Calories In vs Calories Out

[Kimmi78]

Question for my new friends .... Purchased Flex 2 weeks ago and I love it.... I went from walking approximately 3000 steps per day to walking an average of 10,000 per day.  I also this week incorporated some sit ups and squats.  Ive done zumba once as well and plan to return.

here is my question.  I am looking to lose 60 lbs.  I am 5'1 and currently 192.3 lbs.  I am female and 37 years old.  I sync with My Fitness Pal for logging my foods.

I only use the flex to monitor steps.  I do not add any extra activity manually.  Steps only.  With this being said,  my average calorie output is 2300-2500 calories per day.  I eat on average 1200-1350 per day.   Is this enough ?

If I dont log the squats and the crunches and the zumba,  what if my calorie output is more than it states and I am not eating enough ?

When talking calorie deficits,  are we considering the extra calories that are not being logged correctly ?

When walking on the treadmill,  i walk with an incline and im sure that burns more calories than my flex is telling me as its only monitoring my steps.  

I was advised by using a formula that my TEE or the calories i need to maintain is 2225 per day. 

Any help for weight loss is great.   Should I be eating more than the 1350 i set for my goal intake if i am burning on average 2300-2500 calories per day (according to flex) ? and on those days I am kicking ass and burning 2600 to 3000 calories,  should i be eating more ?

Thank you for your help !!

Kim

[cbwerner]

I'm in a similar spot to you, just a bit further down the path. I'm male, 52, last summer over 300 lbs.. I'm down to 213 lbs at this point, and have obsessed about your question every step of the way. lol

Here are a couple of thoughts for you based on my experience.

1. First off, never forget that Calories In vs Out are nothing more than estimates. Depending on how meticulous you are you can get good reasonably good precision on the in side, but the out side will always subject to sonme guess work. The key is to use that information to reach some personal guidelines along the lines of "when my numbers with this consistent approach show that my calorie deficit is X, then I get results of Y". They are not absolutes - just tools that are helpful when applied and measured consistently. I invested in a chest strap heart rate meter and apps, and now have the Surge so that I could get better data like for your inclines, but it's still just a guide, and I want the out side to estimate low.

2. Most things I've read recommend sticking to a caloric deficit of 500-1000. I've been doing more like 1500, but that's been pushing it, plus I know from my wife's experience alongside me that the math is harder for a woman. Frankly, at the end of the day, I think the determining factor of how many calories to eat is largely a psychological question - are you miserable at your intake level, how patient are you with the weight loss taking time, is the effort to maintain at the low intake level going to hurt efforts to stick with it? things like that. I personally have spent a lot of time engineering recipes at home to maximize the things I enjoy eating while squeezing out as many calories as I can without making myself feel shortchanged.

3. Don't obsess about the daily measurements - they're important, but your success will be a consistent series of small steps with occasional "setbacks". My wife and I have even on occasion planned in some setbacks - weekends out of town and such where calorie counting didn't happen much - for fun and sanity, and it just helps us stick with the overall plan. It's a marathon, not a sprint, and the "split times" aren't important at the end of the day.

So back to your specific question of are you eating enough. With maintenance calories of 2225 and consumption in the 1200's, the "guideline math" would suggest an average weight loss of just under 2 lbs a week. If you eat more, you will go slower. But better to go slow than not finish the race. For my part, I realized at one point that some of my eating was just to fill up a predetermined quota, so I stopped that part.

Unless you are starving your body to the point you're getting some metabolic shutdown (which I have done in the past and is not fun), then you just need to make a decision about where in the range will work best for you. And I seriously doubt you're getting shutdown at the calories you're eating, nutrient balance assumed.

Hope that helps a little - unfortunately, hard and firm answers are hard to come by in this.

Chris.

[Heybales]

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@Kimmi78 wrote:

Question for my new friends .... Purchased Flex 2 weeks ago and I love it.... I went from walking approximately 3000 steps per day to walking an average of 10,000 per day.  I also this week incorporated some sit ups and squats.  Ive done zumba once as well and plan to return.

here is my question.  I am looking to lose 60 lbs.  I am 5'1 and currently 192.3 lbs.  I am female and 37 years old.  I sync with My Fitness Pal for logging my foods.

I only use the flex to monitor steps.  I do not add any extra activity manually.  Steps only.  With this being said,  my average calorie output is 2300-2500 calories per day.  I eat on average 1200-1350 per day.   Is this enough ?

If I dont log the squats and the crunches and the zumba,  what if my calorie output is more than it states and I am not eating enough ?

When talking calorie deficits,  are we considering the extra calories that are not being logged correctly ?

When walking on the treadmill,  i walk with an incline and im sure that burns more calories than my flex is telling me as its only monitoring my steps.  

I was advised by using a formula that my TEE or the calories i need to maintain is 2225 per day. 

Any help for weight loss is great.   Should I be eating more than the 1350 i set for my goal intake if i am burning on average 2300-2500 calories per day (according to flex) ? and on those days I am kicking ass and burning 2600 to 3000 calories,  should i be eating more ?

