Suggested calories/day?

chocolatnoir

Another thought-

Eating 1800 calories of pizzas and desserts is very different from eating 1800 calories of healthy grains, vegetables, fruits, and lean protein. One will result in you losing the belly and the other surely will not. Track not only what you are eating but what is in your food. Your pizza is mainly carbs and fat, for example, and your body only needs so much of that in a day.

MernaDea

Ok, this is the thread I was looking for. I just found this site today and was a little surprised as how many calories my daily intake was raised on the days I exercise. That FREAKED me out, but doing it my way with an average of 1350 a day, I lost only 1/2 pound, WHICH led me to find this site from my frustration. I exercise 5 days a week come hell or high water. Today is a skip day, but was playing with the tools.

Here is what I posted on my intro thread:

I have a question for anyone here. I am reading through the free software to track everything! (I usually do all the math on my own etc.) Incredible tools!

The calculator is actually giving me more calories than my norm of 1350 a day (I alternate 1200 & 1500 - avg 1350 per day) Should I eat more than with the days I exercise? That makes me nervous...BUT, this past week I only lost a half a pound and it Freeaked me out, which led me to find you all on Google for support. (so that low loss is still GREAT to me )

MernaDea

Thanks, I clicked on that link and found exactly what I am looking for! I am going to do it and follow eating my exercise calories this week and take one week at a time. Its hard and never really did it.

This could be what Jillian and Bob always talk about with contestants eating too little and scared to eat all these calories.. Me too!

Here goes.......

chocolatnoir

Thanks, I clicked on that link and found exactly what I am looking for! I am going to do it and follow eating my exercise calories this week and take one week at a time. Its hard and never really did it.

This could be what Jillian and Bob always talk about with contestants eating too little and scared to eat all these calories.. Me too!

Here goes.......

Good luck!!

irishpolyglot

I also found the link to be helpful.
But I still think the daily calories estimate for me is off. There must be some discrepancies in the number of calories for what I'm putting into it (and I do finish everything on my plate), or over estimate of how many calories I'm burning in my exercise periods (and I am doing a rigorous version of the exercise).

I'm sure this program can help me because tracking tools have been good for helping me improve other aspects of my life in the past. I just want to make sure I've got all this right, and when it says I'm several hundred calories too short after a day of over-eating then I have to wonder what I'm doing wrong.

Perhaps it's just equating calories and carbohydrates as being similar in my mind as smarina79 suggests? Does the program simply presume that those calories are coming from healthy foods? I suppose if I ate the same "weight" of food in more healthy form it would indeed ask me to eat more.

Of course, I'm not eating those as part of my strategy to lose weight. I just wanted to see what my typical result is from my current lifestyle before really getting serious and was expecting the program to tell me I'm getting too many calories that aren't getting burnt in my typical day.

So is my issue just a carbohydrates/fat vs good calories confusion problem? Since you'll get fatter even if you are safely within recommended calories limits because precisely what you are eating is junk? This would at least somewhat explain why the program (unfortunately) isn't telling me that I'd put on weight with my current lifestyle.

I wanted a big red number to wake me up you see :P But the good news is I get that if I dig into the settings to see my nutritional intake. Perhaps I should look at that more than the calorie count?

ebgbjo

My calorie and exercise amounts vary daily. I never hit the target calories nor would I want to. I talked to my nutritionist and personal trainer about this exact thing and they both said the target calories are what your body needs for survival based on your weight and how much you exercise. For me my base is 1900 before exercise. I eat between 900-1200 a day plus add in exercise. Some days I burn more calories than I eat. In order to lose weight you must eliminate calories from somewhere. In other words to lose 1 pound a week you need to decrease your caloric intake by 3500 calories from your weeks total base rate. It is working for me...down 19 pounds in 28 days. I don't get the whole eat your exercise calories to lose weight thing so I am just doing what my nutritionist and trainer are telling me to do.

Doing what you are doing is damaging your muscles. If I ever had a nutritionist and personal trainer suggest to me what yours did to you, I would fire them both. Your body needs more than 900-1200 calories a day, ESPECIALLY with exercise

robin52077

My calorie and exercise amounts vary daily. I never hit the target calories nor would I want to. I talked to my nutritionist and personal trainer about this exact thing and they both said the target calories are what your body needs for survival based on your weight and how much you exercise. For me my base is 1900 before exercise. I eat between 900-1200 a day plus add in exercise. Some days I burn more calories than I eat. In order to lose weight you must eliminate calories from somewhere. In other words to lose 1 pound a week you need to decrease your caloric intake by 3500 calories from your weeks total base rate. It is working for me...down 19 pounds in 28 days. I don't get the whole eat your exercise calories to lose weight thing so I am just doing what my nutritionist and trainer are telling me to do.

