Is the calculated limit too high?

chandnikhondji · March 2010

Hello,

i am having a very draining discussion with a so called "diet expert" among my acquaintances, who makes me feel very bad right now after i felt all high and good about yesterday's success.

She tells me that nobody with eating more calories than 1800 could ever lose weight and questions every step i take because of me being way over her announced limit which is like she said "scientificly proved".

Now i calculated the stuff here on the Homepage and try to keep that in my mind which after her is so totally wrong because it is way too high. I am 1.90 meters tall, 250 kg heavy and almost never move. I would be happy with losing one pound a week already so that is what i put into the calculator for the Goals and it gave me the limits:

Net Calories Consumed* / Day 3,720 calories/day
Carbs / Day 512 g
Fat / Day 124 g
Protein / Day 140 g

Now is that really too high? Is the calculator wrong? Or is she just a smartass trying to push a "one for all" limit into everyone?

mariena · March 2010

Although you might lose 1lb a week eating that much, that still is quite a bit of food. I would assume that taking in that quantity for a while you would lose 1lb a week since it is probably less than you take in now, but as time goes on, to keep losing you would have to reduce your calories again and again to reach your goals "ala weight watchers". To see what your eventual diet might look like, you might put in a calculator your goal weight at a sedentary lifestyle and see what your calorie intake might need to be at to maintain that weight. At a healthy weight you might need to take in around 15-2000 calories a day.

mvl1014 · March 2010

Every body is different, so everybody is different!

FWIW, if you find you can do 3720 too easy, you can step it up to 2lb/week, which would be 3220. You can do this when you have more to lose. When you get within 20 lbs of your goal, you certainly can't do 2 lb/week and will likely be at .5lb/week and ~14-1800 cals.

You will most likely get below 1800, but not for a while and it's perfectly safe and healthy to be above 1800 for some people.

TalonaCat · March 2010

I'm not going to lie. I'm terribad at math, but it sounds like your dietician is trying to use some scare tactics on you. I'll let the more knowledgable people really answer your question, and I'll just offer you the support your doctor SHOULD be giving you. Hang in there, pretty lady.

VictorianJade · March 2010

I know that my calorie intake is pretty high, compared to jewelinvic (who I work with). She's about 600 calories lower than I am, by the calculator, and that makes a big difference in what we can eat. It works out what you can eat TO LOSE>.. so if you normally eat around 5000 calories in a day, then YES, eating 3000 calories in a day is going to make you lose weight for a time.. as you lose weight, you should adjust that intake, to keep up with the 1 lb per week loss.

You are on YOUR plan. Tell her to encourage you or sod off.

DrBorkBork · March 2010

I think you can easily lose 2 lbs a week. Why not try lowering your cals to see what happens? I bet you can do it!

Desiderata · March 2010

well i can tell you there is no "one for all" limit for everyone, because my limits are totally different. But if she's a professional, i would maybe take her word, because MFP is just a computer, with a calculator that takes very minimal information about you to create these "limits".

MFP told me to eat 1200 calories a day, which indeed i would lose weight, but my nutritionist said otherwise; i should be ingesting 1500 calories a day to healthily lose the weight. So i changed it. I think MFP is really just a suggestion. There's a lot of guesstimation that goes into MFP if you haven't noticed

but if you don't trust her and are second guessing MFP, then maybe you should get a second opinion from a professional.

sonjavon · March 2010

Hi there! I see your new.. WELCOME! To answer your question... it's calculated properly. You're finding the same thing that most of us find... "WOW - I'm allowed to eat a lot more food than I thought!" I can honestly say that I eat more now than I did before I started losing weight.
Your friend believes all the hype that the media wants us to believe. You do not have to starve to lose weight. Keep your settings at sedentary and try it for a few weeks... I'm SURE that it will work for you. You can ramp up your activity level as you lose.
It's important to remember that most people who are not severely overweight have NO IDEA how much we should be eating!

You're fine! Congratulations on making the choice to improve your health!

Nich0le · March 2010

Like said, everyone is different. If you go too low you will be hungry and more likely to binge and or give up. I set 10 lb goals for myself and at each 10 lb marker I re-evaluated my calorie range based off of how quickly I lost and exercise hunger etc. Logging everything, including your mood can make a huge difference. As long as you are starting to burn calories too you should start to loose.

