Why does a fatter/larger person need more calories?

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zyxst
zyxst Posts: 9,140 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
This topic got me thinking:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/580240-not-hungry-listen-to-your-body-with-no-results

In the OP, he says, "the minimum someone should eat is "bodyweight * 10" in calories. Multiply your weight by 10, if you're eating below that number, you're not eating enough."

Ok, to me that would be 2670 cals a day to lose weight. The underlying question is why? Why does a fat/large person need to eat so many calories?
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Replies

  • iuangina
    iuangina Posts: 691 Member
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    Because bigger people burn more calories doing simple daily activities.
  • carly_pear
    carly_pear Posts: 65 Member
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    Because bigger people burn more calories doing simple daily activities.


    This, but us larger people can get away eating below this for awhile. I should be eating 2300 and I eat around 1800.
  • monty619
    monty619 Posts: 1,308 Member
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    it costs more energy to preserve more muscle and fat tissue... particularly muscle tissue which is why muscle mass raises metabolism so greatly.
  • keiraev
    keiraev Posts: 695 Member
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    The bigger you are the more energy you expend moving around. A calorie is a unit of energy hence why you burn more when you are bigger and less as you get lighter.
  • dmf80
    dmf80 Posts: 60
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    I have a reaccurring agrument with my girlfriend at the gym while on the treadmill. We will both run for an hour. She will run faster and farther but I will always have more calories burned than her. Facts are facts. It takes more energy to move my 190 lb frame than it does to move her 135 lb frame. Like the comment above, this is applied to all daily activities.
  • nigel061
    nigel061 Posts: 109
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    In the OP, he says, "the minimum someone should eat is "bodyweight * 10" in calories. Multiply your weight by 10, if you're eating below that number, you're not eating enough."

    ^ This is not accurate!
  • Jennaannwatts
    Jennaannwatts Posts: 55
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    Great post! i always wondered why i was on so many calories too :)
  • jsapninz
    jsapninz Posts: 909 Member
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    I have a reaccurring agrument with my girlfriend at the gym while on the treadmill. We will both run for an hour. She will run faster and farther but I will always have more calories burned than her. Facts are facts. It takes more energy to move my 190 lb frame than it does to move her 135 lb frame. Like the comment above, this is applied to all daily activities.

    The reason you burn more is because your heart has to work harder, not directly because you have more fat but indirectly because your body had more work to do to flail around. Plus she may be more in shape than you.

    You're point is correct, but you can't trust a treadmill! Those things are notoriously inaccurate. Get a Heart Rate Monitor if you want to be accurate.
  • BMcC9
    BMcC9 Posts: 4,447 Member
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    The thing is .... your body needs a minimum to support your current body mass if you do nothing but sit still or lie in bed in a coma. Too much below that for an extended period, and the body thinks "there is a famine out there!" and start keeping everything it ingests as reserves. And it will draw on muscle rather than fat to make up the difference.

    Keep in mind that long term steady is better and more permanent than short and fast. And the more you go down, the fewer cals you will need in order to maintain your current mass.
  • r1ghtpath
    r1ghtpath Posts: 701 Member
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    i have no clue if this is true or not, ( i read it somewhere) but the equating high weight to low metabolism is inaccurate. a larger person actually expends more energy/ calories living ( doing activities of daily living, organs working, etc) than a smaller person.

    but, the more you weigh the larger you can make your deficit and still be ok. so, while you CAN eat that much and lose weight, you don't HAVE to eat that much TO lose weight.
  • NU2U
    NU2U Posts: 659 Member
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    Because moving our large a$$es takes more effort = burn more calories = NEED more calories.....to keep moving..keep functioning...keep living. When we shrink our large a$$es..we will be fine with fewer calories.

    Unless you become more muscular....muscles require more calories..because they burn through calories faster...and you need calories to build muscles.

    Eat more..but don't overeat.

    Instead....overDRINK....WATER
  • zyxst
    zyxst Posts: 9,140 Member
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    Because bigger people burn more calories doing simple daily activities.

    Why do I burn more calories? Because I'm carrying around so much weight? If so, then why bother building up muscle?

