Help estimating activity level
calypso11
Posts: 24 Member
I have been reading the EMTLW forums like a mad woman for two weeks now attempting to reconfigure my thinking towards weight loss and change my eating and work out habits. At my heaviest in life, about three years ago, I weighed 145 (at 5'4). This time last year I was around 136-140. I graduated from college, got a job, started eating less than I did at school, and seemingly without trying (if only, right?), got down to 118 by December 2011.
This is where things started to head south for me. I started to get a little obsessive about food and calorie counting, whereas before I had been much more relaxed and only tried to make healthy choices/limit portions instead of counting calories. I started to count calories on my own using labels, and based everything on the freedieting.com calculator that said I needed to eat about 1250 to lose weight. I STILL wanted to lose weight at this time because even though the numbers were down, I still felt VERY round (my lower half especially). Keep in mind that strength training didn’t even occur to me then. At the time I was not working out and I have a desk job, otherwise I would have factored that into the freedieting.com activity level. I definitely did not eat only 1250 a day (probably more like 1400+, but I have no clue because I wasn’t tracking very well and underestimated a lot) and got down to 114 pounds.
Then I hit a plateau. I stayed at 114 and nothing changed for over a month. I realize now that this was FINE, but I was way too caught up in the losing mindset to realize this. I decided I need to be more vigilant about calorie counting AND start working out. So at the end of March, I started running 3x a week for a Couch-to-5K program AND started a Jillian Michaels DVD rotation for the three other days (one rest day). Two of the JM workouts ended up at 25 minutes and the other at 40 minutes (excluding warm-ups/cool downs), so between that and the running, I felt like I was getting some good exercise in but not overdoing it (I still don’t think I’m doing as much cardio as some people on here, but feel free to correct me!). I also joined MFP, which put me at 1350 a day. Logging back exercise cals I could usually get up to 1500-1550, but two or three days a week I typically went over that.
Nothing happened for a month while doing this, even though I got a stronger/better at running. My weight stayed the same, fluctuating a pound or so a day.
Then my nightmare happened. One day I woke up, and the scale read TWO pounds heavier than before. This was unheard of. I figured it was a one day thing. It wasn’t. It stayed the same the next day, and the next, and the next. In fact, whereas before my weight was fluctuating, this time it wasn’t moving at all. Looking back now I can only guess that I gained muscle here, because I don’t think I had hardly ANY muscle before working out considering how little I weighed.
Anyway, my initial flip out over this led to lots of Google searching, which led me here. I realized for all the working out I was doing, I probably wasn’t eating enough, and when I was (on the days I was going over), it wasn’t consistent enough to make a difference. I went and did all the calculators, and upped my calories to a consistent 1700 a day (not eating back exercise cals). Not 1700 one day, 1300 the next, and then 1500 (for example). This was a little less than two weeks ago. I’m now another two pounds up and trying not to flip out again.
SO the reason I’m here is to get some help figuring out where I should set my activity level, so hopefully one of you can chime in and give some input
.
After using what seemed like a hundred different BMR/TDEE calculators (including fat2fit), I settled on Scooby’s workshop because I liked how it gave hours instead of days for activity level. Here are my stats:
CW: 118
H: 5’4
Age: 21
BF% (estimate from Fat2Fit): 24%
Waist: 25
R&L Thigh: 20
Hips: 37
BMR: 1359 (Harris), 1244 (Katch)
What my TDEE should be is where I get tripped up. I really don’t think like I’m overdoing it too much on the cardio. I’m doing the exact same exercise routine I mentioned earlier in the post, which puts me at roughly 3 hours of exercise a week, averaging about 150 calories burned. That puts at right in the middle of the 1-3, 3-5 hours a week of exercise Scooby gives as options. I want my BF% to be lower, which I know I need to do strength for and I am hopefully going to be getting in at least two days worth of strength soon once we get a gym membership (although the JM DVDs do incorporate some strength IMO). My question is do you think I should set my calorie level to the low activity or the moderate, or somewhere in between? I’m guessing in between (and that is where I’m eating as of right now), but I did this all wrong for so long it’s hard to trust my own judgment anymore! I want to eat enough calories to fuel my body. I also want to lower my body fat, but I'm not sure I really want to get really deep into weight lifting/bulking, etc. I do NOT do well trying to get to the gym and I don't have the space for gym equipment in my small apartment, so committing hardcore to something like NRWLFW may not be possible for me.
