General Advice, please

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  • Sarauk2sf
    Sarauk2sf Posts: 28,072 Member
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    1200 is definitely too low just because you are male let alone any other reason.

    Given his height and weight I don't think this level of calories as a net balance is a problem

    Please note the 'he' in your sentence. There is no way a guy should be eating 1200 calories a day no matter what his height is (unless under medical supervision and due to obesity). The minimum recommended calories fir a guy is 1800.
  • Rumik
    Rumik Posts: 86 Member
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    The minimum recommended calories fir a guy is 1800.

    According to who, though? I'd really love to see some sources of this info, as people keep on throwing around numbers without anything I can read and learn from :)
  • Microfiber_wechange
    Microfiber_wechange Posts: 640
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    Leptin plays such a huge role in the starvation protection process that it’s actually referred to as the “anti-starvation” hormone.

    Leptin is regulated by two things. One is your calorie intake. A high calorie intake equals high leptin levels while a low calorie intake equates to low leptin levels.

    When leptin falls, so does metabolism and fat burning
  • MelanieAG05
    MelanieAG05 Posts: 359 Member
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    I am female, 5ft3 and 162lbs - my goal is set to 1480 net calories per day, I sometimes eat my exercise calories (usually about half in total and I workout about 4-5 times per week) and my BMR is 1400 cals and I am losing weight! Now bearing in mind I am female I definitely don't think you are eating enough. Have a look at the fat 2 fit radio website which will calculate what you should be eating to lose weight for the amount of activity you do.

    I spent a lot of time on MFP forums reading lots of different schools of thought on the amount of cals I should aim to eat and eventually found something that worked. I started out eating 1200 cals and didn't lose a single 1lb for months!
  • Rozlynmac
    Rozlynmac Posts: 71
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    I know I'm female, but I'm the same height, I was 123lb. I had MFP set to 1200 too and was seeing very very slow weight loss of around 1lb a month, sometimes only within 6 weeks. I'd lost 5lb in 3 months and that involved a spell of being ill and losing a lot at once.

    I used the fat2fitradio tools, did my body fat calculation & then recalculated my calories based on my goal weight. It put me above 1500 with no exercise. That freaked me out as MFP was saying that was maintenance at my current weight. But I went with it & adjusted my MFP goals to 1470. MFP now has me losing 0.1lb a week, but since increasing to the higher calories I'm losing 1lb each week and I can see the results.

    If I exercise I eat the extra - my exercise tends to be quite irregular, so I haven't factored it in to the daily calculation. But the fat2fitradio calculations allow you to factor in daily exercise of the appropriate level so you eat the same amount each day regardless of whether or not you exercise and just get used to 'being' instead of dieting and then going up again at the end of your diet iyswim.

    I would agree with the comments about your body having adjusted itself to not getting enough, just because you don't feel hungry, doesn't mean your body doesn't need more. Keep trawling the forums & blogs, there's plenty posts on here from very knowledgeable people about under eating. If you increase your limits, you'll probably find you need to start low and add a little extra food here & there/increase each meal size a bit at a time to help you manage. Forcing an extra 800 cals into your face each day would make most folk vomit at the thought.

    I would recommend checking out as many links as you've been given, read the sites and do the calculations. You'll get familiar with why/how they're working out what you need & it's easier to accept as accurate/useful for you then.

    www.fat2fitradio.com/tools is where I was told to start. Do the US Military Body fat calc, then use that to do the BMR/TDEE calc.
  • tycholien
    tycholien Posts: 33 Member
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    1200 is definitely too low just because you are male let alone any other reason.

    Given his height and weight I don't think this level of calories as a net balance is a problem

    Please note the 'he' in your sentence. There is no way a guy should be eating 1200 calories a day no matter what his height is (unless under medical supervision and due to obesity). The minimum recommended calories fir a guy is 1800.

    Hang on, earlier on someone said 1500... Give the guy a chance!

    Someone posted a link earlier to a calculator that seemed pretty good (http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm). Also search throught the forums and look for TDEE and BMR. I wasn't aware of the TDEE stuff until about a month ago and understanding that has helped me pass a plateau

    This might get you started... http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/539098-all-this-tdee-bmr-talk-has-me-confused?hl=tdee
    .
  • ladyraven68
    ladyraven68 Posts: 2,003 Member
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    Put your info in here - what does it tell you is your daily calorie expenditure?

    Put my info in where? My MFP Goals section? Given my heights, weight, age, weight goal and number of workouts per week, it says 1200.

    Sorry - missed off the link - must be breakfast time!

    http://www.skinbodyfitness.com/bmr_bmi_bfp.htm

    If you don't have measurements do this one

    http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/bmr/

    Have you done either of these?

