*** Big Fat Weight Loss Thread ***

That aligns more with my experience. For example, I put my details into MyFitnessPal which calculated a daily intake of 1500kcal to lose weight at the desired rate. This was based on my assessment of my activity level as ‘not very active’. This has previously worked (although not as fast as predicted) when my daily exercise wasn’t more than a leisurely walk.

I’ve now upped my regular activity level. Having done a short stint of cardio which the machine tells me was worth 300 calories, should I now eat 300 more to break even and still lose at the same rate?

I used to have a Fitbit which would tell me I had done 600-800 calories of exercise daily when I hadn’t exerted myself more than a few trips up the stairs, hence my scepticism and confusion!
 
Scuzi said:
I’ve now upped my regular activity level. Having done a short stint of cardio which the machine tells me was worth 300 calories, should I now eat 300 more to break even and still lose at the same rate?
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I would highly doubt a short stint of cardio is even going to burn 300 cals, and likely this is over exaggerated as well.

This is entirely goal dependant, are you looking to lose weight still or maintain?? If you are looking to maintain and want to eat back what you think you've burned on top of what you consider is your activity level based on your TDEE calculations then I would do so VERY cautiously, like only eating back 50% max.

In terms of your fitbit it should be telling you your calories burned over the day, this isnt just from exercise its from all activity. Which is why even first thing in the morning you should be at a few hundred cals burned.
 
Scuzi said:
I have a question. The ‘calories burned’ measurement on various bits of fitness equipment, eg bike, treadmill, elliptical - is it accurate?

Following on from that, if one had calculated that 1800 calories were to be consumed in a day, and they did 200 calories of exercise as measured on the aforementioned equipment, would they then be able to consume 200 kcal extra to break even?

A friend was explaining this to me and I thought surely it can’t be that simple?

Would the same measurement by a fitness tracker (e.g. Apple Watch, Fitbit) be more accurate and would the same principle apply?
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Based on my experience with smart watches they can vary massively based in the same exercise, so I generally assume they aren't accurate.

I generally walk 6km every morning, over the same route and at the same pace, within a minute or so anyway. Calories burned, according to my watch, can vary by 250 calories or more.

Not that I eat back calories burned exercising anyway.
 
Syla5 said:
I would highly doubt a short stint of cardio is even going to burn 300 cals, and likely this is over exaggerated as well.

This is entirely goal dependant, are you looking to lose weight still or maintain?? If you are looking to maintain and want to eat back what you think you've burned on top of what you consider is your activity level based on your TDEE calculations then I would do so VERY cautiously, like only eating back 50% max.

In terms of your fitbit it should be telling you your calories burned over the day, this isnt just from exercise its from all activity. Which is why even first thing in the morning you should be at a few hundred cals burned.
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Yeah, I thought 300 was a bit high. It was 25 mins on an elliptical cross trainer at varying speeds and intensities.

I need to lose another 4Kg to get to my goal, aiming for 0.5-1Kg per week. This rate has been fairly consistent at 1500kcal per day with effectively no exercise. I’m trying to understand what it should be with exercise factored in which is where I’m having trouble.

Thanks for your advice.
 
Scuzi said:
Yeah, I thought 300 was a bit high. It was 25 mins on an elliptical cross trainer at varying speeds and intensities.

I need to lose another 4Kg to get to my goal, aiming for 0.5-1Kg per week. This rate has been fairly consistent at 1500kcal per day with effectively no exercise. I’m trying to understand what it should be with exercise factored in which is where I’m having trouble.

Thanks for your advice.
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Entirely depends on your stats. Male, female, short, tall, general activity and workout routine, goal weight, current weight etc.

It’s hard to give any sort of answer on what’s right for you without a bit more detail. Even then it would just be general not overly specific tips.
 
Nevertheless I think I’ve got my answer in that the numbers from the machines and trackers are to be taken with a pinch of salt. I might go in at eating an additional half of the estimated calories for the exercise I otherwise wouldn’t be doing to see where that leaves me.

Right now it leaves me hungry but that’s all part of it :D

Thanks.
 
My own experience is the numbers seem to add up and work reasonably well. I think the more data you can give the software, the better chance it has of getting it more accurate, so not only a HRM, I think more importantly a power meter (if applicable to your exercise). What I think can be inaccurate is the calculators that work out how much your daily allowance is. I've kind of worked that out myself, then do the maths on the activities on top of that.

Scuzi said:
This was based on my assessment of my activity level as ‘not very active’. This has previously worked (although not as fast as predicted) when my daily exercise wasn’t more than a leisurely walk.

I’ve now upped my regular activity level. Having done a short stint of cardio which the machine tells me was worth 300 calories, should I now eat 300 more to break even and still lose at the same rate?
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I think one mistake people make is, you can't include your logged exercise when judging how active you are. So, if I sit at a desk all day and night, I put myself as inactive. If I then start jugging at lunch time every day, which gets tracked in Strava and I get credited with the calories burnt, but I stay sat at the desk all day still, I should leave it as inactive. If I make that more active, I'm getting credited twice with going for a run.
 
My weight seems to have jumped up at an alarming rate. I hovered around 95kg for ages, and then it feels like almost overnight a few weeks ago it jumped to 98kg and has stayed there.

