Why does a fatter/larger person need more calories?

zyxst

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?

iuangina

Because bigger people burn more calories doing simple daily activities.

carly_pear

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

it costs more energy to preserve more muscle and fat tissue... particularly muscle tissue which is why muscle mass raises metabolism so greatly.

keiraev

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

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

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

Great post! i always wondered why i was on so many calories too

jsapninz

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

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

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

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

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

But a pound of muscle burns more than a pound of fat at rest.

bcattoes

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

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

I still don't get it, but thanks all.

BerryH

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

This is interesting to know. Good post.

bcattoes

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

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.

werterr

Wowzers.

I have trouble understanding exactly how many calories I'm supposed to eat. I am 187 pounds. I eat about 1200 to 1500 calories a day. I guess I'm doing it wrong!

Any idea how much I'm supposed to eat? MyFitnessPal says 1,200, but thats never enough for me. So like I said, I eat a little more.

zyxst

Mostly I'm very frustrated with myself for not understanding how all this math and ideas fit in with me losing weight. I've put on more muscle than I had 40 pounds ago, so why am I not burning more? If I burned more at 313 and doing nothing, why am I burning less at 267 and exercising 5-6 times a week, and why does the latter not lower my weight?

I'm eating more fruits and veggies, drinking enough water (about 80 ounces) that I have to get up and pee 3 times a night, exercising, and building muscles. I cut back on portions, measure and weight foods, and pushed out my delicious BBQ chips. Sadly, I can't forget what I've learned and go back to that stressless time when I didn't know about BMR, TDEE and Jillian Michaels.

megsmom2

Even if its fat you don't want...all your body mass takes calories to maintain and feed and hydrate. If there's more of you, it takes more to keep all those cells healthy, as best as your body can. When you lose weight, some of those cells are "sacrificing" their energy potential content (fat) to fuel the rest of you, since you're at a deficit to maintain all of them.

dlwyatt82

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?

As many people have said, the more you weigh, the more calories your body has to burn to maintain your muscle, pump blood through your body, move yourself around, etc.

That said, the statement of eating at least 10 times your body weight in calories is way too much of an oversimplfication, which may be way off for some people. MyFitnessPal bases your automatic calorie target on several pieces of data that you input: gender, age, weight, height, activity level, and desired weekly weight loss. Those are used to estimate the number of calories you burn in a day, then 500 to 1000 calories (depending on what you picked for weekly weight loss) are subtracted from the total to give you a calorie target.

This is going to be much closer to an accurate value than just multiplying your body weight by 10.

Awkward30

Try not to stress out. Stress hormones tell your body to hold onto its fat because something bad is gonna happen!

Yes, it sucks that as you get smaller, your caloric needs decrease, but it's a fact. I like the premise of the fat2fit way where you eat maintenance for your goal weight so you basically eat the same amount of calories forever!

What I think is obnoxious is that when me and boyfriend run together, he burns more calories even though I have shorter legs so I have to work harder to keep up! And since he has a higher allowance, sure he is hungrier, but a 1.5k binge would be all my calories on a low active day and like half of his! So much more room for mistakes. Oh well! I love this body much more than my old one, even if it is more work to keep!

dlwyatt82

Oh well! I love this body much more than my old one, even if it is more work to keep!

I don't know what your old body looked like, but I can't blame ya for being proud of what I see in your profile photo. Great job!

HYBRIDXXX

WELL U CREATE A CALORIE DEFICIT TO LOSE DA WEIGHT AN AFTER U HV GOTTEN 2 WHERE U WANNA B N UR WEIGHT LOST U START BUILDING MUSCLE SO U CAN MAINTAIN DAT WEIGHT LOST BT ALSO U WILL NEED 2 BOOST UP UR CALS. MUSCLE BURNS THRU THOSE CALS SO U WILL B FINE. ITZ VIRTUALLY IMPOSSIBLE 2 LOSE FAT & PACK ON MUSCLE @ DA SAME TIME. U WUD HV 2 CREATE A CALORIE SURPLUS 2 GAIN MUSCLE & A CALORIE DEFICIT 2 LOSE WEIGHT, SO MY TEAM BEACHBODY COACHES TOLD ME ABT DAT. THEY R PRETTY SMART & SO AM I.

albinogorilla

Think of it this way:

When you lose 100lbs walk around.............

Then, pick up 100lbs of weight in your hands...........and walk around.............in which way would you be exerting more effort?

meshashesha2012

you need more calories because it takes more effort to move a 250 pound 5'5 body around than it does to move a 150 pound 5'5 body

you should eat as many calories as possible (but still enough of a deficit to lose) because it helps you preserve muscle mass. most people especially newbies, think they are packing on all this muscle when they exercise, but they aren't, especially the female ones. you simply dont have the chemical makeup or the training schedule and definitely not the necessarily calories if you're only eating 1200 calories to build muscle. if all it took to build muscle was a 5 pound weight, a dvd and 30 minutes on the elliptical then why would some bodybuilders need to work out hours and hours targeting specific muscles, eating specialized diets and taking supplements?

you also should eat as many calories as you can because it reduces the risk of you gaining the weight back once you've taken it off. there's only so long you can eat way below your BMR and not damage your metabolism. it takes months to take significant weight off, so you're essentially going to force your body into a somewhat starvation mode. once you get off your diet. your body is going to respond from its recent famine by reducing your BMR and storing as much fat as possible in case there's another similar famine in the future

zyxst

most people especially newbies, think they are packing on all this muscle when they exercise, but they aren't, especially the female ones. you simply dont have the chemical makeup or the training schedule and definitely not the necessarily calories if you're only eating 1200 calories to build muscle. if all it took to build muscle was a 5 pound weight, a dvd and 30 minutes on the elliptical then why would some bodybuilders need to work out hours and hours targeting specific muscles, eating specialized diets and taking supplements?

That tells me not to bother with any sort of weight lifting at all. Wish you'd told me 4 hours ago before I did my 40 minutes. Thank you.