What's On Your Mind Today?
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SOMEwhere in MFP is a rule-of-thumb guide for not using aggressive loss-per-week rates as you have fewer pounds to lose. It is VERY rare that 2 lbs per week NOT under direct medical supervision would be advisable. As it is, people often keep the 1 lb per week goal longer than they should.
And if you haven't reset your Goal Calculation since you last lost ten pounds, you should! Even though you may be entering your Current Weight in the Check-In tab, MFP does NOT recalculate Calorie Requirements down EXCEPT via the Goal Setting tab info. More times than you think, this can be a root source of plateau-hitting despite one feeling / declaring "but I'm only eating the calories MFP says I should !?!?!?!?!
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Ok, struggling to catch up.
The TDEE number is only as accurate as your "activity level" plus "exercise". What can be confusing is setting your activity level to include exercise (in my opinion). Now, this explanation only applies to applying the formula, as that calculator uses.
What I mean is, there is your daily activity level WITHOUT EXERCISE (we'll call it "unadjusted TDEE" that is your BMR plus your normal daily activity level without adding in exercise, and "final TDEE" which is your true "Total Daily Energy Expenditure" which accounts for everything you do in a day.
So it can easily be confusing.
I set my calorie goal to "unadjusted TDEE", or BMR plus activity level without added exercise. Then any exercise I do is an automatic calorie deficit. Otherwise I remain at maintenance.
Hope that helps.2 -
Just one thing to note (which I find to be quite annoying). If you recalculate your calorie goal it will reset your macros so if you have done something different than the default you'll want to update those too.0
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LazyBlondeChef wrote: »Just one thing to note (which I find to be quite annoying). If you recalculate your calorie goal it will reset your macros so if you have done something different than the default you'll want to update those too.
Agree completely @LazyBlondeChef — this just happened to me. I have the % for each given to me by my dietician and will reinput them (and probably my sodium and sugar which we set as lower)….
Julie0 -
Mrs_Hoffer wrote: »Before I forget, I want to give a shout out and a GREAT BIG THANK YOU to @DebyS137 who made our cute little owl banner for this month! And in Nov when they changed the format/look of the groups - which made our banner look more than a little 'wonky' - Deby jumped right in there and made a new one! Thanks again Deby! I appreciate you!
That is a cute banner!2 -
Just caught up on the posts. I struggle with staying on top of things in the group but I just wanted to say that I am thankful for everyone in this group. There is a lot of great advice given here!
As for the discussion from @BMcC9, what is derailing me is a great topic. I am currently in counseling for dealing with my abusive ex-husband, and my counselor asked me the same thing. For me, I have familiar default reactions (like responding as if I was on auto-pilot) - like candy in the house from Halloween to Christmas which is 3 months. The mindset in my family is like a lot of people "it is the holidays, the diet can start in January".
I am trying to change my mindset and not by "autopilot" reactions, so for Christmas, I don't have all the cookies and candy this month easily available for most of the month. I am thinking Christmas Week - Christmas Eve to New Years is when all the goodies will be out (in a limited amount) and gone come Jan 1st. Halloween was candy for Halloween weekend only, and Thanksgiving was limited to just Thanksgiving day. I am trying to find a balance since I suffer from all-or-nothing thinking. Candy and chocolate are good in moderation, just not a handful every time I walk past the candy dish on the table. No candy dish on my table currently.
Change is hard sometimes, at least for me it is. What helps me is to see those times I am reacting or responding with my old habits or old thinking, then I can think "why am I doing it this way" and "how can I change it for the new habits or new thinking".
Well, I hope that helped and added to the topic. I know it helped solidify my thoughts on this topic for a few different situations I am dealing with currently.
I am so thankful for the UAC and appreciate everyone in this group
PS When I do some research on the TDEE discussion I will ask questions. I don't know anything about that. Is it macros? Is it for Calorie Counters? Is it new?
Happy Monday everyone
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Hi, Jen.
I am extremely new to looking at things from the TDEE perspective, but we do have some resident experts here.
