Calculating Accurate Calorie Burn via Distance & Time

Okay, so these are probably really stupid questions, and I still get muddled in the details, so I apologize for being naive. My goal is to reach my target weight for my age/height, which is apparently 90-110 lbs. I am currently 130. Then I want to focus on building muscle, which I know will add weight onto it, but it'd be nice knowing that's muscle and not fat.

First off, I am fully aware eating is more effective than exercising. I love watching Aaron Carroll's Healthcare Triage and have learned a lot about both. I actually eat far less than most people, because my stomach doesn't make me aware of when I'm hungry, and eating too much makes me feel super bloated (and by too much, we're talking like... a single bowl of cereal, two eggs, or a large from Mcdonalds fills me up for about 2 days by themselves).

I don't get hunger pains or a growling stomach. I barely reach my daily calorie intake for 1lb/loss a week unless we order out occasionally. I've always been this way and 120-130 has almost always been my weight for the past 25 years roughly. I think a portion is from fasting for years since I'm Buddhist, but it could also be my ADHD, or something medical. I often forget to eat daily, so I have to be reminded to eat. Naturally, this slows my metabolism down a ton.

Second, I use a stationary bike that is kind of like the cheaper alternative to a Peloton. I love it to death, and do about 30 minutes to an hour on high resistance 4-5 times a week. It's not really a set thing as I mainly use it to control my manic episodes when the bi-polar hits. The majority of my day is at the PC, so sedentary. So this is the most exercise I get.

I'm not super hardcore on losing weight. I don't have issues with being addicted to counting every calorie, and maybe that's why it's difficult for me to lose or gain any kind of weight. But I'd like to try anyway.

So my questions:

1. Is there any way to calculate the nearest accurate amount of burned calories from biking? I know bikes are inaccurate, and we currently can't afford the watches or monitors that are seen as mostly accurate, so we're wondering if there's any other way to do so. I log my distance and time, but it doesn't make a difference on most apps given they have no clue what my resistance was during that time.
2. My protein intake is low, as I don't actually know really what to focus on eating for that? I've mostly always been low carb, but the recommendations like eating more fish doesn't work out for me much because I get pretty sick from most fish aside from catfish. We get lean chicken and steak, but I imagine just those two things isn't really good overall as far as just... constantly eating that.
3. Are there any accurate monitors/watches we could look into that are far more affordable? I'd love to splurge on the more expensive/accurate ones, but uh... Unemployment currently owes me 7k and has no time frame of when I'll get that.

Thus far I've just been... well, eating what proteins I can, keeping carbs low, trying to make sure I eat period, and biking for an hour at high resistance (I think my usual speed on it is 8-11 mph for 30 min with 5mph slower cooldown every 10 min?). Sometimes I don't keep track since I just go the speed of the music I listen to.

So... Is there any advice that might help with the weight loss with the situation I'm in?

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My relationship with food is self destructive and out of control and I am desperate for some sort of guidance

I am completely 100% powerless to my current dietary choices. Everyday I tell myself tomorrow I will wake up and eat healthily but within hours I have failed without much fighting against the pull of what I recognize as an addiction. It is as if I am on autopilot or I am suffering from sleep paralysis and I cannot shake myself from this compulsion to act in a manner that is against my best interest.

When I graduated college I began having chest pains. After visiting a cardiologist there was no sign that this was heart related, but the fear of having a heart attack led me to develop orthorexia. I researched nutrition and how it impacts health and I decided to adopt a very strict plant based diet. I enjoyed eating that way and despite being scared of having negative health outcomes, I am grateful because for a time I had changed my perception and relationship with food and as a result I had lost 80 lbs without trying.

within a few years post graduation I became overwhelmed with the stress of life. I hated working full time and sitting in an office for most of my day, my fiancee's health was worsening, my mom was diagnosed with heart failure, I lost my car, and some other minor things happened which just compounded the stress and frustration with life I was experiencing.

I had a realization, why do I want to maintain my health when my partner and everyone else will most likely die before I do? Why am I leading this healthy life style when all I am going to do is prolong my own suffering. I gave up my healthy eating regimen and instead purposefully ate in a way which I was hoping would kill me, but it didn't, all it did was cause me to gain weight, over 100 lbs in the course of a few months.

My dependency on food started because I always viewed it as a comfort thing. It was a way to make an enjoyable or unenjoyable activity more pleasurable. If I was going to play a video game or watch a movie as a kid, having snacks would make it more fun. If I was driving, having something to snack on made it feel less tedious. If I had to study or complete a project for school ordering food so I could settle in and eat while I work would help me feel more excited about the task at hand. Celebrating an accomplishment or a milestone should be done with a feast. If food could make these activities more enjoyably, then I could virtually make any activity enjoyable by including food.

