2650 Calories a day??!

Options
2»

Replies

  • TarheelramTr
    TarheelramTr Posts: 18
    Options
    999tigger wrote: »
    Calorie number seems ok for me. I got your maintenance at just over 3000 for sedentary.

    Oh and the eating 1000 calories not ok, but its your body and if you dont want to diet in a safe and sustainable way then go right ahead. Alternatively go and see a dietician or talk to your Dr so they can supervise you.

    I already said I know 1000 calories is bad and I'm trying to fix it.
  • ButterflyFran
    ButterflyFran Posts: 2 Member
    Options
    Yes i think this sounds right. . Dont worry about it. . Go with what it sayds for a week and then see what you have los. MFP always allows more calories for a man and also if you are tall and weigh more. I am 6ft tall and weigh now 224 lbs and my calorie goal is 1650 a day. Also you have set your activity level at Active. . Becareful with this as you are also eating back your exercise calories. . If i were you i would go for lightly active but then thats up to you! Good luck!
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
    Options
    I'm three times your age, almost 100lbs lighter and I'm eating about 2650 to maintain my weight..... Still think that's a lot of calories?

    Don't want to be mean but how come you are struggling to eat enough? You sure as hell ate a lot more than that to get fat!
    Somewhere between getting fat and losing weight far too quickly is the sweet spot of eating the right amount to achieve your goals.

    In the end no-one can tell you what that right amount is and whether you use this calculator or a TDEE calculator you are going to have to suck and see for a few weeks and then adjust based on results. Make your rate of loss, your food choices and the habits you build sensible and sustainable. Crash dieting unless to have an urgent medical imperative isn't smart.
  • NowyTends
    NowyTends Posts: 110 Member
    Options
    I'm 26 & 6' (184cm) and i cut on first 2150cal down to 1890cal and got rid of 27.5 or 60lb since Feb. I've moved to my bulking phase (powerlifting plus distance running- bad combo i know) and slowly upped my calories to 3000cal and will eventually be somewhere between 3000cal-5000cal in the long term.

    Lots of people have provided facts here, and some have provided their own experiences like i have. The comment by Sijomial above mine is very accurate.. Follow it, because there is no 100% one size fits all solution.. It takes time, effort and patience.

    I wish you the best of luck.
  • MelodyandBarbells
    MelodyandBarbells Posts: 7,725 Member
    Options
    All I can say in response to the subject line is, "must be nice" :|
  • icrushit
    icrushit Posts: 773 Member
    edited December 2014
    Options
    35 here, between 5'9 & 5'10 and weigh 166lbs. I've a little muscle mass but nothing major, and am broad-shouldered with a build somewhere a little more than medium but less than large. I don't sit at a desk all day, but neither would I do anything that I would break a sweat from either. Currently I maintain on about 2625 calories a day, just to give you another data point to consider.

    I plugged myself into MFP as 'lightly active' (what I actually consider myself to be) when I joined, and found the MFP figure to be on the low side and at least 400 calories off, probably more. When I exercise (walking & some bodyweight resistance training), I would need to eat anywhere from an additional 200 to 500 calories on top of that 2600 to maintain.

    In any event, calculators can vary a lot and are really only good for giving you a starting point. It's often much better to figure it out yourself, and is easily enough done by keeping track of what you are typically losing each week and seeing if it is corresponding with what you would have expected to lose with your chosen calorie intake. Just remember the first few weeks of any weight loss programme will include a bit of water weight loss, so best to exclude these initial weeks from your calculations.

    Hope this helps :smile:
  • icrushit
    icrushit Posts: 773 Member
    Options
    By the way, MFP's 3650 for you for maintenance works out to be about 14 calories per lb of your bodyweight, which seems a reasonable enough estimate to me.

    Re: eating, if you're struggling to eat, I found what worked for me was planning my meals a little. I make sure myself to eat something in the first half of the day, the middle part, and in the evening. I had a tendency for unbalanced meals, where I would eat mostly just a decent-sized portion of one thing for that meal, which made it difficult to exceed 500/ 600 calories I found. Nowadays I try aim for more balance at each meal, and find the overall calorie level of each meal is 700/ 800/ 900, which fits in with my daily calorie goal.

    So, whereas a breakfast before might have been a big bowl of porridge with additions, whereas now I will still have the same bowl of porridge, but also have some eggs and toast with it. A pot of yoghurt and a piece of fruit are easy additions to a lunch, as well as perhaps having a second light meal/ decent snack mid-afternoon to bump up your intake. Likewise with evening meals, a post-meal dessert is an easy (and enjoyable) way to tack on anywhere between 200- 400 calories calories also.

  • sheldonklein
    sheldonklein Posts: 854 Member
    Options
    TarheelramTr wrote: »
    Thank you and one more thing is it important to increase your calorie intake with exercise? Lets say one day I felt like burning 500 calories am I supposed to eat more than I usually do?

    If you use MFP's method, add exercise calories. If you use the TDEE method, it's already built on, so you would be double counting exercise.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,874 Member
    Options
    I'm a 5'10" male and oldish...I am active and that's right around my maintenance calories. With your stats, and if your activity level is indeed "active", the number you are getting is highly plausible.

    Also, with MFP's method, you account for exercise after the fact when you log it...if you are including that in you "active" activity level then you would not want to log exercise and eat those calories back as you would be double dipping.
  • TarheelramTr
    TarheelramTr Posts: 18
    edited December 2014
    Options
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    I'm a 5'10" male and oldish...I am active and that's right around my maintenance calories. With your stats, and if your activity level is indeed "active", the number you are getting is highly plausible.

    Also, with MFP's method, you account for exercise after the fact when you log it...if you are including that in you "active" activity level then you would not want to log exercise and eat those calories back as you would be double dipping.

    Oh so exercise should not be included with the activity set? Since I have classes would it be best to set my activity to low and then include the exercise calories?
  • nosebag1212
    nosebag1212 Posts: 621 Member
    edited December 2014
    Options
    14-16 cals per lb bodyweight is a rough guideline for most peoples' maintenance, 2650 calories is not some huge maintenance by any means
  • FatFreeFrolicking
    FatFreeFrolicking Posts: 4,252 Member
    edited December 2014
    Options
    Nevermind. You answered my question in another post. However, as another poster said, eating 1000 or less is NOT healthy. The calories you have been told to eat seem accurate for someone of your height and weight.
  • TarheelramTr
    TarheelramTr Posts: 18
    Options
    Well now that I changed it to low activity it went all the way down to 2150 which is basically 2350 since I burn 200 calories or more each day exercising. I'm already at 1000 right now.

Categories