Calorie needs on super long days (it's 2pm and I don't have many calories left)
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successgal1
Posts: 996 Member
So. What to do on really long days?
I couldn't sleep last night, tossed and turned. Finally got up around 5am since I had a special training to go to, the alarm was set for 6. I was hungry, drank a glucerna.
Made my normal smoothie and drank it on the way to the training. I was hungry again by 10:30, ate 2 mini Danish, no other options. Finished training. Still an hour and a half from home, drank a glucerna to stave off hunger pangs.
2pm, ate my homemade squash lentil soup. Now, with MFP set at 1 lb loss a week, 1500 calories, I only have 300 ish calories left and will probably be up until at least 11pm. That ain't gonna cut it hunger wise.
How to handle this? I'm exercising every other day, cardio, cycling. Yesterday was workout day, way too exhausted from lack of sleep last night and the night before to add more. It's a sedentary day.
I'm also trying to figure out if using TDEE will still allow weight loss, at TDEE I'd have 1700 calories a day instead of 1500. I haven't been back on the wagon long enough yet to find out if that will work.
.... I'm probably just going to get some go ahead and eat something comments but I'm curious as to everyone's opinions.
I'm 5'5", 179lbs (181 today but I hope it's workout weight and water from lack of recovery sleep), female and 52yrs.
I couldn't sleep last night, tossed and turned. Finally got up around 5am since I had a special training to go to, the alarm was set for 6. I was hungry, drank a glucerna.
Made my normal smoothie and drank it on the way to the training. I was hungry again by 10:30, ate 2 mini Danish, no other options. Finished training. Still an hour and a half from home, drank a glucerna to stave off hunger pangs.
2pm, ate my homemade squash lentil soup. Now, with MFP set at 1 lb loss a week, 1500 calories, I only have 300 ish calories left and will probably be up until at least 11pm. That ain't gonna cut it hunger wise.
How to handle this? I'm exercising every other day, cardio, cycling. Yesterday was workout day, way too exhausted from lack of sleep last night and the night before to add more. It's a sedentary day.
I'm also trying to figure out if using TDEE will still allow weight loss, at TDEE I'd have 1700 calories a day instead of 1500. I haven't been back on the wagon long enough yet to find out if that will work.
.... I'm probably just going to get some go ahead and eat something comments but I'm curious as to everyone's opinions.
I'm 5'5", 179lbs (181 today but I hope it's workout weight and water from lack of recovery sleep), female and 52yrs.
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Replies
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Longer days almost certainly mean you've been more active than usual just by virtue of being awake and moving. I'd add a couple hundred calories for the day and call it good.12
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So it looks like you've had 360 calories of Glucerna today (if they're 180 each). Do you find those typically stave off hunger for you? I ask because shakes like that typically don't do much for me. Switching out for foods that provide more satiety on days like this may help. (If Glucerna does work to address your hunger, just ignore this).20
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I agree with @pinuplove If you add 250 calories you are still under maintenance.
Are you logging exercise and eating back your exercise calories? Mfp does not include exercise in your goal. You are meant to add that in and eat those extra calories. TDEE already figures exercise into your goal. Your TDEE should roughly equal your Mfp goal + exercise calories. With mfp you don't add the exercise calories until you do it. With TDEE you average the exercise calories over the week and add them before you do the exercise.4 -
janejellyroll wrote: »So it looks like you've had 360 calories of Glucerna today (if they're 180 each). Do you find those typically stave off hunger for you? I ask because shakes like that typically don't do much for me. Switching out for foods that provide more satiety on days like this may help. (If Glucerna does work to address your hunger, just ignore this).
They give me about 2 hours. I'm a real estate agent, and I find that they are easier to keep on hand than anything else. About the lowest calorie and decent protein balance that I could find. Higher sugar things like bars make me hungry or faster. Fruit makes me hungry faster. Nuts are too high calorie. I don't drink them all the time, but keep them around for emergency purposes. Yesterday I also had a training, but had brought along some chicken breast with a little late honey mustard dressing on it. I just didn't have the energy to get that together this morning.1 -
I'd just go a few hundred over your calorie goal and call it good. One day won't make any difference in the long run. Plus, as the first poster said, you were probably more active than a normal day since you've been awake longer.0
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I agree with @pinuplove If you add 250 calories you are still under maintenance.
