Is 1500 cals ok for a dude?
Replies
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no too low. eat the same but double that activity level. I get 16-18,000 steps just from my morning walks. I don't even count the entire day. You got to move more. Move it to lose it. Men need more calories.0
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He mentioned in subsequent comments most of his food is pre-packaged.Just to throwing this out there, I'm a 30 year old dude that's 5'8 weighing in at a hefty 232lbs. I was eating 2000 cals a day and getting my 10,000 steps for awhile and losing weight just fine and then all of a sudden, it stopped producing results. I was doing what I thought was everything right for a couple weeks and my weight would go up and down and all over the place. I would keep losing and gaining the same 2-3 lbs despite my fitbit saying I burned 3000 calories for the day! Ugh
So now 2 weeks later weighing the exact same, I'm considering moving down to 1500 calories and seeing if I have any results that way. What do you think?
How are you measuring your food intake? Do you ever eat out or is everything prepared at home?0 -
This post really hit home for me. I've been stressing so much over losing this damn weight that even 1900 sounded like a lot to me and the second I don't see the results I want, I get upset. I yell at the scale and spend the entire day trying to figure out what I did wrong and I'm a little afraid if I keep going like this, before I know it I'll be starving myself to lose the weight and hating myself for it.
Has your loss been consistent doing what you're doing?
Yes, I think its easy to get kinda hung up on things, and think one of the things that hit home most for me, was when someone said how individual days are not going to make or break your weight loss efforts, but rather the overall plan
Slower, considered changes are the most effective I find, at least with a view towards ensuring what you're doing is sustainable both for the period you're losing weight, and also the period beyond it when you've lost what you've sought to lose.
Yes, my own loss has been consistent, and what you see is my loss since starting about 6 weeks ago (29th June). I'm eating lower carb, which right now for me means a few handfuls of berries every day, a lot of non-starchy veg, and moderate amounts of the starchier varieties of veg. Aside from that, it means no bread, no added sugar, and no grains. Its not an approach for everyone, but one in which I've been yielding a lot of dividends from.
Initially, I saw a lot of loss, averaging around 3.5/ 4lbs a week, a lot of which was water, but since those first 3/ 4 weeks, I am now averaging something like 2lbs a week, which I am happy with, at least until I hit my next little milestone which will leave me 1- 1.5 stone away from my target weight. So in about 4lbs time I will seek to slow the rate of loss again, and bring it down to 1/ 1.5lbs a week I think.
Its very much all about sustainability and a considered approach for me, as well as a little gentle experimentation, but one of the big things I've found is I like carb control, as by controlling the level of carbs I eat, I find I have discovered a natural lever to control my appetite and intake. Even though I will probably revert to a moderate carb intake when I hit my loss goal, I can see carb control being an effective tool in my armoury in the future, should I need to trim some pounds and return myself to my optimal weight.
I've tried to diet other ways before, initially via crazy calorie restriction when I was younger and more reckless, and then the last few times via calorie control and carb-rich diets, but rich in complex carbs, but to be honest I've never found anything as easy as the low carb way I'm trying now. My real goal though is to reach my target weight, but also optimise my health and fitness, as well as equip myself with good tools and habits to both maintain my weight, but also with which to manipulate it, should I need to increase it or decrease it when it changes.0 -
Yes, definitely stick with your 1900 or 2000 calories awhile longer. Two weeks is not that long to stay level. I go through periods of losing for several weeks straight and then sitting level for several weeks then losing then level, on and on. Patience really is the key for this.
I'm a woman at 5'6" and losing at 1800-2100 calories a day, by the way, so I definitely don't think that 2000 calories is too much for an active man. If I limited myself to 1500 calories I would chew my arm off from hunger. I suppose that's one way to lose 10 pounds or so but it would make typing much more difficult. Eh, you win some, you lose some.0 -
Well that's interesting. My fitness pal gave me 1910 cals a day to eat up until now, and now I just clicked "update profile" and now it says 1780. Whaaaat? Oh fitness pal. Have you been keeping things from me? I thought we had an open relationship where we could talk about things. Are you trying to keep me fat so I'll never leave you?
This only adds to the confusion. What do you guys think? Should I do the calories mfp recommends (1780) or try 1500 for awhile? You people are smart. I will listen to you!
