Daily Calorie Goal/net calories?? ideas, advice.
sommerrosee2
Posts: 31 Member
okay, so i know that everyone asks the SAME questions a million times from the threads i am reading, and it is still leaving me very confused. i will try to include as much detail as possible. So, i have been tracking for about 1 month, and I have my goals set as follows: I am 5'7, my SW was 250, I am as of this morning(before any food) at 243. My goal weight is 200-210. My current activity level is set to "not very active"(desk job) and i have it set to lose 1.5 pounds per week. So, technically i am right on track. Except my suggested daily calories are 1650(now 1610 after adding my new weight) and i can NEVER seem to eat that much without eating too many carbs(not over the daily goal with exercise but too much for me to not lose weight. oh and, i use a fitbit and have it linked up to MFP. ill give an example: tues, jan 30th: goal:1650-1410 food+909 exercise left me with 1148 remaining. now, in addition to getting the exercise calories from my steps that day, i burned an additional 248 exercise calories in my workout(shorter workout that day), which totaled to the 909. when i look at my total calorie information for that day, my total consumed was 1410, and my net was 502. which means technically i consumed only 908 calories??? this is where i get confused. I swear i am not trying to purposefully not eat, i just cannot seem to get myself to eat more than or around 1400 calories in a day. if i push myself i feel too full and sick. i am getting nervous that because i cant eat more than that, i am going to stall out on the weight loss because i am not getting close to even netting 1200 a day. now, the daily goal for the nutrients were AFTER i completed my diary for that day. I do also realize that MFP estimates exercise calories high. so after all this rambling, i guess i have two main questions: How can i eat to at least my calorie goal every day? and if i can't, is it really going to affect my weight loss that badly?
meals from that day: breakfast=274 cals
lunch=265 cals
dinner=350 cals
snacks during the day=522(not usually normal, just for that particular day)
protien-95g(out of daily goal 129)
carbs-175(out of daily goal 319)
fiber-33g(out of daily goal 25)
sugar-68(out of daily goal 96)
meals from that day: breakfast=274 cals
lunch=265 cals
dinner=350 cals
snacks during the day=522(not usually normal, just for that particular day)
protien-95g(out of daily goal 129)
carbs-175(out of daily goal 319)
fiber-33g(out of daily goal 25)
sugar-68(out of daily goal 96)
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Replies
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When I first started out and linked my fitbit to MFP it gave me a huge amount of exercise calories. From experimenting with eating back some or not eating them back and seeing how my weight loss changed I reached the conclusion that the calories it was stating were much more than a 50% overestimate. After a few months the fitbit seemed to learn and now the calories it states for a certain number of steps seem to be correct.
When I first started I would only eat back a third of the calories given (or maybe not at all) and I didn't find any issues with having too few calories (my calorie daily target was 1500).
My thoughts when reading your post are what exercise are you doing to use such a high calorie total ?0 -
Just by way of an example doing 9000 steps when I first started gave me 1300 exercise calories. When it had sorted itself out it was more like 250 or 300 ish calories depending upon the effort I was making. It would have genuinely been a little higher when I first started as I was more unfit and a bit heavier but nowhere near 1300.1
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The calories from your steps seems really high. It takes me an hour of running to get up to 600 calories burned. But if you're losing at the rate that you're supposed to then it's likely that you're calories are evening out right now to be around 1650 anyways. Probably from a combination of inaccurate logging and overestimating exercise.
So it's probably fine for now, but if you start losing at a quicker rate, or when the rate eventually slows down, you'll need to make some adjustments to your calories.0 -
idabest777 wrote: »The calories from your steps seems really high. It takes me an hour of running to get up to 600 calories burned. But if you're losing at the rate that you're supposed to then it's likely that you're calories are evening out right now to be around 1650 anyways. Probably from a combination of inaccurate logging and overestimating exercise.
So it's probably fine for now, but if you start losing at a quicker rate, or when the rate eventually slows down, you'll need to make some adjustments to your calories.
so my fitbit for that day had me at a total of 6576 steps for that day, which is including my workout for that day. also for that day, its telling me i burned a total of 3253 cals. now, the calorie adjustment for my "exercise" on MFP for that day says 909. I am not under the impression what so ever that estimate is correct. i also did not eat any of those calories back at all. where i start to get concerned is where the net calories come in. because they are always below 1200. which, is understandable if i am not eating my calorie goal every day. but i am constantly being told how bad that is. let me just add that i do not log my food inaccurately. i log literally everything i put in my mouth including liquid, and all of my food gets weighed/measured out.0 -
kittiwakeh wrote: »When I first started out and linked my fitbit to MFP it gave me a huge amount of exercise calories. From experimenting with eating back some or not eating them back and seeing how my weight loss changed I reached the conclusion that the calories it was stating were much more than a 50% overestimate. After a few months the fitbit seemed to learn and now the calories it states for a certain number of steps seem to be correct.
When I first started I would only eat back a third of the calories given (or maybe not at all) and I didn't find any issues with having too few calories (my calorie daily target was 1500).
