How many calories do I need?

SavannahMarett
SavannahMarett Posts: 37 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
How many calories should I be eating in order to lose weight? Help!

Replies

  • ashlinmarie
    ashlinmarie Posts: 1,263 Member
    You need to figure out your BMR and your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) and eat somewhere within those two numbers.

    scoobysworkshop.com is a good place to start. On the right, you can click on accurate calorie calculator, input your stats and go from there. If you scroll down, it will have your BMR, TDEE and projected weight loss. Then you can modify your results on MFP to fit that.

    There are many other sites and tips and tricks. I keep it simple, but you can search the forums and find loads of good information.
  • ragingpanda
    ragingpanda Posts: 8
    When you fill out your profile on the following page:

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/change_goals_guided

    myfitnesspal will calculate how much you should eat to meet your goal.

    If your goal is 1lb a week lost you'll probably eat about 1500-1800 calories a day
    If your goal is 2lb a week lost you'll probably eat about 1200-1500 calories a day
  • m5parr
    m5parr Posts: 21
    Agreed, tdee is the best way to figure this out! I started out on mfp a few years ago and had it set to sedentary, was eating 1600 calories a day, not losing any weight and gave up. Figured out my tdee and came back a couple months ago. I eat about 2000 calories a day now and have had pretty steady weight loss :) good luck!
  • SavannahMarett
    SavannahMarett Posts: 37 Member
    MFP says I should eat 2100 which is really hard for me to do. I just figured that was too much, but TDEE says I should eat even more than that! Wow!
  • m5parr
    m5parr Posts: 21
    I know it's scary to eat that much, but do it! I had my doubts, but it worked. One thing to consider is this: when we are bigger, we are using more calories to do things because we're carrying extra weight. As we get smaller, we'll use less and in turn need to eat less. If you start out eating 1500 calories a day, in order to decrease your intake as you shrink, you'd have to pretty much starve yourself. My undertanding is that eating too little will work short term, but people inevitably plateau and screw up their metabolism.
  • jhedeen
    jhedeen Posts: 22 Member
    ^she's dead on..If you eat too little you're body goes into starvation mode and you won't lose weight
  • SavannahMarett
    SavannahMarett Posts: 37 Member
    So, I went to a nutritionist today and she said I should aim for eating between 1100 and 1600... To me that is low since everything else says I should be eating at least 2000. I'm confused.
  • AmyRhubarb
    AmyRhubarb Posts: 6,890 Member
    <
    1800+ calories a day for the past year. Best move I ever made was reading and understanding the info in this topic and eating according to the guidelines there: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/912914-in-place-of-a-road-map-3-2013

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