Here's something I read on MFP and it 'clicks' with me better than anything else I've read as far as where to be food-wise in order to lose.
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Actually, I found that the math wasn't really necessary. Calculate your numbers as Olivia outlined (which you already did), and pay attention to a few numbers at the end of the day. Here's how I see your scenario:
First, you go to goals, and list your new calorie goal/day as 1620. Since you set your activity up as sedentary (as I did also, since I have a desk job), you need to enter your exercise for the day into MFP for this to work.
Now the few things to pay attention to: 1) You want to eat at or above your BMR every day, so maybe start with an "eating goal" of 1400/day. This is regardless of how much exercise you did or didn't do. Just memorize 1400, and eat at least that much.
2) Next number that could be important if you exercise a lot on some given day is shown on your daily summary as "=net". At the end of the day, after you have logged your exercise, you want that number to be ABOVE 1000. If it is not, keep eating until it is. A number below 1000 is a too high/not safe deficit.
Now here's the fun part for me: The green number on your daily summary at the end of the day gives you a really good idea of how many calories you "saved" toward weight loss for that day. A green number of 250 would translate to a weight loss of 1/2lb loss/week if you had that number every day. 500 would translate to 1 lb loss/week, etc. If you want to do a weekly avg, you could look at your weekly "calories remaining" and divide by 7.
I think the hardest mindset I had to break on this system is that the words "calories remaining" no longer mean what I can still eat that day, but rather what I have "saved" by not eating to my current maintenance. My deficits are smaller now, but with the built-in safety nets (eat at or a bit above your BMR, and don't let "=net" go below 1000), I no longer worry about whether I am eating too little, exercising too much, etc.
For me this translate to: eat no less than my BMR of 1300 cals/day (yeah, like eating less than that is the problem ), don't eat above 1500 (my maint. cals/day) and make sure my MFP net cals are above 1,000.
I think this is right. I finally figured out my confusion . . . on MFP I had originally put in active as my activity level but that isn't right so I changed it to light but mostly, on the calculator I used to figure my maint cals? I originally put in that I exercise 5x/wk and then added my exercise cals per day on top of that. In other words, it was giving me (with exercise 5x/wk) my maint cals of approx 1850 and I was stupidly adding another 300 to that. I'm so DUH!!!!! So I changed my exercise level to little/no exercise and it dropped my maint cals to 1530. In other words I was dopey enough to be adding in my exercise cals twice.
There are so many different calculators out there and each one gives me a different number. It's quite confusing if you ask me. I'm just really frustrated because the damn scale is just stubbornly refusing to budge below 157 and this is week three of staring at that freakin' number. I'm hoping that since I switched up my exercise again I'll see some change there.
Ok, this is probably dumb but . . . the fat on my stomach and hips (and I carry my weight primarily on the torso vs. hips/butt/thighs. I'm shaped like a persimmon or something rather than a pear) feels looser . . er, softer? hmmm... less compact. Like it got pulverized some and wants to leave mah body. I've probably shrunken those fat cells and they just haven't figured their w(eigh)ay outta mah body yet. Well find it fast, ya little buggers!
Tuesday's Menu Pre-Workout Fuel:1/2 Orowheat Round, 1T Almond Butter,
1/2 Banana, Coffee--Recovery Fuel: Protein Shake: 673
Cottage Cheese w/Strawberry Jam, SBD Lazy Cabbage, grapes: 311
Almonds, 2 Club Crackers, 1 slice wheat bread , chicken salad: 345
Mashed Spuds, Green Beans, Red Snapper : 333
Total: 1662
728 (6 miles)
Water: > 80oz
Since we have the same BMR, let me see if I did the math right on your day here.
Your BMR is 1300. Add to that your exercise cals of 728 to get 2028 cals. Minus actual cals eaten of 1662 and you have a cal deficit of 366. Is that right?
Ugh, so getting a cal deficit of 500/day is only possible doing way more exercise than I have the time or inclination to do. Gaaaaa. Guess I'll have to settle for it all taking longer than I'd planned. Blarg.
Ok I have another question. Again, sorry if I'm highjacking this thread but since it's all related to cals I figure this is a good place to ask?
A person's BMR is just what their body needs to function, bare minimum, just laying around like a slug.
