Just cant grasp the 1500+ calorie rule

em9371

Okay, so your tdee should be around 1700 and your bmr around 1550. Eating 1200 you should be at a deficit of 3000 cal a week if you eat back exercise calories. Honestly, one crazy cheat day a week can easily knock that out. Do you really need one every week? Log them as accurately as you can and see if that is where our deficit is going. Upping to eat 1500 and not eating back exercise calories should also work. But if you net 1500, you won't have much of a deficit. Also, you should do resistance training to maintain your lean mass and this burn more fat

^^
where did you get your 1700 for TDEE???????
based on OP's height and current weight, that does not even cover sedentary (figures from fat2fit). Eating 1500 and exercising 4x a week will result in a net well below BMR which is not healthy and will in no way preserve muscle mass. This is no different from eating below 1000-1200 cals per day without exercise.

OP should aim for 1841 total intake if lightly active, or 2108 if moderately active. This gives a safe deficit of 0.5lbs per week as she doesnt have much to lose.

Activity Level Daily Calories
Sedentary (little or no exercise, desk job) 1825
Lightly Active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/wk) 2091
Moderately Active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/wk) 2358

I used fat2fit also, maybe I put something in wrong.

Just redid it, and you are right that I gave the activity levels of her -20 lb goal weight. she has clearly stated she does not want 0.5 lb per week, and she can do more without losing lean mass (I'm at 23% body fat, not losing muscle with a 500 cal per day deficit). Also, if she picks lightly active, the key is that that is not a NET goal, but the absolute goal. So as I said, she should EAT 1500 and not eat back exercise calories. And really cut down on cheat days. Every week having a cheat day will really slow your progress unless your idea of a cheat day is eating at maintenance.

ah i see now, 1700 was the TDEE for goal weight?
1500 is already over 1lb deficit from lightly active TDEE of 2091, and as OP works out 3-4x a week she would be moderately active (TDEE 2358) not lightly active, so 1500 cals would put her at a deficit of 858 which is almost 2lbs .
At a push she could go for 1, but 1.5-2 seems excessive with only 20lbs to lose.

Good point on the cheat days, its important that they arent too much of a cheat to cancel out what you have done the rest of the week. I actually set my cals 100 lower during the week, so I can 'cheat' by 700 cals on a saturday, but I dont go over as its all part of my allowance.

At the end of the day, we can only say what has worked for us, and OP will do whatever she thinks is right for her :-)

trink68

can you drive a car with no fuel? food is fuel.....:happy:

Taras32

Just had an AHA moment!!! I get it now. THX

lifeskittles

Okay I've tried everything under the sun including eating hardly any calories...All it did was made me pissed off and hungry...And NOW, I could not even imagine eating that little..I think on a rest day where I don't move at all I might eat 1500-1600 calories at the MINIMUM...Now I almost always eat 1800 or more. I'm 5'7 and weigh 140...I do a lot of strength training and recently started a round of Insanity. What do I have to show for eating more? More muscle and way less fat :P....And whoever said that the more strength training you do the more your body burns muscle? That is exactly opposite of fact...You strength train along with upping protein intake during a calorie deficit to help PRESERVE muscle and encourage your body to say "hey we use this **** a lot we should probably keep it" and tell it to burn fat because it isn't being utilized. Just my two cents, and I'm not new to the journey...

myfitnessnmhoy

Everytime I have lost weight in the past, I have gone a very similar route to what I’ve been doing this time around – workout, eat fewer calories, etc – and YAY – I’m skinny.

Me, too! I've gained and lost at least 20 of this last 30 pounds so many times I should say I've lost 200 pounds and that would be an understatement!

And, then, when the diet is over, I go back to my regular eating habits despite my best intention, etc -- and YOW - I'm heavy again.

I'm heartily, completely, and utterly done with the roller-coaster. I can't stand it. If I have to lose this 20 pounds by starving myself, I'm going to take a cyanide pill. I simply don't have the will to do it any more.

I do, however, have the will to eat enough that I lose these 30 pounds in a slow, measured, not-hungry manner by feeding myself properly, improving my fitness, and learning to CONTROL my weight - not just lose it but CONTROL it.