Remember, biggest loser style losing is NOT healthy and has many risks associated with it. To lose a pound or two each week is a good goal, slow and steady weight loss has been proven to help people maintain their new weight once a goal is met.

You will find that there are a lot of people who will have advice and sometimes discouraging words, keep your goals in mind and focus on what is working for you! :flowerforyou:

Nich0le · March 2010

Also, calculate how much you would have to eat to maintain your current weight and you will most likely see that the calculated total to lose is at least 500 calories less per day, that alone with no exercise would make you lose one pound per week and you can let your friend know that.

simple math if you are having to eat 4000 calories a day to maintain your current weight and MFP tells you to eat 3500 a day to lose weight based off of your lifestyle answers you will lose a lb a week.

justann · March 2010

Just keep doing what you're doing for 2-3 weeks and see the results for yourself. Oh, except I suggest one major change. Don't discuss your weight loss journey with this aquaintance anymore. Sounds like no matter what you tell her she will think she can tell you how to do it even better. You're better off not discussing it with her at all. Hang in there and enjoy the journey!:flowerforyou:

chandnikhondji · March 2010

Thank you everyone, i was really upset when i talked with her - and no she is no pro, she calls herself an expert because she had to lose weight herself (it's like being an expert with quitting smoking because you made it).

She gave me another calculator website and said "tell me how much LESS calories you might be able to eat when you use this one" and well i gave in my weight, my activities and then well surprise... THAT calculator gave me almost TWICE as many calories than MFP. Strange that after i told her that she suddenly shut up and i haven't got any reply from her yet

I am thankful for the support and the words. I think it would be stupid to think that a person of my size would need the same amount of calories, carbs etc to function than a person like let's say Heidi Klum. So i though there is no "one for all". Thanks for confirming that.

To the "i could to more than 0.5lbs" .... yeah that might be true but right now iam happy i am able to keep the calorie limit, which is a big booster for me. Never before i have been that motivated to lose weight than right now. So i would like to get used to this limit for a few days because i already ate less than i did before and then rethink how much i could do more

cousint · March 2010

I was blown away when I first went to a dietician and she told me I could eat 2200 cals/day and when I was doing it, I was losing at least 2lbs/week. MFP has me at almost the exact same place when you add in my exercise. So, just like many other people have said, every body is different, so your friend can't possibly say that no one can eat more than 1800 cals and lose weight. I'm doing it!

chandnikhondji · March 2010

Oh, except I suggest one major change. Don't discuss your weight loss journey with this aquaintance anymore. Sounds like no matter what you tell her she will think she can tell you how to do it even better. You're better off not discussing it with her at all. Hang in there and enjoy the journey!:flowerforyou:

*laughs* yes sounds like a great advice, i will ignore her from now on *G*

FabiolaEnvy♥ · March 2010

hey chica my loving girl

just stick with the MFP cause, we are all different and all different in height and sizes.
if you do lose weight from eating 1800 then hey you doing great.
i mean my dad is eating 2000 calories and he is losing weight doing his own little diet.
but when you are big, you gotta eat a little more cause of the fact that your body need it.
give yaself a month worth of it. and from there. just see what happens if you are losing weight and if you are not. then, gotta put at least some kind of exercise not a lot at once. just maybe a small walk. i hope you have great joy of it. cause there are girls bigger and their losing weight. so just do what you think is right.

have fun chica.

TalonaCat · March 2010

I will never understand why people have to be so negative when you tell them what good things you're doing in your life. Maybe she's inwardly very unhappy.

FabiolaEnvy♥ · March 2010

I will never understand why people have to be so negative when you tell them what good things you're doing in your life. Maybe she's inwardly very unhappy.

its the fact of losing patient and money. not trying to sound rude or anything but that what they do sometime if they want people to come back and dont want to see progress.

and others will say wow congrats hope you have a great progress and all that great stuff like my professional did

she even wooted and told me maybe this could help also. and i was like thanks

amk44 · March 2010

I agree with VictorianJade.

JMO, but I believe there's a psychological element to weight loss that is often overlooked. For me, I could have started off much lower in calories than I did, BUT (again "for me") doing that would have resulted in a couple of weeks of some weight loss and then "burnout" and quitting. I know me better than anyone else...

