I am sooooooo confused by all the different numbers. I am not sure how many cals i need to be eating, HELP!!!

My problem is trying to figure out how much to eat. It seems like no matter what I do I lose and gain the same few pounds, but gradually gaining. I lost 120 pounds and have kept it off for 10 years through low cal dieting (avg 1600-1800 cals per day and not eating back exercise calories (i usually run 20-25 miles per week) so I am trying the 'reset the metabolism" but I seem to just keep trending up. I have a Bodymedia fit device and this is data for the past 3 weeks:

3/6-3/13 average burn 2339, ate 2130, deficit 209, lost .2
3/14-3/21burn 2489, ate 2269, deficit 220, gained 2.6 pounds:noway: :noway: :noway:
3/21-3/27 burn 2235, ate 2115, deficit 117, lost .6:huh:

In January and febuary I probably netted 1800-2000 cals and my weight fluctuated 1-2 lbs

I am just dumbfounded because I have been eating quite a bit (at least 1800 for at least 6 mos now, so isnt that resetting my metabolism?? How do you know what maintenance is, if you gain and lose at so many different intakes?? I was maintaing 162 pounds eating 1900 cals last year, this year I gain eating 1800 weight 169 pounds????

Thoughts? suggestions??? HELP!

My problem is trying to figure out how much to eat. It seems like no matter what I do I lose and gain the same few pounds, but gradually gaining. I lost 120 pounds and have kept it off for 10 years through low cal dieting (avg 1600-1800 cals per day and not eating back exercise calories (i usually run 20-25 miles per week) so I am trying the 'reset the metabolism" but I seem to just keep trending up. I have a Bodymedia fit device and this is data for the past 3 weeks:

3/6-3/13 average burn 2339, ate 2130, deficit 209, lost .2
3/14-3/21burn 2489, ate 2269, deficit 220, gained 2.6 pounds:noway: :noway: :noway:
3/21-3/27 burn 2235, ate 2115, deficit 117, lost .6:huh:

In January and febuary I probably netted 1800-2000 cals and my weight fluctuated 1-2 lbs

I am just dumbfounded because I have been eating quite a bit (at least 1800 for at least 6 mos now, so isnt that resetting my metabolism?? How do you know what maintenance is, if you gain and lose at so many different intakes?? I was maintaing 162 pounds eating 1900 cals last year, this year I gain eating 1800 weight 169 pounds????

Thoughts? suggestions??? HELP!

Metabolism raises or lowers to meet your eating levels. So, essentially, those were all "maintenance," seeing as your body adjusted to a certain amount of cals, and plateaued. We hit plateaus at high or low levels, so when we under-eat, our body responds by lowering metabolism to meet it, giving us a lower "maintenance." once the body adjusts to that level, anything that we eat above it will be considered surplus. Until we continue to eat that amount consistently, then the body adjusts to the new level and *it* becomes our maintenance. So, when a person undergoes a metabolism reset, it's usually recommended that they get the cals as high as possible, and allow the body to plateau at the higher amount. Weight gain is an expected casualty during this process. Once the body stabilizes at the new level, cals can be lowered, and loss will re-occur at higher levels than before. Then the person is recommended to take diet breaks (a week of maintenance eating) every 12 weeks or so throughout the duration of their weight loss journey in order to prevent it from re-occurring.

So the weight will fluctuate, but you have to ride it out until it stabilizes, or at least a month or two, so that when you lower cals again, you will begin losing.

Also, if you've always fluctuated 2 lbs or so, then that is just your natural trend. Maintenance still involves fluctuation. You never actually stand completely still.

Here are some links that you may want to check out:
http://www.leighpeele.com/lose-8-gain-8-the-diet-stand-still
http://www.leighpeele.com/diet-break-plan

Also, the author of the the above blog, Leigh Peele, has a book called the Metabolism Repair Manual. You may want to look into it, as she goes in to much more detail than I have here.

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This so makes sense now!!!!! Yes! Knowing this I can stick with it!!! Thanks so much!!

