Am I calculating my daily calorie requirement right?

Xierrax
Xierrax Posts: 48 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hey all,

23yo., Female, 61kg, 160 cm. I've been trying to shed the last few kgs for as long as I can remember and am now working on it more actively.

I usually walk 2-4km on weekdays just to get to work/to town/to the bus/to my running spot. I also exercise most days, roughly 2-3h a week on running, judo once a week, and yoga 20-30min most days (although more as stretching) + the occasional bodyweight strength workout (hoping to replace this with the gym again as soon as I'm able). Would definitely say my activity level is moderate.

Most TDEEs estimate my maintenance calories at 1900-2000 where light weight loss should occur at 1700, and moderate weight loss at 1450. MFP gives me a daily calorie intake of 1320.

I use MFP to track calories but I'm not trying to religiously hit the 1320. Often I eat between 1500 and 1700 calories, depending on the day and exercise. I've also been more consistently active in the last few months than in the months before.

Still, I look and weigh the same as a year ago ... I feel that I have more muscles but appearance wise it's the same. The scale says the same also. And I'm not really sure why or how, or what to do. While I didn't track religiously all year, I paid attention the last 2 months so even so, I should have at least lost a few kg, right? I'm just a bit bummed out here.

Replies

  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,943 Member
    MFP works a bit differently than most calorie calculators in that your activity level does not include any of your exercise but only your day to day activity, like working, taking care of your home, children, etc. Thus you're supposed to log your exercise on top and then you get to eat more.

    It might sound complicated, but actually it's not too bad especially if you consider you might do something different every day. Like all calorie calculators MFP is known to overestimate exercise calories. Why not try logging all your exercise and eating about half to 3/4 the calories back for at least one menstrual cycle, and then adjusting this if your loss is too high or too low.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,416 Member
    Exactly the same weight? If you're using a digital body weight scale, change the batteries? My scale never reads the same two days in a row unless the battery is going.

    Then: Log all your food religiously. Those last few pounds are very difficult to lose. Patience is your best friend. It took me nine months to lose the last 15 pounds, and I was making all my own meals, using a digital food scale, exercising daily, and logging food down to the gram.

    I was hungry, too. The whole nine months. Many days I just couldn't stick to the deficit.

    Hang on, keep going.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    Xierrax wrote: »
    Most TDEEs estimate my maintenance calories at 1900-2000 where light weight loss should occur at 1700, and moderate weight loss at 1450. MFP gives me a daily calorie intake of 1320.

    I'm guessing you are not making a true comparison there. 1900-2000 on a TDEE calculator to maintain weight already includes an average of your weekly exercise.

    In your goals set up set MFP to "maintain current weight" - that will give you a weight maintenance estimate for a day with no purposeful exercise. I'm guessing from your numbers you have MFP set to lose 1lb/week so that 1320 would be 1820 + exercise calories to maintain.

    Accounting for your exercise as an average or only on the day of exercise can both work so choose which suits you best, a same every day goal or a goal that varies when you exercise.

    Remember getting the right goal is just one part of being successful - reasonable logging accuracy is also required. Making your diary public might help reveal why you haven't got the results desired.
  • Xierrax
    Xierrax Posts: 48 Member
    Thanks for all your replies!

    @yirara Completely understand. This is why I eat 1500-1700 calories instead of the proposed 1320 calories a day. This usually works out with my exercise. I track my running and the calories seem to match with the Nike app and here (still an estimate but I don't have a fitbit or anything of that sort. So this is my best guess); I don't really track yoga and only take a modest amount for Judo if at all, as I know training varies quite a bit.

    @cmriverside I don't have a scale at home, I usually weigh myself when I visit my parents which is a few times a year. I hope the gym I'm going to sign up at will have one. But every time I weigh myself I'm at about 61 kg. Yes, if I weigh myself every day for a few days, it fluctuates between 60 and 61.5 but I'm averaging at 61 kg just has I have done 6 months ago, and the 6 months before that.

    As mentioned, I only became strict with logging the previous two months, hence I'm surprised that when I last went back on the scale (a weeks ago), it said still 61 kg. My diet is healthier now but hasn't drastically changed, my exercise levels have increased in those 2 months, so I thought at least this would have an effect. Guess we'll see what the next few months look like... Thank you for your motivating words!

    @sijomial Thanks for your input, I understand. I log my running in MFP and match the calories with my running app too. Hence, I'm eating about 1500-1700 calories most days. Still my maintenance has surprised me as even with aprox. 1400 calories I feel full with 3 meals a day. To get to 1500-1700, this mainly incorporates snacking and/or drinks. I like it this way, it's easier for me to stick to it, but following this logic it almost feels as though I have eaten under my maintenance naturally, eating up to 2000 calories I would have assumed that I would gain weight.

    I didn't realize it was not on public. Let me change that :smile:
  • westrich20940
    westrich20940 Posts: 920 Member
    I think give it a bit more time. You got a good answer about the TDEE calculator vs. MFP.

    My question would be are you using MFP to track your cardio calories burned and then eating what MFP says to eat (bc it would be adding those back into your daily goal).

