2500 calories is dieting?? Seriously??

chrisdavey

I am a guy and weigh 165lbs. I lost weight averaging 2800cals gross just last week. Office worker/gym junkie :P

tjjohnson66

good point one person had said that it is the quality of your calories. the tools on the website are estimates.BMI is also another estimate. 2 truly get an accurate number is to have your resting metabolic rate tested, then you can have results added to your watch the tracks from your heart rate montior. measure your body fat, body fat is the true indicator of being in shape. the more muscle you have the more calories you burn even if you are not working out.

sorry I'm wordy....just excited to be back. i was a work ot freak for many years and used trainers etc to learn alot of this.

good luck all

123456654321

My hubby started out at 316. He had me start this plan for him because it worked so well for me. His daily calorie goal started off at 2300 (sedentary) - seems high right? but the pounds started falling off of him. He has gradually went down to 2100 as his weight has gone down too. He is right now 247 and still dropping about 2 pounds a week.

I highly recommend for people to listen to the guidelines here first and then make adjustments from there if it's not working later. The guidelines are there for a reason and they are generally a good thing to follow, at least until you get into the swing of things yourself.

123456654321

Oh, and I do think you sound more moderately active then active. Try that out and see what you think.

gailygail99

When I started I had also put in sedentary as I did not exercise at all and have a desk job. I put in that I wanted to lose 2lbs a week and it told me 1770 calories should be my goal. That seemed like a lot to me though. I kept it like that for a couple of weeks and then started to decrease it by 50 calories a week. I did that until it got down to 1500 calories and then I just stayed there, as I did not want to decrease it anymore. I have been on MFP for about 55 days and have lost 30lbs so far. The last 3-4 weeks I did start to exercise though. Just a little a day and normally just earn back between 115-200 calories a day from cardio and I do lift weights, but dont log any calories lost for that. So it now tells me that I can have approx 1600-1700 calories a day. I still dont eat them all though. I usually average around 1300-1400 and then if you subtract the exercise, I am around 1200 calories a day. I am assuming that once I lose enough weight where I should be eating actually less than 1500 calories, it will alert me, and asking me if I want to change my goals. At least I hope so! Do you think that it will? I still keep my lifestyle as sedentary as that is true. I do not use a heart monitor when I am on the treadmill, so I hope that my calories lost is close to being accurate. I would love any feedback/advice for my situation, as I have many pounds to go! Thanks

chrisdavey

You need to update your profile/goals as you lose weight. It will be different for different people but I would say every 10lbs or so would work well.

Samerah12

Alright, thanks guys! I'll switch it back to just active then, that seems to be the consensus. For the record though, I did try setting it at sedentary and putting in everything I normally do (walking the dog, walking to work, 30 min light cleaning) plus a gym visit to check: 3400 calories! On a day where I also had curling it would be telling me to eat 4120 calories. Absurd. There is just no way that can be right, I would literally have to make a conscious effort eat that many calories in a day. I'll go with active and just log the gym and see where that gets me. Re-evaluating every 10 lbs seems like a good plan as well.

I appreciate the idea of this site and like I said before its great that it seems to be working for so many people but dang it seems subjective! So dependent on what you choose to log and how you view yourself.

Samerah12

No kidding! I always assumed it would be the other way around, more muscle making things easier to do and thus less calories being burned. Thats good to know, thanks.

....the more muscle you have the more calories you burn even if you are not working out....

Samerah12

Awesome! Very helpful, thanks!

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/10589-for-those-confused-or-questioning-eating-your-exercise-calo

There are several "must reads" at the beginning of the general diet and weight loss forum.

janesmith1

They gave me something like 1700 when I first started as I put my "recommendation" in at 1 lb per week - as recommended by them.

I did not lose any weight. So I went back and restructured it to 1.5 lbs per week and I'm on a 1350 a day diet and that is what works for me to lose weight.

kwardklinck

If you're setting your lifestyle to active, make sure you're not putting regular life activities as exercise. You could possibly set your lifestyle to lightly active and then log the exercise. I'm a teacher. I'm on my feet and walking around all day long. I have mine set to lightly active and log the exercise I set out to do.

