Should I really be eating this many calories!?

jenniator

For the past months I've been eating healthier and exercising. I've lost a total of 40 pounds so far. I need to lose 70 more pounds in total to be a healthy right. When I was losing the 40 pounds, I lost 30 pounds without any problem really and I was losing 2 pounds a week. I had a lot of trouble losing the last 10 pounds and I was really struggling. I drink 10 cups of unsweetened tea during the week and around 6 on the weekend. I exercise 5 days a week and burn 600 calories a day from brisk walks. Since I started my diet, I've always ate between 1250-1400 calories a day. On the days I exercise, my total calories of 1250-1400 turns to 650 to 800 calories because I lose 600 from exercise. I always thought I was doing extremely well and I was so proud of myself for sticking to this diet for 5 months! But the past 3 weeks I've been struggling to lose even 1 pound and it has really been depressing me since I've been doing everything the same and I thought I was doing well. I talked to some people and several said that I was under eating and I was starving my body. They said I needed to be eating a lot more calories. So I joined MFP to help me track my calories and tell me how much I should be eating. I entered all my information and put that I want to lose 2 pounds a week. MFP says that if I don't exercise at all, I need to eat 1,360 calories which I think is good since that's how much I always eat around. But if I exercise and lose my 600 calories, my total daily goes up to 1,960 calories!!! That seems like an extremely high amount of calories for a women to eat if she is trying to lose 2 pounds a week. Walking isn't a very physical demanding exercise and even though I burn 600 calories from it, I still think 1,960 calories is way to high. I mean I don't understand the point of exercising at all if you are going to eat back all the calories! Isn't the point of exercising to lose calories and to keep them off? I've always been told you should eat around 1,200 to 1,500 calories max if you are dieting and trying to lose weight. As you can tell, I was very skeptical about following the MFP diet plan. But I did decide it was worth a try since I don't know a lot about nutrition and I figured I have nothing to lose. I've been on the diet for a few days and I've followed the recommended calorie limit exactly. So far I've gained 1 pounds following the MFP plan. So I was wondering why it's happen. Is it because my body isn't use to eating this many calories or is it because I'm eating to many calories? I am having a difficult time following the MFP diet since I haven't seen any results yet and I feel like a pig for eating so many calories when I'm trying to lose 2 pounds a week. It is making me really depressed and I just don't know what to do. So I would appreciate any advice you can give me about my situation. Sorry for the long post, I just really need some help.

jenniator

At only 11 AM, I've already burn 300 out of my 600 calories. But I've eaten 563 calories in order to reach the MFP calorie range I've been placed in. I've eaten 60 grams of All Bran flakes with Almond Milk (250 calories), 3 squares of chocolate (113 calories) before my exercise, and a Turkey and Spinach sandwich (200 calories) once I was finished exercising. I feel extremely bad about eating so many calories so early in the day and I feel like such a fat pig I always eat 250 calories in the morning and then nothing else until lunch except some veggies for a snack (about 53 calories worth max) if I'm hungry, so eating 563 calories before 11 make me feel absolutely horrible about myself.

Edie30

Hi sounds like you have been doing so well. I have noticed that mfp estimates for calories burned during exercise are grossly exaggerated! Do you use a heart rate monitor to know its 600 cals or are you going off the mfp estimates? That might be the problem.
Keep going with it all and good luck :-)

Francl27

Ok first, 600 calories from a brisk walk is highly unlikely. Where do you get those numbers from? How long do you walk?

Second, weight loss isn't linear so you will gain and lose, sometimes you will stall for 3 weeks, it's totally normal... water fluctuations do that.

Third, do you weigh your food? My guess is that you're eating more than you think, plus overestimating exercise calories, and that's why you're not losing. But give it a couple more weeks, and if you still haven't lost anything then, adjust your calories down.

For what it's worth, I lost 80 pounds and never ate under 1600 calories.

