How many calories should I really be eating?

strive2behealthy

I've done research on BMR's and stuff, but there are so many different names and different ways to call "sedentary burned" and "coma burned" etc.

I'm 5'7", 154 lbs. I am hoping to work out 4x a week...

How do you do the math?

How much cals should I be eating on sedentary days? Work out days? Because MFP says 1540, then lets say I burned 400 of exercise, that would allow me to eat 1940? Am I right?

So confused..

dsc32209

I never eat my exercise calories. I am 5'9" and 60 years old. I eat 1500 calories or so a day. that seems to work for me.. MFP gave me more but I wasn't successful at that level. I do water aerobics 5-6 times a week. I also do not vary my calories from day to day.

Helloitsdan

1800 daily.
static number so dont eat back calories.
Protein and Fat 30% each.

On the protein and fat part you could set 1g protein per LBM and for fat .40-1g per LBM then fill the rest with carbs.

Helloitsdan

PM me if you want personal numbers run.

megsmom2

Right. Keep in mind that MFP overestimates exercise calories..so a hrm might be useful for you. I think sometimes that there's too much focus on "data" that just overcomplicates things for a lot of us. Knowing your BMR and all that is interesting, but MGP can give you useful numbers and guidelines without all that stuff. I think your numbers look good and you're on the right track. Good luck to you!

strive2behealthy

Again, I don't know what you all mean by "HRM" "BRM" "MPH", can you specify??

Thanks for your replies, by the way,

USMCConditioning

This, to me, is the best book you could ever buy if you want to lose weight, have long term good health. and above all else, get closer to the desired body you have wanted for so long.

www.thesmarterscienceofslim.com

strive2behealthy

bump.


what is hrm/brm/etc??
i mean.. i was kind of asking that lol

toshie333

Hrm - heart rate monitor- used to measure how hard you are working out but also alot if them have calories burned. People use the calories burned bit to eat back calories. Will explain in min.

Bmr- basal metabolic rate or
Rmr resting heart rate. Basically if you lay in bed all day, this is what your body would burn in calories just to function.

Tdee- another one you will hear alot. Total daily energy expenditure. The total calories your burn in a day- including brm, including daily activity.

This is just my advise , I set my levels to sedentary on mpf, 1390 Cals for me, got myself a heart rate monitor with a chest strap x calorie count, then measured what I burnt at the gym and ate back my exercise calories.
So 1390 would be on non exercise days (or what ever mfp says your sedentary number is) then I would often burn 600 cals on my hrm from the gym (don't use hrm for weight lifting just cardio as not very accurate)
So exercise days I was eating 2000 calories and burning 600 at gym which would bring me back to 1400 net.
Does that make sense? Try it for a few weeks then if you stop losing, try eating back only half of your exercise calories.
Hope that helps.
There are a few different ways but I found this useful for me.

neanderthin

Record the calories of what you've normally been eating and gaining weight with, then just eat less and monitor going forward.

infromsea

The answer is, it depends.

The calculators vary and some are too high and some are too low.

Here is the science.

To burn one pound of fat, you must burn 3,5000 calories.

The easiest way to do that is to create a deficit of 500 calories a day.

500 calories a day x 7 days a week = 1 pound of fat loss per week.

How do we achieve the - 500 calories a day?

The easy way, burn at least 250 calories a day through exercise and reduce your caloric intake by 250 calories.

How many calories do you eat then? It all depends on your age/height/weight/activity level.

Let's just say that you use one of the many online calculators and you come up with 1800 calories a day for your BMR.

BMR is basic metabolic rate. That is how many calories you need a day just to live and to sustain your current body weight.

(In my opinion, the calorie calculator on this site is ok but it provided a low number for my 17 year old daughter. It's "close" for me, a 37 year old male.)

If your BMR is 1800, you could burn 250 calories a day plus reduce your caloric intake to 1550 a day. So the 250 you burned plus the 250 you cut back on gives you a 500 calorie a day deficit.

This might be confusing you. The "system" on this site, automatically reduces your daily calories to create the deficit according the amount of weight you want to lose a week. So, if you fill out the "goals" section on this website it will automatically reduce your daily calories according that goal. If you wanted to lose 1 pound a week and your BMR was 1800, the site would reduce your daily calories to around 1300. That creates the deficit for you.

You then "add in" the number of calories you burned during exercise, since the site has already accounted for the deficit.

So, the site tells you to eat 1300 calories a day. You burn 400 calories during a workout, your net (calories in minus calories burned) would be 900 calories. That is too low for almost anyone. That means you should eat 1300 + 400 = 1700 a day, remember, the site has already computed a 500 calorie deficit into your numbers.