It is not new in the Science of Nutrition / Human Biochemistry field (just as Body Mass Index (BMI) isn't new) but JQ Publique might easily just not have come across it or it's purpose.
URL that explains BMR vs TDEE (and how to apply to choosing one's calorie intake number) very clearly. ALSO, why one needs to keep readjusting as weight gradually shifts down ..
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/931670/bmr-and-tdee-explained-for-those-needing-a-guide
Now that I have read this .... and will re-read and re-read and re-read .... I will be plugging 6 or 7 weeks of retro-data into the spreadsheet that @SummerSkier provided and see how it played out / get a handle on how to apply going forward.
Update - turns out that what with breathing between 9:30 and 11:30 and then updating the fitbit sync reading in MFP after 11:30, the just-wrong-side-of-red turned into 22 cals green without my doing anything at all. But that still begs the general question re "how / whether to clue MFP / fitbit in on the biking ....OK, here's a question before I actually post for the day ..... I am trying to get a handle on the BMR / TDEE thing (and breaking the MFP-thinking thing of many many many years' standing)According to The Formula provided in the Topic opener of "How did you pick your Daily calorie goal number", the maintenance calorie level for my target top-of-range (5 or 6 pounds away) is ~1388 (assuming sedentary lifestyle and before intentional activity / exercise).
I set my MFP daily range to 1250 (being now stalled out at plus-or-minus 143 while set to 1300 - finding it hard to eat as much as that lately, and started to be not as active as I was through Nov, first week of dec)
Today I ate 1295 cals, and at 9:30 p.m. with fitbit activity credits for just-over 6050 steps, I am 13 cals in he red. IF I also log my morning session of 51 mins / 365 cals burned on my exercise bike this morning, MFP "Yells at me" for not even breaking 1000 cals net. (which makes me nervous)
Do I put the biking back in the exercise log and ignore the level of deficit? Make a note in the exercise log so that I know I am not REALLY "over by 13 even though the Food Diary says I am" ? Do enough extra steps so that the fitbit activity credits put me back in the green? (given that I am only 13 cals shy that would be do-able)lesdarts180 wrote: »@BMcC9
With regards your exercise bike calories – I would suspect that estimate of 365 calories is a bit high. If you’re entering the exercise manually why not use a lower figure? I only get 100 calories for 30 minutes (cycling outdoors at about 10 mph on varied terrain). Where did the 365 come from? If I remember rightly, you are small – like me – so a very high calorie count seems unlikely.
Next-day update:
Now that I have read the url's info (more than once) ... as a general case for my dilemma above, it is Iooking like I should:- not count the biking as more than a "1 minute tag that I did something" UNLESS it was NOT a Regularly Scheduled Heavy Session For Me (which would make it something over-and-above my personal TDEE envelope)
- It wasn't a hard-push steady OR High-But-Variable resistance setting ride - just something to do while talking on the phone - so ignore in this and parallel cases
- IF I were doing a deliberate Push Myself Bike Workout (not currently a habitual activity for me, and one which my fitbit would not register, as it doesn't DO heartrate monitoring, and can only count steps) - then use something like 10cals/min as a reasonable rule of thumb for "likely cals burned" should the bike electronics supply a much higher number.
Now to see what the retro-data shows for StudyParticipant Qwerty (whose stats and daily lifestyle habits are REMARKABLY similar to my own .....
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Change is hard sometimes, at least for me it is. What helps me is to see those times I am reacting or responding with my old habits or old thinking, then I can think "why am I doing it this way" and "how can I change it for the new habits or new thinking".
Well, I hope that helped and added to the topic. I know it helped solidify my thoughts on this topic for a few different situations I am dealing with currently.
Happy Monday everyone
Does your local public library have a "download e-books or audiobooks" ap? (my local library uses Libby) OR is borrowing from the public library available?
That's how I got a hold of "Tiny Habits" by BJ Fogg. If you google it, you will find summaries and reviews, and even BJ's website and downloadable tools etc.
The content might be valuable to both identify what triggers and habits you already have AND make plans-strategies for replacements / improvements.