BusyRaeNOTBusty

How much weight do you have left to lose? 2lbs a week is a very aggressive goal and can't be kept up with indefinitely.

pinkiezoom

I agree with the above 600 calories from brisk walking for me would be 2 and a half hours on the treadmill doing 5mph and on an incline of 7-9 ... so hill pace walking basically, the machine tells me i have done 600 in the first hour, but my heart rate monitor for the hours says 260 ish..... which i believe over the gym machine as they are notoriously out. As is mfp estimations. So maybe try a HRM and see if that gives you a more accurate number, i eat 1750 a day, and rarely eat my calories back. I am losing weight at 2lbs a week on average. I upped my cals as i didnt want it to drop off to quickly.

You refer to your journey as being on a diet, which means there will be an end to it, i have chosen a lifestlye change, and it has to be achievable long term, which is why i eat more calories, as i cant spend the rest of my life starving or feeling deprived.

Sounds like you had a winning formula for a while. and you have made amazing progress. Maybe your body has got used to the routine, try mixing it up a bit, swimming/cycling/weights.

psuLemon

A few things... first, walking will probably not burn 600 calories. That is what I, as a man, might burn during an hour long HIIT session. Knowing that you say you eat ~ 1300 calories, and you average 2 lbs a week, the means your maintain around 2100-2200 calories. And these calculations assume you are accurate with your calorie counting; meaning you use a food scale and log you food daily. The average person actually under reports calories by as much as 400 +/- calories a day, so your TDEE (or maintenance calories) could be higher. So as long as you are eating below that mark and maintaining the same exercise, you will lose. With that said, as you get smaller, you will want to minimize your deficit and probably as soon as possible, add in some resistance training (even body weight) to help maintain your metabolism and muscle mass to help you get lean and tight. The below ranges is what you should be aiming for in terms of a goal.

Additionally if it makes you feel better, the average women I know is losing at 1700-2100 calories and maintains at 2200-2600 calories.


If you have 75+ lbs to lose 2 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 40-75 lbs to lose 1.5 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 25-40 lbs to lose 1 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 15 -25 lbs to lose 0.5 to 1.0 lbs/week is ideal, and
If you have less than 15 lbs to lose 0.5 lbs/week is ideal.

Patttience

1. You shouldn't have made such a big sudden increase in your calories.
2. the very low calorie count you were eating, may be ok for about 3 months but after that, its probably not something you should do in the long run.
3. Exercise isn't for losing weight, although it can have that effect. Its best not to rely on it for weightloss. in fact, having lost all my weight this year without much exercise and having ridden out a couple of rocky moments, it think its way easier to lose weight without a lot of it. I've only just started exercise now but its the fun sort that i think i could keep up in the long term. and if i can't i think i can be ok with it too.
4. Find a TDEE calculator somewhere else and use that to find your total maintenance calories and then cut back some, maybe not so radically as what you were doing but not so loose as the new regime you just had a go at.
5. The mfp system seems to always cause the sort of confusion you've experienced.
6. a lot of diet advice that you've been hearing for many years is now being overturned. e.g., low fat recommendations. That doesn't mean go and stuff your face with fat. Just use enough to enable your food to taste good especially if you've been finding your food somewhat bland and dull.
7. the increase in weight you've registered is mostly likely water weight. If you've been eating more carb foods, then your body will hold more water in your muscles as a natural healthy response to the carbs. This is very likely the explanation of weight gain but if it were to continue indefinitely and didn't stabilise then you'd know that your calorie count was too high.
8. If you eat less than your TDEE you should lose weight. Don't eat as little possible. Eat as much possible and still lose weight. Make the whole business easy for yourself.

jenniator

Hey guys Thank you so much for your opinions. Let me clarify a little bit. I do weigh and measure all my meals, so my calorie intake is correct. I do believe I burn around 600 calories per day, but I could be wrong since I don't have a HRM. In total I walk 6.4-6.6 miles per day. I walk 3.2 to 3.3 miles in the morning and another 3.2 to 3.3 miles in the afternoon. It takes me about 51-54 minutes to walk 3.2 to 3.3 miles. I've heard that a mile is roughly 100 calories. I actually use MFP and my walking phone app to calculate the calories. MFP say it's about 312 calories per walk and my walking app on the phone says 320, but I round it down to 300 just to be safe. But please let me know how many calories you believe around that I am burning from my walks since I've been thinking around 600 calories in total for the 5 months But I don't want to over estimate my calories since that can also be my problem.