Thanks in advance! Just reading these forums has taught me so much, and even though the scale is higher, I feel much more freedom and have so much more energy then I did when I was obsessing over 1350 calories. Unfortunately I don't remember my measurements from before (I forgot to write them down about a month and a half ago
) but as far as I can tell I don't think I've gotten any bigger.
This is where things started to head south for me. I started to get a little obsessive about food and calorie counting, whereas before I had been much more relaxed and only tried to make healthy choices/limit portions instead of counting calories. I started to count calories on my own using labels, and based everything on the freedieting.com calculator that said I needed to eat about 1250 to lose weight. I STILL wanted to lose weight at this time because even though the numbers were down, I still felt VERY round (my lower half especially). Keep in mind that strength training didn’t even occur to me then. At the time I was not working out and I have a desk job, otherwise I would have factored that into the freedieting.com activity level. I definitely did not eat only 1250 a day (probably more like 1400+, but I have no clue because I wasn’t tracking very well and underestimated a lot) and got down to 114 pounds.
Then I hit a plateau. I stayed at 114 and nothing changed for over a month. I realize now that this was FINE, but I was way too caught up in the losing mindset to realize this. I decided I need to be more vigilant about calorie counting AND start working out. So at the end of March, I started running 3x a week for a Couch-to-5K program AND started a Jillian Michaels DVD rotation for the three other days (one rest day). Two of the JM workouts ended up at 25 minutes and the other at 40 minutes (excluding warm-ups/cool downs), so between that and the running, I felt like I was getting some good exercise in but not overdoing it (I still don’t think I’m doing as much cardio as some people on here, but feel free to correct me!). I also joined MFP, which put me at 1350 a day. Logging back exercise cals I could usually get up to 1500-1550, but two or three days a week I typically went over that.
Nothing happened for a month while doing this, even though I got a stronger/better at running. My weight stayed the same, fluctuating a pound or so a day.
Then my nightmare happened. One day I woke up, and the scale read TWO pounds heavier than before. This was unheard of. I figured it was a one day thing. It wasn’t. It stayed the same the next day, and the next, and the next. In fact, whereas before my weight was fluctuating, this time it wasn’t moving at all. Looking back now I can only guess that I gained muscle here, because I don’t think I had hardly ANY muscle before working out considering how little I weighed.
Anyway, my initial flip out over this led to lots of Google searching, which led me here. I realized for all the working out I was doing, I probably wasn’t eating enough, and when I was (on the days I was going over), it wasn’t consistent enough to make a difference. I went and did all the calculators, and upped my calories to a consistent 1700 a day (not eating back exercise cals). Not 1700 one day, 1300 the next, and then 1500 (for example). This was a little less than two weeks ago. I’m now another two pounds up and trying not to flip out again.
