How do I safely bring my calories back up?

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jdlobb
jdlobb Posts: 1,232 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I've realized that I'm probably not eating enough calories, and haven't been for a long time. The amount I'm losing doesn't come close to my deficit.

I'm 6'0", 253 pounds. I was eating 1250 calories per day for the last 3 months, and working out a minimum of 30 minutes a day, but up to 2 hours a few days a week.

Despite that I have only been losing about 2lbs a week. The math doesn't add up.

I want to increase my calories to the appropriate level, but I don't want to go too fast.

What would be an appropriate pace at which to add calories? What should my target be? I'm guessing about 1900?
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Replies

  • jdlobb
    jdlobb Posts: 1,232 Member
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    collectingblues wrote: »
    The math doesn't add up. How tight is your logging? Are you weighing everything?

    I know, that's the problem. My logging is pretty tight, and has gotten a lot better. I weigh almost everything, log religiously. My lunches might be + or - 100 or 200 calories because I don't have a scale at work.
  • fiddletime
    fiddletime Posts: 1,862 Member
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    jdlobb wrote: »
    collectingblues wrote: »
    The math doesn't add up. How tight is your logging? Are you weighing everything?

    My lunches might be + or - 100 or 200 calories because I don't have a scale at work.

    If you added 200 or maybe 300 (or more?) per day of uncounted calories you might be eating many more calories per day or week than you think. I'd also suspect your logging of food and exercise is way off. Common explanation and a problem that many people have in the first few months.

    However you're logging, you're losing 2# a week which is a deficit of 1000 calories a day, which is awesome!!
  • misnomer1
    misnomer1 Posts: 646 Member
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    jdlobb wrote: »
    fiddletime wrote: »
    jdlobb wrote: »
    collectingblues wrote: »
    The math doesn't add up. How tight is your logging? Are you weighing everything?

    My lunches might be + or - 100 or 200 calories because I don't have a scale at work.

    If you added 200 or maybe 300 (or more?) per day of uncounted calories you might be eating many more calories per day or week than you think. I'd also suspect your logging of food and exercise is way off. Common explanation and a problem that many people have in the first few months.

    However you're logging, you're losing 2# a week which is a deficit of 1000 calories a day, which is awesome!!

    I've tried to tighten up my logging as much as possible, next week I'll start pre-making and packing my lunches so they're more accurate.

    I am happy with the 2 pounds per week. I'm just worried that if I'm not getting enough calories I might be hurting myself some way.

    Do ^ this. Eat at 1900 for a month. See how much you lost. Readjust.
  • VeronicaA76
    VeronicaA76 Posts: 1,116 Member
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    Either increase your portion sizes just a bit (two eggs instead of one, etc) or eat a forth meal during the day. That should bring up your calories slowly, so you can adjust to the changes.
  • orangegato
    orangegato Posts: 6,570 Member
    edited September 2017
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    Can you bring a lunch to work that's been weighed and calculated accurately?

    ETA: now I see that you said you're planning to do just that next week. My bad
  • marthall
    marthall Posts: 96 Member
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    Are you feeling hungry, or craving any foods?

    How active are you generally outside of that 30 mins of exercise? What exercise/calorie burn do you think you get for those 30 mins of exercise?

    If I plug your numbers in to http://www.sailrabbit.com/bmr/ using sedentary (x1.2) I see TDEE in the range 2500-2800. NB, I'm office based and use x1.16 as my base TDEE before exercise.

    A Consistent 2 lbs a week should match that 1000 Cal deficit a day, so eating at 1250, plus a few modest errors (say 10%) and your numbers would be in the right area. NB even if you weigh everything correctly you will still get errors. if you are much more active then it's more likely that your error is higher somewhere.

    Note, Your body is consuming those 1000 calories from Fat stores a day in addition to the 1250 you are consuming, so your body is actually using 2250 Calories, so if you are worried about health effects of eating too little I'd suggest just focusing on nutrient density rather than increasing calories. If you are dealing with Hunger or craving issues then maybe your body is telling you it needs more, but sometimes this is just noise and it's hard to trust your body.

    If you are going to increase your calories, I would suggest doing it slowly (like transitioning to maintenance) add 100 Calories a day for a week, and see how your weight and body changes, then repeat the next week if you still want to increase. you will likely slow your weight loss progress, but of course it can be hard to tell because of the natural variations.

  • toxikon
    toxikon Posts: 2,384 Member
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    Other people have covered the food aspect of tracking, but what about your workouts?

    Are you going off the calories burnt from a Fitbit or machines? They can be notoriously inaccurate. Have you been eating back 100% of your exercise calories, or a smaller percentage?

    That could explain the discrepancy.

    Either way I agree that as a male, you should definitely be eating more!
  • jdlobb
    jdlobb Posts: 1,232 Member
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    SezxyStef wrote: »
    jdlobb wrote: »
    I've realized that I'm probably not eating enough calories, and haven't been for a long time. The amount I'm losing doesn't come close to my deficit.

    I'm 6'0", 253 pounds. I was eating 1250 calories per day for the last 3 months, and working out a minimum of 30 minutes a day, but up to 2 hours a few days a week.

