Questions with 15 pounds to go

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dagrees
dagrees Posts: 32 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hello,
Have lost 24 pounds with 15 to go. Yay! Started on Jan 8.
My stats:
F 63
Ht 5’ 5.5”
SW179
CW155
GW 140

My exercise is pretty basic. I try to walk daily outside either on footpaths with varied inclines, or on town trails average 40 -45 minutes. I do strength staining 30 minutes followed by cardio 20-25 minutes 2 or 3 times per week. This is all moderate. No high intensity for me. I huff and puff somewhat, but do not like the feeling of being too winded.


MFP has me at 1260 - for one pound per week, lightly active. I don’t eat back my calories for 2 reasons;
1) I don’t trust the exercise calories I am given by mfp for my exercises.
2)And although I weigh and log everything, I realize the data base is off, because of the random entries. So I figure I am probably eating more calories than I weigh and measure.
And there are times I go over my calories due to dining out or indulging at the local ice cream stand. Lol.

I keep toying with the idea of continuing with mfp for logging calories, but upping my intake doing tdee less a percentage, and not log my exercise, as I know that I do it, and that that it’s for my overall health and well being, and not for weight loss. I do wear a fit bit, which keeps track of my steps. Some days are high some not. I could abandon that as well.
My bmr is 1349; tdee is 1850 ish.
I may be overthinking this. Thanks for any input.
Deb



Replies

  • Panini911
    Panini911 Posts: 2,325 Member
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    congrats on your success

    with 15 to go you should actually reduce your rate of loss to 0.5 and yes eat those exercise calories. i'm not a big user of TDEE calculations so personally i'd just change my rate of loss in MFP,eat that plus exercise cals.
  • Teabythesea_
    Teabythesea_ Posts: 559 Member
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    MFP is designed for you to eat back at least some of your exercise calories. I dont like logging my exercise so I use the TDEE method and it has worked out perfectly for me whether my goal is to gain, lose, or maintain. Right now you're eating less than your BMR which never recommended. You definitely need to be earing more.

    Congratulations on your loss!
  • dagrees
    dagrees Posts: 32 Member
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    Teabythesea_ wrote: »
    MFP is designed for you to eat back at least some of your exercise calories. I dont like logging my exercise so I use the TDEE method and it has worked out perfectly for me whether my goal is to gain, lose, or maintain. Right now you're eating less than your BMR which never recommended. You definitely need to be earing more.

    Congratulations on your loss!

    Thanks, and that is one of my concerns that i am eating less than my bmr, however, there are days it go way over so maybe it balances out.
    So my thinking is to just focus on calorie intake knowimg my exercise stays the same, and the calorie burn isnt huge.
    If my tde is 1850 ish then maybe 1500 is a good # to continue with?
    Thanks




  • dagrees
    dagrees Posts: 32 Member
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    Goes not go
  • dagrees
    dagrees Posts: 32 Member
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    Panini911 wrote: »
    congrats on your success

    with 15 to go you should actually reduce your rate of loss to 0.5 and yes eat those exercise calories. i'm not a big user of TDEE calculations so personally i'd just change my rate of loss in MFP,eat that plus exercise cals.
    Thanks for your reply!
    I did reduce to .5 per week and it puts me at 1510 plus exercise calories.
    That is same as tdee calculations but no exercise calories.
    I’m now confused about which direction to pursue lol.


  • Teabythesea_
    Teabythesea_ Posts: 559 Member
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    dagrees wrote: »
    Teabythesea_ wrote: »
    MFP is designed for you to eat back at least some of your exercise calories. I dont like logging my exercise so I use the TDEE method and it has worked out perfectly for me whether my goal is to gain, lose, or maintain. Right now you're eating less than your BMR which never recommended. You definitely need to be earing more.

    Congratulations on your loss!

