How Many Calories Did You Eat Before MFP?

Options
SabrinaLovesPandora
SabrinaLovesPandora Posts: 33 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
(You don't have to answer if you don't want to :) )

To begin with, I'm 5'3, 125 lbs and naturally pretty small framed and my GW is 110. I averaged about 3000 calories a day and, since starting MFP 3 days ago, I only eat around 1200 a day now.

It's hitting me pretty hard, as I used to be constantly eating.

What did/do you do to help when you stopped eating so much? Did it get any easier? And does your stomach really shrink when you stop frequently over-eating?


Thanks for the advice!!
«134

Replies

  • callsitlikeiseeit
    callsitlikeiseeit Posts: 8,627 Member
    Options
    your stomach doesnt shrink, your body gets used to smaller amounts .

    no idea how many i ate before MFP- probably 2500 ish, more sometimes
  • hollyrayburn
    hollyrayburn Posts: 905 Member
    Options
    I've no idea, as I wasn't counting them then!
  • SabrinaLovesPandora
    SabrinaLovesPandora Posts: 33 Member
    Options
    Don't worry, I'm guessing based on the things I used to eat regularly! I would drink a Starbucks Frappuccino TWICE a day.
  • hollyrayburn
    hollyrayburn Posts: 905 Member
    Options
    Haha, and those are about 600 ish for a venti. I'm a former starbucks addict. Me and starbucks broke up though, I'm a Dunkin girl now Haha
  • SabrinaLovesPandora
    SabrinaLovesPandora Posts: 33 Member
    Options
    I'm trying so hard not to even look in the direction of Starbucks right now. I'm trying to see how long I'll last making my food, given my small amounts of patience.
  • Terrapin88
    Terrapin88 Posts: 13 Member
    Options
    Since I've been on MFP logging in my foods daily, I've come to realize just how many calories I would consume in a typical day before. At times there were days were I ate 4000+ calories and didn't realize it. Never being much of a cook, I either ate out or ate easy. Mac & cheese from a box, Dominos Pan Pizza (my cryptonite), Wendy's Baconators with large fries, Olive Garden's Fettuchini Alfredo with their superb breadsticks, etc. Growing up Italian is no help either. Breads, pasta, red sauce, etc. I am amazed at the amount of calories (many of them "empty") a lot of the foods I used to eat constantly contained. Scary stuff.

    Anyway, it took a week or so of eating different kinds of food with smaller portions for my stomach to get used to it. Late night munchies used to get me all the time. Now not so much. I drink water or chew gum when I have the munchies. HTH.

  • hhnkhl
    hhnkhl Posts: 231 Member
    Options
    I have no clue....lol. maybe 3000?
  • maidentl
    maidentl Posts: 3,203 Member
    Options
    Well, since I maintained a pretty steady weight for years, and maintenance for that weight is around 1800 calories, that's probably close to the amount I ate.
  • Blueseraphchaos
    Blueseraphchaos Posts: 843 Member
    Options
    I'm pretty sure that my calories out part of the calculation was off due to a few factors. I started gaining weight and i was probably eating 3500 calories a day, at least. I gained a lot of weight very quickly. Then i cleaned up my diet and started seeing a registered dietician/m.d. and was still gaining weight, albeit much more slowly, and I'm not even sure if mfp was a thing at that point, but we estimated my daily calories to be about 2000 (at which point i should have been losing weight but wasn't). Them my dr and i fixed a few things and finally i started losing weight around the same time i started continuously tracking on mfp (although I'd had an account for a couple years before i started continuously teaching).

