Starving and miserable
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freelymama wrote: »Thank you to everyone who replied, really helpful!
Ok i played around with the settings on mfp to see what i could change. I changed the goal to 1.5lbs a week and my activity to "lightly active". Mfp gave me 1680 cals. I feel this is likely more then i need so ive adjusted it to 1500 and i can see how i get on. But i still dont think im truly lightly active especially at the moment in lock down.
So my next question is...how do i become lightly active? How does this translate per day? 30 min workout video? Daily or every other day? Not sure where to start but im up for giving it a go if it means i can eat more!
To this point I'd ask - what experience with calories - eaten or burned - do you really have for this to be something to trust?
As to confirming you are being lightly-active - take the long way to the bathroom and kitchen all day long - visit all the rooms of the house hourly - walk to end of driveway several times daily.
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Ok. Im not sure i can really say im lightly actvie then. No in not sat on couch all day but im not run off my feet either. We have a small hpuse its not much effort to go from one end to the other. Im doubg a bit of light hpusework and sitting on the floor or in garden with the kids. Its still sitting. If we wernt in lickdoen yeh id say its hard work with kids in tow going places and school runs but not at the moment.0
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Op I'm 5'7 and 210 and a mom to an almost 2 year old. My weight loss is set at 1 lb a week, and that puts me around 1600 calories. My activity is set at light because I spend more time playing on the floor doing activities. Slowly losing weight. Maybe try the increase for a few weeks and see how you feel, and if you lose any weight.4
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Just an observation here, but I feel like your being clouded a little by wanting to get the weight off as fast as you can.
You made this post saying starving and miserable, and when the solution was found for you to eat more, losing only half a pound less then your previous setting, you feel like that's too much and set it back a little.
No one wants to have their weight on, but you're not gonna get it off ever if you cant slow down and make the process sustainable to do so.
You want the weight to stay off right? You're gonna need to learn good habits now, because the more you lose the slower it's going to go and unless you can get used to the idea of that and eat at a sustainable amount and speed, it's going to be very hard to finish what you're starting19 -
I think it’s likely your base activity level should be sedentary while you’re in lockdown. The sedendary setting accounts for a couple thousand steps around the house and so on. You can add in exercise to get a more accurate picture of your calories out.
As far as how much exercise you should be doing, for health in general it’s good to be moderately active 30 minutes a day, and more is better (up to a point, but that’s another post). Start with something you enjoy like a video or a walk and increase gradually so you don’t burn yourself out.4 -
freelymama wrote: »Thank you to everyone who replied, really helpful!
Ok i played around with the settings on mfp to see what i could change. I changed the goal to 1.5lbs a week and my activity to "lightly active". Mfp gave me 1680 cals. I feel this is likely more then i need so ive adjusted it to 1500 and i can see how i get on. But i still dont think im truly lightly active especially at the moment in lock down.
So my next question is...how do i become lightly active? How does this translate per day? 30 min workout video? Daily or every other day? Not sure where to start but im up for giving it a go if it means i can eat more!
Others have already pointed out how intentional exercise, in the world of MFP, is not counted in base activity, but is logged & added separately when we do it. That teaches the very useful lesson that when we move more, we should eat more; but if we move less, we need to eat accordingly.
If you want to increase your non-exercise activity (NEAT, non-exercise activity thermogenesis, i.e., the calories you burn before even doing formal exercise), this thread has a discussion of ideas:
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10610953/neat-improvement-strategies-to-improve-weight-loss/p1
It's a "vintage" thread, so it includes some ideas that may not be realistic if you're sheltering in place because of coronavirus, but it also has many, many ideas for strategies that will absolutely work inside one's own house.
Best wishes!
ETA: 1680 calories isn't crazy. I lost weight eating that (and more, when exercising) when lighter than you are now. I'd still lose eating 1680 plus all exercise, even at 5'5" and weighing in the low 130s, though it would be slower loss. Tiny people who don't move much may need to eat tiny calories, and perhaps a few more people beyond those groups. But it's just a popular myth that most of us must do that: Most of us can lose weight eating more.
