Calories

tunzjnky

Hi. Does anyone find it odd that the more weight you lose the lower your calorie intake is allowed? It is healthy to eat under 2000 calories a day? If anyone can explain this please do. I love that I'm losing weight but I don't want to be eating unhealthy amounts of calories to do it. Im currently being told to have only 1270 calories a day...

CleanandLean33

I'd take a peek at the eat more 2 lose weight group forum. there is a tonne of info about how low kcal diets are not such a healthy long term choice and how you can continue and even improve your losses by upping your kcal.

TiDinzeo

It's not odd at all. Calories are what your body uses to fuel itself. As you lose weight, your body needs less fuel to run.

Yes, there is such a thing as eating too few calories. There is a point where you don't eat enough to cover what you need to. This point will be different or everyone as it depends on height, build, age and level of activity.

I know this is a very simplified version of it, but I honestly don't know the science behind it. I'm not a nutritionist.

Gentyl

Hi. Does anyone find it odd that the more weight you lose the lower your calorie intake is allowed? It is healthy to eat under 2000 calories a day? If anyone can explain this please do. I love that I'm losing weight but I don't want to be eating unhealthy amounts of calories to do it. Im currently being told to have only 1270 calories a day...

I'm just as confused about this as you are. Eating 1200 calories, as prescribed, makes me feel half dead sometimes. And, I exercise less on it because I feel so weak! When you find out, please let me know.

selfishshellfish

Hi Jen.

Well, the oft-quoted 2000 calories a day is the recommendation for the average woman to maintain weight. It factors in certain assumptions about lean body mass and activity levels. It's a blunt sort of instrument, because energy needs vary widely depending on height, body composition, activity and more.

MFP gives you a calorie allocation based on your current gender, height and weight and - importantly - how much weight you say you want to lose every week. The calculation assumes that there is 3500 calories in a pound of fat. If you say you want to lose 1lb each week, MFP will calculate the number of calories you need to eat to maintain your weight IF YOU DO PRETTY MUCH NO PHYSICAL ACTIVITY and then deduct 3500. Your daily calorie allocation is based on this.

1200 is pretty low, but depending on your metabolism and on what foods you're eating you may feel okay with it. Some people on here seem to get on fine, mostly because they add the energy they use for exercise and eat the extra calories on top of their 1200. I did that for four months last year and then started to get much too hungry to keep it up.

A different approach is to calculate how many calories you'll need once you reach your goal weight, and just start eating at that level. This is roughly what I'm doing now.

Basically, though, experimental evidence suggests that if you restrict calories then your metabolic rate will decline to compensate. This is why lots of people on here do not restrict their calories very much and lift heavy weights and do high intensity interval training (HIIT): these measures minimise that effect.

I wouldn't say that restricting calories to 1200 a day is actually dangerous, though. It seems to have served many MFP members well. And I'd encourage you to vary your approach to find one which works best for you.

Josedavid

As far as I could understand during the last 255 days in MFP...

A normal cal intake for an average man is 2000cal, right? with that amount (and it varies from one person to another) your body neither lose nor gain weight.

If you want to lose half a kilo per week you must deduct 500cal to that number, if you want to lose 1kg per week you must deduct 1000cal to that number but without being below 1000cal a day. And i think that MFP keeps you eating always a minimum of 1200cal for girl and 1500 for man.

Anyway, do you want to eat more? great... earn "credit" by exercising yourself!

XX

CyberEd312

Well it depends on what group you follow, I am in the eat more to lose weight group and eat back 85-90% of my exercise calories. I started out at 560 lbs. consuming around 2200 calories a day (set up by my nutritionist) but as of now I am at 254 lbs. and am currently eating 3200 calories a day and that is with a deficit to lose 1/2 lb. a week so in my case no I am eating more now although the biggest difference is the kinds of food I eat today as to back then... Good healthy fats, whole grains, fruits,veggies and lean meats make up the bulk of my meals now instead of Oreos, Pizza, and doritoes..... Best of Luck....

selfishshellfish

Hi. Does anyone find it odd that the more weight you lose the lower your calorie intake is allowed? It is healthy to eat under 2000 calories a day? If anyone can explain this please do. I love that I'm losing weight but I don't want to be eating unhealthy amounts of calories to do it. Im currently being told to have only 1270 calories a day...

I'm just as confused about this as you are. Eating 1200 calories, as prescribed, makes me feel half dead sometimes. And, I exercise less on it because I feel so weak! When you find out, please let me know.

Just to clarify: the less you weigh, the less energy (aka fewer calories) you need to maintain your weight. This is because there is a) physically less weight to move around, so physical activity uses less energy and b) less muscle and fat to maintain, repair and just keep plain ticking over.

If you're eating only 1200 calories and exercising, I'd recommend logging your exercise activities here on MFP and eating the exercise calories back. And if you feel unwell eating 1200, then don't be afraid to raise your calorie limit. There is a point beyond which further calorie restriction actually yields diminishing returns, and this point varies for each of us.

Make sense?

gpstrucker

As already said, the less of you there is the less fuel your body needs to function. It takes a lot of energy to keep alive and move around the extra weight. Also, as you become more physically fit your body begins to use energy more efficiently (so I understand it).