This site is set up so you should lose weight using the number it provides, without exercise. If you exercise on a regular basis, you might want to consume more calories and let your weight loss come from the combination of diet and exercise.

As far as how many calories you burn a day, it varies on your factors and your exertion level. If you are walking/jogging, the average person burns "about" 100 calories per mile. If you are using a cardio machine at the gym, you should subtract about 15% of the total calories the machine tells you to use (those machines inflate the numbers as a marketing ploy, scientific tests show them to be about 15-25% excessive).

Bottom line, pick a level of calorie intake using this site or other calculators. Stick to that for 2-4 weeks. How does that feel? Are you hungry all the time? Are you losing weight/inches or just notice a difference in your body? Adjust up or down until you find the "sweet spot" this can take months, don't rush the process.

I hope this helps, I know it's a lot but I wanted to be as clear as possible.

Tim

strive2behealthy

If your BMR is 1800, you could burn 250 calories a day plus reduce your caloric intake to 1550 a day. So the 250 you burned plus the 250 you cut back on gives you a 500 calorie a day deficit.

I got a little confused here.. Your BMR is your basic metabolic rate.. meaning, the amount of calories you burn in a day? PLUS the 250 you burn from working out? So in total you burned 2050? And what do you mean by also reducing the intake to 1550? Ahhh for some reason this part majorly confused me haha, sorry!!

strive2behealthy

Hrm - heart rate monitor- used to measure how hard you are working out but also alot if them have calories burned. People use the calories burned bit to eat back calories. Will explain in min.

Bmr- basal metabolic rate or
Rmr resting heart rate. Basically if you lay in bed all day, this is what your body would burn in calories just to function.

Tdee- another one you will hear alot. Total daily energy expenditure. The total calories your burn in a day- including brm, including daily activity.

This is just my advise , I set my levels to sedentary on mpf, 1390 Cals for me, got myself a heart rate monitor with a chest strap x calorie count, then measured what I burnt at the gym and ate back my exercise calories.
So 1390 would be on non exercise days (or what ever mfp says your sedentary number is) then I would often burn 600 cals on my hrm from the gym (don't use hrm for weight lifting just cardio as not very accurate)
So exercise days I was eating 2000 calories and burning 600 at gym which would bring me back to 1400 net.
Does that make sense? Try it for a few weeks then if you stop losing, try eating back only half of your exercise calories.
Hope that helps.
There are a few different ways but I found this useful for me.

Thank you! I'm going to set it to maintenance & try it out.

Pebble321

I've done research on BMR's and stuff, but there are so many different names and different ways to call "sedentary burned" and "coma burned" etc.

I'm 5'7", 154 lbs. I am hoping to work out 4x a week...

How do you do the math?

How much cals should I be eating on sedentary days? Work out days? Because MFP says 1540, then lets say I burned 400 of exercise, that would allow me to eat 1940? Am I right?

So confused..

Keep it simple.
Eat what MFP has recommended (1540) plus the calories you burn from exercise.
Try to be as accurate as you can recording food and exercise for a month.
At the end of the month, sit back and see what has happened - then you are in a good position to make changes if you need to. All the numbers we work with are estimates anyway, the only way to know what is right for you is to try it out for a decent length of time.

kuger4119

For those that doubt MFP's calorie calculations, I did my best to nail my net calories on most days (including food and exercise). I've been doing MFP since February 2nd. That means I've been doing this for 15 weeks. I've lost 17 lbs. I burned an extra pound or two for the first few weeks and I've plateaued a bit in the last two weeks, but MFP was money for the 10 or so weeks in between. Each person is different and I've been doing more strength training, which has led to bigger arms and chest, but I have a feeling that I'm about to break back into my pound a week routine.

DB_1106

BMR is basic metabolic rate. That is how many calories you need a day just to live and to sustain your current body weight.

Sustain your body weight if you were in a coma. You did not mention TDEE which takes into account your daily activity level.

http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/bmr/

http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/

To the OP, go to the above links I posted and enter your numbers. You will have your information that you are asking for there.

Good luck!

Helloitsdan

The answer is, it depends.

The calculators vary and some are too high and some are too low.

Here is the science.

To burn one pound of fat, you must burn 3,5000 calories.

The easiest way to do that is to create a deficit of 500 calories a day.

500 calories a day x 7 days a week = 1 pound of fat loss per week.

You misspelled Broscience!

How do we achieve the - 500 calories a day?

The easy way, burn at least 250 calories a day through exercise and reduce your caloric intake by 250 calories.

How many calories do you eat then? It all depends on your age/height/weight/activity level.

Let's just say that you use one of the many online calculators and you come up with 1800 calories a day for your BMR.

BMR is basic metabolic rate. That is how many calories you need a day just to live and to sustain your current body weight.

