Calorie Burn

sijomial wrote: »

thisisitnic wrote: »

sijomial wrote: »

thisisitnic wrote: »

sijomial wrote: »

thisisitnic wrote: »

It’s crazy how many websites even forums in here say it’s best not to eat them. There are just as many saying eat them. Completely mind blowing x

Other websites work in a different way - you aren't comparing like with like.

TDEE sites ask you to estimate in advance your weekly exercise and then that's averaged out so that you eat to the same goal every day - some of that goal is made up of your average daily exercise calories.
On here activity setting deliberately excludes exercise and you eat a variable amount in line with that day's exercise.
Both end up in the same place over the course of a week if done correctly.

You seem really knowledgeable. Can I ask why some trainers say it’s wrong to it calories back then?

Without seeing the advice or context it's all a guess.

My guess would be stupidity, ignorance (training and nutrition aren't the same thing at all), telling clients what they want hear, short term versus long term view, clients simply misunderstanding what trainers are actually saying, working out a calorie goal in a different way they haven't properly explained, different terminology..... Pick one or several reasons.

The absolute basics of weight loss/gain/maintenance is your calorie balance - it makes zero sense to ignore a significant part of your calorie expenditure if you are calorie counting.
That's not to say there aren't different and sensible ways to lose weight but if you select a tool then it makes sense to use it as designed.

You really do make a lot of sense. I should stop reading all that other stuff and go with how MFP is designed.
Would you mind checking something for me (tell me to sod off as I am being quite cheeky). Can I give you my stats and can you tell me what you would expect me to have a day to lose? I’m also concerned my FitBit is over estimating the cals burned as it’s saying 600/700 burned for approx 18,000/20,000 a day. I guess that’s why we don’t eat them all back but I just don’t want to be eating more than I should and sabotaging my journey as I have till August to sort myself out.

Ok here goes:

37 years old, 5ft 8 inches, 13 stone, I have 2 kids (8&9), I part time (Mon-Fri, 5 days a week), I walk to and from work every day (2.2 miles a day in total) and have started to do a Joe Wicks HIIT Training DVD 4 times a week. I selected sedentary for activity as it mentions people with desk jobs (me) rather than lightly active. Is that a mistake?

MFP has given me approx 1450 a day (can’t remember without coming off this page and checking it). I’ve then obvs got what i burn to eat back which is anything between an extra 300 - 1000 cals.

What do you think Yoda

"Do or don't do, there is no try...."

I don't use an activity tracker but that is one hell of a lot of steps to select sedentary!
Maybe a Fitbit user would chime in but aren't you supposed to select an activity setting close to your actual activity level to avoid getting huge daily adjustments?

I'm not going to attempt to set a calorie goal for you - that's the job of both MFP and your Fitbit working together.
You are going to have to try for at least a month and then adjust as required. You don't have to get it right first time.

Your 2.2 mile walk is about 120 net cals by the way.
Your DVD - no idea but you could log as callisthenics.

I use a FitBit and that is definitely not Sedentary. Anything above 7,500 steps/day is usually lightly active, I average 12-15k steps a day and I'm set at active. Choosing an activity level that is appropriate for what you actually do, will help get a more reasonable calorie adjustment. The initial setup of MFP suggesting Sedentary for desk job when most people really aren't, is confusing for people.

@thisisitnic what does FitBit say your total calories burned are?

For what it's worth I'm shorter than you (5'2) and lost most of my weight (>30 lbs) eating between 1600-1900 cals. My TDEE is 2200 per my FitBit and actual results bear that out.

thisisitnic wrote: »

WinoGelato wrote: »

sijomial wrote: »

thisisitnic wrote: »

sijomial wrote: »

thisisitnic wrote: »

sijomial wrote: »

thisisitnic wrote: »

It’s crazy how many websites even forums in here say it’s best not to eat them. There are just as many saying eat them. Completely mind blowing x

Other websites work in a different way - you aren't comparing like with like.

TDEE sites ask you to estimate in advance your weekly exercise and then that's averaged out so that you eat to the same goal every day - some of that goal is made up of your average daily exercise calories.
On here activity setting deliberately excludes exercise and you eat a variable amount in line with that day's exercise.
Both end up in the same place over the course of a week if done correctly.