Makes perfect sense to me.

mlshpk2012

I am early yet in my low calorie lifestyle (Day 25 of 1300 calories or less), but I feel great. I have so much more energy and feel less
sluggish. I am too scared to step on a scale, so I do not know yet what the weight loss results are. My problem is that I have zero time to exercise in order to be in a place where I can eat back my exercise calories. I work 45-plus hours per week and my daily commute is three hours. With three kids and a husband, that leaves no extra time for the treadmill. I realize that most people will believe that to be a cop-out, but I cannot establish an exercise routine that I can commit to and that is just a fact. At this point, I can see sticking with the 1300 calorie plan long term, but is that what is best? I have gone to so many parties and meetings and foregone food in order to not go over the 1300 calories that I feel like an addict that is terrified of falling off of the wagon.

fatmom51

We're close to the same weight. I'm not sure what your activity level is, but I deliberately set mine at sedentary since I work in a job where I sit, and I don't always have the chance to work in formal exercise. (That way, when I do exercise, I can eat back the calories.) To maintain, I'd be able to eat well over 2,000 calories -- but, of course, I don't want to maintain my current weight. Because I'm heavier, I've set an ambitious goal of losing 2 lbs. a week -- that means a deficit of 1,000 calories a day, either by reducing food or increasing exercise. That brings me to a net of right around 1,200 calories. As I lose, my maintenance calories will go down, but I'll start to lose more slowly, too.
The people who said it takes less fuel (food, calories, what-have-you) to run a smaller body were right. Eventually, I'll reach a point of equilibrium where the number of calories I'm eating now -- to lose weight -- will be what I need to maintain my weight. It's a tradeoff. If I want to eat more, the only other way to stay at the right number of calories to maintain will be to increase my activity.

gpstrucker

We're close to the same weight. I'm not sure what your activity level is, but I deliberately set mine at sedentary since I work in a job where I sit, and I don't always have the chance to work in formal exercise. (That way, when I do exercise, I can eat back the calories.) To maintain, I'd be able to eat well over 2,000 calories -- but, of course, I don't want to maintain my current weight. Because I'm heavier, I've set an ambitious goal of losing 2 lbs. a week -- that means a deficit of 1,000 calories a day, either by reducing food or increasing exercise. That brings me to a net of right around 1,200 calories. As I lose, my maintenance calories will go down, but I'll start to lose more slowly, too.
The people who said it takes less fuel (food, calories, what-have-you) to run a smaller body were right. Eventually, I'll reach a point of equilibrium where the number of calories I'm eating now -- to lose weight -- will be what I need to maintain my weight. It's a tradeoff. If I want to eat more, the only other way to stay at the right number of calories to maintain will be to increase my activity.

Yep. Like you I set mine at Sedentary even though I do a fair amount of physical activity most days.

jenilla1

To maintain, I eat 1700 calories + whatever I earn through exercise. If I don't exercise, I don't eat above 1700. I have been on maintenance now for a year and no problems so far. I'm only about 135 pds., so if I netted 2000 cals I would gain weight. So, for many people, yes it is absolutely safe to eat fewer than 2000 calories. The less you weigh, the fewer calories it takes to maintain. This is why (most) men get more calories than (most) women. Typically, they have more mass and therefore need more energy to support. And of course, you need a calorie deficit to lose weight. This is why the lower your weight goes, the fewer calories they give you to eat.

Dchev1

I am early yet in my low calorie lifestyle (Day 25 of 1300 calories or less), but I feel great. I have so much more energy and feel less
sluggish.

An aside. My guess is that your former feelings of sluggishness were caused by too much sugar in your diet, creating "insulin resistance" which results in large fluctuations in blood sugar levels. When you reduced your calorie intake to 1300 you had to have cut out a lot of that sugar (I don't know how else you would have done it) so your blood sugar is no longer fluctuating as wildly after meals.

As I said, just a guess, but if you want to test it, you could eat a1300 calorie meal one day composed of mostly sugar and see what happens. Pasta will do.

Way_2_a_Healthy_Mel

You might want to change your goal. Do you have it set to lose 2 lbs per week? If so, change it to 1 lb per week, and you will get more calories to eat. The smaller you are, the less you should try to lose in a week, anyway. Also, make sure your settings are correct on your normal activity level. All of those things factor in.

shaynak112

2000 calories a day seems like a lot to me. It's definitely healthy to eat less than that. Well, I mean if you're like in sports or something and need all the calories because you're training all day - well that's different!
But I mean, as you lose weight, you need less calories. It makes sense.
I find myself doing fine on less than 1,200 calories a day. I'm short, so that could be why, but even if I was a lot taller, I would not have to double my calories.

jenilla1

Hi. Does anyone find it odd that the more weight you lose the lower your calorie intake is allowed? It is healthy to eat under 2000 calories a day? If anyone can explain this please do. I love that I'm losing weight but I don't want to be eating unhealthy amounts of calories to do it. Im currently being told to have only 1270 calories a day...

I'm just as confused about this as you are. Eating 1200 calories, as prescribed, makes me feel half dead sometimes. And, I exercise less on it because I feel so weak! When you find out, please let me know.

If you aren't exercising because you don't have enough energy, you probably aren't eating enough. When they gave you 1200 calories, they meant net calories. So, if you burn off 300 calories at the gym and only eat 1200 calories total, you REALLY only gave your body 900 calories, which isn't enough! No wonder you feel bad. Try eating back your exercise calories and see if that helps. Otherwise, up your calorie intake a bit and see how that goes.