upping my calories-help!

zericaaaaa

here are my stats-
21 yr old female
235 lbs
5'9
sedentary
looking to lose around 50-60lbs.

I had my daily intake set to 1420 calories daily, but after messing around with a few TDEE calculators I've found that around 1800 is recommended for my stats. I want my weight loss to be sustainable, so Im thinking about upping my intake. how should I go about doing so? is it okay to just add on those extra 400 calories right away, or should I do it slowly? I was thinking about adding on 100 for a few days, then up it another 100, ect. opinions?

bluuu123

Honestly I find that all the calorie calculators online give waaaaay too many calories - like the daily goals they give you are too high

personally it gives me that i have to eat like 1900 to 2300 which is crazy!! id be gaining weight in a blink of an eye like that

if u've been eating for a while now (weeks) at the calorie intake that you have right now and you feel good, dont feel hungry, dont reach for snacks randomly - then i suggest u keep it up at that!

bluuu123

also, u state that you're "sedentary"

if you want to lose weight, you have to exercise!!
yes you might lose SOME weight just through diet, but without exercise you wont get far - believe me (and everybody else who ever tried)

zericaaaaa

that seemed way too high to me too haha. I could alllllways eat more food haha but in general I do find myself feeling hungry at some points during the day

mandez19

I personally would find it more difficult to worry about how much I'm adding each day than to simply start shooting for the new number. Just have a couple naughty snacks the first few days to quickly drive the number up without having to pack too much food in!

zericaaaaa

also, u state that you're "sedentary"

if you want to lose weight, you have to exercise!!
yes you might lose SOME weight just through diet, but without exercise you wont get far - believe me (and everybody else who ever tried)

oh and I just meant I work a desk job- I looooove me some exercise! I take hikes in the woods 5 days a week and usually burn around 400-900 calories, which I measure with my polar hrm!

zericaaaaa

I personally would find it more difficult to worry about how much I'm adding each day than to simply start shooting for the new number. Just have a couple naughty snacks the first few days to quickly drive the number up without having to pack too much food in!

that sounds PERFECT to me haha. I think I will just stick to around 1600 instead of the 1800 though, I wanted to see if anyone else thought that number was a bit high for my stats

AmyRhubarb

also, u state that you're "sedentary"

if you want to lose weight, you have to exercise!!
yes you might lose SOME weight just through diet, but without exercise you wont get far - believe me (and everybody else who ever tried)

I disagree - calorie deficit is all it takes for weight loss, exercise is for fitness. They go well together, but exercise is not necessary to lose weight.

As for the online calculators, I found the one I used to be very accurate. I'm 46 years old, 5'8" and reached goal weight eating 1800-2000 cals a day. I'm a stay at home mom, not sedentary, but exercise maybe an hour a day, 5-6 days week.

I found the information, instructions and tools in this topic to be very helpful and is what I have followed for the past 2+ years with great success: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/974888-in-place-of-a-road-map-2k13

bluuu123

that seemed way too high to me too haha. I could alllllways eat more food haha but in general I do find myself feeling hungry at some points during the day

in that case your first step should be to analyze WHAT You eat and maybe change it up - change to other sources of protein for example

or more protein (thats the healthiest solution to adding some extra calories to satisfy hunger)


and i also think your carbs may be a taad too high - maybe drop them 25 grams and replace with chicken breast? lol

zericaaaaa

also, u state that you're "sedentary"

if you want to lose weight, you have to exercise!!
yes you might lose SOME weight just through diet, but without exercise you wont get far - believe me (and everybody else who ever tried)

I disagree - calorie deficit is all it takes for weight loss, exercise is for fitness. They go well together, but exercise is not necessary to lose weight.

As for the online calculators, I found the one I used to be very accurate. I'm 46 years old, 5'8" and reached goal weight eating 1800-2000 cals a day. I'm a stay at home mom, not sedentary, but exercise maybe an hour a day, 5-6 days week.

