Why does a fatter/larger person need more calories?

UponThisRock

1. Blanket statements like the one that person made in that thread are almost always wrong.

2. In addition to what everyone else said, also recognize that fatter people can tolerate larger deficits/quicker weight loss

TeaBea

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.

Building muscle isn't the issue. You may already have a good percentage of muscle mass. KEEPING existing muscle mass is the issue. If you just diet (with no exercise) ... it's more likely that you will lose muscle tissue along with fat.

For those of us who are older (myself included) .... we will lose muscle as we age. Older folks need to take specific steps to KEEP it.

Yes, it's true having more muscle increases your metabolism ...... this is really a small number. The real benefit to muscle is that it's compact ....... while fat is just a blob. I don't want to be a blob. Muscle makes you "appear" thinner.

r1ghtpath

when you carry around more body fat your body has to work harder supplying blood, and removing waste. fat cells are cells too. narrowing arteries and veins make your heart work harder to pump the blood through. if you have fat deposits on your organs, your organs work harder.


you breath harder, and your muscles ( including heart) work harder during physical activity.

r1ghtpath

a friend of mine ( she's on here) made a great visual statement for me last week. she's lost almost 40 lbs. she said, " i can't believe i've lost the equivalent of my 6 yr old."

my 7 yr old weighs 40 lbs i would have a VERY hard time carrying her around in my arms or on my back ALL DAY LONG. even more so if i was trying to lose a 50, 60, 80, 90 + lbs person. if you had to carry around a person that weighs what you are trying to lose, think of how much energy it would take!

i look at my kids and think, "WOW!! i can basically lose one of them and still have wiggle room!!!!! " it's a pretty good visual for me :-)

tlc12078

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.

Muscle actual helps burns fat, you need it. It may weight more but it helps burn it better. I forgot about this when I asked why my bf can eat like a pig and be in better shape than me, well I forgot he lifts heavy bags of ice during the summer n builds tons of muscle, then over the winter hes laid off, eats like a horse, and only gains like 15 pounds. I know, lucky dog.

chris1816

You know how when you drive a car over a certain speed, or you tow a heavy load with it and you basically bring your MPG down?

Yeah it's basically like that.

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.

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.

Wrong. I have about 8% body fat and run 4-5 marathons a year. I burn more energy because I have more mass. It simply takes more energy to move a larger frame compared to a smaller frame. Treadmills are inaccurate? I never once said that in my first comment. I agree that they are but I think you missed the point.

meshashesha2012

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.

weight training will help you KEEP your muscle mass while you're losing. basically because if you're regularly using it then you're body won't be as likely to use it as fuel. there's always some measure of muscle that you're body is going to dip into when you're on a weight loss program. from what i understand the ratios are going to be different based on your individual body type, but anyone of any body type can help push the body to use more fat than muscle by doing weight training.

also since the body gets efficient at doing exercises, you always want to make sure you are increasing the weights you use. otherwise you're making it easy for your body to use some of that muscle as fuel

nixirain

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.

Try not to read the over explanations especially when you are new to the whole weight loss process. The reason why people who weight more need to eat more is because you have a lot more of everything (blood, tissue, weight in the form of body fat and muscle etc.) than an average size person. Your body needs that many calories to make sure that everything is in working order this is going to be your BMR-Basal Metabolic Rate which is the number of calories that you need to eat for your body to function if you are in a coma. On top of that you have more mass that you carry around which allows you to burn more calories than the average person. Those two things are the reason you eat more than a smaller person

About the strength training- It is suggested to have some form of strength training in your routine to MAINTAIN muscle. When you lose weight you do lose fat, but the smaller you get, the less muscle you need to carry around your body weight there for you lose muscle. If you have strength training you will be able to better preserve that muscle you already have and lose as little as possible.

If you don't strength train you run into the problem of being potentially "skinny fat" because you will lose a lot of muscle and not as much fat and be just skinny instead of skinny and fit.

