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Adjusting calories for exercise: Long
Hi, I'm not new, just a long time lurker who forgot her password and had to make up a new SN.
My history: 2 years ago I worked with a RD who helped me lose about 15lbs. At that time, I was working 3 days a week, 13 hour days. I would walk about 2ish miles with a friend about twice a week but nothing big as far as exercise was concerned. My RD basically helped me with calorie counting and better eating, although she strongly encouraged me to exercise more (I am a stubborn student). I was eating about 1400 calories/day and losing about 2lbs/week.
I fell off the wagon after moving and changing my work schedule to overnights 4 days/week. I went back to calorie restriction of 1400 calories/day but was completely unable to work out at any regular interval due to my sleep schedule being very messed up (overnights were horrible to me). I was still able to lose weight, still at about 2lbs/week. Sadly, I did not keep up good eating habits for very long.
I moved to working normal hours: 8a-6p, 4 days/week. For the past 2 months I have been working out 3 days a week (jogging/walking or elliptical +/- weights) and 4 weeks ago, I began counting calories again. I have not had good success losing weight after the first week. It seems as though I can't account for the exercise that I am doing. I have been wavering between 190-192lbs for the past 3 weeks. Last week, I increased my caloric intake to 1500 calories/day, and I actually felt like I had a bit more energy, but the scale didn't budge.
I have been using the SparkPeople app on my phone to account for calories and exercise. It was the same app I used after I moved and was working overnights, so I feel certain that I am putting in accurate calories and that I can lose weight with just caloric monitoring, however, I like the way I feel after exercising and I feel it's important. How do you account for exercise when you are eating? I feel as though I'm just winging it, guessing at how much I should be eating for what I am exercising. Is it a lot of trial and error?
Re: Adjusting calories for exercise: Long
You should be figuring out your BMR (basal metabolic rate) which is how much your body would need to take in to maintain your current weight without any activity what so ever. To lose 1 pound per week, you subtract 500 calories per day from your BMR. You achieve that deficit through eating less or exercising more or a combination of the two.
I don't know how sparkpeople works, but usually you put in your height and weight and your activity level and how many pounds you want to lose a week and it figures out your calorie goals per day. If you're tracking your exercise on the app, you want to set your activity level to sedentary, so you "gain back" calories through exercise. That's more accurate than trying to get it to guess how many calories you usually burn every day.
Once that number is figured out, you have your net calorie goal. So, calories in (eaten) - calories out (exercise) = net calories. Try to hit what the app tells you.
I count calories to lose and it works for me. If you're sure you're accurate with what's going in, you need to make sure the calculation for what you're burning is also accurate. You may wish to spend some time checking out the different apps, websites etc to figure out BMR etc.
I've tried sparkpeople, didn't love it. I've also tried myfitnesspal and a couple of others. My favorite (and the one that works best for me) is loseit.
In my experience, sparkpeople's calorie estimates sometimes seemed off, and the calorie 'goal' was not right for me. I'm sure other people will have had great experiences with sparkpeople, but you may find it's worth it to try the different apps and websites to figure out which one is best for you.
Oh, and to actually answer your question: loseit has me add in the exercise that I do and adds it to my daily calorie goal. The number I start out with each morning does not include exercise.