Calorie intake and fitness trainers?

TheGr8Kimbini

Hello,

So a friend and I met with a fitness trainer last week who said that we need to intake between 2000-2500 a day, nothing over 3000. I commonly see and have done between 1200-1500 calories a day for a 1-2lbs weight loss, and am now wondering what you guys intake or have told to intake by your fitness trainers. Seems a bit high, but I am willing to try anything.

Thanks,

K.

srk369

I do believe eat more to loose but without knowing specifics about you, I don't know if that number seems high or not. I am older than you, 41 and weigh 130lbs and my goal is 1700 a day. Someone younger and my size would easily be able to hit the 2000 a day and still loose. Your trainer sounds like they want to make sure you fuel your workouts!

TheGr8Kimbini

Yeah, I figure so. I guess I am just not used to seeing a higher calorie number. I am sure I was intaking a lot more than that before, so anything is better I suppose.

Greenrun99

Depends on your workouts and your fitness goals.. Those numbers aren't that crazy if your doing intense cardio for an hour a day, or trying to build muscle.. It also depends on how active you also are outside of your gym workouts.. You would be surprised how much food you can allow yourself to eat while still losing weight..

TheGr8Kimbini

That is true... I do as directed by her, 15 minutes of cardio before, 15 minutes after, and 3 strength training/machines, 3 sets of 16 between cardio 5 days a week, and then usualy walk an hour after work in the evenings on top of that.

cwolfman13

Your calorie intake is going to depend on your activity level. When you were doing the 1220 - 1500 with MFP, you were supposed to be eating back exercise calories and fueling that activity. Most likely, your trainer is using a TDEE formula rather than a NEAT method formula for determining your calorie intake. The TDEE formula is gong to include estimated activity from exercise as well as your day to day hum drum and then deduct a certain amount from you maintenance TDEE to give you your calorie goal. The NEAT method only uses your daily hum drum and doesn't include exercise in the formula so you're supposed to eat back exercise calories.

That doesn't seem like too many calories to me if you're exercising a lot. My wife is 5'2" and 38 years old and loses around 2200-2300 calories per day. Also, if you're lifting weights you need more calories than if you're just doing cardio because you need those calories for muscle repair...muscle repair burns a lot of calories.