Biking for 50 days straight to earn $12.5k - ADVICE HIGHLY DESIRED!

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WillHock93
WillHock93 Posts: 3 Member
in Getting Started
Hi everyone.

First time on the forums, second time investing in premium, though I only did it for one month because I couldn't afford the full year yet, but due to my current "condensed time" to achieve certain goals I have, I saw it an important investment so I can earn and receive much more than the $30 invested in a single month if I do this correctly.

That's where I'm coming to this forum for.

To give context, I'm a DoorDash biker delivery guy in Montreal Quebec. I just started about a month ago, midway through September. Although I'm new to DoorDash specifically, I have previously done the same thing, but with UberEats instead for many years, but pretty inconsistently. I would often go days and weeks in a row, committed, making good money but then burn myself out, or get myself out of a groove, and lose it. Since the 2020 covid restrictions, my life has been particularly been unstable, moving 15 times (homes ranging from hostels to temporary rentals to roommates) in 3 years. I finally found my own apartment this past April and have been here for 6 months now!

I stopped working UberEats as the company generally gets worse and worse as it continues to operate, the orders were few and far between and I wasn't really making any money.

I have also been receiving social assistance (welfare) after being diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome in 2016. Due to being on the program (the disability element of it), I was only allowed to earn $200 extra per month, otherwise the government takes that income I earn off of my monthly cheques. I wound up getting a lot more taken away last year, which was another reason I stopped working ubereats.

In September of this year, I had gotten myself out of a 3.5 month summer depression, regressing, recovering, and finally being able to let the emotions of the 3 years prior go through it's course. I have been much better, and wound up starting with DoorDash, just to see if there was any improvements from UberEats. Before doing this however, I wanted to double check with the government of Quebec of what I am allowed to earn, as I was not going to make those same mistakes again. I have learned from that called that I am now on a new, rather upgraded program. So now the government gives me slightly more money every month, but I am also allowed to earn up to $1200/month or $14,500/year before getting any reductions on my assistance.

This meant that I had from then (Mid September) until January 1st 2024 to earn the entire 12 months worth of $1211 per month (to be exact) or $14,532 (also exactly how much I can earn) before the 2023 calendar turns into 2024 and the amount I am allowed to earn resets entirely. In my mind, I feel like I'll be damned, and let myself down if I don't take the entire time I have from now until then to earn the entire amount that I am allowed to earn with DoorDash, and then do the exact same thing next year, however, with significantly more time to achieve those results. However, in order to maximize what I am allowed to have for 2023 and 2024, I need to be on the ball and max out my earnings from now until December 31st.

Due to being in Quebec, I am actually making December 1st be viewed as my deadline as to make the situation seem a bit more pressing, as I would rather still have more time at the end, if I wind up not earning the full amount.

Since September 25th, I have been tracking how much I have earned everyday, my daily average, the total I have earned, the amount I'm still allowed to earn, and what I need to earn the next day to put myself on pace to earn the full amount. I have needed to average $200/day or $1400/week since September 25th. I am at the end of week 3 now (7 weeks to go until December 1st) and I have averaged $82.88 per day (which winds up totaling $5800 earned by December 1st) or $580/week.

I can't say I'm surprised that I'm off pace by this much because I started off cold, I didn't bike all summer and it took me a couple weeks of biking to even get my legs back. Realistically, I should be able to earn $150/day, every day. The issue is similar to before where I have really strong days, but week days that wind up making the day's work before much less impactful, like earning $250 in one day, but then earning only $11.25, $21.50, and $40.60 the following days.

I have been getting much better, I earned $655 this past 7 days, which beats week 1's $543 and week 2's $541. However, it's still not enough. Even if I don't achieve the full amount I'm allowed to receive, I would foolish not to give it the best shot I can because even if I do only earn the $5000, than this is still $5k extra. However, in order to make the most of this opportunity, I really need to earn the full amount or at least earn $10k. This gives me a lot of options, and I am allowed to earn just as much next year. I also still receive a pretty nice cheque from the government every month, which I am able to get to cover all my expenses already, without any additional income.

In total, I have earned $1740 since September 25th, this means I am still allowed to earn $12,260 before January 1st rolls around. My bank account is still pretty much at zero though, I have used a lot of this money to invest in myself. I figure that spending some of this money, in order to earn everything, even if I don't earn everything, is a more than worthwhile shot. I also have some nice new things in my apartment that are proofs of my achievements so far. However, I should also note that this means that I can be better for the upcoming 48 days.