Being able to work from home the past couple years has given me a new lease on life. My relationship with my fiancee is stronger than ever, I am able to support her while she works on overcoming her own chronic health situation and I realize that we still have a chance in this life to manage her symptoms and make choices which do lead to better health outcomes, the issue is that I cannot shake this compulsion to make bad choices when it comes to food. When we first met we were both relatively active. We enjoyed hiking and being in nature. We drove through the Adirondacks recently and talked about how we wish we could be the kind of people that are able to hike to the top of the mountains there to enjoy the view. I know overcoming binge eating isn't about weight loss, but when I consider that my life involves sitting at home feeling embarrassed of myself because I dress like a slob and have poor hygiene and I'm not as active as I wish I was, I just want to change because the life I'm living right now is not the life I know I am capable of.

And this leads me to my final point, a thought I had yesterday. If I can recognize that my choices do not serve me positively, that shows that there is a spark of something in there, a mindset that does exist, it is just that I am letting the negative and defeatist mindset win.

So my main question is, how do I overcome this and become the person I want to be?

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Really struggling to figure out how many calories I should actually be eating a day

CW205 SW205 GW150, // Female // 5ft3

I feel like I am just being stupid with this and just feeling tired of so much conflicting information. I am currently at my highest ever weight from a fun cocktail of antidepressants, comfort eating and whatnot. My mum told me about the NHS weight loss programme online after she saw it on the news, and feeling awful with hitting my highest ever weight, I thought why not give it a shot. I have tried all of the fad diets before, the under 1200 calories one and just none of them have ever worked for me. I always end up absolutely starving and giving up fast, or if I go over my calorie goal my stupid brain just convinces me I am a failure and should just give up.

The NHS programme suggests aiming for 1400 for women, but again it just doesn't seem enough for me. It doesn't seem to take into account different activity levels (for example saying to aim for 150 active minutes a week when in my case I am usually doing between 200 and 300 daily). It just feels like daily calories intake isn't a one size fits all. I don't know if I am just being greedy, but I hit my calorie goal with just a healthy breakfast and lunch then can never have dinner. Despite my size, I am a very active person. Currently walking between generally 15.000 and 25.000 steps a day, I'm a dog groomer so spend all day on my feet at work, go running several times a week and so on.

I am just tired of the conflicting information. The eat 1200. The eat 1400. The never eat less than your BMR. The never eat less than your TDEE. I don't know how I am supposed to find a realistic number I can stick to without constantly feeling hungry, that is enough to fuel a what I consider quite active lifestyle and still low enough to lose weight. I am tired of always being told something different about what I should and shouldn't be doing.

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Thank you lose it community!

Hey y’all! I’m reporting to you 9 days post op from my abdominoplasty and brachioplasty following a 100lb weight loss!

Now that the pain from the surgery is gone and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, I’ve been reflecting on how far I’ve come and how proud I am of myself.

In July of 2019, I made this account out of boredom and wanting to check our reddit after hearing about it for forever. I quickly stumbled upon this community and the intermittent fasting sub and by July 19, I was cleaning up my diet and practicing IF.

The year that followed saw me finally sticking to a plan and losing weight steadily. I truly changed my habits and started to enjoy eating healthy and cooking my meals. By July 2020, I had lost around 100lbs!

I knew before losing weight that I would have loose skin, because I had been big my whole life and had an “apron” belly since I was around 12 years old. So my skin elasticity was shot! Early 2021 is when I decided to start the process to have my loose skin removed. As a 21 year old, I felt cheated out of the body I had worked so hard for.

So I’m here now, after maintaining my loss for over a year, finally post op from loose skin removal. I’m still pretty bruised and swollen, but I love my results already! It’s surreal to not have my old belly- i’m still a little taken aback every time I remove my compression garment!

To everyone who might be reading this at the very start of your journey, YOU CAN DO IT!! My journey started with a simple thought of, “What would happen if I didn’t quit this time?”

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Steel cut oats?

I have been doing an experiment over the past few weeks and have definitively determined that on days where I eat 3/4 cup (measured before cooked) of steel cut oats with 1/2 cup of blueberries that I always lose the next day. I then took it a bit further and tried having them for lunch instead of breakfast as I've never been a breakfast person and it worked again. Over the past few days I tried eating them for dinner after a day with a fair amount of carbs (about 100g), and still lost the next day. In my case it seems these as an excellent tool, not only are they super satiating but delicious and perfect for the winter season ahead. I thought I'd share in case anyone else was interested in checking to see if it works for them also. I do believe a big part of losing weight is finding certain foods that work for you and for your weight loss. It's key to sticking with it, finding new healthy foods to love.

