Struggling to find maintenance calories

kgirlhart
kgirlhart Posts: 5,162 Member
in Goal: Maintaining Weight
I have been on maintenance since July 25, 2016. But in that time I have lost 5.4 pounds, so obviously I am not maintaining. That is only a .39 per week rate of loss, but I am now officially under my maintenance range. I'm kind of driving myself crazy trying to figure out the numbers. I have mfp set to maintain at sedentary (I have a desk job) and I have fitbit synced and I try to eat back most of the adjustment. I will admit I am often a little under. I know it is a mind game, but it really bothers me to see red numbers at the end of the day. If I manually raise my goal on mfp by 50 calories per day is that going to mess up my fitbit adjustment? I know I need to be eating a little more. I'm just a little confused about how much more.

Replies

  • trigden1991
    trigden1991 Posts: 4,658 Member
    By my maths that's nearly 200cals per day below maintenance. I would manually adjust your calories. However I can't offer any advice on the fitbit issue.
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    edited October 2016
    If you're still losing weight you need to eat more, it really is that simple, so stop eating under your calories.
  • kgirlhart
    kgirlhart Posts: 5,162 Member
    My fitbit adjustment is usually anywhere from 200 - 500 calories so I usually eat at least 200 more than my goal and usually more. I guess I am just kind of frustrated trying to pin down the range I need. I have been averaging around 1800 - 2000 but I guess I need more.
  • DancingMoosie
    DancingMoosie Posts: 8,619 Member
    Could you just change your setting to lightly active?
  • dbashby
    dbashby Posts: 44 Member
    You need to be meticulous about measuring the exact amount of calories you are eating. Which means no guestimating, which means accurately measureable foods (things like salads tend to require a guestimate). A couple of weeks should help you nail down accurately what your BMR and/or TDEE are this will then let you know how much more you need to eat. An enviable position I would say. IDK what tell you about your Fitbit, I will say those while excellent motivators also tend to be guestimators too. Even pre packed package labels aren't 100% accurate.
  • kgirlhart
    kgirlhart Posts: 5,162 Member
    I did think about switching to lightly active. I wasn't sure how that would work with fitbit. And I do weigh as much of my food as I can. The only things I don't weigh are Yogurts and fiber one snacks.
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    kgirlhart wrote: »
    My fitbit adjustment is usually anywhere from 200 - 500 calories so I usually eat at least 200 more than my goal and usually more. I guess I am just kind of frustrated trying to pin down the range I need. I have been averaging around 1800 - 2000 but I guess I need more.

    Sounds like 2000 -2200 would do it
  • kgirlhart
    kgirlhart Posts: 5,162 Member
    Changing to lightly active gave me about 200 extra calories so I am going to try that for a while and try to make sure and eat back all of the adjustment and see how that goes. Thanks for all the advice. Who knew I would ever need advice on how not to lose weight.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,416 Member
    To be fair, you knew the answer, but you were hung up on that whole red numbers thing. :lol:
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,416 Member
    Which I totally understand, I just recently changed my settings for the same reason.
  • kgirlhart
    kgirlhart Posts: 5,162 Member
    cmriverside wrote: »
    To be fair, you knew the answer, but you were hung up on that whole red numbers thing. :lol:

    You are right. I know that it is ok to go over a little, but that red plays with my head. I wish there was a yellow zone.
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
    edited November 2016
    kgirlhart wrote: »
    Changing to lightly active gave me about 200 extra calories so I am going to try that for a while and try to make sure and eat back all of the adjustment and see how that goes. Thanks for all the advice. Who knew I would ever need advice on how not to lose weight.

    Just make sure and check today's numbers tomorrow morning. When i was set at lightly active i lost up to 200 calories by the next morning. So you might go to to bed in the green, but wake up in the red.

    ETA: Do you have negative adjustments enabled?
  • kgirlhart
    kgirlhart Posts: 5,162 Member
    Thanks Christine. I''l be sure to check that. I do have negative adjustments enabled.
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
    It's stupid that lightly active gives around 200 calories more, but i ended up losing those extra calories overnight... I get between 15-20k steps a day, however i think the bug with me is that i turn into a very sedentary sloth after around 4pm and am usually in bed by 7-7:30. So there's a full 8 hours where i am nowhere near lightly active.
  • kgirlhart
    kgirlhart Posts: 5,162 Member
    I am probably more active in the evening after work. I guess I will have to see how it goes.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    kgirlhart wrote: »
    Changing to lightly active gave me about 200 extra calories so I am going to try that for a while and try to make sure and eat back all of the adjustment and see how that goes. Thanks for all the advice. Who knew I would ever need advice on how not to lose weight.
    kgirlhart wrote: »
    Changing to lightly active gave me about 200 extra calories so I am going to try that for a while and try to make sure and eat back all of the adjustment and see how that goes. Thanks for all the advice. Who knew I would ever need advice on how not to lose weight.

    This has no bearing on the total number of calories you end up with as eating goal.

    Say the following applies to end of day math.

    Fitbit reports to MFP you burned 2500 through the day.