    Despite that I have only been losing about 2lbs a week. The math doesn't add up.

    I want to increase my calories to the appropriate level, but I don't want to go too fast.

    What would be an appropriate pace at which to add calories? What should my target be? I'm guessing about 1900?

    with those stats...and loggin 1250 you should be losing a lot more than 2lbs a week.

    at less weight, female old I lost 1lb a week on 1600...

    I have looked at your diary and yah it seems off...

    You indicated you use a scale but your log doesn't reflect it.

    For example 1/2 medium avocado??? should be in grams.

    and 7 hotwings @ 400 calories too good to be true...probably closer to 600.

    Your grilled chicken breast @ 790 calories 2 servings?
    Tyson chicken nuggest? 201 grams @ 260 calories and 45 protein...you wish...try 412 calories and 31 protein

    so just in a couple of days I have found at least appx 700 calories...

    tighten up your logging by choosing the correct entries as well as weighing...

    using a scale doesn't guarantee you are logging accurately and consistently...

    All of the food examples you gave from my diary were already overestimates.

    The wings were grilled, with minimal sauce, and I split an order of 10. Maybe ate 5.

    The avocado was a topping on the turkey burger, don't think there was even 1/2 an avocado there. Ate this in the work cafeteria, so didn't have an opportunity to weigh any of it. I try to over-log those meals.

    Not sure your point about the nuggets. They're grilled nuggets, I weighed them and logged them according to the nutrition information on the package. http://www.tyson.com/products/grilled-chicken-breast-nuggets

  • jdlobb
    jdlobb Posts: 1,232 Member
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    toxikon wrote: »
    Other people have covered the food aspect of tracking, but what about your workouts?

    Are you going off the calories burnt from a Fitbit or machines? They can be notoriously inaccurate. Have you been eating back 100% of your exercise calories, or a smaller percentage?

    That could explain the discrepancy.

    Either way I agree that as a male, you should definitely be eating more!

    I'm not eating back any of the calories burned during my workouts, I don't pay attention to their calories at all.

    In an average week I usually spend 2-3 hours weight training and walk 12-15 miles
  • Lounmoun
    Lounmoun Posts: 8,426 Member
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    ]I would not eat more just get more accurate about what you are eating and having a better calorie goal.
    MFP will give you a calorie goal based on your stats and desired rate of loss up to 2 lbs. The minimum recommendation for men is 1500 though.
    Your calorie goal to lose 2 lb a week if you are sedentary without exercise should probably be around 1600 calories. So you are consuming more than 1250 currently or you would be losing more.
    If you raise your calorie goal to 1900 without being more accurate you will probably slow your loss.

    Get a calorie goal from MFP. Be more accurate.
  • mmapags
    mmapags Posts: 8,934 Member
    edited September 2017
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    If you truly need to bring cals up, add back 100 cals per day for a week. Then another etc until you are where you need to be. Have you done a TDEE calculator? If so, what did you get?

    Honestly, I'm with the others that your logging is off and you are consuming more like 1500 to 1600 now and I'm guessing your TDEE to be about 2500 to 2600.

    ETA: just plugged your states in to a TDEE calculator and got 2575. So, you are eating a little more than you think and you are right at about a 1000 cal deficit. At your weight and likely BF that is sustainable for about 25-30 more lbs or so. Then you want to bring the deficit down.
  • jdlobb
    jdlobb Posts: 1,232 Member
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    thanks everybody for pointing out deficiencies in my log that I didn't even notice. I thought I was doing pretty good, but apparently I'm absolute *kitten* at this.
  • fitoverfortymom
    fitoverfortymom Posts: 3,452 Member
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    jdlobb wrote: »
    thanks everybody for pointing out deficiencies in my log that I didn't even notice. I thought I was doing pretty good, but apparently I'm absolute *kitten* at this.

    Dude. Don't hate on yourself. It's tricky to get the hang of and it's easy to take liberties and trust packaging, which sometimes can result in big calorie discrepancies. Just stay committed and refine your logging. You've had some success and this will just tighten it up. You got this.
  • MegaMooseEsq
    MegaMooseEsq Posts: 3,118 Member
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    jdlobb wrote: »
    thanks everybody for pointing out deficiencies in my log that I didn't even notice. I thought I was doing pretty good, but apparently I'm absolute *kitten* at this.

    Nah, it's just that this stuff can be tricky to get a hang of. Have you seen how many posts show up here every day starting with "I'm eating 1200 calories but not losing, what's wrong?" The bottom line is to trust your body and your scale. You are luckier than most in that you are currently losing at a perfectly reasonable rate, so you should absolutely stick with your current level of calories in/calories out for now (assuming that you aren't constantly hungry, exhausted, in pain, losing your hair, or some other signs of nutritional deficiency). Leaving aside the possibility of a medical issue or you being an outlier metabolism-wise (which isn't impossible!), we can then assume that you're probably actually eating in the 2500-2800 range (according to https://www.supertracker.usda.gov/bwp/index.html and assuming you're 30). So the goal for now isn't to change what you're eating, but to make sure that you're logging accurately. Maybe give it a month and see what things look like then. Good luck!

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