Calorie restriction, fitness and longevity.

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  • Mellouk89
    Mellouk89 Posts: 469 Member
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    lemurcat2 wrote: »
    Mellouk89 wrote: »
    Ok I made this thread in part because my calorie intake is quite low and I maintain my current weight that way. I think it's because I eat energy dense foods with not a lot of fiber and moderate protein. It may be that I don't burn as much energy digesting these foods thus I can sustain myself with lower calories?

    That just means you are eating maintenance. What happens with those doing the 20% deficit thing (CRON/calorie restriction/optimal nutrition) is they initially lose and then stabilize at a lower body weight. They are trying to lower their TDEE through a combination of weight loss and adaptation to lower cals. (The latter, which most losing weight see as a negative, is actually a goal.)

    Of course the "optimal nutrition" part usually means lots of veg, and so not low fiber at all.

    I may be eating at maintenance but based on the calculator I found I should be eating more.
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
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    It's easy to misjudge cals, though, and the calculators are just estimates (as is your own estimate of activity level, etc).

    If you are trying to do this for health, the idea is that you eat fewer cals, but focus on the nutritional content as it's harder to meet nutritional needs when at a lower calorie level.
  • NovusDies
    NovusDies Posts: 8,940 Member
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    Mellouk89 wrote: »
    lemurcat2 wrote: »
    Mellouk89 wrote: »
    Ok I made this thread in part because my calorie intake is quite low and I maintain my current weight that way. I think it's because I eat energy dense foods with not a lot of fiber and moderate protein. It may be that I don't burn as much energy digesting these foods thus I can sustain myself with lower calories?

    That just means you are eating maintenance. What happens with those doing the 20% deficit thing (CRON/calorie restriction/optimal nutrition) is they initially lose and then stabilize at a lower body weight. They are trying to lower their TDEE through a combination of weight loss and adaptation to lower cals. (The latter, which most losing weight see as a negative, is actually a goal.)

    Of course the "optimal nutrition" part usually means lots of veg, and so not low fiber at all.

    I may be eating at maintenance but based on the calculator I found I should be eating more.

    Online calculators give estimates that are not going to be right for everyone.

    Your BMR includes the calories needed for digestion. A low protein diet might skew the numbers slightly but unless I am very mistaken not 400 calories worth.

    Usually the easiest answer is the answer. Study after study, including one done on registered dietitians, conclude that people tend to underestimate how much they are eating. I noticed you are not logging your food into MFP, or you haven't done so recently, how are you determining your current calorie intake?
  • Mellouk89
    Mellouk89 Posts: 469 Member
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    Since I eat mostly processed foods and the calories are listed on the label I just do a quick calculation and I find that on most days I eat 2100 calories. But I also heard that those are not always accurate, I read an article on the news saying that.
  • NovusDies
    NovusDies Posts: 8,940 Member
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    Mellouk89 wrote: »
    Since I eat mostly processed foods and the calories are listed on the label I just do a quick calculation and I find that on most days I eat 2100 calories. But I also heard that those are not always accurate, I read an article on the news saying that.

    It depends on the food and the label. Anything that you eat all of that says "About x servings" can be off quite a bit. Anything you eat that you determine the portion by counting can be off quite a bit (like tortilla chips might be 7 for x calories).

    There are ways to know for sure but I am not sure how invested you are in knowing the answer since you are maintaining.
  • mmapags
    mmapags Posts: 8,934 Member
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    Mellouk89 wrote: »
    Since I eat mostly processed foods and the calories are listed on the label I just do a quick calculation and I find that on most days I eat 2100 calories. But I also heard that those are not always accurate, I read an article on the news saying that.

    You method isn't accurate at all. Truth is, you don't really know how many calories you are eating in a day. A quick calculation has a large margin for error. You will only know for certain if you start weighing and logging as accurately as you possibly can. I can't see how you can come to any conclusions of how much you should be eating without that.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,679 Member
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    People can be outliers both up and down.
    Obviously, statistically speaking, most people are NOT outliers.
    This doesn't mean that with billions of people in this world that being in the 1% super outlier bracket still gets us a good 7.8 million super outliers, which is just a few thousand more than the totality of MFP account holders! <-- see, we could all be unicorns here: members of the proud 1% :smiley:

    Jokes aside.
    You could just be an outlier as discussed above.
    Your logging could be affecting things. It is extremely common for people to believe they're eating less than they think. Just an example today from a person who takes pride in his logging... I had forgotten to add a complete 58g mars bar--which weighed more than the packaging indicates.
    You could be showing signs of adaptive thermogenesis (which, as mentioned above, is not something that people who want to lose weight want to achieve). If dieting for a long time you may want to look into re-feeds or a diet break.

    Incidentally. From what I understand that a custodian does you would probably be on your feet for a good part of the day. Plus deliberate walking back and forth to work. So in actual fact you would be considered more than moderately active based on the standard definitions in use. At least in the active category if you move in a way that conserves energy, if not above that if you're vigorously moving around.

    Generally the thermic effect of food (TEF) is a small part of your total daily energy expenditure. Protein has a higher TEF. Fiber may make you feel more full with less calories, but I don't know that it significantly changes TEF.

    What are you trying to do? What are you trying to troubleshoot? Are you trying to lose, gain or maintain? What are your current weight, height, age, gender?
  • Lillymoo01
    Lillymoo01 Posts: 2,865 Member
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    Mellouk89 wrote: »
    Since I eat mostly processed foods and the calories are listed on the label I just do a quick calculation and I find that on most days I eat 2100 calories. But I also heard that those are not always accurate, I read an article on the news saying that.

    I eat protein bars and weigh them before I eat them. They can easily be 5 or more grams heavier than indicated on the packaging. If the majority of my food was prepackaged and was not weighed before eating there is a fair chance I'd be eating several hundred calories more than I think I am a day. It is actually not common for there to be a smaller serving than indicated on the packaging but the opposite is regularly the case.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,679 Member
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    Also a common issue (in US and Canada), maybe less so in other countries, is that the package often lists an imaginary serving size. You know, one package of pop tarts or one packaged cookie, listing calories for HALF the package as a serving size :wink:

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