Then, when I reach my goal, I'm adding the 1,000 calories a day back to my diet and spending at least a few months continuing to track everything I eat, until I learn what foods work for me and what foods don't.

I've done it the fast way. And I've done it the fast way. And I've done it the fast way again. And again. And again. And I'm over 40 now, and it's getting harder to do it the fast way, and I'm losing the will to do it. So I'm setting myself up with the tools so I never have to do it again. Which means taking my time and learning food lessons I wish I had taken the time to learn when I was 10.

carrieo888

Honestly, I've never understood it either.... I mean I GET IT, but its a weird concept to think about so I just decided to do it...
I was at 1200, bumped up to 1300 just to see what would happen and I lost 10 pounds almost immediately.
I would say that you dont have to necessarily jump to 1500, but maybe start out by trying 1300 and see how it goes...

You have to play around with it to find your sweet spot since everyones bodys are different.

Exactly! My "sweet spot" is 1600-1700 calories/day. I usually stay around 1500, but when I up it just a bit I find that weight comes off more consistently.

It seems that you are more interested in short-term results (hence the "in the past" statement) rather than long-term habits. Understand that you can get "skinny" by all kinds of means, many of them are not healthy. Ask yourself if you'd rather be skinny or healthy. You can be both, but that takes time and effort and sustainable habits.

lundynn23

Eating calories is not what makes you gain the weight necessarily, its whats in the calories. Are the calories mostly from fat and etc? Its true your metabolism is what breaks down your fat. If you are not eating a lot then there is no need for it to be in high gear, but if you eat something light and fresh every two hours as in an apple or veggies then your metabolism has to speed up to break down those foods but get this fruits and veggies dont have much fat so your metobolism kicks up and burns off the little fat that you have just ingested thus making you loose weight and get all the nutrtion that is needed and getting rid of all the fat. Coming from a nurse. Please do not look at your friends weight lost and you are pretty tall for a woman. Loosing to much weight can be a bad idea it may look good, but women need to realize that our body contains fat for vital reason. Our reproductive systems is made of fat so you need it. Is it better to be skinny and loose bodily functions of have SOME fat and be healthy. ALL SKINNNY PEOPLE ARE NOT HEALTHY again ALL SKINNY PEOPLE ARE NOT HEALTHY GOD BLESS

hillm12345

TNT darling.. I completely and fully understand your fear of upping your calories. You know...

I tried to "up my cals" on here about a month ago. I found that while I just set a higher number I was only still eating 1300 and the scale was STILL stagnant. I was totally in the dark about how many calories I was really burning. AND I was tired of using 20 million different calculations.

UNTIL Ms. Bit the fitbit. I just happen to use this one, but any calorie monitor will do. What I found was that I was (on what I considered a sedentary day) was burning 2300 cals. On an exercise day I was burning around 2700, Eating at 1200 put me at an 1100 cal deficit. NO WONDER my body hated me. I'm now able to knowingly monitor my cals burned and my cals eaten more effectively. I keep my deficit at no greater than 750 (1.5 a week) and I feel like I'm eating a TON. Within a week, I'm down 1.5

Chin up doll If this were easy, it would come with an instruction manual.

Awkward30

Eating calories is not what makes you gain the weight necessarily, its whats in the calories. Are the calories mostly from fat and etc? Its true your metabolism is what breaks down your fat. If you are not eating a lot then there is no need for it to be in high gear, but if you eat something light and fresh every two hours as in an apple or veggies then your metabolism has to speed up to break down those foods but get this fruits and veggies dont have much fat so your metobolism kicks up and burns off the little fat that you have just ingested thus making you loose weight and get all the nutrtion that is needed and getting rid of all the fat. Coming from a nurse. Please do not look at your friends weight lost and you are pretty tall for a woman. Loosing to much weight can be a bad idea it may look good, but women need to realize that our body contains fat for vital reason. Our reproductive systems is made of fat so you need it. Is it better to be skinny and loose bodily functions of have SOME fat and be healthy. ALL SKINNNY PEOPLE ARE NOT HEALTHY again ALL SKINNY PEOPLE ARE NOT HEALTHY GOD BLESS

I would like to see sources, because I don't think you said a single true thing. Except that not all skinny people are healthy. That's true. Also, the thermic effect of feeding for protein is the highest, so more calories from protein means less useable calories... but I have no clue about the rest of the stuff you are rambling about, but would love to see sources so I can decide if it is credible.

lifeskittles

TNT darling.. I completely and fully understand your fear of upping your calories. You know...