Are you logging exercise and eating back your exercise calories? Mfp does not include exercise in your goal. You are meant to add that in and eat those extra calories. TDEE already figures exercise into your goal. Your TDEE should roughly equal your Mfp goal + exercise calories. With mfp you don't add the exercise calories until you do it. With TDEE you average the exercise calories over the week and add them before you do the exercise.
I think I'm confused on this. Because it's my first time using tdee. Yes I do log my exercise you can check my diary. TDE gives me 1700 calories a day to eat if I call myself moderately active, because I work out 3 to 4 days a week. I have mfp set at lightly active, and it gives me 1, 500 calories to eat. In fact I probably overate yesterday, according to TDEE, the 1500 calories that mfp gives me, and my Fitbit charge 2 gave me a little less than 400 calories for my cycling.0 -
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I'd just go a few hundred over your calorie goal and call it good. One day won't make any difference in the long run. Plus, as the first poster said, you were probably more active than a normal day since you've been awake longer.
agree with this
But having said that, I am up at 5:30 most morning and go to bed at 10pm. that's my average workday. I have to make my 1300-1400 calsls last that time frame. I have a solid breakfast around 7am (250 cals); 100 cal snack at 9am, 350 cal lunch, 100 cal snack at 2:30pm 400 cal dinner around 5:30pm and 100 bedtime snack (more or less - i add about 100 more cals here and there for a total of about 1400). Generally speaking sometimes thins change and depending how much I exercise I would add more food.
Also look at the quality of what you are eating. Now, I don't mean clean or good VS bad, but FILLING vs NON. we all have our own list of foods that keep us satisfied and full. Maybe you are leaning too heavily on high cal option that are not filling you leading to eating all your calories too early. I also always have quality snack food in my purse. a granola bar I find satisfying, an apple. whatever works and is easy to always have around.6 -
With TDEE you eat the same amount every day. With mfp you eat more on the days you are more active and less on the days you are less active. For most people TDEE works best if you have very consistent exercise and mfp works better if your exercise routine is less consistent.5
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With TDEE you eat the same amount every day. With mfp you eat more on the days you are more active and less on the days you are less active. For most people TDEE works best if you have very consistent exercise and mfp works better if your exercise routine is less consistent.
So I think I'm still tied to my old mfp mindset a little bit. I used to do 1200 calories plus workout calories. And it turns out that was not enough for recovery from work workouts. It was not sustainable and I ended up with muscle and tendon problems. This is why I'm trying it with a more sustainable weekly loss goal, and TDEE. And that being said, I seem to be sticking to the 1500 calories on days I don't work out, and maybe going over the 1700 tdee calories, on days I do work out. I suppose that would even it all out at the end of the week wouldn't it?1 -
If you are eating 1500 on days you don't work out and 1700 on days you do work out that sounds like you are using Mfp's method. With TDEE you eat the same number of calories every day.4
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janejellyroll wrote: »So it looks like you've had 360 calories of Glucerna today (if they're 180 each). Do you find those typically stave off hunger for you? I ask because shakes like that typically don't do much for me. Switching out for foods that provide more satiety on days like this may help. (If Glucerna does work to address your hunger, just ignore this).
Just to build on this, if I'm reading your post correctly, you had Glucerna, smoothie, danishes, Glucerna, soup. So mostly liquid, and the danishes aren't exactly filling food either. Even if you find a shake or a smoothie generally filling, that doesn't mean having them as 70% of your calories will be. I would just eat a normal dinner and don't worry about your calories, one day isn't a big deal regardless.
I find when i have long days where I am at the mercy of someone else's schedule, I have two options:- Plan ahead for it, armed with a decent amount of easy to grab and go food, or if I don't have the chance to do that
- Expect to go over my calories and just do the best I can.
Depending on your activity level, I think 1700 sounds fine to start out with and tweak as you go. I suspect the combination of a long stressful day with a lack of access to more substantial food is what's causing you problems on this specific day. Try to get a good night's sleep tonight!
