Please help... Eat less or More???

rosemaryeallman

I am 31 years old. I weigh 355 lbs I am 5'6. My primary doctor suggested that I eat about 1500 to 1600 calories a day but I am starving at night and can't sleep. I am fairly active, I work out about three times a week. MFP tells me I can eat about 2200 without exercise. I was told by a personal trainer I should be eating 2674 calories a day to lose weight. 2600 hundred calories is a lot more than I am used to eating.... I lost about 15 pounds over the holidays but last week I gained a half pound. Half of the week I ate 1500-1600 calories and the other half was around 2000-2100. I am discouraged and confused. Please help.... I might attempt to increase my calorie consumption for a week to see If I can have better results. What do you think I Should do??

axanthialynette

In the health care we recommend eating small meals 5-6 times a day. Like every 2-3 hours have something small. Keeps your appetite in check and metabolism up. for example: i eat a bowel of cereal in am around 7 with a banana, then around 10 i have a greek yogurt with granola, then have lunch around noonish or so, then an afternoon snack. and supper. i sometimes have a small low carb bedtime snack. this will also help keep portions down bc you shouldnt be starving. may take your body a few days to adjust in the beginning though. Mine did.

parkscs

At 355, there's really no reason your body can't get by at 1500-1600 calories per day, but it's important to be content while dieting - if you're miserable the entire time, odds are you won't stick with it. I would try to change your macros around so that you're eating 1500-1600 calories of filling food. Make sure you're getting some protein at every meal - I would avoid meals that are purely carbs. Some eggs and perhaps a bit of greek yogurt and fruit for breakfast will be a lot more filling than a sugar-filled cereal or a pastry. Personally, if you can stick with it, 1500-1600 sounds like a better number to me.

That said, if you can't find a way to satiate yourself at 1500-1600 calories, it's better to up your caloric intake than to give up. You can eat 2200 and still lose weight, but you will lose weight more slowly.

wendybird5

I say go by what MFP says and maintain it for a month to see what happens. If you lose weight, great, you are on track. If you gain, go 100-200 calories lower. That's how I started. I just set my activity level to sedentary and would exercise to earn more calories if I wanted to eat more.

micheleb15

I am 30, 5'2 and 150lbs and I eat 1600 calories a day. If you are hungry, please eat more. I just ran your numbers really quickly through this calculator (http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/) and with no exercise you should be eating around 2400 to lose weight. Unless the dr., gave a reason for the low amount, it sounds like the trainer is the one to go with here.

micheleb15

At 355, there's really no reason your body can't get by at 1500-1600 calories per day. Personally, if you can stick with it, 1500-1600 sounds like a better number to me.

That said, if you can't find a way to satiate yourself at 1500-1600 calories, it's better to up your caloric intake than to give up. You can eat 2200 and still lose weight, but you will lose weight more slowly.

I don't agree with this at all. At that weight, her BMR has to at least be in the 2000s and I can't imagine eating 500 less than my BMR. My body would shut down.

parkscs

I am 30, 5'2 and 150lbs and I eat 1600 calories a day. If you are hungry, please eat more. I just ran your numbers really quickly through this calculator (http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/) and with no exercise you should be eating around 2400 to lose weight. Unless the dr., gave a reason for the low amount, it sounds like the trainer is the one to go with here.

I can't really speak for her doctor, but the reasons are almost certainly because 355 lbs is unhealthy and the sooner the weight comes off, the better as far as your health is concerned; people with excess fat stores can get by eating a more significant caloric deficit than people with only a few pounds of weight to lose; and 1500-1600 calories is likely to give your body the nutrients it needs to function, provided you make reasonable choices with how you get your calories. It's important for the OP to find a plan that she can stick with, but there's no reason you "need" to or even "should" stick to a 2lb/week loss at 355 lbs.

rosemaryeallman

Thank God I have no health issues other than that I am over weight. I have had recent blood work done and everything is normal. I just need to get this weight off so I can have a healthier active life.

parkscs

At 355, there's really no reason your body can't get by at 1500-1600 calories per day. Personally, if you can stick with it, 1500-1600 sounds like a better number to me.

That said, if you can't find a way to satiate yourself at 1500-1600 calories, it's better to up your caloric intake than to give up. You can eat 2200 and still lose weight, but you will lose weight more slowly.

I don't agree with this at all. At that weight, her BMR has to at least be in the 2000s and I can't imagine eating 500 less than my BMR. My body would shut down.

