Keep Exercising & the weight will come off -- NOT!

[Bfogg2105]

HI all,

Let me start by saying I have had huge success (for me) loosing 60 pounds 2 years ago.  But, for the last 12 months I  lost 10 pounds, and have regained 12 back.  

I walked 10K steps everyday, swim laps or gym weighs 3-4 times per week, and give myself one day of rest by taking a short easy walk.

It has to be what I am eating. So, I am back to measuring, weighing and using the scale.  Still without success.

So, my question!?   MFP starts my daily calories at 1,290, however other websites are saying 1,580.

I am 63, female, 5'-6", currently weigh 240. 

Where do I find the correct calorie intake, I would like to loose 2#/week, 

Should I continue at the starting daily rate, and not eat back foods from my exercise.  

I'm confused on what will get me back on track ....

Thanks for the help

Bonnie

[I-train-hard]

you callorie intake should be about 1800 kcl a day

loosing 2 punds in the long run not real....it would hurt you.

forgive me but what do you do for real exercise? 

[Rights21]

hey maybe its not the amount of calories you are eating but what you are eating or maybe not eating. calories are an important factor but other things to be weary of is the amount of sugar in products even suposidly healthy ones. also you diet could be lacking in something or there are even health issues that make it hard to lose weight. Another thing to think about is cardo work outs. 

[MRose]

Hi @Bfogg2105!

As @Rights21 said, calories might be important, but they certainly aren't everything. We tend to have this outlook that says "If I work out enough to burn 200 calories, then I burned that cookie I had at lunch yesterday." Most of the time, that isn't true. If we are overweight/underweight, our hormones are playing bumper cars -- they're sending your brain signals that usually aren't quite right. You are very likely leptin (satiety hormone) resistant, so even if you've eaten enough, your body still thinks you are in starvation mode. 

What does your normal day look like, meal-wise? Does it look more like situation 1 or situation 2?

Situation 1:

Breakfast: Coffee with skim milk and Splenda, bowl of Special K, and half a banana

Lunch: Turkey sandwich with light mayo, bag of Baked Lays, and a Diet Coke

Dinner: Baked chicken parm with whole wheat pasta and green beans, bowl of sugar free ice cream for dessert

Situation 2:

Breakfast: Steak and eggs with half an avocado

Lunch: Bowl of chili with carrots, celery, and ranch

Dinner: Enchilada bake

If those are both pretty far from what you normally eat, what resembles it more closely?

[I-train-hard]

I would stick with # 2 

[Raviv]

Agreeing with the others - it's calories, yes, but it's also quality.

If you eat 1200 (or however many) calories of food during a day, then it's also important to see how much nutrition you get from those calories.  If it was mostly junk or something with hardly any nutrients, then you're actually cutting down on your body's ability to function at its prime.  You make it harder for it to lose weight.

As far as the actual number of calories you should be eating - set a goal on Fitbit (2 pounds per week is fine at your current weight) and then stick with it.  Don't worry about what another website says - just stick with one.  As long as you have it set to a deficit, and you allow for it to add in calories when you work out, then you shuold be fine.

I love the food database on MFP, but I had to stop using it because I totally stalled on losing weight.  Part of it was me being less careful than I was before, but part of it was MFP telling me to eat more than Fitbit did.  If you still want to use MFP, then you can always link it to Fitbit and have it import your food data.

[Heybales]

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@Bfogg2105 wrote:

HI all,

Let me start by saying I have had huge success (for me) loosing 60 pounds 2 years ago.  But, for the last 12 months I  lost 10 pounds, and have regained 12 back.  

I walked 10K steps everyday, swim laps or gym weighs 3-4 times per week, and give myself one day of rest by taking a short easy walk.

It has to be what I am eating. So, I am back to measuring, weighing and using the scale.  Still without success.

So, my question!?   MFP starts my daily calories at 1,290, however other websites are saying 1,580.

I am 63, female, 5'-6", currently weigh 240. 

Where do I find the correct calorie intake, I would like to loose 2#/week, 

Should I continue at the starting daily rate, and not eat back foods from my exercise.  

I'm confused on what will get me back on track ....

Thanks for the help

Bonnie

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So you manually log that swimming and Weights for a better accuracy of calorie burn, right?

And MFP suggests that eating level ONLY on days you don't exercise and are exactly as active as the level you picked on their site. But is probably never in your case with only one rest day walking.

If you have kids but picked sedentary, then you would never eat 1290, as you would never be Sedentary.

And on workout days - much more.

So I hope you are manually correcting Fitbit where needed - and allowing sync of MFP to get Fitbit daily burn to correct itself.

And then you are correctly eating the new goal to keep the deficit to only 2 lbs weekly - which is reasonable right now.

But suggest you change to 1.5 lbs when you reach 60 to goal weight - that is reasonable then.

Do you weigh all the food going in your mouth?

Those other websites are you probably guessing your activity level from 5 rough levels.

Why do that when you have a device will to give you infinite levels each day?

If you would prefer a static eating goal rather than dynamic - let me know and I'll explain how to setup MFP and Fitbit to do that best and still keep a reasonable deficit.