BMR is if you are comatose or bedridden.
And its BASAL metabolic rate.
And wouldnt working out and burning 500 cals a day lead to overtraining?
The hormonal response to overtraining is catabolizing lean mass....

(In my opinion, the calorie calculator on this site is ok but it provided a low number for my 17 year old daughter. It's "close" for me, a 37 year old male.)

If your BMR is 1800, you could burn 250 calories a day plus reduce your caloric intake to 1550 a day. So the 250 you burned plus the 250 you cut back on gives you a 500 calorie a day deficit.

This might be confusing you. The "system" on this site, automatically reduces your daily calories to create the deficit according the amount of weight you want to lose a week. So, if you fill out the "goals" section on this website it will automatically reduce your daily calories according that goal. If you wanted to lose 1 pound a week and your BMR was 1800, the site would reduce your daily calories to around 1300. That creates the deficit for you.

You then "add in" the number of calories you burned during exercise, since the site has already accounted for the deficit.

So, the site tells you to eat 1300 calories a day. You burn 400 calories during a workout, your net (calories in minus calories burned) would be 900 calories. That is too low for almost anyone. That means you should eat 1300 + 400 = 1700 a day, remember, the site has already computed a 500 calorie deficit into your numbers.

This site is set up so you should lose weight using the number it provides, without exercise. If you exercise on a regular basis, you might want to consume more calories and let your weight loss come from the combination of diet and exercise.

smartest thing you have said so far...

As far as how many calories you burn a day, it varies on your factors and your exertion level. If you are walking/jogging, the average person burns "about" 100 calories per mile. If you are using a cardio machine at the gym, you should subtract about 15% of the total calories the machine tells you to use (those machines inflate the numbers as a marketing ploy, scientific tests show them to be about 15-25% excessive).

Bottom line, pick a level of calorie intake using this site or other calculators. Stick to that for 2-4 weeks. How does that feel? Are you hungry all the time? Are you losing weight/inches or just notice a difference in your body? Adjust up or down until you find the "sweet spot" this can take months, don't rush the process.

I hope this helps, I know it's a lot but I wanted to be as clear as possible.

Tim

Tim!
Where do hormones come in?

Not trying to be a DB but you need to research a little more.

infromsea

Dan,

I had overlooked your response. Allow me to retort....

"You misspelled Broscience!"

You're insinuating that my response is full of sudo science?

If so, I'll tell the ACSM and Cooper Institute that some random guy on the internet said they are wrong, i'm sure they'll get right on that.

In truth, I did make a mistake there, I wrote 3,5000 instead of 3,500, I put an extra zero on there.

"BMR is if you are comatose or bedridden.
And its BASAL metabolic rate."

You are correct that BMR needs to be modified by the daily activity level. I did not specify that, I did say "use one of the many online calculators" but I did not clarify that those calculators would use walk one through the process including computing the correct number of calories to be consumed using the activity level factor.

BASAL metabolic rate- once again you are correct, it is BASAL, the fact that I used basic makes my whole statement completely invalid and I should leave the internet forever. When I work with clients I use the term basic, it's easier than explaining what basal means.

"And wouldnt working out and burning 500 cals a day lead to overtraining?
The hormonal response to overtraining is catabolizing lean mass.... "

I'm not sure where this came from. Burning 500 calories a day is overtraining? Maybe for some but if you work up to it, in my opinion, most can work out at that level without issue. If you want to burn 500 calories a day, you simply take that into account when computing your daily calories.

As far as the hormonal response, I'm obviously not as smart as you, I have no idea what you are talking about. If you follow intelligent eating patterns, such as eating the right level of carbs/proteins/fats, there should be no issue with losing lean mass due to burning too many calories.

In my opinion, that could become a problem if you are on a low carb diet and trying to burn excessive amounts of calories, solved by eating the right number of calories and the right mix.


"Where do hormones come in?
Not trying to be a DB but you need to research a little more."

Umm. Too late?

My response to this post was an attempt to help the OP. I don't spend my time on here picking apart the posts of others. It sounds like you are concerned with hormones, maybe that's your specialty, I have not seen them play a huge role in the weight loss of the clients I've worked with.

*** EDITED to correct "your" to "you're", trying to help you save some of that "correction" energy for other posts. ***

Helloitsdan

Okay!
Going back to your first post.
My TDEE is appx 2100 daily.
I eat 1700 daily.
thats a 2800 calorie deficit per week.

Why would I be sitting at the same body fat% and the same weight for 6 weeks with near perfect nutrition?

ACSM and Cooper Institute aside.

Why wouldnt I be at my goal now after 6 weeks plateauing?

