1500 calorie days

DavPul

As people have stated 1500 seems to be very low and I agree, however being 295 @ 6'2" I actually am gaining weight at 2000 calories a day (gained 4 pounds last week). I highly doubt it is muscle due to the fact that I haven't been working out the last couple of weeks. I'm only doing 1500 calories to push myself over the plateau I am at.

No, no you aren't. When I started on this site I was 276 lbs at 6'1". I ate 2200 cals a day and I lost 2 lbs a week like clockwork. There is no way on this earth you are getting fatter on 2000 cals per day and it's impossible to gain 4 lbs in one week unless you at 3 large deep dish pizza PER DAY.

Make your life easier and set your calorie goal back to 2000.

edited to add: And please note that I lost all the weight eating burgers at McDonalds, tacos at Taco Bell, and full egg breakfast sandwiches at Subway. You can make weight loss really easy for yourself, or really hard for yourself. I chose easy and enjoyable and I'm pleased with the results.

seawolf86

Try skinnytaste.com and preventionrd.com

They both have healthy recipes and provide calorie counts as well as serving size so you know how much you are eating! I think it would be a good place to start, I also love the recipe builder on here

BeachGingerOnTheRocks

Entering the raw ingredients sounds like a good idea, I'd just need to start measuring food and weighing it before I start eating it. Thanks for the suggestions everyone.

If you haven't been weighing and measuring your food, then you are very likely grossly underestimating your calorie consumption.

Before you do anything else, you really need to go to a Bed, Bath & Beyond type store and select a digital food scale. Weigh absolutely everything. You will be amazed what you find. I have been at this for years now, and I'm still prone to underestimate calories consumed. Particularly the high calorie items, like ice cream because a spoonful here and there will really add up. Packaged foods will only get you so far. The nutrition and sodium are far better in self-prepared foods.

Just keep it up and you'll see results.

LassoOfTruth

I'm really trying to stop eating highly processed foods or frozen foods, but it seems that they are the only way I can actually lose weight as they have calorie counts on the packages. Does anyone have any recipes with accurate calorie counts in which to make a goal of 1500 calories in a day? Would be appreciated.

Hi, I eat 1200-1500 a day. You can look at my diary, but ignore the weekend days. They are my free days. Lolz.

jess7386

I eat about 1500-1600 calories a day. While I agree you probably should be eating a bit more, feel free to browse my diary for ideas.

kaa02c

1500 calories a day seems really low for a man, how much less than your TDEE is it?

Regarding home cooked meals, what I do is log each ingredient individually, raw, so I get a value for the whole recipe. That's if I'm cooking for just me... if it's a family meal I log the whole meal, then save it in "my meals" (click on "quick tools" to get a drop down menu that allows you to do this) and remove the ingredients from my diary - then I weigh the whole recipe cooked, and weigh my own serving, and work out what fraction of the whole meal I ate. Then I go back to my diary, and enter it as the fraction of the whole thing that I ate... e.g. if I ate one quarter of it, I enter that as 0.25 of 1 meal. (and the same if I make batches to be reheated later, I put the whole recipe in "my meals" then log it as what fraction of the whole recipe it is.

I have found this to be the best way to deal with home cooking, especially as I'm not one to follow a recipe accurately. that way I have a value for what I've actually eaten, not someone else's version of the same recipe

I second this. This has been the only thing I've found to work. I was wondering why I wasn't using weight and it was because my homecooked meals were inaccurate. But this method has saved my life. And I'm back to losing. Try it and you won't regret it!

MB_Positif

May have been mentioned already, but sites like www.skinnytaste.com have the calorie counts listed. You can also Google things like, "recipes under 400 calories" or whatever you are looking for!

TripleJ3

I make a big batch of soups and other freezer friendly meals then weigh them into separate containers so I can then freeze them. I use the recipe builder then have a freezer full of my own frozen meals ready to go. Yes, it can take time and while it is easy, its not fast the first time but for me its worth the extra effort.