Edited to say: It is extremely difficult to gain muscle while cutting calories. your body needs a large amount of protein extra to get a big gain from muscle. most gains with women are from water weight.

you can use this to get an idea of your BMR: http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/bmr/

There are other calculators that are good on this website as well. Message me if you have any questions.

I hope this makes sense.

chris1816

The key focus should be changing your body composition.

Want to burn fat? Lift weights and do cardio.

Women seem to have this horribly misguided idea that if they do one set of squats they will she-hulk out.

Instead what you are doing is a very solid anabolic exercise that puts demands on your body to start using as many carbs as it finds to fuel muscle repair/growth after you worked them all (and squats are just about a full body lift).

In the absense of carbs, fat gets sythesized to fuel this. You cannot build muscle mass as quickly as a man without taking some kind of growth hormone or testosterone, but you can build muscle. Sure you can eat below 1000 calories if you have a ton of fat, you won't start consuming muscle, nor will your metabolism slow down in any level that makes a difference. If you eat way below your BMR but have a solid balance and you feel good, I wouldn't worry. We have fat as a reserve energy source precisely so our body does not consume anything else important; like muscle.

This is a biological principle for pretty much all mammals.

Honestly eating at below your maintenance by a decent amount that you feel comfortable with, lifting weights, and doing cardio will make you burn fat in a healthy, smooth, and reasonably quick manner. You will feel much better through the day, sleep better, screw better, and generally just be a happier person.

HYBRIDXXX

FOR ONE THING U MAY B EATING 2 MANY FRUITS. U ONLY NEED ONE SERVING OF FRUIT A DAY IF U R EXERCISING LIKE THAT. DNT GET ME WRONG NOW BCZ FRUIT IS GOOD FOR U BT IT STILL DOES CONTAIN A LOTTA SUGAR SO THAT CAN KEEP DAT WEIGHT ON. I ONLY WEIGH 134 & DO INSANITY & IM 5'8" 34 YRS OLD. 2 MUCH FRUIT DAMPERS UR WEIGHT LOSS. ONE SERVING A DAY IS SUFFICIENT, MY TEAM BEACHBODY COACH AND TONY HORTON CREATOR OF P90X SAID THIS ALSO

chris1816

FOR ONE THING U MAY B EATING 2 MANY FRUITS. U ONLY NEED ONE SERVING OF FRUIT A DAY IF U R EXERCISING LIKE THAT. DNT GET ME WRONG NOW BCZ FRUIT IS GOOD FOR U BT IT STILL DOES CONTAIN A LOTTA SUGAR SO THAT CAN KEEP DAT WEIGHT ON. I ONLY WEIGH 134 & DO INSANITY & IM 5'8" 34 YRS OLD. 2 MUCH FRUIT DAMPERS UR WEIGHT LOSS. ONE SERVING A DAY IS SUFFICIENT, MY TEAM BEACHBODY COACH AND TONY HORTON CREATOR OF P90X SAID THIS ALSO

Christ on toast...

k2quiere

FOR ONE THING U MAY B EATING 2 MANY FRUITS. U ONLY NEED ONE SERVING OF FRUIT A DAY IF U R EXERCISING LIKE THAT. DNT GET ME WRONG NOW BCZ FRUIT IS GOOD FOR U BT IT STILL DOES CONTAIN A LOTTA SUGAR SO THAT CAN KEEP DAT WEIGHT ON. I ONLY WEIGH 134 & DO INSANITY & IM 5'8" 34 YRS OLD. 2 MUCH FRUIT DAMPERS UR WEIGHT LOSS. ONE SERVING A DAY IS SUFFICIENT, MY TEAM BEACHBODY COACH AND TONY HORTON CREATOR OF P90X SAID THIS ALSO

Christ on toast...

This is a key case of presentation is everything. Even if the poster were saying something intelligent, very few people would likely pay any attention to the message because the presentation is crap.