Right now I am at 201 pounds and I want to get down to around 130. So I have 71 pounds left to lose. Some of you said 2 pounds a week is a little aggressive, but I don't think it is with the amount of weight I have still left to lose. I mean I've been having trouble losing even 1 pound, so I could really use some help.

How many calories would you guys recommend that I eat a day if I want to lose 2 pounds a week?

4daluvof_candice

Thats why I just eat 1600 calories/day(after research with MFP method I found I lose at this amount) and dont log the exercise calories to eat back.

jenniator

Right now I'm at 863 calories Saving 700-900 for dinner

But I'm not sure if I'm over eating or not. I also don't know around how many calories I'm burning from my walks since everyone thinks it is a lot less

Cortneyrenee04

Hi! So, I personally don't eat back exercise calories from walking, at least not all of them. Maybe you could eat back half and see if that works for you. (Do you enjoy the walking? If so, great! If not, I think you could find something that doesn't take so much of your day.)

Find your TDEE- I would look it up for you if I knew your height- and subtract 20% and eat that With your consistent exercise, that seems like it would work for you!

psuLemon

jenniator wrote: »

Hey guys Thank you so much for your opinions. Let me clarify a little bit. I do weigh and measure all my meals, so my calorie intake is correct. I do believe I burn around 600 calories per day, but I could be wrong since I don't have a HRM. In total I walk 6.4-6.6 miles per day. I walk 3.2 to 3.3 miles in the morning and another 3.2 to 3.3 miles in the afternoon. It takes me about 51-54 minutes to walk 3.2 to 3.3 miles. I've heard that a mile is roughly 100 calories. I actually use MFP and my walking phone app to calculate the calories. MFP say it's about 312 calories per walk and my walking app on the phone says 320, but I round it down to 300 just to be safe. But please let me know how many calories you believe around that I am burning from my walks since I've been thinking around 600 calories in total for the 5 months But I don't want to over estimate my calories since that can also be my problem.

Right now I am at 201 pounds and I want to get down to around 130. So I have 71 pounds left to lose. Some of you said 2 pounds a week is a little aggressive, but I don't think it is with the amount of weight I have still left to lose. I mean I've been having trouble losing even 1 pound, so I could really use some help.

How many calories would you guys recommend that I eat a day if I want to lose 2 pounds a week?

HRM are wildly inaccurate for most activities outside of steady state cardio like running. You are probably burning a fraction of that, especially since your body will adapt to walking.

Personally, that is why many of us use a different approach called the TDEE method where you include exercise into your calculations and then form a deficit from there. This way you aren't eat back exercise calories, hoping they are accurate numbers.

Having said that, you won't sustain 2 lbs the who time you lose weight and you should start adding some more calories. Personally, I would bump you to 1500 for another 25 lbs and then bump up calories to about 1700.

onefortyone

I would automatically suggest eating your calories back. It may make you hold on to a couple of extra pounds of water weight at first, but if you don't let that scare you, then I truly believe that being able to eat will make you a LOT more patient about weight loss. If you eat in a way that you can sustain for a lifetime, then the confidence that the weight WILL come off (even slowly) will push you through any hard times. I think you're going for it a little bit drastically, which can make 3 weeks seem like a lifetime, when in reality it is a drop in the bucket.

P.S. How much water are you drinking? How much water I drink correlates with how forgiving the scale is

jenniator

Hi Cortney I'm actually not sure how many calories a day I should be eating (without counting the exercise) since everyone I talked to said the amount i was eating was too less. I actually really do enjoy walking and don't mind that it takes so long. I enjoy the fresh air and listening to my music, but I've been a little depressed lately since I'm having trouble losing 1 pound for weeks, so it really is affecting my attitude and I don't enjoy walking as much as I did because of it. But normally I really do love it. But my husband bought me a elliptical to use for my birthday, so I plan to use that instead of walking when it arrives Especially with the rainy season coming. I was also thinking of starting a beginner jogging routine from Sparkspeople Monday and it's a 5 week program. It's about 25-30 minutes of walking/jogging for 3 days a week.

