Help!! Calories Goal too high??
mrsbrown322
Posts: 18 Member
Hya, I am not sure how to get help with this .. I am overweight and trying to lose weight but exercising at same time.. I was talking to my coach today and he mentioned that I should be having around 360g of carbs, 150g Protein and 90g of fat per day. And I should be in the region of 2000 calories a day.
When I try to set my Goals at My fitness pal, if I put those macros in, it gives me 2890 calories to have per day (I had put in that I would do 7 workouts per week) --- Is this right? seems a lot when I am 200 pounds and want to lose some weight. If I take off the exercises planned for the week, I still get 2230 calories per day .. but that is not having exercises .. so confused.. Thanks so much x
When I try to set my Goals at My fitness pal, if I put those macros in, it gives me 2890 calories to have per day (I had put in that I would do 7 workouts per week) --- Is this right? seems a lot when I am 200 pounds and want to lose some weight. If I take off the exercises planned for the week, I still get 2230 calories per day .. but that is not having exercises .. so confused.. Thanks so much x
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Your coach isn't much of an expert, apparently. Without context of your stats and lifestyle it's hard to give you a correct calorie amount however 2,890 will most likely cause weight gain instead of loss. 2,000 may even be too high.
The more fat you carry the bigger the deficit can be. Person A may lose at 2,000 and person B may gain at 2,000 even though they're the same size. Daily non exercise activity will be the biggest determining factor.
Then there is the accuracy factor. How accurate are you with counting? 2,000 can be much higher in reality if you're underestimating your intake.0 -
2000 a day sounds like a reasonable start. Your trainer probably is including your exercises as part of that 2000.
You can go in to "Goals" and set your calories at 2000, and the goals wizard will calculate your macros at a rate of 50% Carbs, 30% Fat, and 20% Protein. Those macros will be fine. I agree with Tom that a trainer may or may not have a good grasp on what will work and how to set macros.
You will have to learn as you go, and experiment for a while to see if your logging, your activity, and your exercise are lining up to give you weight loss.
I lost most of my weight (from 220 to 140) at 1500-1600 base calories PLUS "Exercise Calories" added on (that's just the way I did it, myfitnesspal sets exercise as a separate line item.) That meant that on exercise days I was eating 1800-2000 total calories.
Try it. See how it goes. Adjust after a month if it isn't giving you the results you expect based on your numbers. That's kind of what we all have to do.
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The macros you've given add up to to 2850 Cal a day; not 2890 or 2000.
Protein and carbs are 4 Cal per gram. Fat is 9 Cal per gram
If they don't add up to 2000 , then your coach is NOT asking you to eat 2000.
MFP, unless things have recently changed, does not take into account AT ALL how many times a day you say you will exercise. It asks and then does not do anything visible with the information
Exercise when logged as expected after it was performed adds calories to compensate for the extra energy spent thus helping you keep to your desired deficit. That's in everyday use after guided setup has been completed.
What you describe in terms of different goals based on exercise does not make sense. Sounds like you may be using a non MFP setup
If you want to setup your goals independently of MFP you can search for sail rabbit TDEE
Time to double check what inputs you're providing and where and with your coach on their advice2 -
I agree with Riverside and PAV overall, and agree with Riverside that 2000 might be fine. (Similar to her, I lost most of the weight from obese to healthy weight on 1400-1600 plus exercise, so upwards of 2000 or so most days, as a 5'5" woman, age 59-60, sedentary outside of intentional exercise, starting at 183 pounds, all the way down into the 120s. I admit I'm a better than average li'l ol' calorie burner for my age, but 2000 doesn't seem crazy to me. You look much younger, are a bit heavier, and quite possibly taller than me.) Depending on info I don't know (your job, home life, details of the exercise), even 2850 might work, though I'm more skeptical of that on the surface.
PAV mentioned Sailrabbit as a TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) calculator to use as a double check. Here's the link:
https://www.sailrabbit.com/bmr/
Are you an experienced exerciser, well conditioned? If so, 7 days a week may be fine. If more of a beginner, it could be excessive (fatiguing), which would be counterproductive, depending on what exercise type, intensity and duration you're doing. It can be a thing to work up to, if not conditioned to it now.
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Ask your coach how you're supposed to consume those macros (which total 2850 cals) and yet only consume 2000 calories.4
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mrsbrown322 wrote: »Hya, I am not sure how to get help with this .. I am overweight and trying to lose weight but exercising at same time.. I was talking to my coach today and he mentioned that I should be having around 360g of carbs, 150g Protein and 90g of fat per day. And I should be in the region of 2000 calories a day.