I tried to "up my cals" on here about a month ago. I found that while I just set a higher number I was only still eating 1300 and the scale was STILL stagnant. I was totally in the dark about how many calories I was really burning. AND I was tired of using 20 million different calculations.

UNTIL Ms. Bit the fitbit. I just happen to use this one, but any calorie monitor will do. What I found was that I was (on what I considered a sedentary day) was burning 2300 cals. On an exercise day I was burning around 2700, Eating at 1200 put me at an 1100 cal deficit. NO WONDER my body hated me. I'm now able to knowingly monitor my cals burned and my cals eaten more effectively. I keep my deficit at no greater than 750 (1.5 a week) and I feel like I'm eating a TON. Within a week, I'm down 1.5

Chin up doll If this were easy, it would come with an instruction manual.

I LOVE MY FITBIT! Best thing ever.

hillm12345

I LOVE MY FITBIT! Best thing ever.

Agreed :flowerforyou:

Fergie21

i have the same problem

BlueInkDot

Basically eating a calorie deficit starts like this:

But after a while it's like this:

And eventually like this:

And you feel like this:

So basically,


So instead, you should do this:

and this:

so you can eat like this:

and feel like this:

and be able to do this:

and look like this:

instead of this:


and that's why you eat more calories.

deksgrl

#Best.Post.Ever.

_Kitten_Kate

Bump for the info later.

JacksMom12

I restricted myself to 500 calories for a week when I started MFP (despite its annoying warnings), then upped my calories to 800, then to 900 then to 1200 once I got to the weight that I wanted. I'm going on a year and have lost 48 lbs and kept it off. Same for my wife.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/81391-starvation-mode-myths-and-science

You're a male and maintain at 1200? Ick! You also said that people use starvation mode as an "excuse" to eat more. Um no. I properly fuel my body, and I am a 115 lb female that can maintain on 2200 calories. Good luck with being hungry for the rest of your life.

jonkit

Thank you so much for posting this and all the answers that followed! I am in the same boat having kept thin all my life by eating 1000 -1200 calories. I'm in my mid 50s now and gained some weight over the winter due to lack of exercising and too many vacations and cannot seem to lose them. I have been tracking on here for a few weeks and have been eating 800-1100 calories most days while also working out 1 hour and guess what? Not an ounce lost and I track every bite. Im going to try to increase my calories and still keep them clean which is not an easy task as its a lot of food! Hopefully I'll see some results!

agatronmeows

Much like what everyone else has said, eating not enough and losing weight isnt a realistic way to maintain a good weight.
With me the opposite has been happening, im losing measures but not as much weight as i would have expected.

Im not sure how you're diet or food habbits are but what has helped me change size, is cut down or avoid certain things but replacing them so i dont miss out. Also finding out what food bloats me and makes me look/feel bigger. I've reduced my salt, avoided fizzy drinks (pop/soda) to almost none at all, i avoid bread but to make sure i dont flip out i still eat pasta and potato (when not fried)

Tho im sure you already know this and im making a tit out of myself by saying this stuff again

anamicah

Honestly, I don't know. My target calorie goal is 1000, and I've been on here for about two months, and lost 15 pounds. I've lost inches, too. Are you sure there aren't any differences in your diet/work-outs from when you were successful? i'm planning to up my calories once I get to my goal weight, probably about 500. Whatever the answer, good luck!

I'm also 5'9", just for reference.

natvanessa

I haven't read all the replies, but I'm not understanding why you don't just TRY eating some more calories for 4-6 weeks and see what happens? It's not like you're going to gain a crazy amount of weight. If it doesn't work at least you tried and don't have to wonder anymore??