Calories in and calories out question

FitnessFreak1821
FitnessFreak1821 Posts: 250 Member
edited December 2024 in Health and Weight Loss
I'm female, height is 5'5. I weigh 136.2 was my lowest weight this week. I went from 138.4 pounds Tuesday to 136.2 on Friday. Today I weighed 137.2 pounds. I'm assuming it's water weight I ate Harvey's yesterday but made sure I ate light as I could. I ate 1859 Calories yesterday, kind of high but figured 1-2 a week alittle off won't hurt me much ? Today I ate 2219! I'm not happy about that but I did some miscalculating of the take out I ate today even though I ate light again today to beable to eat out.

When I research my maintaince calories I get different numbers on sites cause some consider activity 3 days a week moderate then others say light excercise.
So I either use 1849 or 2044. I just chose to use 2044 Cal's to do my calculations. Im deficient this week with food and excercise total of 3706 calories but today I was in the negative so I minus it from 3706 and I got my total deficiency of 3506 for the week. I should technically be 1 pound down so about 135 pounds ...

I'm praying tomorrows weigh in. Reflects that but I am 10 days away from start of my cycle, I went up today one pound so no way I gain one pound in a day.

Would over eating 1800-2200 twice a week wreck my progress or am I doing the calculations correctly ? I got 5-6 pounds to go then continue to try tone and maintain 130-135 range.

What's a good calculator to figure out my exact maintaince calories so I can calculate my deficiency for the day properly? What would I be considered activity wise if I do hiit (includes resistance and weights) 3 times a week..sometimes 4. I do anywhere between 30-60 minutes. Mostly 40-60 minutes though. I follow Sydney Cummings. Love her work outs. Would I be light, moderate, heavy level ?

Replies

  • TonyB0588
    TonyB0588 Posts: 9,520 Member
    edited August 2020
    Your activity level is based on your normal daily life activities, not your exercise. The settings are in Account Settings on the Diet and Fitness profile section:
    • Sedentary: Spend most of the day sitting (e.g. bank teller, desk job)
    • Lightly Active: Spend a good part of the day on your feet (e.g. teacher, salesperson)
    • Active: Spend a good part of the day doing some physical activity (e.g. food server, postal carrier)
    • Very Active: Spend most of the day doing heavy physical activity (e.g. bike messenger, carpenter)
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,224 Member


    XoXashleighXoX wrote: »
    I'm female, height is 5'5. I weigh 136.2 was my lowest weight this week. I went from 138.4 pounds Tuesday to 136.2 on Friday. Today I weighed 137.2 pounds. I'm assuming it's water weight I ate Harvey's yesterday but made sure I ate light as I could. I ate 1859 Calories yesterday, kind of high but figured 1-2 a week alittle off won't hurt me much ? Today I ate 2219! I'm not happy about that but I did some miscalculating of the take out I ate today even though I ate light again today to beable to eat out.

    When I research my maintaince calories I get different numbers on sites cause some consider activity 3 days a week moderate then others say light excercise.
    So I either use 1849 or 2044. I just chose to use 2044 Cal's to do my calculations. Im deficient this week with food and excercise total of 3706 calories but today I was in the negative so I minus it from 3706 and I got my total deficiency of 3506 for the week. I should technically be 1 pound down so about 135 pounds ...

    I'm praying tomorrows weigh in. Reflects that but I am 10 days away from start of my cycle, I went up today one pound so no way I gain one pound in a day.

    Would over eating 1800-2200 twice a week wreck my progress or am I doing the calculations correctly ? I got 5-6 pounds to go then continue to try tone and maintain 130-135 range.

    What's a good calculator to figure out my exact maintaince calories so I can calculate my deficiency for the day properly? What would I be considered activity wise if I do hiit (includes resistance and weights) 3 times a week..sometimes 4. sn I do anywhere between 30-60 minutes. Mostly 40-60 minutes though. I follow Sydney Cummings. Love her work outs. Would I be light, moderate, heavy level ?

    There is no calculator that can reliably predict your EXACT maintenance calories. Honestly, you should probably relax a little bit and stop worrying about daily fluctuations that say more about your hydration level and the weight of food in your digestive tract than they do about whether you're in a calorie deficit and losing body mass.

    As for what your activity level is, different calculators will define it differently. TDEE calculators will take your exercise into account. NEAT calculators like MFP uses won't.
  • FitnessFreak1821
    FitnessFreak1821 Posts: 250 Member
    TonyB0588 wrote: »
    Your activity level is based on your normal daily life activities, not your exercise. The settings are in Account Settings on the Diet and Fitness profile section:
    • Sedentary: Spend most of the day sitting (e.g. bank teller, desk job)
    • Lightly Active: Spend a good part of the day on your feet (e.g. teacher, salesperson)
    • Active: Spend a good part of the day doing some physical activity (e.g. food server, postal carrier)
    • Very Active: Spend most of the day doing heavy physical activity (e.g. bike messenger, carpenter)

    Oh ok... but some calculators say excercise/sport. So I'm confused just Abit.
  • TonyB0588
    TonyB0588 Posts: 9,520 Member
    XoXashleighXoX wrote: »
    TonyB0588 wrote: »
    Your activity level is based on your normal daily life activities, not your exercise. The settings are in Account Settings on the Diet and Fitness profile section:
    • Sedentary: Spend most of the day sitting (e.g. bank teller, desk job)
    • Lightly Active: Spend a good part of the day on your feet (e.g. teacher, salesperson)
    • Active: Spend a good part of the day doing some physical activity (e.g. food server, postal carrier)
    • Very Active: Spend most of the day doing heavy physical activity (e.g. bike messenger, carpenter)

    Oh ok... but some calculators say excercise/sport. So I'm confused just Abit.

    To avoid confusion, I think it's best to stick to one site or one program. If My Fitness Pal thinks of the relationship between food and calories and exercise in a certain way, but you measure one of those variables by the way another site handles it, then the end result would be weird.
  • FitnessFreak1821
    FitnessFreak1821 Posts: 250 Member
    Now another calculator says 2581calories thats 500 more to maintain. Big difference from other one 2044 Cal's. 🤔
  • FitnessFreak1821
    FitnessFreak1821 Posts: 250 Member
    Can't seem to attach photo but I plugged in everything correctly. It's weird how two sites say different. Both calculators refers to excercise or sport as well.
  • FitnessFreak1821
    FitnessFreak1821 Posts: 250 Member
    https://www.muscleandstrength.com/tools/bmr-calculator

    This is calculator just used so now my calorie deficiency would be bit higher by going by this one. Hard to know what to go by anymore.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    Just TDEE Please spreadsheet - better than rough 5 level TDEE charts from 1919 study.

    https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1G7FgNzPq3v5WMjDtH0n93LXSMRY_hjmzNTMJb3aZSxM/edit?usp=sharing

    And ditto's to sounding like you may need to chill - or you are going to drive yourself batty in maintenance with weight fluctuating 3-6 lbs easily.

    To the recommendation that was given above - did you actually try setting up MFP? - which only asks about daily activity level, no exercise - because of course that is added on when really done.
    Maybe you'd prefer 1 eating level daily no matter when the workouts are done - that's fine, but better know how MFP works to use it in way it wasn't intended.

    And then there are the TDEE sites - the vast majority of which ask about exercise level but not daily activity level.
    You'd hit a few of those, some probably using a 1919 BMR formula that has been many times improved, which other sites may be using.

    Hence the spreadsheet link, estimate both daily and exercise each, log progress, adjust as needed based on results.
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