Love the idea of my new diet being "eat more"
Replies
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Yes all the calculators etc are just a guide in the end. It's great that you are taking your time and pushing and gauging your TDEE for yourself.
I found that Fitbit under estimates my TDEE by about 300 calories, most days.
Don't you love eating more? So much more room to get in the nutrient dense food plus all your favourites too. Win win!
What positive side effects of eating more are you seeing so far?
Ichel
Team EM2WL0 -
Positive side effects:
No more Binge eating, I make myself eat more during the day (600 cals per meal when it used to bee 400 or less) and add in snacks if I feel even the slightest bit hungry. So when I get to night time (when I used to just gorge), I just eat the calories left for the day and that is almost always enough.
I eat all the goodies I want and I find I am eating less sugar, I just don't want it as much as I used to, plus I think it helps that I know if I want something I can go ahead and eat it with no real consequences other than having to balance my macros and add in enough protein to balance out any extra carbs I eat.
Workouts... SO much easier. I still have energy afterward.
My hunger signals are starting to come back.
I can eat a LOT and not gain weight. This is my biggest positive, LOL, I do love food!5 -
Week 3 check in
Goal: finding my True TDEE
avg TDEE according to fit bit: 2350
Avg Calories eaten: 2650 (wow higher than I thought) No day under 2350
Weight: 196.8 ( Down 0.2 lb since starting)
Last week (Wed- Sun) I was more active than usual due to a power outage, so I ate to reflect that, my original goal was 2350 per day, but fitbit keep adding calories to my day so I ate them.
This week fitbit is telling me to eat a lot less. I am going to ignore fitbit and adjust up to 2450 per day plus adding in any for days that I go way over my usual activity (Sat I have a karate tournament so I plan I eating a lot that day).
It's pretty evident that 2350 is not my TDEE. I was thinking maybe if I tell fitbit I am a man it will get closer to my actual TDEE?
So far so good...!
Kelly2 -
Silly question, maybe, but does it matter? As long as you know how much FitBit is off by, just factor that into your calorie goal. If it's low by 250 cals/day, tell MFP that you want to gain 0.5 pounds/week when you want to maintain. Tell it you want to maintain when you want to lose 0.5 pounds/week. Or just set a manual calorie goal.
I completely understand the desire to have accurate numbers but, as long as you know the "fudge factor", you can make the numbers accurate yourself.0 -
Not a silly question
It actually doesn't matter, I have been eating and adjusting up as needed. I just am a bit OCD and want to see my fitbit app say I am in the zone hehehe. I never though of setting it to gain - I will have to do that!
I do know the fudge factor and I do adjust up and down based on my activity levels. I just want all my apps to be pretty and match! HAHA3 -
I figured out the fitbit thing - I had to set it to maintain and not deficit. Its actually tell me 2500 per day now food wise to maintain. I figure that is pretty darn close. It still underestimates my calories burned, but it now says :in the zone" for food so I am happy lol.1
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Gender change isn't way to do it - bigger than needed change.
You can change your height to cause the difference too.
This can all be calculated backwards if desired to have the device pretty close. This could be because of more LBM than expected by normal BMR calc.0 -
Oh - that one fuel gauge view?
Most have removed that as it is usually useless until the end of the day.
Rarely does anyone's eating rate of calories match their burning rate as the day goes on.
So for making a decision right then as to what to have for lunch perhaps - a planned day is a successful day.1 -
That's a good plan. Take that tile off my dashboard all together. I also had to turn off negative adjustments in mfp it was knocking me down to 2100 or so a day. So I set my mfp goals to 2450 calories per day with exercise adjustments to increase only. I think that is getting me much closer. I am still up around 2600-2700 a day with no gain. I may have to go up more. I lost more this week but that may be water too. I will see how it goes this week and know by Thurs if I have to increase again.
I NEVER thought I would get this high without gaining.1 -
Your body may be getting unstressed from not undereating and losing water weight now.
Same way people will go weeks with no weight loss (but inches lost) and they are sure they are in a deficit eating.
Body is stressed by the extreme aspect, and can add upwards of 20 lbs of water.
1 lb weekly fat loss shown by measurements happening while 1 lb of water is slowly added - for 20 weeks.
Ya - talk about stress over diet now.
Congrats on getting higher.
If everyone starting a diet would just log their current eating style for a couple weeks before starting - to know how much they really burn about, many times without even the exercise included.
Then take 250 from that, and start exercising.
It could be so simple and easy. Most have no idea how much they were eating on average.1 -
So true. I have not lost any inches yet, but I am still right around where I was hovering for 3 months when I was not "really" dieting, aka eating less during the day and chowing down every night which caused me to pretty much just maintain LOL.1
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EM2WL works for everyone! Most throw in the towel after a couple of weeks/months when they haven't seen instant results.
