Help! Want input on my cals in and out.

Undereating will not cause you to not lose weight. And weight loss is not linear-there will always be weeks where you don't lose or even gain, especially as a woman. That being said, are you weighing everything on a food scale? You may be eating more than you think.

Start by knowing your BMR and TDEE. Your BMR is your Base Metabolic Rate, or the amount of calories your body burns on a daily basis just existing. Your TDEE is your Total Daily Energy Expendature which is your BMR plus your activity level. I, personally go one further, I calculate my TDEE without exercise, and then add it in as I go with MFP. You can, however, use sites like IIFYM to calculate your exercise calories into your TDEE so you can eat the same every day rather than eating less on a rest day or eating more on days when you have done more exercise.

If you would like help, I suggest you post your height, weight, age, general activity level (IE: aside from exercise, how active are you daily?), and how much exercise you do a day and how intense it is. That information can be used to determine your daily calorie burn at sites like iifym.com or with MFP's calculator.

As far as entering your food, try and select entries based on the brands of food you eat, or simply scan the barcode if it has one which will usually bring up the correct entry in the database. Using generic or volume based (IE: half cup, full cup, tablespoon, etc.) is never accurate because sometimes you can cram more into a cup than what is intended. I use a food scale, and they are pretty cheap on Amazon.com if you need one. If you are very accurate with your food logging you'll get a better picture of why the weight loss stalls. As far as the exercise, I am also in the same camp as others, I try not to eat back more than 50% of those calories because it's generally not an accurate estimation. At least until you hit maintenance, then you can eat back more if you don't gain weight.

tiffanyO1994 wrote: »

I weight 207.6 and I'm 5'1 22 years of age. I have been jog WAlking 5km 2-3 times a week and then just speed walking 5k the other 2-3 days a week for 5 active days a week. Then I have two 'rest days' but even on those get my 10,000 steps

If any of these are new activities then you are likely retaining water from them.

Where are you in your menstrual cycle? I gain at ovulation and right before my TOM.

Plugging your numbers into IIFYM.com (you should try this yourself too, you can play around with it):

According to your stats listed above, iifym reports (this is without exercise factored in):

Your BMR is likely 1648 (according to their BMR calc)

Your TDEE is likely around 1889 (according to the iifym calculator)

According to bodybuilding.com (again, no exercise factored in):

Your BMR is likely 1741 (seems high to me)

Your TDEE (called RMR at their site) is likely 1964 (seems high to me)

According to bmi-calculator.net:

Your BMR is likely 1743.1

TDEE Not calculated at this site.

According to tdeecalculator.net:

Your TDEE is 1969 (seems high but I'm sensing a pattern)

You can see why I use iifym.com, it's slightly lower than other calcs which helps me deal with the fact that most exercise calculators are overestimating by at least 10-20%. Some, like fitbit.. but that's just my opinion, sometimes overestimate more.

So, those TDEE's don't include exercise, and are considered lightly active (office job activity level) per day, so you could use anything between 1889 - 1969 as your base TDEE to start. Now, a pound of fat is equal (some say anyway) to 3500 calories. If you wanted to lose 2 lbs per week you'd need to cut 7000 calories a week out of your diet, or 1000 calories per day. As you can see, even at the high end of TDEE that would leave you with 969 calories a day which is lower than what is recommeded (1200 minimum) for most people (at least that's as low as MFP will set you).

Remember BMR is Basal Metabolic Rate, that's the number of calories your body burns just being alive each day. It doesn't factor in moving, walking to the bathroom, or getting dressed, going to the store, etc. etc. etc. Your TDEE factors that stuff in depending on what activity level you select. Since I like to eat more on days I exercise more, I set my base calories at my TDEE (because I am in maintenance mode) then allow my exercise calories to be added in for extra calories for the day. If it's a rest day for me, I simply eat only at my TDEE level plus whatever I gain by steps that are added in from my phone being in my pocket during the day.

If you're like me, and walk fast during your sessions, a 3.1 mile (5k) walk will take you around 45 minutes maybe up to an hour if you walk slower. I walk so damn fast I am almost running, and lately I've been jogging up hills for extra burn but that's beside the point. So you could use IIFYM's calculator and put it at sedimentary (again, only if you have a desk job or go to school most days), then for exercise you could put 45 min a day, 5 days a week, and then select how hard you push yourself on their calculator and see what it gives you for a daily calorie burn. You can then let it figure your macros and plug those percentages into MFP to get your daily calories and macros. That will work fine and give you the same calories each day no matter if its a rest day or not (you MUST turn off calories from exercise in MFP for this to work - disconnect your fitbit from auto-logging), the only drawback is that if you slack off and don't exercise one week for 5 days for 45 minutes each, then you're not getting the same calorie burn and MFP won't know that so you'll be over on your calories and not know it. For that reason I set mine at TDEE and only eat back what I earn, or up to 80% of it for maintenance. When I was dieting I only ate back 50% just to be sure I wasn't gaining weight.

The only other thing you have to do is be accurate with your logging. Try not to use volume measurements, instead use weight (you may need a scale, they are cheap on Amazon.com), or scan the bar code with your phone to get the non-generic calorie estimates with MFP. You'll be surprised how extensive the database is. I rarely run into things that aren't in the database when scanning bar codes.

Sorry that's so long, hope it made sense. Good luck!

CasperNaegle wrote: »

I like where @Spliner1969 is taking you. What I would do if come up with your TDEE including exercise, set your calories based on that and keep it flat. You can adjust up or down based on what you see over time. If you were losing weight you were on the right track.. It's not uncommon for weight to drop off fast in the beginning and then slow down. Remember that weight loss is not linear and will bounce around on you. You will get in general way too many suggested calories from a fitbit or other like tool. I would be very cautious about eating back what they tell me.

Careful, setting your calories at TDEE plus exercise flat like that will net you maintenance not weight loss. I would suggest, if you don't want to worry about fluctuations (setting it flat) that you use iifym to calculate a 20% deficit from TDEE plus exercise (which their calc will do for you). That way it'll be flat at a 20% deficit and as long as your exercise stays the same each week it should work. I, personally, hate it flat like that because sometimes when I'm feeling good or have the extra time, I will burn more calories or work out extra time. A flat calculation won't take that into account. Also, I am prone to injury (age + previous injuries and stuff) so some weeks I don't quite hit my scheduled exercise marks, and on those weeks at a flat calculation I would be over.

I use iifym to calculate my TDEE without exercise (I leave the exercise minutes at 0, and put it at sedimentary with light activity levels). It tells me what I will burn on a daily basis without exercise. Then I use Endomondo (the OP would use fitbit sync) to allow that app to add in my exercise calories. So on those days that I exercise more, I can eat more, and on days I am at rest or don't exercise for whatever reason, I simply stay at the TDEE level that MFP shows me. It works for me anyway.

So the short version of all that crap I just posted is I calculate my calories like this:

TDEE + Exercise = Max daily calories. For me, I'm maintaining my weight so I simply leave a couple hundred calories at the end of the day so that I don't eat back too much (overcalculations n stuff).

The Op could:

80% of TDEE (that's a 20% deficit) + Exercise calories = Max daily calories, simply leave a couple hundred or more uneaten at the end of the day to account for overestimation by your device.