What is TDEE? I have never heard of that term. My height is 5'6 and I'm 201 pounds if that helps

jenniator

Hello psulemon!

I always heard that HRM are extremely accurate for any kind of physical activity you do. I was considering to buy one maybe since I thought it would be accurate compared to my phone or MFP. I know my body has adapted to walking, so I tried adding small portions of jogging in my routine, but it hasn't worked.

I never heard of the TDEE method and I don't know what it is. I'm also not sure if I would be able to include my exercise into the calculations since I don't know exactly how much I am losing.

I know I won't be able to lose 2 pounds forever :P But I'm hoping I can till around 185 pounds. I think that since I have 71 pounds left, it should be possible.

cwolfman13

You can cut the calorie burn from your brisk walk in half...nobody is burning 600 calories on an hour long walk. Pretty much any database is going to be fairly unreliable for calorie burn...for walking, a good general rule of thumb is about 80 calories per mile...you want to be conservative using the MFP method (or any method for that matter)

That said, the theory is sound. Without exercise I maintain on roughly 2300-2400 calories and can lose about 1 Lb per week on 1800 - 1900 calories. With my regular exercise, I maintain on roughly 2,800 - 2,900 calories per day and I can easily lose about 1 Lb per week consuming 2,300 - 2,400 calories per day.

Regular exercise and just a general increase in activity increases your body's energy (calorie) requirements.

jenniator

Hello onefortyone,

I hope it is just a little water weight and it's not really extra weight. I've been dieted for 5 months, so I would think I'm over the water weight part :P I do feel a lot better being able to eat more and not as hungry, but I also want to lose weight at the sametime. I think anyone would freak out if they've been dieting and exercise like crazy only to find out they've lost absolutely nothing for 3 weeks. I mean it is a lot of hard work even though 3 weeks might be nothing compared to a lifetime.

I've been drinking 10 cups of tea that is unsweetened (absolutely cannot drink 1 glass of water) for several months now. I started at 6 in the beginning and moved to 10 cups. After drinking so much every day, I haven't noticed it affecting my weight in's. But I still pee a lot.

psuLemon

jenniator wrote: »

Hello psulemon!

I always heard that HRM are extremely accurate for any kind of physical activity you do. I was considering to buy one maybe since I thought it would be accurate compared to my phone or MFP. I know my body has adapted to walking, so I tried adding small portions of jogging in my routine, but it hasn't worked.

I never heard of the TDEE method and I don't know what it is. I'm also not sure if I would be able to include my exercise into the calculations since I don't know exactly how much I am losing.

I know I won't be able to lose 2 pounds forever :P But I'm hoping I can till around 185 pounds. I think that since I have 71 pounds left, it should be possible.

Unfortunately, you were told wrong about HRMs. If you search around on MFP its been discussed quite often. There are plenty of TDEE calculators (i believe fitnessfrog has one) but I did all the math for you in my first post. Based on your input, it would suggest you maintain around 2200 calories (give or take), so maintaining your calories would maintain your loss rate. I would generally suggest altering your macros to include more protein. In your case, i would probably recommend 35% carbs, 35% protein and 30% fats until you add more calories. And all of that can be changed using the below link.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/change_goals

jenniator

Thank you so much That is unfortunate about the HRM, but at least I havent bought one yet. I was considering to buy one for when I use the elliptical since I heard they over estimate by 30%. Wow 2,200 calories seems like an extremely amount to eat for a women that wants to lose 2 pounds a week. I don't know if I could bring myself to eat that many calories a day ha ha. But today I am aiming for around 1663 to 1763 calories which I still feel is such a huge amount and I feel extremely bad for eating so much. I have been getting a lot of protein I believe I eat eggs for lunch some days and meat at night. Not sure about the carbs or fats though.

silentKayak

Sounds like you're doing great! Don't give up!

I doubt eating more is the solution. Some people here swear by it, but it makes no sense. We all know that eating less/burning more is the key to fat loss. Long-term, eating a bit more and burning it with exercise (for the same net calories) is better for your health and body composition than trying to maintain a low calorie diet, especially if you're not eating the most nutritious diet possible. But for numbers on the scale, what matters is "net calories", which is calories eaten - calories burned.