No one does that unless they're sick so . . . how do you figure out how many cals you actually burn on any given day? How do you figure what you're really burning cal-wise? And are you suppose to plug that number into the exercise # on MFP? Running errands, washing windows, preparing meals, going from one end of the building to the other 6 times in a day . . . or does that not really matter so much, just take it as you're getting a bigger deficit than what MFP says you are and go with that?
I was better off without all these numbers floating around in mah mathletically challenged head!
I'm posting my cals before my brain explodes then off to get these little doggies out for a walk. Have a good day all and thx for putting up with my ramblings.
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b: coffee, kashi, 2% milk, strawberries - 385
l: flatbread w/sauce, chicken, veggies, cheese (this was VERY tasty!!) - 420
d: leftover grilled chicken mixed with pasta, lots and lots of sauteed carrots, mushrooms, zucchini and gaaahlic and all of it mixed with Philly Gaaaaahlic Cooking Cream - 500
s: 3 THREE homemade cc cookies (made w/Heath Toffee chips instead of cc) - 300
Total: 1600
According to MFP, I 'netted' 1230 cals for the day. Was planning on eating closer to 1400 to 'net' a lower amount but . . . damn I was hankering for sweets allll afternoon. Ah well. We'll see . . maybe those cookies will spike my body into releasing fat.
Please release me let me go . . . . .
Last edited by loose seal; 03-14-2012 at 07:03 PM.
Seal: I swear....Welcome to my WORLD!!!
Don't ask me about all those #s off MFP. They NEVER correlate to my actual lbs lost!!!
I don't include all the extra running around I do, just formal exercise. Any errands, house cleaning, etc is just an added bonus.
I'm eating whatever the heck I want atm, so don't use my food as a guide. I am trying to eat enough to energize myself to run 5 days a week in 1/2 Mary training.
I think you should consider IF or spiking for a couple of weeks along with switching up your exercise to get off of that 157 mark. Add me to MFP & look at my diary on a week where I spiked, did well thru the week, & lost. Once u add me, i can tell u the precise weeks to look at.
Since we have the same BMR, let me see if I did the math right on your day here.
Your BMR is 1300. Add to that your exercise cals of 728 to get 2028 cals. Minus actual cals eaten of 1662 and you have a cal deficit of 366. Is that right?
Ugh, so getting a cal deficit of 500/day is only possible doing way more exercise than I have the time or inclination to do. Gaaaaa. Guess I'll have to settle for it all taking longer than I'd planned. Blarg.
I think this is correct, but I never sit for very long, so I burned more cals than that if u think about it. Those exercise cals was exclusively from a formal run and a formal k9 walk, but i was on my feet for about 8+ hrs!
Seal: I swear....Welcome to my WORLD!!!
Don't ask me about all those #s off MFP. They NEVER correlate to my actual lbs lost!!!
I don't include all the extra running around I do, just formal exercise. Any errands, house cleaning, etc is just an added bonus.
I'm eating whatever the heck I want atm, so don't use my food as a guide. I am trying to eat enough to energize myself to run 5 days a week in 1/2 Mary training.
I think you should consider IF or spiking for a couple of weeks along with switching up your exercise to get off of that 157 mark. Add me to MFP & look at my diary on a week where I spiked, did well thru the week, & lost. Once u add me, i can tell u the precise weeks to look at.
I know, they give you all these numbers but what goes on with the body never seems to match up! I just figure all the running around, cleaning, etc. stuff is just added burn, added deficit. Movement is movement.
I've kinda been doing IF in the mornings. I'm up at 5:30am and even though I'm often hungry by 7:00-7:30, I won't eat until 9:00. Don't know if that's technically IF but it's what I've been trying to do. I was doing my own version of a spike although at a lower calorie number, around 1800-2000. Then the stall hit and . . .well, and here I am.
I think the biggest reason for my stall is the C25K I've been doing. I think the first 3 weeks or so my body was all like 'oh, this is new. let's shed some lbs' but the past few weeks my body has adjusted to it and is coasting. I just switched things up again this week so we'll see how that goes. I love the Supreme 90 Day type of workouts (it's akin to P90X or Insanity, same idea). . . get in, work hard, build muscle, jack the heart rate, get out so that's what I'm going back to 4 days/wk and doing the C25K the other 2 days.
Just added you at MFP. Thanks again!
And yeah, the numbers are what they are at MFP or any other site.
