Why does a fatter/larger person need more calories?

paulasue145

it takes more calories for a heavier person Just to survive.... (the bare minimum daily functions of the body).

EmCarroll1990

I don't believe that calculation is right. If so I would be supposed to eat 1060 calories, which is frowned upon on here.

kstallea

Most of your tissues are metabolically active even while you do nothing. The more tissue in your body (this includes fat) the more calories your body burns doing nothing, therefore it needs more Calories, not necessarily that many though.

This doesn't consider the amount of tissue in your body that is fat vs. muscle. Muscle is more metabolically active than fat and therefore burns more Calories doing nothing, which is why strength training and exercise are important in weight loss.

Eating your weight x 10 is a vague equasion to figure out how to maintain your weight, if you were to do nothing. If you exercise, but still eat that many Calories, the Calories you burn would be a defecit in total in vs out and contribute to your weight loss. Same goes for eating fewer Calories.

dlwyatt82

TDEE - Total Daily Energy Expenditure - This is basically the number of calories you burn in a day. It includes everything, the 200 calories on a treadmill you banged out, the 0.02 calories you burned having a bowel movement, the calories you're burning right now just by breathing.

BMR - Basal Metabolic Rate - This is essentially your TDEE minus the calories you burn through exercise. It's the energy your body needs just to survive.

I know I'm nitpicking here, but just to avoid confusion, keep in mind that BMR is the calories you would burn if you were basically in a coma. You burn a certain amount of calories just moving around in a day that you probably wouldn't classify as "exercise", but are still not part of BMR.

LuckyLeprechaun

does it take more gas to drive a Suburban than a MiniCooper? Why?

Same reasoning with large/small people.

Larger people use more energy because it's harder work to move around.

saral8981

I was reading some of these posts.. to lose weight, should I be eaating my body weight x10? beucase I have been using this program for three weeks and I have actuall GAINED weight, at 1200 calories a day (which is NOT my body weight x10, it is much less) could I be eatinf too little?

Mommy_Time

op r u eating back your calories burnt?

catpow2

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.

Because bigger people have more muscle (and fat and overall body mass) and it simply takes more energy to maintain. You don't necessarily want to build up muscle, but you don't want to lose it. The idea is to minimize muscle loss (retain as much lean body mass as possible) while maximizing fat loss. The only way to do this is slowly--create a small calorie deficit over a longer period of time. Anytime you lose weight you will lose both muscle and fat--it can't be avoided, but you want to retain as much muscle as possible because 1) you need it!! to run, walk, take out the trash, work in the garden, pet the dog/cat etc; 2) people with more muscle mass look skinnier and leaner; and 3) it takes more calories to maintain it.

The big mistake people make when they want to lose weight is to drastically cut calories to the point where, yes, they're losing weight, but a lot of that weight is muscle. It's really hard to get that back. If you eat enough protein to fuel your muscles, your body will work to maintain (or build) the muscle and burn the fat.

dlwyatt82

I was reading some of these posts.. to lose weight, should I be eaating my body weight x10? beucase I have been using this program for three weeks and I have actuall GAINED weight, at 1200 calories a day (which is NOT my body weight x10, it is much less) could I be eatinf too little?

It's hard to answer that without knowing some more specific information about you (the same info you entered into your fitness profile on this site): gender, age, height, weight, and daily activity level (Sedentary, Lightly Active, etc).

ArroganceInStep

TDEE - Total Daily Energy Expenditure - This is basically the number of calories you burn in a day. It includes everything, the 200 calories on a treadmill you banged out, the 0.02 calories you burned having a bowel movement, the calories you're burning right now just by breathing.

BMR - Basal Metabolic Rate - This is essentially your TDEE minus the calories you burn through exercise. It's the energy your body needs just to survive.

I know I'm nitpicking here, but just to avoid confusion, keep in mind that BMR is the calories you would burn if you were basically in a coma. You burn a certain amount of calories just moving around in a day that you probably wouldn't classify as "exercise", but are still not part of BMR.

I figured it would make a little more sense, if not exactly accurate.

lporter229

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...

thanks for making me spit my water all over my desk...

bagge72

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.