Atomic Habits by James Clear is also good (I personally prefer Tiny Habits over all, but that is me)1 -
@BMcC9
Great topic & post!
https://www.calculator.net/bmr-calculator.html
This site is Very accurate for me.
Note: the 1st line in chart.
BMR is bed ridden
Sedentary is BMR+your every day movement
I like this calculator as it has a daily exercise & defines exercise levels clearly
ANOTHER EASY WAY
One note: there is also a super easy way to do all of this.
Pick a daily calorie goal for food in & one for exercise burn
Eat & exercise at those for a month. Track exactly!!
See if you lose, maintain, or gain.
If it’s a gain, say 1 lb. multiply by 3,500 cals per pound, so 3,500 calories extra that last month.
So dividing by 3,500 by 31 days = 113 calories that need to be removed per day to maintain…
Then you get to decide if you want to decrease food or increase exercise or both.
But really, that link above is easier & the only one I’ve found that is just right for me.2 -
Thank you SO much @MadisonMolly2017 — this link is really helpful to me and I’ll take it to discuss with my dietician at my appointment tomorrow.
Julie0 -
jamcnewman wrote: »Thank you SO much @MadisonMolly2017 — this link is really helpful to me and I’ll take it to discuss with my dietician at my appointment tomorrow.
Julie
You are most welcome Julie aka @jamcnewman
I’m sure your dietician will be of great help!
Hugs 🌸
Maddie1 -
I honestly think that barring specific health issues which have to be addressed, the simpler you keep it the easier it is to get data. Pick a plan. Stick with it for 30 days. Adjust based on data. All the spreadsheets and apps in the world will only give you generic information which have to be personalized to you based on your logging, workouts, activities etc over time.
I did once try to use all the data from MFP and FITBIT and my WATCH and it sort of drove me a little bonkers always checking on it .... Much easier to figure out TDEE over time and just use that # of total cals to eat to. Esp in maintenance where your weight is going to have most likely larger variations all over the place than while losing. If you end up off for whatever reason you can then adjust for you.2 -
SummerSkier wrote: »I honestly think that barring specific health issues which have to be addressed, the simpler you keep it the easier it is to get data. Pick a plan. Stick with it for 30 days. Adjust based on data. All the spreadsheets and apps in the world will only give you generic information which have to be personalized to you based on your logging, workouts, activities etc over time.
I did once try to use all the data from MFP and FITBIT and my WATCH and it sort of drove me a little bonkers always checking on it .... Much easier to figure out TDEE over time and just use that # of total cals to eat to. Esp in maintenance where your weight is going to have most likely larger variations all over the place than while losing. If you end up off for whatever reason you can then adjust for you.
@SummerSkier yup, 2 minds thinkin’ as one.
The purpose of losing weight is not to spend all our time maintaining!! The least we can do to maintain leaves more time for family, work, fun!0 -
thank you @BMcC9 and @MadisonMolly2017 I use the BMI and BMR calculator at calculator.net also. I read on MFP for my Fitbit that I should take my BMR rate and multiply that by 1.25 to get my daily calorie burn goal for my Fitbit. My goal is to have a calorie deficit from BMR close to 500 per day. I have to get that all worked out which will probably be after Christmas. I will be doing good for December just active in UAC and staying in my calorie range.
I will look into the TDEE links when things settle down tho, thanks for the link!
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My monthly weigh-in at the dietician was this afternoon and I’m down another 5.2 pounds on the scale this month (lost 6.6 pounds of fat and increased muscle mass). Total loss so far is 40.2 pounds (since August 2021).
We are going to keep calories and macros the same over the next month and I intend to keep my exercise levels up. I will consider it a success if I maintain this loss and avoid a gain.
Julie8 -
@jamcnewman You are crushing it! Losing weight that much weight and also gaining muscle is no small thing.4
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@jamcnewman Congratulations - that's amazing!!!!4
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Fantastic Julie!! And a great plan for the next month!
@jamcnewman 🌸0