You seem really knowledgeable. Can I ask why some trainers say it’s wrong to it calories back then?

Without seeing the advice or context it's all a guess.

My guess would be stupidity, ignorance (training and nutrition aren't the same thing at all), telling clients what they want hear, short term versus long term view, clients simply misunderstanding what trainers are actually saying, working out a calorie goal in a different way they haven't properly explained, different terminology..... Pick one or several reasons.

The absolute basics of weight loss/gain/maintenance is your calorie balance - it makes zero sense to ignore a significant part of your calorie expenditure if you are calorie counting.
That's not to say there aren't different and sensible ways to lose weight but if you select a tool then it makes sense to use it as designed.

You really do make a lot of sense. I should stop reading all that other stuff and go with how MFP is designed.
Would you mind checking something for me (tell me to sod off as I am being quite cheeky). Can I give you my stats and can you tell me what you would expect me to have a day to lose? I’m also concerned my FitBit is over estimating the cals burned as it’s saying 600/700 burned for approx 18,000/20,000 a day. I guess that’s why we don’t eat them all back but I just don’t want to be eating more than I should and sabotaging my journey as I have till August to sort myself out.

Ok here goes:

37 years old, 5ft 8 inches, 13 stone, I have 2 kids (8&9), I part time (Mon-Fri, 5 days a week), I walk to and from work every day (2.2 miles a day in total) and have started to do a Joe Wicks HIIT Training DVD 4 times a week. I selected sedentary for activity as it mentions people with desk jobs (me) rather than lightly active. Is that a mistake?

MFP has given me approx 1450 a day (can’t remember without coming off this page and checking it). I’ve then obvs got what i burn to eat back which is anything between an extra 300 - 1000 cals.

What do you think Yoda

"Do or don't do, there is no try...."

I don't use an activity tracker but that is one hell of a lot of steps to select sedentary!
Maybe a Fitbit user would chime in but aren't you supposed to select an activity setting close to your actual activity level to avoid getting huge daily adjustments?

I'm not going to attempt to set a calorie goal for you - that's the job of both MFP and your Fitbit working together.
You are going to have to try for at least a month and then adjust as required. You don't have to get it right first time.

Your 2.2 mile walk is about 120 net cals by the way.
Your DVD - no idea but you could log as callisthenics.

I use a FitBit and that is definitely not Sedentary. Anything above 7,500 steps/day is usually lightly active, I average 12-15k steps a day and I'm set at active. Choosing an activity level that is appropriate for what you actually do, will help get a more reasonable calorie adjustment. The initial setup of MFP suggesting Sedentary for desk job when most people really aren't, is confusing for people.

@thisisitnic what does FitBit say your total calories burned are?

For what it's worth I'm shorter than you (5'2) and lost most of my weight (>30 lbs) eating between 1600-1900 cals. My TDEE is 2200 per my FitBit and actual results bear that out.

Do you know I’ve never looked at the cals on FitBit! Strange but true. For the day I walked just under 20,000 it says 3298 burnt?!!!!!! Does this include my BMR? It must do right? How do I check? x

The Total Calories Burned on FitBit is analogous to your TDEE, it included everything. If accurate, and yours is 3300 and you are eating 1400 then you are at close to a 2000 calorie deficit and would be losing far too rapidly to be safe or sustainable. Is that activity typical for you? You can look at weekly, monthly and longer averages on your FitBit dashboard. How long have you been using MFP and how accurate is your logging? Do you use a food scale? How much weight have you lost during the time period you've been using MFP?

I weigh ~160 and my total TDEE on days I take 20-22k steps is ~3100-3300. I think that part is reasonable.

Where I think you may be less reasonable is in selecting a sedentary activity level and being surprised by a significant calorie adjustment when your activity level is considerably higher than sedentary. If I don’t purposefully walk/run/exercise/move, I take less than 5k steps a day. Often less than 3k. I work at home. I don’t even walk from my car to the office. I am sedentary. If you’re averaging 20-22k, that’s WAY above sedentary. Your calorie adjustments will reflect that.