ETA: And yes, if you are doing TDEE instead of MFP's goal, and your goal is 1700, you should be eating that every day. With TDEE, you spread your exercise calories over the whole week, with MFP (NEAT) you get extra calories to eat on exercise days. You can allocate your TDEE calories to days unevenly if you want, but just make sure for the week you've eaten 7 x 1700 (or whatever your TDEE goal is). If you're not looking at that, maybe it isn't evening out the way you thought it would?5 -
successgal1 wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »So it looks like you've had 360 calories of Glucerna today (if they're 180 each). Do you find those typically stave off hunger for you? I ask because shakes like that typically don't do much for me. Switching out for foods that provide more satiety on days like this may help. (If Glucerna does work to address your hunger, just ignore this).
They give me about 2 hours. I'm a real estate agent, and I find that they are easier to keep on hand than anything else. About the lowest calorie and decent protein balance that I could find. Higher sugar things like bars make me hungry or faster. Fruit makes me hungry faster. Nuts are too high calorie. I don't drink them all the time, but keep them around for emergency purposes. Yesterday I also had a training, but had brought along some chicken breast with a little late honey mustard dressing on it. I just didn't have the energy to get that together this morning.
What kind of bars are you trying? For lower sugar, try Oh Yeah One bars, which are about 30 calories more but also have twice as much protein as Glucerna. Since protein makes some people feel fuller, simply making the switch from Glucerna to a protein bar might help.4 -
janejellyroll wrote: »So it looks like you've had 360 calories of Glucerna today (if they're 180 each). Do you find those typically stave off hunger for you? I ask because shakes like that typically don't do much for me. Switching out for foods that provide more satiety on days like this may help. (If Glucerna does work to address your hunger, just ignore this).
Just to build on this, if I'm reading your post correctly, you had Glucerna, smoothie, danishes, Glucerna, soup. So mostly liquid, and the danishes aren't exactly filling food either. Even if you find a shake or a smoothie generally filling, that doesn't mean having them as 70% of your calories will be. I would just eat a normal dinner and don't worry about your calories, one day isn't a big deal regardless.
I find when i have long days where I am at the mercy of someone else's schedule, I have two options:- Plan ahead for it, armed with a decent amount of easy to grab and go food, or if I don't have the chance to do that
- Expect to go over my calories and just do the best I can.
Depending on your activity level, I think 1700 sounds fine to start out with and tweak as you go. I suspect the combination of a long stressful day with a lack of access to more substantial food is what's causing you problems on this specific day. Try to get a good night's sleep tonight!
ETA: And yes, if you are doing TDEE instead of MFP's goal, and your goal is 1700, you should be eating that every day. With TDEE, you spread your exercise calories over the whole week, with MFP (NEAT) you get extra calories to eat on exercise days. You can allocate your TDEE calories to days unevenly if you want, but just make sure for the week you've eaten 7 x 1700 (or whatever your TDEE goal is). If you're not looking at that, maybe it isn't evening out the way you thought it would?
Yes, today was an atypical day. I normally would not drink two Glucerna in a day, possibly not even one. Like I said they're normally for emergency purposes to keep me from making an otherwise bad food choice if I'm out and about and starving. It's hard to plan meals if you're driving around for 8 hours. I'd only have what I can take with me. My smoothie usually keeps me full for 4 hours or longer, and I generally don't even drink it until 10 or 11 am, so I don't need lunch until 2 pm or so.. And then I would have something for lunch, lately it's been my soup with some chicken breast. And then a healthy dinner. If I'm hungry in between I eat a pickle, LOL.
and yes I am hopeful for a good night sleep, I'm going to drug myself with some Benadryl.2 -
successgal1 wrote: »With TDEE you eat the same amount every day. With mfp you eat more on the days you are more active and less on the days you are less active. For most people TDEE works best if you have very consistent exercise and mfp works better if your exercise routine is less consistent.
So I think I'm still tied to my old mfp mindset a little bit. I used to do 1200 calories plus workout calories. And it turns out that was not enough for recovery from work workouts. It was not sustainable and I ended up with muscle and tendon problems. This is why I'm trying it with a more sustainable weekly loss goal, and TDEE. And that being said, I seem to be sticking to the 1500 calories on days I don't work out, and maybe going over the 1700 tdee calories, on days I do work out. I suppose that would even it all out at the end of the week wouldn't it?
