Calories are frustrating me!
Replies
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Sounds like your calorie confusion is clear. Is there any particular reason you’re so Sedentary? You walk to the bus, you have class for two hours, you take the bus home. Presumably there’s some study time in there but is there any way to fit in more activity in your day? A university fitness center? As you get older and life gets busier it’s important to build healthy habits while you’re younger so you have that foundation. Regular activity, doesn’t have to be strenuous exercise, is important.7
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Most university students are active. from walking from class to class. and to school. and the library.
I suppose a small city college campus may reduce this to lightly active. Maybe.
I'm a student who has classes in the same room all day, no campus walking for me. My uni is also 5 mins from train station and my house 8 mins away the other end.
26 minutes of moderately fast walking is about 2600 steps.
The sedentary level tops out at approximately 3500.
What probably is, and SHOULD, confound you is that your losses should be very slow and your normal water weight variation is quite likely to be larger than your losses on a weekly and even monthly basis.
You're well within the normal weight range and you're trying to move lower. AND, if you're to be believed, your TDEE is quite low. Thus an appropriate deficit for you would be of the order of 250 Cal a day which would result, under ideal conditions, in a loss in the 0.2kg per week range whereas water weight variations could easily be as large as a couple of kilos (i.e. 10x larger)
Get yourself a trending weight app to have SOME chance of being able to gauge your progress.
Evaluate whether weight loss or some other target such as recomp is a more appropriate goal.
This. People who start in the overweight or obese category have one small advantage in they have much larger margins to work with. By the time such a person gets into the normal weight category, they might be proficient enough to lose weight via eyeballing.
Someone starting in the normal weight category is going to have a much more sensitive system with an incredibly narrow margin. Even when progress is happening, measuring it is going to be hard to parse out from noise.5 -
Silentpadna wrote: »Most university students are active. from walking from class to class. and to school. and the library.
I suppose a small city college campus may reduce this to lightly active. Maybe.
I'm a student who has classes in the same room all day, no campus walking for me. My uni is also 5 mins from train station and my house 8 mins away the other end.
26 minutes of moderately fast walking is about 2600 steps.
The sedentary level tops out at approximately 3500.
What probably is, and SHOULD, confound you is that your losses should be very slow and your normal water weight variation is quite likely to be larger than your losses on a weekly and even monthly basis.
You're well within the normal weight range and you're trying to move lower. AND, if you're to be believed, your TDEE is quite low. Thus an appropriate deficit for you would be of the order of 250 Cal a day which would result, under ideal conditions, in a loss in the 0.2kg per week range whereas water weight variations could easily be as large as a couple of kilos (i.e. 10x larger)
Get yourself a trending weight app to have SOME chance of being able to gauge your progress.
Evaluate whether weight loss or some other target such as recomp is a more appropriate goal.
OP, this is perhaps the best advice in this thread - and all the other stuff is good too (so don't slam me for favoritism guys). I made a couple of parts of @PAV8888's response bold because they are nuggets. You should take a look at what recomposition is and see if might be right for you, since you are already well into a healthy weight range. If you eat at or close to maintenance and do appropriate movements/training, you may find that staying the same weight while changing your shape over time may give you the results you have in mind.
Thank you!!!! Idk about recomp. I have 26% body fat. My scale estimated that. I want to get toned. I dnt hold a lot of fat in my legs. It’s mainly my upper back and stomach. I want to get rid of them. I feel like doing a recomp will confuse me a lot.2 -
WinoGelato wrote: »Sounds like your calorie confusion is clear. Is there any particular reason you’re so Sedentary? You walk to the bus, you have class for two hours, you take the bus home. Presumably there’s some study time in there but is there any way to fit in more activity in your day? A university fitness center? As you get older and life gets busier it’s important to build healthy habits while you’re younger so you have that foundation. Regular activity, doesn’t have to be strenuous exercise, is important.
Yes Definitely. I’ll see what I can do.1 -
magnusthenerd wrote: »Most university students are active. from walking from class to class. and to school. and the library.
I suppose a small city college campus may reduce this to lightly active. Maybe.
I'm a student who has classes in the same room all day, no campus walking for me. My uni is also 5 mins from train station and my house 8 mins away the other end.