As you lose weight your BMR goes down meaning it takes less calories to maintain your current weight, so try the 1780 for 3-4 weeks then adjust again at that point
What he said.0 -
You might have to do more than just knock out 10000 steps a day. Run or lift weights, use body weights. Stuff that will increase your heart rate. Thats the trick with cals. And eat right.0
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Go lower. I tested this doing (NET) 1600, then (NET of exercise) 1300 and once I got down to 1300 I watched my fat melt. If your not losing weight, keep dropping. Its your body, it will tell you when it needs less, and if your not losing, go lower.0
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Go lower. I tested this doing (NET) 1600, then (NET of exercise) 1300 and once I got down to 1300 I watched my fat melt. If your not losing weight, keep dropping. Its your body, it will tell you when it needs less, and if your not losing, go lower.
At 24, you needed to go to a net of 1300 cals to drop weight. You many need to go see a doctor. That's my 5 year old's daily intake.0 -
Go lower. I tested this doing (NET) 1600, then (NET of exercise) 1300 and once I got down to 1300 I watched my fat melt. If your not losing weight, keep dropping. Its your body, it will tell you when it needs less, and if your not losing, go lower.
You need help0 -
Don't do it, 1500 is way too low! You need to do more intense cardio and weight lifting!0
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Just to throwing this out there, I'm a 30 year old dude that's 5'8 weighing in at a hefty 232lbs. I was eating 2000 cals a day and getting my 10,000 steps for awhile and losing weight just fine and then all of a sudden, it stopped producing results.
At that height, and assuming the walking is your only real exercise, 2000 won't create a huge deficit, which means accurate logging is very important. Before dropping the calories, I'd be hyper vigilant/accurate with logging for a couple of weeks to see what happens, first.
But to answer your question directly - no, 1500 isn't insanely low - I'm 6'1" and my BMR is under 2k. You also have plenty of reserves to draw on.
EDIT: That TDEE calculator doesn't account for your high body fat percentage, so it is over-estimating your base burn. I'm much taller than you and my "light exercise" TDEE is only 2800-ish.0 -
1500 is too low, and two weeks isn't nearly enough time for any marked difference in bodyfat reduction. I recommend you use myfitnesspal's calculator and base your eating around that for a while. You also need to perform resistance training and cardio that is more robust than walking if you want to make serious physique changes (if you are able).0
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Just to throwing this out there, I'm a 30 year old dude that's 5'8 weighing in at a hefty 232lbs. I was eating 2000 cals a day and getting my 10,000 steps for awhile and losing weight just fine and then all of a sudden, it stopped producing results.
At that height, and assuming the walking is your only real exercise, 2000 won't create a huge deficit, which means accurate logging is very important. Before dropping the calories, I'd be hyper vigilant/accurate with logging for a couple of weeks to see what happens, first.
But to answer your question directly - no, 1500 isn't insanely low - I'm 6'1" and my BMR is under 2k. You also have plenty of reserves to draw on.
EDIT: That TDEE calculator doesn't account for your high body fat percentage, so it is over-estimating your base burn.
Not a huge deficit, but at his age/ht/wt, depending on the calculator it's probably 400-600 right now.0 -
Not a huge deficit, but at his age/ht/wt, depending on the calculator it's probably 400-600 right now.
It could be, for sure. And with a little slop in logging, it's pretty easy to blow that away.0 -
For sh*ts and giggles, I entered your info you provided into IIFYM.com calculator and came up with 1989 as you BMR and 2735 as your TDEE. To lose at a safe steady rate try a deficit of 20% under TDEE which is 537.
2735 - 537 = 2198 That should be about 1 - 1 1/2lbs week.
So, yeah, 1500 is way too low. Heck! It is what my body need just to exist as a woman who weighs much less than you. You would be dying.
