Hello - Need some advice regarding weight loss/calories

erabeth1
erabeth1 Posts: 3 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hello!

Last year I decided to lose weight and started off at 297 lbs at 5'10. I have a large frame and used to be pretty athletic but poor diet and a sedentary lifestyle got me quick. Since then I am at 216 lbs by cutting calories and incorporating exercise I can definitely keep up with at the moment, which is walking briskly (3-3.5 mph) for around 45-90 minutes a day 3-6 days a week. I've got a fitbit and try to hit my 10K steps and on good days I hit 13-15K. I also play with my dog, cook and all that NEAT stuff. I have depression and anxiety so it makes it quite hard to keep up with even walking but I do my best. Sometimes I fall off the wagon and over eat a bit but I always get back on it and I'm not struggling too much to lose weight/not gain weight. Which brings me to my question...at my height and exercise level is 1400-1500 calories a day enough? I am 100% able to keep at it for a week or so at a time, but after that my body screams for food. Not even a crazy amount of food, but I end up feeling bad for eating more. I've calculated my BMR, did the TDEE calculators. I just feel like at my current weight it's still safe enough to aim for 2 lbs a week. My goal weight is 170, but I'm happy with anything as long as I'm healthier. I am losing on average 4-8 lbs a month for the past 4 months. I don't typically feel weak or dizzy but I do notice that after a week or two of eating 1400-1500 calories I do feel like I need more, and I don't know if that's just the depression and anxiety in me wanting comfort or if my body really does need more nourishment.

Thanks :)

Replies

  • zebasschick
    zebasschick Posts: 1,067 Member
    that seems pretty low to me; what does MFP give you as daily calories when you input everything? and do you add exercise and eat back part of your exercise calories?
  • erabeth1
    erabeth1 Posts: 3 Member
    zebasschick wrote: »
    that seems pretty low to me; what does MFP give you as daily calories when you input everything? and do you add exercise and eat back part of your exercise calories?

    Hi :) So MFP gives me the following numbers: 1530 calories for lightly active & 2 lbs a week and 2030 calories for 1 lb a week. I have the 2 lb option on at the moment. And no I typically do not eat back exercise calories, so the total is 1400 - 1500.

  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    erabeth1 wrote: »
    zebasschick wrote: »
    that seems pretty low to me; what does MFP give you as daily calories when you input everything? and do you add exercise and eat back part of your exercise calories?

    Hi :) So MFP gives me the following numbers: 1530 calories for lightly active & 2 lbs a week and 2030 calories for 1 lb a week. I have the 2 lb option on at the moment. And no I typically do not eat back exercise calories, so the total is 1400 - 1500.

    It sounds like you're pretty active. Why aren't you eating back any exercise calories?
  • erabeth1
    erabeth1 Posts: 3 Member
    PAV8888 wrote: »
    Do you have your Fitbit connected and do you eat back your Fitbit adjustment? Are you talking 1400-1500 NET calories, or are you talking 1400-1500 TOTAL calories?

    Whether you "feel" you SHOULD be OK while losing at 2lbs... *I* definitely found 2lbs to be fast for me in the low 200's. And I'm shorter than you at 172.25cm. I ended up moving from ~240 to ~168 at an average of just under 1.5lbs a week while applying a 21.35% deficit.

    If your proven deficit based on your weight trend is exceeding 25% of your TDEE--that is quite a good chunk even if you're still obese, and it is a very very big chunk once you move into the overweight range.

    You're 80lbs down. Yes, you have 50lbs to go. And yes the 50lbs will make a difference and you definitely want to get there. But, as a health calculus, every extra lb down is worth less than the previous one. So any error, in my view, should be towards making the effort sustainable and setting up a successful maintenance. Speed of loss is a way more secondary consideration. Sustainability of effort: primary.

    To your question "is my deficit the likeliest reason I occasionally feel hungry", I think that the continuing deficit is enough of an explanation when 80lbs down and continuing to run ~1000 Cal a day deficits :wink:

    Hello :)

    I do have my fitbit connected however I don't use it's calories burned because I don't think it's very accurate. On days where I do 13K - 15K steps it tells me I've burned over 3000 calories for that day...like 3500 even. That doesn't sound right when my BMR is around 1800 and lightly active TDEE is like 2450 or something. I had my fitbit and mfp connected at first and it would tell me that at the end of the day I had like 1000-1400 calories I can eat...that can't be right LOL. Maybe it is, but it doesn't sound right.

    And I do agree that sustainable is better than losing all the weight fast (been there done that) which is why I posted, to make sure I'm not overthinking it. I am a bit of a weight loss goblin in the sense that I tend to get a bit obsessed sometimes and if I don't see the scale budge I get upset which is also wrong I know. And pointless because I measure myself as well and that is going down consistently. I total 1400-1500 calories, I don't eat back exercise calories but I do have occasional days when I will eat more like 1700-2000 calories.
  • nanastaci2020
    nanastaci2020 Posts: 1,072 Member
    The two questions to ask yourself would be is it safe and is it worth it? If you're miserable after a week at 1400-1500 calories, then beat yourself up over eating more: I'm guessing it is not worth it. Why not try for a 1.5 pound loss rate, so eat 1600-1650 and see how you feel?