So glad you are pushing your calories higher to determine true TDEE, you will not regret taking this time!
Ichel
Team EM2WL1 -
I think mostly I am really enjoying being able to eat so much and not gain. Plus eating more has pretty much killed the binge-like cravings I used to get. Stuff still looks good, but, a lot of times I can take it or leave it because I am eating what feels like MORE than enough. And I do eat anything I want with no guilt, only some macro adjusting here and there.2
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Your body may be getting unstressed from not undereating and losing water weight now.
Same way people will go weeks with no weight loss (but inches lost) and they are sure they are in a deficit eating.
Body is stressed by the extreme aspect, and can add upwards of 20 lbs of water.
1 lb weekly fat loss shown by measurements happening while 1 lb of water is slowly added - for 20 weeks.
Ya - talk about stress over diet now.
Congrats on getting higher.
If everyone starting a diet would just log their current eating style for a couple weeks before starting - to know how much they really burn about, many times without even the exercise included.
Then take 250 from that, and start exercising.
It could be so simple and easy. Most have no idea how much they were eating on average.
If only I had logged before trying to cut. I might have been saved from a reset if I knew this. So, YES, to what heybales said.0 -
And of course known about heavy lifting. Sigh. Oh well, we learn and do better.0
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Weekly check in:
Fitbit TDEE: 2300
EM2WL: Strenous TDEE: 2750
MFP TDEE (no exercise): 2510
Actual Calories: 2680 avg per day.
Starting weight 197.8
Today's weight 197.8
Yesterday 196.8
No actual gain - still bouncing around a lot per week with water weight depending on how much sugar I eat close to bed time (ate a brownie right before bed yesterday LOL).
Going to push up to about 2750 per day this week and see what happens. The amount I can eat is shocking to me. Need to work a little more on getting all my protein - have been sitting at about 25% instead of my 30% goal.
Fitbit is so totally wrong about my TDEE and I find I am happy about that. I love that food is no longer the enemy and I can indulge and enjoy.
Biggest NSV so far is how much energy I have for my workouts. I feel great during class and I am almost never ready to be done once class is finished. I even added in an extra class last night that was a special tricks and kicks class and I must have done 30 Cartwheels and I STILL felt great afterward (other than a few sore joints - but I have arthritis from a 10 year battle with Lyme disease so that is expected). I have not had this much energy and endurance in 20 years.
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This is awesome. You make me want to eat more!!!
My Fitbit Charge HR gives me an average TDEE of 2300 I don't log my strength workouts.
EM2WL is 2450. Maybe someday I will reach that high... Working on 2200 for a few weeks..
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I was thinking that with 5 days working out - you probably can eat more - I only do about 4 days, some weeks 3, some weeks 5. But avg is 4. It's hard to increase calories without panic, I am slowly getting better at it.. 2200 is a good goal - that was actually my second goal, my first was 1950.
I think I was able to jump up a lot (from 1900 to 2600 in 4 weeks), because I had been eating more calories (just bad macros) for a couple of months before I found EM2WL. My actual goal last week was only 2450, but I found myself wanting more - so I went ahead and ate a little more which was actually ended up being 200 cals a day more LOL oops.
One of the things I really focus on is hitting my protein goal, it seems like that is a key for me - if I was just eating this many calories without the higher protein level, I think I would be gaining.1 -
I have been trying to eat enough protein as well. Loving these high protein pancake mix I bought at Target. Kodiak cakes. And protein bars etc. I am maintaining for the most part. A .25 lb gain since February 13. Not too shabby I suppose. Average eats 2166 for 5 weeks. Tdee 2225.1
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2225 seems low with 5 days a week working out (though Fitbit still thinks mine is 2300 ish), unless of course that is without working out. It seems especially low since I discovered mine is up in the 2750+ range LOL, but I think I outweigh you by about 45 lbs and I am probably taller (5'8") as well - so that might be the difference!
And .25 lb gain in over a month sounds great to me - especially as it might be muscle!
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Gonna just keep plugging away! Test the waters and see what happens!! Can't hurt. Keep increasing and see how things go!!!,Thanks for your input!!0
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Fitbit is a great place to start, but yes, it does not calculate in weight training. A lot of the time our weight workout is listed as nothing happening, because we are generally not moving. But its the calorie burn AFTER the workout that matters, and thats something the fitbit cant calculate.. so its a good starting point, but if you lift weights, you should know that your TDEE is actually higher than the gadget says
Kelly
Team EM2WL2 -
Naturalnut wrote: »Weekly check in:
Fitbit TDEE: 2300
EM2WL: Strenous TDEE: 2750
MFP TDEE (no exercise): 2510
Actual Calories: 2680 avg per day.