OP: Don't overthink the process. Most of those blanket statements are aimed at people who have very little to lose and/or are mainly concerned about weight and not about their healthy while losing said weight. Do your strength training to maintain your muscles, so that as you lose the weight, your skin has something to drape onto and not just hang off of.

megsmom2

FOR ONE THING U MAY B EATING 2 MANY FRUITS. U ONLY NEED ONE SERVING OF FRUIT A DAY IF U R EXERCISING LIKE THAT. DNT GET ME WRONG NOW BCZ FRUIT IS GOOD FOR U BT IT STILL DOES CONTAIN A LOTTA SUGAR SO THAT CAN KEEP DAT WEIGHT ON. I ONLY WEIGH 134 & DO INSANITY & IM 5'8" 34 YRS OLD. 2 MUCH FRUIT DAMPERS UR WEIGHT LOSS. ONE SERVING A DAY IS SUFFICIENT, MY TEAM BEACHBODY COACH AND TONY HORTON CREATOR OF P90X SAID THIS ALSO

Christ on toast...

This is a key case of presentation is everything. Even if the poster were saying something intelligent, very few people would likely pay any attention to the message because the presentation is crap.

OP: Don't overthink the process. Most of those blanket statements are aimed at people who have very little to lose and/or are mainly concerned about weight and not about their healthy while losing said weight. Do your strength training to maintain your muscles, so that as you lose the weight, your skin has something to drape onto and not just hang off of.

agreeing with all of this...including Christ on toast.....

stubbysticks

zyxst, you can't honestly tell me you don't believe there is ANY benefit in strength training. If you can't celebrate having gone from 313 to 267 lbs then there is nothing anyone here could possibly do for you. Regardless of how you view things, you're still going to have to be mindful of your nutrition & exercise to get the rest of your weight off. You can either complain about how pointless it seems, sit back & expect people to convince you, or you can FIND value in what you're doing. Does your health & fitness improving mean anything to you? Why does the scale have the final word?

The others have made it pretty clear...the more weight you haul around on your body, the more calories you burn every day. It's scientific fact & you can't change it. Get over it. Having a lower TDEE is almost always part of being at a lower, healthier weight. Maybe that makes it not worth it to you & that is your choice.

The only way to raise your TDEE if you're at a lower weight is to - wait for it - BUILD MUSCLE. As someone else said, it's difficult if not impossible to build muscle in a calorie deficit so you strength train to preserve what you have. Then when you are done losing fat, if you want to build more muscle, you would eat at a surplus to promote that muscle growth (along with the weight lifting, of course).

dlwyatt82

zyxst, you can't honestly tell me you don't believe there is ANY benefit in strength training. If you can't celebrate having gone from 313 to 267 lbs then there is nothing anyone here could possibly do for you. Regardless of how you view things, you're still going to have to be mindful of your nutrition & exercise to get the rest of your weight off. You can either complain about how pointless it seems, sit back & expect people to convince you, or you can FIND value in what you're doing. Does your health & fitness improving mean anything to you? Why does the scale have the final word?

The others have made it pretty clear...the more weight you haul around on your body, the more calories you burn every day. It's scientific fact & you can't change it. Get over it. Having a lower TDEE is almost always part of being at a lower, healthier weight. Maybe that makes it not worth it to you & that is your choice.

The only way to raise your TDEE if you're at a lower weight is to - wait for it - BUILD MUSCLE. As someone else said, it's difficult if not impossible to build muscle in a calorie deficit so you strength train to preserve what you have. Then when you are done losing fat, if you want to build more muscle, you would eat at a surplus to promote that muscle growth (along with the weight lifting, of course).

To add on to this, keep in mind that even though it's difficult (if not impossible) to actually add new pounds of muscle mass while on a calorie deficit, you CAN still gain strength. You have some muscle mass on your body already, and odds are, you weren't using it to its full potential. Regular weight lifting will make the muscles you already have get harder and stronger, and you'll feel a lot better, even on a calorie deficit.

Quasita

The 10x weight argument isn't correct though, not for everyone. If I followed that logic, I'd be eating over 5k a day to keep up with my exercise.