Your body doesn't shut down eating under your BMR at 355 lbs. With ~200lbs of excess fat, it can easily make-up the caloric deficit from your fat stores. Eating under your BMR/TDEE becomes problematic when your body cannot pull sufficient calories from your fat stores (i.e., when you're already lean and not carrying around much fat). Studies I've seen suggest your body can pull, on average, 31 kcal per pound of fat per day from your excess fat stores, which is about 6200 potential calories your body can pull from fat stores at ~200 lbs of excess fat. She may be hungry at first, particularly so depending on what food choices she makes, but her doctor is giving the best advice for her long-term health (provided she can stick with it).

auddii

I'd split the difference (especially since you're hungry with the lower amount) and try 2000 calories a day and stick with that for a month. See what happens, and then adjust accordingly. And eat back I'd say part of your exercise calories (they are usually over estimated). So, I usually would log 2/3 of my exercise calories.

Also, if you are still hungry through out the day, be sure to try and find foods that will keep you feeling full. Satiety is very personal, but a lot of people find that lean protein keeps them feeling full longer. You can also try filling up on lower calorie vegetables to help with hunger. You can also try pre-logging your days to make sure that you have enough calories at night when you are hungrier.

rosemaryeallman

I am not sure what I will do but I do want to lose it faster vs slower... I can do great during the day but right before bed I get very hungry and find it difficult to sleep.

rosemaryeallman

I'd split the difference (especially since you're hungry with the lower amount) and try 2000 calories a day and stick with that for a month. See what happens, and then adjust accordingly. And eat back I'd say part of your exercise calories (they are usually over estimated). So, I usually would log 2/3 of my exercise calories.

Also, if you are still hungry through out the day, be sure to try and find foods that will keep you feeling full. Satiety is very personal, but a lot of people find that lean protein keeps them feeling full longer. You can also try filling up on lower calorie vegetables to help with hunger. You can also try pre-logging your days to make sure that you have enough calories at night when you are hungrier.

rosemaryeallman

I like your suggestion

SLLRunner

I am 31 years old. I weigh 355 lbs I am 5'6. My primary doctor suggested that I eat about 1500 to 1600 calories a day but I am starving at night and can't sleep. I am fairly active, I work out about three times a week. MFP tells me I can eat about 2200 without exercise. I was told by a personal trainer I should be eating 2674 calories a day to lose weight. 2600 hundred calories is a lot more than I am used to eating.... I lost about 15 pounds over the holidays but last week I gained a half pound. Half of the week I ate 1500-1600 calories and the other half was around 2000-2100. I am discouraged and confused. Please help.... I might attempt to increase my calorie consumption for a week to see If I can have better results. What do you think I Should do??

Rosemary,

At your size, and because you are exercising, I would definitely raise those calories. Have you tried eating five or six smaller meals to help curb your hunger?

As for a 1/2 pound gain- that's nothing at all. Could just be water retention.

rosemaryeallman

I am 31 years old. I weigh 355 lbs I am 5'6. My primary doctor suggested that I eat about 1500 to 1600 calories a day but I am starving at night and can't sleep. I am fairly active, I work out about three times a week. MFP tells me I can eat about 2200 without exercise. I was told by a personal trainer I should be eating 2674 calories a day to lose weight. 2600 hundred calories is a lot more than I am used to eating.... I lost about 15 pounds over the holidays but last week I gained a half pound. Half of the week I ate 1500-1600 calories and the other half was around 2000-2100. I am discouraged and confused. Please help.... I might attempt to increase my calorie consumption for a week to see If I can have better results. What do you think I Should do??

Rosemary,

At your size, and because you are exercising, I would definitely raise those calories. Have you tried eating five or six smaller meals to help curb your hunger?

As for a 1/2 pound gain- that's nothing at all. Could just be water retention.

rosemaryeallman

Yes, I have been eating about 5-6 times a day.

Dare2Believe

If you are miserable you are not going to stick with it long term and that is what is important. Sadly, most Doctors don't know much at all about nutrition it is not something that they study in medical school other than maybe a 3 hour lecture. They are often misinformed. In nursing school I had to take one semester of nutrition and it was not a fun class. I can't imagine only having a few hours of education on the subject and thinking you know enough to help someone.

Try reading through this thread and see it if helps. If not then I would recommend getting help from a Registered Dietician if you are still having problems. They are much better trained than medical doctors in the area of nutrition. They can help you come up with a plan that is better suited to your unique individual needs.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/931670-bmr-and-tdee-explained-for-those-needing-a-guide

WalkingAlong

I am 31 years old. I weigh 355 lbs I am 5'6. My primary doctor suggested that I eat about 1500 to 1600 calories a day but I am starving at night and can't sleep.

I would listen to my doctor over a bunch of internet strangers.

