Calorie counting confusion!

Anzju

Hey - I've never spoken to anyone on my fitnesspal, I just log what I eat and how much I exercise sometimes when I want to lose some fat, but I think I need some friendly support and help! I guess I'm curious about the whole counting calories ideal, as I think I'm doing it wrong. I read a book and followed a meal plan that stipulated eating 1200 cal per day, plus doing hard core exercise (Michelle Bridges - losing the last 5 kg). Doing the exercise didn't allow you to eat more calories, cause then you wouldn't lose the weight right? You would just stay at the same weight.

I followed the plan for a month and could see an amazing difference, but that was 3 years ago before I became a vegetarian and figured out why I was always sick, Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Now I cant eat half the meal plans, so I can't really follow the plan in the book. So I'm trying my best to stay in the 1200 cal mark by just preparing my own meals, but its really hard when all I can eat for protein is eggs and nuts - and apparently nuts are my kryptonite (heaps of cal). I saw a dietician about a year ago that said I needed to be eating more carbs, more protein and dairy, she said I was 'too skinny' - 4 serves of protein, 7grams each (if I remember correctly) which to me equates to 4 eggs, or 2 eggs with 1/2 cup of nuts.
Carbs are a serving of 6 - 1/2 cup is one serve. So heaps of brown rice, spelt bread, sometimes spelt spaghetti. 40g of cheese/milk. I pretty much don't eat a lot of carbs anymore, apart from 1/2 cup of oats in the morning and sometimes spelt bread (not sure if this is a bad or good thing?)

Exercise wise I ride my bike everyday (about 20min) and take at least 2-3 dance classes 5x a week (ballet, hip hop, contemporary etc) They last for about 60min each. So the big question is, am I still going to loose weight if I eat over the 1200 cal, but exercise?

For example, today I ate 1, 803 calories, which means I'm 603 cal over my 1, 200 limit.
I then did aprox 693 cal worth of exercise. Myfitnesspal then says I've earned more calories, and then jumbles things up :S and I'm confused. I don't want to eat over the 1200 limit so I can lose weight, but what are the calculations that I need to do, in order for me to figure out if I'm still loosing weight even if I do happen to eat 1 803 cal instead of 1200? GAH I hate maths and counting my food. I've cut out processed sugars and alcohol.

Any help advice? (sorry for the long rant)

sarahcav123

Right you need a deficit of 500 calories a day to lose 1lb in a week. That can come from a combination of diet and exercise. And thus for 2lbs a week you'd need 1000 calorie deficit per day.
Now to figure out where to start from - you need to figure out your maintenance weight (i.e. how many calories you need to stay EXACTLY as you are right now) - that way you can figure out how much deficit you need.

Say for example you require 2500 calories per day to maintain your current weight, then you could eat 2000 calories per day and exercise another 500 calories and that would give you a deficit of 1000 calories. Do this everyday and you THEORETICALLY should lose 2lb per week.

To find out your maintenance weight just google 'maintenance calorie calculator'. Once you know your maintenance calories then you can work from there.

Hope this helps! Feel free to add me if you need more help!

Sarah


(p.s. I should mention that you can get your deficit from diet OR exercise but the healthiest method is a combination of the two! - and it doesn't have to be an equal split either e.g. it could be 700 calorie deficit and 300 exercise etc...)

maillemaker

Yup, what Sara said. If you have just arbitrarily arrived at 1200 calories you may be eating too much of a deficit. 2 pounds a week is about the most you can do in a healthy manner and that is 1000 calories a day deficit. As Sara noted half that - 500 calories a day deficit - get you to 1 pound a week.

But the key is to find your TDEE. You will have to eat less than this. to lose weight. Eat 500 less a day to target 1 pound per week, 1000 less a day to target 2 per week.