How many calories should I be eating really?

yesterdayusaid2morrow

Hello mfpeeps and thanks in advance for any advice or resources you can share. I am 26, female, 5 feet 9 inches tall and currently weigh 213. I at least go on a brisk walk for 30 minutes every day, jog/bike at least 2x a week, and until today have had my calorie level set at 1240. I don't typically eat back cals burned, I don't feel hungry typically unless I go on a long bike ride or hike, then will tend to feel a bit grumbly before dinner. I just readjusted my goals on MFP and was given more than 1400 calories. Will it slow my weight loss significantly? Would it be ill advised to just keep doing what I'm doing? The whole starvation mode thing comes across as bs to me (at 1200), my body isn't holding onto anything, I've lost over 90 pounds and gained a significant amount of endurance. However I am interested in gaining strength and don't want to sabotage myself in that department. Thanks again for any insight you can offer.

AllOutof_Bubblegum

Go to

http://iifym.com/tdee-calculator/

and enter your height/weight/activity level.

Subtract 10-20% from the number it calculates for you, and that is the number of calories you should be eating a day in order to lose weight. With this method you do not eat back your exercise calories, as they are already figured into your daily goal.

diannethegeek

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/819055-setting-your-calorie-and-macro-targets
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/818082-exercise-calories-again-wtf
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants

DrJenO

It will probably slow your weight loss.

This is not necessarily a bad thing.

If you lose weight more slowly and lift weights, you will minimize your loss of muscle along with fat.

Congrats on your weight loss so far! I know it's hard eating more when you are used to restricting (I recently increased my calorie goals d/t starting a more strenuous exercise regimen), but it will be better for you in the long run.

katewoods5

I'm confused about calories too, I'm being told to eat 1,200 per day which I have been eating just under and gave started going on a few walks, nothing major but gotta start somewhere and this week I went from 89.4kg to 89.3kg and was really gutted.

yesterdayusaid2morrow

Thank you ladies, and gent. Great info in the links, I really appreciate it. I suppose I'm unnecessarily anxious about changing what's working (thus far), but it makes more sense after reading the link covering tdee, my activity level has changed significantly in the last year. Thanks again.

Aaron_K123

Lets see. Using the following calculator to estimate your TDEE:

http://exrx.net/Calculators/CalRequire.html

Putting in your info. Female, 26, 69 inches, 213 pounds. I put that you rest 12 hours, do very light activity for 11 hours and light activity for 1 hour.

From that I get that your BMR is 1786 and your activity is an additional 521 for a TDEE of 2300 per day.

Assuming a fairly aggressive weight loss approach of TDEE - 20% and round that up just to make it even more aggressive that would be a 500 calorie deficit for 1 pound per week lost eating 1800 calories per day.

You are currently eating 1240 calories per day which is a 1050 calorie deficit which is TDEE - 40% which is a rather unsustainable approach that you will find difficult to maintain for the long term. 1400 calories also sounds quite low to me if you are 213 pounds.

segovm

So I mostly just eat when hungry. Lots of people hate that idea around here but I figure it worked for all of our ancestors over millions of years so I'm good with risking it while still trying to lose some weight.

There is an eventual transition point though where you need to become more sensitive to how you are fueling your body. My exercise of choice is riding my bike over long distances. As long as I am going slow and steady, that's a decent way to burn some fat. However, if I ever want to go faster I am going to need to start pouring some more carbs into my system for the rapid release of energy they provide and those extra calories are going to slow my weight loss if I am still trying to lose weight.

In my mind a bigger deficit means larger weight loss as a cost of potential performance improvements. Obviously you can go too far and get into the realm of malnourishment but you would probably get hungry before that happened.

Personally I'm keeping a pretty big deficit and accepting the cost of that until I get to under 200 lbs at which point I'll stop looking at the scale and start boosting performance as the weight comes off more slowly. Sort of up to you how you want to do it.

Not sure if that helps but good luck all the same!

yesterdayusaid2morrow

Thank you for the insight guys. I think I will go ahead and bump up to 1400/1500 for a while and see how things go. No sense in deprivation if there is a solid chance I will continue to lose at a bit higher intake. One consideration is, though I log honestly, I do not weigh my portions, so there is a possibility of underestimating. I don't think I would be so far off that I would go over significantly though. I'll see how things go between 1400 and 1500, thank you all!

Mischievous_Rascal

Congrats on your progress so far!! If by "gain strength" you mean that you're going to start adding weight training to your program, that's awesome. :flowerforyou:

However, you may need to eat even closer to your TDEE once you start. I lost the most significant amount of body fat eating at 2300, and I'm shorter and older than you, and just go for long strolls for cardio. I'm also way beyond grumbly come dinnertime on lifting days.

yesterdayusaid2morrow

Thank you mischievous! Congratulations on all your hard work as well! I am in fact wanting to start lifting. My naive understanding is that one can't build significant muscle mass and lose fat at once, so right now I just do body weight stuff and use hand weights and resistance bands at home in hopes of losing more fat that muscle. When I lose another 40 lbs my gift to myself will be three months with a personal trainer (I know close to zip about proper form, lifting, training schedules, and how to eat to gain mass). My hope is that the cross training will aid me in reaching my big goal for 2015, riding in my first gran fondo! Best of luck to you mischievous!

flymouf

Hi; I'd just like to say, re; the starvation-calories thing, that I was always naturally fairly slim and ate whatever I wanted and just walked for exercise until I became temporarily anorexic due to a stress-problem at 23 that left me struggling to swallow food for over six months. I barely ate, usually well under 1200 calories and would spend hours trying to get through a sandwich or a bowl of pasta without vomiting. I lost all saliva production and, things were pretty bad. I first lost a stone (unintentionally, I was happy with my weight back then) and then over that 6-8 month period of barely eating, then trying depserately to eat, put on 3 stone (36lb I think) in six months. This was all whilst eating well under the recommended daily calories and my weight and metabolism has never returned to 'normal' in the 10 years since then. The starvation calories thing is not B.S. at all, the massive changes my body went through can tesitfy to this, and I've struggled with my weight ever since that time! Please don't make the same mistake I did, eat and eat well,get your metabolism up and burning! I wish I had by slim-girl metabolism back again!

yesterdayusaid2morrow

I'm glad you are caring for yourself better now. I can't imagine how difficult that would have been. Cheers to you for finding your way through it. I didn't mean to imply starvation mode does not exist, only that I don't think I personally am experiencing it at 1200 calories. I have decided to increase my calories, thank you for sharing your story and advice.