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How do you lose weight during winter and if you have to sit for most of the day?

Hey everyone!

So it's end of October - by definition, still fall but as each day passes it gets colder. ESPECIALLY in the mornings. Since May, I've been walking outside but now habits have changed since it's 40-50 degree weather in the mornings.

Every winter, I let myself go. Every winter, I gain weight (I'm assuming that this is the case for most people). I've got a couple exams I'll be studying for as well so I will need to be sitting for many hours (I have to do self-study in the mornings and I've got a review course that I have to take which runs on weeknights from 5-10 pm until the first week of December). A lot of sitting unfortunately.

Studying...cold weather...and a history of gaining weight during this time, how will I manage?

I'm a 5'6F and currently weigh 150 lbs. Started my weight loss journey officially in February 2021. Took me 7-8 months to lose 30 pounds. I started off at 180. My goal weight is anywhere between 118-120 lbs. So basically another 30 lbs to go. The months of November to March (it's still cold in March) I know can be utilised wisely.

I'm guessing that I will have to place more emphasis on diet. Making sure to really cut out sweets (at least until my exams are done, which is until end of December). I don't eat that much meat anyway, and prefer vegetarian options (I really love lentils with rice and other veggies, soups too).

I've always hated going to the gym. I don't enjoy it. Anytime I have tried it was never sustainable for me. I love walking outside but by the time deep winter comes around (December-Feb) it's going to be freezing. Also walking in the mornings is hard because it's dark outside.

Any suggestions? I want to plan well for the upcoming season!

There are 2 months until the end of December. I know people have managed to lose up to 16 pounds within this span of time. My body does have a slower metabolism, so I don't know if I'll be able to lose that much. I'm setting my goal for a 10 lb weight loss by the new year. Do you think that's achievable?

This season from Halloween until New Years is always challenging. Along with the colder weather, there are many events going on. Parties and dinners that I (and so many other people) will have to attend. I'm handing out candy to the children in my neighborhood this year for Halloween. I personally hope they finish all the candy so I'm not left with any of it! Of course Thanksgiving weekend and Christmas will be FULL of delicious treats and delectable meals. How do you survive the holidays when you have a weight loss goal!? I will also be attending a big birthday bash for my niece who turns 2 years old at the end of December. I have a beautiful green dress that I've never worn anywhere because I was significantly overweight. Tried it on today and it slips on so easily now! I just know it will look better even if I lose 10 more pounds.

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Month-long plateau

Hey all, I've been dealing with a long plateau and was wondering if anybody could give an explanation on why.I have a large tumor so I'm a bit complicated medically, and I've been told in the past that it could have had an effect on my metabolism and calories, but my prior progress has indicated that as seemingly untrue.

TL;DR - Doing everything right, tracking, CICO, high protein focus, weight lifting 6x a week going ham feeling great but scale isn't moving, wondering if its due to high calorific deficit/cortisol/hormone related or weight lifting frequency related.

I'm a 19M, 5'11, 328lbs (2900 TDEE set as sedentary) currently and I've been in my weight loss journey for a little bit now, just doing CICO and I've been weight-lifting from the very start, it's something I've grown to enjoy and be very passionate about and can't imagine going without now. I was lifting 3x a week in the beginning on 2,200 calories, lost a good bit (10lbs/month to 15lbs/month, no more than 5% body fat max/month tho) and eventually lowered my calories to 1750 (high protein focus) when I plateau'd.

I within the last month have up'd my routine from 3x a week to 6x a week (pull push legs x2), I feel great, I do my program great and I can lift heavy comfortably and go ham, but for the past 30-35 days I've basically just gone up 5 pounds, gone down 5 pounds, gone up 5 pounds, over and over. I understand plateau's and generally how they work, but I'm not sure if my large calorie deficit has impacted my metabolism, caused something cortisol related or not, or if my new workout frequency paired with my deficit has caused my body to become confused.

I've been told to try refeed periods and "taking a break from my diet" but truthfully I sort of can't fathom going back to a high amount of calories because of changed habits, so I can maybe go up to 2500 if seemingly a good idea. I'm trusting in the process and not really too worried as I know I'm losing body fat and what I'm doing feels easy and sustainable to me currently, but would just like to know if anybody has an explanation I haven't considered/learnt about.

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