Very confused about my calorie intake

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  • weezieleopard
    weezieleopard Posts: 41
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    Welcome to the site lady!

    Sounds like you're doing well already. Keep up the good work! Don't get discouraged by the occasional negative attitudes either... one or two crop up in just about every thread. The vast majority of MFP folks are profoundly supportive and encouraging!

    Feel free to add me as a friend if you want!

    Thankyou! I will! (:

    It just threw me for a loop that someone decided to be rude because I've always found this site so helpful and full of kind people.


    At the end of the day we're all in this together! All in the same boat! Good luck :)
  • laurenmcd94
    laurenmcd94 Posts: 18
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    It was really rude of you, I'm sorry if it's rude of me to be telling you that but it's kind of mean to ask someone who's 100lbs overweight, "haven't you ever eaten over 2000 calories?"

    No ****, sherlock, how do you think I got this way? But when you're watching what you eat and taking care of yourself, and eating foods that are low in calories but fill you up better than foods that are high in calories, it gets difficult to feel like you can eat some more.

    But I guess if you're not afraid to offend me then I'm not afraid to tell you to be careful of what you say to people. You might really hurt someone's feelings.

    U took me seriously? Fatal mistake.

    To be honest, I didn't, and I had a feeling you were just being sarcastic, but I decided to let you know that in a different day and age, I would have gotten offended by that, so I know there are others who could get offended by the same thing. I've grown a thicker skin, but I'm just letting you know that unless you know for sure that the person you're being sarcastic or "joking" with is okay with it, you should just be courteous. It's also pretty dumb to say something like that to someone who needed legitimate information. I'd rather have not seen it at all, lol. Who you are is who you are, I can't change you, but I just think it's nice to keep people's feelings in mind because some are more sensitive than others.
  • tadpole242
    tadpole242 Posts: 507 Member
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    So I have my settings set like this:

    Age: 18
    Height: 5'6"
    Weight: 255
    Working out 5x a week, 30 minutes each time
    And my caloric goals are set to 1650 because of that.

    HOWEVER, I worked out and burned 466 calories today. So now it's telling me that my goal for today is 2116. This makes absolutely no sense to me. Why is that? I thought it was already set to cover the workouts?

    I've only eaten 1377 calories today and I can't even imagine eating 1650, how the heck do I bring myself to eat 2116? Aren't I defeating the purpose of my workout by eating 2116 calories?
    Your body is an engine, it burns fuel.
    If you start with a full tank, and don’t fill up, you can go for a few days without running out, but you’ll get to the point where you bonk, which is a term which means have no available fuel, and you body will slow down and you’ll feel like crap.
    Your body needs a minimum of calories to survive, say 1200, which is just your body ticking over. Sleeping sitting, pumping the blood.
    Moving about burns more, so you need more, say 400 more calories, that’s just food for walking about, even standing or driving.
    So to keep that up long term you need 1600 a day.
    So to lose weight you need only eat 1200 calories and you body will scavenge the remaining needs from fat, and still have enough to fuel and repair the body
    Add in to the mix exercise 400 a day and you’re up to 2000 calories of demand, but if you are only eating 1200 calories your body will struggle to fuel and repair you body. Eventually it will start to seek fuel from easy sources, as converting fat takes a lot of energy, so the body try and save precious energy by picking a fuel source that does not take as much energy to convert and that is muscle, and the muscle of choice for the body to break down for fuel, well that would be the heart.
  • Jemmuno
    Jemmuno Posts: 413 Member
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    I have a similar problem, my caloric intake for the day is set at 1490 and I usually burn between 300-600 a day with exercise, so usually my calorie intake ups to 1800-2000. How, I look at it is I try to eat before and after my workout and worry about getting in enough protein and I don't worry too much about eating back calories. If I do fine, if I don't then that's fine too.
  • texastango
    texastango Posts: 309
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    So I have my settings set like this:

    Age: 18
    Height: 5'6"
    Weight: 255
    Working out 5x a week, 30 minutes each time
    And my caloric goals are set to 1650 because of that.

    HOWEVER, I worked out and burned 466 calories today. So now it's telling me that my goal for today is 2116. This makes absolutely no sense to me. Why is that? I thought it was already set to cover the workouts?

    I've only eaten 1377 calories today and I can't even imagine eating 1650, how the heck do I bring myself to eat 2116? Aren't I defeating the purpose of my workout by eating 2116 calories?

