How to eat 1800 calories?
kcasteel07
Posts: 20 Member
I am two weeks into my weight loss journey and it turns out I haven't been eating enough calories. I was eating 1400 a day when I am supposed to be eating 1800 a day. My issue now is that I honestly don't know how to eat that much. I usually can only reach about 1600 calories at the most if I am eating healthy nutritious foods instead of fast foods. Should I double my portions? Or any other advice?
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Replies
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Calorie dense food, like oils, nut butters, nuts, avocado, full fat dairy...all the things!5
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Eat some of the things you used to eat.
Nuts, seeds, peanut butter, olive oil salad dressings, finish your night off with an ice cream.
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You don't have to eat your exercise calories. Many people here don't.2
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Couple spoonfuls of peanut butter, couple slices of cheese. Done.3
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TheWJordinWJordin wrote: »You don't have to eat your exercise calories. Many people here don't.
The 1800 calories is only my food calories. My maintenance calories are 2800 so I'm already at a 1000 calorie deficit from just eating less. I burn around 200-400 everyday in exercise calories from walking. Should I be eating those calories back or just not worry about them?
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First make sure you're really eating the number of calories you think you are. When people are new to calorie counting they often underestimate how much they're consuming. Obviously, I don't know if that's true in your case. I'm just offering something to consider.
Another thing I notice when people have trouble reaching a calorie goal when they've changed to a "healthier" diet is they will often cut most of the fat from their diet. Fat is an important nutrient and you need it daily. And since fat is calorie dense, by adding some more to your diet you can increase your calories without adding a lot of bulk.9 -
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I have a question. How is your maintenance 2800 if you're only burning like 300 cals a day?
I'm just curious
I'm on maintenance and my calories are at 18801 -
Maybe 2800 is maintenance for her current weight?4
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kcasteel07 wrote: »TheWJordinWJordin wrote: »You don't have to eat your exercise calories. Many people here don't.
The 1800 calories is only my food calories. My maintenance calories are 2800 so I'm already at a 1000 calorie deficit from just eating less. I burn around 200-400 everyday in exercise calories from walking. Should I be eating those calories back or just not worry about them?
You are in a high weight category I believe?
I wouldn't eat 1800 just because someone on this site (or the site's goal wizard) told you to. If you are obese, you can have a greater than 1000 per day deficit. This site will only give you a goal of no more than 1000 deficit - but that is really just a catch-all algorithm.
Please talk to your medical team and not the internet. 1400 is plenty if you are obese.5 -
Use math here. If you're consuming even 1600 calories a day, and then exercising off another 200-400 calories, your NET is 1200-1400. At least it's above minimum, but what many don't understand is that a deficit that's too high usually results in stalls and if long enough adaptive thermogenisis. Eat your minimum 1800 calories by adding higher calorie dense foods. You DON'T have to eat "healthy" to do this.kcasteel07 wrote: »TheWJordinWJordin wrote: »You don't have to eat your exercise calories. Many people here don't.
The 1800 calories is only my food calories. My maintenance calories are 2800 so I'm already at a 1000 calorie deficit from just eating less. I burn around 200-400 everyday in exercise calories from walking. Should I be eating those calories back or just not worry about them?
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
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Edit to keep thread on track0
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Weight and regular activity (non exercise activity thermogenesis).erica_today wrote: »I have a question. How is your maintenance 2800 if you're only burning like 300 cals a day?
I'm just curious
I'm on maintenance and my calories are at 1880
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
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Another 100 calories can be a piece of bread with a meal. Another 50 can be a bit of jelly or butter on it. Getting a little bit more is really easy if you think of it as just a little bit rather than OMG all that.1
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.0
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Thanks @cmriverside edited it out to keep the thread on track.1
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TheWJordinWJordin wrote: »You don't have to eat your exercise calories. Many people here don't.
But this is not how the website is designed. Sure you can increase your deficit by doing this, BUT the price for aggressive weight loss is often increased lean muscle mass loss. Some people actually prefer to lower their body fat %.3 -
cmriverside wrote: »RuNaRoUnDaFiEld wrote: »cmriverside wrote: »kcasteel07 wrote: »TheWJordinWJordin wrote: »You don't have to eat your exercise calories. Many people here don't.
The 1800 calories is only my food calories. My maintenance calories are 2800 so I'm already at a 1000 calorie deficit from just eating less. I burn around 200-400 everyday in exercise calories from walking. Should I be eating those calories back or just not worry about them?
You are in a high weight category I believe? Also, you recently had gastric bypass?
