Recommendations/Suggestions please

vijaykbt29
vijaykbt29 Posts: 6 Member
edited May 2021 in Health and Weight Loss
Hi Everyone,

I know there are tons of information or suggestion, but would like some guidance or validation to see if I am missing anything or not thinking.

Age - 47
Gender - M
Current Weight - 180 lbs
Desired Weight - 165lbs
BMR - 1770
TDEE - 2100

Current Food - Calorie Intake
- First Two weeks - 1500 (35C/40P/25F)
- Second Two weeks - 1500 (30C/45P/25F) << couldn't sustain this macros
- Third Two weeks - 1300 (35C/35P/30F)
- I weigh my food = every meal
- Stop eating food at 8 pm / next meal at 8 am
- Hydration - 60 oz of water/daily

Exercise/Activity (Weekly)
- 1 X 15M bike ride,
- 1X Peloton Ride,
- 3 X 2.5M walk,
- 1 X Light Yard Work

Have not lost any weight in the last 6 weeks? I am afraid to drop below 1200 (as per various sources not to go below BMR) What am I doing wrong or what should be my caloric intake ? Appreciate any insights or corrections that I need to make towards my healthy body journey. I greatly appreciate your guidance. Thanks. VJK





Replies

  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    If your TDEE is 2,100, your calorie goal is very low for the amount of weight you have to lose. How did you choose those calorie goals?

    Typically 1,500 is the lowest that a man should go and a man who is active should be eating enough to support that activity.
  • nanastaci2020
    nanastaci2020 Posts: 1,072 Member
    If your BMR is 1770 then your I question if your TDEE is accurately stated at 2100 given your exercise, activity stated. Outside of this activity are you at a desk job/sitting all the time?

    You indicate you use a food scale. For everything? Or do you log '1 banana' or '1 chicken breast' or '1 large egg' type items? Do you make most/all of your own food? I'm only asking because eating food made by others requires estimation. You don't know how much oil oil someone else uses, or if they use full fat or lighter ingredients. Or if the meat entre was 6 ounces or 7 or 8 or...
  • ahoy_m8
    ahoy_m8 Posts: 3,053 Member
    edited May 2021
    Height? How lean are you to start with (BMI or BF%)?

    I agree with Jane. A 10% of TDEE deficit would put you at a 0.5lb/wk rate of loss. 2 challenges:
    1) It's hard to see on the scale amid healthy water fluctuation so use a trending app or rolling average
    2) A small deficit gives you less margin of error in logging. Use a food scale and if you open your food diary, MFP users might be able to spot common logging errors.
  • vijaykbt29
    vijaykbt29 Posts: 6 Member
    s6bu2bzr943z.png

    TDEE estimates was based on sailrabbit.com/bmr calculator based on the above metrics. I played around and was trying to lose 1-2 lbs (or 300-500 calorie deficit). Started with 1700 calories and the scale was not moving so I was thinking to adjust the calories backward every two weeks to see if I see any progression.

    In addition, this is my recovery day/no exercise day TDEE/RMR stats from my Garmin. Hence the struggle to figure out if I am going in the opposite direction (not eating the right calories)

    WRT food, The only food I rely on packaging is Protein powder. Everything else is homecooked and measured including oil/sugar etc. Also, I give a 50-70 calorie buffer for such mistakes.

    Thanks, VJK
  • vijaykbt29
    vijaykbt29 Posts: 6 Member
    Food diary > https://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/diary/afxvijay

    Height - 5 ft 10 inches
    BMI - 25.1
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    afxvijay wrote: »
    Food diary > https://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/diary/afxvijay

    Height - 5 ft 10 inches
    BMI - 25.1

    It looks like you're using generic/homemade entries created by other people for some of the things you're eating -- these can be tricky because you don't know if their preparation matches yours. These calories can be way off.

    It also looks as if you're using cups to measure some calorie dense foods and that can also throw your calorie counts off. You may want to try creating your own recipes instead of using the database and weighing calorie dense items like avocado, rice, bananas, etc.
  • nanastaci2020
    nanastaci2020 Posts: 1,072 Member
    edited May 2021
    300-500 daily deficit would be a loss rate of .6-1 pounds per week. Just pointing this out - a smallish deficit means accuracy is super important. Mistakes on logging quickly eat into the deficit, putting you at maintenance.