    Your calculation of sticking to 1500-1700 seems spot on though based on your TDEE. The only thing that I'd think you could be 'doing wrong' is if you are moderately mis-calculating the calories you are consuming or the calories you are burning with your exercise. How are you getting an estimate of your calories burned on your runs specifically? I am a runner and when I was actively logging/losing weight I was using my running app (RunKeeper) and a HRM with a chest strap. On longer runs, or runs where my avg. heartrate was higher....my HRM's estimate of my calories burned could be up to 150 calories more than my running app....so after I noticed that I ended up choosing a number of calories burned in between the two and used that in MFP (bc I was eating back my exercise calories).
  • Xierrax
    Xierrax Posts: 48 Member
    @westrich20940 Thanks for your response. And yes, pretty much. As said, most days I only track my running (and not those e.g. burned from yoga) and eat them back. On some days where I don't exercise I might go up to 1500 as well, I've never been so strict with this as 1320 seems low and I do still exercise most days a week so this seems to work out generally well for me. And with that logic, I'd be over my calorie goal just 1-2 days a week, and only be 200ish calories then.

    While I wasn't always great with this, the past weeks I really tried to track every ingredient I use and weigh it with a scale also, so this should be correct. You might be right with the calories burned from exercise, I've got no reliable way of measuring it. I compare the calories indicated from the Nike Running App with what MFP suggests for my pace and time. But the Nike app only provides an estimate also based on location/distance and time. I don't have any equipment which tracks my heartrate and such. I usually go with the lower estimate and it seems reasonable considering that where I live it's a bit hilly too (which the app doesn't take into account). On easy runs, 30-40min on a 7ish min/km pace I seem to burn 250-300 calories ish for example.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,416 Member
    That seems like a reasonable calorie allowance for that exercise.

    I really just think it takes a while to lose when you have so little to lose. It sounds like you're doing all the right things - stay the course, Captain! You'll probably have a **whoosh** and surprise yourself. Weight loss isn't linear!

    This thread isn't really about plateaus, but it is about variables:
    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10683010/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-fluctuations/p1
  • westrich20940
    westrich20940 Posts: 920 Member
    Xierrax wrote: »
    @westrich20940 Thanks for your response. And yes, pretty much. As said, most days I only track my running (and not those e.g. burned from yoga) and eat them back. On some days where I don't exercise I might go up to 1500 as well, I've never been so strict with this as 1320 seems low and I do still exercise most days a week so this seems to work out generally well for me. And with that logic, I'd be over my calorie goal just 1-2 days a week, and only be 200ish calories then.

    While I wasn't always great with this, the past weeks I really tried to track every ingredient I use and weigh it with a scale also, so this should be correct. You might be right with the calories burned from exercise, I've got no reliable way of measuring it. I compare the calories indicated from the Nike Running App with what MFP suggests for my pace and time. But the Nike app only provides an estimate also based on location/distance and time. I don't have any equipment which tracks my heartrate and such. I usually go with the lower estimate and it seems reasonable considering that where I live it's a bit hilly too (which the app doesn't take into account). On easy runs, 30-40min on a 7ish min/km pace I seem to burn 250-300 calories ish for example.

    Interesting. I honestly think it sounds like you are doing everything right. Weight loss does tend to slow down the closer and closer you get to your goal weight. I don't see any glaring mistakes you're making.
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,943 Member
    Xierrax wrote: »
    While I wasn't always great with this, the past weeks I really tried to track every ingredient I use and weigh it with a scale also, so this should be correct. You might be right with the calories burned from exercise, I've got no reliable way of measuring it. I compare the calories indicated from the Nike Running App with what MFP suggests for my pace and time. But the Nike app only provides an estimate also based on location/distance and time. I don't have any equipment which tracks my heartrate and such. I usually go with the lower estimate and it seems reasonable considering that where I live it's a bit hilly too (which the app doesn't take into account). On easy runs, 30-40min on a 7ish min/km pace I seem to burn 250-300 calories ish for example.

    HR doesn't equal calories burned, so that you don't have anything to measure it doesn't matter. But there are some equations that might help you. First of all you want to log net calories for this. Net calories are total calories (which the nike app might display) minus the calories your body would burn anyway to just keep you alive. One equation is 0.64* distance in miles * bodyweight in lbs. (or roughly 0.86 for metric numbers). There's an online calculator that gives somewhat higher numbers and also takes gradient into account, but I'm afraid I don't have it at hand :( Maybe someone knows?
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    https://exrx.net/Calculators/WalkRunMETs

    This is the calculator that @yirara refers to, pick the net calorie option.
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,943 Member
    sijomial wrote: »
    https://exrx.net/Calculators/WalkRunMETs

    This is the calculator that @yirara refers to, pick the net calorie option.

    Aww, thanks a lot sijomial! <3 I was searching it for myself yesterday and could not find it.
  • Xierrax
    Xierrax Posts: 48 Member
    Thank you for the resource, very interesting! I just checked it and thankfully it mostly aligns with what I have logged on MFP

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