When I try to set my Goals at My fitness pal, if I put those macros in, it gives me 2890 calories to have per day (I had put in that I would do 7 workouts per week) --- Is this right? seems a lot when I am 200 pounds and want to lose some weight. If I take off the exercises planned for the week, I still get 2230 calories per day .. but that is not having exercises .. so confused.. Thanks so much x
What are your coach's nutritional credentials?
If he is a coach for Herbalife or Beach Body, this doesn't require any legit credentials.3 -
mrsbrown322 wrote: »Hya, I am not sure how to get help with this .. I am overweight and trying to lose weight but exercising at same time.. I was talking to my coach today and he mentioned that I should be having around 360g of carbs, 150g Protein and 90g of fat per day. And I should be in the region of 2000 calories a day.
When I try to set my Goals at My fitness pal, if I put those macros in, it gives me 2890 calories to have per day (I had put in that I would do 7 workouts per week) --- Is this right? seems a lot when I am 200 pounds and want to lose some weight. If I take off the exercises planned for the week, I still get 2230 calories per day .. but that is not having exercises .. so confused.. Thanks so much x
I'm wondering if you simply misunderstood? 360gr of carbs seems quite a lot. With 160gr of carbs, 150gr of protein en 90gr of fat, you'd arrive at 2050 calories.3 -
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Thank you so much for taking the time to reply. This is the form that my Triathlon coach sent me today to try to explain the amount of Carbs. I have also calculated my BMR and TDEE, thank you for sending me that form. I had done it before but now is different because I have put on weight and that form is really good.
So I am finding really confusing to input on MFP, if I put the exact grams of CPF then the calories go up. I have changed my profile to do no exercises and to loose 1.5lb per week to see if it helps.
If I change to put the calories at the top as 2141 (this is my TDEE less 10% deficite to lose weight) then my Macros change0 -
He is a Triathlon coach so he is talking about needing Carbs for Endurance not to get too tired during the week.
What are your coach's nutritional credentials?
If he is a coach for Herbalife or Beach Body, this doesn't require any legit credentials.[/quote]
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mrsbrown322 wrote: »
Huge math error for fat: they multiplied 89.8gr of fat by 4 instead of 9 to calculate the calories. It's 808 calories instead of 359.
Which makes the total calorie intake incorrect as well.2 -
I'm going to give my 2 cents: that looks like a horrible way to calculate a calorie goal. Your body needs a certain amount of energy, not a certain amount of energy from carbs and a certain amount of energy from fat and a certain amount of energy from protein.
Calories determine what your weight does, so that's the starting point if you want to lose weight.
After your determine your calorie goal, that's when you split the available calories between the three macros.
Protein: protects you from muscle loss/helps build muscle and helps keep many people sated.
Fat: needed for certain bodily processes (hormones,...).
Carbs: not 'essential' in the sense that they supply energy and energy can also be supplied from fat and protein.
2000 calories sounds like a much more reasonable calorie goal for weight loss. I started at 94kgs and I'm 166cm, and I lost weight eating 1700 calories +exercise/activity calories. And that was in the context of fairly slow weight loss (0.5-1lb per week).2 -
Ahh that was me!! So that will bring the totally amount of calories even higher.. So acccording to those calculations I should be on 2782 calories that is not too far off from what MPF calculates, but find it still so high .. maybe because I am overweight at the moment and each time I loose weight I have to adjust my calories .. I can only think its this
Huge math error for fat: they multiplied 89.8gr of fat by 4 instead of 9 to calculate the calories. It's 808 calories instead of 359.
Which makes the total calorie intake incorrect as well.[/quote]
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I'm going to give my 2 cents: that looks like a horrible way to calculate a calorie goal. Your body needs a certain amount of energy, not a certain amount of energy from carbs and a certain amount of energy from fat and a certain amount of energy from protein.
Calories determine what your weight does, so that's the starting point if you want to lose weight.
After your determine your calorie goal, that's when you split the available calories between the three macros.
Protein: protects you from muscle loss/helps build muscle and helps keep many people sated.
Fat: needed for certain bodily processes (hormones,...).
Carbs: not 'essential' in the sense that they supply energy and energy can also be supplied from fat and protein.
2000 calories sounds like a much more reasonable calorie goal for weight loss. I started at 94kgs and I'm 166cm, and I lost weight eating 1700 calories +exercise/activity calories. And that was in the context of fairly slow weight loss (0.5-1lb per week).
