nrheasley Member

Do you take a certain percentage off when you count back calories burned? I know heart rate monitors aren't 100% accurate.

I have. I'm super stuck. I've been eating 1200 calories a day plus exercising, then I realized that's really stupid and not going to help. So I'm trying to figure out what to go up to.

Found it! I liked her suggestion of so many calories per pound. I've been playing with TDEE, but I think my numbers are too high.

The sexypants post is always helpful! :)

What about meals I don't prepare myself? I've always had a hard time with this one. It doesn't happen often enough that it hurts my progress (at least, I don't think it does--maybe once a week I'll have a meal I don't know how to enter, if that). But I'd like to be stricter about my logging.

Love the last one, haha! Thanks :)

Thanks everyone!

Thanks for the advice! This week's test will be breaded ranch chicken...only about 200 calories! Yay for allrecipes! I'll definitely check out Skinny Taste and Cooking Light, too :)

Thanks, everyone! I will give both of these a try :)

I know MFP lets you do this, but I don't like entering the recipe until I've actually bought the ingredients. You don't know how much your chicken breast weighs or what brand of teriyaki you're using until you've bought it, and I don't want to go out and buy ingredients and then enter them and find out it's an 800-calorie…

5 minute warm-up/cool-down walk, 30-45 mins on either the elliptical, stairs, or treadmill, and 2-3 different strength machines (5 sets of 8 reps as I just began doing weight training. I plan to increase this. In fact, I'd like to eventually switch to alternating between cardio and weights each day as opposed to doing both…

I'm working on the measuring thing. Relying more on the scale and less on measuring cups (or trying to). Already on my 6th refill of my Britta waterbottle. What do you mean by calorie cycling/zig-zag dieting?

I already have a food scale, so my NSV for the week is going to be working on more accurate measuring. I know 2100 is most likely too high, but I tried out several different TDEE calculators and that was my result on the higher end. If I have a gain/no loss on Friday or Saturday, I'll knock it down. But I feel SO MUCH…

Since commenting on this post, I've actually decided to go by my TDEE, which already takes exercise into account. So now I don't have to worry about exercise calories!

I think I need to invest in a body fat scale and possibly an electronic food scale. Maybe a FitBit or something eventually, too! I think I am going to up my calories to 2100, stop eating back exercise calories, and see how that works out for me. I also upped my goal weight to 120.

1370 would definitely be easier than 1200. I'm also wondering if 96 lbs is too much--I didn't know how to choose a goal weight, either! I feel so lost on the whole weight loss thing sometimes. Every time I think I'm on the right path, I hear or read something that makes me change my mind =/

I've tried a few different TDEE calculators. But the numbers are all different. They're all saying I need to eat more--I'm just not sure how much more. Perhaps aim for the high end and adjust down from there if necessary? On the higher end, I'm getting results of about 2100 per day, and on the low end, about 1500 (and 1370…

I'm 5' 2" and 133.5. I had my goal weight at 96 pounds.

I had my goals at 2 lbs per week, which gave me an allowance of 1200. 1 lb also gave me 1200. 1/2 gave me 1370. Does that sound too low? I do have a food scale. I didn't realize there was that big of a difference between using measuring cups and weighing. I will start weighing from now on!

If you eat them back and gain or don't have a loss, try knocking off a certain percentage-maybe start out by eating back 95% and leaving the other 5% out. Same results next week, bump that up to 10%. Just a suggestion!

I checked out your profile and fit2fatradio.com. Did you use their calculators to determine your calorie goals? I am not sure what my goal weight is (I have done a little bit of research, but the range was so wide, it wasn't very helpful), so I don't know how to eat at the calorie level for my goal weight.

I will try that! I also take measurements, but they have also been disappointing

I measure EVERYTHING. I'm confident my food tracking is fairly accurate. I tried not eating my exercise calories back, too. Didn't help. However, I do knock it down about 10% to account for error. I may up that to 15. Its been about 2 weeks since my period ended, so I can't blame that anymore.

I'm already eating at 1200 calories, so I can't really go down anymore. I do plan to start knocking more off my exercise calories--about 10% to make up for any error. I wasn't eating back my exercise calories for a while. I think that may have been part of the problem.

I used my HRM (Polar FT4) during a 45 minute interval run and 45 minutes of strength training exercises (several sets of lunges, squats, burpees, and mountain climbers) earlier today, and it told me I burned 641 calories. I thought that sounded a bit high and posted about it, and I was told the same thing--that HRM's…

Thank you for the info! So how would you recommend I track calorie burn during my workouts?

Can you explain that a little better? Which exercises would you not use a HRM for?

I am NO expert, but here's what I've learned so far: Logging it all and realizing how much you're eating is the first step. That was what got me started--the realization. The second was to set small goals--my normal intake averaged 1800 calories a day. So I set a goal of 1750. A week or so later, 1700. And so on and so…

My first monitor was a cheap-o from Walmart. It was $12 and didn't last long, maybe a few months. I decided that I'd rather invest in something good than keep buying crap, so I did some research and decided on a Polar FT4. Like you, I decided I did not need all the bells and whistles. It is waterproof and has no syncing…

Do you just estimate amounts/serving sizes?