That wasn't enough because 1200 calories isn't enough for women unless they are very very short. Unfortunately, MFP lets us set weekly weight loss goals that are overly aggressive.
https://www.aworkoutroutine.com/1200-calorie-diet/3 -
kshama2001 wrote: »successgal1 wrote: »With TDEE you eat the same amount every day. With mfp you eat more on the days you are more active and less on the days you are less active. For most people TDEE works best if you have very consistent exercise and mfp works better if your exercise routine is less consistent.
So I think I'm still tied to my old mfp mindset a little bit. I used to do 1200 calories plus workout calories. And it turns out that was not enough for recovery from work workouts. It was not sustainable and I ended up with muscle and tendon problems. This is why I'm trying it with a more sustainable weekly loss goal, and TDEE. And that being said, I seem to be sticking to the 1500 calories on days I don't work out, and maybe going over the 1700 tdee calories, on days I do work out. I suppose that would even it all out at the end of the week wouldn't it?
That wasn't enough because 1200 calories isn't enough for women unless they are very very short. Unfortunately, MFP lets us set weekly weight loss goals that are overly aggressive.
https://www.aworkoutroutine.com/1200-calorie-diet/
Very true apparently. However I was losing about 1.7 lb a week. I have 32 weeks to my trip to Las Vegas, so the goal is to lose 32 pounds.0 -
successgal1 wrote: »I agree with @pinuplove If you add 250 calories you are still under maintenance.
Are you logging exercise and eating back your exercise calories? Mfp does not include exercise in your goal. You are meant to add that in and eat those extra calories. TDEE already figures exercise into your goal. Your TDEE should roughly equal your Mfp goal + exercise calories. With mfp you don't add the exercise calories until you do it. With TDEE you average the exercise calories over the week and add them before you do the exercise.
I think I'm confused on this. Because it's my first time using tdee. Yes I do log my exercise you can check my diary. TDE gives me 1700 calories a day to eat if I call myself moderately active, because I work out 3 to 4 days a week. I have mfp set at lightly active, and it gives me 1, 500 calories to eat. In fact I probably overate yesterday, according to TDEE, the 1500 calories that mfp gives me, and my Fitbit charge 2 gave me a little less than 400 calories for my cycling.
It sounds like you should just pick one method.
If you figure out TDEE then eat that amount every day and do not log exercise. It should already be figured into your calorie goal.
If you use MFP method then set it for your activity level without exercise and log exercise or sync your activity tracker. This sounds like what you want since your days vary.
For today, if you are hungry I would just eat up to your maintenance calories... so up to 2,000 at the end of the day is probably fine.3 -
successgal1 wrote: »I agree with @pinuplove If you add 250 calories you are still under maintenance.
Are you logging exercise and eating back your exercise calories? Mfp does not include exercise in your goal. You are meant to add that in and eat those extra calories. TDEE already figures exercise into your goal. Your TDEE should roughly equal your Mfp goal + exercise calories. With mfp you don't add the exercise calories until you do it. With TDEE you average the exercise calories over the week and add them before you do the exercise.
I think I'm confused on this. Because it's my first time using tdee. Yes I do log my exercise you can check my diary. TDE gives me 1700 calories a day to eat if I call myself moderately active, because I work out 3 to 4 days a week. I have mfp set at lightly active, and it gives me 1, 500 calories to eat. In fact I probably overate yesterday, according to TDEE, the 1500 calories that mfp gives me, and my Fitbit charge 2 gave me a little less than 400 calories for my cycling.
The site that is using "days" of working out is even worse then the one using "hours" a week.
Is walking 4 days a week for 30 min the same as biking 4 days a week for 2 hrs each?
And is a 10 hr desk jockey doing either workout, the same as your work doing the same workout?
Of course not.
Ya, I'm betting since you called it special training - that's not easy cardio, and your TDEE rough estimate is off by decent amount.
Why are you estimating from 5 rough levels anyway when you have a Fitbit trying to give almost infinite levels?