    MFP estimates you'll burn 2000 as Sedentary setting, and 2250 as Lightly Active setting.

    Sedentary you get 500 cal adjustment on top of your eating goal of 2000.
    Lightly Active you get 250 cal adjustment on top of eating goal of 2250.

    Both equal 2500.

    And the math through the day pretty much does the same thing too.

    Only thing changing the activity level does is make the adjustments smaller if you really do eat your meals on the fly with no planning, and need more accurate estimate of what you got left.
    If you have rough idea that you'll need say 2000 calories and plan your meals - then those really don't matter as much.

    Other effect is what Christine mentions, for when you plop on couch at end of day and then going to bed.
    MFP is still assuming those final sitting/sleeping hours are either Sedentary or Lightly active - that could be 4-6 hrs of time until midnight.
    And Fitbit is going to report for those hours even lower than both of those on the next morning's sync.
    So if you meet your goal at 8 pm, you'll be over on first sync in the morning when you review prior day.

    All this is assuming the syncing is happening correctly of course. That could be mighty big assumption.

    The reason the Fitbit could be reporting less than you really burn - you aren't manually logging workouts you should log, which Fitbit is bad at estimating calorie burn with.
    Or you have standing job that counts as sleeping calorie burn rate, but obviously higher.
    Or steps is being missed badly, or distance is reported as much shorter than reality, along with calorie burn being lower than reality.
  • TangledThread
    TangledThread Posts: 312 Member
    Just jumping in to say "me too". I reached goal in July. I eat almost all my Fitbit calories but I also hate seeing red so leave a few. I'm also still losing.

    Please check back with what setting works for you. I'm thinking of setting mine to gain half a pound a week but have put off the math too see how much of that extra 250 I can eat. I have the data, but math.
  • Owlfan88
    Owlfan88 Posts: 187 Member
    I had this issue as well. I finally ended up setting my account to gain 1/2 pound a week because I really didn't like the red. And because I really had lost more than I wanted to and wanted to gain some back. I think I spent about 6 months or more with my goal being to gain. And I have finally gotten back into the range I would like to be in (still lower than my original goal though).

    Some days Fitbit seems to go crazy on how many extra calories I get though. Those days I have to go by what seems reasonable from past history. Like yesterday I got just over 10k steps, but no intentional exercise and MFP gave me 440 extra calories on top of lightly active setting. Vs one day last week where I got a similar number of steps, but with a 41 minute brisk walk and only got 220 extra calories. I think Fitbit/MFP gave me too many yesterday, so I didn't eat them all.
  • kgirlhart
    kgirlhart Posts: 5,162 Member
    I don't really care that much what my fitbit adjustment is, whether it is big or small. I just am trying to net about 200 more calories per day than I have been so I will stop losing weight. So on days when I am more active I want to make sure that I eat more. I have noticed that my adjustment is often different the next morning. Last night when I went to bed I was 47 calories under my goal and when I got up this morning I was 38 calories under goal. I went to bed around 11:30 pm which is about when I normally go to bed. I do have a sedentary job and I try to get a break in the morning and get some steps in, but I often get the bulk of my steps after 4 pm. I log all of my food on mfp and all of my exercise on fitbit. I do 30 minutes of yoga on weekday mornings and I walk about 3 miles everyday after work. I have started doing C25K on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. I considered changing my goal to gain .5 and I think that gave me a few calories more than changing to lightly active. I'm going to try to stick with lightly active for a while and see how it goes. This is giving me 1710 plus exercise instead of 1520 plus exercise. So I'm thinking as long as I eat most of the adjustment I should be netting about 200 more than I have been. I will keep an eye on the difference int the adjustment from when I go to bed to when I get up. That may be the number of exercise adjustment I should not eat. Logically I know that I shouldn't worry if I am 50 calories either side of my goal, but it really does bother me to have red numbers at the end of the day.
  • TangledThread
    TangledThread Posts: 312 Member
    Owlfan88 wrote: »
    I had this issue as well. I finally ended up setting my account to gain 1/2 pound a week because I really didn't like the red. And because I really had lost more than I wanted to and wanted to gain some back. I think I spent about 6 months or more with my goal being to gain. And I have finally gotten back into the range I would like to be in (still lower than my original goal though).

    Some days Fitbit seems to go crazy on how many extra calories I get though. Those days I have to go by what seems reasonable from past history. Like yesterday I got just over 10k steps, but no intentional exercise and MFP gave me 440 extra calories on top of lightly active setting. Vs one day last week where I got a similar number of steps, but with a 41 minute brisk walk and only got 220 extra calories. I think Fitbit/MFP gave me too many yesterday, so I didn't eat them all.

    It does this to me too. A slow day but on my feet all day with no sitting gives me a crazy amount of calories verses the same number of steps done at a run but the rest of the day at a desk. I eat every single one of them less 35-ish so I don't go into the red and I'm still losing.

    I'm going to do it. If I still lose this month I'm going to switch over to gaining. I should do it now but watching the scale ooze down while eating all the food is fun. But there is only so many times I can mentally reset my goal weight (I haven't reset GW on fitbit or MFP. It's still my original higher weight)

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