Thank you for your help !!

Kim

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You think your body is happy eating almost half of what it really wants wants and what you burn?

Just think about that, the body is stressed by undereating, the degree depends on how far under you are.

A healthy unstressed body can lose just fat if reasonable deficit.

A stressed body will also lose muscle mass with unreasonable deficit - which is where you are at I'd suggest. You'll just end up a smaller version of current self. Fat where you don't want it, even though at goal weight perhaps.

A reasonable deficit would be 1.5 lbs weekly on MFP for these first 10 lbs, then switch to 1 lb weekly.

You should be eating much more.

Last 15 lbs 1/2 lb weekly.

And you should not be trying to make the deficit even bigger by not correctly logging exercise you know the Fitbit is possibly badly underestimating. If those incline walks are 20 min only, no biggy. 

But if you think bigger deficit is better - why not just stop eating and get this over with faster?

Why not?

Those concerns and more will happen anyway eventually, just a tad slower.

A fet situps and body weight squats is no big deal, but if you start doing 15-30 min, then you should log as calisthenics on Fitbit for better estimate.

No need to log Zumba, it's step based, tad extra burn on arms moving around, but not much.

[TBC]

Check out my blog Kimmi, 

I have just started the same journey and learnt so much, 

The Baggy Cantona - Post 1

In the blogs that follow i try to explain BMR, BMI, TDEE, METs, Calorie Deficits

Good luck 

[kelfran]

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@cbwerner wrote:

...plus I know from my wife's experience alongside me that the math is harder for a woman. 

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Hey @cbwerner - What are you saying?   LOL

@Kimmi78 I agree with with @Heybales: I think your calorie deficit is much too large.

[cbwerner]

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@kelfran wrote:

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@cbwerner wrote:

...plus I know from my wife's experience alongside me that the math is harder for a woman. 

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Hey @cbwerner - What are you saying?   LOL

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Even though my wife was looking to lose about 35-40 lbs, because of her age and height (lack of - lol) she started off at a minimum calorie allotment (points in this case as she's doing Weight Watchers). So as she loses weight, her daily calorie deficit shrinks since she's not supposed to eat any less (primarily for nutrient reasons to my understanding). My daughter started higher, but she hit the minimum with about 20-25 lbs left to go.

In contrast I've been able to reduce my calorie intake in concert with my weight loss to keep the deficit about the same and maintain my pace; that's an option that's simply not avaialble to my wife, absent of not eating to the point being foolish. So I am losing weight with a steady daily deficit, while she's trying to do it with a shrinking deficit. She'll get there, but will have to have a lot more patience.

In addition, because of being inherently smaller than I, the same intensity and duration of exercise will burn fewer calories for her than it will for me. And I would also add in some societal factors/pressures, like if I take her out to dinner, they give her the same amount of food as they give me.

[James_R]

HI Kimmi, 

For weight loss, calroie deficit is the answer. 

What does your diet consist of and what's your weekly excercise regime? Looking at the info you've given I'd  suggest that it might be an issue with the balance of your diet if you're seeing absolutely zero results. 

However, it also sounds like it's early days on your fitness journey, so you should bear in mind that you might not see immediate results. As I say to most people, the reults actually are there, but the scale may not necessarliy change quickly, and our eyes are fooled when we look in the mirror as we fixate on the tiniest of flaws and miss those little signs of tighter measurements and toning. 

I wouldn't worry about the calorie deficit you describe in terms of numbers though, when I 'cut' I usually drop 500-750 calories below maintenance to bring back the lean definition following a period of 'bulking'. 

[Maxit]

I tend to agree with heybales on this one.  Using the TDEE method, eating at a 20% deficit (plenty!) would mean eating around 1780 calories a daily, which better insures not only that you can support your level of activity, but also get the amount of protein, fat, and micro-nutrients that you need.   This way, you won't be losing so much muscle mass along with the fat, as well.    If you decide to do this, track your data for a month to learn whether you are maintaining a healthy weight loss (no more than 2 pounds a week; at least .5 pounds a week) and also feeling good & sleeping well.

[JenFZ09]

You need to see what happens based on the calories you are consuming.  If you are losing weight, then your calories are less than what your body needs. If you are gaining, then you are taking in an excess.  Over time, you will see what you need to do to lose weight. 

In addition, your food choices are very important.  I really do think that what you eat affects whether you will lose weight, even keeping the calories constant.  I finally lost ten pounds after cutting out all processed foods, sugar, grains, and pretty much eating a raw vegan diet (I'm not vegan, but that's mostly my diet, with maybe a few ounces of grilled chicken once or twice a week).  Before this, I was 130 lbs, eating around the same calorie amount, just eating different foods.  I also keep my protein at around 100 grams of a mix of whey and vegetable protein, so once again, not vegan over here, but the vegetable/fruit/nuts make up the majority of my calories.