Need some advice/opinions from the MFP family

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  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
    Retroguy2000 wrote: »
    Know that when you tell MFP "lightly active", that's going to introduce a huge variable into the tracking. What if you don't exercise as many days that week? What if your exercise is far more or less calorie burning than that estimate? That's why I choose "sedentary" and track the exercise myself. It's still not perfect, but at least it gives me a better number on any given day. That way, on days I don't work out, I know to eat less because my target is shown correctly, and on days when I do work out, which includes 60+ minutes of weights, I can add an estimate for those calories for that day and eat them back. MFP updates the target with a little asterisk to acknowledge you earned X calories from exercise today.

    Why did you fall off the wagon? It's OK to pause for a bit imo at some intermediate target, so long as you don't go back to old eating habits and plan to get back on track.

    The bolded is not at all how MFP works - choosing lightly active (or any other activity) setting has absolutely nothing to do with someone's exercise. Separate categories.

    My setting is active because of how much daily movement I do - exercise is on top.
    I'm active whether I do purposeful exercise or not, I eat more when I exercise, not less because I don't.

    My son (a builder) would have a setting of very active - exercise is still on top.
    Think for a second if you compared two similar builders doing the same job with the same activity setting, if one exercises and the other doesn't then hopefully clearly one needs more calories than the other. Their base calorie goal for a non-exercise day would however be the same.
  • Draculza
    Draculza Posts: 61 Member
    I've been on this site long enough to know that everyone is pedantic LOL. I should have known better. I have my MFP account linked to my Garmin so when I do exercise, it automatically imports my exercise. While I know that it may not be completely accurate, it give a good idea of the calories burned. I have honestly very rarely eaten back calories from exercise.

    @Retroguy2000, I know to be more careful when I'm stuck in meetings the whole day or if I've been stuck doing admin. I used to be more active as a rep when I originally started but got promoted and lead to more office work and less activity. In terms of falling of the wagon, pre-covid I did a 5km parkrun every Saturday and a lot of other exercise during the week. I had my weights at home and I kept busy. When lockdown started on the 27th of March 2020, we weren't allowed to go out for about 5 weeks or so unless you were going to the shop for necessities. I live in an apartment so limited space. I wasn't as strict with my diet and because I was bored, I ate. As restrictions were lifted, we still weren't able to do parkruns and we couldn't go out to exercise without masks which while necessary, are not conducive to a fun walk/run. I also did a reno in my apartment and got rid of my weights as I actually don't have space for them. All of this plus a healthy dose of laziness lead to an increase of 20 odd kgs so now I'm back to eating lots of veg and getting my nutrients from good, whole foods where possible.
  • Retroguy2000
    Retroguy2000 Posts: 1,500 Member
    edited October 2021
    @heybales

    When OP was quoting this stuff below, I misread. He was quoting from some other site, not this one. We are in full agreement about tracking exercise calories separately. I have said that already a couple of times. The variance I referred to is exactly what you posted about, that e.g. spin class is very different to walking. It's too late for me to edit that earlier post, it's been over an hour.

    "Sedentary: little or no exercise 3,084
    Exercise 1-3 times/week 3,534
    Exercise 4-5 times/week 3,765
    Daily exercise or intense exercise 3-4 times/week 3,984
    Intense exercise 6-7 times/week 4,433
    Very intense exercise daily, or physical job 4,883"
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    Good ole' lag times, gotta love it.
    Worse than conversing with someone on moon.
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 9,961 Member
    Draculza wrote: »
    Right, I'm with you. I think I probably phrased it incorrectly. Below is an extract from a BMR calculator which shows and intake of 3000 calories for a sedentary activity level. That 3000 less the 500 for weight loss comes to the 2500 calories. MFP asks for all the info originally when you sign up and I filled in the necessary and it spar out 2590 calories to be exact, in order for me to lose at around 500g/1lb per week. Below based on my age, height and current weight. Sorry if I got my terms mixed up :D

    Daily calorie needs based on activity level
    Activity Level Calorie
    Sedentary: little or no exercise 3,084
    Exercise 1-3 times/week 3,534
    Exercise 4-5 times/week 3,765
    Daily exercise or intense exercise 3-4 times/week 3,984
    Intense exercise 6-7 times/week 4,433
    Very intense exercise daily, or physical job 4,883

    I'll continue the 2500 within the macros for the next week or two and see how it pans out. If it doesn't work I'll adjust down.

    A calculator that takes into account how much you are exercising is, by definition, not a BMR calculator.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    OP - as you are discovering, the folks on here are actually trying to be pretty accurate in terms used, sometimes a whole lot better than external sites that totally foul it up.

    Which makes me believe those sites threw the calc in merely to grab eyeballs to their site for the other things they offer.
    And if that poor for setting up a calc, what's the rest of their material like for accuracy and understanding?
    Just be wary, it's sometimes a good indication rest of their material ain't great either.
  • Draculza
    Draculza Posts: 61 Member
    @heybales Indeed, I have come to realize this and have now started WW3 :D . I've been using the MFP calculation since the start and made the mistake of getting a calculator from another site, in order to explain why I was eating 2500 calories a day, because it was quicker than delving into the data that I had used to set up my profile on MFP. Very poor mistake on my part :s . So we learn and at least the people on here are helpful and correct you where you need correction, which is why this is such a great community
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 33,940 Member
    Good job, Draculza! The food changes take time, so just do your best and don't be too hard/perfectionistic with all of it. Consistency is the best word I can think of to describe the process. Consistency doesn't mean perfect, just mostly-on-track. Keep stepping on the body weight scale and keep working in the right direction.

    You're in this for the long game. :)

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