Am I doing this right?

Cheyluvlee
Cheyluvlee Posts: 11 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I have the feeling that I am doing aomething wrong. Background: I am trying to lose weight, 2lbs a week. I have a desk job with some walking. I lived a very sedentary life in the last year at my new job where I have gone from walking the Brooklyn Bridge almost every day to taking a cab everywhere and eating poor foods or not enough. Between July and Jan I had bad heartburn which led to overeating to soothe it. All of that said, two weeks ago, I embarked on changing up my lifestyle. I started taking the bus and walking to the train station instead of taking cabs, hitting 10k in steps per day burning 400- 500 valw. I was working out every other day whi

Replies

  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
    I don't think your post posted completely? If you're using emojis, it will be cut off.
  • Cheyluvlee
    Cheyluvlee Posts: 11 Member
    Thanks! I actually updated it but it says edit in 45 mins. Long story short I realized that I was doung this wrong (again). Apparantly I asked this question 5 years ago when I was 35 lbs lighter.

    Basically,I need 2850 to maintain weight. The last 2 weeks my caloric budget was set to 1230 and 1450 based on sedentary and lightly active. Today I changed it to 1850. However, I realize that I was not losing weight for the last two weeks because I was not eating enough.

    I burn 400-500 cals doing my daily steps and on some days I also work out doing the eliptical and treadmill for 35 mins each burning 600-700 cals. Let's say I burn about 1000 cals on a workout day between exercise and steps. This means I am likely only getting 450 of food in my body. Right?

    My thread from years ago had responses that said I should be eating the caloric budget 1850 plus the cals burned.
  • RoxieDawn
    RoxieDawn Posts: 15,488 Member
    edited April 2018
    You need 2850 to maintain - 1450 intake for 2 weeks = 1400 calorie deficit per day. You were not losing weight for 2 weeks so you changed it 1850. Its only been two weeks however it may be too aggressive for you have to such a deficit based on your stats.

    With out having your stats, something sounds wrong with perhaps your food logging? Do you weigh the same as you did from the thread you had many years ago? You are older, most likely not doing the exact same things resulting in a different TDEE from then to now.

    Set MFP with the right activity level, depending on how much you need to lose and set it a sustainable rate of loss, weigh your food intake. Do this for 4-6 weeks consistently. You will have a trend over this period of time and can adjust intake from there.

    I would not trust completely the exercise calorie burns you are getting, at best I would use 1/2 of that if you are eating them back as well.
  • megpie41
    megpie41 Posts: 164 Member
    edited April 2018
    Your numbers sound off to me. 2850 calories to maintain sound really really high considering most people should eat around 2000 to be healthy (on average). The calorie burn from exercise/walking also sounds pretty high. Generally machines etc over estimate the number of calories burnef. Im sure others will chime in with more details.
  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,562 Member
    Cheyluvlee wrote: »
    Thanks! I actually updated it but it says edit in 45 mins. Long story short I realized that I was doung this wrong (again). Apparantly I asked this question 5 years ago when I was 35 lbs lighter.

    Basically,I need 2850 to maintain weight. The last 2 weeks my caloric budget was set to 1230 and 1450 based on sedentary and lightly active. Today I changed it to 1850. However, I realize that I was not losing weight for the last two weeks because I was not eating enough.

    I burn 400-500 cals doing my daily steps and on some days I also work out doing the eliptical and treadmill for 35 mins each burning 600-700 cals. Let's say I burn about 1000 cals on a workout day between exercise and steps. This means I am likely only getting 450 of food in my body. Right?

    My thread from years ago had responses that said I should be eating the caloric budget 1850 plus the cals burned.

    You aren't burning 600-700 calories in a 35 minute workout. Yes you should be eating 1850 plus exercise calories, but if you weren't losing on less than that then something is off somewhere.

    Also that 45 minutes was how much time you had to edit your post...you can only do it within an hour
  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
    Cheyluvlee wrote: »
    I need 2850 to maintain weight.
    That's a lot for a woman - are you very active?
    The last 2 weeks my caloric budget was set to 1230 and 1450 based on sedentary and lightly active. Today I changed it to 1850. However, I realize that I was not losing weight for the last two weeks because I was not eating enough.
    Unfortunately, that's not how it works - if you aren't losing weight, it's not because you're not eating enough. You lose in accordance with calorie deficit, but you won't always see fat loss through water weight fluctuations; you need several weeks to see the trend. If you're logging intake correctly, you just have to be patient. If you're not logging correctly, tighten it up.
    I burn 400-500 cals doing my daily steps and on some days I also work out doing the eliptical and treadmill for 35 mins each burning 600-700 cals. Let's say I burn about 1000 cals on a workout day between exercise and steps. This means I am likely only getting 450 of food in my body. Right?
    MFP is designed for you to eat back your exercise calories, but calories burned from exercise also tend to be way exaggerated, so it's advisable to eat back no more than 75% of them.
  • Cheyluvlee
    Cheyluvlee Posts: 11 Member
    Sorry for the confusion. So my weight is 240 at 5'5. I was originally set to 1230 intake because I marked myself as sedentary based on their definition. I have a desk job and was merely walking. The following week I changed it to livhrky active because I was hitting the 10K steps consistently and working out for 70 mins. 35 on each machine. Not 35 total. This would show 300 and 375 cals burned between the treadmill and elliptical. The 10K steps shows 400-500 cals on Pacer.

    Today I changed my caloric intake to 1850 taking into account that I am actually "Active" and not lightly active since I am working out for an hour and walking around for at least 2 hours.

    So my first incorrect action was I was underestimating my activity level by thinking I was sedentary or lightly active. In doing so,I was only consuming 1450 cals (already a deficit) while burning lets say a min of 700 and not eating them back. Makes sense?

    When I check Myfitnesspal for my maintainance with an active lifestyle it says 2850 which does sounds high.
  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
    MFP does not include exercise when it asks you to gauge your activity level.
  • Cheyluvlee
    Cheyluvlee Posts: 11 Member
    Ok so should I ve sedentary or lightly active?
  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
    I think lightly active will be closest. It's just a starting point, but a good ballpark number. You may have to adjust calorie target a bit anyway, if you aren't losing as expected, or feel tired/hungry, and unless you log correctly, setting a target is pointless.
  • Cheyluvlee
    Cheyluvlee Posts: 11 Member
    edited April 2018
    Thank you. I haven't been feeling tired or hungry under my current plan. Just havent seen any change on the scale and thought I may be doing somwthing wrong. I will give it another two weeks at 1450/lightly active.
  • MushroomLadyJR
    MushroomLadyJR Posts: 89 Member
    Cheyluvlee wrote: »
    Update - I weighed myself today and definitely lost 1.5 lbs. I also rested for the last two days to give my body a break. I will keep going.

    That's awesome to hear! Keep going :)
  • Cheyluvlee
    Cheyluvlee Posts: 11 Member
    Thank you! I am now down 5lbs.
  • shannonreidwiltshire
    shannonreidwiltshire Posts: 50 Member
    Great job @Cheyluvlee :smiley:

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