My head is spinning! 1250 with MFP vs 2822 with TDEE?!?

Options
JustMQ
JustMQ Posts: 63 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I have been trying to lose that "last 10 pounds" for months and months. My initial weight loss started with Weight Watchers, but eventually I needed a change after I hit a major plateau, which I'm currently stuck at. Reading posts on here about TDEE, it occurs to me that I may not be eating enough.... REALLY?? This has me beyond confused. I have always believed that if I want to lose weight, I need to stop eating so much and exercise more. I would basically have to start over with my whole way of thinking about weight loss and honestly, that scares me a little. I would be doubling my daily caloric intake! Anyone have any experience in this??

Replies

  • lizzyb83
    lizzyb83 Posts: 107 Member
    Options
    That was one of the hardest concepts for me to figure out. If you eat too little, you body pretty much goes into starvation mode, your metabolism will drop, and you won't burn any fat. You need to think of food as fuel for your muscles to work. Your body needs fuel and energy to function, and it gets it from what you eat.

    Without being tested, it can be hard to know what your TDEE is, so it can be a guessing game. Here is a really good post though with links to figure it out
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/512956-tdee-what-is-it-and-why-you-should-not-eat-below-your-bmr

    To lose weight you do need your calories in to be lower then what you burn. So you don't need to eat 2822 calories, unless you are doing some insanely hard workout for hours on end a day. Right now, I am 5'7 138 lbs and try for around 1500-1600 calories a day.
    What exercises are you doing right now? If you aren't, you might want to try adding in more strength training, that will really help get the weight. Also, start adding about 100 good, healthy calories a week.

Categories