Even if you want to use the weekly avg TDEE method, and not daily MFP method - you have historical data in Fitbit reports.
Look at a rolling 3-week average of your Fitbit reported weekly calorie burn totals.
Don't count weeks that are totally off the normal - like sick or massively more active.
There's your avg reported TDEE, take off the 500 for 1 lb weekly, realizing that if 32 lb loss is ending at healthy weight - that last 10 lbs is best at 1/2 lb weekly.
If you don't purposely do it - body is likely to get stressed and adapt and that's what you'll end up anyway, or worse, but with workouts having less transformation.
You keep having good workouts, with good body transformation, it may easily appear you lost the last 5-10 lbs anyway.
Besides - you going to wear a sign with your weight on it, and goal weight, for all to see you failed to reach it that it would matter anyway?
Ditto to pick a method.8 -
successgal1 wrote: »I agree with @pinuplove If you add 250 calories you are still under maintenance.
Are you logging exercise and eating back your exercise calories? Mfp does not include exercise in your goal. You are meant to add that in and eat those extra calories. TDEE already figures exercise into your goal. Your TDEE should roughly equal your Mfp goal + exercise calories. With mfp you don't add the exercise calories until you do it. With TDEE you average the exercise calories over the week and add them before you do the exercise.
I think I'm confused on this. Because it's my first time using tdee. Yes I do log my exercise you can check my diary. TDE gives me 1700 calories a day to eat if I call myself moderately active, because I work out 3 to 4 days a week. I have mfp set at lightly active, and it gives me 1, 500 calories to eat. In fact I probably overate yesterday, according to TDEE, the 1500 calories that mfp gives me, and my Fitbit charge 2 gave me a little less than 400 calories for my cycling.
The site that is using "days" of working out is even worse then the one using "hours" a week.
Is walking 4 days a week for 30 min the same as biking 4 days a week for 2 hrs each?
And is a 10 hr desk jockey doing either workout, the same as your work doing the same workout?
Of course not.
Ya, I'm betting since you called it special training - that's not easy cardio, and your TDEE rough estimate is off by decent amount.
Why are you estimating from 5 rough levels anyway when you have a Fitbit trying to give almost infinite levels?
Even if you want to use the weekly avg TDEE method, and not daily MFP method - you have historical data in Fitbit reports.
Look at a rolling 3-week average of your Fitbit reported weekly calorie burn totals.
Don't count weeks that are totally off the normal - like sick or massively more active.
There's your avg reported TDEE, take off the 500 for 1 lb weekly, realizing that if 32 lb loss is ending at healthy weight - that last 10 lbs is best at 1/2 lb weekly.
If you don't purposely do it - body is likely to get stressed and adapt and that's what you'll end up anyway, or worse, but with workouts having less transformation.
You keep having good workouts, with good body transformation, it may easily appear you lost the last 5-10 lbs anyway.
Besides - you going to wear a sign with your weight on it, and goal weight, for all to see you failed to reach it that it would matter anyway?
Ditto to pick a method.
Umm. Thanks for confusing me more? This is why I posted, for help. I didn't call anything "special training" so I'm not sure where that came from. Also, I don't wear my fitbit 24/7, so I can't go by that 100%. I wear it to keep track of my heart rate primarily, since its easy-ish to overdo it when flying around on my bike on the flat (or when racing against impending rain), and I don't want to die sooner then necessary. I try to not go above 155, but sometimes I hit 169, and when I was in lesser shape physically, I scarily hit 188 without even realizing it. I also take off my fitbit when showering, to charge, when working in the yard, when its in danger of becoming filthy or getting banged up. So sometimes I have activity when its not on me.
But generally I consider myself sedentary, its my preferred state. :-D Most days I'm primarily at a desk, or at the most, getting in and out of my car and walking around, lightly. So any "formal" workout, cycling, is my exercise and is over and above my daily state of being.
Do I know if I have my settings right? HECK no. That's why I'm here. Yes I used an online calculator for TDEE, I scoured the internet trying to find out what "moderate" exercise was. And found many answers until I found one that made sense to me. I don't know if its right or not, but it came up with 2200 calories for maintenance so 1700 to lose 1 lb a week with 3-5 actual workouts a week. I haven't yet been on that track long enough to assess if it's correct.