Thanks so much for sharing your story, yes it makes a lot of sense what you have done0 -
mrsbrown322 wrote: »Ahh that was me!! So that will bring the totally amount of calories even higher.. So acccording to those calculations I should be on 2782 calories that is not too far off from what MPF calculates, but find it still so high .. maybe because I am overweight at the moment and each time I loose weight I have to adjust my calories .. I can only think its this
Sorry for the harsh reaction then
What activity level and weight loss rate are you entering for MFP? Because 2700 calories sounds quite high.
MFP's activity level is meant to not include exercise (only daily activity: work, commute, housework, hobbies...) - exercise should be added separately on days when you do it and will then increase your goal.
What exercise are you doing?0 -
I’m having trouble seeing how you could be burning an additional 1,247 calories a day. I thought the original extra 800 was too high for weight loss.
When I calculated it for myself it was accurate as long as I worked out for an hour a day, which would put me at 1,696 calories, but this would be to maintain, not lose weight. 🤔
Maybe it needs a step 4: Deficit. This is where you take your TDEE calories and subtract 500- 750 calories (if very over weight) from your TDEE. That would put you right around 2000 calories. But then you’d have to do your macros all over again. This is overly confusing.1 -
This is what I see when I put your stats in sailrabbit (moderately active as noted)
TDEE- 2384 calories daily
1.5 lb deficit per week= 1634 calories daily
TDEE- 2384 calories daily
1 lb deficit per week= 1894 calories daily
Just for reference, you're about the same height as I am and can have nearly 1000 calories more than I can at your TDEE so I would caution increasing your calories to that 2800. That seems to be highly counterproductive to what you’re trying to achieve.1 -
Judging from your bicep photo and the fact that you are training for a triathlon, I’m guessing you’re pretty active.
I started MFP at 225 at age 56. I originally set a flat calorie goal of 1470, within two months my dietician suggested 1700, and upon starting training about six months in, my trainer had me increase to 1900 and then 2170.
I still lost weight steadily at that goal, because I had gradually increased activity level.
In fact, I dropped too low, lost muscle, and had to increase daily calorie goal, and shoot for a higher weight just to not look sickly.
As an almost 62 year old woman, I maintain easily averaging 2800-3000/day because of my activity level. And I am in no way training for a marathon.
It’s entirely possible to need a high calorie goal as an older active woman, even in the weight loss phase.
You obviously hired this trainer because you have faith in them. I trusted mine enough to ask questions- a lot of them, since movement and calorie restriction were so new to my previously sedentary, obese world.
If you’ve got a question, or reservations, just ask.
Likewise, my trainer knows and trusts me enough to know when it’s simply whining (🤬 six rounds of battle ropes this morning and she knows how I hate them) versus stepping back when genuinely needed (I reeled in a shoulder move this morning while training because I could feel the impingement on one side at the peak of the movement).
You and your trainer should be a team, and there should be give and take and questions and answers.2 -
I am not putting any exercise to see if it drops the calories
Sorry for the harsh reaction then
Not harsh .. glad you saw it 😃
What activity level and weight loss rate are you entering for MFP? Because 2700 calories sounds quite high.
MFP's activity level is meant to not include exercise (only daily activity: work, commute, housework, hobbies...) - exercise should be added separately on days when you do it and will then increase your goal.
What exercise are you doing?[/quote]
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@springlering62 Thank you so much for getting into detail explaining your story. And well done with your rope work!! Yes I am quite active so hence my coach talking about not losing muscle so having to be careful how to lose weight. I do trust him but I just dont know how to put it on MyFitnessPal.
From what I understood with my conversation with him yesterday is that for Endurance we need higher calories so not to get too tired days after. Its a really fine balance when trying to loose weight as well.
when all the restrictions stop0 -
My coach just messaged me this afternoon as he may change my training in order to have less Cardio and more Strength training so it will help me lose the weight.
I have done MyFitnessPal before when I lifting weights and it made sense, but now I am just getting confused with it all.. I think I prefer to work with Macros rather than calories. I also want to be able
to have a proper meal plan rather than thinking I am dieting and then put weight back on again1 -
@ddsb1111 Thank you for showing me what I can do on the deficit on that form, that is really helpful.1
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mrsbrown322 wrote: »
I am not putting any exercise to see if it drops the calories
Sorry for the harsh reaction then
Not harsh .. glad you saw it 😃
FYI: this is a part of MFP I've always hated because so many people get confused about it: your fitness goals have zero influence on your calorie, they aren't taken into account at all.
Only exercise logged in your diary influences your calorie goal, for that day.
I'm guessing you chose a high activity level to arrive at 2700 calories. Because you're including exercise in that choice? (Which can be fine, as long as you don't add exercise calories on top of that)
The true test of your calorie goal will be what your weight does over one or two months (or menstrual cycles if applicable).
