I think we would need to know how many calories you burn per workout to determine if you are doing moderate or strenuous work.

I have mine at moderate, I work out about 10 hours per week but I rarely raise my heart rate by very much or sweat at all (unless it's a very humid Florida afternoon). That's how I have determined that my workouts aren't strenuous.

Jenn ....how much u eating now? Bouncing up/down same pounds is commonly a classic sign of a stall. For me, I had to up calories to get unstuck. And , u may need to look tperhaps u r exercising too much. Maybe back down to 5 days, 2 days of rest. I'd choose moderate. Moderate TDEE, pull back on a bit of exercise. 10 -15% cut from TDEE . How many cals would that be up for you?? I'd try this for a month .

I think we would need to know how many calories you burn per workout to determine if you are doing moderate or strenuous work.

I have mine at moderate, I work out about 10 hours per week but I rarely raise my heart rate by very much or sweat at all (unless it's a very humid Florida afternoon). That's how I have determined that my workouts aren't strenuous.

i usually do cardio for an hour at a time- i was doing 7 days a week originally, then went down to 6 days with two days of about 45 minutes, and this week will be my first week trying 5 days of an hour at a time. but the burns i get on the machine when i do an hour can be upward of 800- and yesterday, doing 40 minutes on the arc trainer had me at 584. what do you think the calorie level is to decide moderate vs strenuous? if i burn 840 cals doing an hour of cardio, x5 that's over 4000 burn... is the '5-6 hours of strenuous activity' level accurate?

Hi Jenn,
I think you would be an excellent candidate for a metabolism reset for about 6-8 weeks. Hope saying that doesnt freak you out too much, but I really think it could be a good thing to kind of reset things for you. Watching your workouts, I'd say you fall into the very active category, but I would always say round up instead of round down. If the numbers really freak you out, I think you could average the moderate and very active levels and be just fine.

My metabolism reset has been going great and I'm confident that positive changes are around the corner. I came to this decision because I was stalling too. Keep me posted on what you decide!

Becca:)

@DaysFlyBy: LOL. This guessing of level seems to be driving everyone crazy and yet when we get gadgets, they all say the same thing we got for free on calculators such as scooby. But somehow, seeing a gadget that seems tailored to us and which gives us the number seems to give us more confidence. I think it is good to remember that even the gadget use formulas that are averaged over different users and do well under different conditions. (Fitbit not good for high intensity weight training, BodyMedia doesn't see spinning as the activity that it is). HRMs seem to be pretty good because you heart rate goes up with exertion, no matter what the exercise. Weight training gives a slightly lower burn but if you really push the weights, it will go up.

I guess the point for a lot of us is that none of these details matter if we haven't been consistent, because if you haven't been consistent then it's hard to monitor progress and to know if you need to change something.

If I am correct by the way, Kiki doesn't even have an HRM.

I do want to say though that I like my fitbit because it encourages me to move more (trying to walk 10,000 steps everyday) and I really like having an HRM because I like to see where my heart rate is, especially on the high intensity work. Sometimes, I won't start up again unless my heart rate has recovered a bit so it comes in handy for that.

@Jenn, by the way, I don't know if this is your case, but I like to have a full belly. It seems to prevent binging some. So I have been bulking my meals with a lot more green vegetables. Maybe at menopause my hormones will level and all will fall into place. Only 10 years or so to go. :laugh:

@Becca: I have been following what you are doing. I am still too chicken :sad: but I think that's what I need to do as well.

Based on moderate activity, I came up with 1736 calories for your TDEE goal on scooby.
Im gonna venture a guess here though, and say you are a little more active than moderate. Would you say you are working out more than 5 hours per week? If you are, you need to bump your activity level up to very active (dont let the name trip you up) which gives you 1932 calories. I would say you probably fall somewhere in between those categories, so it may not be a bad idea to average those two numbers.

@Phoenix59. Your numbers look right to me for a reset. depending on the type of Hiit and weight training, your exercise might be in between moderate and a little higher (because of the Hiit and weights). Are you doing 3x total for weights and Hiit or 3x each. If it's three times each, you can bump up your activity level or take out one of the Hiits and replace with walking or low intensity. Make sure you eat as nutritious as possible and get enough protein in your diet to recover from all the exercise. Good luck.

Thank you for your help!

I do 3 of each (heavy weights first, then HIIT) on the same day (Mon-Wed-Fri) and run the 2-3 miles on Tues-Thurs. I do eat as clean as possible (most of the time), but my diary's open and if there's anything I should tweak, please let me know.