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I'm searching amazon right now for a food scale. I think when I start weighing things, I'm gonna be shocked how many extra calories I've been putting in my body that haven't been logged. What about the pre packaged meals though? I eat a lot of those Marie calender's meals. Those would be hard to figure out myself wouldn't they? Maybe I should just subtract a few calories from what it says on the package just to be on the safe side
I always thought I was eating 4 oz of chicken a night (or whatever meat) then I came to find out I was eating closer to 7 oz. A scale is very important. I also wanted to ask, how often are you weighting yourself? And when? MFP recommends weighing yourself once a week in the morning before food and after using the bathroom and I agree completely. Measuring once a month for around your stomach and waist help keep things in check as well.0 -
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I'm searching amazon right now for a food scale. I think when I start weighing things, I'm gonna be shocked how many extra calories I've been putting in my body that haven't been logged. What about the pre packaged meals though? I eat a lot of those Marie calender's meals. Those would be hard to figure out myself wouldn't they? Maybe I should just subtract a few calories from what it says on the package just to be on the safe side
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Just as a side note, a lot of Marie Callender meals are particularly high in sodium. Could be contributing to water retention. http://caloriecount.about.com/marie-callenders-nutrition-m14470 -
I would regard 1500 as too low myself. I have about an inch and a half on you (5' 9.5"), but am 40lbs lighter (193lbs), yet lose weight on about 1900 calories a day, give or take. In fact most weeks I lose 2lbs, or even a little more. I do have a little bit of muscle from resistance training in the past, but am mostly sedentary, with the exception of about 80 mins walking on average a day.
More than calories for me, I found a sustainable eating pattern that left me with no low blood sugar spells, was the way to go. For me, that was ensuring I ate three decent, 500- 600 calorie meals a day, and a few hundred calories left over for snacks. Sometimes I've not felt too hungry, mostly a result of eating a lot more fat, and decent amounts of protein, on a lower carb diet I've been trying out, but I would be very wary about going under 1750 myself. Your mileage may vary, but I would try other things to break your plateau before reducing calories to such a low level.
This post really hit home for me. I've been stressing so much over losing this damn weight that even 1900 sounded like a lot to me and the second I don't see the results I want, I get upset. I yell at the scale and spend the entire day trying to figure out what I did wrong and I'm a little afraid if I keep going like this, before I know it I'll be starving myself to lose the weight and hating myself for it.
Has your loss been consistent doing what you're doing?
to answer your question: NO. it hasn't but I keep tredging along no matter what. WHen it just stalls I up my activity or stick to more basic filling foods. never starve yourself. it seems weird but when I eat just a little more each day, I lose more the next day. Just focus on eating more nonprocessed foods. Keep it basic. Buy some frozen chicken breasts. You can get a bag of them for like 7.99 -11.99. There are 12 servings in each bag. That is 12 meals for only 180 calories. Buy canned vegies. Frozen or Fresh is preferable but canned is just as good in reality. Have some lean protein (chicken, steak, pork, fish, or even beans) and two or three vegies. THis is going to cut down on that sodium those packaged meals are giving you AND save you money. Just keep it basis as possible and think of the food pyramid. Give yourself time. Be completely accurate in the logging of your foods. Look at the labels. Weigh and measure everything. Up that exercise and stay close to what mfp gives you each day. You will lose for sure.0 -
I just read an article about the Fitbit devices causing people to gain weight .... hmm, and now this. Weird or What.
http://www.today.com/health/my-fitbit-making-me-fat-users-complain-weight-gain-fitness-1D79911176#my-fitbit-making-me-fat-users-complain-weight-gain-fitness-1D79911176
Btw .. it really depends on the guy, I did 1500 cal for months and lost just fine. Until the end .. when things went off the rails and I couldn't stop losing. Maintenance is way harder than losing. Just saying.0 -
For a point of reference, I'm 5'10, 51 yrs, 179 lb (down from 279!). I'm dropping 1+ lb per week eating 2300-2500, netting 2000 or so cals per day.
As the others have said, if you aren't weighing your food, you have inaccuracy on your intake ... on the high side. And if the pre-pack stuff is salty, you're possibly retaining water.
Good luck!
PS -- With my Fitbit, I'm doing ~12k steps per day (averaged over 7 days ... 8-10k on weekdays, up to 20k on Sat/Sun)0 -
I'm going to play devil's advocate here and get some exercise by swimming against the stream of most of the other comments:
First, here's why:
1. I don't like weighing food. Let's not make this more work than it needs to be. I understand some people need to, and that's cool, but I'd rather avoid it if I can. My compliance would be low. I want to eat out at a restaurant and not have to whip out a food scale. Even eating prepackaged food that may be off by 20%, if sometimes it's high and sometimes it's low it will average out. Even if it is consistently high, it won't matter - see next point. I'm not a bodybuilder and don't need to get everything that tightly dialed in to lose (or gain) weight.
