Help, Check out my food diary

JennNewStart

I have a question for all, if you are burning around 300cal a day and are eating about 1300 a day is it healthy?? I want to do this the right way and do not want to put my body into starvation mode, I need help my husband says it does not matter but is not what I have read so far. Help!
I seem to always be 300 under my calorie goal, and burn about 200-300 calories a day should I be eating more or what?
MFP goal is set to 1,500 calories a day but I been eating so healthy that my body has gotten so used to the portions that I just can't eat anymore. I am afraid that I am putting my body in "starvation" mode. I am energetic at the beginning of the day but after work outs I am exhausted. Take in account I am 40lbs over weight. Please help I want to do this the right way so far I am loving the food I am eating but afraid I am not consuming enough calories...

I do not get the *Net calories thing. If I eat 1,300 calories when I should be eating 1,500 and burn 300 calories in a work out should I be eating more calories that is basically my question. Thanks in advance.

Firefox7275

Part of eating healthy is eating the right amount of overall calories and every macro and micro nutrient to be a healthy weight and to fuel all your bodily processes. If you are exhausted by workouts you are either overtraining, have an undiagnosed health problem or are not eating as healthily as you imagine.

Your gross calories would be the total amount of calories you eat in a day. Net is that number minus what you burn in exercise and general activity. Your net should be above your basal metabolic rate which is the amount of calories needed to keep your body healthy if in a coma.

So you are eating a ton of fruit and veggies and some oily fish which is great, but you need to get up to three servings of dairy each day, also add in more mineral/ fibre rich foods (beans, lentils, nuts, seeds) - these will give you a little more protein too. Have whole eggs instead of egg whites and a different soft cheese instead of cottage because neither are that nutritious. You should be able to beef up your breakfast because that is very low calorie when you have not eaten for many hours and sometimes you skip it, and add in another more substantial snack. Baby steps, a little more food at a time.

JennNewStart

Part of eating healthy is eating the right amount of overall calories and every macro and micro nutrient to be a healthy weight and to fuel all your bodily processes. If you are exhausted by workouts you are either overtraining, have an undiagnosed health problem or are not eating as healthily as you imagine.

Your gross calories would be the total amount of calories you eat in a day. Net is that number minus what you burn in exercise and general activity. Your net should be above your basal metabolic rate which is the amount of calories needed to keep your body healthy if in a coma.

So you are eating a ton of fruit and veggies and some oily fish which is great, but you need to get up to three servings of dairy each day, also add in more mineral/ fibre rich foods (beans, lentils, nuts, seeds) - these will give you a little more protein too. Have whole eggs instead of egg whites and a different soft cheese instead of cottage because neither are that nutritious. You should be able to beef up your breakfast because that is very low calorie when you have not eaten for many hours and sometimes you skip it, and add in another more substantial snack. Baby steps, a little more food at a time.

Thank you! I will differently keep that in mind while I am shopping thanks!

dschassie

I have a question for all, if you are burning around 300cal a day and are eating about 1300 a day is it healthy?? I want to do this the right way and do not want to put my body into starvation mode.

Basically this means you are only consuming 1,000 calories a day (1,300 consumed minus 300 burned) which is definitely too low. The lowest advised daily intake for females is 1,200 calories a day. So if you work out on top of that and lets say you burn 300 calories in your workout, you should eat that back.

Here is something you might find helpful:

BMR
You use energy no matter what you're doing, even when sleeping. Your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) is the number of calories you'd burn if you stayed in bed all day. Since this number is calculated using your age and current weight, it is important to update this on a regular basis if planning on losing a lot of weight.

http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/

TDEE
A formula that uses your BMR and then applies an activity factor to determine your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE). The only factor omitted in this equation is lean body mass. Leaner bodies need more calories than less leaner ones. Therefore, this equation will be very accurate in all but the very muscular (will under-estimate calorie needs) and the very fat (will over-estimate calorie needs). Your TDEE is the amount of calories you need to MAINTAIN your body weight.

- If you exercise regularly and routinely do the same workouts, you can choose a higher activity level. This means that you would not log your workouts in MFP as you already included them in your TDEE number.
- If you set your activity level to “sedentary” but you work out at the gym, log your work outs

http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/harris-benedict-equation/

Setting a daily calorie goal for MFP
You will get a lot of different answers here as to what number is the best number, here are two methods:
- When setting up MFP, it automatically calculates your TDEE. When you then select the amount of weight you want to lose per week, it subtracts the calories it takes to burn those pounds from your TDEE and thus provides you with a suggested number.
o Example: I am 5’4”, weighed 236 pounds and was 30 years old when I started. My BMR at that point was 1,841. With a desk job, my activity level is sedentary so you multiply your BMR by 1.2. This gives me a TDEE of 2,209. I wanted to lose 2 pounds a week. It takes your body 3,500 calories to lose 1 pound of fat so I would need to create a weekly deficit of 7,000 calories. My daily TDEE x 7 days a week= 15,464 calories a week. 15,464 calories minus a 7,000 deficit = 8,464 calories a week which comes out to 1,209 a day. That’s what MFP automatically calculated for me.
- Another common method is to use your TDEE number and set your goal as a percentage of the TDEE. If you are starting with a BMI (Body Mass Index http://nhlbisupport.com/bmi/) of “obese” with a lot of weight to lose, you might use your TDEE – 30%, once your BMI changes to “overweight”, make sure to update your numbers and possibly adjust to TDEE-20%.

*Please note that it is not recommend to go below 1,200 a day for females (1,800 for males). MFP’s default settings will not go below 1,200 when you set up your account.

Workout Calories
If you picked an “active” activity level on MFP when you first set up your account or when you calculated your TDEE, the workout calories are already figured into you daily calorie allotment. Picking “active” it assumes you will be working out consistently. This means you do not log your workouts and you don’t eat back any “extra” calories.

If you are using a calorie goal that doesn’t have workouts figured into the number and you end up logging your workouts separately, eat the calories back.

*A personal note; no machine at the gym or presets in MFP will give you a 100% accurate reading on how many calories you burned, neither will an HRM (Heart Rate Monitor). I decided to only eat 60% of my workout calories back.*

JennNewStart

Wow this is all useful information. Thank you!

dschassie

You are welcome, sorry it's a bit long. When I first started MFP and my calorie goals got set to 1,200, so many people on here told me it was waaaay too low. I didn't understand why MFP would suggest it if it wasn't a good method. So I did a ton of research to educate myself and understand what the other 50% of people on MFP use as their bible (TDEE ).