Fitness pal question. How many calories can I eat?

Jacwhite22

I am still really confused as to how many calories I can eat. I start out the day with an allotment of 1200 calories once I work out it goes to 1800 calories that I can eat. Why? Would I only eat 1200 or 1800? I am trying to lose weight not maintain. Very confused.

Those are all estimates. Start at a number. Maybe 1800......eat that every day for 4-6 weeks. Are you losing weight? Keep doing it. no? Lower it by 2-300.......repeat.

Jacwhite22

not for girls. they only burn off 2000 in a day in average. reducing to 1200 will only show results of 1-2 pounds a week which is what they should aim for. unless they are heavily overweight in which case they will loose a lot more initially

never go full r........nm.....I'm already riding on two strikes. We'll agree to disagree.

LishieFruit89

not for girls. they only burn off 2000 in a day in average. reducing to 1200 will only show results of 1-2 pounds a week which is what they should aim for. unless they are heavily overweight in which case they will loose a lot more initially

Just...stop.

someone thinks they know everything about everything haha. I have trained hundreds of people over years and have studied nutrition and fitness but you clearly know more obviously

If you told me to eat 1200 calories, I'd laugh in your face and fire you as my trainer.

Eff that noise. Food is delish.
Id rather a slower weight loss and eat cookies than 1200 cals and *maybe* get that extra pound a week

Jacwhite22

I spoke with a nutritionist friend over the weekend and asked "if my goal is 1600, and I exercise for 600, should I eat 2200?" she recommended sticking with the 1600 and not adjusting for exercise. especially since i'm trying to lose weight.

If you are a dude.....who weighs 200lb +......I'm assuming....don't get mad if I am wrong. Please do not target 1600 cals. It's not enough.

rml_16

not for girls. they only burn off 2000 in a day in average. reducing to 1200 will only show results of 1-2 pounds a week which is what they should aim for. unless they are heavily overweight in which case they will loose a lot more initially

So a 6' tall, large-framed and heavily muscled woman should eat the same as a 5' tall, small-framed, less-muscled woman?

neenorROAR

I am still really confused as to how many calories I can eat. I start out the day with an allotment of 1200 calories once I work out it goes to 1800 calories that I can eat. Why? Would I only eat 1200 or 1800? I am trying to lose weight not maintain. Very confused.

Those are all estimates. Start at a number. Maybe 1800......eat that every day for 4-6 weeks. Are you losing weight? Keep doing it. no? Lower it by 2-300.......repeat.

This.

It's trial and error, really. Find what works for you, but remember that you don't have to go hungry to lose. "It's a marathon, not a race" as my good MFP buddies often remind me (:

devil_in_a_blue_dress

not for girls. they only burn off 2000 in a day in average. reducing to 1200 will only show results of 1-2 pounds a week which is what they should aim for. unless they are heavily overweight in which case they will loose a lot more initially

Do I look "heavily overweight" to you?



No? Good because I am not.

I eat 1,700-1,800 to lose A POUND a week. I am 5'3.

You don't know nearly as much as you think you do.

OP -- listen to the people telling you trail and error.

Ericancan

my ticker is broke i lost 2 pounds been at it for one week. I have not been following the diet part very well and probably should slow down on the wt loss...would like .5 pounds per week.

cookiealbright

I eat back some of my excercise calories, but not all of them. Good luck to ya! :flowerforyou:

PRMinx

Thank you all for your advice. I will probably eat a little more but not eat all the calories back to adjust for errors.

Good plan.

As you get better at logging (especially if you have a food scale), you can work on that buffer. I don't have a food scale because I worry it will trigger me...but I think they are great and necessary for people who can work with them.

Ultimately, the more I work out, the more I try to listen to my body. If I can't get through a workout, I know I didn't eat enough the day before. If I'm waking up in the middle of the night starving, then I know I need to adjust.

smile2010

Will that slow down your metabolism at all?

smile2010

Yeah I don't think you should eat 1800 even if you are burning off 600 during exercise. Stick to 1200 will let you see an extra pound of weight lost every 6 days. with 3500 calories = 1 pound. 1200 should keep you feeling full as well as long as its all good foods and high in proteins.

Will that slow down your metabolism at all?

Csparrow2014

Thank you for the link it was very helpful!

NRSPAM

not for girls. they only burn off 2000 in a day in average. reducing to 1200 will only show results of 1-2 pounds a week which is what they should aim for. unless they are heavily overweight in which case they will loose a lot more initially

I beg to differ. I wear a bodymedia device, and I burn, on average around 2,600 calories. Some days I burn as much as 3,000. When I eat 1,800 calories a day, I'll lose 1lb/week. I am almost at goal, and 1/2lb/week really is recommended for me.

Edited; PS- I'm 5'3", 141lb's, and PPS-Eating at such a deficit for that "extra pound" per week, is not necessarily better. Faster weightloss does not always = sustainable weightloss. Eventually, you'll get hangry!