I found the information, instructions and tools in this topic to be very helpful and is what I have followed for the past 2+ years with great success: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/974888-in-place-of-a-road-map-2k13

thanks so much for the helpful info! I will check that page out right now. congrats on your successes!!

zericaaaaa

that seemed way too high to me too haha. I could alllllways eat more food haha but in general I do find myself feeling hungry at some points during the day

in that case your first step should be to analyze WHAT You eat and maybe change it up - change to other sources of protein for example

or more protein (thats the healthiest solution to adding some extra calories to satisfy hunger)


and i also think your carbs may be a taad too high - maybe drop them 25 grams and replace with chicken breast? lol

oh yeah I looooove my carbs. honestly I think I'm still learning when I'm hungry and when I'm bored (been at it for a year and still don't know haha.) I feel like I could ALWAYS eat more, so sometimes im not too sure if its because I'm actually hungry or because I just want to taste food. so I got excited when I found out I could technically eat more food haha. but you're right. I do need to pick more sustainable options and space them out a little better. I work 2-10 shifts and usually eat all the food I bring at like 4, so for tomorrow I think i'll pick designated times to eat my meals/snacks while at work

bluuu123

its also good to eat smaller portions but more often throughout the day


for example my day consists of 300 calories intakes (give or take) about 4 or 5 times a day = thats every 3 hours

zericaaaaa

yeah I think that's a good idea, i'll give it a shot. Thank you!

mandez19

That is a DECENT amount of exercise! I find it hard to eat back all of my calories on days like today for example because I burned 1300+ calories so I'm supposed to eat like 3300 calories today. I am so full and still have like 700 left I'm supposed to eat.

bluuu123

That is a DECENT amount of exercise! I find it hard to eat back all of my calories on days like today for example because I burned 1300+ calories so I'm supposed to eat like 3300 calories today. I am so full and still have like 700 left I'm supposed to eat.

woah what exercise did u do???? :O :O :O Lol


also, fun fact: a pound of fat is about 3,500 calories so if ur deficient by that many calories, ull lose about a lb a week

u dont HAVE to eat the calories u burnt during working out - its simply the logic of "your body will WANT more to refuel" - ex: thats why its okay/recommended to have carbs/more carbs (pre-workout) than on a non-workout day = thereby, resulting in more calories than on your rest day

basically you'll lose weight faster

mandez19

That is a DECENT amount of exercise! I find it hard to eat back all of my calories on days like today for example because I burned 1300+ calories so I'm supposed to eat like 3300 calories today. I am so full and still have like 700 left I'm supposed to eat.

woah what exercise did u do???? :O :O :O Lol


also, fun fact: a pound of fat is about 3,500 calories so if ur deficient by that many calories, ull lose about a lb a week

u dont HAVE to eat the calories u burnt during working out - its simply the logic of "your body will WANT more to refuel" - ex: thats why its okay/recommended to have carbs/more carbs (pre-workout) than on a non-workout day = thereby, resulting in more calories than on your rest day

basically you'll lose weight faster

I bike 30 kms a day, that is due to commuting to work. And today I swam about 800 metres as well.

Thank you for clarifying what I mean to say and failed to do so... lol If OP burns 900 calories MFP is going to tell her to eat 2500 to 2700 depending on her goal, that might be difficult and isn't completely necessary. But if you can manage to eat them all depending on what and when you ate that day, no worries because your body will gobble them up and "spit" them out.

Camo_xxx

My question would be. Are you satisfied with your current rate of fat loss ? If so then don't consume more calories. If you want to lose weight slower then consume more calories.

Upping your calorie consumption by 400 calories per day will slow down your fat loss by 3/4 pound per week or about 40 pounds over the next year.

zericaaaaa

My question would be. Are you satisfied with your current rate of fat loss ? If so then don't consume more calories. If you want to lose weight slower then consume more calories.

Upping your calorie consumption by 400 calories per day will slow down your fat loss by 3/4 pound per week or about 40 pounds over the next year.

that is a good point. I haven't been accurately logging these past few months up until the past 2 weeks, so i honestly haven't seen any real results yet. with vacation and just lack of willpower in the past, I've been losing and gaining the same 5 pounds but I've had a pretty good couple weeks so i think it would definitely be beneficial to keep my calories where they are for the next couple weeks and see where I'm at. thanks for your insight!