My Fitbit calorie adjustments range from 0-2000 based on how active I am beyond my truly sedentary life. Obviously, on days when I far exceed sedentary (like when I get 20k+ steps), I have a much larger adjustment. That’s exactly how it should work. On days when I don’t move much, my adjustment is much lower. Sometimes nothing. If I were much more active all the time, my adjustments would be much higher on a consistent basis (as yours are).

If the high adjustment is bothering you, set your activity level higher on MFP. The adjustment will be a lower amount but the calorie totals should be about the same. Meaning all the settings and what not won’t really matter. You’ll either get more calories up front from your Mfp (with a higher activity level) and lower Fitbit adjustments, or you’ll stay with the lower MFP calories to start and get higher fitbit adjustments. You’ll end up at the same number either way.

Also - and I’m making some assumptions from your other threads-you’re very early on in this process. You’ve weighed twice (?) so you don’t know if this second one was an off day and you’re trending down or what is going on. You just don’t have enough time or data to work with yet.

Your calorie goal (if you’re eating your exercise calories and weighing your food) is reasonable (although you may want to make sure your MFP is set to 1 lb/week), your TDEE (and Fitbit adjustment) is reasonable for your level of activity.

thisisitnic wrote: »

Duck_Puddle wrote: »

I weigh ~160 and my total TDEE on days I take 20-22k steps is ~3100-3300. I think that part is reasonable.

Where I think you may be less reasonable is in selecting a sedentary activity level and being surprised by a significant calorie adjustment when your activity level is considerably higher than sedentary. If I don’t purposefully walk/run/exercise/move, I take less than 5k steps a day. Often less than 3k. I work at home. I don’t even walk from my car to the office. I am sedentary. If you’re averaging 20-22k, that’s WAY above sedentary. Your calorie adjustments will reflect that.

My Fitbit calorie adjustments range from 0-2000 based on how active I am beyond my truly sedentary life. Obviously, on days when I far exceed sedentary (like when I get 20k+ steps), I have a much larger adjustment. That’s exactly how it should work. On days when I don’t move much, my adjustment is much lower. Sometimes nothing. If I were much more active all the time, my adjustments would be much higher on a consistent basis (as yours are).

If the high adjustment is bothering you, set your activity level higher on MFP. The adjustment will be a lower amount but the calorie totals should be about the same. Meaning all the settings and what not won’t really matter. You’ll either get more calories up front from your Mfp (with a higher activity level) and lower Fitbit adjustments, or you’ll stay with the lower MFP calories to start and get higher fitbit adjustments. You’ll end up at the same number either way.

Also - and I’m making some assumptions from your other threads-you’re very early on in this process. You’ve weighed twice (?) so you don’t know if this second one was an off day and you’re trending down or what is going on. You just don’t have enough time or data to work with yet.

Your calorie goal (if you’re eating your exercise calories and weighing your food) is reasonable (although you may want to make sure your MFP is set to 1 lb/week), your TDEE (and Fitbit adjustment) is reasonable for your level of activity.

Hey. I only started last week and my first weigh in resulted in a 3lb gain which is what has prompted me to ask all of these questions.

If I change it to lightly active my cals go up to 1600 but again I see your point that MFP/FitBit will just adjust anyone based on my activity that day so it’s by the by.

Am I right in saying then that if you have a FitBit feeding into MFP it makes no difference when all is said and done what activity level you set as it will adjust accordingly anyway? x

That’s what I thought was prompting the questions. Understandable. I know it’s really a kick in the pants when you feel like you’re doing everything right and you don’t see the results you are hoping for.

And yes-if you up your activity level on Mfp, you’ll end up with a smaller adjustment amount-but still the same overall total. I leave mine on sedentary because I really am and I don’t always have an adjustment at all. But it won’t hurt anything for you to leave yours as sedentary- just know that you’ll tend to have higher adjustments.

The numbers you’re getting seem reasonable based on my Fitbit experience (and mine has been accurate in that I eat based on my adjustment and lose/gain accordingly).

And give it time. Generally 4-6 weeks or a bit more to go through at least one full cycle (you’ll likely have crazy weight fluctuations at various points) and see where you land. If you’re not losing as expected, make some adjustments then.