PRMinx

Yeah I don't think you should eat 1800 even if you are burning off 600 during exercise. Stick to 1200 will let you see an extra pound of weight lost every 6 days. with 3500 calories = 1 pound. 1200 should keep you feeling full as well as long as its all good foods and high in proteins.

Will that slow down your metabolism at all?

I'll let someone else jump in on the science here but you can rest assured that the plan above is generally a bad idea for many reasons.

Jacwhite22

Yeah I don't think you should eat 1800 even if you are burning off 600 during exercise. Stick to 1200 will let you see an extra pound of weight lost every 6 days. with 3500 calories = 1 pound. 1200 should keep you feeling full as well as long as its all good foods and high in proteins.

Will that slow down your metabolism at all?

Will what slow down your metabolism? Losing muscle....,..yep....that's about it.

fleetzz

Take what somebody new to MFP says with a huge grain of salt.

Look at advice from people who have been on here for a long time and who are at or near goal, the advice from them may be more helpful.

That saying->1200 is standard for smaller females who want to lose 2 lbs a week (I bet you put that in!) who are sedentary. You exercise 600 calories per day. Great! I run 4 miles sometimes even 6 miles per day. I don't burn that much. How are you determining you burn 600? Using MFP? MFP OVERESTIMATES your burn. You can eat back those calories, but if you rely on MFP to calculate calories, don't eat them all back. Most likely your weight loss will stall.

Suggest that you start using MFP, enter your data and your weight loss desire per week, and if you have less than 30 lbs to lose your goal should be 1 lb per week, less than 15 lbs to lose, goal should be 1/2 lb per week. Eat back your exercise calories (1/2 of them if you are using MFP to calculate them).

Exercise will allow you to eat more, but it really won't help you lose weight. Calorie restriction will. Restrict too much, especially protein, and you will lose more muscle than you want to. Muscle burns calories--I like to keep mine! Suggest weight lifting, many ways to do this, just search the forums.

For calorie estimates, make sure you have a food scale that measures well, I have one that measures to the gram. Log everything that goes in your mouth! Really limit processed food and eating out, you will derail yourself if you eat these item too often because it is too hard to accurately estimate calories unless you make your food yourself.

Another way to estimate how many calories you burn is to use the scooby TDEE calculator (just google it), it walks you through how to calculate how many calories you eat, and NO using this method you do NOT eat back calories burned. Eat the same calories every day.

And don't give up.

not for girls. they only burn off 2000 in a day in average. reducing to 1200 will only show results of 1-2 pounds a week which is what they should aim for. unless they are heavily overweight in which case they will loose a lot more initially

Just...stop.

someone thinks they know everything about everything haha. I have trained hundreds of people over years and have studied nutrition and fitness but you clearly know more obviously

fleetzz

You may need to get a new opinion. You are over 250 lbs, male, and your goal is 1600? I can't see you sustaining this for long without serious muscle loss.

I spoke with a nutritionist friend over the weekend and asked "if my goal is 1600, and I exercise for 600, should I eat 2200?" she recommended sticking with the 1600 and not adjusting for exercise. especially since i'm trying to lose weight.

glowgirl14

Yup. What pretty much everyone else said. 1200 calories a day is way too little. I'm 5'4, 120lbs, and relatively sedentary during the winter. I eat 1500 a day and lose weight. When it's warmer outside, I run for an hour a day, and then my goal is 2000. I lose weight slow, because at 120, I don't have a lot left to lose. Eating a heavily restricted diet (1200 calories) you will lose weight. And you might lose it pretty quickly at first. But it WILL slow your metabolism down. And when your metabolism slows down, so will your weight loss. I did that for the first 60lbs I lost. And guess what? I lost...about half a pound a week on average. And then the weight loss stopped because I had killed my metabolism.

If you fuel your body, and exercise, your metabolism will speed up and you will burn more calories. Case in point? I have a friend here who has lost almost a hundred pounds at the incredibly steady rate of 2lbs a week. She eats 1900 calories a day.

And to the guy who "spoke to a nutritionist" -- So did I. I have a friend who has her master's degree in nutrition, and she was utterly HORRIFIED that I wanted to eat so little. What you eat should be based on sex, height, weight, and activity level. Not some random number based on the "average" man or woman.

OP - listen to the people here who have been here for a long time and are successful. You might find a few who will tell you to eat 1200 a day...but the vast majority of us have learned that we can eat a lot more than that and still lose. If you can learn to lose weight this way, you are so much more likely to keep the weight off when you hit your goal. And just a plug here...if you can afford it, the best gift you can give yourself is a decent heart rate monitor and/or a fitbit. These things will help you get a more accurate number as to what YOU are burning. Good luck!

rml_16

Yup. What pretty much everyone else said. 1200 calories a day is way too little for me.

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