    I know these are ridiculously stupid questions, but I'm sick wondering.
  • bizgirl26
    bizgirl26 Posts: 1,808 Member
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    But a pound of muscle burns more than a pound of fat at rest.
  • bcattoes
    bcattoes Posts: 17,299 Member
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    Because bigger people burn more calories doing simple daily activities.

    Why do I burn more calories? Because I'm carrying around so much weight? If so, then why bother building up muscle?

    I know these are ridiculously stupid questions, but I'm sick wondering.

    Yes, because you are carrying around extra weight. The concept is similar to lifting weights or wearing weighted clothing to increase calories burned.

    There are several reasons to build up muscle, the most important IMO are to keep as much of your muscle while losing weight as possible (it's natural to lose both muscle and fat), and because in order to build or maintain muscle you must burn a lot of calories. Also, with more muscle you can weigh more than someone of the same size with less muscle, and that extra weight will burn more calories in daily activities.
  • Awkward30
    Awkward30 Posts: 1,927 Member
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    Because bigger people burn more calories doing simple daily activities.

    Why do I burn more calories? Because I'm carrying around so much weight? If so, then why bother building up muscle?

    I know these are ridiculously stupid questions, but I'm sick wondering.

    You won't likely put on much muscle. Weight training in a calorie deficit is more about preservation of your muscle because it is metabolically active, so if you lose a pound of muscle instead of a pound of fat, you will lose less volume because a pound of fat takes up less space than a pound of muscle, and you will lose more metabolic activity.
  • zyxst
    zyxst Posts: 9,140 Member
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    I still don't get it, but thanks all.
  • BerryH
    BerryH Posts: 4,698 Member
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    Think of it in these terms. A heavy person and a light person run a mile at the same speed. Who do you think finds it harder? The heavy person because they are doing more work by carrying more weight around, however fit they are. Finding it harder means it takes more energy, and calories is a measure of energy.

    The same applies to any non-exercise activity, even if it's just walking into work or sitting around watching TV.

    Muscles are more metabolically active than fat, meaning they burn more calories all the time, even at rest. So if you build up your muscles, even if you weigh the same overall, you reduce your overall body fat percentage, look better, wear smaller clothes and burn more calories even sitting watching TV hours after your workout.

    Hope that helps! :flowerforyou:
  • stellaskies
    stellaskies Posts: 161 Member
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    This is interesting to know. Good post.
  • bcattoes
    bcattoes Posts: 17,299 Member
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    Ok, to me that would be 2670 cals a day to lose weight. The underlying question is why? Why does a fat/large person need to eat so many calories?

    I don't believe that you need to eat 2670 calories to lose weight. You probably can still lose weight eating that many for a while, but you can eat less and still lose safely.

    There are a lot of reasons not to drop your calories too low - it's more likely you'll find it unsustainable and quit/backslide, you may lose so quickly that you end up with a lot of unsightly loose skin, you may suffer health problems or fatigue, etc.

    There are a lot of reasons to work your muscles - improved health, less sagging as you lose, increased metabolism, eat more calories and lose at the same rate, etc.

    It's important to remember that all online calorie calculators are generic (based on general population) and really only serve as a starting point that you will likely need to adjust to fit your body and lifestyle. Eat enough so that you are not often hungry, you are getting proper nutrition, and you are losing weight. That's all there really is to it.
  • myfitnessnmhoy
    myfitnessnmhoy Posts: 2,105 Member
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    I still don't get it, but thanks all.

    The simplification is that you weigh less, you're carrying around less mass, and therefore you don't have to work as hard to move around. After losing 20 pounds, put a 20-pound backback on - that's what it USED to take you to move around before the weight loss, so it's logical that you'd burn fewer calories with that backpack off, right?

    There's a little more complexity, of course - moving individual limbs takes more effort when you weigh more, and since you have more fat and muscle to maintain, there's basic maintenance calories just to get the nutrients spread around your body. Your heart has to work harder to get blood to all the tissues, since it's trying to move blood over a larger volume of body. Your lungs have to get more oxygen processed to feed all those tissues, etc etc.

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