Unless you have urgent, important health reasons to lose weight fast . . . it works better to find a way to do it easily rather than quickly, because it's inherently a long-term process (even if fast) for those of us who have/had a meaningful amount to lose. Easy is sustainable; fast may not be.5 -
Hey, I totally understand where you're coming from! How far into your journey are you? It normally takes me 4/5 days for the serious hunger to go after I start a diet, that's why it has taken me a year and about 20 failed attempts (and an extra 14lbs) to get back to it but I had to do something!!
For my calories I always class myself as sedentary and have a calorie goal of 1200 (I'm 5'7" and 180lb). I then do a 30 min to an hour work out each day (depending on time) and that's how I get the extra calories. I will say that 3 weeks in I am getting used to it, the hunger has started to go. I struggle with some carbs as I have a gluten intolerance but I always eat wholewheat five and lots of potatoes.
Good luck with it. You need a hobby or distraction from the hunger, I do find exercise really helps!1 -
Just to be clear about the NEAT method MFP uses: when you add an exercise it adds calories to your allowance. Say your base allowance is 1500 calories and you walk for 30 minutes burning 120 calories in the process, your allowance becomes 1620 (1500+120). So yes, you do get extra calories for being more active without increasing your base activity level.
I really like this method because it teaches you that if you want to eat more you need to move more, and if you start moving less for one reason or another, you'll have to adapt to eating less. I like it the other way around, too. It teaches you that if you move more, you need more fuel. That being way under calories is not a win.6 -
Ok. So as a compromise ive set it to lose 1.5lbs per week, not very active (for now while in lockdown) and will endeavour to add in some excerisse to "earn" extra calories. Whats the best way to be accurate on this. Step counter? Dont we all burn different amount depending how hard we are working? I dont want to "eat back" excersise calories and end up over eating!0
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freelymama wrote: »Ok. So as a compromise ive set it to lose 1.5lbs per week, not very active (for now while in lockdown) and will endeavour to add in some excerisse to "earn" extra calories. Whats the best way to be accurate on this. Step counter? Dont we all burn different amount depending how hard we are working? I dont want to "eat back" excersise calories and end up over eating!
It's based on weight.
Which for many exercises is a fair estimate of calorie burn.
The fitness level between people of same weight is not a change in calorie burn - but rather what supplied most the energy for those calories - fat or carbs.
How hard you are working is taken care of by workouts that have an intensity to them (pace, speed, ect).
For those that don't (Spin class) it's expected you are doing it the way the class is done.
Be honest with the time - if 5 min warmup and 5 min cooldown and stretches involved, and the video was 30 min - the workout was only 20 min.
ETA - oh - overeating would have to overcome a 750 cal deficit.4 -
freelymama wrote: »Ok. So as a compromise ive set it to lose 1.5lbs per week, not very active (for now while in lockdown) and will endeavour to add in some excerisse to "earn" extra calories. Whats the best way to be accurate on this. Step counter? Dont we all burn different amount depending how hard we are working? I dont want to "eat back" excersise calories and end up over eating!
You don't need to be accurate with your exercise calories at first, you only need to be "in the ballpark". Many prefer to start by eating 50% of their exercise calories back and then tweaking from there. The first few weeks of data usually help you determine if you need to decrease or increase your calories further.
Say your goal is 1.5lbs. After 6-8 weeks you lost around 9-12 pounds. This means you're on the right track and don't need to change your calories. If you lost 6, you may want to reduce your calories if it's sustainable (usually people just eat less of their exercise calories back). If you lost 15, you'll need to increase your calories (usually manually or by increasing activity level on MFP).5 -
freelymama wrote: »Ok. So as a compromise ive set it to lose 1.5lbs per week, not very active (for now while in lockdown) and will endeavour to add in some excerisse to "earn" extra calories. Whats the best way to be accurate on this. Step counter? Dont we all burn different amount depending how hard we are working? I dont want to "eat back" excersise calories and end up over eating!
