How many cals should I be eating?

amnsetie

I've chosen to eat dogs instead of cats. How many?

There's one in every crowd.
*sigh*
Dogs just don't have the same nutritional content. You will need to supplement your diet with mouse essence if you want to be a Dogivor

bigjretrac

*sigh* So the 1590 calories I've been consuming are too little?

deksgrl

*sigh* So the 1590 calories I've been consuming are too little?

I would think so.

BurtHuttz

*sigh* So the 1590 calories I've been consuming are too little?

Unless you're deceptively short, probably. Don't get down about it though. It takes quite some time, from what I understand, to do irrevocable metabolic damage.

Try to run your numbers and arrive at a reasonable deficit from TDEE. In measuring progress, look at long trends and not daily fluctuations, and I think you'll see consistent losses. Works for everyone as long as you estimate your TDEE within a broad margin and you don't cheat or inaccurately measure food.

bigjretrac

*sigh* So the 1590 calories I've been consuming are too little?

Unless you're deceptively short, probably. Don't get down about it though. It takes quite some time, from what I understand, to do irrevocable metabolic damage.

Try to run your numbers and arrive at a reasonable deficit from TDEE. In measuring progress, look at long trends and not daily fluctuations, and I think you'll see consistent losses. Works for everyone as long as you estimate your TDEE within a broad margin and you don't cheat or inaccurately measure food.

Gotcha. I'm 5'11", 221 pounds. Thanks for reassuring me about any permanent damage, I was so worried at first.

What type of deficit do you recommend from the TDEE? Is there some sort of formula? I've had pretty consistent weight loss, so I'm scared of undoing it.

Thanks, again! I was getting annoyed because I felt like 1590 was rather restrictive for a guy my size :-)

BurtHuttz

Holy crap! That's low intake for your size. Good news, you can and should eat more.

Try 15- 20% less than TDEE. You may notice a short term fluctuation but you won't undo your work. I got big eating whatever whenever, not from being a hundred calories off in my deficit.

bigjretrac

Holy crap! That's low intake for your size. Good news, you can and should eat more.

Try 15- 20% less than TDEE. You may notice a short term fluctuation but you won't undo your work. I got big eating whatever whenever, not from being a hundred calories off in my deficit.

Thank you SO MUCH!!! You have no idea how much agony you've saved me.

I'm going to swing for 2200-2300 a day and see what happens.

Edit: Should I even pay attention to MFP's projections? Now it's saying I won't even lose a pound in a week.

deksgrl

The projections won't mean much now. If you reset your goal manually to a deficit off TDEE, then do not log exercise calories, eat to your calorie goal regardless of exercise.

bigjretrac

The projections won't mean much now. If you reset your goal manually to a deficit off TDEE, then do not log exercise calories, eat to your calorie goal regardless of exercise.

So if I run my TDEE calculation without excersise, can I log it then? I kinda liked having my activity logged and seeing my numbers go up and down

Mads1997

You lose weight by being under your BMR, which is higher than 1200 cals. Never eat less than 1200, and eat back all your exercise calories.

Actually, you should not eat below your BMR. This is the number of calories your body would burn if you were in a coma state. If you eat less than this your metabolism will slow down in response.

So far what's worked for me is calculating TDEE and subtracting 15-20%. My BMR is a little above 1400 and I'm eating about 1650 a day.

Actually you can eat under your bmr with no problems depending on your weight. I am under the care of a dietician and she says it is not a problem, my doctor also said the same thing

deksgrl

The projections won't mean much now. If you reset your goal manually to a deficit off TDEE, then do not log exercise calories, eat to your calorie goal regardless of exercise.

So if I run my TDEE calculation without excersise, can I log it then? I kinda liked having my activity logged and seeing my numbers go up and down

I log my exercise but I just call it 1 calorie burned, so that I can keep a record that I did exercise for motivation. Or you can still log it but don't pay any attention to the adjusted number MFP will give you for your goal, just eat to your total.

BurtHuttz

Thank you SO MUCH!!! You have no idea how much agony you've saved me.