Metabolism raises or lowers to meet your eating levels. So, essentially, those were all "maintenance," seeing as your body adjusted to a certain amount of cals, and plateaued. We hit plateaus at high or low levels, so when we under-eat, our body responds by lowering metabolism to meet it, giving us a lower "maintenance." once the body adjusts to that level, anything that we eat above it will be considered surplus. Until we continue to eat that amount consistently, then the body adjusts to the new level and *it* becomes our maintenance. So, when a person undergoes a metabolism reset, it's usually recommended that they get the cals as high as possible, and allow the body to plateau at the higher amount. Weight gain is an expected casualty during this process. Once the body stabilizes at the new level, cals can be lowered, and loss will re-occur at higher levels than before. Then the person is recommended to take diet breaks (a week of maintenance eating) every 12 weeks or so throughout the duration of their weight loss journey in order to prevent it from re-occurring.

So the weight will fluctuate, but you have to ride it out until it stabilizes, or at least a month or two, so that when you lower cals again, you will begin losing.

Also, if you've always fluctuated 2 lbs or so, then that is just your natural trend. Maintenance still involves fluctuation. You never actually stand completely still.

Here are some links that you may want to check out:
http://www.leighpeele.com/lose-8-gain-8-the-diet-stand-still
http://www.leighpeele.com/diet-break-plan

Also, the author of the the above blog, Leigh Peele, has a book called the Metabolism Repair Manual. You may want to look into it, as she goes in to much more detail than I have here.

Bump bc this is awesome!

The Metabolism Repair Manual isn't out anymore...she's rewriting it. Checked the site. Boo. It should be out in a few months.

Thanks for letting me know. Bummer. I read the original years ago when I did one, and it was awesome. I'm sure the next one will be well worth the wait.

But the gist of it is pretty much what we discuss here: eat at maintenance, raise metabolism, stick it out til you stabilize, then resume deficit, vowing to your body to never starve it again, lol.

Obviously, she uses a few more words than that, lol. :blushing: But then again, I'm not being paid to write e-books on the topic, ROFL.

Kiki

Hey, if anyone's interested, there's a group about this metabolism stuff here:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/4455-metabolism-repair-mode

Hey, if anyone's interested, there's a group about this metabolism stuff here:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/4455-metabolism-repair-mode

I just saw that! What an awesome idea for those that are in it for the long haul. It helps to have others going through it as well. There was a thread on bodybuilding.com a while back where a group of ladies went through it together. Makes for a very interesting read if anyone wants to see how the process plays out, and the emotions felt along the way. I'd highly recommend anyone going through the process to bookmark the thread and take time reading it through. Much easier to equip yourselves for the journey

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=135324371&highlight=metabolism+repair

Thanks!! I'm going to check this out.

I have received this question quite a few times so hopefully this will help (ofcourse please plug in your own numbers).

Let's say your TDEE is 2300 then you subtract 15% so that you now have your cut value of 1955.

Let's say your BMR is 1500.

Ok, so now you know the numbers, I suggest you then go into MFP Goal custom settings and change daily calorie goal to 1955, carbs 40, prot 30, fat 30, and fiber 30.

So, this takes into account your exercise so you shouldn't have to eat back any extra calories UNLESS (as in this example 1955-1500= 455) you burn over 455 calories. If you burn lets say 655 calories then you would need 200 extra calories on top of the 1955 to NET BMR.

If you make that change to your MFP goals then you can input your exercise and on your homepage of MFP it will show you where you stand with your NET calories...as long as it is higher than your BMR on that workout day you are good to go...if not, then eat calories until you at least NET your BMR.

I just want to make sure I am understanding this correctly. With your calcs by BMR is 1,414, with moderate exercise (i work out 5-6 times a week. 3 days NROLFW & 3 Cardio) my TDEE is 2192 and TDEE-15% is 1,863. Should I eat 1,863 everyday unless I burn more than 449 during a workout then I would eat the extra I burned.. even on days I don't work out? If I wanted to just eat back my exercise calories vs looking at the NET figure on MFP would I use my daily goal as 1,414? I'm currently at 1400 and due to NROLFW am going to up it am just having a hard time deciding how far to up it.