A step counter or a fitness tracker with heart rate monitor can be useful in judging your activity level. I used a step counter to push myself to get up to at least 5,000 steps a day, then I bought a cheap fitness tracker to help me judge the intensity of my workouts when I started them. But they aren't absolutely necessary, either.
The general recommendation is to start with counting back half of your exercise calories and adjust as necessary, especially if you are using MFP's values. So say you do a low impact workout video for 30 minutes (I do this at lunchtime currently). Count the MFP entry for low impact aerobics for 15 minutes to get the half calorie count. MFP takes your currently weight log and calculates the calorie burn using that and the minutes you input.
For some of the entries, you'll need to make a judgement call. for instance: I have a cheap elliptical here that my grandfather had left in one of his rental homes. I know that even using the present workouts on it, its not a very strenuous workout, rarely getting my heart rate above 110. So it would be considered a light effort. But MFP doesn't have an entry for elliptical, light effort so I choose to instead using the walking entry for either 2.0 or 2.5 mph for my sessions. My current walking speed is actually around 3.25 mph, but there isn't an entry for that, so I may count 60-70% of my walks at 3.0 mph instead.
So start at adding half calories back for exercise, give it a few weeks and adjust as necessary.4 -
amusedmonkey wrote: »Maybe you can have a conversation with your doctor. When I first decided to lose weight my doctor also suggested 1200, but asked me if I wanted a referral to a dietitian. I said no, went home, found 1200 too low, ate 1600. Next time I saw him I told him I couldn't do 1200. He said I was doing fine and my weight loss was where he wanted it to be. His initial recommendation was based on the fact that many people tend to be sloppy counters (eyeballing, not counting certain things...etc), so the initial lower number was to account for undercounting.
If you don't need to lose weight urgently and quickly, you can probably talk to your doctor and see if they gave you a lower budget than he expects you to eat.
ETA:
I'm someone who doesn't feel full without carbs. I need my bread and my rice and my beans. I don't think I'll survive without potatoes. I lost 140 pounds eating these things daily, plus fruits (sugar! the horror!). Don't make it harder on yourself than it needs to be. If eating low carb leaves you hungry, then maybe experiment with increasing your carbs and see if that solves the problem.
Another note, and it's strictly personal to me. I really REALLY love nuts, but they don't work for me as a snack. The amount is so tiny, they're gone so quickly, and they don't fill me up.
Exactly the same situation here. Bread, rice, beans, and also pasta, granola bars, and other carby things are what I find filling. No amount of nuts, berries, vegetables, and other diet-y stuff can substitute for a carb for me. I can stuff 400 calories worth of nuts down my gullet for a snack and feel hungry an hour later, or even immediately. A hundred calories of Wheat Thins and I'm fairly good to go until my next meal.
imho people have been led astray by the "carbs are evil" movement. Many carbs taste great and are very filling and a lot of people really like them, so .... what's the point? Of course, if someone prefers other food to carbs, that's a different story.10 -
freelymama wrote: »Ok. Im not sure i can really say im lightly actvie then. No in not sat on couch all day but im not run off my feet either. We have a small hpuse its not much effort to go from one end to the other. Im doubg a bit of light hpusework and sitting on the floor or in garden with the kids. Its still sitting. If we wernt in lickdoen yeh id say its hard work with kids in tow going places and school runs but not at the moment.
I would put it as sedentary. Especially during Quarantine. But it's actually a moot point. I think you've made a wise choice setting your cals to 1500 and that should provide a great baseline for you to move forward. In 2 weeks you'll know whether 1500 is just right, or maybe you need a little more food (likely), or could do with a little less (unlikely). The whole sedentary vs lightly active thing is just to help you get started; it isn't like fitting into category A vs B really matters, other than for MFP to be able to ballpark how many calories you should be eating. 1200 was too low, at 2030 you won't lose any weight, so yeah, around 1500-1650 ish is where you're gonna need to be to drop the pounds at a motivating pace without feeling too deprived and you don't need a label to know that.