Don't use this site or anyone on it to determine your calorie goal. Your medical team know your history. I wouldn't eat 1800 just because someone on this site (or the site's goal wizard) told you to. If you are obese, you can have a greater than 1000 per day deficit.
Please talk to your medical team and not the internet.
Well that was a massive chunk of relevant info to leave out OP.
I was reading another thread of hers...I don't think OP has surgery, it was someone else in the thread. OOPS!!
I have not had surgery. I am just starting my weight loss and have many questions. I honestly don't want to do things wrong and mess up anything.
If this helps I'm
- 23 yrs old
- 223 pounds
- 5"5
- I just start exercising 30 minutes a day 5-6 days a week.
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Like many others have said, eat calorie dense things. Examples: olive or coconut oil, seeds or nuts, higher calorie fruit, rice noodles, quinoa, brown rice, nut butter, granola, dates, creamy soups/dressings, avocado, smoothies, etc.
You could easily incorporate these foods into the meals you already eat to meet 1800 calories instead of eating a ton of extra food.
Let me know if that helps!1 -
kcasteel07 wrote: »cmriverside wrote: »RuNaRoUnDaFiEld wrote: »cmriverside wrote: »kcasteel07 wrote: »TheWJordinWJordin wrote: »You don't have to eat your exercise calories. Many people here don't.
The 1800 calories is only my food calories. My maintenance calories are 2800 so I'm already at a 1000 calorie deficit from just eating less. I burn around 200-400 everyday in exercise calories from walking. Should I be eating those calories back or just not worry about them?
You are in a high weight category I believe? Also, you recently had gastric bypass?
Don't use this site or anyone on it to determine your calorie goal. Your medical team know your history. I wouldn't eat 1800 just because someone on this site (or the site's goal wizard) told you to. If you are obese, you can have a greater than 1000 per day deficit.
Please talk to your medical team and not the internet.
Well that was a massive chunk of relevant info to leave out OP.
I was reading another thread of hers...I don't think OP has surgery, it was someone else in the thread. OOPS!!
I have not had surgery. I am just starting my weight loss and have many questions. I honestly don't want to do things wrong and mess up anything.
If this helps I'm
- 23 yrs old
- 223 pounds
- 5"5
- I just start exercising 30 minutes a day 5-6 days a week.
Since you have so much weight to lose, you will be successful at either 1400 or 1800, but you don't need more than 1400 (plus a few hundred more on your exercise days - not 1000 more, but like 300-500 more.) 1800 will work too. Why not start at 1400 plus exercise calories, do that for a month. If you feel good at 1400 + Exercise, I say ride that for while.
I started about where you are, and I was set at 1200 + Exercise cals. I was able to stick (mostly) to that until I got to about 180 lbs., when I really needed more food. I went up to 1500 + Exercise cals, then up to 1600 + Exercise, and I stuck with that until I got really close to my goal, when I dropped to 1400 and I started getting a lot more exercise.
1400 or 1800 will work. It's easy to lose weight when you have a lot of weight to lose.1 -
@kcasteel07 I am very similar stats to you but maybe 20lb heavier and to lose 1lb per week my calories are set to just above 1800. This seems pretty good to me. But, if you are getting 1600 +/- 100 cal then you are still in the safe zone, just make sure to eat back some of your exercise calories so you don't go too low with your net calories. Then see how you feel in a few weeks, if you're losing too fast, increase calories like many suggestions or if you are losing too slow you can cut a few calories. It's not an exact science and it's not the same for everyone.1
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Hello, another site someone suggested to me for calculating daily calories is here: http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/
I plugged your numbers in there and came up with very close to the same daily calories you've concluded (1753 cal/day calculating 4 meals a day and light activity). Your maintenance calorie total according to the Scooby calculator is 2192 cal/day.
Theoretically, about 3500 calories equals one pound of body weight. This means that you'd have to take in 3500 fewer calories than you usually do (maintenance), over a period of time, to lose one pound. Note that this is only the math to give you an idea of what it takes - bodies are not math machines and weight loss isn't always linear.
Anyway here are the calculations (fingers crossed that my math is right):
2200 (maintenance calories)
- 1750 (weight loss daily cals)
= 450 cal deficit per day
and:
3500 cal. / 450 cal = 7.8 days to lose one pound.
I think one lb per week is a healthy and sensible weight loss goal.
Hope that helps.2 -
Hello, another site someone suggested to me for calculating daily calories is here: http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/
I plugged your numbers in there and came up with very close to the same daily calories you've concluded (1753 cal/day calculating 4 meals a day and light activity). Your maintenance calorie total according to the Scooby calculator is 2192 cal/day.