Thank you for being so patient with everyone. It's definitely difficult to think eat more = lose weight

Thanks so much for your help!

Ok so I have my TDEE 2039 (using katch mccardle BMR formula, using Harris bene its 2064 do much of a muchness really)

15% cut 1700

Then I realise I forgot to add the 10% in for digestion!' which brings me up to 1900 cals including the 15% cut. How important is it to add this part in?

Back to work today so I need to up this to that moderate lifestyle.

As i said in another post while on holidays i figured i was lghtly active because apart from my workouts i havent done much at all lol
All week I have pretty much eaten around 1500 cals give or take 100 but only reached BMR net value on 1 of those days.
The other days once I added in my exercise burn calories using HRM I netted between 1000 & 1200
It's a learning curve so I need to start looking at my net earlier in the day not before bed!!

Anyhow fri splurged ate 2030 cals netted 1578
Yesterday ate 2612 netted 1943 eeeekkkk
So I figure this should make up somewhat for being under BMR the 4 days.
Mind you that's not why I ate so much I just didn't add all my cals up as I was going then put them in later in the day and freaked!'
Thing is I never used to log my splurge day at all, then after splurge would go
Back to my normal eating.

Now I am wondering today should I be eating less to try and balance out yesterday's splurge?
It really is better not knowing the splurge day cals cause now it's messing with my head!
It's a 12 hour shift and I have only burnt 250 cals through work out so not much at all, mix of sprints push ups, squats, crunches. Work has been fairly quiet and relaxed too, being Sunday and not rushing around helping people get ready by a certain time.

Or should I be aiming to still net my BMR even after the terrible eating over the last two days?!

Sorry for all the questions just when I Think I have my head around it all, something confuses me lol

Holidays are over so Splurge day will be back to once a week ot twice a week and I am going back to not counting cals on
That day and just enjoying it guilt free, then I can just pick up where I left off the next day.
It's worked for me so far over the last 12 months, I never really hit a plateau as such, but I also couldn't ignore the other signs to say I needed more food

Thank you Kiki!!

That makes perfect sense! I just told my partner what you said and he totally agreed as well. Sure for some people they need to log their splurge day to be accountable and thats fine, but for me it defeats the purpose of a splurge day. I reckon if i was to keep logging them I would end up not having them and then having big binges which would be worse.
At least this way i can do the whole i want xxxxxx and know that i can have it on my splurge day if i still want it

I was incredibly tempted yesterday to try and undo the damage by eating only 1200 calories and feeling anxious about how much i had eaten! I had even set out enough food so that i would only eat 1200cals with dinner included when i got home.

I am proud to report that I WAS HUNGRY!!! but more importantly i LISTENED TO MY BODY!! and ate more!!

Once i logged what i ended up eating to feel satisfied, I chose more protein high foods after dinner I ended up netting BMR
I thought that was pretty amazing really!!

So when I read your message this morning it was all like a sign to me that I really was on the right track and i know me and my body and listening to it really is the right thing

Thank you Kiki

So, my cut value is 1799. On my non-workout days (which is 1 day per week), I should eat 1799 and on my workout days (I typically burn around 250-300), I should eat 1799 - whatever # of cals I burn? My BMR is 1430, so chances are slim that I will net below my BMR with my typical schedule. I know that exercise is already included in TDEE so I don't need to eat back my exercise calories, but I'm trying to figure out how to do this on MFP with the net calories at 1799. I don't want MFP to tell me I have extra calories left to eat. I guess I could add my exercise in at the end of the night so it doesn't tell me I have extra calories until I'm done eating for the night.

Ok so quick question. It's probably stupid. But, How often do you change your calorie intake? How many pounds do you lose before you change it?

Ok so quick question. It's probably stupid. But, How often do you change your calorie intake? How many pounds do you lose before you change it?

Not stupid. Change whenever you have a change in your age, activity level, or weight (by 5lbs either direction)