    What did they give you?

    As for 1500/1800 being the minimum required for a man - there is plenty of evidence if you look for it, but the main issue is that an avarage male needs around 2500 calories for maintenance. you are eating 1200, which is a 50% deficit, when a 15-20% deficit is recommended,

    http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/harris-benedict-equation/calorie-intake-to-lose-weight.php
  • Rumik
    Rumik Posts: 86 Member
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    I've used a few calculators, and they're giving me different results, adding to my immense confusion.

    http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/bmr/

    Moderately Active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/wk) 2522 calories

    http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm

    Maintenance 2343 CALORIES/DAY
    Fat Loss 1875 CALORIES/DAY
    Extreme Fat Loss 1406 CALORIES/DAY


    So which do I trust?

    Let me ask something. When I first started working out (just walking/running on the treadmill - doing the couch to 5k program) in July, it took me 3 months to lose 7lb - I didn't really change my eating habits (I certainly wasn't counting calories), but the weight came off slowly but surely, and I was able to maintain that weight for a 4 month period where I didn't work out (bad back, pregnant wife, life, etc). So a few weeks ago I went back to the gym and started over, but also started a weight program which has been built up to about 8 exercises since then. In the last few weeks I've lost about 4lbs - given my calorie target of 1200, is it likely that the weight loss is actually just water? Since I wasn't watching my calories when I lost weight the first time, that does seem to suggest that.

    So, really, what MFP suggests for my calorie target is crap, right?

    Why wouldn't I want to take the extreme fat loss option above? Why wouldn't I want to lose 2lbs a week? If I am just losing water and won't see any weight loss, that's because I'm not eating enough calories and so my body thinks it's starving, is that right?

    Thanks
  • Rozlynmac
    Rozlynmac Posts: 71
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    It is confusing isn't it. Everywhere does seem to calculate slightly differently. But as you've stated, 1200 is nowhere near any of them. I think the main reason people would say not to opt for the 2lb/week option is that most people find 1. Flabby skin if you lose it too fast & 2. It's harder to keep off in the longer term, slow loss is easier to maintain because you've adjusted your lifestyle in a way that's permanently manageable rather than short term hurry and then eat more and have to re-learn so you don't gain it all again.

    You could set it at the 1406 and see how you get on, it might still not be enough for you so you could increase again. Common practice appears to be slow increase of a few hundred at a time, give it a couple of weeks and then judge how it's working. You may find as you start to eat more, you get hungrier naturally. And I'd say learning to eat to your body's needs is a good thing, so feed it and pay attention to working out what's genuine 'fuel me' hunger and whats just boredom/stress/habit 'I want' that needs to be re-educated.

    It is hard to trust something that says eat more, but there's so much evidence on here of it working for plenty (and not for all) that it is worth a try, I was really sceptical because of not needing to lose very much and being pretty wee built. But so far it seems to be working for me, and once I'd read enough different sites I understood why they were giving the calculations they were and it was easier to go closer to them - although I'm still using the MFP value for maintenance rather than any other site, it was as much as I could convince myself to do - but that maintenance figure is making me lose 1lb/week, so I'm happier still to trust the higher values and not force a low calorie intake on myself in desperation.
  • Rumik
    Rumik Posts: 86 Member
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    Thanks again for all the advice. I'm going to increase my daily target to 1600 and see how I get on. If I start gaining weight then I can always drop it back down again :)
  • willyzification
    willyzification Posts: 95 Member
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    Thanks again for all the advice. I'm going to increase my daily target to 1600 and see how I get on. If I start gaining weight then I can always drop it back down again :)

    Even 1600 is a bit low I reckon. Normally maintenance calories value is how much you should be eating if you want to remain as you are. So if you want to lose weight then you take off 10-20% off your maintenance value to get a deficit in calories. I would suggest 15% at the highest, cause any higher and you are kind of pushing your body too much in terms of not eating enough. (hence the EXTREME fat loss).

    Also with gaining weight when you eat more. The reason this is the case is, as I previously stated your body is in starvation mode. This means whatever food you put in your mouth your body wants to transform that into fat instantly to store for future starvation times. NOW what you need to do is get your body to stop thinking its starving and get out of that mode, and the only way to do that is to eat more.

    INITIALLY when you eat more your body will go yes food I will need to store it into fat for later, but if you keep feeding your body the right amount of calories CONSISTENTLY instead of dropping it to an unhealthy level again (below 1600 calories just because you dont see instant progress {as your suggesting you will do "If I start gaining weight then I can always drop it back down again"}) Then your body will realise your not starving yourself, and continue to function as normal. Meaning the body wont transform all your food into fat cause it knows your going to feed it regularly.
  • mfpcopine
    mfpcopine Posts: 3,093 Member
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    1200 is definitely too low just because you are male let alone any other reason.