When I make my soups, I make a lot of potato, cauliflower, butternut squash etc types so the vegetable amount various so I do have to weigh then change in the saved recipe when I make a new batch but that doesn't take long. I do the same with turkey and chicken breast. Make a bunch one day then freeze individually to add to my soups or make sandwiches or what have you.

I make stir frys and pasta dishes to freeze. I also have a batch of Tikka Masala sauce individually frozen so I can pour over fish or a poultry with some veggies then add a grain for some quick meal options.

Fr3shStrt

I'll be honest. I didn't read every comment, but I'll throw in my 2 or 3 cents...

1.) 1500cal/day seems low for a dude, sure you can lose weight on that, but you are also losing lean body mass (such as muscle). The higher your LBM (lean body mass) the better your metabolism... so lose LBM and your metabolism drops meaning it will take fewer and fewer calories to continue losing weight and then maintain. Here is a good place to start researching how many calories you should be eating: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/819055-setting-your-calorie-and-macro-targets

2.) Calorie counts on nutrition labels can be off by 20% (so that 400 calorie frozen diet meal can be more like 480 calorie). Cooking and measuring your own food puts you in control. Use the database here to look up calories. If there is a * next to the item then it was submitted by a MFP user so look to see how many confirmations there are. If there isn't a * that means the info was proved by myfitnesspal and it tends to be accurate. You can also double check with other calorie counting websites if you aren't sure.

3.) If you don't own one, buy a food scale. You don't need to spend more than $20 on one. And here is why: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVjWPclrWVY


Good luck!

Sierrasdawn

bump

neandermagnon

As people have stated 1500 seems to be very low and I agree, however being 295 @ 6'2" I actually am gaining weight at 2000 calories a day (gained 4 pounds last week). I highly doubt it is muscle due to the fact that I haven't been working out the last couple of weeks. I'm only doing 1500 calories to push myself over the plateau I am at.

Entering the raw ingredients sounds like a good idea, I'd just need to start measuring food and weighing it before I start eating it. Thanks for the suggestions everyone.

Water weight gain maybe? Were you tracking your sodium? Increasing your calories after eating too few calories, or increasing your carbs after eating low carb, can cause a significant weight gain due to your body storing more glygogen (and water is stored with glycogen, which is what results in the weight gain) - a lot of people see a gain in scale weight following upping calories or carbs, and then freak out, thinking they're gaining fat. However it's not fat, and it's not a bad thing health wise either, and it's not going to keep on happening as the body can only store a certain amount of glycogen.

Additionally, eating sodium can cause water weight gains.

I don't know how someone who weighs 295 and is 6'2" can be in a calorie surplus eating 2000 cals/day, I don't think it's physically possible. I'm 5'1", 130lb and my maintenance calories are more than 1850 cals/day. You need to eat 3500 calories over and above your TDEE to gain one lb of fat. My TDEE is probably around 1950 cals/day. In order for me to gain four lbs of fat in one week, I'd have to eat 3950 calories a day for the whole of that week. That's almost double what you say you ate, and I'm a petite woman. That is why I'm so sure that the scale weight gain you saw could not possibly have been fat.

Seriously, go to the road map thread, calculate how many calories you should eat to lose weight. When you start eating more, you have to allow your body to adjust to the new calories, you do see a gain on the scale but it's just water, then after your body's settled down, the weight starts going down.

DaniH826

As people have stated 1500 seems to be very low and I agree, however being 295 @ 6'2" I actually am gaining weight at 2000 calories a day (gained 4 pounds last week). I highly doubt it is muscle due to the fact that I haven't been working out the last couple of weeks. I'm only doing 1500 calories to push myself over the plateau I am at.

Entering the raw ingredients sounds like a good idea, I'd just need to start measuring food and weighing it before I start eating it. Thanks for the suggestions everyone.

No way you gained 4 pounds in fat last week by eating only 2000 kcals per day. It was probably mostly water retention.

Maybe focus on fat loss, rather than weight loss.

My weight can fluctuate by about 5 pounds over the span of a given day, just FYI.

Eat healthier, move more, and use the recipe builder for raw/unprocessed ingredients rather than mostly prepackaged items.

Having said all that, if 1500/day works for you, then go for it. You know your body best.