Question regarding body fat Question about sugar in my food.

Do you use a food scale to weigh all solid food?

You don’t need to worry about sugar unless your doctor has specifically told you to do so. It has no bearing on weight loss.

You don't say how many calories you're eating, so it's hard to answer whether you should eat more or not. Is it the 1200-1400 you refer to? Are you losing weight? How fast (pounds/week on average)?

At about your size (5'5", 150-something pounds) when I joined MFP at age 59, MFP gave me 1200 to lose at a reasonably moderate rate. I ate 1200 plus all exercise calories. Unfortunately, that was too few calories for me: I turned out to be a better than average li'l ol' calorie burner, but I recognized that because I was losing too fast, faster than MFP expected, and got fatigued/weak. I lost most of the rest of my weight at 1400-1600 plus exercise calories, and have maintained a healthy weight since (I'm your age, 63).

If you're losing at a sensibly moderate rate (1 pound a week would be good at your current weight, possibly a tiny bit more, for a while at least), then your intake level is reasonable. (Our own results are a much better guide than any so-called "calorie calculator's" estimate).

It's fine to be under calorie goal some days, and over others, as long as things are averaging out to a reasonable point for gradual weight loss, with good nutrition.

Inherent sugar is nothing to worry about, unless you have a medical condition that requires you to limit it (like diabetes or insulin resistance). I went over the MFP default sugar goal every day while losing, when the only added sugar I ate most days was a tiny bit of concentrated fruit juice well down the ingredient list in a single daily 30-calorie tablespoon of all-fruit spread. All the rest was from fruits, veggies, and no-sugar-added dairy. Even the mainstream nutritional sources (USDA, WHO, etc.) don't suggest we need to limit inherent sugars, and - if you read their rationales - recommend limiting added sugar because too much of it tends to either drive out needed nutrition within a sensible calorie level, or put us above a sensible calorie level while getting adequate nutrition, either of which would be suboptimal.

My solution to the "sugar problem" was to remove sugar from tracking on my MFP diary, and track fiber instead, because that was more helpful for me.

As long as you're losing weight, getting some muscle-challenging exercise, and getting adequate nutrition (especially adequate protein), most of the weight you lose will be fat. You'll do fine.

AnnPT77 wrote: »

dagrees wrote: »

@AnnPT77 I am set to lose 1 per week, at lightly active.
1250 calories. I eat about 1/2 my calories back if at all.
I do eat added sugar at times, too(ice cream).
I still toy with the idea of not logging exercise and just doing the tdee/bmr formula.
My bmr is 1330, tdee is 1831.
If I reduce at 20% I’d get 1465per day, which is much more than I am currently eating.

If you've been at this for a month or more, how fast are you actually losing?

If you've just started, I'd suggest sticking to your preferred initial routine for 4-6 weeks, then assessing based on actual average weight loss rate. (Only exception: If you seem to be losing super fast, and at the same time start feeling fatigued or weak, eat more, because those are danger signs.) Or, it's fine to start with a slower weight loss target, if that would make the process more doable for you.

MFP NEAT method vs. TDEE is personal preference. Personally, I prefer NEAT because for me it reinforces the idea of how life really works: Eating and activity inter-relate; and my preferred exercise is weather dependent, so variable, somewhat unpredictably. But some people prefer having the same intake target every day, finding it simpler. The two methods should work out to be pretty close, on average over time.

Best wishes!

OP mentioned losing 26 pounds since early January, so a rate of about 1 lb/week.

At 5'5" and 153 lb., OP is three pounds above their optimal BMI range.

At this point, OP, your weight loss should be slowing down. 0.5 lb/week is a good pace to target, and keep in mind that the scale will not decrease every week. You may go 4-6 weeks before seeing downward movement on the scale.

Weigh ALL solid food. You have a small deficit and it is easy to wipe it out with a few logging errors. You should also be eating back all exercise calories if you're confident that they're calculated correctly. If you are using an exercise calorie database or other estimate, eat half of them to account for potential overestimation. If you do not want to track exercise separately, then you need to use TDEE rather than MFP's calorie calculation. Either way, though, you should be aiming for a slower pace of loss at this point.

As you approach your optimal BMI range, since you want to reduce body fat further, you should be thinking about transitioning into recomp.