Is the electrical resistance thing at the gym accurate for maintenance calories

localgrr
localgrr Posts: 99 Member
edited December 20 in Health and Weight Loss
Hello,

I've been working off th MFP calorie goals which are 1690 maintenance for little ol' me. I recently had a session with a personal trainer who did that zapper scale thing with me and said my maintenance is more like 1900 which would be amazing! Is that closer to reality?

Thanks,

Caroline

Replies

  • localgrr
    localgrr Posts: 99 Member
    Oh yeah he took all my stats like age, height and weight.

    Im still on a diet actually on 1440 but I have a diet break now and again. I do find 1440 a challenge, I feel a little under nourished.

    I am losing but not drastically or anything.
  • tcunbeliever
    tcunbeliever Posts: 8,219 Member
    The electrical impedance machines are not terribly accurate. They are very sensitive to changes in hydration and eating will throw off the measurements as well. They basically estimate calories needed based on body fat vs lean body mass. Calorie needs are still just based on formulas based on averages, so it's not ever going to be perfect.
  • localgrr
    localgrr Posts: 99 Member
    I'd say I'm losing around that, but I also climb and lift so I like to think I am building some muscle weight too. It's complicated!
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,300 Member
    A "typical" woman eats around 2K calories to maintain
    <food nutritional information says so ;-)>

    So, a priori, why assume that 1900 is not a possibility?

    Your TDEE changes.

    It changes with activity. When fueled at a deficit or a surplus your body also changes its desire for activity. So these figures are dynamic to a degree.

    When you're done losing weight you start looking for your maintenance by adding 3500 x average loss in lbs per week /7 to your daily calories.

    You can then look at your weight trend and after a few weeks add another couple of hundred or so till you start seeing a pattern of increased trending weight. At which point you can back down that last increment and land around maintenance. (or you could make the same adjustment with increased and decreased activity... the net calories and weight trend over time are what count!)
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    Are you eating 1440 only or 1440 + exercise calories?

    Hope you realise the PT's box of tricks is giving you a very approximate number that will include exercise based on an activity + exercise multiplier...

    You can achieve the same estimate by going to a TDEE calculator that lets you input an estimated bodyfat percentage - emphasis on the estimated.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    Your actual maintenance calories are going to be a range, not a fixed number. That device and any of these calculators just give you a reasonable estimate to start with, but everyday would have to be the same exact food and exercise and general activity for you maintenance to be a fixed number.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,598 Member
    There's no reason your maintenance calories can't be 1900 . . . except that you're not losing nearly a pound a week on 1440, which is what we'd expect if your maintenance is 1900 and you're eating only 1440 (without eating more to cover exercise - you didn't say one way or another. You also didn't say what you mean by "diet break" . . . if it means "eating more on weekends" or something like that, then all odds of us guessing are pretty low.)

    You haven't give us much info to go on: Age, height, weight, how active you are in daily life, how often and for how long you're climbing and lifting, etc.

    I don't know whether it would help in your case, but there's a whole thread over in the maintenance forum (link below) where we discussed various ways to estimate maintenance calories . . . but it's all estimates. The BIA devices are inaccurate to start, and sijomial is correct about your trainer using multipliers to get an estimate from the BIA's questionable estimate.

    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10638211/how-to-find-your-maintenance-calorie-level
  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
    Bio impedance machines use the same equations to estimate resting/maintenance calories as are available anywhere else. It’s not actually measuring anything—maybe tweaking the numbers a little based on estimated muscle mass, but that is not much.
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