    This is why there the difference: Your BMR is how many calories you'll burn in a day if you lay in bed. Although this doesn't make much sense....if you exercise 5 times a week and the formulas use exercise to mean an 800 calorie burn - you're BMR would increase. So these formulas are used to calculate the BMR - not the actual extra caloric burn you have. So you need to add this in later. Remember these are just estimates.

    Does that help?
  • zechks
    zechks Posts: 224
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    I checked out your stats in the calculator and your BMR is currently at 1990 and TDEE 3085 (given your level of activity as moderately active, working out 3-5 days a week)

    You should be eating at least 2000 cals minimum. That's a 1000 calorie deficit already from your TDEE so you may lose some significant amount of weight without starving yourself.. Or you may wanna take it a bit slow and cut back maybe 700-800cals a day. But that's just my advice. You can still do whatever you wanna do. :)
  • victoriadw84
    victoriadw84 Posts: 77 Member
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    Good question....I registered on this site a year ago as you can see but some emergency situations have taken place, I have now been back on here faithfully for over a month and was wondering the same as you. Thanks for the post and all the replies, helps put things in perspective for me as well :) Good luck!
  • victoriadw84
    victoriadw84 Posts: 77 Member
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    I checked out your stats in the calculator and your BMR is currently at 1990 and TDEE 3085 (given your level of activity as moderately active, working out 3-5 days a week)

    You should be eating at least 2000 cals minimum. That's a 1000 calorie deficit already from your TDEE so you may lose some significant amount of weight without starving yourself.. But that's just my advice. You can still do whatever you wanna do. :)

    How/where did you determine those numbers? I am trying to figure that out for myself but clearly lost as how to do so lol! Thanks!
  • roybot86
    roybot86 Posts: 8
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    Hi

    I was really confused about this when I first started too. It seemed to be to be misleading to suggest that I should eat all the calories I've burned - surely I'm supposed to be burning them?!

    I just made sure I stuck to my initial calorie target of 1590. If you're finding it easy enough to keep within your initial target then just focus on that.

    Good luck!
  • lynz4589
    lynz4589 Posts: 389 Member
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    Agreed - some people are far too rude on here when decent people are asking for honest advice. Theres no need for it, whether they feel they are joking or not.

    Back to the subject at hand though I only ever eat my daily goal I set for myself which is 1300 (I sometimes go over but no more than 100 cals on a bad day!) any exercise I do I consider it a bonus and dont touch it that way you create a deficit through eating and exercise, I never understood the whole eating back what youve lost.

    Im going to add you in the hope I can offer more support :)
  • laurenmcd94
    laurenmcd94 Posts: 18
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    Thanks everyone! I get what you're all trying to say. The BMR stuff always throws me off and confuses me.

    So basically, even though the site uses formulas that are technically estimates, I should trust what the numbers tell me and try to eat 2,000 if it's telling me to?

    I read a blog post one day about how this girl lost weight and she said that on the days she'd work out, she'd eat a higher amount of calories, but on the days she was sedentary she adjusted it to the 1000 calorie deficit...

    So basically, if I'm sitting on my butt I should eat 1650 and if I'm working out and log my workout and it tells me to eat more, I should eat more and my deficit will still remain the same?

    But I shouldn't eat UNDER 1650 on ANY given day and I shouldn't eat over 2000 either?
  • vanillarama
    vanillarama Posts: 101 Member
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    When you are given your BMR (basal metabolic rate)- on this particular site, it is how many calories you need maintain your current weight, without any sort of physical exercise. The amount of calories needed to lose weight safely is a small percentage below that. A lot of other BMR calculators originally take your level of activity into account, such as this one:

    http://www.muscleandstrength.com/tools/bmr-and-daily-calorie-calculator.html

    The thing is, you really have to be honest with yourself about what you're doing- neither under or overestimating- to get a more accurate number. I mean, if you want a super accurate number, you could go to a doctor and pay to have it done, but I don't think that is necessary.

    Just make sure, and this goes to a lot of people posting in here, that you DO eat enough calories coming from healthy sources. Your body wants to help you be healthy, but you need to help it efficiently access the fuel it needs to do so.

    I wish you the best of luck on your journey :)
  • mockchoc
    mockchoc Posts: 6,573 Member
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    I eat back every one of my exercise calories and I'm going fine with losses. I hit a plateau and ate more and dropped even more straight away.