    Weigh the eggs, avocado, etc. The label may say 1 egg = 50g for 70 cals. But my large eggs? Often 55-51g. And as others suggested - make your own recipes, and don't assume someone else's recipe matches yours for nutritional info.

    As for your chicken - which seems to be a staple item in your daily logging - make sure the entry is a reliable one. If its skinless, boneless, trimmed of most of the fat: that entry should be fine. If not, use one more akin to the chicken you use.
  • vijaykbt29
    vijaykbt29 Posts: 6 Member
    Thank you Jane. I will start creating my own food/meals to track going forward. Appreciate the suggestions.
    janejellyroll wrote: »
    afxvijay wrote: »
    Food diary > https://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/diary/afxvijay

    Height - 5 ft 10 inches
    BMI - 25.1

    It looks like you're using generic/homemade entries created by other people for some of the things you're eating -- these can be tricky because you don't know if their preparation matches yours. These calories can be way off.

    It also looks as if you're using cups to measure some calorie dense foods and that can also throw your calorie counts off. You may want to try creating your own recipes instead of using the database and weighing calorie dense items like avocado, rice, bananas, etc.

  • vijaykbt29
    vijaykbt29 Posts: 6 Member
    edited May 2021
    Thanks Staci and will do that as well. I will start tracking more accurately.

    Still not sure if my BASELINE (TDEE/calorie deficit) is reasonable. Based on the above comments, should I target 2100-500 = 1600 on non exercise days?
    nanastaci2020 wrote: »
    300-500 daily deficit would be a loss rate of .6-1 pounds per week. Just pointing this out - a smallish deficit means accuracy is super important. Mistakes on logging quickly eat into the deficit, putting you at maintenance.

    Weigh the eggs, avocado, etc. The label may say 1 egg = 50g for 70 cals. But my large eggs? Often 55-51g. And as others suggested - make your own recipes, and don't assume someone else's recipe matches yours for nutritional info.

    As for your chicken - which seems to be a staple item in your daily logging - make sure the entry is a reliable one. If its skinless, boneless, trimmed of most of the fat: that entry should be fine. If not, use one more akin to the chicken you use.

  • nanastaci2020
    nanastaci2020 Posts: 1,072 Member
    Depends... can you be satisfied on 1600 for non-exercise days? If so, ok. If not, them aim for a slightly smaller deficit and accept that weight loss should be slow but steady.
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,860 Member
    Piling in on what others have said: patience, thorough logging and weighing, and not stressing out.

    Your first diary entry seems to be on 1 May, thus we're only talking about 3 weeks at most. Nothing seems to have been weight based on the database entries, of the first few days, and have you really only eaten about 1300 calories? Apart from some chicken and eggs pretty much everything you log is fluid and/or carbs. Nothing against carbs, I'm a carboholic myself. But do you really feel satiated from this, or did you eat more?
  • vijaykbt29
    vijaykbt29 Posts: 6 Member
    edited May 2021
    Thank you. I have been on MFP for over years. Yo-Yoed over the last 10 years. Got frustrated and dumped all my OLD entries into an EXPORT and deleted for the same reasons that all pointed out. I have been using others entries thinking its close enough to track and managing my discipline. At one point I was 168 lbs and the last 6 months I gained 12 lbs. I had enough and realized that I am doing something terribly wrong on CICO.

    My chicken/egg intake - Was trying to take a high PROTEIN and low CARB strategy to lose the weight gain and then go into a maintenance mode. I cannot handle more than 80 gms of protein, however been pushing myself to gobble up more proteins and less carboholic.

    Then I realized I failed in the past due the same reason and tweaked my macros recently to be 35C/35P.

    I have been playing around my CICO 1700-1300 range in relation to my TDEE. But I know I am doing something wrong that I am overlooking. I have read all the great articles, but sometimes, when we implement it, we overlook and do stupid things that we don't realize what we are doing

    So thought I would ask for some support. Thanks for your input. I am relooking at all my food/metrics again closely and going to cleanup my metrics again and try for another few weeks.

    VJK

    yirara wrote: »
    Piling in on what others have said: patience, thorough logging and weighing, and not stressing out.

    Your first diary entry seems to be on 1 May, thus we're only talking about 3 weeks at most. Nothing seems to have been weight based on the database entries, of the first few days, and have you really only eaten about 1300 calories? Apart from some chicken and eggs pretty much everything you log is fluid and/or carbs. Nothing against carbs, I'm a carboholic myself. But do you really feel satiated from this, or did you eat more?

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