The "Olivia Method" - the cool new way to set up your MFP go

I can't believe I'm posting about a method named after myself, but it really was the easiest way for people to recognize it - and it's kind of cool

So this is a special thread stemming from the impromptu popularity of something discussed here: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/406319-a-different-way-to-set-up-mfp-goals-that-works

I started doing this after a meeting with a sports nutritionist. I found a way to set up MFP so I could see my daily deficit each day, and I could maximize my calorie burn on heavy workout days, and not have to eat like a bird on my non workout days.

This is mostly appropriate for people who's maintenance calories before exercise are less than 2200. At 2200 or above, you can safely create a 1000 calorie deficit without exercise - so if you set up MFP to lose 2 pounds a week it would set your calories to 1200. You would then eat all your exercise calories and keep your 1000 calorie deficit, making noticeable progress quite achievable.

When you have less to lose, your options are to decrease your deficit by eating more, or eat less and run the danger of a weight loss plateau because your body isn't getting the nutrients it needs for basic functioning. Well we can all agree that eating less (under your BMR) is not a good way to go. We could try setting to .5 lb a week weight loss, but there's not a lot of wiggle room with 250 calories, and a few off calculations with exercise and food and you could find yourself gaining, not losing.

With this method, you can reach whatever deficit you want day by day, and you will know that you are safely keeping your deficit under 1000 (2 lbs a week loss). Rather than force feed yourself on high calorie burn workout days,, you can use those great workouts to maximize your weight loss - which, let's face it, is probably one of the main reasons why we workout to begin with.

If you'd like to try this method or need help figuring out how to set up your MFP goals, feel free to post your info: weight and BMR and I or someone will help you out.

So here are the guidelines:

Step 1: Figure out your BMR - this is your body's calorie requirements for basic functioning. You would burn this if you just stayed in bed all day. There is a BMR calculator on this site under TOOLS. This is going to be your minimum number. You will be aiming to eat at least this much, or about 100 calories higher per day, whether you workout or not.

Step 2: Figure out your Maintenance calories before exercise. You can use MFP's calculations based on your activity level. My nutritionist used an easy calculation of BMR x 1.3 (for light activity). This is the number you're going to set your MFP calorie goal to. You're not going to eat this number, but it will be a marker for how much of a deficit you are creating.

Step 3: Figure out how many exercise calories it will take to reach a 1000 calorie deficit (the maximum). Do this by adding 1000 to your BMR, and then subtract your maintenance calories (the number you found in step 2). This number will let you know how many calories you can burn through exercise without eating them back. If you burn more than this number, you will HAVE to eat the surplus calories at least to keep your safe 1000 calorie deficit.

I'll use myself as an example for the calculations:

Step 1: BMR = 1480
Step 2: BMR x 1.3 (1480 x1.3) = 1924
Step 3: (BMR + 1000) - maintenance/ 1480 + 1000 - 1924 = 556.

So I set my MFP calorie goal to 1924.
I aim to eat at least 1500 - 1600 calories per day, regardless of exercise, but definitely no less than 1480.
If I burn more than 556 through exercise on a given day, I should eat at least the surplus calories. So if I burn 800 calories through exercise, I would want to eat at least 244 calories above my goal of 1500 - so at least 1744.

Now for the fun part. When you look at your numbers in your tracker, the green number under the word REMAINING will show your total deficit for the day. The smaller that number, the closer you are to maintaining your weight. If that number is near 500 and you kept it like that for a week you would lose 1 pound. If that number is near 1000, you would lose 2 pounds. I usually aim to keep that number between 500 - 1000. I personally LOVE being able to see my deficit for the day. It really makes me feel in control of my weight loss. I have a small deficit on my days off from working out, and I have a larger deficit on my long run days (big calorie burns).

One more thing - don't forget to readjust your numbers as you lose weight!!

Good luck and happy deficit creating!

OK. I've been thinking about this all day and here's what I've come up with:

I weigh 155 lbs and my BMR is 1435 cals. Maintenance is 1790. So I set my goal to maintenance and my activity level to sedentary. My goal will be to eat around 1435 leaving me a deficit of 355 on non-workout days. If I burn more than 645 cals in exercise I need to eat more, but this is where I'm stuck.

Two questions:
1. How in the world are you people burning 600 calories or more in exercise per day? I never burn that much (that I know of - I don't have a HRM).
2. So say I burn 700 cals in exercise, how many cals do I need to eat at that point?

This is a super interesting method! I'm excited

Hmmm, weekly thread, or new group? Which do you think we should do?

Maybe I am not reading this right, but how is this any different than setting your BMR by MFP and setting it to sedentary and then whatever you want to lose (mine is set to 1.5 lbs. lost a week) this then give me my daily caloric intake (with my deficit already built in to lose 1.5 lbs a week) and then when I exercise, i eat those calories back. Doesn't that get the same results??? If not please explain... My deficit (set by MFP is 750 calories less a day) which even when I eat back my exercise calories, I try to stay when 250 calories of that 750 calorie deficit which gives me a 1000 calorie deficit for that day. On days I take off exercise then my deficit is already built into my MFP calories so I just eat to my net...

Ok, so for me, if I were to set my calories the MFP way, with a sedentary setting it would have me at 1776 calories a day to maintain. If I wanted to set it up so that I lost 1.5 pounds a week, it would have me eating 1200 (less than 1.5 pounds a week because it won't go below 1200 - to lose 1.5 pounds a week I would have to eat 1,026 which isn't safe). If I choose 1 pound a week, it gives me 1276. Now for someone like me who runs a lot, i would have to eat VERY little on my off days, and then eat quite a lot on my long run days, still only running a smallish deficit. I could choose not to eat all my exercise calories to create a larger deficit, but it would be unclear how many I could not eat back without forcing my body into panic mode.

By doing it this way, I have a minimum safety number I need to hit, and then I can see the deficit I'm creating, making sure to keep it in a safe zone of less than 1000. If I want to reach a greater deficit, I know how much I need to work out to achieve it.

For people who have less to lose, and women in particular, it is harder to work the numbers when it caps off at 1200 net. It's a way for us to lose weight at a noticeable rate without being unhealthy.

So my numbers would be:
BMR = 1580
1580 * 1.3 = 2054
(1580 + 1000) - 2054 = 526

So I would set my calorie goal to 2054 and then eat about 1554 a day to lose half a pound. But that is a half a pound a day right?

With the exercise I would do something like this.... If I burn more than 526 on a given day I would eat the surplus. For example, if I burn 750 calories I would eat 224 making my day total 1778.

edit: I am currently 170 lbs, 5'3.5", female, and 30yrs old. On an average day (according to my Bodybugg) I burn 2000/2100 calories (24hr day/midnight-to-midnight)

Not half a pound a day - gosh, that would be amazing, wouldn't it? Amazing but not so safe. It takes 3500 calorie deficit to create 1 pound loss. If you average 500 calories a day, that equals 1 pound lost in a week (500 x 7). So if you create a 500 calorie average deficit everyday for 7 days, you'd lose a pound.