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

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  • naribee
    naribee Posts: 6 Member
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    This looks great, I am keen to try it as I have plateau'd and need something new.... I need to get my head around it and have looked for clarity in the previous posts but haven't quite found the answers I need. i apologise therefore if I am doubling up on what has already been asked!!

    My calcs are as follows

    BMR is 1339
    step 2 is 1606.8
    Step 3 is 732.2

    Firstly - I am a bit hesitant to start eating more food - in my calcs I will be eating 139 more calories a day? This is a lot, I have been tending to not use my exercise points anyway and in the current version of MFP that I am using my calories is 1200 however I am averaging net calories at around 900, this would therefore be increasing the amount of calories I am eating by 439 - is this right and if so it is an awful lot.

    I would never imagine that I would exercise over 732.2 calories a day as I am a working mum and I usually have a window of about 30 - 45 minutes where I burn up to 400 calories but generally between 250 - 300.

    Also even though my calorie goal will be set at 1606 I need to remember that I am actually on supposed to be eating 1339 minimum? Is that correct?

    On days when I need the extra calories, such as work Christmas do what is the maximum calorie number I should be eating?

    Sorry for the potential idiotic questions I am relatively new to the calorie counting world and just wondering how it all works

    I look forward to your response and thanks for your time and your great advice Olivia its much appreciated
  • olivia3263
    olivia3263 Posts: 263 Member
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    This looks great, I am keen to try it as I have plateau'd and need something new.... I need to get my head around it and have looked for clarity in the previous posts but haven't quite found the answers I need. i apologise therefore if I am doubling up on what has already been asked!!

    My calcs are as follows

    BMR is 1339
    step 2 is 1606.8
    Step 3 is 732.2

    Firstly - I am a bit hesitant to start eating more food - in my calcs I will be eating 139 more calories a day? This is a lot, I have been tending to not use my exercise points anyway and in the current version of MFP that I am using my calories is 1200 however I am averaging net calories at around 900, this would therefore be increasing the amount of calories I am eating by 439 - is this right and if so it is an awful lot.

    I would never imagine that I would exercise over 732.2 calories a day as I am a working mum and I usually have a window of about 30 - 45 minutes where I burn up to 400 calories but generally between 250 - 300.

    Also even though my calorie goal will be set at 1606 I need to remember that I am actually on supposed to be eating 1339 minimum? Is that correct?

    On days when I need the extra calories, such as work Christmas do what is the maximum calorie number I should be eating?

    Sorry for the potential idiotic questions I am relatively new to the calorie counting world and just wondering how it all works

    I look forward to your response and thanks for your time and your great advice Olivia its much appreciated

    What's nice about setting things up this way, is that you can see how much you would actually have to eat to lose, maintain AND gain. You shouldn't be worried about eating an extra 100, 200 or even 400 calories. If you're eating below your bmr, and you're not losing - this should tell you something. Your body wants more calories :)

    Ok, so yes, you're going to set up MFP calorie for maintenance. Aim to eat AT LEAST 1339. This means that if you don't workout, you'll be creating a deficit of 267 (if you ate like this all week and didn't exercise, you would lose half a pound that week). If you want to increase the amount you lose per week you have to increase the deficit. Since you can't go below 1339, you need to do that with exercise. The more you exercise, factoring in that you'll only be eating 1339, the larger the deficit will become. You don't have to have a 1000 calorie deficit - this is just the maximum deficit deemed safe by experts. For you to reach this deficit you would have to burn 732. Since you don't think it's likely that you'll burn that much, just aim to eat around 1339 and you'll be good. If, per chance, you burn above 732, make sure to eat the surplus calories). You never want your calories remaining to be more than 1000.

    So that's it. If you set things up this way, you'll see that unless that green number turns red and has a minus sign in front of it, you won't gain. Try it for a week - I'm sure you'll be pleasantly surprised.