SO the reason I’m here is to get some help figuring out where I should set my activity level, so hopefully one of you can chime in and give some input
.After using what seemed like a hundred different BMR/TDEE calculators (including fat2fit), I settled on Scooby’s workshop because I liked how it gave hours instead of days for activity level. Here are my stats:
CW: 118
H: 5’4
Age: 21
BF% (estimate from Fat2Fit): 24%
Waist: 25
R&L Thigh: 20
Hips: 37
BMR: 1359 (Harris), 1244 (Katch)
What my TDEE should be is where I get tripped up. I really don’t think like I’m overdoing it too much on the cardio. I’m doing the exact same exercise routine I mentioned earlier in the post, which puts me at roughly 3 hours of exercise a week, averaging about 150 calories burned. That puts at right in the middle of the 1-3, 3-5 hours a week of exercise Scooby gives as options. I want my BF% to be lower, which I know I need to do strength for and I am hopefully going to be getting in at least two days worth of strength soon once we get a gym membership (although the JM DVDs do incorporate some strength IMO). My question is do you think I should set my calorie level to the low activity or the moderate, or somewhere in between? I’m guessing in between (and that is where I’m eating as of right now), but I did this all wrong for so long it’s hard to trust my own judgment anymore! I want to eat enough calories to fuel my body. I also want to lower my body fat, but I'm not sure I really want to get really deep into weight lifting/bulking, etc. I do NOT do well trying to get to the gym and I don't have the space for gym equipment in my small apartment, so committing hardcore to something like NRWLFW may not be possible for me.
Thanks in advance! Just reading these forums has taught me so much, and even though the scale is higher, I feel much more freedom and have so much more energy then I did when I was obsessing over 1350 calories. Unfortunately I don't remember my measurements from before (I forgot to write them down about a month and a half ago
) but as far as I can tell I don't think I've gotten any bigger. 0
Replies
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I find that many of the people that a at goal or close to or should be at goal... tend to want to lose more because they don't quite "look" how they want to look. When you lose weight low caling, you lose muscle mass and the fatty sheath is just there. So you think you need to lose more and more weight. Not so. The problem is you don't have the "toned" look. The reason for that is too much cardio and too little strength training. Lifting weights builds lean muscle mass, tones muscles, helps to burn off the fat, and revvs up the metabolism to burn higher.
Your weight is pretty low, if there is any way at all (and I am telling you what I would do if I were in your shoes)...I would start eating my TDEE and weight train 3 times a week. If there isn't a way to get past not caring for the gym, then I suggest finding some strength training program that you can do at home.0 -
I find that many of the people that a at goal or close to or should be at goal... tend to want to lose more because they don't quite "look" how they want to look. When you lose weight low caling, you lose muscle mass and the fatty sheath is just there. So you think you need to lose more and more weight. Not so. The problem is you don't have the "toned" look. The reason for that is too much cardio and too little strength training. Lifting weights builds lean muscle mass, tones muscles, helps to burn off the fat, and revvs up the metabolism to burn higher.
Your weight is pretty low, if there is any way at all (and I am telling you what I would do if I were in your shoes)...I would start eating my TDEE and weight train 3 times a week. If there isn't a way to get past not caring for the gym, then I suggest finding some strength training program that you can do at home.
Oh, moderate.0 -
I find that many of the people that a at goal or close to or should be at goal... tend to want to lose more because they don't quite "look" how they want to look. When you lose weight low caling, you lose muscle mass and the fatty sheath is just there. So you think you need to lose more and more weight. Not so. The problem is you don't have the "toned" look. The reason for that is too much cardio and too little strength training. Lifting weights builds lean muscle mass, tones muscles, helps to burn off the fat, and revvs up the metabolism to burn higher.
Your weight is pretty low, if there is any way at all (and I am telling you what I would do if I were in your shoes)...I would start eating my TDEE and weight train 3 times a week. If there isn't a way to get past not caring for the gym, then I suggest finding some strength training program that you can do at home.
Oh, moderate.
I'm assuming you mean eating TDEE at moderate activity?
Thanks so much for your reply. I definitely agree with you. I was so hyper focused on calories/the scale that I didn't stop to think about what toning would do for the parts of my body that still looked flabby.
My husband and I are going to look at a gym Monday to see if it is going to be possible for us. It seems like all the strength programs discussed on MFP are very difficult to accomplish at home without a great deal of equipment, which we don't have the room for. Any advice on where to find strength training at home resources?0
