few questions
johnshz
Posts: 5 Member
hi well i have a few question that i am really curious about and sorry if these type of questions have been answer many times already.
first question is about mfp activity level and what happens if you connect your fitbit that has a hrm with it. i set my activity level to sedentary to be safe on my daily activity cause there will maybe be a day or two where im under 10k steps but most days i do over 10k steps, but i was looking at some old posts on here and saw there was a couple of people who had fitbits with hrm and set there activity level on sedentary but they were active people usually getting over 10k steps and because of that reason they will see huge calorie adjustments giving to them cause they set them self's as sedentary and they ate back those calories and it either made they're weight loss stall or even gain weight cause of it. so is this still a problem? should i really set my self as sedentary or should i pick the active (10k steps) activity for me to prevent that huge fluctuation happening to me?
second question is should i be weighting every single thing, and what i mean by that is even foods that are already pre-portion like preslice bread, single serve yogurt cups and so on or is that over doing it as my friend pointed out at me that i was on those sort of things.
3rd question is if there is a food that has no nutrition facts like lets say friend or family member made me turkey chili as an example and i search for turkey chili in the USDA and find and weight it out in grams is the USDA credible source of information on foods for these type of situations?
last question and sorry if this one is silly but is walking consider exercise and does walking speed matters as in if im only walking at 1 or 2mph is that still exercising? reason why i ask this cause same friend that said i was overdoing it on the weighting out on everything told me if im not walking at a pace of 3mph then im pretty much wasting my time.
first question is about mfp activity level and what happens if you connect your fitbit that has a hrm with it. i set my activity level to sedentary to be safe on my daily activity cause there will maybe be a day or two where im under 10k steps but most days i do over 10k steps, but i was looking at some old posts on here and saw there was a couple of people who had fitbits with hrm and set there activity level on sedentary but they were active people usually getting over 10k steps and because of that reason they will see huge calorie adjustments giving to them cause they set them self's as sedentary and they ate back those calories and it either made they're weight loss stall or even gain weight cause of it. so is this still a problem? should i really set my self as sedentary or should i pick the active (10k steps) activity for me to prevent that huge fluctuation happening to me?
second question is should i be weighting every single thing, and what i mean by that is even foods that are already pre-portion like preslice bread, single serve yogurt cups and so on or is that over doing it as my friend pointed out at me that i was on those sort of things.
3rd question is if there is a food that has no nutrition facts like lets say friend or family member made me turkey chili as an example and i search for turkey chili in the USDA and find and weight it out in grams is the USDA credible source of information on foods for these type of situations?
last question and sorry if this one is silly but is walking consider exercise and does walking speed matters as in if im only walking at 1 or 2mph is that still exercising? reason why i ask this cause same friend that said i was overdoing it on the weighting out on everything told me if im not walking at a pace of 3mph then im pretty much wasting my time.
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Replies
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hi well i have a few question that i am really curious about and sorry if these type of questions have been answer many times already.
first question is about mfp activity level and what happens if you connect your fitbit that has a hrm with it. i set my activity level to sedentary to be safe on my daily activity cause there will maybe be a day or two where im under 10k steps but most days i do over 10k steps, but i was looking at some old posts on here and saw there was a couple of people who had fitbits with hrm and set there activity level on sedentary but they were active people usually getting over 10k steps and because of that reason they will see huge calorie adjustments giving to them cause they set them self's as sedentary and they ate back those calories and it either made they're weight loss stall or even gain weight cause of it. so is this still a problem? should i really set my self as sedentary or should i pick the active (10k steps) activity for me to prevent that huge fluctuation happening to me?
second question is should i be weighting every single thing, and what i mean by that is even foods that are already pre-portion like preslice bread, single serve yogurt cups and so on or is that over doing it as my friend pointed out at me that i was on those sort of things.
