2,000 calories [a day] is only enough to sustain children and postmenopausal women
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I wish I could figure out why my TDEE seems to be around 1600. Im 19, just over 5 feet, active as heck most days. Still a sh**ty TDEE.The awesome myfitnesspal data export tool (an excel thingamabob) gives me an average TDEE of around 2350kcal per day. I'm under 5 feet tall and female. I don't get how anyone's TDEE (around my age anyway, 32) could be 1400kcal either, they must be bedridden. I'm mainly sedentary as I don't work and still have a pretty good TDEE.
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Here's a fun article: http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2011/08/why-does-the-fda-recommend-2-000-calories-per-day/243092/
I often find myself wondering why everyone is so convinced they need to eat so little. I mean, I always thought the 2,000 calorie number was for women and the 2,500 calorie number was more for men. Yet it seems, everyone is always claiming their TDEE is nearly 1,400. While doing some investigation as to what the actual calorie requirements are for men and women, I ran into this article. Turns out, even the 2,000 calorie number is too low for most women. It was picked on the basis of opinion and not science.Despite the observable fact that 2,350 calories per day is below the average requirements for either men or women obtained from doubly labeled water experiments, most of the people who responded to the comments judged the proposed benchmark too high. Nutrition educators worried that it would encourage overconsumption, be irrelevant to women who consume fewer calories, and permit overstatement of acceptable levels of "eat less" nutrients such as saturated fat and sodium.
But, this is my favorite quote from the whole thing:As to how many calories you personally need, I think they are too difficult for most people to count accurately to bother. The bottom line: If you are eating too many, you will be gaining weight.
The best advice I can give is to get a scale and use it. If your weight starts creeping up, you have to eat less.
LOL, even the author of a book titled Why Calories Count: From Science to Politics thinks you shouldn't bother actually counting calories.
WHAT THE......!??! - 2000 calories would have me gaining fat quicker than you can say "cellulite city". I don't care what any article says, women come in all shapes and sizes, and the amount of calories an average height 140 pound woman can maintain at would be wayyyy too much for a 5ft tall 127 pound midget like me. FACT! Plus then you have metabolism speeds to come into play... Mine of course is slow (thanks god) so that lowers your weight gain threshold once again.
I've tried eating more calories, and even 100 calories below sedentary TDEE, with exercise on top, I stay the same weight. My body appears to need the standard 500 calorie minimum deficit to lose fat. As my sedentary TDEE is 1400 that means only 900 net calories per day intake for me to be guaranteed a reasonable weekly weight loss of only 1 pound ish per week. Obviously 900 cals is too low a goal to sustain, so I need to eat 1200 cals a day, then exercise off the remaining 300 calories, and not eat any exercise calories back.
It's so frustrating to hear people professing we can all eat so many more calories and lose weight, when experience is showing me that is sadly not the case. I've tried upping my cals this past week or two, and I sit here weighing exactly the same as I did 3 weeks ago, possibly 1 pound heavier. Argghh! So frustrating! (I have 10 more days to get that scale below 125 pounds before my summer vacation. It was a really important goal I set myself, which should have been technically easily achievable with the amount of work I'm putting in every single day, so im beyond disappointed that eating a bit more did NOT work for me).
I mean, if I could really eat 2000 cals and maintain weight, or 1500 cals and lose, I wouldn't have all this excess body fat to start with! And I'd be tiny and slim by now.
Truly, for some of us, low calories and tough restrictions are the only way to ensure satisfying weight fat loss.
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I only eat 1700 or so calories
Even on high calorie burn days
If I eat 2000 calories a day I gain slowly
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There was a time when I was gaining weight at 1,700-1,800 calories a day. So, I don't disbelieve those who claim to do the same. But, I suspect that was the end result of long term diet induced issues. When those turned around and healed, my TDEE rose and now I can eat 2,500-2,700 calories a day without gaining weight.0
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It is frustrating
I'm glad it may be a phase.
Maybe I should go to a muscle build phase
That used to be a good gear change
It has been 20 months of losing weight0 -
As you get more fit, your RMR drops. This is counter to conventional wisdom, but several studies bare it out, including at least one done by Volek.
If you're still hungry, focus on protein. It's almost impossible to get fat by eating too much protein.0 -
Professionalhobbyist this seems so strange to me. As a very active male and if your profile pic is you.... you should be able to eat way more. I am a 52 yo woman and 2000 is about maintenance for me.0
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The human body is not a simple machine and is mainly electrical in nature and is powered by sunlight in one form or another. On top of that we can respond differently due to the different foods produced as the results of sunlight. The science of HOW MUCH we should eat daily at an individual level just is not there in my view.
There is only one way that I know how to track how my body deals with food that are all a byproduct of sunlight and water. That is to track what I eat and how it makes me feel and where the scales go up, down or stay the same. That is not rocket science.
Personally I think as my organ systems recover on a very low carb eating lifestyle I can handle more calories in part because I move more because I am more physically able to move better. I am doing activities that were not possible 12 months ago for example.
