How do I eat enough calories and still be healthy?

KarlDR

I've dieting for 25 days now, and so far lost about 12lbs. Most of this came in the first 15 days though, for the last 10 days my weight hasn't moved at all, even though I haven't changed what I was doing initially. I suspect this is because I haven't been eating enough calories.

I am 6'5" and 430lbs, and I've been aiming for 2500 (though often being a few hundred under that). In the last few days I've been trying harder to make sure I hit 2500 even when i haven't felt the need to eat. However I received a Ki Fit device (UK version of Bodymedia Fit / Bodybugg) yesterday, and having worn the armband constantly since, it's telling me I'm burning around 5500 calories for the day, and this is a normal day in terms of activity for me so although I obviously don't have lots of data yet, I see no reason to think that 5500 won't be a "normal" amount for me on any given day, sometimes more when I do specific exercise.

So obviously this means that I'm burning far more calories than I (or MFP) thought - I'm currently basing my calorie expenditure on MFP's predition which is about 3800, so I though 2500 would be a good 2.5 lbs a week, which for someone my size seems reasonable. As it is though, it seems for that sort of defecit I need to be consuming around 4000 calories per day.

So, after all of that, my question is, can this be correct? Do I really need that many calories? If so, how can I eat this much without straying into junk food and all the associated salt and trans fats?

LouiseCMR

bump

Cathleenr

I've dieting for 25 days now, and so far lost about 12lbs. Most of this came in the first 15 days though, for the last 10 days my weight hasn't moved at all, even though I haven't changed what I was doing initially. I suspect this is because I haven't been eating enough calories.

I am 6'5" and 430lbs, and I've been aiming for 2500 (though often being a few hundred under that). In the last few days I've been trying harder to make sure I hit 2500 even when i haven't felt the need to eat. However I received a Ki Fit device (UK version of Bodymedia Fit / Bodybugg) yesterday, and having worn the armband constantly since, it's telling me I'm burning around 5500 calories for the day, and this is a normal day in terms of activity for me so although I obviously don't have lots of data yet, I see no reason to think that 5500 won't be a "normal" amount for me on any given day, sometimes more when I do specific exercise.

So obviously this means that I'm burning far more calories than I (or MFP) thought - I'm currently basing my calorie expenditure on MFP's predition which is about 3800, so I though 2500 would be a good 2.5 lbs a week, which for someone my size seems reasonable. As it is though, it seems for that sort of defecit I need to be consuming around 4000 calories per day.

So, after all of that, my question is, can this be correct? Do I really need that many calories? If so, how can I eat this much without straying into junk food and all the associated salt and trans fats?

your nutrition entries aren't open, so it's hard to say what you could add more of or change, but your initial weight loss was significant. a month isn't really enough time to get a definitive pattern to look at. get your calories in and track it for another 2-4 weeks, then make gradual changes in either your intake our your output, and give those changes time to be reflected.

LilMissFoodie

Hi there,

Well done for making this commitment I don't really think you necessarily need to worry about losing weight a bit faster - as long as you are getting the nutrition you need and have sufficient energy to function then you don't really need to worry about the size of the deficit. By this I mean - for you, you will easily get the nutrition you need in 2500 calories and still have a huge deficit, obviously for some people to have a huge deficit they would need to eat closer to 1200 or less calories which would make it very difficult to get the right amount of nutrition.

I would recommend sticking with 2500 would be fine for you. Especially if you are planning to do it all with healthy foods (otherwise your fibre and protein levels are going to be really high and may upset your stomach or cause other problems). Don't forget that part of a healthy lifestyle is also to include a few treats here and there though.

That is of course unless you are finding it very difficult in which case I would say start with a less restrictive deficit but I wouldn't recommend forcing down 4000 calories just because you feel you should.

Best of luck to you

Dotti

taso42

At this point in the game, I think you have a lot of wiggle room. Even if you kept eating at your current level of ~2500 net calories, I'm sure your weight loss would pick up again. The scale may potentially be stuck for weeks at a time, even while your body continues to make progress getting fitter and leaner. Don't worry too much about a 10 day plateau. That's way too short a time to come to any conclusions.

There is a lot of talk on these board about chronic under-eating and how it can lead to stalls and health problems, but in your particular situation, I think 2500 is a pretty safe level - provided that you're not feeling weak and hungry. If you are, then certainly eat more. Those BodyMedia devices, from what I have heard and seen, seem to be uncannily accurate. So that means, you have the luxury at this point, to eat plenty more if you wanted to, and still lose weight. Just to be on the conservative side, I did a quick calculation of your BMR and TDEE using Harris-Benedict (assuming a "lightly active" level), and it gives 4838 cals per day. So you could presumably eat 3838 (a 1000 cal deficit) and still lose 2 lbs a week average.

To answer your specific question on what to eat, the usual suggestions are calorie dense foods such as nuts, olive oil, full fat dairy, whole eggs. Some more suggestions in this thread in the FAQ group http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/410771-i-can-t-reach-my-calorie-goal-it-s-too-much-food.

Focus on building habits you can keep for the long term. Hopefully that will include some regular exercise. From the sound of it, you are off to a great start. Keep it up and you will accomplish great things.

KarlDR

Thanks for all the great replies, that's very helpful.

I think the issue that's caused me to stall is that for about 3 weeks I was actually consuming a net intake of about 1500 - 2000 most days. I completely switched my entire diet literally overnight from shop bought sandwiches for lunch and take away food for dinner to a much healthier diet with mostly fresh, unprocessed food. Because this is so much less calorie dense, and because I'm eating more sensible portions, I think I went too far the other way.

I'll make sure I keep up above 2500 from now on and incorporate come calorie dense healthy foods as suggested, hopefully I will get going again soon!