Confused: Calories too low naturally, and eating more???

wonderforest

Hi everyone! I've recently started using this app and I love it so far. I love being able to track what goes into my body throughout the day! I am kind of confused about something though and am hoping for some insight....

My goal is to only lose about 10-13lbs. With all of my settings input, I was told that a 1270 cal daily goal was what I needed. This really wasn't a stretch for me because it seemed like my daily caloric intake wasn't higher than that anyways. I workout for about half an hour each day and burn about 200 cals. Upon completing my diary for the day, if I was under that calorie amount the app would tell me that I should be consuming at least 1200 cals and that my calories were too low. So, I checked these forums for "calories too low" and learned that I should calculate my calories using a TDEE calculator. SO I did that and (after the 20% subtraction) my new goals were set to 1520 cals per day. The problem with this, is that I feel like to reach that goal I would need to forfeit my eating routine and actively eat MORE since it doesn't seem that I tend to eat more than 1200+ cals anyways per day. That's not really a conscious decision I made to eat fewer than that as I've never counted calories before, by the way. On one hand I feel it would increase my metabolism to bump up the goal, but on the other wouldn't it be counter productive? I don't want to force myself to eat more cals if I'm not hungry just to meet that goal... So what should I be doing? sticking with my original 1270 goal or trying this new 1520 goal? I'm so confused about this stuff!

Azchange

Hopefully someone else can confirm, but from my understanding with only wanting to lose 10-13 lbs, is to stick with the TDEE -20%, it will drop slower, but it will actually be fat rather than lean muscle. If you do not want to eat more food, try higher calorie options. Peanut butter, beans, nuts, all have naturally higher calorie counts.

Andrew

LizL217

If MFP was telling you that your calorie goal should be 1270, and you are burning about 200 in your workouts, you should really be eating 1470 daily, by the MFP method.

By the TDEE-20% method, you're getting 1520 as your daily calorie goal, and that includes calories burned during workouts (so don't eat back your exercise calories).

So really the two methods are coming up with a pretty similar answer, which is to eat in the 1500 range if you are regularly burning about 200 daily in your workouts.

Give it a try for a few weeks (not just 2 weeks, closer to 6) and compare 1) your starting and ending weight, 2) your starting and ending measurements, 3) your energy level & mood. Then you'll know if you need to adjust your calorie target or not.

Good luck!

wonderforest

Thanks so much for the input! I'll give it a go around 1500. I'm just scared of gaining weight that way, but perhaps i'll be surprised haha.

fast_eddie_72

I might not be clear. You want to lose some weight. Are you saying that before you started trying to lose weight you were eating fewer than 1250 calories per day and burning 200 exercising? Or are did you make changes to try to lose weight that got you there?

fast_eddie_72

Very simple answer is this- eating MORE calories will NEVER make you lose weight. If you're over weight, it's unlikely that you're eating 1,200 calories a day. A lot of people find that accurately recording how many calories they're eating is kinda tricky. I know I did. A food scale really opened my eyes to some errors I was making.

rileysowner

Thanks so much for the input! I'll give it a go around 1500. I'm just scared of gaining weight that way, but perhaps i'll be surprised haha.

This may seem like it is coming from no where, but how carefully are you measuring what you eat?

3dogsrunning

Thanks so much for the input! I'll give it a go around 1500. I'm just scared of gaining weight that way, but perhaps i'll be surprised haha.

This may seem like it is coming from no where, but how carefully are you measuring what you eat?

This was what I was going to ask.
Do you measure? If so, how? Scale? Measuring cups?

cwolfman13

Thanks so much for the input! I'll give it a go around 1500. I'm just scared of gaining weight that way, but perhaps i'll be surprised haha.

The key here is precision and accurately tracking intake...most people who just eyeball and think they're eating low calories are really underestimating their intake, sometimes substantially so.

Considering that the average woman maintains on 1800 - 2000 calories with little to no deliberate exercise, you should lose easily at 1500. If you're not, I would suggest getting a food scale and putting it to good use. Before I started using my food scale I thought I was eating around 1700 calories and still not losing weight...reality was that I was eating about 2300 calories without exercise which is basically my non-exercise maintenance number. Food scale solved a lot of problems for me.

deksgrl

Set MFP to lose half a pound a week. Eat that amount + exercise calories (assuming the exercise calories are not over estimated).

Or calculate TDEE - 10%.

Because you do not have a lot to lose, you should have a small calorie deficit, but there is less room for error.

wonderforest

fast_eddie: I just started trying to lose this weight about a week ago. I made no drastic changes to my consumption, besides stocking up on more fruits/veggies. I hadn't counted my calories previously, but what I've been eating thus far isn't far off from what I was eating before. does that make sense?

rileysowner - I haven't been strictly measuring things on a scale. I've been scanning things, searching within the app, and going by what I'm told on the product packaging. If, for example, I eat a banana.. I don't weigh that banana or anything.. I just say I ate one large/med/small banana. If i have 2 crackers or something I enter 2 crackers. If I have a glob of Mayo or something I will eyeball it to 1 tbsp or less and enter 1 tbsp. So, no, i haven't been totally accurate with some things, but I haven't really needed to measure a lot just yet (i've been using this only a week). Should I be instead saying how much 1 banana weighed or something?

I've been entering EVERYTHING. So I'm sure my little bit of eyeballing could be a bit off but probably not by a lot. Not enough to make it drastically different or anything. I'll try to be more careful with that though and look into a food scale

3dogsrunning

fast_eddie: I just started trying to lose this weight about a week ago. I made no drastic changes to my consumption, besides stocking up on more fruits/veggies. I hadn't counted my calories previously, but what I've been eating thus far isn't far off from what I was eating before. does that make sense?

rileysowner - I haven't been strictly measuring things on a scale. I've been scanning things, searching within the app, and going by what I'm told on the product packaging. If, for example, I eat a banana.. I don't weigh that banana or anything.. I just say I ate one large/med/small banana. If i have 2 crackers or something I enter 2 crackers. If I have a glob of Mayo or something I will eyeball it to 1 tbsp or less and enter 1 tbsp. So, no, i haven't been totally accurate with some things, but I haven't really needed to measure a lot just yet (i've been using this only a week). Should I be instead saying how much 1 banana weighed or something?

I've been entering EVERYTHING. So I'm sure my little bit of eyeballing could be a bit off but probably not by a lot. Not enough to make it drastically different or anything. I'll try to be more careful with that though and look into a food scale

You would be surprised how little things can add up, especially calorie dense things like mayo and peanut butter
Here a good video example between measuring and weighing. Eyeballing can be an even bigger discrepancy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVjWPclrWVY

I don't weigh a banana but I do choose the large option (I think there is only like 5 calories in the difference). A lot of people do though.

notwithoutsalt

The myfitness pal app warns you against going under 1200 cal because it is medically not recommended. a normal person body burns 1200 calories just for your cells to breathe.
The TDEE factors in the rest (digestion calories, brain activities etc...). what happens if you are eating 1200 cal or so? the body gets "scared" and go into conservation mode. it means it will lower the metabolism to make sure it has enough calories for everyhting else.

if you have been eating 1200-1300 calories a day, there is a good chance your body adjusted it's metabolism. not to panic. you can help it up again with exercise. you need to take your fitness challenge all the way up (when your body allows it).
I believe you will compare nicely to the poeple on the posts about "dropping the last pounds"".
Meaure well what you eat, and give your body more quality calories (protein for muscles repair for example) to allow you to take your training up a nutch.
Good luck -