SusanMFindlay Member

The activity level doesn't include any exercise that you will log separately. So, if you're not on your feet much outside of workouts, sedentary would be a better choice. But then please actually eat the recommended calories and don't "self-adjust". You're much taller than the average woman, so the numbers that women's…

The way I see it, you have three choices:* Set yourself to "active" and don't log any additional exercise. (I'm assuming your 13,000-15,000 steps includes steps taken when working out. If not, you're likely "very active" if you don't log any additional exercise.) * Calculate the number of steps you take when you're *not*…

Yes, it does. That's how I first figured out that MFP's calorie recommendation was really really wrong for me. I looked at a month's data (so as to avoid the impact of TOM-related water retention), calculated my average calorie intake, calculated my deficit (if I lost 8 pounds in 4 weeks, I had a 1000 cal/day deficit),…

I use a ramekin for ice cream. Then a half-cup serving is positively overflowing out of the "bowl". Psychology for the win! :smiley:

Does your FitBit have a heartrate monitor? If not, it's just a pedometer so all it can recognize are step-based activities. If it does have a heartrate monitor, you may be getting credited for calories burned (due to elevated heartrate) despite the fact that it's not showing that as an official "activity". If you really…

It's also worth noting that if you have a lot of calories left at the end of the day because you were more active than usual, there's no rule that says you have to eat them on that same day. If you're not hungry and would prefer to save them for the next day (when you might be hungrier) or a special event a couple of days…

The original poster said *nothing* about starvation mode. He said he increased his food intake and that helped him lose weight. Another poster agreed that they'd had the same experience. *You* are the one who brought "starvation mode" into the conversation and basically told him that his experience was invalid. I get that…

No. The larger your deficit, the more weight you will lose. That is not the same thing. For many people, eating less leads them to move less and therefore burn fewer calories. For those people, eating enough to increase their activity level can actually increase their deficit and lead to increased weight loss (as long as…

Not doable in Alberta, Canada. Fresh fruit and vegetables cost an arm and a leg here (though not nearly as bad as if we lived in Alaska or somewhere remote like that).

It also depends on where you live. When I read Americans post things like $5 for a rotisserie chicken or $1 for a dozen eggs or sub-$1 prices for vegetables that would cost me three times as much, I have to wonder if they realize how lucky they are to have such inexpensive food. Our monthly groceries are definitely over…

Milk shakes. Over 1000 calories for a drink?!?! Similarly, Blizzards. Can't believe I used to have "large" ones when I was a teenager.

I have to start by asking exactly what you mean by a "binge"? Different people use the word differently. Are we talking a pint of ice cream? Or eating half the fridge? Have you tried regular snacks - making sure to incorporate some fat and protein into them? Things like an apple with an ounce or two of cheese? Or nuts and…

That works! I call it the "not sitting on my butt" zone. I try to be in it several hours a day so that I'm getting a good amount of NEAT. So, I like that Fitbit shows me my time in each zone for the day, but not for the reason they think. :smile:

Technically, it still burns more calories of fat; it's just that a lower percentage of the calories burned come from fat. (Lower percentage of a bigger total can still be a bigger number.) So, it sucks that the media misrepresents it.

I suspect you may be retaining water from the change in routine. It's unlikely that you're actually building muscle when eating in a deficit with walking as your exercise (unless there's a lot of hill/stair climbing involved and, even then, it wouldn't be more than a pound or two). But when your muscles are newly stressed,…

To answer the original question: Bread. I could eat so many calories of bread in one sitting if I'm not careful. While I do have toast for breakfast every weekday, it's heavily portion controlled, and I try to make things like fresh artisan bread an occasional treat. Cereal. I love muesli and granola, but I can rarely…

I typically have 2-3 bites of "the whole thing" then pick up a knife and fork and eat the rest bunless (which has the added benefit of eliminating as much of the mayo/sauce as sticks to the bun). I don't really like the idea of leftover burger, so I'd rather focus on the yummy middle part. If I don't finish it, no big…

Interesting. I find fast food much easier to do on a calorie budget than sit down restaurant food. The key is to get the "small" of everything (and get diet soda or water to drink). I can get a fast food burger for about 400 calories, but a sit down restaurant burger is going to be 800 calories minimum because of the huge…

With that, I wholeheartedly agree!

It's very common to lose a little extra the first couple of weeks - particularly if you're changing the types of food you eat (less salt and sugar, particularly) as well as how much. The "extra" is likely water weight. If you continue to lose weight at 2 pounds/week for more than a month, you should consider raising your…

The look on the cover of "every magazine" is unachievable by design. It's intended to make women feel bad about their bodies so that they'll buy the products advertised in the magazine so that the magazine makes money. The reason it's unachievable is that it's photoshopped. For the record, the distance runner (who looks…

If you're not tall and have neither broad shoulders nor long torso, this is the case. People who "belong" in the lower half of the BMI range have a lot of leeway for extra weight. Unfortunately, they tend to assume that's true for everyone else and it isn't. Height matters because of a flaw in how BMI is calculated. It…

I lose on 2300. That's more than MFP gives me (but consistent with my planned rate of weight loss and Fitbit burns). Your calorie goal will depend very much on your stats - height, weight and activity level most of all; age and gender a bit. At 250 pounds, you can most certainly lose weight eating more than 1200. 1200 is…

Are you logging the flavouring? It has calories so should be logged (particularly if you're having more than 2-3 packets per day). Outside of that, flavoured water is still water as far as hydration is concerned.

I don't know that we can say that. I don't remember seeing her stats. If she was averaging 1250 cals/day *total*, I'd agree. But she's averaging 1250 cals/day *net* - which means she eats that *plus* all her exercise calories. And since we don't know the exact numbers on those exercise calories, we just can't know. What we…

This. Also, make sure you are consuming enough protein. Since you're already at a good weight, a typical recommendation would be 0.8 g protein per pound of your weight.

If you have the kind of vacation where you're walking around cool places all day? Easily! It's difficult* to out-eat that sort of increase in physical activity. *Difficult. Not impossible. Large amounts of alcohol would likely make it easier.

Aggressive or accidental. I had 50 pounds to lose. I set myself up to lose 1 pound/week but was dramatically underestimating my activity level (because the descriptions here are horrible for anyone with an active life) so lost 30 pounds in 3 months before I was able to figure out the right intake to slow my loss to 1…

Sharing is one of my best "I still want to eat yummy high-cal treats" strategies.

Paying attention to what and how much I eat. Nothing is off limits, but I have to acknowledge the calorie count so that I can make it fit. Increasing my activity level by walking more. Walking doesn't tend to increase my appetite unless it's hard core hill climbing. My body seems to generally want to eat a particular…