I do like to eat more on days I workout, and sometimes the next day if I feel my body needs it, but also sometimes I can go with 1500 calories in a sedentary day and not feel hungry, and sometimes I use a workout day as a "cheat" day a little so I have have some extra treat.
I just don't know and throwing my hand up in the air right now because there just ISN'T a hard and fast rule for anything it seems (eat less move more is about it), but my personality type is requiring structure and facts.
Moving more is easy to figure out from sedentary, the eat less is the sticky part, besides laying off the alcohol, and not having popcorn almost every night, I'm stuck with HOW MUCH LESS IS LESS? Because I really don't know HOW MUCH WAS TOO MUCH?
Last time I did this I restricted too much I suppose, and I won't get into all the health problems that caused. I gained almost all the weight back. Vegas is just a date goal to keep me motivated. No, I don't give a crap how I look or whatever you think, I just want the weight off. I stalled at 157 last time, got sick and fell off the wagon, ended up with a summer of hardship and fell off even more, and gained 23 lbs back. The old way I did it was simply unsustainable. I want it to be sustainable so its not so easy to fall into the trap of falling off the wagon then saying "$^%#*$ it, I can't think about this right now I have too many other things to do".
147 would be 10lbs heavier then my future goal, so the "last 10lbs" is not a concern for me right now. I'm aware I will have to up my exercise more and perhaps restrict my calories more to get to that point, but can I just get through the first 20 here please? When I made it to 157 I was exercising 5 or more days a week, alternating cycling with light weight and other cardio. It was too much apparently, without enough nutrition, and I ended up with chronic high hamstring problems.
Anyway, right now MFP is giving me 1500 calories a day, and TDEE gives me 1700 calories a day. Both mentally and bodily need, and just logistics-wise, eating 1700 a day even on days I don't work out, just doesn't feel right, 1700 on workout days feels like enough, but like I said I like to have those treat days, so knowing I MAYBE have 200 calories left from the day before, allows that, giving me 1900 to eat on a workout day. It's still FAR more then what I ate before when trying MFP, 1200 on non workout days and 1400 on workout days. Which is where I'm stuck on the "can I really eat more and still lose weight?" mentality and I'm here for guidance from people who have eaten more and lost weight, I suppose!
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successgal1 wrote: »successgal1 wrote: »I agree with @pinuplove If you add 250 calories you are still under maintenance.
Are you logging exercise and eating back your exercise calories? Mfp does not include exercise in your goal. You are meant to add that in and eat those extra calories. TDEE already figures exercise into your goal. Your TDEE should roughly equal your Mfp goal + exercise calories. With mfp you don't add the exercise calories until you do it. With TDEE you average the exercise calories over the week and add them before you do the exercise.
I think I'm confused on this. Because it's my first time using tdee. Yes I do log my exercise you can check my diary. TDE gives me 1700 calories a day to eat if I call myself moderately active, because I work out 3 to 4 days a week. I have mfp set at lightly active, and it gives me 1, 500 calories to eat. In fact I probably overate yesterday, according to TDEE, the 1500 calories that mfp gives me, and my Fitbit charge 2 gave me a little less than 400 calories for my cycling.
The site that is using "days" of working out is even worse then the one using "hours" a week.
Is walking 4 days a week for 30 min the same as biking 4 days a week for 2 hrs each?
And is a 10 hr desk jockey doing either workout, the same as your work doing the same workout?
Of course not.
Ya, I'm betting since you called it special training - that's not easy cardio, and your TDEE rough estimate is off by decent amount.
Why are you estimating from 5 rough levels anyway when you have a Fitbit trying to give almost infinite levels?
Even if you want to use the weekly avg TDEE method, and not daily MFP method - you have historical data in Fitbit reports.
Look at a rolling 3-week average of your Fitbit reported weekly calorie burn totals.
Don't count weeks that are totally off the normal - like sick or massively more active.
There's your avg reported TDEE, take off the 500 for 1 lb weekly, realizing that if 32 lb loss is ending at healthy weight - that last 10 lbs is best at 1/2 lb weekly.