3rd question is if there is a food that has no nutrition facts like lets say friend or family member made me turkey chili as an example and i search for turkey chili in the USDA and find and weight it out in grams is the USDA credible source of information on foods for these type of situations?
last question and sorry if this one is silly but is walking consider exercise and does walking speed matters as in if im only walking at 1 or 2mph is that still exercising? reason why i ask this cause same friend that said i was overdoing it on the weighting out on everything told me if im not walking at a pace of 3mph then im pretty much wasting my time.
if you are getting 10k or more steps you are not sedentary. lightly active/acive should be what you have it set to. as for weighing every single thing. if you are losing weight fine for now then I wouldnt worry too much but if not then yes weigh everything. food packaging can be off by up to 20% per serving. so that means that a slice of bread say its 34g for example). one slice may weigh as much as 40g. maybe less,maybe right on. yogurt cups are usually 150g. you weigh the cup,eat whats inside and weigh it again and thats your portion. Ive noticed that usually it ends up being a little less than 150g. its like 147-149. but thats not always the case.
as for when someone makes you turkey chili you have no idea what was put into it or how much. you can estimate how much for each ingredient but even if you weigh it, its not going to be 100% accurate.as for the usda listing thats usually for meats,fruits and veggies alone not for recipes.(yes they have recipes but you have no idea the amounts so no way to know) as for walking for exercise thats fine. any exercise is better than none at all. as for the fitbits and people gaining weight. many people are eating more than they think and many people dont weigh so they have no idea how much they are really eating. its a common thing around here.If they set themselves to sedentary and get big amounts of calories back and eat all those back then its possible they are overeating.
so if you are getting more than 10k steps then set your mfp to active and go from there. if you find you are not losing then start weighing everything solid and semi solid in grams. but for most people even when they are using a fitbit or anything else. somewhere they are off either with their calories in or their calories out . I lost fine without a fitbit until I started gaining again. I wasnt using a food scale and could not understand why. I was using measuring cups that I thought were accurate. nope,came here and was told to get a scale and weigh everything.I realized I was eating more than I thought.so once I started weiging everything I lost the weight I gained and then some. I still weigh my food 4.5 years later.I cant eyeball portions properly and I know that food packaging cannot be trusted either as it can be off.0 -
hi well i have a few question that i am really curious about and sorry if these type of questions have been answer many times already.
first question is about mfp activity level and what happens if you connect your fitbit that has a hrm with it. i set my activity level to sedentary to be safe on my daily activity cause there will maybe be a day or two where im under 10k steps but most days i do over 10k steps, but i was looking at some old posts on here and saw there was a couple of people who had fitbits with hrm and set there activity level on sedentary but they were active people usually getting over 10k steps and because of that reason they will see huge calorie adjustments giving to them cause they set them self's as sedentary and they ate back those calories and it either made they're weight loss stall or even gain weight cause of it. so is this still a problem? should i really set my self as sedentary or should i pick the active (10k steps) activity for me to prevent that huge fluctuation happening to me?
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Make your best guess about your actual activity level based on the description, set a sensible (not excessive) weight loss rate, then stick to that for several weeks (4-6, at least a full menstrual cycle for a bit for premenopausal women - from your name, I'd infer you're male, but I mention this in case others are reading).
Your tracker and MFP should ideally balance in either direction (i.e., add or subtract calories in MFP) depending on how the activity level estimates match up. Most people find it easiest to deal rationally with smaller adjustments rather than huge ones (plus or minus), so setting close to your actual activity level will produce less drama with adjustments.
After a few weeks, compare your actual average weekly weight loss to your goal weight loss rate and adjust as needed to lose at a sensible rate. It's all just estimates; if you track with reasonable care, your own data will be more accurate and useful than any so-called calculator, even though the "calculator" estimates are close for most people.
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second question is should i be weighting every single thing, and what i mean by that is even foods that are already pre-portion like preslice bread, single serve yogurt cups and so on or is that over doing it as my friend pointed out at me that i was on those sort of things.
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Weighing food at all is optional (so is counting calories, for that matter
). If you get the results you want without weighing food, there's no reason to weigh it unless you like having accurate data for its own sake. (I do; there are few things I don't weigh, and for most things I find weighing quicker/easier than thinking about whether to do it or eyeballing/estimating or whatever. There are tips and techniques for efficient food weighing, but that's another thread.)