    Don't let yourself get hungry like I did. I was fine for months then all of a sudden eating the same amount was starving even with eating exercise calories too. Eating more can work because it can stop you bingeing.
  • floridachikk
    floridachikk Posts: 41 Member
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    Try nuts, nut butter, avocado, beans, lentils, or meat to add healthy calories. Hummus it also a great choice. :)

    If you told MFP that you are sedentary when you set your goals, then it did not include exercise/activity in your calorie intake. Your fitness goals of exercising 5x a week are recorded to help you keep track as a separate goal.
  • emsicle_o
    emsicle_o Posts: 162 Member
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    This really threw me the other day too!

    I think what it basically means is you need xxxx amount of calories just to do your normal everyday things, and if you do any additional exercise or movement you will need more calories to compensate.

    So for me, I need 1200 calories per day just to sit on my lazy butt, do a bit of cooking, cleaning, and go to work.

    But, if I were to do an hour exercise, I'd need an additional say 300 calories on top of that, otherwise I could start losing weight in the wrong way i.e.) burning muscle mass instead of fat. So my daily instake goes up to 1500.

    Well, that's what I assume anyway. Not sure if it's right, but makes sense to me! xx
  • tryclyn
    tryclyn Posts: 2,414 Member
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    Let's just say "eat less to weigh less" is what gave me the body I have today, Been there, done that, the T-shirt doesn't even fit. I'd rather take it slow and now I'm at a place in my life where I can.
  • laurenmcd94
    laurenmcd94 Posts: 18
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    I eat back every one of my exercise calories and I'm going fine with losses. I hit a plateau and ate more and dropped even more straight away.

    Don't let yourself get hungry like I did. I was fine for months then all of a sudden eating the same amount was starving even with eating exercise calories too. Eating more can work because it can stop you bingeing.

    Yeah, it's 3AM where I am and I'm sitting here wondering how the heck I'm gonna eat the rest of the calories haha! I'd have to binge in order to do it.

    I totally understand plateaus even though I don't understand this stuff too well - it just makes sense that your intake or output is off if you're hitting a plateau. Plateaus have always looked like "starvation mode" symptoms to me - you're eating calories and working hard but your body isn't letting you lose weight? Then you're not eating enough. That I get :)
  • laurenmcd94
    laurenmcd94 Posts: 18
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    Let's just say "eat less to weigh less" is what gave me the body I have today, Been there, done that, the T-shirt doesn't even fit. I'd rather take it slow and now I'm at a place in my life where I can.

    I know what you mean! Your body just adds more fat to compensate (:
  • yarwell
    yarwell Posts: 10,477 Member
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    Thankyou! I'm new to this and all I'm trying to understand is how, even though I burned off 466 calories through exercise, eating them back is going to help me lose weight. To me that makes absolutely no sense.
    It isn't going to help you lose weight, the argument is that if you've restricted your food intake in order to lose weight then on days you do exercise there's no need to increase the restriction / deficit further so you eat the exercise calories and that cancels out the calorific benefit of the exercise.

    If you were exercising for other reasons it would make sense, but if you're only exercising for weight loss it doesn't - especially as the 466 is probably an overestimate.
  • laurenmcd94
    laurenmcd94 Posts: 18
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    This really threw me the other day too!

    I think what it basically means is you need xxxx amount of calories just to do your normal everyday things, and if you do any additional exercise or movement you will need more calories to compensate.

    So for me, I need 1200 calories per day just to sit on my lazy butt, do a bit of cooking, cleaning, and go to work.

    But, if I were to do an hour exercise, I'd need an additional say 300 calories on top of that, otherwise I could start losing weight in the wrong way i.e.) burning muscle mass instead of fat. So my daily instake goes up to 1500.

    Well, that's what I assume anyway. Not sure if it's right, but makes sense to me! xx

    Yeah, I completely understand that. I just didn't know if I was correct or not in my thinking that by burning calories, it was pointless to put them back. But if what I am being told is accurate, and exercise raises your BMR, then it makes very much sense to me that the calculator wants me to eat 2000 instead of 1650 today since I worked out. I guess if it's numbers and those numbers came from scientific data and that's what it's telling me to do, I should listen :P I am afraid of plateaus and I do not want them at all!

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