Which category of exercise do I fall into?

[HatchetJob]

I’ve been dieting for a few weeks. To be honest I am losing nothing.

I used a calorie calculator which set me at around 1600 calories as I picked moderate exercise. However I am worried what I do is a higher category of exercise and should be eating more calories.

all I am currently doing though is walking about 4 times a week. I am going to move onto more intense exercise but was waiting for it to cool down/lose a few pounds first. This is quite representative of what I’m doing though.

any ideas?

If you're not losing weight, what makes you think that the way to fix it is to eat more?

If you're not losing weight you need to eat less not more.

I'd put walking at low exercise and see what that comes up with. Moderate I think would be a few sessions of high cardio or weight training.

I think moderate exercise would be stretching it to be fair, walking four times a week would be light exercise?

Moderate exercise is about 150 mins per week, and they should be vigorous (enough to cause raised heartrate and change to breathing).

Walking is great, but usually puts you only in the "light" category (at HR 117, unless you are well over 50) but if your walks are very long the you'll make it up to moderate because of duration.

Nothing you have written suggests you need more calories. Or that your exercise load is higher than you have rated it

I’m just confused as pre lockdown I was very fit and losing weight and there was a point I had to start eating more to make the weigh loss work.

My Fitbit puts my daily calories burned at 2500 and I’m eating 1600. I know the Fitbit isn’t exact.

The only way that eating more would make you lose weight is if you are over restricting and not tracking your calories properly ie under counting. Then increasing your calories may mean greater adherence.

you need to ignore calories burned through walking and don’t eat them back. They’re wildly inaccurate. your screenshot, is that suggesting you burned 455 calories in a one hour walk? If so it’s utter rubbish and no wonder you’re getting no where.

you need to be in a calorie deficit to lose weight and if you are not losing you are not in a deficit.

I’m not eating those calories at all. I did a calculator based off me being moderately active to give my base calorie use and took 500 off that, giving me 1600 to eat.
I am also currently menopausal. however I’ve gone from only doing a few thousand steps a day to 15000 and reduced my food intake, so would have expected something.

You need to consistently have 3,500 calories a week less than your body uses to lose a pound. That’s a reduction of 500 calories a day below what your body needs to maintain its current weight.

Now, if the reason that you want to lose weight is that you have been slowly gaining weight, it means that you have been eating more than your weight maintenance needs. If you put on 12 pounds in the last year, you have been eating roughly 95 calories a day more than you need to maintain your weight at the start of the year.

So to lose a pound in a week you actually need to eat 600 calories a day less than you are used to eating.

That’s the same as missing a substantial dinner every day. You can have a portion of Bird’s Eye fish in batter, a small portion of oven chips and half a tin of mushy peas for that (570 calories for that).

Your body is going to object. You are probably going to feel hungry. Slip up a little bit and you now are losing less than a pound a week. Reframe your mindset to healthy eating, slightly smaller portions and accept this is going to take a long time.

Oh, and I agree that the calories on the app show for the walk is ridiculously high. I wouldn’t believe your Fitbit either.

I'm short & menopausal which means I burn too few calories.

I would try a different TDEE calculator and see what the light exercise/sedentary numbers are. You probably fall between the two. Apparently most people overestimate their level of exercise.

FWIW I have taken the slow and steady approach to my diet and concentrated on healthier food with fewer carbs and very little sugar. It has worked well, but I only saw a noticeable difference when I regularly began exercising daily.

The stupid thing is i have done this several times before. I was 20kg lighter at the start of lockdown, but I was also very fit. Getting the first few kilos always makes such a difference to me to get going.
in the past I have used WW as a kickstart but was determined not to use them again so just wanted to do it myself. It’s finding that balance that’s so hard though.

Sorry OP but in my opinion no exercise should be counted when trying to lose weight. This means there is no room for confusion or eating back calories. If you aren't losing you are eating to much or eating the wrong foods.

It makes me annoyed when people talk about waking as exercise, it's just movement imo. It's good, don't misunderstand me, but it's too easy to settle into a stroll and think you are 'exercising'. Exercise needs to be hard work.

https://tdeecalculator.net/

Is quite a good calculator, I think you have miscalculated what you need to set your calories at.

It's bloody hard isn't it

So when I do an online calculator I should set my activity to sedentary then?

I think so, have a look at this page from that site x

https://tdeecalculator.net/faq.php

Walking 4x week isn’t going to put you into the moderate exercise category, this is what I’d be recommending for a person in their 70s wanting to start exercising…..you really aren’t going to be losing weight unless you get the balance of calories out versus calories in right. Ideally you need to start to add in some body weight/added weights exercises to build up your muscle mass….there are lots of easy 15 min routines you could google and add in.

Firstly you clearly do not need or are using 2500 calories a day.
Secondly walking four times a week barely falls into light exercise.
I was shocked when I used MFP and looked at what they classed as moderately active...I was doing HIIT x 2 a week and running x2 a week but because I had sedentary job I didn't even rate above barely inactive.

Bottom line is. You lose weight when you burn more calories than you consume ..that's it.

I’m not using 2500 calories? I said I’m eating 1600?
I think adjusting it takes me down to 1500 and I don’t want to eat much less than that anyway.

I was using a lot of weights pre lockdown. I do find dropping those first few kilos just helps me get into the exercise. And the walking has worked before! I’m often doing 90 minutes to 2 hours across fields. So assumed it would make a difference again.

When you walk 4 times a week how long do you walk for and how far are you covering ? I manage about 100 calories a mile, but that’s a hard fast walk just over 4 miles an hour. (14.30 mm). I’m in my 50s Bmi 26, doing this 3-4 times a week for 40-60 minutes, running for 1-2 hrs and not losing at 1200 calories a day. If I want to lose I need to be doing 2 exercise sessions a day, (fast walk and a run or workout) , and eating a net of 1000 calories a day.

Well I did 90 minutes today and did about 6km. Some of it is uneven. But I try to walk as fast as I can doing it. I will ramp this up when I’ve lost a bit. Previously I would do long sessions on the exercise bike but I’m just getting my fitness up. A month ago I was only doing a slow 30 minute walk.

Cut right down on carbs & sugars, fats, salt and processed foods. If you can't cope without carbs, make sure things like bread are wholegrain. You need to at least double your intake of veg & salad which will make you feel fuller, and increase protein slightly as well. Be wary of too much fruit, as that is high in sugar.

When you're going through the menopause your body decides to hang onto every spare pound it can, and you also get carb cravings. That's my experience anyway.

Whatever exercise you're doing, you need to get out of breath for it to be properly effective.

Op that's quite slow. Its about 2.5 miles an hour. Is it a hilly route? Can you up the pace? An average person should be able to walk around 3.5 miles an hour quite easily.

Three years is a long time when you are approaching menopause, so even if you did the same exercise/ate the same food as in lockdown, the huge changes in hormones, metabilism and body fat retention could result in a totally different outcome.

I don't count calories but as a vague example, I started doing what I'd call moderate exercise (weights 2x one hour per week, cardio 2x one hour per week, fast, hilly walking 3x half hour per week. Cut out all snacks between meals.
In six months I have lost 2kg. My goal isn't weight loss and my body fat % has reduced, but it shows how slow progress can be once you hit menopause.😂

I would say walking a few times a week is light activity

Sometimes I find if I'm doing a lot of more intense excercise I need to eat a bit more to fuel the excercise, and that enables me to do more excercise and lose weight

But at 1600kcal and walking 4x a week I'd be surprised if you need to eat more

The only time I'd really consider walking to be an exercise would be if you were following a walking trail for the day. Going hiking basically.