@WhatMeRunning has been absent for a week, I am worried about him. I was hoping he would post the opener today. I have always enjoyed his long thoughtful posts. 5 days left for March. Wow time has flown by.

Monday - I have also been a bit absent. I have had a lot going on and haven't managed to post. My exercise has been up a lot, but my tracking has been patchy. I have still tried to make good decisions though this has worked only some of the time.

yes for 3
0/3 pass days used

home again back to my routine.

Hi Caroline - thanks for the question today. I am eager to read everyone’s responses.

I set my daily calorie target (and percentage targets for protein, carbs, fats, and amounts for sodium and fibre) on the recommendation of my dietician. These numbers are all quite different than MFP assessed would be optimal for me (age/height/weight/activity level). I see her once a month. When my loss stalls, and it will, we will adjust my calorie target. We have adjusted my protein and fibre targets already and that change has helped me.

Her advice from the start has been to eat at or as close to that higher (than MFP assessed for me) daily calorie target for as long as I can before lowering it.

At the calorie rate I am at, I honestly don’t feel that I am denying myself anything I want to have. I am certain that I could lose faster if I dropped it from what it has been set at since August 1, 2021 — and have taken that approach in the past. But I know that I couldn’t sustain that approach.
It leads me to wanting to and then overindulging, and other trickery like underestimating my intake. I have no interest in doing that this time around.

March 28th

Exercise – yes
Tracking – yes
Calories – yes
2/3 pass days used

✅ Exercise: 35 minutes walking, 20 minutes swimming
✅ Calories
✅ Tracked

1 passday used (Mar 13)

I set my calorie goal at what I suppose is maintenance level and then after I exercise I usually usually find I achieve a 500-1500 calorie deficit below that. I did it this way because I fast for up to 24 hours on an irregular schedule and plan to eat at my maintenance level the day after a 24 hour fast. However many maintenance days I need is ok with me though, even if I did not fast the day before, but I am eager to be slimmer so usually have to make myself eat at maintenance levels the day after a fast. I dont want to change my calorie goals that often. Doing it this way does makes it fairly easy to stay within ¨my calorie budget¨ so it probably makes it easier on me for the purposes of this group than people who set harder daily goals. If I get to where I am not losing satisfactorily than I will reduce the calorie goal.

Personally I dont think the calculations are that accurate so I really do not obsess about the numbers and am getting more casual about the measurements as well. I try to record everything so that I am mindful of my choices. What I expect is that the weight loss will slow down as I get closer to my healthiest weight.

March 28, 2022

Did I exercise for at least 20 minutes? Yes
Did I stay within my calorie budget for the day? Yes
Did I keep track of everything I ate and drank? Yes

Habits to maintain this month:
Kitchen Closed? Yes
Did you go "nuts" with nuts today? No (26 days -free)
Within Sugar macro today? Yes (26 days)

Pass day 1/3 (this is for accountability to myself and my records).

✅ Exercise - 1 hour of Jazzercise
✅ Calories -
✅ Tracking -

Closed all my Apple watch rings today
3 Pass days used

Documenting consistency (if there is a P=instead of number its a Pass Day)
UAC: 1-2-3-4-P-6-7-8-9-P-11-12-13-14-15-16-17-18-19-20-21-22-23-P-25-26-27-28

As far as the calorie settings, I used MFP's guided setting. Originally I said I wanted to lose 1.5 pounds/week and with 35 pounds to lose, it had me at 1200 calories/day (excluding exercise calories). Somewhere along the way, I change my weight loss goal to 1 pound/week and it still came out to 1200 calories/day. Just recently, I dialed it back some more to 0.5/pounds/week and lo and behold MFP gave me a whopping 1280/day!! So just now, I put myself at maintenance, and it gives me 1540 calories. I don't know how all this gets calculated.

That being said, I have generally between 1300-1500 calories depending on how much exercise I get.

Did I exercise for at least 20 minutes? 22 minute walk, 68 minutes on the Peloton, 5 minute post-ride stretch
Did I stay within my calorie budget for the day? Yes
Did I keep track of everything I ate and drank? Yes

Pass days used - 6

When I first started in Jan 2021, I let MFP set my calorie target for me based on weight loss of 2 pounds a week. I have always tracked and ate back my exercise calories because I didn't want to feel like I had to exercise a certain amount to justify my base calories. I personally find it easier to have my base calories based on no intentional exercise and then to eat beyond that to fuel whatever workouts I might have. I have totally fallen back in love with exercise and I want to move my body for more than weight loss so this allows me to exercise as much as I want and not feel under-fueled.

Anyway, I was losing more than 2 pounds a week on that calculation, so eventually I started weighing daily and tracking my net calories against that weight loss trend to find my own estimated maintenance calories. I now take a deficit equal to up to 1% of my current weight on the days I'm taking a deficit.

Until I'm done losing, I do toggle into periods of eating at maintenance - 10% if there is a special occasion that I know taking my normal deficit will be difficult at. I decide this intentionally before the day begins so I don't make any occasion a reason to be near maintenance.

The nice thing about having my spreadsheet of data is that over time I have lots of validation of what my maintenance will be and/or how it's adjusting over time. I sort of do a revolving estimate based on the last 7 weeks or so, so as I lose weight and my body adapts I will be adjusting in relation to that.

That's all that goes into it for me - I don't track any other macros so my net calorie allotment is all I worry about.

3 x yes

Number has varied greatly- as I shrink and become more active the calories really shift. I am trying to pay more attention to my macros and hydration right now.