? A heart rate monitor? Exercise equipment calorie outputs? MFP's guesstimate? The second and third options can be very far off so even if you aren't eating all of those calories you may still be eating too many which can impact your weight loss.
  • prettypeach790
    prettypeach790 Posts: 27 Member
    I do have a food scale, and I use it with meats, but not so much other things, so maybe that is where I am missing steps.

    (my "cheat" food when others are indulging in cakes and cookies are little snacks like dry cereal or baked penguin snacks ;) I love them too I keep them OUT of my house though!)

    I had a hormonal moment (tmi I know) where I was shaky no matter what I ate for about 8 days, so that is where all that peanut butter was added into my diet, and I know that accuracy was rough because I just kept going back to the jar when I felt light headed. I just was trying to stay away from cake and chocolate so I was desperate! I normally would do the "heaping" spoon oppose to a clean tablespoon.

    My scale is not digital, so it would be hard to weigh the little things like that, should I get a digital food scale?

    I have no problem putting in the work to weigh everything. I normally make all my food at home except breakfast due to my early starts in the morning for work. I don't mind prepping lunch, dinner or snacks.

    I will get a digital food scale and just start weighing oppose to going with cups and tablespoons. I find it harder to locate cups and tbsp on here anyways, because it is all in oz form.

    So I should change my weight loss goal to be .5 to 1 lb per week instead of my 2lb?

  • SueInAz
    SueInAz Posts: 6,592 Member
    edited August 2016
    prettypeach790 wrote: »
    I do have a food scale, and I use it with meats, but not so much other things, so maybe that is where I am missing steps.

    The more calorie dense a food is, the more important it is to be accurate. Meat is one of those things so you've made a good start.

    prettypeach790 wrote: »
    My scale is not digital, so it would be hard to weigh the little things like that, should I get a digital food scale?
    While a digital scale isn't absolutely necessary it's much easier to work with. You should be able to find one for about $10-20 US. The fancier ones cost a little more. The two minimum features you should look for are the ability to weigh in both grams and ounces and that it has a tare function. You'll find the ability to tare (zero) out the scale between food items to be very, very useful when cooking or building a salad.

    You'll also want to make sure that the maximum weight is high enough to support your cookware plus food. The one I have goes up to 14 pounds which has always been more than enough for my needs. It's also better to find one that you can easily read with a bowl on top.

    prettypeach790 wrote: »
    So I should change my weight loss goal to be .5 to 1 lb per week instead of my 2lb?

    Depending on how much you have to lose, yes. It's not so much that it's hurting your weight loss as it is making things more difficult for you than they need to be.
  • prettypeach790
    prettypeach790 Posts: 27 Member
    Thank you so much for all the suggestions. I am going to get a scale and try to be more accurate.

    I may change my goal to be 1 lb a week and see what that looks like calorie wise. Maybe I could at least try it for a couple weeks to see, and go back to 2lbs and see if it makes any difference (I know that it is debated if the calorie cycling even works, but hey it can't hurt to give my body a little break on being so strict).

    :)
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    prettypeach790 wrote: »
    Thank you so much for all the suggestions. I am going to get a scale and try to be more accurate.

    I may change my goal to be 1 lb a week and see what that looks like calorie wise. Maybe I could at least try it for a couple weeks to see, and go back to 2lbs and see if it makes any difference (I know that it is debated if the calorie cycling even works, but hey it can't hurt to give my body a little break on being so strict).

    :)

    Would suggest trying for at least a month as hormonal fluctuations can easier give a false short term trend.
  • prettypeach790
    prettypeach790 Posts: 27 Member
    *UPDATE*

    You guys were totally on point... I was probably serving myself anywhere from 2-4 servings a peanut butter a pop.

    I got a digital scale, and portioned out my peanut butter in little cups to take with me, and boy do they mean EXACTLY 2 tablespoons packed and scraped.

    I knew peanut butter was the culprit, because it was the only thing I had added to my diet, but I didn't realize it was because I was so blatantly measuring it wrong. I thought maybe it was the fact I was eating it every day and maybe the fat was causing the stop in weight loss.

    I was doing the same with hummus, but isn't as big as a deal, but I was also probably doubling or tripling the serving of that as well.


    Thanks for the advice guys! Now that I won't be eating a half a days worth of calories in peanut butter I am sure I will go back to my weight loss as before. :)

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