EDIT: I should mention that when I ran your stats through TDEE calculator to get your maintenance calories of 2030, I assumed "Sedentary". For someone sitting in a house during quarantine I can't really see how that wouldn't make sense. But again, the category is kinda irrelevant if you've settled on a caloric level to get started, as you have.3 -
My target goal for exercise calories burned before lockdown: 500 calories per day.
My target goal for exercise calories burned during lockdown: 500 calories per day.
I'm actually exceeding that most days lately because I have a new gardening project.
I've been too busy gardening to make it to the state park where I hike. It's open (there's no Visitor's Center.) I know it's open because a neighbor told me - he went mountain biking there the other day. I use an unofficial back entrance anyway, so wouldn't know if it were closed.
If I didn't have either of the above, I have trails behind my house.
For indoor activities, I have big cooking projects (I don't count the first hour of cooking I do per day but do log anything after that hour), yoga, working out, and big cleaning projects (I don't count normal everyday cleaning.)
My bathroom is overwhelmingly pink, so I am thinking about repainting it.
Now, I don't have kids, but my mom did, and she was way more active than I am - she raised goats for milk, so there was all that went into that, and in the 70s we switched to burning wood. We got logs delivered - she chainsawed, Dad split, my brother and I stacked, and my sister had homework.
Now, I'm not suggesting you run out and get a wood stove or goats - my point is to illustrate the many options for being active at home, and that having children need not be an impediment.
BTW, I am still working full time as I have been working remotely since 2012.5 -
Also keep in mind that all your settings can be changed again. By this I mean you don't have to get it absolutely right you just need to get started in a way that does not promote misery. If you are trying to lose 1.5 pound per week and it turns out you lose a little faster or slower you can make further adjustments. It takes about 6 weeks to determine your rate of loss though so try to be consistent and do not allow the bathroom scale to cause you make changes.
During that time read whatever "Most Helpful Posts" at the top of the forums that you believe apply to you. Knowledge of the process will help you trust it.8 -
freelymama wrote: »Ok. Im not sure i can really say im lightly actvie then. No in not sat on couch all day but im not run off my feet either. We have a small hpuse its not much effort to go from one end to the other. Im doubg a bit of light hpusework and sitting on the floor or in garden with the kids. Its still sitting. If we wernt in lickdoen yeh id say its hard work with kids in tow going places and school runs but not at the moment.
I would put it as sedentary. Especially during Quarantine. But it's actually a moot point. I think you've made a wise choice setting your cals to 1500 and that should provide a great baseline for you to move forward. In 2 weeks you'll know whether 1500 is just right, or maybe you need a little more food (likely), or could do with a little less (unlikely). The whole sedentary vs lightly active thing is just to help you get started; it isn't like fitting into category A vs B really matters, other than for MFP to be able to ballpark how many calories you should be eating. 1200 was too low, at 2030 you won't lose any weight, so yeah, around 1500-1650 ish is where you're gonna need to be to drop the pounds at a motivating pace without feeling too deprived and you don't need a label to know that.
EDIT: I should mention that when I ran your stats through TDEE calculator to get your maintenance calories of 2030, I assumed "Sedentary". For someone sitting in a house during quarantine I can't really see how that wouldn't make sense. But again, the category is kinda irrelevant if you've settled on a caloric level to get started, as you have.
Thanks you are right in both comments! I need to just settle on a number and do it and see what happens. I am under a bit of pressure (from only myself) to get the weight off as i want another baby and the dr will not give treatment i need at my current weight.
