How many calories should i be eating?!?

snowbunnyxoxo21

My calorie goal is 1260 to lose 2lbs a week. But my BMR is 1,799 calories. I work out every day and burn anywhere from 100-400 calories. Am I doing something wrong?! I want to lose weight as fast as I can but I also don't want to starve myself...

japruzze

You also hopefully want to lose safely and keep the weight off. I try to eat my full calories plus at least half my exercise calories. It helps to eat small amounts frequently instead of three bigger meals. Make sure you have protein everytime you eat. And eat some of everything everyday. I do low (not no) carb and high protien. Works for me.

bcc112986

Hi.

It is unlikely you will starve yourself. Make sure to eat high nutrient and high protein foods-vegetables, fruits, tuna, turkey, brown rice, whole grain cereals, cottage cheese, yogurt, egg whites, black beans. Also be sure to take a multivitamin. Protein/meal replacement shakes are also good ways to get all your nutrients.

If you notice fatigue, eat fruit even if you go over your calories.

And to lose weight quicker, do not eat your exercise calories.

Brittany

susannamarie

I would disagree with the advice to not eat your exercise calories, when your caloric deficit is set to 2 lbs/week already.

Speaking strictly from personal experience, my friends who tried diets w/caloric deficit greater than 2 lbs/week tended to relapse extremely quickly. Especially if you are already eating under your BMR, I would start out using the site as designed, and modify later if things aren't going as well. 2 lbs/week still means you'd hit your goal in a year!

lilbex88

bmr is how many calories you would burn by lying in bed doing absolutly nothing for 24 hours, kind of like hibernation. its not very reliable either and shouldnt be relyied upon. and dont eat your exercise calories, that just defeats the purpose of burning them,

bambamz

My doctor says he tells all his patient's to eat the amount of calories that you want to weigh ...example....if you want to weigh 120 pounds...eat 1200 calories per day....if you want to weigh 150...eat 1500 calories per day and so on. Personally, I want to weigh as close to 150 as I can get. But I want to lose fast , so I'm starting at 1200 calories and when I get to 150 pounds I should be able to go to 1500 calories and maintain my weight at 150.

Zsangel

and dont eat your exercise calories, that just defeats the purpose of burning them,

Seriously?!?!?! :noway:
That's 100% not true

rileysowner

We frankly don't know enough to say. The general thinking it a person, unless morbidly obese, should not eat below their BMR for an extended period of time. Doing so will make it much more likely you will put the weight back on. that 1260 does not include any calories burned from exercise, so if you exercise you will need to eat those calories you burn with the exercise.

There is an issue here with what you want. I understand the, "I want to lose weight as fast as I can" attitude, but it is not necessarily the best way to do so. Oh, you can lose it fast, but think about this for a minute. It took you a long time to put it on, likely most of your life, yet you want to undo that in a very short period of time. Quick fixes are seldom lasting. Secondly, if you lose the weight quickly you have done nothing, nor had the time to establish healthy eating patterns that will help you keep it off meaning you are much more likely to put the weight back on. Third, the faster you lose the weight, the more muscle you will lose meaning it is much more likely you will put the weigh right back on because of that as well.

All that is to say, generally a much better goal is 1 pound per week which is what this site recommends. If you did that it is likely your calories would be higher, and in the long run you will be less likely to plateau.

Contrarian

dont eat your exercise calories, that just defeats the purpose of burning them,

This is not true. This site is designed to create a calorie deficit without exercise. Eating back your exercise calories fuels your body so you will lose weight at a healthy rate, rather than creating too large a calorie deficit. You should be trying to eat back most of your exercise calories.

Trust me.

susannamarie

and dont eat your exercise calories, that just defeats the purpose of burning them,

Seriously?!?!?! :noway:
That's 100% not true

There are all kinds of reasons to exercise other than just to lose weight faster.

1) To maintain muscle.
2) For cardiovascular health.
3) To increase the percentage of caloric need met -- 500 deficit from 1500 is 33%, whereas 500 deficit from 2000 is 25%.
4) More that I can't be bothered to list at the moment.

lilbex88

My doctor says he tells all his patient's to eat the amount of calories that you want to weigh ...example....if you want to weigh 120 pounds...eat 1200 calories per day....if you want to weigh 150...eat 1500 calories per day and so on. Personally, I want to weigh as close to 150 as I can get. But I want to lose fast , so I'm starting at 1200 calories and when I get to 150 pounds I should be able to go to 1500 calories and maintain my weight at 150.

thats pretty good advice

Saruman_w

Worry less about losing weight a fast rate and worry more about being able to lose any weight at all. You need to look into increasing your calories if you want to see any more results. There comes a point where the numbers on the scale will start to get lower and lower. And the only way to keep the fat coming off is to slowly reduce your deficit over time.

hubkal

when I was eating back my exercise calories I lost no weight, when I stopped eating them back I lost weight at the rate of about 1.5 lbs a week so far. Everyone is different. you should try to burn more than 100-400 calories a day though. Just a thought.