    I can't wait until i can once again eat 2000 calories to maintain my weight, lol. Now that everything has been fixed, i just hope nothing else goes wrong that will need to be fixed in order to keep my "calories out" part of the equation in order.
  • TimothyFish
    TimothyFish Posts: 4,925 Member
    Options
    I don't really know. That's why I started MFP, to figure it out, but when I started logging I quit eating as much. Given that I was maintaining at 270, I must have been eating 3000+. My current calorie allowance is 1600. I've been struggling to keep to that over the last couple of weeks because I haven't been able to exercise for a while and I've just been sitting around. I should be able to start exercise again next week. That will make it easier because I can eat more and because I won't spend as much time sitting around the house.
  • Lounmoun
    Lounmoun Posts: 8,426 Member
    Options
    I don't know.
    I started with a calorie goal of 1330 and it wasn't very difficult at all for me so probably somewhere between 1300 and 2000 with a very sedentary lifestyle.
    I pre-log 3 meals and 1-2 snacks every day. I eat what I have planned. I know I am getting enough calories and I tell myself that. I drink water and wait before eating more. I chew gum in I have an urge to stick food in my mouth out of boredom.
  • barbecuesauce
    barbecuesauce Posts: 1,779 Member
    Options
    Wasn't counting, but I was probably putting on 1 pound a month. So an extra 117 calories a day.
  • Lisa_0527
    Lisa_0527 Posts: 90 Member
    Options
    I don't really know how many calories I was eating daily before joining MFP but once I joined I logged in a few things that I would normally have and the numbers were unbelievable, not just the calories but the amount of sugar I was consuming was almost triple what I should be having.......I actually cried after seeing the results. Now whenever I am craving something I will log it in and usually seeing the numbers on the screen will help me pass on having it. I will occasionally treat myself but now I plan it into my day and I stick to ONE serving. I have only been doing this for 18 days and it is amazing how much better I feel since getting my sugar intake under control.
  • ana3067
    ana3067 Posts: 5,624 Member
    Options
    hollyrayburn wrote: »
    I've no idea, as I wasn't counting them then!

    This. For all I know I ate 1500 half of the week and 3500 the rest of the week, etc.
  • krysmuree
    krysmuree Posts: 326 Member
    Options
    SabrinaLovesPandora wrote: »
    I'm trying so hard not to even look in the direction of Starbucks right now. I'm trying to see how long I'll last making my food, given my small amounts of patience.

    I worked at Starbucks for a long time. I'm pretty sure my overindulgence was the cause for my final 20lb weight gain a couple of years ago.

    But! For you to be successful, you shouldn't outright avoid things. You can indulge in Starbucks and still lose (I've recently switched from frappuccinos, to lattes, to plain iced coffee, to an iced americano, to two shots of espresso on ice with one pump of hazelnut - it takes weaning, haha)! Same goes for anything else - cookies, pizza, whatever. Don't just give it all up. Learn moderation and portions and keep it all within your calorie allotment. :)

    I started at 200~lbs, down to 187lbs, and personally eat 1,500 calories. That's what I'm comfortable at. I don't binge, I don't slip, I feel satisfied, and I'm losing. Trying to lose .5lb a week and KEEP it off.

    I've slipped a few times while calorie counting but continued to count, even on a really bad day (which is literally the same as an old "normal" day for me) and I usually top off at 2,500 - 2,700 calories.
  • barbecuesauce
    barbecuesauce Posts: 1,779 Member
    Options
    ana3067 wrote: »
    hollyrayburn wrote: »
    I've no idea, as I wasn't counting them then!

    This. For all I know I ate 1500 half of the week and 3500 the rest of the week, etc.

    Yeah. I know I definitely had low days and high days, but I almost intentionally turned a blind eye to nutrition labels.
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
    Options
    I have no clue either, way over 2000 calories most days. I didn't start counting calories until I had to lose the weight
  • Ang108
    Ang108 Posts: 1,711 Member
    edited March 2015
    Options
    SabrinaLovesPandora wrote: »
    (You don't have to answer if you don't want to :) )

    To begin with, I'm 5'3, 125 lbs and naturally pretty small framed and my GW is 110. I averaged about 3000 calories a day and, since starting MFP 3 days ago, I only eat around 1200 a day now.

    It's hitting me pretty hard, as I used to be constantly eating.

    What did/do you do to help when you stopped eating so much? Did it get any easier? And does your stomach really shrink when you stop frequently over-eating?


    Thanks for the advice!!

    I have eaten all my life a healthy, whole foods ( minimally processed ) diet. I just ate too much of it and think it was around 2000-2200 calories on average. For a person going on 70 and under five feet tall that was too much.
    I now eat 1200 calories a day and am set for a .5 pound loss a week and have lost 55 pounds in exactly two years. My way of eating helps me, because I can eat a lot of vegetables and other healthy things. I don't drink my calories, if you don't count 4 calories a day for two cups of black coffee. I eat nothing " lite ", low carb, low fat and still eat a lot of food each day. I just cut out the exaggerated amounts of rice and pasta I used to eat.

  • zyxst
    zyxst Posts: 9,134 Member
    Options
    Best guess is 4000.
  • happykelly209
    happykelly209 Posts: 29 Member
    Options
    way too many.. too much sugar too

Categories