How many cals should I be eating?

2»

Replies

  • deksgrl
    deksgrl Posts: 7,237 Member
    The projections won't mean much now. If you reset your goal manually to a deficit off TDEE, then do not log exercise calories, eat to your calorie goal regardless of exercise.

    So if I run my TDEE calculation without excersise, can I log it then? I kinda liked having my activity logged and seeing my numbers go up and down :(

    I log my exercise but I just call it 1 calorie burned, so that I can keep a record that I did exercise for motivation. Or you can still log it but don't pay any attention to the adjusted number MFP will give you for your goal, just eat to your total.
  • BurtHuttz
    BurtHuttz Posts: 3,653 Member
    Thank you SO MUCH!!! You have no idea how much agony you've saved me.

    I'm going to swing for 2200-2300 a day and see what happens.

    Edit: Should I even pay attention to MFP's projections? Now it's saying I won't even lose a pound in a week.

    I've seen a bad pattern here where people try REALLY hard and cut their calories down much lower than they should be. These people starve and are miserable and end up not making very much progress. They decide that losing weight is too hard, and quit, and are less likely to try again because they really did try so very hard and go through agony. So, YAY! That isn't going to happen to you. You're about to find out that the hard parts of weight loss will be more than off-set by the positives.

    MFP's projections are dumb, by which I mean unsophisticated. There are 3500 calories in a pound of fat. You want to lose 3500 calories in a week, cut 500 calories a day (500 * 7 = 3500). MFP calculates something like your TDEE and recommends that you cut from that. MFP has a hard line at 1200 which it will not go below. It's nearly arbitrary, not 'recommended for you'.

    If you tell MFP you want to lose a pound a week it tells you to cut 500cal per day from your TDEE. Two pounds? 1,000cal. What if you want to lose four pounds a week? That's not that much more than two, right. So just have a deficit of 2,000 calories per day and you'll starve to death.

    Nothing is so cut and dried but I've seen consistently positive results across the user-base here with a simple reasonable cut from TDEE. It's sustainable, it doesn't need to be unpleasant, but most of all, you're learning how to eat right so you can keep the weight off for life - - not just crash to lose fat and then go back to old, bad habits.

    You can do it!
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,428 MFP Moderator
    You lose weight by being under your BMR, which is higher than 1200 cals. Never eat less than 1200, and eat back all your exercise calories.

    Actually, you should not eat below your BMR. This is the number of calories your body would burn if you were in a coma state. If you eat less than this your metabolism will slow down in response.

    So far what's worked for me is calculating TDEE and subtracting 15-20%. My BMR is a little above 1400 and I'm eating about 1650 a day.

    Actually you can eat under your bmr with no problems depending on your weight. I am under the care of a dietician and she says it is not a problem, my doctor also said the same thing

    There is no scientific reason that supports that you shouldn't eat under your BMR but common sense would suggest eating less than your metabolic would cause your RMR to adjust. It is not uncommon that an resting metabolic rate to suppress itself over an extend period of calorie suppression.

    Also, long periods of low calories can increase the chances of catabolization of lean body mass. LCD in general were only designed to be for short periods of time.
  • Mads1997
    Mads1997 Posts: 1,494 Member
    That might be the case if you are not far from goal but if you have 20 or 30 kilos of fat to lose that is not going to happen. I think The professionals know a little more than MFP members on the subject.
  • BurtHuttz
    BurtHuttz Posts: 3,653 Member
    That might be the case if you are not far from goal but if you have 20 or 30 kilos of fat to lose that is not going to happen. I think The professionals know a little more than MFP members on the subject.

    Are you saying that people on MFP should recommend that individuals begin risky, unsupervised diets that are occasionally recommended for individuals under the care of a physician and dietician?

    Or are you saying that, when people are asked for advice on MFP, they should say "nope, I can't help you, talk to a professional"?

    Or are you just having a bad day and you want to quibble?

    Malnutrition is a risky prescription, don't be cavalier.
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,428 MFP Moderator
    That might be the case if you are not far from goal but if you have 20 or 30 kilos of fat to lose that is not going to happen. I think The professionals know a little more than MFP members on the subject.

    You do realize that we have dietitians and people with a lot of nutritional education on here (including PhD's). Don't make the assumption that because I am on a forum, I know little or nothing about nutrition. But you are partiallycorrect, the larger amounts of additional weight, the less likely you will catabolize lean body mass, but only if you are eating adequate protein and doing resistance training. It's basic fat loss vs weight loss. Below is a good article that demonstrates what I mean. And all subjects were obese.

    http://www.metaboliceffect.com/topic/38-nutrition-lifestyle.aspx
  • award1223
    award1223 Posts: 1
    According to these calculations, I should be eating between 1500 & 1550. Is there a way to enter your own daily calorie goal? I changed it to lose 1/2 pound per week & it has me at 1470 or to maintain it put my calories at 1620. I'd really like my diary to show 1550 at the bottom.
  • deksgrl
    deksgrl Posts: 7,237 Member
    Go to "My Home" and then Goals, then click on "change goals" and choose "custom"

Categories