    Thanks, and that is one of my concerns that i am eating less than my bmr, however, there are days it go way over so maybe it balances out.
    So my thinking is to just focus on calorie intake knowimg my exercise stays the same, and the calorie burn isnt huge.
    If my tde is 1850 ish then maybe 1500 is a good # to continue with?
    Thanks




    You can see if it really does balance out by looking at your net calories for the whole week rather than daily. 1500 sounds good, youd be losing at a rate of a little over a half a pound a week. Just remember that if you do go the TDEE route you do not log exercise and you eat to that amount every day regardless of whether or not you exercise.
  • Teabythesea_
    Teabythesea_ Posts: 559 Member
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    dagrees wrote: »
    Panini911 wrote: »
    congrats on your success

    with 15 to go you should actually reduce your rate of loss to 0.5 and yes eat those exercise calories. i'm not a big user of TDEE calculations so personally i'd just change my rate of loss in MFP,eat that plus exercise cals.
    Thanks for your reply!
    I did reduce to .5 per week and it puts me at 1510 plus exercise calories.
    That is same as tdee calculations but no exercise calories.
    I’m now confused about which direction to pursue lol.


    If your TDEE is 1850 then .5 a week is actually closer to 1600. Also, MFP may be using a slightly different BMR in their calculations than TDEE calculators do. The numbers won't be exactly the same, but TDEE minus 250 calories and NEAT plus exercise should average out to be pretty close.
  • TanyaHooton
    TanyaHooton Posts: 249 Member
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    Our stats are similar. I'm 5'6", started at 167 and have lost 33 lbs to now 134. I am 10 pounds away from my goal weight of 124.

    I have MFP set to lose .5 lbs per week, as the 1200 calories a day was unsustainable for me, even with exercise. Also, I love to eat! Currently I get 1420 as base, and then I use the step counter on my phone to add exercise calories. To be safe, I only eat back one-half to two-thirds of the exercise calories it gives me and I've been losing weight steadily since September. So your 1510 plus a little extra from exercise should be about right. Just be prepared for the weight loss to go slower than it has so far. Right now I only see a drop once a month, and then I have to wait patiently for 4 weeks to see a new low number.
  • Maxxitt
    Maxxitt Posts: 1,281 Member
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    My first question is whether you have been losing at the expected rate. If you are, then your particular method is working for you. Yes, it totally makes sense to slow your rate of loss. My advice would be to aim for 1510 calories a day for 6 weeks and re-assess. You can continue to log exercise - just for the fun of noticing the numbers & determining if you are being consistent with whatever you are doing. One thing to be aware of is that the smaller the deficit, the less likely the scale is going to "show" a consistent loss - you know by now the variable nature of scale weight over a month, so a monthly rate of around 2# may not be apparent right away. What I have noticed is the way clothes fit, although even that is not a given since if I have been really slinging a lot of weight in the gym everything feels tight for a day. Good luck! And congratulations on your work thus far!
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,738 Member
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    Maxxitt wrote: »
    My first question is whether you have been losing at the expected rate. If you are, then your particular method is working for you. Yes, it totally makes sense to slow your rate of loss. My advice would be to aim for 1510 calories a day for 6 weeks and re-assess. You can continue to log exercise - just for the fun of noticing the numbers & determining if you are being consistent with whatever you are doing. One thing to be aware of is that the smaller the deficit, the less likely the scale is going to "show" a consistent loss - you know by now the variable nature of scale weight over a month, so a monthly rate of around 2# may not be apparent right away. What I have noticed is the way clothes fit, although even that is not a given since if I have been really slinging a lot of weight in the gym everything feels tight for a day. Good luck! And congratulations on your work thus far!

    And if you've been logging carefully and have a few weeks of personal data, it can potentially be more accurate to use that personal data to estimate maintenance calories, rather than using a generic "calculator" that just spits out a statistical estimate based on your demographics and some research studies.

    You're going to want to be thinking in terms of maintenance calories soon, so maybe try refining your maintenance estimate, and cut from there. Over in the "Goal: Maintaining Weight" area, there are some good posts in the "Most Helpful Posts" section, including a discussion about determining maintenance calories.

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10638211/how-to-find-your-maintenance-calorie-level

    It can be helpful to read those Most Helpful Posts over there, and start monitoring the maintenance discussions ahead of time, just to start yourself onto the on-ramp.

    Congrats on all you've accomplished so far! :)
  • dagrees
    dagrees Posts: 32 Member
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    Thanks all for your replies and good information!

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