Doing what you are doing is damaging your muscles. If I ever had a nutritionist and personal trainer suggest to me what yours did to you, I would fire them both. Your body needs more than 900-1200 calories a day, ESPECIALLY with exercise

Yes! Thank you! And the statement "Some days I burn more calories than I eat. " ...ending the day at a NET of below 0?!?!?! seriously?!?!? When she ends up in the hospital she'll realize she should have fired them like you said.

To Irishplyglot: I really really think you are not putting in all your food correctly. Any time I even LOOK at a pizza I go over 2000 for that day. Are you logging EVERYTHING you eat? And you can't eyeball the portions. Most people underestimate by 30% or so. Weigh and measure everything. And yes, WHAT you eat makes a big difference, not just how much. If you ate the same amount of calories but changed the fried foods to fruits, veggies, whole grains, lean meats, and lots of water, the pounds will fall off.

irishpolyglot

OK, I see a problem with the pizza. I selected one PIECE rather than one "container". This was confusing as I would think of a "slice" as being the relevant word for a "piece". Changed it and the number of calories zoomed up to a ridiculous amount - yay! lol - so it's making more sense now. I just have to make sure I use the right units.

Seeing that one pizza take over the day and kill any chance of losing weight is the kind of wake up call I was hoping for

Otherwise I should select higher numbers of servings perhaps for other meals that definitely feel and look bigger. This brings the total up much more and makes it all more logical. Sorry for the confusion - I think I'm on track now - I just needed to understand the context of my current diet before altering it.

Thanks!

jadesign19

Did you get a physical? Get your thyroid levels checked.

paulmmichaud

Thanks, I clicked on that link and found exactly what I am looking for! I am going to do it and follow eating my exercise calories this week and take one week at a time. Its hard and never really did it.

This could be what Jillian and Bob always talk about with contestants eating too little and scared to eat all these calories.. Me too!

Here goes.......

I've always wondered what the amount of calories the contestants on the Biggest Loser are supposed to eat? If anyone knows let me know as I would find that very interestings

jashan8534

Hi, As a health coach I would first look at the foods your eating more in depth. How much fat, carbs, protein are you taking in? How many processed foods verse cooked foods? The calorie intake can also be played with. Try reducing your calories to 1600 instead. It may take a few weeks to figure out where your body wants to be. Remember to listen to your body signals too. Lastly, stop eating at 7pm to give your body a chance to burn the fat of the day.

Hope this helps

dlaplume2

@robin Thanks for trying to bring some sense to this!

But I can confirm that all my details are correct. I weighed myself, checked my height, and am definitely male according to my profile and in real life!

I also have it set to 1lb per week. I'm really not in a crazy rush to look like a model - but I do want to make sure I start on the right foot to gradually getting in better shape. Based on my current settings this is not likely to happen since I know I'm eating too much and not exercising enough to balance it out but the program says I'm doing fine. In fact, it's telling me to eat several hundred calories more!!

There has to be something I'm missing?

I think Robin is right you might need to give it some time and with exercise you will tone up. You have said you do not have a ton of weight to lose. When you get closer to your goal weight you are going to be eating closer to your maintenace calories.

You may also have subconciously eaten better when you were tracking your normal calories, to see where you were. Maybe you didn't count something, like beers with your friends, maybe not eating out like you were, maybe your portions were a little bigger.

Give it a week or two and see how it works for you. I have never lost weight like I have on this site. I have total faith in it. If all your numbers are right and you follow it, I think you will be surprised.

Good luck.

jaybaileys

Irish,

I dont think you are gonna get the results you are looking for eating pizza, french fries, soda, sugary snacks, etc. I THINK you now realize this but Im not positive. Dude you need a plan. You need to plan ahead, your excercise and your meals. What are you doing for excercise? How many days do you excercise? And for how long? Diet wise maybe there is an "app" out there to tell you what to eat, maybe not. I eat pretty clean, about 2000 calories a day. If you want to look at what I eat you can message me. I am 5'9" and weigh 140 and have for about 2 years now. It may give you an idea of some of the stuff to eat most of the time. Even i have my pizza nights like last night but they are few and far between. I think you just need a little guidance. Also, eating small meals several times per day works. I eat 3 meals and 3 shakes a day basically. Let me know if you'd like to check it out.

robin52077

Jay, he knows this. He said he logged his NORMAL intake for the first few days to see what he actually had been consuming that caused the gains.
Now that he sees how bad it was, he can make the needed changes.

