My Plateau Nutrition Story, Learn from my mistakes.

bump any info is welcome?

Here's the thing.. we're all different. No website calculator can factor in your genetics (which influence how and where you store fat and how you'll lose it), hormone levels (especially thyroid, estrogen/testosterone, leptin/ghrelin and cortisol systems), neurotransmitters (serotonin, dopamine in particular), body mechanics and joint/muscle capability. As a result, all of the calculators, formulae and weight loss approaches will work variably for different people. This is why it's so difficult to give advice that works for everyone.

That said, the more you read, the more you'll start to see trends, things that seem to work for many people. Use these as a starting point and experiment. It took me several months to find a combination of things that worked for me consistently (whole foods, plenty of water and strength training 3x/wk with cardio 2-3x/wk).

To answer your question, I'd say the best place to start is with an honest assessment of what you're really eating - MFP is a great tool, but you have to be strictly honest in measuring your portion sizes by weight every time rather than guessing. After an assessment period, maybe two weeks to get some solid averages, you'll have a starting point. Whatever you find out you're eating can then be reduced by 10% for a few weeks. If you're eating whole foods and exercising regularly you'll start to feel better and can then reassess. If you find you're bonking during your workouts, add 200-300 calories and hour or two before them. If you're feeling good during your workouts and between them but your clothes aren't fitting differently and you aren't losing inches, you can drop your calorie goal by another 10%. Following this process, you'll eventually figure out what works for you. Yes, it takes time. Yes, it's a hassle. And no, there is no magic bullet. But it will be worth it. I've lost 80# of fat, ran my first 10K last year, can lift more weight than I did in high school and at 39 I'm healthier than I've ever been. Keep at it and you WILL succeed.

bump any info is welcome?

Here's the thing.. we're all different. No website calculator can factor in your genetics (which influence how and where you store fat and how you'll lose it), hormone levels (especially thyroid, estrogen/testosterone, leptin/ghrelin and cortisol systems), neurotransmitters (serotonin, dopamine in particular), body mechanics and joint/muscle capability. As a result, all of the calculators, formulae and weight loss approaches will work variably for different people. This is why it's so difficult to give advice that works for everyone.

That said, the more you read, the more you'll start to see trends, things that seem to work for many people. Use these as a starting point and experiment. It took me several months to find a combination of things that worked for me consistently (whole foods, plenty of water and strength training 3x/wk with cardio 2-3x/wk).

To answer your question, I'd say the best place to start is with an honest assessment of what you're really eating - MFP is a great tool, but you have to be strictly honest in measuring your portion sizes by weight every time rather than guessing. After an assessment period, maybe two weeks to get some solid averages, you'll have a starting point. Whatever you find out you're eating can then be reduced by 10% for a few weeks. If you're eating whole foods and exercising regularly you'll start to feel better and can then reassess. If you find you're bonking during your workouts, add 200-300 calories and hour or two before them. If you're feeling good during your workouts and between them but your clothes aren't fitting differently and you aren't losing inches, you can drop your calorie goal by another 10%. Following this process, you'll eventually figure out what works for you. Yes, it takes time. Yes, it's a hassle. And no, there is no magic bullet. But it will be worth it. I've lost 80# of fat, ran my first 10K last year, can lift more weight than I did in high school and at 39 I'm healthier than I've ever been. Keep at it and you WILL succeed.

Excellent post.

Ok so let me get this straight.

I weigh 82 kg, on the free diet site it says

if I am exercising 5 days a week burning 500 calories on average

my maintenance is 2417
fat loss 1718
extreme loss is 1443

so I should eat close to 1718 and not eat those exercise calories back? leaving me at around 1200 net?

is that right.

So you can do it two different ways. The 1718 is calculating in the 500 burned from exercise so either eat the 1718 daily regardless of whether you exercise more or less in a day and DONT eat the exercise calories back OR- what I'm doing is I calculated my calorie intake without exercise. So I typed in all of my daily activities except for my exercise so that I still use MFP to eat my calories back since I don't exercise everyday- only 3-4 times a week so eating calories as if I was exercising daily wouldn't work for me. SO I used the calorie calculator to ge my TDEE and am eating that every day and on days I exercise eating the calories back so that I stay at that TDEE calorie level. Do what works for you! You have to give it a month though whichever way you go to know whether it's working or not. Like the other person responded to you everyone's different! Eating my exercise calories works for me beacuse I'm not a daily excerciser. For you, if you're actually exercising 5 days a week and burning about the same amount of calories each day go ahead and just eat the 1718 daily to simplify things for yourself and when you enter your exercise to the diary don't put any calories burned. good luck!

Filling out http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm, it says for me to eat 2218 calories/day for "extreme fat loss". That seems like a lot for me. According to MFP I should eat 1550/day, but most of the time I eat less than that. I'm really not eating that much less during meals than I did before, but I had a big problem with snacking, which probably added a lot of calories. Does that mean I should eat a lot more calories pronto if I want to lose weight while also building muscles? Help, I'm so confused!