26 minutes of moderately fast walking is about 2600 steps.
The sedentary level tops out at approximately 3500.
What probably is, and SHOULD, confound you is that your losses should be very slow and your normal water weight variation is quite likely to be larger than your losses on a weekly and even monthly basis.
You're well within the normal weight range and you're trying to move lower. AND, if you're to be believed, your TDEE is quite low. Thus an appropriate deficit for you would be of the order of 250 Cal a day which would result, under ideal conditions, in a loss in the 0.2kg per week range whereas water weight variations could easily be as large as a couple of kilos (i.e. 10x larger)
Get yourself a trending weight app to have SOME chance of being able to gauge your progress.
Evaluate whether weight loss or some other target such as recomp is a more appropriate goal.
This. People who start in the overweight or obese category have one small advantage in they have much larger margins to work with. By the time such a person gets into the normal weight category, they might be proficient enough to lose weight via eyeballing.
Someone starting in the normal weight category is going to have a much more sensitive system with an incredibly narrow margin. Even when progress is happening, measuring it is going to be hard to parse out from noise.
Thanks, I heard that. I am gonna wait for while and see1 -
What you all think of recomp??? Someone mentioned it. I kinda wanna do it but I am scared if I mess it up or something. At this point cutting is easier for me.2
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Femilaxx1xo wrote: »Silentpadna wrote: »Most university students are active. from walking from class to class. and to school. and the library.
I suppose a small city college campus may reduce this to lightly active. Maybe.
I'm a student who has classes in the same room all day, no campus walking for me. My uni is also 5 mins from train station and my house 8 mins away the other end.
26 minutes of moderately fast walking is about 2600 steps.
The sedentary level tops out at approximately 3500.
What probably is, and SHOULD, confound you is that your losses should be very slow and your normal water weight variation is quite likely to be larger than your losses on a weekly and even monthly basis.
You're well within the normal weight range and you're trying to move lower. AND, if you're to be believed, your TDEE is quite low. Thus an appropriate deficit for you would be of the order of 250 Cal a day which would result, under ideal conditions, in a loss in the 0.2kg per week range whereas water weight variations could easily be as large as a couple of kilos (i.e. 10x larger)
Get yourself a trending weight app to have SOME chance of being able to gauge your progress.
Evaluate whether weight loss or some other target such as recomp is a more appropriate goal.
OP, this is perhaps the best advice in this thread - and all the other stuff is good too (so don't slam me for favoritism guys). I made a couple of parts of @PAV8888's response bold because they are nuggets. You should take a look at what recomposition is and see if might be right for you, since you are already well into a healthy weight range. If you eat at or close to maintenance and do appropriate movements/training, you may find that staying the same weight while changing your shape over time may give you the results you have in mind.
Thank you!!!! Idk about recomp. I have 26% body fat. My scale estimated that. I want to get toned. I dnt hold a lot of fat in my legs. It’s mainly my upper back and stomach. I want to get rid of them. I feel like doing a recomp will confuse me a lot.
Body fat scales aren't an accurate way to read your body fat.
3 -
Femilaxx1xo wrote: »Silentpadna wrote: »Most university students are active. from walking from class to class. and to school. and the library.
I suppose a small city college campus may reduce this to lightly active. Maybe.
I'm a student who has classes in the same room all day, no campus walking for me. My uni is also 5 mins from train station and my house 8 mins away the other end.
26 minutes of moderately fast walking is about 2600 steps.
The sedentary level tops out at approximately 3500.
What probably is, and SHOULD, confound you is that your losses should be very slow and your normal water weight variation is quite likely to be larger than your losses on a weekly and even monthly basis.
You're well within the normal weight range and you're trying to move lower. AND, if you're to be believed, your TDEE is quite low. Thus an appropriate deficit for you would be of the order of 250 Cal a day which would result, under ideal conditions, in a loss in the 0.2kg per week range whereas water weight variations could easily be as large as a couple of kilos (i.e. 10x larger)
Get yourself a trending weight app to have SOME chance of being able to gauge your progress.
Evaluate whether weight loss or some other target such as recomp is a more appropriate goal.