Irish - I looked at your diary, and though you fixed the pizza error, I still think you are underestimating...
Examples:
Generic Loaded Vegetable Omelet - 231 cals? How many eggs did you use, what did you grease the pan with? Olive oil? butter? is there cheese in this? I would say a 3 egg veggie omelet with cheese made in a lightly butttered pan would be more like 400 cals.
Wheat bread - 69 cals a slice? only if it is a thin cut tiny little slice. My whole grain bread is 110 a slice.
You have a lot of things entered as generics, and are relying on the database and other people's rough estimates.
Use your food's packages and enter exactly what it says, you'll see a huge difference.

If I made a veggie omelet, my diary wouldn't say "veggie omelet". It would say:
Egg beaters egg whites, 3 servings, 75 cals, (whole eggs are 70 each so this would be 210 if you used yolks)
broccoli - 20g, 7 cal
onion - 20g, 8 cal
tomatoes - 29g, 5 cal
spinach - 20g, 5 cal.....etc...

weigh and log all your ingredients instead of using generics. it makes a huge difference because the generics can vary a LOT.

mccgirlie

I seem to have the opposite issue with the suggested calories per day. I am new to MFP and am extremely overweight. I've always been told that I need about 1200 calories a day for a good diet. But on here, my suggested intake per day is 2150. Why so much?? I would never be able to diet on that many calories, nor can I even eat that much food to get to it. Please help.

robin52077

I seem to have the opposite issue with the suggested calories per day. I am new to MFP and am extremely overweight. I've always been told that I need about 1200 calories a day for a good diet. But on here, my suggested intake per day is 2150. Why so much?? I would never be able to diet on that many calories, nor can I even eat that much food to get to it. Please help.

1200 is probably too low, it's too low for MOST people.
It's hard to help without more info. 2150 could be correct based on your stats. This is designed around healthy eating and losing weight slowly, not "dieting".
Did you put in your height weight and sex correctly? What did you choose as your goal, 1 lb a week? 2? 1.5?

A lot of the time 2 lbs a week is too much but if you are extremely overweight as you say, then it should be fine for now, and slow it down as you get closer to goal.

And yes, you CAN eat 2000 calories a day of healthy food. There are plenty of calorie dense healthy fats out there. Add olive oil, peanut butter, and other good fats to your diet. Eat lots of lean meats and whole grains. I can eat 2000 a day EASY.

irishpolyglot

@Robin Thanks!! Appreciate you looking at my diary. Yes, I was using the generic amounts - I presumed they'd be accurate enough, since I'm not worried about hitting the mark exactly. As long as I'm +-100 or so from the target I'll presume I'm at least not putting on weight.

But I'll start being more diligent and adding ingredients separately, or reading the nutrition information (harder for the next 2 weeks while I'm still travelling and eating out a lot, but the whole point of this was to get a good set up for starting fresh when I *can* track things better).

@Jay As Robin said, of course I don't think eating pizzas etc. will help me lose weight. But I'm not interested in dramatically changing my diet in one day as these are always too hard to maintain. I tracked my pre-change diet and have seen how unhealthy it is from the numbers, which is what I wanted before implementing changes.

Seeing the pizza take over the entire day was a bit shocking so you can bet I'm only going to treat myself to a pizza once a week for the moment and only with friends rather than alone.

I've already implemented some minor but important changes and will continue to look at the numbers and make SMALL changes every day to make sure I'm going in the right direction and adjusting in such a way that I completely transform my routine piece by piece rather than turning it upside down overnight.

Thanks for all the help! I'm absolutely sure that I'll be successful with this now that I have a better understanding of how the process works! I'll be using the system's suggested default for my situation of 1780 cal/day and monitoring the nutritional details more closely to see less red

robin52077

Sounds like you have the right idea now. Enjoy the next 2 weeks of travelling, and just try to make smart choices even though you know you can't log it all accurately. Start weighing, measuring, and scrutinizing once you get home.:laugh:
And you have the right way of thinking on the pizza. This is a "lifestyle change" not a diet. It's supposed to be something you can do for the rest of your life. I would NOT give up pizza for the rest of my life! But switching it to once a week out with friends is a great change from just whenever you feel like it for any old meal.
I splurged BAD this weekend! Pizza AND chinese! But I am back on my game today and will just drink a ton of water to flush out this bloated sluggish feeling. :happy: