Calorie Intake?

sfergy

What is the best way to calculate how many calories/ day I should be consuming?

karenlesley47

A good place to start is usually around 1500 calories(with out vigorous exercise), if you go to low on your cals to soon you wont be able to reduce them when you reach that ineventable plateau. If there are days when you may need more calories than that do some exercise to counteract them. Good luck on your journey.

demhareis

The *best* way is to go see a doctor or metabolic specialist to measure your actual metabolic rate (ie, your O2 uptake rate, Basal Body Temp, etc) and advise you as to what your BMR caloric intake and your maintenance caloric intake should be. Factors such as weight, muscle percentage, hormonal makeup, sex, age, weather, etc will affect what your actual BMR is.

The best non-doctor way is self-experimentation. Select a certain caloric intake, stick to it as closely as possible for a month or two and see if you lose, maintain or gain weight. Factors such as variation in energy output and quality of diet can affect the accuracy of your results.

There is an arbitrary value of 1200kcal/day as an average BMR, but for individuals, this might be too high or too low.

That said, to drop one's caloric intake below 1200 a day without consulting a doctor can be dangerous, especially if one does not know for sure what one's BMR is. Nutrition can be compromised if intake is below the BMR and undesirable biochemical pathways such as Starvation Mode can be triggered, thus working contrary to one's goal of losing weight.

sfergy

Thank you so much. I have mine set to 1500/day right now. I'm hoping that if I stay close to this range than I can lose the weight I want to lose. I'm going to be starting INSANITY on the 15th and hope that I'm not going to keep getting these hungry feeling every 2 hours. I was told the trick to "filling hunger without eating" is drink water. Well I'm going to try this and see if it helps. But what if water just isn't enough?

tigersword

I like the Katch-McArdle formula, personally.

sfergy

What is the Katch- McArdle formula?

erickirb

What is the best way to calculate how many calories/ day I should be consuming?

If you have 75+ lbs to lose 2 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 40-75 lbs to lose 1.5 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 25-40 lbs to lose 1 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 15 -25 lbs to lose 0.5 to 1.0 lbs/week is ideal, and
If you have less than 15 lbs to lose 0.5 lbs/week is ideal.

And eat back your exercise calories.

sfergy

Ok so if I have a goal of 1500/day and I eat 1300 and I exercise for a total of 650, your saying I should eat that extra 650?

therealangd

Ok so if I have a goal of 1500/day and I eat 1300 and I exercise for a total of 650, your saying I should eat that extra 650?

Yep. For the most part. I don't have an absolutely accurate way of measuring my burn, so if I think I've overestimated, then I won't eat them all, but most.

MaximalLife

What is the best way to calculate how many calories/ day I should be consuming?

The best way is to follow the MFP recommendation based on your information like weight, goals and exercise.

Set your goals for 1 lb weight loss per week.
NO MORE!

And eat lean meats, low fat dairy, nuts, whole grains, fresh fruits and veggies.
Do both cardio and resistance exercise.
AND EAT BACK YOUR EXERCISE CALORIES~!

That's it.

It's actually quite simple.
The easy part is the what to do; the hard part is the doing.

Good Luck!

sfergy

ok, I'll try my best and I guess I'll see where I get. Thanks again for the advice

MaximalLife

Ok so if I have a goal of 1500/day and I eat 1300 and I exercise for a total of 650, your saying I should eat that extra 650?

Simply stated MFP has already figured out your total calories you need to eat per day to lose 1lb etc. a week. That's WITHOUT exercise. You'll notice that when you actually add exercise in, the calorie limit goes up. Why? Because it's telling you to eat your exercise calories. Large deficits aren't really good to do because while you will lose weight, what kind of weight will it be? In many cases you'll lose lean muscle tissue which LOWERS your metabolic rate even more. Then you have to eat even less to compensate for less of a calorie burn to continue to lose the same amount of weight each week.
Be efficient. Exercise hard and eat back the calories. The hard exercise will RAISE your metabolic rate and burn more fat at rest.

AddA2UDE

Katch-McArdle:

http://www.google.com/search?q=katch+mcardle&rls=com.microsoft:en-us&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&startIndex=&startPage=1&rlz=

AddA2UDE

ok, I'll try my best and I guess I'll see where I get.

Just my .02..........

You need to replace the "try/guess" thought process with committed "I'm going to do this. This isn't going to kick my butt this time" thought process. If you are truly serious about doing this, find 20-30 people on here who have been here for awhile and have had some success and send them a friend request with a note as to why you want to be their friend. Then, make sure you log in to MFP EVERY SINGLE DAY and participate with your new friends. There are a couple of good links on my profile page that should help you too. YOU CAN DO THIS!!!

Add a 2ude!

erickirb

Ok so if I have a goal of 1500/day and I eat 1300 and I exercise for a total of 650, your saying I should eat that extra 650?

No, if you have a goal of 1500 and eat 1300 and burn 650, you should actually eat 2150 (1500+650), in order to lose your goal amount of weight.

MaximalLife

Ok so if I have a goal of 1500/day and I eat 1300 and I exercise for a total of 650, your saying I should eat that extra 650?

No, if you have a goal of 1500 and eat 1300 and burn 650, you should actually eat 2150 (1500+650), in order to lose your goal amount of weight.

Those who try to speed the process along skipping this end up quickening results for a season followed by the inevitable crash and burn.