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Originally Posted by K9Owner
I think this is correct, but I never sit for very long, so I burned more cals than that if u think about it. Those exercise cals was exclusively from a formal run and a formal k9 walk, but i was on my feet for about 8+ hrs!
I've kinda been doing IF in the mornings. I'm up at 5:30am and even though I'm often hungry by 7:00-7:30, I won't eat until 9:00. Don't know if that's technically IF but it's what I've been trying to do. I was doing my own version of a spike although at a lower calorie number, around 1800-2000.
IF is not this exactly. 2 other friends and I are attempting to toy with this a bit & it is working on so many levels. They can do it more days a week, b/c they are not 1/2 Mary training like I am.
Basically, you pick a day or 2 or 3 of the week you want to fast.
You fast for 16-24 hrs, then you eat in a 4-6hr window all of your cals for the day.
So, tomorrow, I am going to attempt at least a 16hr fast. I will stop eating at 1am Thurs morning and not eat again until 5pm Thurs evening. I work Thurs night and will sleep some of this time, so I'm hoping not to have any issues with it. Kristiina and Jo are shooting for a 24hr fast. They will save all their cals for a window somewhere between 5pm & 9pm--whatever time they eat dinner tonight
IF is not this exactly. 2 other friends and I are attempting to toy with this a bit & it is working on so many levels. They can do it more days a week, b/c they are not 1/2 Mary training like I am.
Basically, you pick a day or 2 or 3 of the week you want to fast.
You fast for 16-24 hrs, then you eat in a 4-6hr window all of your cals for the day.
So, tomorrow, I am going to attempt at least a 16hr fast. I will stop eating at 1am Thurs morning and not eat again until 5pm Thurs evening. I work Thurs night and will sleep some of this time, so I'm hoping not to have any issues with it. Kristiina and Jo are shooting for a 24hr fast. They will save all their cals for a window somewhere between 5pm & 9pm--whatever time they eat dinner tonight
That's IF? There's no way I want to or would be able to go 16 hours w/out eating. Even if I was asleep for half of it. I thought it was just postponing your first meal for several hours beyond when you might normally eat or be hungry. Looks like I was way off base with that one. lol I wish you luck doing it, though!
3/14 was 1724 in calories.....wasn't SUPPOSED to be but dh decided to get pizza and I did good, but well, it is calories!! I DID have 400 calories burned off last night with exercise, so IF I DID subtract that was 1324....but I was not paying attention to exercise calories
we'll see how today ends, I had my bad breakfast......I am so mad with myself, but goodness it is good and filling til afternoon
having a 30min walk and d7/l1 of 30 DS tonight.....
b: oatmeal with walnuts: 230
s: granola bar: 140, carrots(with dip): 95
unplanned: 1/2 muffin and coffee:300
d: bagel: 270, cream cheese: 150, soup: 120
straw berries: 30
total: 1335.... I had the worst day today. i hate food. (two unrelated things). thought skipping lunch was a good idea, it actually made me ill and now i feel horrible.
Last edited by summerlove; 03-16-2012 at 11:36 AM.
I'm considering not using MFP right now. Don't quite know yet. Do not like this whole 'net calories' thingy . . . it's just messing wit me head. Plus I don't know how to log half of my exercise cals because I have no idea how to log a 30 min. dvd that incorporates weights, cardio and whole body workouts.
I'm considering not using MFP right now. Don't quite know yet. Do not like this whole 'net calories' thingy . . . it's just messing wit me head. Plus I don't know how to log half of my exercise cals because I have no idea how to log a 30 min. dvd that incorporates weights, cardio and whole body workouts.
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Get a fitbit or a Polar & just be done with miscalculating
b: oatmeal with walnuts: 230
unplanned: bag of chips: 320 ($%^#!)
s: granola bar: 140, strawberries: 60
l: frozen meal: 290
s: rice crispy square:90
I'm at 1150 so far and going out with my friends for dinner..$%!^!! No idea what I'll eat, really dont want to go overboard with my calories as I've been doing so well.
Last edited by summerlove; 03-16-2012 at 05:48 PM.
), don't eat above 1500 (my maint. cals/day) and make sure my MFP net cals are above 1,000.
, chicken salad: 345
: 333
728 (6 miles) 
Have a good day all and thx for putting up with my ramblings.
