Confused!!

Sambaroo
Sambaroo Posts: 1 Member
in Health and Weight Loss

Hi all,

I feel I lose a little and then maintain. I have been using MFP and TDEE figures following a 500 deficit.

My confusion sets in with exercising(walking 2-3 days a week for 2 hours on those days) and non exercising days!.

MFP calories are 1700 when exercising. Do I revert back to sedentary calorie figure for non days and more deficit and then 1700 when exercising. I log and weigh my foods and results on scale is disheartening as tried eating at calories for sedentary which was 1450 and did exercise but did not eat more and then eat up to 1600 at times.

Appreciate help as just can't get 'the lightbulb moment' where it all falls into place.

Replies

  • Retroguy2000
    Retroguy2000 Posts: 2,155 Member

    It's up to you. If your exercise is consistent and your average calories are X, and you aren't losing weight, then you need to make X lower.

    Btw, walking is fantastic, and if that's all you can do that's totally fine and ignore the rest of this comment. However, if you're capable of doing more then you should. Walking alone doesn't do much for your aerobic fitness or muscle/strength building. That sort of exercise will also help with body composition.

  • age_is_just_a_number
    age_is_just_a_number Posts: 1,270 Member

    I like the breaking a plateau approach in this coach Viva video.

    https://youtu.be/k2x4P60ehxU?si=-G8vp5Q6DB1q_znx


    disclaimer: Coach viva is a coaching service. I do not have an affliation with them and do not re commend their services. I have done a free unstuck call either them.

  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 37,969 Community Helper

    Your circumstances are unclear to me, mainly because you don't really say what the time scale is for what you're experiencing.

    If you're saying that over the course of a few days you lose a little, then the scale stalls for a day or two, then it goes down a little (or even up a little) for a day or so . . . that would be the normal pattern during moderate pace weight loss.

    If you're talking about losing for around 3 weeks then stalling for a week (or even gaining) before another drop, and you're an adult woman who's not in menopause yet, you're probably seeing the water retention effects from menstrual cycles.

    If you lose at a good rate for more then 3 weeks, then stall for a week or two, then lose again for another period of at least a week or multiple weeks, that's also a pretty common pattern.

    If you lose for many weeks, but loss rate gradually tapers off over several weeks then stops, but your eating and activity remain pretty much the same, the odds are higher that you've found your maintenance calorie level and need to reduce calories a bit.

    Those are generalities. There are variations on those themes, and some contradictory counter-examples, but we can't give you an opinon without knowing more.

    As far as exercise and your calorie goal, there are two different potential ways to handle that sensibly:

    1. Set your MFP activity level based on your daily life excluding the intentional exercise. Eat that number of calories on non-exercise days. When you do some exercise, log the exercise in MFP, get more calories by doing that, and eat those calories, too.
    2. Set your calorie goal based on your total life activity, averaging in your exercise plans into that activity level, get a calorie goal based on that, and eat that many calories every day, whether you exercise or not. In that case, be sure to actually do the exercise that you included in your plan.

    Either of those methods is fine. Methods that totally ignore exercise risk under-eating, which isn't health-promoting. (It might be OK if someone's going for an ultra-slow loss rate, but doesn't do a lot of exercise . . . but terrible for someone shooting for fast weight loss then doing lots of intense exercise, because one way or another that person is highly likely to crash and burn.)

    Besides all of that, if someone watches their loss rate over a couple of months and finds it uneven in puzzling ways, it's also possible that their logging accuracy isn't completely tuned in yet. That's not a diss: Logging is a surprisingly subtle skill, and most of us who've done it for a while have face-palm moments of realizing we've been making some systematic error(s). Many research studies have confirmed that we tend to under-estimate/log our food intake, and over-estimate our exercise calories. That's not because we're trying to be sneaky or game the system, it's because there's a learning curve to accuracy, and it's easy to overlook details.

    Best wishes!

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