In order to do this, I want to learn from what I have done, or neglected in the previous 5-6 years of doing UberEats, and make improvements to my current DoorDashing venture. A big difference from before was that I was just doing UberEats with no rhyme or reason, it was just to do it just to do it. I didn't recover very well, I went too much too fast and wore myself out. For DoorDash, I have taken myself slower in building myself, however, I'm in a tighter time schedule, and that means I see how many more days I need to work, and what I need to achieve, however I am still lacking structure.

What I did this time, is I bought myself a Fitbit Sense 2 watch. I bought it on a re-selling website we have in Canada for only $130, and boy it was a better investment than I thought it was going to be. It syncs up to my phone's google maps, so now I only need to look at my watch to give me the right directions which is much nicer than having to pull aside and get my phone every time.

The main reason I bought it though, was to track how many calories I am burning every single day, in order to make sure I am replenishing everything that I'm burning and then some. Unfortunately, I don't really know the best way to replenish these calories, what I would be aiming for on macros to help my recovery, and I am also not doing any stretching before, during or after my rides as I don't really know what to do for them either. Ever since I have been tracking with my fitbit, it says that I am burning 4100 calories on average per day. Some days I burn 3700 calories and other days I'm burning 5400 calories.

I think I'm taking a decent approach, but to say the least, I'm not even close to consuming these many calories. I think this is the main thing that my structure is currently missing in order to be ready to go better each and every day. Also the lactic acid is also starting to feel a bit more prevalent as I take breaks, or when I start up the next day.

I have no problem investing, and getting the absolute most out of the next few months. I want to achieve the results I desire because if I was able to grab that chunk of money, and hold onto it for next year, and then do this again, well my life is in a pretty good state to grow even more.

Please help advice me to the best place to find the best ways to figure out some of these things on my own. I'm going to obviously do as much looking up as I can, but I don't know how common my particular situation is haha.

Replies

  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,009 Member
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    One thing I would do is a real-world check of the calorie burns your watch is telling you. I'm not suggesting that they're unreasonable for someone riding a bike all day, but you say you're eating a lot less and, if I understand correctly, this has been going on for three weeks. In the real world, that should result in some weight loss. If it isn't, there's a good chance either your calorie burn numbers or your calorie intake numbers are off.

    If you don't have specific goals for physical changes and just want to be sure you're fueling yourself adequately, just plug in the average calorie burn once you've checked it against the real world, and use the protein and fat numbers MFP recommends as minimums, and let carbs fall where they will.

    If you want specific macro recommendations, you'll have to give us your stats (height and weight at a minimum).
  • WillHock93
    WillHock93 Posts: 3 Member
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    lynn_glenmont wrote: »
    One thing I would do is a real-world check of the calorie burns your watch is telling you. I'm not suggesting that they're unreasonable for someone riding a bike all day, but you say you're eating a lot less and, if I understand correctly, this has been going on for three weeks. In the real world, that should result in some weight loss. If it isn't, there's a good chance either your calorie burn numbers or your calorie intake numbers are off.

    If you don't have specific goals for physical changes and just want to be sure you're fueling yourself adequately, just plug in the average calorie burn once you've checked it against the real world, and use the protein and fat numbers MFP recommends as minimums, and let carbs fall where they will.

    If you want specific macro recommendations, you'll have to give us your stats (height and weight at a minimum).

    Thank you for starting with this response Lynn, this is the main reason why I am posting this exactly is to see what information needs to be important, which information, in regards to the fitbit, could be overexaggerated, underexaggerated, and what I need to make sure I'm actually taking track of, or need to keep track of in order to figure out what I wish to do.

    My first question back to you, would be how do I do a "real world check" for calories? Because I would be interested in knowing how to do this. I was going to buy a cheaper fitness tracker until I found this deal, but that was the main reason for buying it was to track my calories because I thought it would be the best way to do this.

    I am 6'2" and I have been having a morning weight of about 146lbs and at night, I just weighed in at 150lbs. I used to walk around 170lbs, but I lost some weight apparently, I'm not sure when, but potentially my summer time depression hit me hard. I would ideally prefer if I can bring my weight back up to 170 or 200 and start building muscle, but I think I have a higher preference of making sure I have more energy, and recover well enough to be ready to go every day a bit better.

    I haven't been tracking my calorie intake at all, so it's very possible my calorie burn numbers are indeed off. I do want to make sure I'm counting calories a lot more in the next while, which is why I got the premium for this month to make it easier for me.
  • WillHock93
    WillHock93 Posts: 3 Member
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    lynn_glenmont wrote: »
    One thing I would do is a real-world check of the calorie burns your watch is telling you. I'm not suggesting that they're unreasonable for someone riding a bike all day, but you say you're eating a lot less and, if I understand correctly, this has been going on for three weeks. In the real world, that should result in some weight loss. If it isn't, there's a good chance either your calorie burn numbers or your calorie intake numbers are off.

