Another excuse for my weight gain

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mrskeziawallace
mrskeziawallace Posts: 40
in Food and Nutrition
As a kid I was a little number obsessed and in my head for years I had the "women should eat 2000 cals a day" that the NHS promote stuck in my head:

I always was stumped by my weight gain as I have never eaten 2000 cals a day but my weight kept creeping up. I did a food journal at Christmas, I was averaging 1700 cals a day and weighed about 200lb.

I have just been researching BMR and finding out how many calories you burn just being alive and am a little surprised. Plugging in my data I find the following:

to maintain 200lbs I should eat 1700 alories - SPOT ON!
eating 2000 calories a day I would weigh 265lb - giving me a BMI of 40!
I'd have to be over 6ft 7 for 2000 calories to maintain a healthy weight (if I was sedentary)
To be 145lb (slap bang in the middle of the BMI normal) I need 1450 calories a day.

Did anyone else think that they were eating too few calories to justify the size they are?
Why are they telling people to eat so much and then complaining that people are overweight?

Replies

  • JesterMFP
    JesterMFP Posts: 3,596 Member
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    It can be a little confusing when you are constantly told "2000 calories" as if it applies to all women.

    Quick question - do you mean that 1,450 calories is your BMR? If so, that's different from your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure/maintenance number) which should be higher. The NHS are basically saying that women's TDEE on average should be 2,000 calories, not their BMR. They certainly wouldn't be recommending an average based on someone who's 6 ft 7!

    Just as an example: I'm 5'3" and about 127 lbs - my BMR is in the region of 1,342, but I need closer to 1,900 a day to maintain because of my activity.
  • Mimoki
    Mimoki Posts: 115 Member
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    Yeah are you sure your looking at TDEE and not BMR because I need 1700 or so to maintain my weight and I am 5'3 and a little under 150 or so
  • mrskeziawallace
    mrskeziawallace Posts: 40
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    Oh, cool, I'll go have a look at TDEE, haven't come across that before.
  • mrskeziawallace
    mrskeziawallace Posts: 40
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    I guess as an adult I've just never been active enough to justify the difference in calories between TDEE and BMR.

    I'm struggling to work out how many calories a day I will need to maintain my weightloss when I get to my goal.

    SW: 206lb
    CW: 175lb
    GW: 140lb

    Currently 1200-1400 calories a day

    I am 5ft 8 (and a bit)
  • Mimoki
    Mimoki Posts: 115 Member
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    I think most of its trial and error unless you can get yourself to one of those facilities that can test your actual BMR, theres was a post about it a while ago... When I get back to Boston I'm going to look into it and pray my bmr is so high I can eat everything lol.

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