My thoughts when reading your post are what exercise are you doing to use such a high calorie total ?
in my initial post i explained that that was my total "exercise" calories for the whole day. MFP estimated that based off of my total steps that day, 6576 steps, which those "steps" also include my workout that i did that day. I do not put my exercise into MFP because the fitbit tracks that. i do not believe that the 909 is accurate. id say id believe if it was about half of that. maybe. my fitbit said my total calories burned(from 12am tues morning until 12am wed morning) for the day was 3253.0 -
How much on average are you eating a day? (If you go to the Fitbit app And tap the food tile it will tell you weekly average intake)0
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shadow2soul wrote: »How much on average are you eating a day? (If you go to the Fitbit app And tap the food tile it will tell you weekly average intake)
i don't generally watch the fitbit app only because i use MFP to track my food, but this week so far is averaging 1331 calories/daily, and last week was averaging 1531(i changed out some of the foods i was eating, not eating as many carbs so it dropped my average calories this week)0 -
With the 1531 and an avg loss of 1.75lb per week...looks like around 2406 is maintenance.
Does your Fitbit have the HRM?
~edit: Carbs won't hinder weight loss as long as they don't cause you to go over your maintenance calories. Unless you have a medical reason to avoid carbs, it's not necessary for weight loss.0 -
If you are losing at the rate that you have it set to, it means that you are netting the exact number that MFP is recommended. That means your Calories in - Calories out= 1,650.
How are you tracking your calories in? Do you use a food scale?
Your exercise calories are likely way off. I generally only give myself 100 cals/mile. It's a good benchmark that I have figured out is about what I burn. If you're doing strength training/things with reps, your fitbit is going to be wayyyy the heck off. It's really only good for steady state cardio.0 -
shadow2soul wrote: »With the 1531 and an avg loss of 1.75lb per week...looks like around 2406 is maintenance.
Does your Fitbit have the HRM?
~edit: Carbs won't hinder weight loss as long as they don't cause you to go over your maintenance calories. Unless you have a medical reason to avoid carbs, it's not necessary for weight loss.
yes, i have the fitbit charge 2. and i do definitely think that for me personally it does play a role, because i didnt really feel better until i cut down a little. i have been tracking for about 8 months before actually using MFP, so i was writing everything down. i just wanted a change/thought it might be a better way to track. as i explained in a more recent post, i have various health issues that seriously prevent me from losing weight normally, no matter what i do. so i have to push back twice as hard, and it drives me crazy. all of my drs are pretty much telling me im screwed without weight loss surgery. but i dont want it, and i dont think that at all. i do not believe in any shape or form that i need to do that just because i am struggling. however, it does become a little frustrating.0 -
You might want to turn the HRM off and only turn it on for workouts and when you go to sleep.
This way your HR won't affect Fitbits calorie burn for daily activity.0 -
If you are losing at the rate that you have it set to, it means that you are netting the exact number that MFP is recommended. That means your Calories in - Calories out= 1,650.
How are you tracking your calories in? Do you use a food scale?
Your exercise calories are likely way off. I generally only give myself 100 cals/mile. It's a good benchmark that I have figured out is about what I burn. If you're doing strength training/things with reps, your fitbit is going to be wayyyy the heck off. It's really only good for steady state cardio.
i weigh/measure everything out. i do understand that the exercise calories are off. id believe more that they are probably half of what they are, sometimes less depending on the day. my fitbit has the HR monitor, so i also am aware of the fact that it does play a factor in how many calories you burn. when i workout, which is 3-5 times a week, it is always anywhere between 15-30 mins of medium to intense cardio(depends on what i can handle that day), and i lift weights every time i work out, usually just work on a different area of my body. also clarify that i have been tracking on MFP for a month, but its only been within the last 2 weeks or so that my weight came down. but i also made some food changes, so my calories are definitely less. i was tracking long before MFP, but i was writing everything down instead of putting it in the app. I have an extremely hard time losing weight. I have various health issues that seriously prevent weight loss. I have to work twice as hard, and my body cannot always handle that well because i dont have any energy a lot of the time. at this point, all of my drs have said my only option to lose any REAL weight at this point is surgery. i do not believe that is a viable option at this point. so i am trying to essentially play with my food in different ways to see what works. the more research i do, the more concerned i get that i may not be doing something right.0 -
sommerrosee2 wrote: »If you are losing at the rate that you have it set to, it means that you are netting the exact number that MFP is recommended. That means your Calories in - Calories out= 1,650.
How are you tracking your calories in? Do you use a food scale?