Shift your eating so you can have a snack before bed or work on finding more filling foods that fit your calorie goals.

And remember it's not 'all or nothing'. If you need an apple to get to sleep some nights and it doesn't fit your goal, have it. If 1600 feels like torture (and you've tried adjusting WHAT you eat), try 1700. You don't have to go for 1500 or 2700.

parkscs

If you are miserable you are not going to stick with it long term and that is what is important. Sadly, most Doctors don't know much at all about nutrition it is not something that they study in medical school other than maybe a 3 hour lecture. They are often misinformed. In nursing school I had to take one semester of nutrition and it was not a fun class. I can't imagine only having a few hours of education on the subject and thinking you know enough to help someone.

Try reading through this thread and see it if helps. If not then I would recommend getting help from a Registered Dietician if you are still having problems. They are much better trained than medical doctors in the area of nutrition. They can help you come up with a plan that is better suited to your unique individual needs.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/931670-bmr-and-tdee-explained-for-those-needing-a-guide

The thread you linked is from someone without much weight to lose. The same advice does not apply to someone with a lot more weight to lose. For instance:

The problem is that many of us require 1500 or more a day to simply live, to keep our heart beating, to make the brain work - at minimum we need 1500 or more given to us if we were lying in a coma in the hospital. ... So, in order to keep you living and breathing, again, body NOT caring about weight loss, the body will slow or stop some other systems (metabolism being the 1st it stops) and hang on to those 1200 calories b/c all it knows is that you are under-feeding it and so it must "hoard" that 1200, store it as fat and keep you alive. You essentially are stopping the metabolic process to a halt when you under eat.

I think it's highly debatable whether such statements are true for lean individuals, but they certainly are not true for people with excess fat stores. Your body is going to pull the energy it needs from your fat stores to make up your caloric deficit, if it can, and there's no magical time at which it stops doing this simply because you went under your BMR. If your body can't pull enough energy from your fat stores, yes, you have a problem, but that requires you to already be quite lean.

For the sake of example, I personally hate shows like Biggest Loser, but realize that those people are aiming for a -3500 calorie deficit per *day* in order to lose weight that quickly and there's no "starvation mode" effect. Why can they get away with that? Because they have plenty of energy stores their body can pull from - the same cannot be said for lean individuals. Every study I've seen where overfat people claimed to be in "starvation mode" largely concluded that most people are not special - they just underestimate what they eat and overestimate what they burn, and that's why they can't lose weight.

I'm in no way, shape or form suggesting the OP aim for that sort of deficit. Like I said, I hate those shows. I'm simply saying that, provided she can stick with it (and that's the tricky part), her doctor's advice is probably for the best. Not only that, but I think if the OP tries eating 1500-1600 net calories and chooses the right foods, she won't be hungry/miserable. It's really not as bad as you might think - you just need to make some changes in what you're eating. If you blow 1200 of your calories on a quarter pounder and some fries, you can probably expect to go hungry the rest of the day and be unhappy.

WalkingAlong

parkscs- I think the "can't eat below your BMR" myth will just never die here. People don't understand that the body gets calories from body fat just fine and that food intake minimums don't vary much across people of all sizes, which is why MFP uses 1200 regardless.

Mr_Knight

I am 31 years old. I weigh 355 lbs I am 5'6. My primary doctor suggested that I eat about 1500 to 1600 calories a day but I am starving at night and can't sleep.

Listen to your doctor.

I was told by a personal trainer I should be eating 2674 calories a day to lose weight.

Get a new trainer. He's calculating your calorie needs without taking into account that you are somewhere around 70% body fat. IE, he's making an idiot-level mistake.

Your BMR is going to be somewhere around 1500-1600. Your doctor has it right. You will not go into "starvation mode" - you have enough fat stores that you could eat literally nothing but vitamin supplements for 4 months and still be fine.

jcorpern

Speaking as a Registered Nurse, I'd listen to what my primary care doctor told me to do before I listened to a personal trainer or anonymous strangers on a website. Your doctor knows your health, any co-existing conditions, you metabolism (through blood lab studies) and how much you should lose and how quickly. I think that you've got questions about what you're doing, your wisest course of action would be to go back and speak with your physician again.

rosemaryeallman

Thanks everyone for your advice. I am going to try to continue doing what the Dr. suggested. I like beans they keep me full and for some reason I seem to lose faster when I incorporate them into my diet. I am going to try to make some smarter choices to balance out my caloric intake so I don't get so hungry at night...

