Help with total calories

Gert_1988

Hello everyone,

I have logged all my information through Myfitnesspal (hight 180 cm,age 35 ,weight 114kg, activity sedentary,how much I want to lose 1 kg per week) and it came up with a daily goal of 1550 calories. It has been going great I have gone from 122.8kg to 114.5 in 28 days. However over the past few days 4 to 5 I have increasingly been feeling dizzy and lethargic. My question is this, am I not eating enough calories for the day or am I doing this wrong or is there an underlying problem I need to get checked, I have attached yesterday's food log which is how I normally would eat, I have also attached today's log which I have increased my intake to nearly cover every available carb. Which is better?

PAV8888

Hello @Gert_1988

I first responded when I was out walking and did not notice some of the information I now see in your original post. I caught the 4-5 days and thought you were just starting out, not realizing you already have 28 days worth of information and have an established enough weight loss pattern to be able to draw some conclusions.

Everything, calories in, calories out are estimates. However consistent (notice the word consistent, consistency doesn't even require accuracy, just consistent errors ) measurements is what allows us to come to conclusions.

You have your own data. Your data says that you've lost 8.3kg in 28 days. Sure, I would feel more comfortable if this was a conclusion based on weight trend as opposed to "spot" weights... but.

77(16) Cal * 8.3 kg = 64,0(43) Cal lost / 28 days = 2,287 Cal deficit per day <-- actual as measured by your body. (I also note that you have been losing 2.075Kg, not lbs, per week).

As you can probably tell you are losing more than twice as fast as you intended.

And, if you are aiming to eat less than 2,000 Cal while creating a deficit of more than 2,000 Cal per day you are creating a deficit that exceeds 50% of your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure).

In brief and in summary... you are massively under-eating based on your results, losing faster than intended, and... unsurprisingly... you are starting to tank (and down regulate) due to lack of sufficient energy to carry on.

Pretty much 1% of body weight per week seems to be for most a fast weight loss rate with rates closer to 0.5% per week better tolerated long term... you're going at closer to 2% sooooooo.....

Start by eating all your exercise calories and possibly consider based on your logging whether you even ought to be eating even more than that.

Don't get greedy... keep your loss at a reasonable rate balancing speed of loss and ability to continue being active while also learning about how you're eating and moving so that you can continue doing so when you reach your goal weight.

Awesome start--but time to adjust that gas pedal a bit before you spin out through the corner.

Gert_1988

Yesterdays log

Goal : 1540
Food : 1490
Exercise: 376
Remaining: 426

Today's log

Goal: 1540
Food: 1903
Exercise: 509
Remaining: 146

PAV8888

Is your exercise adjustment coming from a device or by personally logged exercise?

It is the beginning so there is major room for logging errors and eating improvements as time goes on. But a point to remember. Is that just because you think you're sedentary doesn't necessarily mean that you are as these things are defined.

The labels do not have an intrinsic meaning other than to define a multiplier of your BMR to generate an estimate of your caloric needs

Most important word there is estimate

MFP front loads your deficit in your daily calories and envisions that you're going to eat all of your actually expended exercise calories

By not doing so, you're already increasing your already substantial estimated caloric deficit

I would probably go by eating all of my calories first before worrying about the precise mix second. Then would compare my estimated deficit over the course of several weeks against my weight trend during the same time period.

Gert_1988

@PAV8888 thank you very much for the information I truly appreciate it. Yeah after reading you're response..no wonder I feel like crap, will eat those exercise calories and monitor weight loss. Cheers!