It seems like you are looking for an easy way out here. Don't use the excuse that you don't understand to not do the work, just keep up the good work, and smile at the results.

bagge72

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...

I agree, I skip all of the post that look like that, because they suck to read, and I'm not 12.

saral8981

I have a sedentary job, I am 30 years old, 5'5 169 pounds. i gained 19 pounds after a gall bladder removal surgery within 9 months.. just trying to figure out the number of calories I should be eating to lose weight. I gained on 1600 so I lowered it to 1400 and still gained.

dlwyatt82

I have a sedentary job, I am 30 years old, 5'5 169 pounds. i gained 19 pounds after a gall bladder removal surgery within 9 months.. just trying to figure out the number of calories I should be eating to lose weight. I gained on 1600 so I lowered it to 1400 and still gained.

Okay. Using those numbers, your BMR is 1487, and you're probably burning around 1800 calories per day before exercise.

It's odd that you gained weight while eating less than 1800 calories per day. How much weight are we talking about, and for how long was it happening? It's totally normal for your weight to go up and down by several pounds from day to day; that's just varying levels of water retention. If you were eating 1400 and 1600 calories per day for several weeks, however, you should have seen a couple pounds of overall weight loss.

Are you sure you're logging everything properly? If you're eating more calories than you think (whether because you didn't log certain things, or have guessed that foods contain less calories than they actually do), that could be a factor.

Assuming your calorie counts are accurate, I'd recommend eating about 1500 calories per day total, and getting in a little bit of cardio exercise (200 calories worth) whenever you can. Around 20 minutes of jogging or light running would do the trick, or whatever type of exercise you prefer.

saral8981

Thank you for your reccomendations! I will try that. Yes I log everything I eat and drink and I try to overestimate a little on my portion sizes just to make sure I get it right. Thank you!!

christenwypy

If that is the case why are so many of us put on 1200 calorie diets even when we input that we will be working out 5 or 6 times a week?

mmapags

If that is the case why are so many of us put on 1200 calorie diets even when we input that we will be working out 5 or 6 times a week?

I've often wondered the same thing?

firewalking

I was a weightloss counselor for a few years - and I got this question all the time. Your body needs those calories...as hard as it is to accept - you need to eat to lose weight. If you have more to lose, you require more food to feed your muscles and retain your health; if you eat less than your required number of calories, your body suffers and begins storing your fat in case it needs it later on.

I know how crazy it feels to hear that - I even had trouble applying the principle. But I promise you - I was only injesting 600 calories a day and burning around 750 in the gym. My weight fluctuated up and down 1-2 pounds every week. Once I got on this program and started eating, the weight stabalized and began falling off.

I am 44 years old and re-started training for a 1/2 marathon - I have lost 6 pounds in 1.5 weeks and have yet to really start hitting the gym. All I have been doing is eating.

Good luck!

mmapags

I was a weightloss counselor for a few years - and I got this question all the time. Your body needs those calories...as hard as it is to accept - you need to eat to lose weight. If you have more to lose, you require more food to feed your muscles and retain your health; if you eat less than your required number of calories, your body suffers and begins storing your fat in case it needs it later on.

I know how crazy it feels to hear that - I even had trouble applying the principle. But I promise you - I was only injesting 600 calories a day and burning around 750 in the gym. My weight fluctuated up and down 1-2 pounds every week. Once I got on this program and started eating, the weight stabalized and began falling off.

I am 44 years old and re-started training for a 1/2 marathon - I have lost 6 pounds in 1.5 weeks and have yet to really start hitting the gym. All I have been doing is eating.

Good luck!

I like you and what you had to say! You got it going on!

saral8981

If that is the case why are so many of us put on 1200 calorie diets even when we input that we will be working out 5 or 6 times a week?

I've often wondered the same thing?

I have been wondering about that too...

deksgrl

If that is the case why are so many of us put on 1200 calorie diets even when we input that we will be working out 5 or 6 times a week?

I've often wondered the same thing?

I have been wondering about that too...

When you choose "I want to lose 2 pounds per week", it overrides everything else and gives you the maximum amount of calorie deficit to a minimum of 1,200 calories a day to attain it. MFP doesn't count exercise until you DO it and then it tells you to eat more.