Poodledoodle100

Defiantly think about pre logging though as it prevents the heartache of wanting to eat something and then finding out you can't have it, if you already know you aren't gonna be able to eat the desert or whatever you won't think about it/ crave it so much. It really helps me balance my calories out and allows me to save some to 'treat' myself on a night.

rosemaryeallman

Defiantly think about pre logging though as it prevents the heartache of wanting to eat something and then finding out you can't have it, if you already know you aren't gonna be able to eat the desert or whatever you won't think about it/ crave it so much. It really helps me balance my calories out and allows me to save some to 'treat' myself on a night.

rosemaryeallman

Yes, I usually plan ahead and pre log calories

FreshKrisKreash

If you feel like you're starving at 1600 calories up your calories to 1800 and see if that helps. If you're still starving try 2000. But like other people said if you eat 5-6 small meals with about 300 calories each, you should never have time to get hungry. :flowerforyou:

Springfield1970

At 355, there's really no reason your body can't get by at 1500-1600 calories per day. Personally, if you can stick with it, 1500-1600 sounds like a better number to me.

That said, if you can't find a way to satiate yourself at 1500-1600 calories, it's better to up your caloric intake than to give up. You can eat 2200 and still lose weight, but you will lose weight more slowly.

I don't agree with this at all. At that weight, her BMR has to at least be in the 2000s and I can't imagine eating 500 less than my BMR. My body would shut down.

Your body doesn't shut down eating under your BMR at 355 lbs. With ~200lbs of excess fat, it can easily make-up the caloric deficit from your fat stores. Eating under your BMR/TDEE becomes problematic when your body cannot pull sufficient calories from your fat stores (i.e., when you're already lean and not carrying around much fat). Studies I've seen suggest your body can pull, on average, 31 kcal per pound of fat per day from your excess fat stores, which is about 6200 potential calories your body can pull from fat stores at ~200 lbs of excess fat. She may be hungry at first, particularly so depending on what food choices she makes, but her doctor is giving the best advice for her long-term health (provided she can stick with it).

This is interesting, the 31 cals thing. Do you mind sharing the study please? Wow. So obese people are safe to go under bmr if they have enough fat stores. I carry 24 pounds of fat on my body. 24x31=744. Obviously I'd be eating into lean body mass at that point so it would be crazy for a lean person to do this. Do you happen to know what the zones are to do this ie what is considered too low a body fat percentage to go under bmr?

Springfield1970

I'd split the difference (especially since you're hungry with the lower amount) and try 2000 calories a day and stick with that for a month. See what happens, and then adjust accordingly. And eat back I'd say part of your exercise calories (they are usually over estimated). So, I usually would log 2/3 of my exercise calories.

Also, if you are still hungry through out the day, be sure to try and find foods that will keep you feeling full. Satiety is very personal, but a lot of people find that lean protein keeps them feeling full longer. You can also try filling up on lower calorie vegetables to help with hunger. You can also try pre-logging your days to make sure that you have enough calories at night when you are hungrier.

Smart advice.

Springfield1970

Thanks everyone for your advice. I am going to try to continue doing what the Dr. suggested. I like beans they keep me full and for some reason I seem to lose faster when I incorporate them into my diet. I am going to try to make some smarter choices to balance out my caloric intake so I don't get so hungry at night...

Good luck Rosemary!

We are all behind you and want to help and also learn. You can trial and error on yourself, it's a work in progress and you are on a journey to health.

Just one last question....sorry....what are you doing about your exercise calories? Eating them back?

Ps I have 93 calories of 0% fat Greek yoghurt before sleep with a teaspoon of honey. It really really helps
Pps thanks for reminding me about beans! I get hungry at maintenance sometimes too (triathlon training)

mumblemagic

At 355, there's really no reason your body can't get by at 1500-1600 calories per day. Personally, if you can stick with it, 1500-1600 sounds like a better number to me.

That said, if you can't find a way to satiate yourself at 1500-1600 calories, it's better to up your caloric intake than to give up. You can eat 2200 and still lose weight, but you will lose weight more slowly.

I don't agree with this at all. At that weight, her BMR has to at least be in the 2000s and I can't imagine eating 500 less than my BMR. My body would shut down.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/761810-the-starvation-mode-myth-again
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1077746-starvation-mode-adaptive-thermogenesis-and-weight-loss

Your body wouldn't shut down. You'd feel cr*p and you'd lose weight really quickly (probably too quickly) but you wouldn't "shut down".

To the OP: If you're hungry, try eating more protein e.g. greek yoghurt. Unless your doctor gave you a reason for suggesting the 1500 - 1600 value I suggest increasing your calories. Try eating 2000 first - go for the lowest value you can cope with (within reason). Eat back some or all of your exercise calories.