) So I made a conscious decision to lose "slowly" - with the hopes that if I did this right, I would change my eating habits to "healthy habits" by the time I reached my goal. Then the new healthier habits would help me "maintain" that weight. Hope that makes sense. I haven't reached my goal yet, but smaller portions of healthier food is becoming more and more a "habit" for me.

Maybe a compromise?? If the person is indeed a professional, then at least consider what they say, or find a professional that you have confidence in.

If that person is just an acquaintance that likes to flaunt their personal ideas, then maybe do some of your own research to find the plan that "makes sense to YOU". This is YOUR adventure, and there's no ONE WAY to proceed! [For me, I found some great research-based info online. But I will admit that I thought the tables were crazy when I looked at the recommended weight range for me. Now that I'm getting closer to my current goal, and that recommended weight is in view, I don't regard it as such a ridiculous goal anymore. For me, I needed to set up "small" attainable goals, which then started getting bigger and bigger.]

Have confidence in yourself - and I'm hoping we will see a post from you in the near future telling us of some "success" that you are having. Good luck to you.

p_poppenhagen · March 2010

When you put your current weight in and then what you want to be at... the goals will be set for you. It is going to take time because we have been eating unhealthy for a long period of time. Don't let anyone tell you you can't do this. The most important thing is eating healthy. After doing this for only a short while, my system is adjusting already. I am very encouraged. I still pop a jelly bean or two, but I stick to my caloric goals which have been set. I do not deter from them. I am losing weight and have more energy already. I have another 19 lbs. to go! I try to make healthy food choices all day long. But if you stick to the caloric intake you will see that it works. I even had a DQ blizzard (small) and a little cake at a birthday gathering one evening. I still lost 1 lb. that week. I don't eat like that all the time and that is the key. Reward yourself once in a short while

I will admit its getting easier to eat the healthy food. My body is getting use to the good food and after I ate the DQ blizzard my tummy didn't like it so much. So I learned a valuable lesson. Our bodies will adjust. Give it some time and remember there will always be some people who will try to rain on your parade. Don't let them! This is worth it!!!!!!!!!!! Hugs!

girlruns · March 2010

Ignore this person! MFP is the best, and we all work really hard on hear, but that doesn't make us experts either. I would like to think that we at least have some better tools at our disposal. I hear things at work all the time that boggle my mind. One girl at work told me that if you feel hungry after working out you didn't work out hard enough. WTF??? I work out at 5 am. Depending on when I had dinner, by the time my workout is done it could have been 12 hours since I ate. I can be hungry!! There are also two women who I ALWAYS here talking about their diet "I can't eat this, this, this, this, or that". My guess is that they will not be succeeding. Now, looking at my diary for today, I don't have all the answers, but obviously this woman doesn't either. Use all the tools on MFP, use us, and stick with it! Welcome to the rest of your life!

jennylynn84 · March 2010

I hear things at work all the time that boggle my mind. One girl at work told me that if you feel hungry after working out you didn't work out hard enough. WTF??? I work out at 5 am. Depending on when I had dinner, by the time my workout is done it could have been 12 hours since I ate. I can be hungry!!

Haha! I love this. I'm in a competition at work and they have the craziest strategies to try and win. They are currently drinking vinegar. One of them also told me she didn't want to lift weights because she didn't want to gain muscle and therefore not lose weight. Instead she does the elliptical machine (which I guess doesn't tone muscle? LOL). One person even said they don't turn the fan on at the gym because if it cools them off and they don't sweat as much they won't burn as many calories. Say what?!

The weird, weird things people believe.

I lift weights three times a week, don't drink vinegar and I'm turning that fan on when I'm sweating like a hog! And I'm winning. :laugh: :laugh:

Don't listen to "experts." Listen to your body.

odessa_raven · April 2010

One thing on the MFP site I like is the BMR calculator in the Tools section. There can't be any sort of one-size-fits-all calorie limit because the larger you are the more calories you need just to keep you body working. You can't use the same amount of energy to heat a two-story house as you would a one-bedroom apartment. Anyone who claims to be any kind of expert while ignoring that should certainly be listened to with a cautious ear.

Is the calculated limit too high?

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