Ive set it to sedentary 1.5lbs a week at mfp gives me 1360. I know i can chose 1lb for more calories but this way i am motivated to excersise and move which is something i really need! I will see how i feel on.that over the next few days, adding in excersise to allow a buffer if i need to go over to feel ok. Like today if im honest i just wanted a peice of dark chocolate with my husbamd in the evening. Thats all i wanted. It was 75 calories and i was hungry but id already had my 1200. After posting this and increasing my allowance i decided to have a peice and felt much happier. I just needed the wiggle room.
Thank you so much for all the replies im feeling more positive and i understand it all better now! X5 -
deannalfisher wrote: »lightly active is walking about 4000 steps a day (sedentary is less than 3000) - MFP does NOT include purposeful exercise in your calorie count (so if you do like a workout video - it expects you to eat back at least a portion of those calories)
The things I'm seeing are calling sedentary less than 5000 steps a day
Sedentary is less than 5,000 steps per day
Low active is 5,000 to 7,499 steps per day
Somewhat active is 7,500 to 9,999 steps per day
Active is more than 10,000 steps per day
Highly active is more than 12,500
https://www.10000steps.org.au/articles/counting-steps/
Based on currently available evidence, we propose the following preliminary indices be used to classify pedometer-determined physical activity in healthy adults: (i). <5000 steps/day may be used as a 'sedentary lifestyle index'; (ii). 5000-7499 steps/day is typical of daily activity excluding sports/exercise and might be considered 'low active'; (iii). 7500-9999 likely includes some volitional activities (and/or elevated occupational activity demands) and might be considered 'somewhat active'; and (iv). >or=10000 steps/day indicates the point that should be used to classify individuals as 'active'. Individuals who take >12500 steps/day are likely to be classified as 'highly active'.
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/147150352 -
Theoldguy1 wrote: »deannalfisher wrote: »lightly active is walking about 4000 steps a day (sedentary is less than 3000) - MFP does NOT include purposeful exercise in your calorie count (so if you do like a workout video - it expects you to eat back at least a portion of those calories)
The things I'm seeing are calling sedentary less than 5000 steps a day
Sedentary is less than 5,000 steps per day
Low active is 5,000 to 7,499 steps per day
Somewhat active is 7,500 to 9,999 steps per day
Active is more than 10,000 steps per day
Highly active is more than 12,500
https://www.10000steps.org.au/articles/counting-steps/
Based on currently available evidence, we propose the following preliminary indices be used to classify pedometer-determined physical activity in healthy adults: (i). <5000 steps/day may be used as a 'sedentary lifestyle index'; (ii). 5000-7499 steps/day is typical of daily activity excluding sports/exercise and might be considered 'low active'; (iii). 7500-9999 likely includes some volitional activities (and/or elevated occupational activity demands) and might be considered 'somewhat active'; and (iv). >or=10000 steps/day indicates the point that should be used to classify individuals as 'active'. Individuals who take >12500 steps/day are likely to be classified as 'highly active'.
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14715035
While this is the general consensus, the way MFP calculates calories is different. It basically compares the calories you get from their equation to the calories received from trackers. It doesn't exactly read the number of steps. It generally counted over sedentary for me at 2500-3500 steps, depending on my speed.5 -
OP, you can do this, you know. You’re already engaged and responding and clearly digesting what’s been posted, which is more than 85% of OPs do.
You’re getting some great advice here. The MFP people will bend over backwards to help and answer questions, no matter how dumb you may worry you sound. I have spent countless hours browsing these boards and could not have done it without these peeps.
I started out at 1470 for several months, floundering around and not knowing what I was doing. After being roundly chewed out by a trainer, confirmed by a follow up visit to my dietician, I bumped it up, then up and then up again.
It’s not writ in stone. You’ve got to give yourself the grace and the time not to be in a hurry, and to find what works for you.
Btw, my three sessions with a dietician? Worth. Every. Penny. Go armed with a list of questions- again have no fear how dumb some may be. I am still staggered at how little I knew- and still don’t- about my body. Learning every day.7
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