2. I don't think of the TDEE as an absolute "real" number. It is an approximation. My food consumption is an approximation, my exercise is an approximation, my BMR is an approximation. Added all together, they are a an even broader approximation.
3. What does this mean in terms of my calorie goal for the day? Well, on day 1 it's just a approximation as well. MFP gives you a good starting point, but again, it's just a simple formula that's making a guess. There no indirect calorimetry hood to measure your BMR. You are not getting weighed in a tank of water to calculate your bodyfat percentage.
4. So at the end of the day we are comparing a guess with a guess and then get upset when the we don't get the results we want. So what to do? Two options:
A. The Hard Way: Measure everything. Don't make exceptions. Pay for expensive tests to figure out your real BMR. Buy equipment that tries (not always successfully) to measure all your activity throughout the day.
B. The Easy Way: Be consistent and just dial-it in over time. Get good at consistently estimating portions sizes and exercise. It doesn't really matter if you are right or not, so long as you are consistent. Pick a number for your calorie goal. If you don't lose weight at that number, then lower the number. Maybe "gasp" your number goes to 1200 calories a day. Well it doesn't matter, because you are probably really eating 1800 calories, and you just consistently under estimate your portions by a third. Or maybe your exercise only burns 300 calories when you think it burned 600. So long as you are consistent, you can adjust your food intake to match. Over time, plot your guessed net calories verses your actual weight loss and tape measurements. Losing too slow, cut your calories by ~ 250/day. Losing too fast, raise your calories. Adjust once a month or so unless you are really gaining/losing too quickly.
Some other stuff:
1. Always weigh and measure at the same time of day (morning is best) and under the same conditions. Be realistic, if you binge the night before you weigh in, expect the scale to move up the next morning. Give it a day, go to the bathroom, and then re-weigh the next morning.
2. If you are a female, compare your weight with a comparable day of your monthly cycle, not always from one week to the next
3. Also I like to think about it in terms of weekly calories more than daily calories. If I eat too much or too little one day, I make it up the next. It all averages out.
4. You need to decide how fast you want to lose weight. Depending on how much you have to lose, if you are otherwise eating high protein, moderate fat and doing some kind of resistance training, you'll drop a higher percentage of fat and lose less muscle. It you want to lose faster, you can cut calories lower, but then this becomes more important so your retain your muscle. When I cut, I want to drop fat.
5. To dovetail onto point #4 - it may not only be desirable to lose weight faster, but it may also help you keep more weight off for a longer period of time! (I told you I was swimming against the stream here.) Please read the following article which explains it better than I could, and also links to the actual science. :
http://gregnuckols.com/2013/06/04/slow-and-steady-weight-loss-i-think-not/
But here's the summary - a meta study (study of other science studies) has shown that people who go on very low calorie diets and drop weight the fastest (instead of the slower 1 lb a week, etc.) not only lost more weight, but they kept more of it off, and this was after 5 years!
So, in conclusion - to answer your question, yes, an estimated 1500 daily calories is ok for a dude your size, especially if you are not losing weight as wanted at your current daily calorie level. Just be consistent and get it dialed in.0 -
2 weeks of not losing weight isn't very long. I'd wait 4-6 weeks and if there's still no change, then you need to reassess. 1500 calories for a man is pretty low. I doubt it's your calorie goal. I think your problem would be more in your calorie burns/fitbit numbers.
Are you weighing your food? If not, this could also be your problem. Accuracy is key when dealing with calories. If you're not weighing your food, you're probably eating more calories than you think.
Fitness pal gave me a goal of 1800 cals a day assuming I'm lightly active. And like my above post, the tdee calculators say I should be burning a solid 2900ish cals a day. So if for the past two weeks I'm burning thousands of calories, how could my weight stay the same? The fat would have disappeared wouldn't it? And it's not like I haven't pooped in two weeks, so it can't be that. Maybe my scale just doesn't like me. I should be nice to him and give him some new name brand batteries and see if he will give me a good number.
I haven't been weighing my food because I've been eating a lot of pre packaged food with the calories already labeled.
This is your problem then. You do know that what is labeled on packaging can be off, right? By up to 20%. If you're not weighing your foods, then your logging is inaccurate, no matter how it's packaged.
As I said, 2 weeks is not a long time. You need to give it more time than that. There could be a whole host of factors coming into play that could keep your weight the same. Especially those packaged foods with high sodium....