123456654321

From what I hear the exercise numbers put on here can be pretty exaggerated sometimes. A lot of people buy a HRM to get a more accurate reading of calories they are burning. I know a few other people who don't want to spend the money on a HRM so they just underestimate their workouts (slower paces, less reps) to try and make it a bit more accurate. What is your job? If it's a desk job or something with little physical activity, I personally wouldn't log things like cleaning or the walk to work and back because those things may be what would make you "moderately active." Also, I'm not sure if you have answered this or not, but what are your goals set at? .5 pounds per week? 2 pounds per week?

Good luck! It might take some adjusting here and there but you will get into the swing of things in no time!

JennLifts

I'm very active, with the added 200 calories from having mine set to maintain. When I put it to lose, it drops me to that as well, and when I log my work outs it throws me into the 2200-2400 range, and I for sure lose. Your body takes a lot to be run, try it for a couple weeks and if you see little to no result, try not eating as many exercise calories back

NatalieWinning

No kidding! I always assumed it would be the other way around, more muscle making things easier to do and thus less calories being burned. Thats good to know, thanks.

....the more muscle you have the more calories you burn even if you are not working out....

This is why guys (generally) need to eat more. They have more muscle mass (being men). Muscle needs more energy to maintain. This is also why those heavy weight lifters have to go to drinking protein drinks. They actually do have trouble getting enough fuel in a day!

NatalieWinning

[

....the more muscle you have the more calories you burn even if you are not working out....

[/quote]

This is why guys (generally) need to eat more. They have more muscle mass (being men). Muscle needs more energy to maintain. This is also why those heavy weight lifters have to go to drinking protein drinks. They actually do have trouble getting enough fuel in a day!
[/quote]

When I lived on a farm I ate an insane amount of food. We did a high school project and I was eating over 3000 calories most days. We went to a city band camp family dinner "all you can eat" style and my family had so much food on our table that when we looked around we were embarrassed! We needed a LOT more food!!

BigBoneSista

Remember all calories are not equal. To consume those many calories and lose weight you must eat healthy. Watch your sodium intake as well.

amycal

If you really want to know how many calories you are burning you could get a Bodia Media or Budy Bugg. I have been using mine almost 3 weeks. I find I burn fewer calories than what my HRM says during exercise, but way more during the day overall. I sit at a desk most days and I can burn close to 3000 calories in a day with exercise. It tells me my total daily calorie deficit based on activity and total calories consumed.

Samerah12

Thanks! I don't have the slightest idea how much I burn doing what. Wish I'd bummed my moms HRM while I was home over Christmas, I could have seen how much I burn walking at least. I'll probably get one eventually but too broke for it at the moment.

My job is mixed lab and field work. Most of my time in the lab is on my feet though, and I spend part of each day fixing/moving equipment/gas tanks around and do a lot of cleaning. So not a mailman but not a desk job either. Probably waitress is a good equivalent.

Definetly not logging cleaning or walking to work as those are everyday activities. Might still log the dog walking since that fluctuates. Other than that, only logging gym trips and curling. And trying to lose 2 lbs a week.

From what I hear the exercise numbers put on here can be pretty exaggerated sometimes. A lot of people buy a HRM to get a more accurate reading of calories they are burning. I know a few other people who don't want to spend the money on a HRM so they just underestimate their workouts (slower paces, less reps) to try and make it a bit more accurate. What is your job? If it's a desk job or something with little physical activity, I personally wouldn't log things like cleaning or the walk to work and back because those things may be what would make you "moderately active." Also, I'm not sure if you have answered this or not, but what are your goals set at? .5 pounds per week? 2 pounds per week?

Good luck! It might take some adjusting here and there but you will get into the swing of things in no time!

Frozenyoghurt

im new to this too, but the calorie allowance for exercise seems way too high! :laugh:

janesmith1

Remember all calories are not equal. To consume those many calories and lose weight you must eat healthy. Watch your sodium intake as well.

Actually it's been proven that calories are equal. Check out the twinkie diet which was done by a Professor of Nutrition at a well respected Uni. He ate what everyone would consider "bad foods" and made sure to eat twinkies 3x per day and lost tons of weight, lowered his LDL and heart issues.....so though it's probably "better" to eat "clean" as everyone says (from Tosca whatshername) eating "dirty" works just as well.

Here's the link to the Twinkie Diet
http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/11/08/twinkie.diet.professor/index.html

It really IS just about cal counting like we're doing here.