    A word of warning - since you've been eating below your BMR for some time now, you may notice you actually get hungrier when you start eating properly. This will be a good sign that your metabolism is kicking into gear. Good luck!
  • naribee
    naribee Posts: 6 Member
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    This looks great, I am keen to try it as I have plateau'd and need something new.... I need to get my head around it and have looked for clarity in the previous posts but haven't quite found the answers I need. i apologise therefore if I am doubling up on what has already been asked!!

    My calcs are as follows

    BMR is 1339
    step 2 is 1606.8
    Step 3 is 732.2

    Firstly - I am a bit hesitant to start eating more food - in my calcs I will be eating 139 more calories a day? This is a lot, I have been tending to not use my exercise points anyway and in the current version of MFP that I am using my calories is 1200 however I am averaging net calories at around 900, this would therefore be increasing the amount of calories I am eating by 439 - is this right and if so it is an awful lot.

    I would never imagine that I would exercise over 732.2 calories a day as I am a working mum and I usually have a window of about 30 - 45 minutes where I burn up to 400 calories but generally between 250 - 300.

    Also even though my calorie goal will be set at 1606 I need to remember that I am actually on supposed to be eating 1339 minimum? Is that correct?

    On days when I need the extra calories, such as work Christmas do what is the maximum calorie number I should be eating?

    Sorry for the potential idiotic questions I am relatively new to the calorie counting world and just wondering how it all works

    I look forward to your response and thanks for your time and your great advice Olivia its much appreciated

    What's nice about setting things up this way, is that you can see how much you would actually have to eat to lose, maintain AND gain. You shouldn't be worried about eating an extra 100, 200 or even 400 calories. If you're eating below your bmr, and you're not losing - this should tell you something. Your body wants more calories :)

    Ok, so yes, you're going to set up MFP calorie for maintenance. Aim to eat AT LEAST 1339. This means that if you don't workout, you'll be creating a deficit of 267 (if you ate like this all week and didn't exercise, you would lose half a pound that week). If you want to increase the amount you lose per week you have to increase the deficit. Since you can't go below 1339, you need to do that with exercise. The more you exercise, factoring in that you'll only be eating 1339, the larger the deficit will become. You don't have to have a 1000 calorie deficit - this is just the maximum deficit deemed safe by experts. For you to reach this deficit you would have to burn 732. Since you don't think it's likely that you'll burn that much, just aim to eat around 1339 and you'll be good. If, per chance, you burn above 732, make sure to eat the surplus calories). You never want your calories remaining to be more than 1000.

    So that's it. If you set things up this way, you'll see that unless that green number turns red and has a minus sign in front of it, you won't gain. Try it for a week - I'm sure you'll be pleasantly surprised.

    A word of warning - since you've been eating below your BMR for some time now, you may notice you actually get hungrier when you start eating properly. This will be a good sign that your metabolism is kicking into gear. Good luck!
    [/quote

    thanks Olivia, will give it a go, appreciate your time.. I will let you know next monday how I have gotten on!!!]
  • naribee
    naribee Posts: 6 Member
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    Oh and just quickly - I promise last question - is the deficit calculated as an average over the week i.e. if my deficit was 600 calories over 6 days and only 300 one day a week that would bring my weekly average down to 550 which would mean a weekly loss of around a pound per week or half a kg?
  • JRRCLR
    JRRCLR Posts: 353
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    Bump!

    I read your previous topic on this and it's really easy to understand now! Thanks for reposting! :)
  • olivia3263
    olivia3263 Posts: 263 Member
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    Oh and just quickly - I promise last question - is the deficit calculated as an average over the week i.e. if my deficit was 600 calories over 6 days and only 300 one day a week that would bring my weekly average down to 550 which would mean a weekly loss of around a pound per week or half a kg?