Two things that may help.

- MFP massively overcalculates calories burned from exercise. I have good success by logging my exercise at 50%. If you go for a 60 minute walk, log it as 30 minutes. Then use that as your new budget for the day.

- You may not actually be stalled. If you've been doing the same thing for 5 months, and you were losing before, you're probably still losing. It's not linear, and slowdowns are normal. Try an app called Happy Scale. You put your weight in every day from the scale, then it shows you a "predicted weight", which is basically your average from the last 7 days. It'll take a week or two for it to be accurate, but it pretty much flattens out the daily fluctuations so you can REALLY see if you're losing or maintaining. I thought I was maintaining or even gaining, but I was actually losing half a pound a week. It's hard to see that in daily readings when the scale goes randomly up or down by as much as a pound or two a day depending on water weight.

psuLemon

jenniator wrote: »

Thank you so much That is unfortunate about the HRM, but at least I havent bought one yet. I was considering to buy one for when I use the elliptical since I heard they over estimate by 30%. Wow 2,200 calories seems like an extremely amount to eat for a women that wants to lose 2 pounds a week. I don't know if I could bring myself to eat that many calories a day ha ha. But today I am aiming for around 1663 to 1763 calories which I still feel is such a huge amount and I feel extremely bad for eating so much. I have been getting a lot of protein I believe I eat eggs for lunch some days and meat at night. Not sure about the carbs or fats though.

You maintain your weight around 2200... to keep losing 2 lbs, don't change anything. And the HRM can work if you start running instead of walking. But for walking or resistance training or HIIT, HRMs just aren't accurate.

Cortneyrenee04

It looks like you would do well eating about 1820 a day as long as your exercise is very consistent. I would definitely recommend bumping up calories slowly to make sure that number is right for you. Drastic changes are generally not the best idea good luck!

pinkiezoom

jenniator wrote: »

Hi Cortney I'm actually not sure how many calories a day I should be eating (without counting the exercise) since everyone I talked to said the amount i was eating was too less. I actually really do enjoy walking and don't mind that it takes so long. I enjoy the fresh air and listening to my music, but I've been a little depressed lately since I'm having trouble losing 1 pound for weeks, so it really is affecting my attitude and I don't enjoy walking as much as I did because of it. But normally I really do love it. But my husband bought me a elliptical to use for my birthday, so I plan to use that instead of walking when it arrives Especially with the rainy season coming. I was also thinking of starting a beginner jogging routine from Sparkspeople Monday and it's a 5 week program. It's about 25-30 minutes of walking/jogging for 3 days a week.

What is TDEE? I have never heard of that term. My height is 5'6 and I'm 201 pounds if that helps

that elipictical trainer will help your weight start shifting as my goodness they make you sweat and raise your heart rate, i am the same height and weight as you, but probably older,and after a lot of just using the treadmill i have moved on to the eliptical trainer, and if you pelt it out, the calories you burn are much more than walking.
Do you measure yourself? as on the weeks I dont lose any weight i shrink in size lol!
Not all wins are shown on the scales.

Sued0nim

Ok I burn around 350-400 calories in 5 miles ...using a fitbit and a HRM

MFP would give me around double that

So I would increase your calorie consumption slowly ..say a 100 a day for a week then again until you hit the MFP plus 50% of exercise calories ...yes you should lose at a higher number

Also the weight you've put on is just from upping your calories so quickly ...don't worry it's just water fluctuation

Good luck ...and enjoy eating sensibly to lose your weight

jenniator

Omg rabbitjb, are you seriously?! So MFP says I burn 312 calories, so it's actually 156 calories for 51-53 minutes!? I thought a mile was 100 calories? Wow that is actually really sad to hear. I thought I was getting 600 a day, but it's really only 312 calories for 2 hours of walking?

And here I was so proud of myself for burning so many calories...I thought.

lemurcat12

jenniator wrote: »

Omg rabbitjb, are you seriously?! So MFP says I burn 312 calories, so it's actually 156 calories for 51-53 minutes!? I thought a mile was 100 calories? Wow that is actually really sad to hear. I thought I was getting 600 a day, but it's really only 312 calories for 2 hours of walking?

