Should I up my calorie limit?

tinyzombie

I'm thinking about upping my calorie limit to 1500 instead of 1200. My new fitness routine is 3 days of cardio a week and 3 days of weights a week. What do you guys think? I'm worried about eating too few cals and messing up my metabolism - is that a legit concern, or just me being paranoid?

mwcp58

Does this plan put everyone on 1200 calories? I am 1200 as well as it seems many others are, it sure is not many calories, so have to eat very smart and clean

jessipatra

So I've been doing so reading and talking to people and have recently discovered that it's best not to be consuming less than your BMR (which is basically what your body would need to survive on if you were in a coma - ie NO activity). MFP, however has set my daily count at 1300, but my BMR is (approx) 1500 (http://www.myfitnesspal.com/tools/bmr-calculator).

From what I have read, if you don't consume your BMR calories each day, then you will see immediate weight loss, but that will plateau rather quickly, and you also tend to put it back on quickly. Consuming less than BMR will see muscle loss as well as fat, and eventually see your metabolism slow down.

These all seemed like compelling reasons to increase the number of calories I eat a day - and I have read quite a few comments by people saying that they had more sucess when they increased their daily allowance. However as long as I eat more than my BMR and less than my TDEE or Total Daily Energy Expenditure (the amount of calories you burn in daily activity) I should lose weight.

There's a really good post about it all here: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12

And I guess this also answers the oft-asked question about eating back exercise calories lost - if you don't eat them back, you'll be netting below BMR...

auddii

I would run your numbers to calculate BMR and TDEE before upping calories (upping is likely a good idea, but better to pick a number based on facts rather than a random number). There's more info here:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12

If nothing else, you need to be eating back your exercise calories.

KenosFeoh

If you're a female and choose that you want to lose 2 pounds per week, it puts you on 1200 calories.

Instead of re-setting your baseline calories higher, you can log your exercise, which will push your calorie limit up automatically, then you can eat back part of or all of your calories burned, and you should still lose weight. Of course these are all estimates, so you may want to leave a margin of error and only eat 1/4 to 1/2 of your calorie burn back.

By the way, a lot of people don't know this, but you can get calorie credit for weight lifting by entering it into the cardio section as "weight training".

eyeshuh

MFP wants you to NET 1200. That means you eat back your exercise calories, which is why your calorie allowance goes up when you log exercise.

And yes, it puts everyone on 1200 if you set your weight loss goals too high since you should never NET less than that. Be honest about your activity level, eat back your exercise, and set your goal to 1lb a week loss.

This is a very good method for figuring out how many calories you should be eating: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12

And this group has a ton of awesome information: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/forums/show/10067-eat-train-progress-

toomuchbootyindapants

Eat MOAR food!

heybales

If female, and you selected sedentary, and 2 lb weight loss goal, and your BMR is 1760 or below - yes - you all got put on 1200.

And that would apply to any 30 yr old, 5' 6", and up to 226 lbs to get that BMR 1760.

Yes, it's rather generic, and awfully trusted without any questions. Not nearly the questions that accompany the suggestion to eat more.

Yes OP, if you want the exercise to have any positive effects on your body and not negative then feed your workouts.

At least follow the MFP program, which has your daily goal ALREADY with a deficit built in with no exercise expected or planned.
You exercise, you log it, you eat it back.

Learning to eat correctly for your level of activity.

And select 1 lb weight loss goal weekly, you'll appreciate the fat loss over the fat and muscle loss, making maintenance harder down the road.

taso42

Sounds like you're on the right track. Depending on size and exercise routine, even 1500 might still be low. It also depends on whether you follow the MFP model or the TDEE-based model. See http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/819055-setting-your-calorie-and-macro-targets

tinyzombie

Thank you all SO much for the helpful responses! And since so many of you recommended that one particular post (about TDEE and BMR), going by that, it sounds like my net calories should be at least 1600, if not up to 2000. I think I'm going to up to 1600 for a while and see how that feels. I'm skittish of going any higher, I guess due to being told my whole life that "the less calories you eat, the faster you lose weight!" But I suppose that's the point of sharing the science, that I'd be losing muscle as well, instead of just fat - right? Because I definitely don't want to lose muscle, my goal isn't to get "skinny" as much as it is to get "toned".

beejelblor

This is the flaw with MFP, it can only do the general math and the lowest calories it can give you is 1200 which really is too low if you are doing any exercise which you should be. You can override the calorie suggestion to a higher daily calorie goal. You do not want to deprive your body of the nutrients it needs or have your body go into starvation mode which would hold onto your calories. This is my "dummy" version after talking to trainers and doctors who have all been very stern about eating more then 1200 calories. I lost my first 16lbs averaging about 1450 calories per day depending on my activity level. This keeps me from feeling hungry or craving more food and I have plenty of energy. A lot of people on MFP swear 1200 is a great number and have great results but I think they are exceptions to the rule.

tinyzombie

Oh and by the way, I probably should have mentioned in my original post, but I do log all of my exercises and eat back all of my calories! Unfortunately, that still leaves me hungry at the end of most days, even after eating back the calories I've burned off. I always thought I was just imagining that I was hungry because I'm eating so much less than I used to, but maybe there's more to it than that, huh?

jessipatra

Hi again, I've had a quick browse through your diary and I think you might feel better and fuller if you used more calories on fresh veges and fruit, wholegrains and tried to lower your intake of high-calorie processed food