    Given his height and weight I don't think this level of calories as a net balance is a problem

    Neither do I. He also says he's been consistently losing weight.
  • willyzification
    willyzification Posts: 95 Member
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    1200 is definitely too low just because you are male let alone any other reason.

    Given his height and weight I don't think this level of calories as a net balance is a problem

    Neither do I. He also says he's been consistently losing weight.

    Oh yes there is! So your saying as long as you lose weight you can eat as little as you need to? So all those kids in different countries all over Africa are healthy? They are skinny, they weigh little, they eat very little calories. Is that the right method? Sure those kids dont have a choice, but YOU do. You dont need to eat like your from Africa to lose weight. Eat healthy, eat ENOUGH and exercise reguarily will always trump any fad diets and all this eat extremely low calories to lose weight crap. Encouraging anyone to eat below 1500 calories (male), and 1200 calories (female) has some serious research to do in the benefits and costs of doing so. I'ill give an example:

    Benefits: 1. You may INITIALLY lose SOME WEIGHT
    Costs: 1. You will almost always gain whatever you lost from this method back and more
    2. Your body will not be at its 100% potential
    3. You will eventually reach a plateau and you will not be able to break it without eating more
    4. When you do eat more because of the plateau you will gain weight because your body was starving and turning all the food into fat
    5. This is not a lifestyle change, it is a short-term method where failure is almost always inevitable in the long run. Do you want to lose some weight now, then be 10 pounds, 20 pounds heavier than you were initially later on, or do you want to remain at a healthy weight range for the rest of your life?
    6. this list is endless
  • Sarauk2sf
    Sarauk2sf Posts: 28,072 Member
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    1200 is definitely too low just because you are male let alone any other reason.

    Given his height and weight I don't think this level of calories as a net balance is a problem

    Neither do I. He also says he's been consistently losing weight.

    So? That has nothing to do with whether he is eating enough to provide him with the necessary nutrients to lose weight healthily.
  • willyzification
    willyzification Posts: 95 Member
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    1200 is definitely too low just because you are male let alone any other reason.

    Given his height and weight I don't think this level of calories as a net balance is a problem

    Neither do I. He also says he's been consistently losing weight.

    So? That has nothing to do with whether he is eating enough to provide him with the necessary nutrients to lose weight healthily.
    ^ this. honestly its like my posts are purposefully ignored. I can pass more knowledge through to a rock than some people around here.
  • Becky1971
    Becky1971 Posts: 979 Member
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    I have been "listening" ! I'm feeling encouraged to try and increase higher.
    1200 is definitely too low just because you are male let alone any other reason.

    Given his height and weight I don't think this level of calories as a net balance is a problem

    Neither do I. He also says he's been consistently losing weight.

    So? That has nothing to do with whether he is eating enough to provide him with the necessary nutrients to lose weight healthily.
    ^ this. honestly its like my posts are purposefully ignored. I can pass more knowledge through to a rock than some people around here.
  • sowhatisit
    sowhatisit Posts: 5
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    .....
  • Rumik
    Rumik Posts: 86 Member
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    Thanks for all the feedback guys. Thought I'd just post an update.

    So I've been eating just below my daily target of 1570 since I last posted. And I've seen barely any weight loss at all. However, that doesn't mean I'm not slimming down. I don't know if I am, honestly, my next review at the gym won't be for a few more weeks, so I'll stick with the current target and see if I've lost any inches then. I'm certainly seeing muscles I've never seen before, so I expect it's partially due to weight loss in those areas.

    So, so, so many sites and people say completely different things about the "right" way to lose weight. Some say eat more calories regardless of my age, weight and height. Others say eat fewer calories because of my age, weight and height. I wish I could get a straight answer, a guaranteed solution that I can have 100% faith will work, but I guess that's not going to happen.

    Anyway, I'll update here once I find out my measurements.

    Thanks :)
  • AlphamaleBAMF
    AlphamaleBAMF Posts: 373 Member
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    Hi all,

    I need some general advice, as I think there are some fundamentals about weight loss that I just don't know.

    http://youtu.be/85wujdlSSYI
  • fitpilatesqueen
    fitpilatesqueen Posts: 337
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    I don´t know much about those things but I know one thing. The more exercise the heavier your muscles become so don´t worry about it if you don´t lose weight as much if you are doing more than before.
    The more exercise the more you need to eat, you eat too little it slows down your system and your body holding on to fat to have for later to burn.

    My english isn´t all that good but I hope I could make myself understandable :)

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