  • nanastaci2020
    nanastaci2020 Posts: 1,072 Member
    BMR of 1800 and lightly active burn of 2530: 13k-15k steps is so much MORE than lightly active. So the 3000-3500 calorie burn is probably not wrong.

    I can understand not being ready to accept the Fitbit values as 100% accurate. But perhaps assume a 10% error rate? If Fitbit says you burned 3000 (total daily burn) assume 2700 may be a safer #. So leave 300 calories 'on the table' just in case.
  • quiksylver296
    quiksylver296 Posts: 28,439 Member
    I'm 5'9, 45 years old, and 195 lbs. I can lose on 2000 calories per day. I'm hangry on 1400. I'd rather lose more slowly, but be more happy overall.
  • J72FIT
    J72FIT Posts: 6,002 Member
    At your height and activity level you should be able to lose fat at a range of 2000 - 2500 calories a day.
  • Dogmom1978
    Dogmom1978 Posts: 1,580 Member
    Personally, I only use my Fitbit for sleep tracking, heart rate and as a watch. I ignore all other stats it gives me as I find it grossly overestimates.

    That said, find what works for you. I log all of my exercise. If I use cardio machines, I assume a 20% error and deduct that from the calories provided. If I walk my dogs, I say I walked at 2.0 mph to account for them stopping to sniff stuff. So on and so forth. I eat back some, but not all of my exercise calories. BUT there is no one size fits all plan, so you need some trial and error to figure out what is sustainable for YOU.
  • bmeadows380
    bmeadows380 Posts: 2,981 Member
    Your body is screaming for food because you aren't fueling it properly to cover the activity you are getting. I'm 5'8" and around 228 lbs at the moment, and 1450 is the bottom of sedentary for me. Walking 90 minutes, even only counting 3/4 of it, gets me easily to above 1800 and with other activity, I can get myself up to 2000 a day easily.

    If you are setting yourself to sedentary, then MFP is set up for you to add back your activity calories, or at least part of them (MFP uses the NEAT method not the TDEE method). I'd suggest either of 2 options: To use MFP to mimic a TDEE calculator, reset your activity to lightly active or active, keep hitting your typical fitness goals, and enjoy the extra food that your body can use to fuel all that activity.

    Or leave your setting at sedentary, but add back at least 50% of your activity calories, such as your 90 minutes walks (to get to 50%, just count half your time at your normal speed, so if you walk 90 minutes, count 45 minutes). OR whatever setting you have it currently (I'm assuming sedentary because of the low amount of calories MFP is giving you daily).
  • zebasschick
    zebasschick Posts: 1,067 Member
    if you don't eat enough, you'll lose muscle mass, slowing your overall resting burn, making yourself weaker, and even risking injury.
  • ChickenKillerPuppy
    ChickenKillerPuppy Posts: 297 Member
    I think that sounds really low. I'm 48 years old, 5'4" and maintaining my weight at 119-124 pounds and I will lose weight if I eat 1800 calories a day. Now I am very active, but still - I would starve at 1400-1500 calories a day. I use fitbit and it's synched with MFP and I don't generally eat back all my exercise calories, but I do eat back at least half. I think your hunger is a sign to eat more. Why don't you experiment and raise it to 1700-1800 calories a day for 6 weeks or so and see how it goes?
  • chocolate_owl
    chocolate_owl Posts: 1,695 Member
    With less than 50 lbs to go, 2 lbs/week is very aggressive, especially since you don't mention any resistance training. You're in an extreme deficit with no muscle-saving measures. I would make the following changes:

    1) Set your goal to 1 lb/week.
    2) Either: disconnect your fitbit and put your activity level to Active, or set your activity level to sedentary and let your fitbit drive your activity. Either way, eat the calories MFP gives you. It will be more, and you might experience a temporary bump up in weight, but you'll feel a lot better. If you don't lose for several weeks in a row, you can scale your calories back down a bit.
    3) I know how hard exercise can be with depression, and if walking is something you enjoy and feel up to doing, then do that. But if you feel like you can tackle a bit more, swap out some of your walking time for some resistance training. If you're not currently going to a gym with weights, you can do weight-free exercises like pilates, or you can get light weights and resistance bands that are easy to store in your home and find some routines based around them.
  • DanaDark
    DanaDark Posts: 2,187 Member
    That is a significant amount of walking. Depending on the way Fitbit is set up, it may be telling you that you're burned 3000-3500 because it is factoring in everything, not solely calories burned from steps.

    Overall, it is likely you just need to switch to 1.5 pounds a week and be fine. As you get closer to your goal, you'll need to slow the rate of loss. It can simply be that time.

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