What I learned from my first cheat day.

betuel75

FoodFitnessTravel wrote: »

1500 seems very low for a guy though. I eat more than that and i weigh 110 lbs

Not if you know how to manage your macros and micros. Its easy to get the proper nutrition, keep energy levels at as good level and not have any physical issues from 1500. Im always full and get all nutrition i need on 1500 calories.

Domicinator

betuel75 wrote: »

FoodFitnessTravel wrote: »

1500 seems very low for a guy though. I eat more than that and i weigh 110 lbs

Not if you know how to manage your macros and micros. Its easy to get the proper nutrition, keep energy levels at as good level and not have any physical issues from 1500. Im always full and get all nutrition i need on 1500 calories.

I don't pay much attention to macros and micros, but I do know that my diet is higher in protein and lower in carbs. For example, my usual lunch is what I call my "mush". A cup (sometimes two cups) of plain greek yogurt, a serving of low cal granola, and a tablespoon of honey. Generally fills me up until dinner.

My wife is a vegetarian and does most of the cooking, so our dinners are usually fish, vegetables, salads, etc.

I don't usually eat breakfast because I'm usually just plain not hungry in the morning, even if I was starving when I went to bed.

Doing it that way leaves room for some morning and afternoon snacking, and I don't feel like I'm dying when I go to bed.

Matt200goal

Great post - thanks for sharing.

nordlead2005

Domicinator wrote: »

VykkDraygoVPR wrote: »

FoodFitnessTravel wrote: »

1500 seems very low for a guy though. I eat more than that and i weigh 110 lbs

I dunno. It depends on when and what you eat. I can be pretty happy on 1500 (6'3", 268lbs). I'm not hungry when I wake up, so, unless I go to the gym (I usually do), or my sister cooks, then I prefer to skip breakfast. Some days I easily make my goal (1800), and some days I find it hard to even hit 1500.

Yesterday was one of those days. I only hit near my goal because I went to the gym and did sprinting intervals (cycling). Felt like jelly after, so I took advantage of the free pizza day. That bumped me from ~1500 to ~2100 for the day. And that was even with breakfast.

I'm going to a barbecue at my parents this weekend. I'm planning on eating a bunch of smoked pork butt, and maybe a rib, and slice or two of brisket. Topped off with my homemade baked mac & cheese. So many calories, so tasty. Looking forward to it.

I'm not crazy psycho hungry on 1500 calories. I can totally get through the day as long as I do good on my budgeting. The problem for me has always been that my stomach is full--not grumbling or feeling empty or anything like that--but I still want to keep eating and eating.

What the 1500 calorie a day goal, what I've learned is that I was WAY overeating almost EVERY meal. I try to focus on eating reasonable servings and then knowing that in about 10 minutes I will feel totally fine.

What you learned is probably wrong. You are now WAY under eating almost EVERY meal, you were probably slightly over eating before. You don't eat proper portion sizes and lose 2.5lb/week. Proper portion sizes should lead to maintenance.

I'm 5'11" and 192lb. If I ate 1500/day that would be ~1300 under TDEE for me (TDEE has actually been going up since I started losing weight at 220lb). That means at 1500 calories my meals would be about 1/2 of what they should be to maintain. I gained 50lb over 5 years, or 10lb/year, or 0.027lb/day, or 95 cal/day, or ~30 calories/meal. Granted, I know that some of it came in spurts (I gained the last 10lb over 4 months by eating a donut every day). But, on average my meals were pretty dang close to what I should have been eating to maintain.

Even if I said that I was eating 200 calories/day too much (20lb/year), it is much closer (66 cal/meal) than when losing 2lb/week (-333 cal/meal, or -1000 cal/day)

Optimistical1

I came across this post just as I was beating myself up for overdoing it so bad on the Labor Day beers and desserts.

Thanks for the motivation, this is exactly what I needed to hear. Awesome job btw, keep up the good work

Domicinator

nordlead2005 wrote: »

Domicinator wrote: »

VykkDraygoVPR wrote: »

FoodFitnessTravel wrote: »

1500 seems very low for a guy though. I eat more than that and i weigh 110 lbs

I dunno. It depends on when and what you eat. I can be pretty happy on 1500 (6'3", 268lbs). I'm not hungry when I wake up, so, unless I go to the gym (I usually do), or my sister cooks, then I prefer to skip breakfast. Some days I easily make my goal (1800), and some days I find it hard to even hit 1500.

Yesterday was one of those days. I only hit near my goal because I went to the gym and did sprinting intervals (cycling). Felt like jelly after, so I took advantage of the free pizza day. That bumped me from ~1500 to ~2100 for the day. And that was even with breakfast.

I'm going to a barbecue at my parents this weekend. I'm planning on eating a bunch of smoked pork butt, and maybe a rib, and slice or two of brisket. Topped off with my homemade baked mac & cheese. So many calories, so tasty. Looking forward to it.

I'm not crazy psycho hungry on 1500 calories. I can totally get through the day as long as I do good on my budgeting. The problem for me has always been that my stomach is full--not grumbling or feeling empty or anything like that--but I still want to keep eating and eating.

What the 1500 calorie a day goal, what I've learned is that I was WAY overeating almost EVERY meal. I try to focus on eating reasonable servings and then knowing that in about 10 minutes I will feel totally fine.

What you learned is probably wrong. You are now WAY under eating almost EVERY meal, you were probably slightly over eating before. You don't eat proper portion sizes and lose 2.5lb/week. Proper portion sizes should lead to maintenance.

I'm 5'11" and 192lb. If I ate 1500/day that would be ~1300 under TDEE for me (TDEE has actually been going up since I started losing weight at 220lb). That means at 1500 calories my meals would be about 1/2 of what they should be to maintain. I gained 50lb over 5 years, or 10lb/year, or 0.027lb/day, or 95 cal/day, or ~30 calories/meal. Granted, I know that some of it came in spurts (I gained the last 10lb over 4 months by eating a donut every day). But, on average my meals were pretty dang close to what I should have been eating to maintain.

Even if I said that I was eating 200 calories/day too much (20lb/year), it is much closer (66 cal/meal) than when losing 2lb/week (-333 cal/meal, or -1000 cal/day)

A. I WAS overeating almost every single meal. I have never been a breakfast person, but my usual diet per day was a #9 at Jersey Mike's (with chips) for lunch, which is probably a 1500 calorie meal by itself, a HUGE dinner when I got home from work (lots of pasta, red meat, eating out, etc.) and several high calorie snackes throughout the day. (Snickers, gigantic cans of Red Bull, donuts, etc.) Now I eat a 500 or 600 calorie lunch, a 1000 calorie dinner, and if I exercise during the day (I almost always do) I have a little extra to use for snacks.

B. I have no illusion that I can permanently live on 1500 calories a day. I gave MFP my activity level, my weight, my height, etc. and it estimated that would work out to about 2 lbs. a week. For the most part, it has been right. Sometimes it's more like 1 lb a week, and sometimes I go a week to a week and a half without losing anything at all. In the end though, it pretty much averages out correctly. When I get to my goal, I will slowly up it per week until I get to maintenance.

I'm not sure what all the skepticism is about, and I don't understand why you are labeling the things that I feel I've personally learned as "wrong", but I am sure that my mind, body, and goals are completely different from yours and because of that, I'm not on the same journey as you. I feel completely fine, I'm told that I look great, and the health benefits I have seen as a result of my weight loss (healthy blood pressure, healthy heart rate, no more fatty liver, no more knee pain) have been amazing.

Say what you will, but what I'M doing for ME is working and I'm not changing it based on whatever all that calculus was that you posted above.