New to site, have calorie question
hrd2bnatrl
Posts: 10 Member
Hello everyone
I am new to the site. A little about me, I am active bike around 100 miles a week and weight lift approximately 3x a week. I have been weight training since I was 18, now 40. I have always been active and would think I would be in better shape then I am. My diet has never been horrible but not great so I am trying this app to see what I am really doing to get a better understanding on how to drop approximately 15lbs and maintain my muscle mass. First question is my calorie intake recommends me to be 2450 for the day. Today I was below that. Should I be eating up to my recommended calories to obtain my goal or should I be below? If below by how much? Also, when I cycle I will burn around 1500 calories should I be eating for those calories as well or still take in just the 2450 calories. Any comments are appreciated.
I am new to the site. A little about me, I am active bike around 100 miles a week and weight lift approximately 3x a week. I have been weight training since I was 18, now 40. I have always been active and would think I would be in better shape then I am. My diet has never been horrible but not great so I am trying this app to see what I am really doing to get a better understanding on how to drop approximately 15lbs and maintain my muscle mass. First question is my calorie intake recommends me to be 2450 for the day. Today I was below that. Should I be eating up to my recommended calories to obtain my goal or should I be below? If below by how much? Also, when I cycle I will burn around 1500 calories should I be eating for those calories as well or still take in just the 2450 calories. Any comments are appreciated.
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Replies
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What have you set your activity level to?0
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The way MFP is designed, your calorie goal includes your weight loss deficit so you should aim to eat to your goal every day. That said, when you add in exercise, you should be eating back a portion/all those calories as well. Keep in mind that some of MFP'S calorie burns can be overestimated (hence why some people only eat back a portion). It's recommended to eat back 50% and monitor your loss over the next few weeks. If you're losing more, up the percentage, if you're losing less, lower the percentage.0
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The idea is to eat at your goal. A day here and there below is okay. I'm not good at gauging calories for men. @sijomial and @cwolfman13 are two regular cyclists. Maybe they can offer guidance on your calorie range.1
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My suggestion would be to use the MFP "eat back exercise calories" method when you have an irregular/varied exercise routine. Especially handy for long rides when you do need to be fuelling yourself.
Set your activity setting for your job/lifestyle (ignoring exercise) to get your base calories. Choose a moderate/slow rate of weight loss to help maintain muscle whilst losing fat and also maintain exercise performance.
Log strength training using the MFP category (cardio section of your diary), it's a small burn and impossible to be accurate anyway for weights. It's near enough to be useable.
Estimate your cycling calories using whatever method suits you best.
Eat those estimates back. After a month or so you will start to see your true weight trend and can make adjustments based on your rate of weight lost.
I use either Strava or Garmin to estimate my cycling calorie burns. Both come out with low burn estimates (under by about 20%). I'm not the most aerodynamic of riders!
The MFP cycling calorie estimates in the database are very high for me and the speed ranges are too wide as well, there's a big difference between cycling at 16mph and 20mph....
Accuracy isn't really as important as consistency and adjusting based on results.
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My suggestion would be to use the MFP "eat back exercise calories" method when you have an irregular/varied exercise routine. Especially handy for long rides when you do need to be fuelling yourself.
Set your activity setting for your job/lifestyle (ignoring exercise) to get your base calories. Choose a moderate/slow rate of weight loss to help maintain muscle whilst losing fat and also maintain exercise performance.
Log strength training using the MFP category (cardio section of your diary), it's a small burn and impossible to be accurate anyway for weights. It's near enough to be useable.
Estimate your cycling calories using whatever method suits you best.
Eat those estimates back. After a month or so you will start to see your true weight trend and can make adjustments based on your rate of weight lost.
I use either Strava or Garmin to estimate my cycling calorie burns. Both come out with low burn estimates (under by about 20%). I'm not the most aerodynamic of riders!
The MFP cycling calorie estimates in the database are very high for me and the speed ranges are too wide as well, there's a big difference between cycling at 16mph and 20mph....
Accuracy isn't really as important as consistency and adjusting based on results.
Great information!!I synced runkeeper with MFP and will be cycling today. I will try to eat back at least half of the calories I burn plus my goal, which will be hard...thank you0 -
hrd2bnatrl wrote: »
Keep in mind that MFP does not include exercise in your activity level. So if you set to very active when you have a desk job, then record exercise, it may give you too many calories.1 -
hrd2bnatrl wrote: »
Keep in mind that MFP does not include exercise in your activity level. So if you set to very active when you have a desk job, then record exercise, it may give you too many calories.
yeah, i guess that here on MFP "very active" means that you have very active job. it doesn't count exercise calories. so i believe if you go cycling and then your job is a desk job
you would be better off choosing "sedentary" or "light active" + exercise calories0 -
Id put very active on, add more calories then that cause 1500 is just the bike ride you still walk and move around all day you probably burning 4k-5k calories on those days do calorie cycles and carb cycle for those days raise caloroes on rest days lower it1
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