This is why I got a BodyMedia unit instead of a plain HRM. It monitors your burn all day long and reports it. Granted, my metabolism may be slower as well, but for me, at 440 and 6'1", I burn an average of 3293 before exercise. I'd be gaining a LOT if I followed the 10x logic.

Granted, I don't believe in the follow your impulses approach, because generally that's what we've been doing and it's not working, our minds can trick us, as well as studies show that many overweight people have actually developed a "disorder" of sorts, misreading hunger signals... reminds me of fibromyalgia and the misfiring nerve endings thing.

Anyway, I don't think my dietician would ever tell me to eat over 5k. This is one of the most important reasons to take to this battle with trained professionals, and not just standard calculations.

onedayillbeamilf

FOR ONE THING U MAY B EATING 2 MANY FRUITS. U ONLY NEED ONE SERVING OF FRUIT A DAY IF U R EXERCISING LIKE THAT. DNT GET ME WRONG NOW BCZ FRUIT IS GOOD FOR U BT IT STILL DOES CONTAIN A LOTTA SUGAR SO THAT CAN KEEP DAT WEIGHT ON. I ONLY WEIGH 134 & DO INSANITY & IM 5'8" 34 YRS OLD. 2 MUCH FRUIT DAMPERS UR WEIGHT LOSS. ONE SERVING A DAY IS SUFFICIENT, MY TEAM BEACHBODY COACH AND TONY HORTON CREATOR OF P90X SAID THIS ALSO

Christ on toast...

Did you sell it on E-bay? Or did you put jelly on it and eat it anyways?

onedayillbeamilf

FOR ONE THING U MAY B EATING 2 MANY FRUITS. U ONLY NEED ONE SERVING OF FRUIT A DAY IF U R EXERCISING LIKE THAT. DNT GET ME WRONG NOW BCZ FRUIT IS GOOD FOR U BT IT STILL DOES CONTAIN A LOTTA SUGAR SO THAT CAN KEEP DAT WEIGHT ON. I ONLY WEIGH 134 & DO INSANITY & IM 5'8" 34 YRS OLD. 2 MUCH FRUIT DAMPERS UR WEIGHT LOSS. ONE SERVING A DAY IS SUFFICIENT, MY TEAM BEACHBODY COACH AND TONY HORTON CREATOR OF P90X SAID THIS ALSO

I need an eye massage now.

Quasita

Pretty sure she's being snarky, guys...

People who claim that people aren't gaining muscle without weight training have obviously never been super-sedentary or extremely overweight.

If a person is sedentary enough, or lacks enough muscle, body weight resistance will in fact build muscle mass. AKA push ups, sit ups, lunges, etc etc... running, walking, jumping jacks, these are all resistance type exercises that depends on your body weight to tone and build endurance... For some people, they also build muscle.

My mother is disabled and her trainer has her building back muscles using just her body and heavy books.

Now, if you are average activity average weight, it won't do a lot, but some of us really do build up muscle from simple tasks.

deksgrl

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.

Building and maintaining muscle is healthier, it also increases your metabolism.

Muscle is smaller than fat. So you could still be the same weight, but if you had more muscle you could be wearing a smaller size.

meshashesha2012

Pretty sure she's being snarky, guys...

People who claim that people aren't gaining muscle without weight training have obviously never been super-sedentary or extremely overweight.

If a person is sedentary enough, or lacks enough muscle, body weight resistance will in fact build muscle mass. AKA push ups, sit ups, lunges, etc etc... running, walking, jumping jacks, these are all resistance type exercises that depends on your body weight to tone and build endurance... For some people, they also build muscle.

My mother is disabled and her trainer has her building back muscles using just her body and heavy books.

