Undo the damage

sollyn23l2 wrote: »

cwolfman13 wrote: »

Nothing is going to happen by overshooting your macro targets. Over eating your fat macro doesn't do any "damage". Overall calories are what matter and you have to look at that over time. There are times when you're going to be over on calories...it happens...but in the grand scheme of things, being over occasionally doesn't do any "damage" that needs to be undone either. In many cases you're still in a deficit, just a smaller one or maybe at maintenance for the day. Big whoop.

Losing weight, maintaining weight, and gaining weight is something that happens over time with relatively consistent calorie intake...consistently in a deficit, you'll lose weight...consistently around maintenance you will maintain...consistently in a surplus you will gain. The human body strives for homeostasis and it takes more than a day here and there to really do "damage"

Macros are calories. If you overshoot your macros, it's likely you'll overshoot your calories.

Not necessarily. I routinely overshoot protein and fats goals, but stay within calories. (Obviously, I have carbs left.)

OP didn't say whether or not she was over/under calories, protein, or carbs, that I have seen. All she's said is that she is "eating healthy" and "staying on track" and that her "weight loss has been painfully slow". That's not very specific.

BodyTemple23 wrote: »

Re: my second post in the same thread - about losing 11 pounds in 8 months:

I was under my calorie count most days. My maintenance is 1650 calories, and I ate about 1400 calories on average. I worked out regularly and didn't eat those calories back.

So basically you’re not doing bad. With a deficit of 250 calories you’d lose 1/2 lbs per week or 2lbs per month. You’re short 5lbs over 8 months or 72 calories per day. That’s gotally within the range of ligging error or individual deviation from a population average. Nothing wrong here!

BodyTemple23 wrote: »

But...

I didn't eat my exercise calories back, so that should give me a total deficit of 500 calories plus. No?

Lietchi wrote: »

Based on your actual data (not calculated according to statistical averages): 11lbs over 8 months is an effective calorie deficit of 158kcal per day.

Which would make your TDEE 1558kcal per day (including exercise) if you ate 1400 calories per day on average over that period and your food logging was accurate.

You can look at this two ways:

1. Your food logging was 100% accurate and your TDEE is lower than average. Calculate your deficit accordingly. Nothing else needs to be done.
2. Your food logging is not accurate, which is the more common scenario. Study after study shows people are not great with calculating their Calories In. If you want us to help you examine this possibility, change your Diary Sharing settings to Public. In the app, go to Settings > Diary Setting > Diary Sharing > and check Public. Desktop: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings

BodyTemple23 wrote: »

But...

I didn't eat my exercise calories back, so that should give me a total deficit of 500 calories plus. No?

A calorie calculator, MFP, or a fitness tracker doesn't measure your deficit. It's all estimates. They are imprecise.

Your body measures your deficit.

Your actual weight loss averaged over 4-6 week timespans (or over whole menstrual cycles if you have those) tells you what your actual effective calorie deficit was.

Ann probably gave you Sailrabbit.

BodyTemple23 wrote: »

@Lietchi, how did you estimate my TDEE?

As I said: based on your actual data (not calculated according to statistical averages)

Bodyfat is around 3500kcal/lb to lose or gain. So based on your weight loss (11lbs (=38500kcal total deficit) divided by 244 days), I calculated what your average daily deficit was. Adding the deficit to your intake, I arrived at your estimated TDEE for that period.

Calculators are a starting point, but your own data is superior to that because that's all about you and not some statistical population average.

Lietchi wrote: »

BodyTemple23 wrote: »

But...

I didn't eat my exercise calories back, so that should give me a total deficit of 500 calories plus. No?

Based on your actual data (not calculated according to statistical averages): 11lbs over 8 months is an effective calorie deficit of 158kcal per day.
Which would make your TDEE 1558kcal per day (including exercise) if you ate 1400 calories per day on average over that period and your food logging was accurate.

cmriverside wrote: »

Ann probably gave you Sailrabbit.

Yes, almost certainly.

https://www.sailrabbit.com/bmr/

But I hope I also told you what Lietchi is saying here: Using your own calorie intake and weight loss rate is a much better way to estimate calorie needs than any calculator or fitness tracker. But we can't do that at the start of a loss effort, because we need 4-6 weeks of calorie counting and weight-change data in order to do it. (It'd be whole menstrual cycles for those who have them, comparing weight at the same relative point in different cycles.)

When I estimated your effective average deficit earlier in this thread, I did what Lietchi did: Look at how long you said you'd been losing, and how much you've lost. Where she used days, I used weeks as an approximation, so came up with a slightly different answer: She got 158 calories as your average daily deficit, I got 172 calories. Same concept, different approximation math.

Use your own data to guide your calorie goals, once you have enough data to do that. For some of us, it makes a big, big difference. MFP's estimate and the one from my good brand/model fitness tracker (that's close for others) are off by around 500 calories daily. In my case, it's in the fortunate "get to eat more than average" direction, but it can go either way.

We're individuals. We can differ from average. Individualized TDEE estimates based on our own data are helpful. If someone determines they're close to what a calculator/fitness tracker says, they can continue using it. But if someone's further from average in calorie needs, believing the calculator/tracker estimate is going to make weight loss less predictable, and possibly more frustrating/discouraging.