Bumping for later......i'm on overload!

Well I've learned that BMR and TDEE are very different unless your regular daily activites are totally sedentary. BMR calculated what you'd need to survive if you just sat in one spot every day and TDEE is what the caculator does- accounts for all of the calories burned from your regular routine.

I'm not a fan of all the the different online calculators. Too many different answers when inputing the same calcultions... so I prefer the original poster's formula. From there I also went with his calculations for all my of macros. Takes work figuring it all out but it'll pay off in the end! I just prefer to still use my HRM and MFP to eat exercise calories back siince my exercise is inconsistent (not everyday) So, for me; my BMR when i'm at my GOAL WEIGHT of 140 is 1400ish. My job's only about 50% desk time so the other half of the time I'm up walking around (medical assistant) so when I used the original poster's calculations I went with 1.4 for lightly active since half of my workday is movement and walking pretty quickly, lifting things. This got my my TDEE without exercise at 1960. This would be my maintainence level daily calories at my goal weight for my normal daily activities. From 1960 I deducted a 20% deficit to lose fat and gain muscle- therefore slowly inching toward my goal weight and shrinking my body. so, 1960 x .20 = 392 and 1960 - 392 = 1568 and rounded up to 1600 and changed my diary to this manually.

Over the last month of increased calories I kept gradually increasing- like too scared to jump for the higher number right away. lol... so I started out at MFP's recommended 1300 something, learned they were calculating my BMR wrong and changed it to 1400 something and then researched more, found this thread and researched even more and increased to 1500 something for a couple of weeks and re-calculated things manually (the first few weeks relying on online calculators) and this last week learned after manual calcualtions that I should be about 1600/day before exercise. But I finally got where I should be I think!

if you're really active and exercising daily, yeah 2500ish sounds about right. You still need to take a 20 or 30% deficit off of that though. So for example taking a 30% deficit would be 2500 x .30 = 750 and 2500 - 750 = 1750 daily intake. Then it depends on whether you calculated your TDEE with or without exercise outside of daily activities. If you did it with take in 1750 no matter what and don't enter your exercise (or if you want it to show on your wall to your friends enter it with zero calories burned) and if you calculated it without enter your exercise as usual so that you're taking in a net of 1750.

sounds about right. Worth a try at least right? Give it a month and see how your body does at 1750 cals a day.

Bumping so I can find this after work...

bump

Nice post.

If anyone wants an easier method of calculating their calories using Katch McArdle rather than doing it manually then use this link:

http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm

Select "Advanced Options" and check the Katch McCardle box.

Bump for later.

OMG you guys! I need to gush, then gush, then gush some more! I'm SO FREAKIN HAPPY THIS MORNING!!! Oh my gosh. So, ive exercised and eaten after exercise like 1800-2000 cals for the last three days, had tons of water- fully and totally expected a little gain no matter how much I believe in this high cals thing the negatiity in my mind was like "you ate 2000 cals yesterday!! Totally going to be up in weight today" (yes, weighing in super often. bad habit.. can't help it, I'm so anxious to see what this increased cals does to my body each day. hence 2000 cals yesterday.... i HAD to weigh in today) On Sunday I was 156.4- this morning.... dun duh duh DUUUUHH 155.5! OMG! Finally past my yo-yo plateau between 156 and 157! I've eaten more freaken calories in the last three days (probably like 5000+ cals) than in the past I would over five full days! Wow. I'm officially impressed with this eating more food thing. I've been striving really hard to get in my lean body mass amount of protein daily (115g a day) so maybe that's also making a big difference. Actually I've gotten pretty good at getting so much protein in. It's usually more than 115- yesterday was 150! Anyways, all I know is I LOVE EATING MORE FOOD, acutally having energy to do great workouts (would kinda poop out half way through before I started eating more) and still lose weight even though I'm eating about 2000 cals a day.

So happy. Ok, gotta get ready for work but I had to gush )

That is so fantastic!!! It's great to hear that this plan is working. You and I are almost the same weight and I've been stuck between 156 and 158 for over a month! I am thinking about trying this plan and have figured out my TDEE but having more trouble with the protein, carbs, fat numbers.
Would love to help each other since we seem to have similar goals!

So should your net be =to your daily calorie need? Ex I am a1200 a day after exercise it states 837net?

I am a classic "starving myself fat" case too. I just don't go for those extreme diets anymore. Everything in moderation is my motto. I try to get close to my calories each day. It was hard at first, but now I am getting better and still losing. My body is a little more stubborn as I have done this "starving" business since I was in Jr. High school and that was almost 40 years ago. But I am proof that is never too late.

thank you for sharing your story.

i am getting there with this.... its been very slow going for me...but i am finally really getting it.