My Plateau Nutrition Story, Learn from my mistakes.

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.