I'm going to swing for 2200-2300 a day and see what happens.

Edit: Should I even pay attention to MFP's projections? Now it's saying I won't even lose a pound in a week.

I've seen a bad pattern here where people try REALLY hard and cut their calories down much lower than they should be. These people starve and are miserable and end up not making very much progress. They decide that losing weight is too hard, and quit, and are less likely to try again because they really did try so very hard and go through agony. So, YAY! That isn't going to happen to you. You're about to find out that the hard parts of weight loss will be more than off-set by the positives.

MFP's projections are dumb, by which I mean unsophisticated. There are 3500 calories in a pound of fat. You want to lose 3500 calories in a week, cut 500 calories a day (500 * 7 = 3500). MFP calculates something like your TDEE and recommends that you cut from that. MFP has a hard line at 1200 which it will not go below. It's nearly arbitrary, not 'recommended for you'.

If you tell MFP you want to lose a pound a week it tells you to cut 500cal per day from your TDEE. Two pounds? 1,000cal. What if you want to lose four pounds a week? That's not that much more than two, right. So just have a deficit of 2,000 calories per day and you'll starve to death.

Nothing is so cut and dried but I've seen consistently positive results across the user-base here with a simple reasonable cut from TDEE. It's sustainable, it doesn't need to be unpleasant, but most of all, you're learning how to eat right so you can keep the weight off for life - - not just crash to lose fat and then go back to old, bad habits.

You can do it!

psuLemon

You lose weight by being under your BMR, which is higher than 1200 cals. Never eat less than 1200, and eat back all your exercise calories.

Actually, you should not eat below your BMR. This is the number of calories your body would burn if you were in a coma state. If you eat less than this your metabolism will slow down in response.

So far what's worked for me is calculating TDEE and subtracting 15-20%. My BMR is a little above 1400 and I'm eating about 1650 a day.

Actually you can eat under your bmr with no problems depending on your weight. I am under the care of a dietician and she says it is not a problem, my doctor also said the same thing

There is no scientific reason that supports that you shouldn't eat under your BMR but common sense would suggest eating less than your metabolic would cause your RMR to adjust. It is not uncommon that an resting metabolic rate to suppress itself over an extend period of calorie suppression.

Also, long periods of low calories can increase the chances of catabolization of lean body mass. LCD in general were only designed to be for short periods of time.

Mads1997

That might be the case if you are not far from goal but if you have 20 or 30 kilos of fat to lose that is not going to happen. I think The professionals know a little more than MFP members on the subject.

BurtHuttz

That might be the case if you are not far from goal but if you have 20 or 30 kilos of fat to lose that is not going to happen. I think The professionals know a little more than MFP members on the subject.

Are you saying that people on MFP should recommend that individuals begin risky, unsupervised diets that are occasionally recommended for individuals under the care of a physician and dietician?

Or are you saying that, when people are asked for advice on MFP, they should say "nope, I can't help you, talk to a professional"?

Or are you just having a bad day and you want to quibble?

Malnutrition is a risky prescription, don't be cavalier.

psuLemon

That might be the case if you are not far from goal but if you have 20 or 30 kilos of fat to lose that is not going to happen. I think The professionals know a little more than MFP members on the subject.

You do realize that we have dietitians and people with a lot of nutritional education on here (including PhD's). Don't make the assumption that because I am on a forum, I know little or nothing about nutrition. But you are partiallycorrect, the larger amounts of additional weight, the less likely you will catabolize lean body mass, but only if you are eating adequate protein and doing resistance training. It's basic fat loss vs weight loss. Below is a good article that demonstrates what I mean. And all subjects were obese.

http://www.metaboliceffect.com/topic/38-nutrition-lifestyle.aspx

award1223

According to these calculations, I should be eating between 1500 & 1550. Is there a way to enter your own daily calorie goal? I changed it to lose 1/2 pound per week & it has me at 1470 or to maintain it put my calories at 1620. I'd really like my diary to show 1550 at the bottom.

deksgrl

Go to "My Home" and then Goals, then click on "change goals" and choose "custom"