It makes sense to start higher and lower the goal later on if necessary to be cautious regarding muscle loss.2 -
Not your first go around here, but….when I started I was utterly plumfuzzled like you.
Some kind soul here told me to focus on calories for the weight loss, take some time to learn the system, and then worry about fine tuning macros.
Even now, macros tend to be all over the place. Sometimes it’s just not possible to Tetris it all and make it work. So I check the 7-day averages instead. As long as I’m good on those, I feel like I’ve done OK.
I also have a tendency to undereat my calories five or six days a week and then make up the difference on something totally luxurious, typically a large chocolate or marzipan bar, or some cookies from one of the local small bakeries.
So many numbers can make your head spin trying to be perfect. I’ve learned that “pretty OK” works pretty OK. It’s fine to get one area under control and then add in another and another.
I spent 20+ years obese. There was no harm in spending a few weeks or months just learning to head in the other direction.
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mrsbrown322 wrote: »My coach just messaged me this afternoon as he may change my training in order to have less Cardio and more Strength training so it will help me lose the weight.
I have done MyFitnessPal before when I lifting weights and it made sense, but now I am just getting confused with it all.. I think I prefer to work with Macros rather than calories. I also want to be able
to have a proper meal plan rather than thinking I am dieting and then put weight back on again
To the first part, weight training doesn’t help with losing weight more than cardio. In fact, it uses less calories than cardio. This is the part we need you to grasp, I think more than anything- A calorie deficit and only a calorie deficit impacts weight loss. Macros and whatever type of work out you do is only for fitness/health/satiation and not weight loss.
Look at it this way:
Calories = weight loss, maintenance, or weight gain (depending on your calorie goal).
Workouts = health, strength, and/or endurance
If you want to lose weight you need to burn more than you eat, so monitor calories.
If you want to be athletic/strong then cardio, weight lifting, or a sport will help. Here’s the surprising part… Many people are over weight and obese while weight training or in a sport due to a lack of calorie balance. If you’re eating more than you burn, no matter what, you’ll gain weight. No clean diet or special sport will save you.
Your diet and your workout are two separate goals that do two separate things.
To your second paragraph, you said you prefer to work with macros instead of calories. You need to understand macros are made up of calories. If you don’t understand how many calories to eat you will over eat your macros and gain weight. This is counterproductive to your goals. Are you really wanting to eat 2800 calories because your math said that’s how many macros you need? You will become obese in no time and hurt your weight loss and fitness goals immensely. We are just trying to help you get your priorities in order to prevent that.
First- find your calorie goal (MFP will give that to you when you enter your stats and goals)
Secondly- decide your macros % for your sport or use what MFP gives you. I, specifically, need lots of carbs for energy and don’t function well on protein/fat. You will learn what works for you.
Third- test your logging and trend over 4-6 weeks and see if the math is mathing. If you’re not losing the amount you think, you need to adjust your logging and make the adjustment to your diet.
I agree with you, don’t “diet” in terms of eating a random menu full of stuff that doesn’t make sense. But, eat your diet of food that is “normal” in your calorie goal. Despite what you think, you absolutely need to know what your TDEE is, how many calories to eat in a deficit, how much to expect to lose on average, how to log that, and how to follow that trend.
If you choose to eat whatever macros you posted then check back in 4-6 weeks with the comparison, and we can go from there.1 -
Wow so much stuff.
a-- glad to see the math error caught.
b-- it sure sounds that you're calculating calories for maintenance not weight loss
c-- a lot of us are keying in to 90kg but THAT may not be representative here given the apparent triathlon goal.
HOW overweight are you compared to where you want to be?
Most people spend most of the calories EXISTING. Activity of 30 minutes to an hour a day is really in the lightly active range. BUT THAT DOES NOT INCLUDE intense and repeated training for hours at a time.
I can see where someone who is training will be needing calories to power through that.
You MAY be a candidate for different amounts of calories between training and non training days. I mean come on. I am in my late 50's. A guy. But average to just below average height 171.5 or so cm.
When I don't go out to WALK (ok sort of semi-groomed-hike type walk), my TDEE is under 2300. During my normal days it is close to or over 3000.... in fact my **average** TDEE is over 2900.
So if you're training for a couple of hours for a triathlon and eating 2000 Cal I can see that leading to a crash. If you're not training for a couple of hours and eat 2800 Cal I can see a problem with losing.
I can see you caring about protein. Figures in the range you're discussing (it comes out to about 0.7g of protein per lb of current weight) are fairly well supported.
The rest of the mix between carbs and fats I would leave to preference given that your calories do allow for both variety and preference. You can always load up on potatoes or pasta or rice before a run or eat more salmon or guacamole or what have you on another day.
