649lbs and 3790 calories

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Replies

  • Mellykay88
    Mellykay88 Posts: 307 Member
    Welcome! MyFitnessPal is a wonderful tool. Stick with it and you will see results. I think that the calorie estimates can be high for people with a lot to lose, so following the doctors advice may be best in your situation. Of course, it will take some trial and error, but the most important thing is to start logging (accurately) so you know what your intake is and stick to it.
  • jensaylor04
    jensaylor04 Posts: 3 Member
    My advice would be to try that for a week or two and then decrease it down to 3500. The first 10 to 20 pounds will come off fairly easy and then it will get more difficult. I weighed 381 when I started and my calculated calories for 2 lbs of weight loss per week was around 1900. After that first 15 pounds came off it was really difficult to loose weight. I found that I only lost weight if I reduced my calories to below 1400. I saw several doctors and decided to have bariatric surgery. My surgery is in one month and I'm hoping to loose another 20-30 before the surgery. I started a super strict 1000 calorie a day diet on Monday to accomplish this (under my doctor's supervision). After 3 months of a plateau I've lost 3.5 pounds after only 2 days on this new diet. I highly recommend going to a doctor and getting his advice. Once I did so, I found out that I had high blood pressure, diabetes and sleep apnea. Loosing weight became much easier once I got these other issues under control. Good luck to you on your journey. I know how hard it is but once the weight starts coming off you will be amazed at how much better you feel with each 20 pounds that come off.
  • orangegato
    orangegato Posts: 6,572 Member
    Tacklewasher wrote: »
    I guess my question is did the doctor give you a plan, and are they having you come in on a regular basis for follow up, or did they just off hand say 2000 or 2500? How engaged were they in the conversation?

    Yes I wonder too b/c you would expect a bariatric medicine doc to give a very specific calorie count calculation not such a rounded number.
  • HarlemNY17
    HarlemNY17 Posts: 135 Member
    starsofmotown wrote: »
    I think that 3500 calories equals one pound, so I would think to actually lose weight, you'd have to be eating under that amount. But, I'm also pretty much winging it for myself, so I don't really know as much as I'd like to think I do

    3500 calories is how much you need to burn . So for example if your body requires 2500 calories just to function and you subtract it by 500 you'll be in a decifit eating only 2000 . 500x7 = 3500
  • msf74
    msf74 Posts: 3,498 Member
    edited August 2017
    spagano8888 wrote: »
    Does 3790 calories for a day seem like too much for a person of my size?

    No, it sounds reasonable.

    Try it for a month and then tweak according to results.

    Edit: I should really read the whole thread. I expect you will experience a steady rate of loss on 3,790 cals per day but given your high starting weight a more dramatic deficit where you eat at 2,000 - 2,500 cals per day would also work (the rationale being getting weight off quickly for overall health concerns justifies a steep calorie deficit.)
  • davert123
    davert123 Posts: 1,568 Member
    OP - Go on mate, you are in the right place doing the right thing :-)
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    Tacklewasher wrote: »
    I guess my question is did the doctor give you a plan, and are they having you come in on a regular basis for follow up, or did they just off hand say 2000 or 2500? How engaged were they in the conversation?

    Yes, if the doctor provided a whole plan and a dire warning I'd go with that. Doesn't sound like that's what happened however.
  • gothchiq
    gothchiq Posts: 4,590 Member
    Go with what the doctor told you. The MFP estimate is just an automatic mathematical calculation, not something a medical practitioner came up with after assessing your condition.
  • ecjim
    ecjim Posts: 1,001 Member
    I would start at the 3700 cals - keep protein up & eat veggies, fruits will help ease cravings for sweets - get what exercise that you can without stressing yourself. just get up and move around, you can increase it as you get stronger. Start gradually and sneak up on it. After a period of time you can increase your exercise & decrease your cal intake. make your changes gradually and stay is close touch with a Doc.
    When you exercise monitor your heartrate - don't let it get high.
    You can do this. It will take effort on your part. We had a patient who started at 640 lbs She got down to 500 & some change before she left our care & went to a different facility. Eastcoast Jim
  • ecjim
    ecjim Posts: 1,001 Member
    our patients were at a much lower cal intake - but they were in- patient at the 24 hr medical care. Some took it seriously - others smuggled in buckets of KFC or Mc D
  • JeromeBarry1
    JeromeBarry1 Posts: 10,179 Member
    Here's some math: 679 lb. of which 1% per week is 6.79 lb lost.
    3790 calories, MFP's limit recommendation of -1000 calorie deficit per day for 2 lb per week loss.
    4790 calories, your maintenance level of calories. Eat this and you won't lose weight.

    6.8*500=3400, or expressed as a calorie deficit -3400. That's the calorie deficit to lose 1% of your body weight fat in a week.

    4790 (maintenance) - 3400 (1% loss target) = 1390. Funny, that's the calorie goal I was eating at when I started trying to lose weight last year. It was too few calories for me and it's probably too few calories for you.

    My point is that the myfitnesspal algorithm will never let you ask to lose more than 2 lb per week, but you in particular can. It is also true that the myfitnesspal algorithm will never recommend a man eat less than 1500 calories., and you just like the rest of us should not.

    There is a ton of flexibility between 2000 and 3790. Find your happy place in there. After you've lost 20 or so lb, we'll explain how to adjust your starting weight in your user profile to get a new, lower, calorie target from MFP.

  • goldthistime
    goldthistime Posts: 3,213 Member
    spagano8888 wrote: »
    Had went to a hospital they said 2000. Went to doctor I believe she said 2500 calories... but she didn't calculate anything.... mfp says 3790, of course I like the higher number. I just don't know what number to use! They all say different things.

    If you think that you are more likely to succeed at 3790 than at 2500 or 2000 calories, then it sounds to me like you should stick with 3790. Your perception counts. If you dread the idea of 2500, then you are more likely to not get started at all, or not restart after a bad day (and we all have them).

    Good for you for taking control of your eating and your health. I agree with others that suggest that MFP is the right place to be.
  • goldthistime
    goldthistime Posts: 3,213 Member
    Just read a few more of the comments, specifically those advising you to follow doctors orders rather than internet advice. I see the wisdom in that. Doctors have decided that it's wise for you to lose some of your weight quickly, so there may be some health risk in losing it slowly. And losing weight under a doctor's care (or other voice of authority) has been shown to have one of the higher success rates, I can see how advising you to ignore your doctor's advice can be viewed as doing you a disservice.

    Unless it is the case that you have been advised something similar for a while now but haven't been able to follow it for any length of time. Which I guess I was inferring, but perhaps inappropriately. If it is the case though, I stick with my advice to lose weight the same way I do, and the same way I advise others here to all the time: lose the weight slowly, making the process as enjoyable as you can.
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  • mph323
    mph323 Posts: 3,563 Member
    Can you get a referral to a registered dietitian? Working with your Dr.'s health assessment and dietary suggestions, they would be in the best position to tell you how much you should eat for weight loss, and what you should eat for health. I don't think trying to reconcile conflicting inputs from various sources will be effective for you in the long run.
  • VintageFeline
    VintageFeline Posts: 6,771 Member
    The most important thing in all of it is consistency. Log the good the bad and the ugly. None of us are perfect, we have all had our moments of going off the rails for a day or a week or a month. The important thing is to just keep going.

    I actually find logging grounding in the overall context of day to day life and I've seen others say the same.

    Good luck and we're here for all of those moments if you need us.
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