I really need to try and get on top of it again.
 
AndyCr15 said:
My own experience is the numbers seem to add up and work reasonably well. I think the more data you can give the software, the better chance it has of getting it more accurate, so not only a HRM, I think more importantly a power meter (if applicable to your exercise). What I think can be inaccurate is the calculators that work out how much your daily allowance is. I've kind of worked that out myself, then do the maths on the activities on top of that.


I think one mistake people make is, you can't include your logged exercise when judging how active you are. So, if I sit at a desk all day and night, I put myself as inactive. If I then start jugging at lunch time every day, which gets tracked in Strava and I get credited with the calories burnt, but I stay sat at the desk all day still, I should leave it as inactive. If I make that more active, I'm getting credited twice with going for a run.
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Yeah, i always set my activity levels as "not active" as outside of specific exercise i generally won't do much.
 
Liquid_Entity said:
The mayo was vegan mayo and again, as I said once the stock in the fridge has gone it will be all replaced with lighter stuff.

I bought 2 x skinny Co. Sauces and they taste artificially rank. Garlic n herb sauce is not meant to be so sweet. Over my lettuce it was rank and the caesar salad dressing is also very sweet.
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Syla5 said:
Yeap just a suggestion based on what I found.

Yeah some of the skinny sauces are really not nice, but the syrups are spot on :D
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Yeah I'd agree on the skinny sauces - tried the garlic mayo one and the flavour was very artificial (but not awful), but the consistency was very strange, too liquidy and no good for e.g. dipping chips in. The maple syrup is pretty good (been having it with Greg Doucette's anabolic French toast recipe!) and is only 17kcal/bottle :) also been using a dash of it to sweeten coffee.

If you guys have a B&M nearby, that's the cheapest I've found them, at £1.99 a bottle!
 
Abused my body over the weekend, Domino's Thursday, KFC friday, BBQ/beers saturday - few more beers on Sunday/Monday (off work and gaming).

Was weighing in around 81.5KG last Thursday morning - 82.6KG yesterday - down to 81.9KG this morning - all weigh ins done same time - one bad weekend doesn't necessarily undo all the good work.

Good to just say **** it every now and then, trick is, not repeating this every weekend for a month :D
 
SixTwoSix said:
Abused my body over the weekend, Domino's Thursday, KFC friday, BBQ/beers saturday - few more beers on Sunday/Monday (off work and gaming).

Was weighing in around 81.5KG last Thursday morning - 82.6KG yesterday - down to 81.9KG this morning - all weigh ins done same time - one bad weekend doesn't necessarily undo all the good work.

Good to just say **** it every now and then, trick is, not repeating this every weekend for a month :D
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Weekend? That's five days mate :D:D:D:D

I think if your nutrition is "clean" 80% of the time then indulging for the other 20% is fine.
 
Pretty sure i could undo any deficit if i was only clean 80% of the time :D

Im slowly creeping cals back up averaged 2150 last week, aiming for 2300 this week.

Weight at start of reverse diet 10st 6.2lb, weight this morning 10st 5.8lb.

Still wondering what my actual maintenance level will be, im hoping 2350-2400.
 
barmyllama said:
I find it easier to abstain, but once I start it's no holds barred gluttony.
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And me. I made the mistake of going to Waitrose, which means I stock up on the stuff that they do best - most of it not good for you. Hence now I am 5lbs heavier than I was a week ago. Can you believe it!
 
ATiRubyfan said:
May I pose a question? Does a daily pot noodles diet increase or decrease weight?
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Depends how many you're eating. If you're staying under your maintenance calories you'll lose weight if you go over you'll gain but either way living on pot noodles will leave you feeling like death.
 
tom_e said:
If you're staying under your maintenance calories you'll lose weight if you go over you'll gain
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Isn't it odd that people don't just know this... isn't it common sense?

I put on 6lbs while cycling in the Alps... kind of amazing really, given how hard work it was, how much I sweat etc, but then I wasn't watching what I was eating at all. In fact, I was intentionally eating a lot to make sure I had the energy! It wasn't a surprise, the same thing happened after Mallorca. Already I've dropped 5lbs back off...

I'm at 15st 7 at the moment. I panicked a little at 15st 12 and thought I need to hit this diet hard again, but now it's back down again, maybe I can relax a little.

I'm also wondering if it's healthy or unhealthy to be paying this much attention to my weight? :cry: Reminds me of the Fred Flintoff BBC show where he talks about having bulimia and my friend (having watched it and telling me to watch it) says I might have it:eek: I think one of the points was it's not always about making yourself sick, it's about maybe binge eating but then going and exercising. Tracking all your calories etc, including those exercised. Was an interesting watch actually.
 
I think i certainly bother about it less, and don't use MFP too often either. I've found what works for me is to just do a bi-weekly weigh and then monitor if it's going up too much.

I would say my ideal weight is around 94kg. I'd say that 99% of the time my intake is perfect from a maintenance point of view and it hovers around that point. However i'll occasionally have the odd bad week and it'll creep up to ~97kg, at that point i put a little effort in for a few weeks to be mindful and bring it back under control, then i kind of take my eye off again. I know it's not increased due to my normal lifestyle, but just an overly bad couple days.
 
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