Your exercise calories are likely way off. I generally only give myself 100 cals/mile. It's a good benchmark that I have figured out is about what I burn. If you're doing strength training/things with reps, your fitbit is going to be wayyyy the heck off. It's really only good for steady state cardio.
i weigh/measure everything out. i do understand that the exercise calories are off. id believe more that they are probably half of what they are, sometimes less depending on the day. my fitbit has the HR monitor, so i also am aware of the fact that it does play a factor in how many calories you burn. when i workout, which is 3-5 times a week, it is always anywhere between 15-30 mins of medium to intense cardio(depends on what i can handle that day), and i lift weights every time i work out, usually just work on a different area of my body. also clarify that i have been tracking on MFP for a month, but its only been within the last 2 weeks or so that my weight came down. but i also made some food changes, so my calories are definitely less. i was tracking long before MFP, but i was writing everything down instead of putting it in the app. I have an extremely hard time losing weight. I have various health issues that seriously prevent weight loss. I have to work twice as hard, and my body cannot always handle that well because i dont have any energy a lot of the time. at this point, all of my drs have said my only option to lose any REAL weight at this point is surgery. i do not believe that is a viable option at this point. so i am trying to essentially play with my food in different ways to see what works. the more research i do, the more concerned i get that i may not be doing something right.
One of the culprits is definitely the HRM doing strength training. It always assumes you're doing cardio. I can be peak heartrate when I'm lifting heavy, but the actual burn is tiny. If you have health issues that prevent weight loss (specifically calories out-- things like thyroid, PCOS), the calculations your fitbit is using per your heartrate are straight up wrong. Those calculations are based on a healthy person without issues. Even for healthy people, they are best for comparing efforts (on day 1 i was less active than on day 3) vs calculating objective burns.
During exercise, a fitbit's HRM is off 20-40%: https://www.cnn.com/2017/04/10/health/fitness-tracker-fitbit-mio-accuracy-study/index.html
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Carbs per se don't matter for weight loss, except insofar as they affect appetite and satiation, unless they get so high they drive out other necessary nutrition.
For nutrition therefore health, it would be better to eat close to your protein goal (treat it as a minimum) when using MFP macro defaults (for most people, and your details put you in "most people"). More protein than that wouldn't hurt you.
You don't mention fats, but most people should treat the MFP default as an approximate minimum there, too, IMO.
But the bottom line is that if your target loss rate is sensible (typically that's 1% of body weight per week at most, slower when close to goal, as a general rule of thumb), and you're hitting that rate, you should be OK.
I kind of suspect you may be overestimating exercise/activity, and underestimating eating, but - unless you simply like data accuracy for its own sake - your loss rate matches your target, and your target is sensible, so what you're doing is fine, as a practical matter.
If you still want to add calories, add something calorie dense: Peanut butter, nuts, full-fat dairy, oil/butter, or a small treat food.0 -
Is there a medical reason you need to worry about carbs? If not, don’t. The MFP macro recommendations are just generic FDA recommendations for the entire population. Barring health concerns, I would think it would be much better to run over the arbitrary carb target than to be so far under the amount of food your body needs in order to function every day.
Also: Sprinkle some salt & lemon juice on a chicken breast. Bake for 20 minutes on 375. Top with two ounces of cheese (truffle cheese is always a plus!) and broil for five more minutes. Serve over a couple of big handfuls of arugula. Delicious, and it packs plenty of calories for the carbs.
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Carbs per se don't matter for weight loss, except insofar as they affect appetite and satiation, unless they get so high they drive out other necessary nutrition.
For nutrition therefore health, it would be better to eat close to your protein goal (treat it as a minimum) when using MFP macro defaults (for most people, and your details put you in "most people"). More protein than that wouldn't hurt you.
You don't mention fats, but most people should treat the MFP default as an approximate minimum there, too, IMO.
But the bottom line is that if your target loss rate is sensible (typically that's 1% of body weight per week at most, slower when close to goal, as a general rule of thumb), and you're hitting that rate, you should be OK.
I kind of suspect you may be overestimating exercise/activity, and underestimating eating, but - unless you simply like data accuracy for its own sake - your loss rate matches your target, and your target is sensible, so what you're doing is fine, as a practical matter.
If you still want to add calories, add something calorie dense: Peanut butter, nuts, full-fat dairy, oil/butter, or a small treat food.
i dont personally put in any data for my exercise. i let the fitbit track all of it, which i fully understand translates to it saying i have burned more than i actually do. i am not naive in that at all. also, i weigh/measure/log everything that goes into my mouth, so i dont really think im underestimating my food intake. and i forgot to add the fat in there to what i put in my original post nutrients wise. MFP says the minimum without any exercise calories at all for me is 54g. i am under that number almost always, sometimes barely over.0 -
FlyingMolly wrote: »Is there a medical reason you need to worry about carbs? If not, don’t. The MFP macro recommendations are just generic FDA recommendations for the entire population. Barring health concerns, I would think it would be much better to run over the arbitrary carb target than to be so far under the amount of food your body needs in order to function every day.
Also: Sprinkle some salt & lemon juice on a chicken breast. Bake for 20 minutes on 375. Top with two ounces of cheese (truffle cheese is always a plus!) and broil for five more minutes. Serve over a couple of big handfuls of arugula. Delicious, and it packs plenty of calories for the carbs.
no medical reason, but i have noticed how much i dont feel well when i eat more. i feel like what i average is alright for me. i am not trying to starve myself by any means at all, believe me.0
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