Starting weight 197.8
Today's weight 197.8
Yesterday 196.8
No actual gain - still bouncing around a lot per week with water weight depending on how much sugar I eat close to bed time (ate a brownie right before bed yesterday LOL).
Going to push up to about 2750 per day this week and see what happens. The amount I can eat is shocking to me. Need to work a little more on getting all my protein - have been sitting at about 25% instead of my 30% goal.
Fitbit is so totally wrong about my TDEE and I find I am happy about that. I love that food is no longer the enemy and I can indulge and enjoy.
Biggest NSV so far is how much energy I have for my workouts. I feel great during class and I am almost never ready to be done once class is finished. I even added in an extra class last night that was a special tricks and kicks class and I must have done 30 Cartwheels and I STILL felt great afterward (other than a few sore joints - but I have arthritis from a 10 year battle with Lyme disease so that is expected). I have not had this much energy and endurance in 20 years.
Keep those calories up so that the energy levels stay up! Don't want to be dropping them anytime soon, even if you don't feel hungry (referring to your other thread) and, if the new class becomes a regular thing, remember that increase your TDEE again! So will need more food!
Ichel
Team EM2WL0 -
Will do! Yesterday when this started I was doing a regular class and it was much easier than normal - aka we did stuff that involved a lot of standing around and waiting. I figured maybe my calorie burn was just less so my body was figuring I didn't need it LOL.0
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Week 5 check in:
Back to my normal level of activity this past week to week an a half. Discovered that eating the same amount I did when I was extra active caused me to surpass my TDEE in eating. Finally took some pictures that I will look at somewhere down the line.
Fitbit TDEE: 2300
EM2WL: Moderate TDEE: 2500
MFP TDEE (no exercise): 2210
Actual Calories: 2725 avg per day.
Starting weight 197.8
Last Weeks Weight: 197.8
Today's weight 200.9
Given that I was very active at the 2650 for two weeks when I didn't gain and moving up to 2725 caused a pretty big jump (though some of that is female monthly water!) and I am back to moderately active , my normal TDEE is going to be right around 2500-2600 so the EM2WL Calculator is right on when I calculate my activity correctly.
So going to call my TDEE 2550 tested and confirmed so that is where I will sit for a while. I will eat any extra needed for "above my normal" activity as well. My Focus is going to be on eating "real" foods to hit my macros, more complex carbs, less white carbs and try and hit my protein goals with meat/cheese/nuts instead of relying so heavily on the protein bars.
I did my Monthly measurements this past Sunday morning.
Measurements results:
Starting 2/23/17: Sunday 3/26/17:
Neck: 14.5 14.5
Biceps: 14 13.5
Chest: 44 43.5
Waist: 40 39.5
Belly Button: 43 43.5
Hips: 48 47.5
Thigh: 25 25
Calf: 14 14
A little change here and there but pretty much steady for the month of determining my TDEE. The arm change is for sure fat gone - I can see it and feel it Hubby says I feel firmer and he can see they increase in calories/protein has been good for me.
New Goals:
Calories per day: 2550 (at TDEE) (pad as needed for unexpected activity)
Increase whole foods, decrease white flour and sugar foods
Eat more real protein (and fiber) and fewer protein bars.
Continue workout routine as normal. Get up and move around more at work, add in some body weight exercises as I can during the day.
Kelly3 -
This is wonderful news!!!!0
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So my scale numbers are still going up... I had to laugh at myself this morning and am so glad I have read so many of everyone else's journey stories, this is when it helps!
I had an almost panic moment when I stepped on the scale and it was 201.6 after being at 200.9 yesterday, and moving my calories back down after exceeding my TDEE.
The first thing I did was start second guessing (maybe my TDEE is lower than 2550, maybe fitbit is right and its 2200), I shouldn't have eaten that last protein bar last night - etc etc... All this after only one day at my new lower calories amount! hahaha. Then I took a deep breath and told myself - this is controlled - I am not gaining because I am over-eating... Trust the process. So I ran in the other room grabbed the tape measure and PHEW no inches gained - so I guess I must be doing ok.
2550 for 6 more days THEN I will see where I am!
K
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Just keep plugging away and stay the course. It's hard. With the stories and support here and the knowledge you have, you have got this!0
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Ya, daily weigh-ins are mostly noise of water fluctuations.
If you are going to do that - you need at minimum 30 days to see a trend through the noise.
In which case weigh yourself 4-6 x daily so you can exactly how useless the number is when it's too frequent.1 -
So glad you took pictures. You will be pleased in months to come when you can compare new ones.
Ichel
Team EM2WL0
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