OP, this is perhaps the best advice in this thread - and all the other stuff is good too (so don't slam me for favoritism guys). I made a couple of parts of @PAV8888's response bold because they are nuggets. You should take a look at what recomposition is and see if might be right for you, since you are already well into a healthy weight range. If you eat at or close to maintenance and do appropriate movements/training, you may find that staying the same weight while changing your shape over time may give you the results you have in mind.
Thank you!!!! Idk about recomp. I have 26% body fat. My scale estimated that. I want to get toned. I dnt hold a lot of fat in my legs. It’s mainly my upper back and stomach. I want to get rid of them. I feel like doing a recomp will confuse me a lot.
Generally, it doesn't seem possible to pick where fat comes off the body.
You can control where you gain muscle.
Recomposition will depend on how you feel about resistance training.4 -
Femilaxx1xo wrote: »What you all think of recomp??? Someone mentioned it. I kinda wanna do it but I am scared if I mess it up or something. At this point cutting is easier for me.
you mentioned wanting to be more "toned" which is just a roundabout way of saying less fat and more muscle.... which is what recomp is designed for. You eat at maintenance and follow a progressive overload weightlifting program and ** over time ** lose fat and gain muscle. So you'll appear smaller and more "toned" as a result.
It's really not that complicated BUT consistency is key. I've had a lot of good results over the last 4 months BUT I had to consistently show up to the gym and follow my routine...5 -
Femilaxx1xo wrote: »What you all think of recomp??? Someone mentioned it. I kinda wanna do it but I am scared if I mess it up or something. At this point cutting is easier for me.
Just to be a bit of a devil's advocate here: What do you fear would happen if you mess up?
* You'd be eating at maintenance (by definition, your weight would be stable).
* If your weight started to increase (beyond a bit of expected water weight from maintenance calories and new exerise), you can simply adjust calories downward a bit.
* You'd be gaining some strength for sure from increasing the strength training, and probably gaining some muscle as well (even if everything wasn't done perfectly).
* You could get hurt weight training, but any of us can get hurt crossing the street or even lying in bed, and you'd mitigate that risk by learning proper weight-lifting form and progressing steadily but carefully in what you attempt, right?
* Maybe you'd feel some initial DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness), but that's temporary and manageable.
* You might feel some newbie blues ("will I ever get good at this??!?"), gym anxiety, or other psychological complexities, but those are things that are most under our control, since it's our own internal dialog, and we can reprogram it.
* If you found you were not liking the look you were getting, the whole process is one of gradual change, so you can stop, back off, change programs, switch to bulk/cut cycles, or whatever's required at the time to make you happier: There are not irreversible overnight changes, and you're not committed to the process forever.
So: Mess up what? Scared of what?
What's the worst that could happen? (Nothing really bad, I'm betting. It's just eating at maintenance, and doing strength exercise.
).
Risk management and mitigation is important, but not much useful change happens in our comfort zone.
You'll do great! 6 -
Femilaxx1xo wrote: »kathrynhoward84 wrote: »I find it hard to believe you don’t achieve 500 steps a day. I live in quite a small house and manage 200 in the morning before leaving the house just doing things like making breakfast, dressing and going to the loo.
Idk tbh.😣
download an app to your phone that tracks steps. The only way you're only getting 500-1000 steps in a day is if you're actually basically doing nothing at all. When I was a student, I walked to my classes, etc. Heck, I'm a desk jockey and sit most of the day and still get around 8,000 in a day...I usually have 2K-3K before I even leave the house just getting ready for the day.3 -
Yeah, I lay around like a slug all winter long (retired, lackadaisical housekeeper, sedentary winter hobbies), just a little grocery shopping and that sort of thing (for one!). I thought I probably wasn't getting 1000 steps some days. Turned out that even my low days tend to be in the low thousands (2000-4000 would be typical, and frequent low . . . but even then I had some days 5000-6000, and only a couple as low as 1800). I was surprised.
And I wasn't doing nearly as much walking activity then as you report for yourself, OP.3 -
A bit off topic but, I had an absolutely exhausting day in the garden last week cutting, chopping, and hacking for about 7 hr with a couple of 15-30 min refueling breaks- under 600 steps.
But, like @AnnPT77, a sloth day can garner 4-6000 steps without noticing. Pottering, the skill of the absent minded
.
Cheers, h.
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