And here I was so proud of myself for burning so many calories...I thought.

It's great you are walking a lot and you should be proud of yourself for being active and burning all those calories, as compared with what would be happening if you were sedentary, but when you calculate an estimate of calories burned to figure out what calories you need to lose weight and take into account calories burned from exercise, especially activities like walking, you have to be careful.

First, there's a certain amount of physical activity that it's assumed that a person will have even without intentionally exercising. For example, for a while I put myself down as "lightly active" and didn't log all the walking I do on a daily basis, even though I was otherwise eating back exercise calories and even though I walk a lot (I live in a city and walk basically everywhere). I still think that's probably the best way to handle walking calories--you might want to see what MFP recommends if you call yourself "lightly active" and don't bother eating back the exercise.

Second, one reason you have to cut calories from stuff like walking and long slow bike rides--basically any longer, low-intensity exercise--is that you burn lots of calories just existing. The estimates you get for calorie burns typically do not adjust to remove the calories you would have burnt during the same time period even if you were inactive.

Finally, congrats on the 40 lb loss! But the effect of that is that you burn less just existing and less from exercise, and that could be one reason you are doing the same thing and not losing so much.

brandigyrl81

Here's my advice:

1. If you want to invest in a heart rate monitor, then I say go for it. I use a heart rate monitor (Polar FT4 brand) and I love it! It's way more accurate then using MFP's estimated numbers.
2. Since you've been walking for a good while now, it's probably time to switch your exercise routine. Try incorporating some strength training.
3. As far as your exercise calories go (the calories you've earned from exercising), try to refrain from eating all of them back. This creates a larger deficit.

sofaking6

I've found that when *running*, I can burn up to 100 calories per mile, but for walking it's less than half that. You're probably not too too far off though, if you're walking two hours a day. And how AWESOME that you are doing that for yourself, that shows so much dedication, it's really impressive to me!

Since you've done well so far, you're definitely on the right track. Ask people who have successfully lost similar amounts to you and they will tell you, sometimes you just don't lose for awhile. Bodies are complicated and we barely understand them.

I would however start eating back at least some of your exercise calories. As suggested, make little changes and see what happens. You'll feel better and it won't hurt your weight loss. And I think it's great that you're planning to up the intensity of your exercise - walking is awesome and yes it's burning calories, but you'll see once you start with the elliptical that getting your heart rate up will really improve your fitness quickly. You'll start feeling the results of your hard work as daily life gets easier, and you won't have to rely on the scale so much to tell you how you're doing.

Congrats on your weight loss so far and what I'm sure will be continued success.

WinoGelato

If the majority of your activity is walking, maybe running - you may want to invest in a FitBit. You can wear that for the full day to track your activity and a reasonable estimate of your calories burned, it syncs with MFP and helps determine how many calories you should be eating based on your activity level that day. I have found mine to be fairly accurate with predictable results when I use the two tools together.

jenniator

Thank you so much lemurcat! Honestly I was so depressed and hurt when I found out I wasn't burning as much as I believed. Thank you so much for the encouraging words, it really does help me feel so much better. I really am proud of myself for losing as much weight as I have. It actually is amazing that I've lost 39-40 pounds just from walking alone! I didn't realize how careful I needed to be with calculating walking calories. I thought I had such a high amount since both MFP and my walking app said similar things. I mean at least I am doing something about my weight and trying my best even if it's a small amount of calories for such a lot of time spend exercising.

I put myself as Moderately active, but I might need to change it to lightly active if I'm only burning 312 calories a day. I only calculate the calories from what I call my "exercise period." That's when I exercise exclusively to lose calories and walk for 51-53 minutes non-stop. If I go to the store, walk some where, or bike some where, I don't count that as exercise so I don't count the calories. I heard you shouldn't count the calories you burn doing what you would normally do, but you should count the calories you go out of your way to specifically burn.

Thank you! It's actually 39 pounds from this morning since I'm back to 201, but I'm hoping that will change soon