Now, if you are average activity average weight, it won't do a lot, but some of us really do build up muscle from simple tasks.

true these are called newbie gains for that exact reason. for better or worse, the body is super efficient, so once you can do a few pushups, the body doesnt need to build new muscle so you can do 100 pushups, that's inefficient and unnecessary.

i think a lot of people get confused by terms like weight training. it doesnt necessarily need to involve picking up a piece of metal. what people mean is resistance training and in order to build strength you have to progressively increase the load on the muscle so that the work is challenging. for some people that means starting out with squats using their body weight. for other that means starting off with a 50 pound barbell on their back in addition to their body weight. the key is to progressively increase the load (which can also mean a new variation) otherwise the body isnt going to get stronger..

chris1816

FOR ONE THING U MAY B EATING 2 MANY FRUITS. U ONLY NEED ONE SERVING OF FRUIT A DAY IF U R EXERCISING LIKE THAT. DNT GET ME WRONG NOW BCZ FRUIT IS GOOD FOR U BT IT STILL DOES CONTAIN A LOTTA SUGAR SO THAT CAN KEEP DAT WEIGHT ON. I ONLY WEIGH 134 & DO INSANITY & IM 5'8" 34 YRS OLD. 2 MUCH FRUIT DAMPERS UR WEIGHT LOSS. ONE SERVING A DAY IS SUFFICIENT, MY TEAM BEACHBODY COACH AND TONY HORTON CREATOR OF P90X SAID THIS ALSO

Christ on toast...

Did you sell it on E-bay? Or did you put jelly on it and eat it anyways?

Yes.

lilojoke

Because bigger people burn more calories doing simple daily activities.

They don't need more calories they need to move more!

TourThePast

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

This looks like a thread that's going downhill fast so I haven't read all the responses. Live is too short. But if you still don't get it, this may help.

I weigh 119lb. Think about my situation compared to someone weighing 219lb.

If I hike for an hour, I'll burn maybe 250 calories if I'm lucky and if there's a lot of uphill.

Stick a 100lb backpack full of bricks on my back and over the same distance I'd burn maybe 1,000 or 1,500 calories, that's if I could gather together the strength to even stand up with all that extra weight.

Look upon your fat as your own personal gym that you're hauling around with you....

Aquaduckie

The body weight x 10 calories is for MAINTAINING that weight. So if you want to weigh 200 lbs then you should be eating 2000 calories a day.
It is best to gradually decrease your calorie intake. It's not good for a person who is 250 lbs to only eat 1100 calories a day. That is not enough energy to support their daily activities. They should be more around 1800 calorie a day. Adjusting for exercise. So if you burn 500 calories exercising, then you could eat an extra 500 calories that day.
You have to have a calorie deficit to lose weight. If you're burning as much as you eat, you're going to maintain. So the idea is to create a deficit by either eating less calories, or burning more through exercise. Ideally, a combination of both eating less and exercising more works best.

emrys1976

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.

The first 10-20 pounds for many of us is mostly water weight because our bodies burn off our glycogen stores before they start really getting into fat burning. That can make it seem like we burn more initially than later. And, adding muscle does help burn calories, but people really inflate how much a difference that makes. Maintaing muscles takes more calories than maintaining fat - but it's only one piece of one equation. Congrats on losing that weight, btw!

Randomcheese

Christ on toast...

How many calories in that?

lilojoke

I don't understand... And never will understand and may get banned but here I go.

Why are we pushing food onto an already over fat body? Seriously do you think even at 300 pounds a person who lifts 2-3 times a week and does moderate cardio need all those extra calories that frankly their body can supply to fuel their exercise?

People are fat for this reason! People will not change for the better when people are overfeeding others on here every day. Why do people go for gastric bypass surgery??? To make their stomachs smaller when their mouths and minds are the ones to blame. Go on people eat more...

TourThePast

drinking enough water (about 80 ounces) that I have to get up and pee 3 times a night

If you are having to get up three times in the night to pee, you are drinking far more water than your body needs.

Either that, or drinking the right amount of water, but guzzling it down just before you go to bed.

I'm NOT going to turn this into a discussion about how much water you need, or whether you should be including coffee or high water content foods in your calculations because frankly I'm sick of the dumbass kneejerk "if it's not pure water it doesn't count" comments that always follow.

Suffice to say that I strongly suggest you do some independent searches to find out how much water you actually need to drink, and then make your own mind up.