Theoretically, about 3500 calories equals one pound of body weight. This means that you'd have to take in 3500 fewer calories than you usually do (maintenance), over a period of time, to lose one pound. Note that this is only the math to give you an idea of what it takes - bodies are not math machines and weight loss isn't always linear.
Anyway here are the calculations (fingers crossed that my math is right):
2200 (maintenance calories)
- 1750 (weight loss daily cals)
= 450 cal deficit per day
and:
3500 cal. / 450 cal = 7.8 days to lose one pound.
I think one lb per week is a healthy and sensible weight loss goal.
Hope that helps.
If she used this site (MYfitnesspal) to figure her numbers, then she will get a lower daily calorie recommendation and then she also needs to eat more on exercise days.
Using a calculator like scooby uses an entirely different method of calculation. If she got her 1800 from some site other than MFP, that's likely why her numbers are so different, or why they changed.
In my opinon, bringing that into the conversation can be confusing for newbies.
If she's going to use that calculator, she would NOT eat any more on exercise days.
Personally I prefer MFP, because my exercise is not every day nor is it for a consistent amount of effort or time.2 -
Thank you all so much! I really appreciate all the helpful tips and suggestions. I've only been doing this for 2 weeks and I lost 11 pounds within a week and a half by only eating 1400 calories a day and burning 300+ with exercise most days, so I figured I wasn't eating enough. I just want to make sure I lose weight in a healthy safe way! I'm pretty sure I have it all figured out now so I will just have to see how things go from here1
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cmriverside wrote: »Hello, another site someone suggested to me for calculating daily calories is here: http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/
I plugged your numbers in there and came up with very close to the same daily calories you've concluded (1753 cal/day calculating 4 meals a day and light activity). Your maintenance calorie total according to the Scooby calculator is 2192 cal/day.
Theoretically, about 3500 calories equals one pound of body weight. This means that you'd have to take in 3500 fewer calories than you usually do (maintenance), over a period of time, to lose one pound. Note that this is only the math to give you an idea of what it takes - bodies are not math machines and weight loss isn't always linear.
Anyway here are the calculations (fingers crossed that my math is right):
2200 (maintenance calories)
- 1750 (weight loss daily cals)
= 450 cal deficit per day
and:
3500 cal. / 450 cal = 7.8 days to lose one pound.
I think one lb per week is a healthy and sensible weight loss goal.
Hope that helps.
If she used this site (MYfitnesspal) to figure her numbers, then she will get a lower daily calorie recommendation and then she also needs to eat more on exercise days.
Using a calculator like scooby uses an entirely different method of calculation. If she got her 1800 from some site other than MFP, that's likely why her numbers are so different, or why they changed.
In my opinon, bringing that into the conversation can be confusing for newbies.
If she's going to use that calculator, she would NOT eat any more on exercise days.
Personally I prefer MFP, because my exercise is not every day nor is it for a consistent amount of effort or time.
To clarify, Scooby calculator allows you to set exercise level when making calculations (just as on MFP) and I had set it to lowest setting ("desk job with little exercise"). Sorry that I didn't state that correctly. On Scooby as well as on MFP, a person has an option of adding in physical activity at the time you are setting up the daily caloric intake calculations or separately, as you exercise. Note that the calories per day were within 50 calories of each other on both sites - not a big difference.
I was turned on to Scooby calculator the first day I was here. Sure, it was confusing at first (everything was) but I bookmarked it and found myself returning to it regularly over time and it helped me gain a better understanding of what the numbers actually meant.
@kcasteel07 - congrats on your big start to your weight loss journey and I agree with you that you are not eating enough calories if you lost 11 lbs in one week. My personal weight loss mantra has been, "slow and steady wins the race". Take the time while you're losing weight to educate yourself about nutrition and to change your shopping and eating habits so you can maintain your healthy goal weight once you reach it.
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TheWJordinWJordin wrote: »You don't have to eat your exercise calories. Many people here don't.
Not true2 -
What do your macros look like? This is the sort of thing macros are good for - you can look and see if you are getting plenty of everything and add more in the categories where you are low.0
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kcasteel07 wrote: »I usually can only reach about 1600 calories at the most if I am eating healthy nutritious foods instead of fast foods.
Fast foods are not intrinsically unhealthy nor do they lack nutrition. They become unhealthy when you eat too much of them. So just have something you like for the extra 400cals. The more you restrict yourself the shorter you'll last on the deficit. The point is to eat the way you intend to eat for the rest of your life.
Me? I like my icecreams and cakes!
I consider homemade burgers with fries a very healthy meal - it has proteins, fats and carbs and some vitamins too. Same goes for pizza. Gimme!1
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