Agreed with above. You can get a food scale that measures in grams & ounces at Wal-Mart for around $19.00-$20.00. You would be shocked at how small a serving of cereal you get & at times ice cream. The two things I've found that are less than the serving weight is yogurt cups that don't come in multiple servings & frozen meals.
I'm searching amazon right now for a food scale. I think when I start weighing things, I'm gonna be shocked how many extra calories I've been putting in my body that haven't been logged. What about the pre packaged meals though? I eat a lot of those Marie calender's meals. Those would be hard to figure out myself wouldn't they? Maybe I should just subtract a few calories from what it says on the package just to be on the safe side
You could always weigh the food after it comes out of the microwave & double check. I find that most frozen meals have less gram weight than the box says. What I've been doing for food that is either higher than the gram weight or lower is taking the weight & dividing it by the box weight to get the true calories per serving.0 -
So. I'm getting a lot of different responses that completely contradict each other! Some say to just go down to 1500. Others say no,that's way too low for a guy my size and to keep eating what I'm eating right now and wait a few weeks. Others are saying to switch to the new fitness pal number it gave me. Ahhhhhh
I think I'll just stop eating until I'm so small I can weigh myself on a food scale...0 -
So. I'm getting a lot of different responses that completely contradict each other!
Welcome to the internet! You'll get used to it after a while I'm sure
lol
You've got a bunch of suggestions, now you need to process them, and see what makes sense, both in general, and to you.
Just remember there's many different approaches to getting out of a plateau, aside from calorie restriction, but you've got to take control of your weight loss efforts.
At its root, basic weight loss and nutrition is simple enough stuff. You need to take control, and educate yourself in the basics so you realise none of this stuff is black magic, and your results are a product of your actions. Do that and you won't look back! 0 -
For a guy of your height at an weight of say 180lbs, yeah 1500cals is ok. you're heavier, so your tdee is higher. Stick at 2000 cals, and get stricter with your logging. Open your food diary. Report back in 3 weeks.0
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For a guy of your height at an weight of say 180lbs, yeah 1500cals is ok. you're heavier, so your tdee is higher. Stick at 2000 cals, and get stricter with your logging. Open your food diary. Report back in 3 weeks.
Aye aye captain!0 -
Ok. So I'm trying something out and conducting this little experiment over the next month to see if my body agrees with it. Throwing this out there as a reference to anybody else in my situation
I've done a ton of reading about bmr,tdee, calorie counting accuracy and fitbit calorie burn accuracy and have come up with this. Because there is no one size fits all approach. Balance is needed.
I've set my activity level at lightly active since I usually get out and at least get my 10,000 steps a day. That gives me 1780 at my current weight. So that's what I will shoot for as long as I am at least a little active on most days. Now comes the fitbit calorie burn adjustment that gets added daily depending on what I do. I'm torn on how much I trust fitbit's burn numbers, so I'm going down the middle on this one. I will eat extra fitbit calories if I happen to get more but only up to a point! If it gives me an extra 100 calories so I can eat 1800-1900, then fine. Otherwise, I'm not going to get 30,000 steps in a day and say "oh wow. I earned so many calories. Time to eat 3,000 calories in twinkies since fitbit says my body needs it!" There needs to be a calorie range I don't go over if I'm not hitting the gym because really, I'm only burning so many calories a day and I can only trust my fancy pedometer so much.
All that is for days I get moderate to high activity. If I am a completely lazy SOB that feels like sitting around and playing xbox one all day and reading on my iPad, then I'll hit 1500 as a calorie target and drink lots of water.
I think this will work just fine for me. Numbers wise, I don't see how I wouldn't get results doing this. I'm also going to be more pro active about tracking my measurements in addition to the numbers on the scale. Thanks to users like iloseityes and others for leaving such awesome responses. Made me think real hard about all this and take action!0 -
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^^^That's your call since it's your body and this is your journey but imo limiting yourself to 1500 calories is completely unnecessary. I'm pretty sure no one here is saying go eat 3000 calories in twinkies because you earned it.
At the end of the day what you need is patience because 2 weeks is not a plateau.
It is my journey, but I also respect your opinion. Just by going off your posts and pics alone, I know you know what you're talking about. So I take what you say seriously man.
I only said 1500 for completely sedentary days. Otherwise, 1800-1900 obviously. Are you saying I should keep the same calories on lazy days?0 -
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