But yeah. The question of whether you want to lose weight and how much does enter the picture. Sounds like the trainer did NOT actually have that as first and foremost in their mind. Nor do they seem to consider you as being particularly inactive.
In the end the final test is one's body:
eat drink and log food and drink. log weight. use weight trend app. train. sleep. wait time. compare expected to actual results. consider the results in the context of what's been happening and how you've been feeling. adjust as necessary!0 -
I agree with those above about calorie goal being the highest-order issue if weight loss is the most important goal. I agree with you and your coach about losing weight slowly if athletic performance generally or strength/muscle specifically are important goals.
I do - I think - feel a little more strongly than some others here that nutrition is very important, and that there are basics that need to be met vs. "it's all flexible". IMO that's especially true in a case where athletic performance is a goal. I believe in using gram estimates for protein and fats needs, not percentages of calories.
I think the methods you outlined for estimating protein and fats are reasonable. In a case like yours, I feel like those are the more important, and that carbs - being not an "essential nutrient" in technical terms - are more flexible.
If I were you, I'd set a protein minimum, a fats minimum, and use carbs to balance calories. If you're substantially overweight now, it's reasonable to use a healthy goal weight to estimate those, rather than basing on a current high weight. (In particular, protein's main importance is to maintain our lean mass. We don't need lots extra because we have excess fat mass.) If you don't know a good goal weight, just use the middle of the normal BMI range. (I know that BMI is controversial. For something like this, it's a close enough approximation IMO.)
I may be wrong (because there's some individualism in all of this), but I doubt that it's essential for you to get 368g of carbs, or maybe not even 268g. (That's even though 268g gives you what could be a reasonable starting calorie level to test-drive as gross intake for a few weeks (at least a full menstrual cycle if you have those, so you're comparing body weight at the same relative point in at least two different cycles).)
Since you plan fairly high activity, timing the carbs you do eat around workouts may help with performance. That could be slow carbs (more complex) in the hours before a longer/tougher workout, or faster carbs (high GI, leaning toward sugars) if shortly before (or during) a longer/tougher workout. It will take some experimentation to optimize for your own personal body.
Admittedly, I'm not a triathlete. I do a short-endurance sport (on-water rowing, mostly). I've worked out regularly and sometimes pretty hard/long, but I don't have anything routine that's as long as the long run days marathoners including in training, for example. More carbs shortly before/on those endurance training days would probably be good. If you want to get fancy, you could look at the (actual) protocols for athletic carb loading before events, which actually involve more nuance than "eat a plate of spaghetti before a race", and apply those principles to long-endurance workout days. But that's a nicety that could probably be left to the longer term.
Just opinions from some random idiot on the internet, though.
P.S. One thing I find weird about that worksheet is that they start by converting your weight to kg. If you usually think in pounds . . . why? Why wouldn't they just convert the formulas to use pounds? That would work fine.
P.P.S. If you want another source, there's an evidence-based protein calculator and guide here, from a site that's generally regarded as neutral (among other things, they don't sell supplements) and attentive to the science:
https://examine.com/protein-intake-calculator/
https://examine.com/guides/protein-intake/
Somewhere in the guide they do say it can be fine to use a lower (goal) weight in the calculator if materially overweight.0 -
To interject re Ann's (as usual very complete and relevant) post, most people who don't purposefully try to undercut fat to extreme minimums will be hitting the base minimum level of fat she is discussing just by trying to meet their protein needs.
Also, the protein numbers chosen by the OP coming up to 0.7g per lb of current weight are well within the common 0.6 to 0.8g per lb range and even if we assume some loss (but not extreme) they would be unlikely to be "too far" off.
If I recall without losing my position here the target was in the 130g range... which is at about 0.7g per lb for current weight, about 0.75g per lb at 80kg and about 0.8 per lb for 75kg. Even at 70kg it becomes 0.85g per lb so just above the common 0.6g to 0.8g per lb range that takes into account body composition. If the OP is extra lean/lots of muscle that would be biased a tad higher. In any case... good enough. Certainly not too little or extremely excessive.
So... really. This only leaves CALORIES and the carbs vs fats debate. Since minimal fats are almost impossible to NOT take in if you're consuming 130+g of protein..... it leaves fats vs carbs for fuel.
Which is why I said preference in the end. because maybe the OP does want to carb load for her triathlon. Or prefers to be more satiated by fats. But I will leave her to sort it out with her coach... if they ever figure out their goals.
I think that the goal setting here is probably where the game will be played as tanking athletic performance would be a pity.... elephant in the room remaining: how much weight loss is this whole endeavor... endeavoring to achieve????!0
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