    Yes, and actually if you use the phone app - look at the weekly tab, and look at the graph option. You can see your average deficit to the right, but at the bottom it will actually tell you your total deficit for the week, so 3500 = 1 pound, 7000 = 2 pounds. My total deficit for this week was 4881 and I lost 1.2 pounds this week, so I'd say it's pretty accurate!
  • welcominganewself
    welcominganewself Posts: 283
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    I think I will give this a try and see how it works.
  • duffy1964
    duffy1964 Posts: 10 Member
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    Help, my weight it 158 and my BMR is 1340
  • duffy1964
    duffy1964 Posts: 10 Member
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    Help, my weight it 158 and my BMR is 1340
  • reaolliemama
    reaolliemama Posts: 489 Member
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    save...I'm too tierd to do math, I'll do it tomorrow!
  • kikkipoo
    kikkipoo Posts: 292 Member
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    Help, my weight it 158 and my BMR is 1340

    BMR is how much you will eat, now just change your goal to "maintain current weight" at either sedentary or lightly active accordingly instead of at lose 2 lbs a week.... and try to get your green number between 500-1000 daily. Just remember 1340 is what you have to eat for this to work. Don't eat less in order to create the 1,000 deficit...you'll have to exercise to get there.
  • Olive32214
    Olive32214 Posts: 543 Member
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    Bump
  • Sexymomma76
    Sexymomma76 Posts: 37 Member
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    Bump
  • CMmrsfloyd
    CMmrsfloyd Posts: 2,383 Member
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    This is kind of making my head spin... .LOL I think I will stick to my self-imposed goal of just over BMR plus eating my exercise calories.
  • olivia3263
    olivia3263 Posts: 263 Member
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    Help, my weight it 158 and my BMR is 1340

    MFP GOAL: 1742
    ACTUAL GOAL: 1400

    Eat at least 1400 a day, make sure your calories remaining is never more than 1000 (but can be anywhere from 0 - 1000, depending upon how much you want to lose that week). If you exercise and burn more than 658, eat the surplus calories.
  • NitaCB
    NitaCB Posts: 532 Member
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    bump
  • Sexymomma76
    Sexymomma76 Posts: 37 Member
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    Hi Olivia, just want to make sure I have done this right.
    I'm 35, 5'2", weigh 140 lbs and lightly active.

    BMR=1286
    1286x1.3=1672
    1286+1000=2286-1672=614

    So how many calories should I be aiming to eat? I really want to try this as I have been losing very slowly lately and I'm so close to my goal now.
  • olivia3263
    olivia3263 Posts: 263 Member
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    Hi Olivia, just want to make sure I have done this right.
    I'm 35, 5'2", weigh 140 lbs and lightly active.

    BMR=1286
    1286x1.3=1672
    1286+1000=2286-1672=614

    So how many calories should I be aiming to eat? I really want to try this as I have been losing very slowly lately and I'm so close to my goal now.

    Set your mfp goal to 1672. Aim to eat 1300 - don't go below this number ever, and make sure the green number is less than 1000.
  • CMmrsfloyd
    CMmrsfloyd Posts: 2,383 Member
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    Okay, I've been a little confused but let me see if I've got this right - *basically* the method itself is to eat your BMR plus your exercise calories (I do that already - I have my calorie goal set to just above my BMR and I eat exercise cals), but the way you set it is for the purpose of seeing your actual deficit?
  • olivia3263
    olivia3263 Posts: 263 Member
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    Okay, I've been a little confused but let me see if I've got this right - *basically* the method itself is to eat your BMR plus your exercise calories (I do that already - I have my calorie goal set to just above my BMR and I eat exercise cals), but the way you set it is for the purpose of seeing your actual deficit?

    You don't always have to eat your exercise calories. By figuring out the calculations, you can know how much you can exercise without eating the calories back while still remaining healthy. By not eating the exercise calories you can increase your deficit (as those of us who have less to lose are limited to a very small deficit by default) but if you have a big workout burn, you'll know exactly at what point you need to eat them back to stay within the healthy guidelines. By setting mfp to maintenance, yes, you see your daily deficit, but you also have the guideline of 1000 - always wanting the calories remaining to stay under 1000. This ensures that you eat enough.

    If you set your goal to your bmr, with the intention of eating your exercise calories back, you'll stay at the same deficit all the time. This way, you can have days where your deficit is moderate and days when your deficit is larger.

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