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3rd question is if there is a food that has no nutrition facts like lets say friend or family member made me turkey chili as an example and i search for turkey chili in the USDA and find and weight it out in grams is the USDA credible source of information on foods for these type of situations?
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Honestly, if it's a rare thing, I'd just use an entry from the MFP database, using the quantity I ate (eyeballed estimate if necessary), and picking a database entry on the higher side of those present (err on the side of overestimating). For an occasional food, the potential error is a drop in the bucket. If it's the same food more frequently, it can be useful to work on a better estimate.
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last question and sorry if this one is silly but is walking consider exercise and does walking speed matters as in if im only walking at 1 or 2mph is that still exercising? reason why i ask this cause same friend that said i was overdoing it on the weighting out on everything told me if im not walking at a pace of 3mph then im pretty much wasting my time.
From a weight loss perspective, walking is considered exercise. Walking a mile burns about the same amount of calories no matter how slowly you do it. The thing is that if you have a limited time to walk, and your goal is to burn calories, you burn more calories per minute by walking a little faster. It's your time and your calorie budget, so you can decide how to balance those in a way that makes you happiest.
(From a fitness perspective, doing part of exercise at higher intensity has some benefits, but people new to exercise don't really need to worry much about that up front - just get started in a way that works happily in your life, and increase duration/intensity as you get fitter.)
One caveat: If the walking is part of your job, and you've correctly picked the MFP activity level that includes that job-related walking, you wouldn't log that exercise again (if manually logging exercise rather than using FitBit or other tracker). Counting the job in activity level, but also logging it as exercise, would be double counting it.
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hmm ok i'll set my self as active then and only use the usda for stuff you said but that kinds of has me confuse then like beans. the beans on the usda for 100g cooked shows its only 22 calories while other sources shows for 100g cooked beans falls somewhere between the 100 to 140 calorie range for 100g or is beans a different story as well.0
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hmm ok i'll set my self as active then and only use the usda for stuff you said but that kinds of has me confuse then like beans. the beans on the usda for 100g cooked shows its only 22 calories while other sources shows for 100g cooked beans falls somewhere between the 100 to 140 calorie range for 100g or is beans a different story as well.
if you mean MFP entries find one that matches the USDA entry. if there are none you can make your own using the info the USDA gives you it depends on the type of beans though. if its like green beans then yes the usda entry sounds about right, if its the MFP entry then no its not correct unless it says what type of beans and if the person who made the entry added anything to it or not. so find entries that match the USDA site,dfood packaging,etc
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no it was pinto beans and is microwaving a sweet potatoe consider boiling or steaming or bake? and thanks for the replies everyone.0
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no it was pinto beans and is microwaving a sweet potatoe consider boiling or steaming or bake? and thanks for the replies everyone.
pinto beans should be weighed dry if dry and out of the can without the water if canned. if frozen weighed and the bag subtracted . pinto beans cooked (boiled) is 162-170 calories per 100 grams. as for microwaving a sweet potato I just put it as baked,unless there is a microwave entry on the USDA site. you could do a search and see though. if the sweet potato is made in the microwave without water you arent boiling it, could maybe be steamed but I dont think its going to make much difference as I Use the raw weight and then cook it however. if I use butter or oil I weigh it and count that too.2 -
Addressing the activity level.
I have a very varied day. Some days, like when I'm working from home I'll be extraordinarily inactive (we're talking about 2000-3000 but sometimes as little as 1500). Other days I'll be running from building to building (my company has several locations in the CBD) to get from one meeting to another and I'll my step count will be MUCH higher. So it's very difficult for me to pinpoint an activity level that fits.
To combat this I have set myself to sedentary and allow the steps calculated by my smart watch to adjust my daily calorie level for me. It took me a little bit of testing but I now know that every 1 calorie MFP adds I seem to burn about 0.75 calories. Thus I tend to eat 3/4 of my activity calories each day. This method has seen my weight trend down at the rate I'm comfortable with. At first this was 1.5kg per week but this has naturally slowed over the past 11 months to about 750g per week as I have less and less weight to lose.1
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