If you don't purposely do it - body is likely to get stressed and adapt and that's what you'll end up anyway, or worse, but with workouts having less transformation.
You keep having good workouts, with good body transformation, it may easily appear you lost the last 5-10 lbs anyway.
Besides - you going to wear a sign with your weight on it, and goal weight, for all to see you failed to reach it that it would matter anyway?
Ditto to pick a method.
Umm. Thanks for confusing me more? This is why I posted, for help. I didn't call anything "special training" so I'm not sure where that came from. Also, I don't wear my fitbit 24/7, so I can't go by that 100%. I wear it to keep track of my heart rate primarily, since its easy-ish to overdo it when flying around on my bike on the flat (or when racing against impending rain), and I don't want to die sooner then necessary. I try to not go above 155, but sometimes I hit 169, and when I was in lesser shape physically, I scarily hit 188 without even realizing it. I also take off my fitbit when showering, to charge, when working in the yard, when its in danger of becoming filthy or getting banged up. So sometimes I have activity when its not on me.
But generally I consider myself sedentary, its my preferred state. :-D Most days I'm primarily at a desk, or at the most, getting in and out of my car and walking around, lightly. So any "formal" workout, cycling, is my exercise and is over and above my daily state of being.
Do I know if I have my settings right? HECK no. That's why I'm here. Yes I used an online calculator for TDEE, I scoured the internet trying to find out what "moderate" exercise was. And found many answers until I found one that made sense to me. I don't know if its right or not, but it came up with 2200 calories for maintenance so 1700 to lose 1 lb a week with 3-5 actual workouts a week. I haven't yet been on that track long enough to assess if it's correct.
I do like to eat more on days I workout, and sometimes the next day if I feel my body needs it, but also sometimes I can go with 1500 calories in a sedentary day and not feel hungry, and sometimes I use a workout day as a "cheat" day a little so I have have some extra treat.
I just don't know and throwing my hand up in the air right now because there just ISN'T a hard and fast rule for anything it seems (eat less move more is about it), but my personality type is requiring structure and facts.
Moving more is easy to figure out from sedentary, the eat less is the sticky part, besides laying off the alcohol, and not having popcorn almost every night, I'm stuck with HOW MUCH LESS IS LESS? Because I really don't know HOW MUCH WAS TOO MUCH?
Last time I did this I restricted too much I suppose, and I won't get into all the health problems that caused. I gained almost all the weight back. Vegas is just a date goal to keep me motivated. No, I don't give a crap how I look or whatever you think, I just want the weight off. I stalled at 157 last time, got sick and fell off the wagon, ended up with a summer of hardship and fell off even more, and gained 23 lbs back. The old way I did it was simply unsustainable. I want it to be sustainable so its not so easy to fall into the trap of falling off the wagon then saying "$^%#*$ it, I can't think about this right now I have too many other things to do".
147 would be 10lbs heavier then my future goal, so the "last 10lbs" is not a concern for me right now. I'm aware I will have to up my exercise more and perhaps restrict my calories more to get to that point, but can I just get through the first 20 here please? When I made it to 157 I was exercising 5 or more days a week, alternating cycling with light weight and other cardio. It was too much apparently, without enough nutrition, and I ended up with chronic high hamstring problems.
Anyway, right now MFP is giving me 1500 calories a day, and TDEE gives me 1700 calories a day. Both mentally and bodily need, and just logistics-wise, eating 1700 a day even on days I don't work out, just doesn't feel right, 1700 on workout days feels like enough, but like I said I like to have those treat days, so knowing I MAYBE have 200 calories left from the day before, allows that, giving me 1900 to eat on a workout day. It's still FAR more then what I ate before when trying MFP, 1200 on non workout days and 1400 on workout days. Which is where I'm stuck on the "can I really eat more and still lose weight?" mentality and I'm here for guidance from people who have eaten more and lost weight, I suppose!
Why doesn't 1,700 "feel" right?
I ask because I see so many people here think that a certain amount is "too much" for them to lose weight, but that's just because we're told that we have to be really low to lose weight (I thought so too, before I began actually tracking and paying attention to my results).
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