The lack of hard science about human diets at an individual level does not concern me. I work to find what works for me and try to get blood work and a check up annually to monitor the results of my eating and moving habits that I have adopted. How I feel is the most important factor. While I am very slowly losing weight my first goal is to feel better and physically be well.0 -
Interestingly, that study I posted above about estimating metabolic rates found that the best estimate was the caloric intake.
This can either be used to support the Taubes/FIT_Goat view that intake drives EE, or it simply reflects the fact that the body is very good at maintaining homeostasis and accurately directs us to consume just enough. Probably a little bit of both.
We normally don't question thirst as a good director of fluid balance, why should we question hunger as a director of energy balance?0 -
Great points all around. The bottom line for me is that calories are one part of a much bigger story, that can vary considerably on an individual level, due to all the other factors at play. For me personally, I know I can lose weight effortlessly if I cut out dairy, probably eating more calories per day than I do now. But I haven't managed to give it up without really missing it, so I do eat it. When my allergies get bad, I'll cut it out for a while, because I'll have enough of an incentive to do so. Macro ratios, hormonal differences, the season of life you're in, how much and what exercise you do, all matter.0
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@professionalHobbyist, nice ride! And go charge your phone. ;-p0
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There was a time when I was gaining weight at 1,700-1,800 calories a day. So, I don't disbelieve those who claim to do the same. But, I suspect that was the end result of long term diet induced issues. When those turned around and healed, my TDEE rose and now I can eat 2,500-2,700 calories a day without gaining weight.
I read something about that a week or so ago - I wish I saved it. It basically came down to the fact that people who had lost weight had to eat at a lower caloric daily level than the same sized people, of the same age and sex, who had never been overweight.
It wasn't a long term study, so I hope you are right!0 -
I believe this is an individual thing, just like everything else. I gain at 1500 or greater. It's how I've always been. I really used to feel that I was starving on the SAD diet. With the ZC I can maintain that and not feel hungry! I can see how this woe leads one to eat so much less!0
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There was a time when I was gaining weight at 1,700-1,800 calories a day. So, I don't disbelieve those who claim to do the same. But, I suspect that was the end result of long term diet induced issues. When those turned around and healed, my TDEE rose and now I can eat 2,500-2,700 calories a day without gaining weight.
EXACTLY!
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socalprincess1 wrote: »Yup.sweetteadrinker2 wrote: »Oh to be able to eat that much and not gain weight. Some of us just flat out can't do that, it doesn't work for us. Which sucks.
This. If I consistently eat over 1800 calories and live a generally sedentary lifestyle where I'm not intentionally trying to exercise, and work a desk job all day, I WILL gain weight. Even 2000 is too high for me. I tested this from Jan - May of this year, when I went back to work after a 6 month break in which I ate healthy and worked out daily because I had the time. During that 4 month period I put on about 15ish lbs. I'm 34 and around 155 now. I guess my metabolism just sucks.
Even in my teens and early twenties to be "normal" weight (not slim just normal) I had to eat between 1200 and 1300 and exercise 2 hours a day... Every day.
That was when I was eating low fat high carbs though. I was hungry ALL the time.0 -
I have been losing faster than my calorie deficit would predict, so I suppose that means the TDEE that I got using one of the keto macro calculators was too low. However, I have been completely content eating at this level.0
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when I see a 22 yr old lose 50 lbs in <18 weeks consuming cupcakes, but keeping 1200 calories (her first real diet)...then a >60 woman with a lifetime of negative 'low fat' diet influence, lower metabolism, medical issues hormone issues, etc…struggle on the same 1200 calories for months to lose 15 pounds??? I know we HAVE to follow our own N=1..all else is just reading for entertainment…and some education.
As much as I love LCHF I refuse to go to 1200 to lose, because I have already trained my body to STAY the same weight, very efficiently, at 1400 on a High Carb RD-advised "healthy plate" diet.
What really annoys me is anyone losing weight then getting on a big bandwagon, pointing to themselves and saying "you can too"…no. YOU did, but me…..ahhhh, that is a different story. But the hundreds of websites by 'bodybuilders', or the newly thin, are truly NO PROOF it will work for anyone but them.
Finding what works for each of us..and following that..PERSISTENCE is the true key to most success in life, in all things.0 -
The only thing that works to shake up my slow metabolism is hard core exercise
Interestingly enough a year of lifting heavy twice a week and my cardio had raised my T level by 50%
Exercise and good nutrition is almost something the body needs!
Ha!
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All I can say is I'm glad I'm tall. At 5'10 I can eat 1700 - 1800 cals (and a few more on the weekend) and lose 1 to 2 lbs per week. And I'm 40, and a lifetime yoyo dieter. Like everyone else I have some weeks where I don't lose, but on the whole 6lbs a month is about average. I also have a desk job, I spend my evenings on the couch watching TV, I don't run (boobs are too big), the last time I had a gym membership is when I was about 15 and I don't drink 47 gallons of water a day (more like 3 to 4 coffees and a glass of something cold).
I would NOT be able to stick to 1200 cals a day for longer than about 3 days before I ate everything in the kitchen out of starvation. I really really feel for you girls who are so restricted, and I'm so impressed you're able to make it work
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