My point to your post was that its easy to put numbers on paper and say "This is the math and science behind it! It should work!"
But in reality, weight/fat loss is rarely linear.

It not necessarily a numbers game but a hormones game.

You balance your hormones as well as energy to find a perfect rate to lose weight.

BASAL metabolic rate- once again you are correct, it is BASAL, the fact that I used basic makes my whole statement completely invalid and I should leave the internet forever. When I work with clients I use the term basic, it's easier than explaining what basal means.

Dont leave the internet!
Just understand that we have a lot of quick draws that come into the forums for the first time with the intent to give us so much information thats been covered 1000 times before.
If only it was just a numbers game.

I'm not sure where this came from. Burning 500 calories a day is overtraining? Maybe for some but if you work up to it, in my opinion, most can work out at that level without issue. If you want to burn 500 calories a day, you simply take that into account when computing your daily calories.

Burning 500 cals isnt overtraining if done a few times a week.
What i'm trying to tell folks is you can lose weight without killing yourself.

I have "clients" that work out 3x a week lifting heavy weights and rest for the other 4 days.
They tend to lose fat faster than the hamsters running the cardio gambit.

Plenty of ppl on here come into MFP and they decide to eat 1200 cals and workout 5 days a week, some 7 days, not realizing the stress they are putting themselves through.
I'm simply saying they have an easier way.

While cutting calories, and taking energy away from the body, they should adopt an abbreviated routine that would put them in perfect balance to burn fat and maintain lean mass.

Some ppl would see your statement and say "i'm eating 1200 cals a day and i'll do what this guy says and burn 500 a day running and ill lose a ton of weight!"
It's not the case.

As far as the hormonal response, I'm obviously not as smart as you, I have no idea what you are talking about. If you follow intelligent eating patterns, such as eating the right level of carbs/proteins/fats, there should be no issue with losing lean mass due to burning too many calories.

Dont stroke my Leo Ego!
I'm not that smart TBH!
I just do a lot of research and make sure what I'm doing is right for me and the ppl who come to me when they want to lose weight.

As for hormonal response.
When you eat less than you burn in a day, leptin tends to drop.
In some its fast and in others its slow.
Once you have been dieting for an extended period of time, leptin levels are so low that the body will not let go of fat.
Add cardio onto this and with leptin so low and with stress levels going up because "I just dont know what i'm doing wrong!?!?!?"
Perfect place for catabolism and cortisol to come sweeping in.
I've see hundreds of posts about this already.

Cycling calories tends to be the best way to fight this.
Having 3 days a week at TDEE or higher has shown to keep the balance of hormones and thus allow weight/fat loss.

My response to this post was an attempt to help the OP. I don't spend my time on here picking apart the posts of others. It sounds like you are concerned with hormones, maybe that's your specialty, I have not seen them play a huge role in the weight loss of the clients I've worked with.

You dont think hormones have anything to do with weight loss?
Did you get certified from a gum ball machine?
This is why you see so many issues with PT's getting sued and what not.

*** EDITED to correct "your" to "you're", trying to help you save some of that "correction" energy for other posts. ***

I already have dibbs on www.mygrammarpal.com so hands off!!!

I think we both have the same idea to help ppl on this forum.
OP is asking how many cals to eat and I feel that it was mostly answered.
Trust me there are others on here who you wouldnt want to get into an argument with.
I feel i'm pretty easy.
I'm happy you replied though!
I loved the talk.
PM me sometime if you want to join up and help folks together!
=D

Oh!
Welcome to MFP forums!

nxd10

I have been using this site for two weeks and have it found it very enlightening. Things I didn't think of fattening turn out to have many more calories than I thought. Other things many less.

I also learned that if their nutritional information is correct, I am WAY under on vitamins and minerals. Good to know.

Without modifying my diet in any significant way, I can hit the mark MFP sets to lose a pound a week. I find it very interesting that if I go over a little one day (I've done it three times so far), I'm not at all hungry the next day, don't eat much, and get a warning from MFP saying I'm eating too little. But on average I'm around 150 calories under per day (1500 net under my goal for each of the last two weeks) - not net, just base. With exercise I'm more than that. I've lost 4 lbs, but I also tend to cycle monthly, so we see how that lasts. My weight has been pretty stable for the last 20 years and I'm not very far above where I should be (at 5'10" I'm 20 lbs over my 'ideal', but only 10 lbs over where I'd be happy). I've been at that weight in the last six months, so expect I can get back there pretty readily with a little work.

Frankly, this seems too easy. Maybe the awareness is helpful. I have certainly steered myself towards more filling, less caloric foods.

So I'm wondering if I have messed up my metabolism at this point in my 53 year old life that I should be eating less than they suggest. They've got me on 1410. But as I say, that's about where I was before I started tracking things.