    If you don't have specific goals for physical changes and just want to be sure you're fueling yourself adequately, just plug in the average calorie burn once you've checked it against the real world, and use the protein and fat numbers MFP recommends as minimums, and let carbs fall where they will.

    If you want specific macro recommendations, you'll have to give us your stats (height and weight at a minimum).

    Although I am biking a lot, I wouldn't say I'm biking "hard" either. I don't go full out on the hills, or as fast as I can every order as I prefer to be able to keep going rather than kill my legs too fast. Also I'm not consistently biking the entire time either, I'm waiting for orders in a restaurant, dropping off food, waiting for a notification for orders. So that would be a break in between rides too.
  • pony4us
    pony4us Posts: 127 Member
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    You don't need the premium, just use the free version
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,009 Member
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    WillHock93 wrote: »
    lynn_glenmont wrote: »
    One thing I would do is a real-world check of the calorie burns your watch is telling you. I'm not suggesting that they're unreasonable for someone riding a bike all day, but you say you're eating a lot less and, if I understand correctly, this has been going on for three weeks. In the real world, that should result in some weight loss. If it isn't, there's a good chance either your calorie burn numbers or your calorie intake numbers are off.

    If you don't have specific goals for physical changes and just want to be sure you're fueling yourself adequately, just plug in the average calorie burn once you've checked it against the real world, and use the protein and fat numbers MFP recommends as minimums, and let carbs fall where they will.

    If you want specific macro recommendations, you'll have to give us your stats (height and weight at a minimum).

    Thank you for starting with this response Lynn, this is the main reason why I am posting this exactly is to see what information needs to be important, which information, in regards to the fitbit, could be overexaggerated, underexaggerated, and what I need to make sure I'm actually taking track of, or need to keep track of in order to figure out what I wish to do.

    My first question back to you, would be how do I do a "real world check" for calories? Because I would be interested in knowing how to do this. I was going to buy a cheaper fitness tracker until I found this deal, but that was the main reason for buying it was to track my calories because I thought it would be the best way to do this.

    I am 6'2" and I have been having a morning weight of about 146lbs and at night, I just weighed in at 150lbs. I used to walk around 170lbs, but I lost some weight apparently, I'm not sure when, but potentially my summer time depression hit me hard. I would ideally prefer if I can bring my weight back up to 170 or 200 and start building muscle, but I think I have a higher preference of making sure I have more energy, and recover well enough to be ready to go every day a bit better.

    I haven't been tracking my calorie intake at all, so it's very possible my calorie burn numbers are indeed off. I do want to make sure I'm counting calories a lot more in the next while, which is why I got the premium for this month to make it easier for me.

    By real world check, I mean stepping on a scale at least once a week and seeing if your expected results (based on the number of calories you think you're burning and consuming) match what the scale is telling you. You want at least three to four weeks of data
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,009 Member
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    Continued (doing this on my phone and I couldn't navigate to the end after going back to fix a typo

    ... you want at least three to four weeks of data, preferably more if you're a woman experiencing monthly cycles, to assess whether you're in a calorie surplus (as you want to be), at maintenance, or deficit.

    In short, if you want to gain weight and you're not, set a higher calorie goal. It doesn't rven really matter if you're accurate, so long as you're consistent. If X calories based on your your calorie-counting methods isn't enough, eat more.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,988 Member
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    To sum:

    1. At 6'2" and 150 pounds, you are at the low end of a healthy weight.
    2. Your goal is to gain at least 20 pounds and possibly 50.
    3. You have an extremely active job as a bike delivery driver.
    4. Are your calorie burns accurate?
    5. How can you possibly get in this many calories?

    You may wish to post this in the Fitness section. I suggest you keep it a lot shorter and simply say you're biking X miles a day for work, talk about your Fitbit Sense 2 reported burns, and your goal of gaining at least 20 pounds and possibly 50.

    You can link back to this thread to give more details.

    To gain weight, prioritize high fat foods. Fat has 9 calories per gram as opposed to protein and carbs' 4 calories per gram so it's easier to add calories. Full fat dairy, cheese, oil, butter, nuts, peanut butter, pizza, higher fat meat, etc. Eat before work, during work, and after work.

    @ninerbuff - thoughts?

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