Newbie. 1200 or 1850 calories? Help

DebiS1972
DebiS1972 Posts: 23
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi

I have bought the insanity workout dvds. Using the HBE to calculate (and I want to lose weight) so i took off 500 calories at the end then the calc tells me to have 1850 a day (which does seem a lot to me). I input the exercise factor in of 1.55 for moderately active due to the exercise i will be doing, although i have a desk job all day.

When i first signed up to this forum and said i wanted to lose 22 pounds it said i should eat 1200 calories.

So a differnce of 600 calories is a lot eh?

I have been yo yoing for years now but last 6 months i am really going for the very healthy eating and exercise stuff.

40 years old
female
166 pounds
Want to be 143
Will work out hard 5 times a week
Understand the carb/protein/fat balance

I just want to see results as i do get demotivated :(

I have read some posts here and get teh BMR and TDEE etc but then obviously different formulas are telling me differnent things.

Am i missing something?

thanks
Debi

Replies

  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,428 MFP Moderator
    When you input your goals in mfp most people dont include exercise or pick a goal that is too aggressive... like 2 lbs per week with 20 lbs to lose. Follow the insanity guide. Do 1800 calories a day with macros at 40/40/20 c/p/f.


    Also pay more attention to pictures and measurements and less on arbitrary weight goals. Fat loss > weight loss.
  • CDAGMA
    CDAGMA Posts: 9 Member
    I hear you on this one! I posted yesterday about almost this very thing. From what I have read both on this site and other internet searches is that 1200 is not a good daily calorie intake as your body may think it is starving and start storing fat. I put in to lose 7 lbs at 1 lb per week and MFP also gave me 1200 calories. General rule of thumb (again from my reading) is to never drop below your BMR rate in calories. I have since, at the suggestion of others on here, have gone back and modified my weight goal to 1/2 lb. per week and it now has me at more calories per day. I work out 3 to 4 times a week. Good luck - I get frustrated at trying to figure out the best way to approach this..... but MFP is a REALLY great site and I am glad my friend receommended it!!
  • korygilliam
    korygilliam Posts: 594 Member
    I think the difference is coming from your activity input. You say that you have a desk job, but you entered moderately active. At most, I would have the exercise cause me to be lightly active (as opposed to sedentary), but I think I would maintain the sedentary activity selection due to the exercise being only 1 hour a day, at the most.
  • TriShamelessly
    TriShamelessly Posts: 905 Member
    Debi: Trying to keep it simple (there are a lot of varying opinions on MFP and elsewhere). Leave your calorie goal at 1200 as MFP suggests. As someone else suggested, as a desk jockey like myself, your activity level should be set at sedentary. Then, assuming you do workout and add that info into your diary, it will tell you how many more calories you can/should be eating that day to replace the ones you burn. If you don't eat back all your exercise calories burned, your weight loss will (over time) be greater than the level you set it at here which assumes no exercise for the initial calculations - but just your basic physiological info. Hope that helps and welcome to MFP. Bill
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,428 MFP Moderator
    Debi: Trying to keep it simple (there are a lot of varying opinions on MFP and elsewhere). Leave your calorie goal at 1200 as MFP suggests. As someone else suggested, as a desk jockey like myself, your activity level should be set at sedentary. Then, assuming you do workout and add that info into your diary, it will tell you how many more calories you can/should be eating that day to replace the ones you burn. If you don't eat back all your exercise calories burned, your weight loss will (over time) be greater than the level you set it at here which assumes no exercise for the initial calculations - but just your basic physiological info. Hope that helps and welcome to MFP. Bill

    Her weight loss will be greater due to muscle loss. I can tell you these programs need a lot of calories and there a reason why beacbody recommends so many calories. Just like weight watchers or southbeach, do the programmed as designed or you wont see the results they advertise.
  • DebiS1972
    DebiS1972 Posts: 23
    Thank you everyone...
    This does seem like a really good site. I think i will go with the 1800 at 5 meals a day.

    I will let you know how i get on
  • aliciab307
    aliciab307 Posts: 370 Member
    Hi

    I have bought the insanity workout dvds. Using the HBE to calculate (and I want to lose weight) so i took off 500 calories at the end then the calc tells me to have 1850 a day (which does seem a lot to me). I input the exercise factor in of 1.55 for moderately active due to the exercise i will be doing, although i have a desk job all day.

    When i first signed up to this forum and said i wanted to lose 22 pounds it said i should eat 1200 calories.

    So a differnce of 600 calories is a lot eh?

    I have been yo yoing for years now but last 6 months i am really going for the very healthy eating and exercise stuff.

    40 years old
    female
    166 pounds
    Want to be 143
    Will work out hard 5 times a week
    Understand the carb/protein/fat balance

    I just want to see results as i do get demotivated :(

    I have read some posts here and get teh BMR and TDEE etc but then obviously different formulas are telling me differnent things.

    Am i missing something?

    thanks
    Debi

    I'm currently doing Insanity, starting back up on Monday. I plan to leave my activity level at sedentary because other than my workout I sit down all day, except to use the bathroom, cook, etc. I have a HRM and I am going to use the calories expended during my workout and eat back those calories.
    I set MFP to lose 1 lbs/week so I have 1530 calories and I assume that I will be burning 250-300 calories so in total I'll be taking in 1780-1830.

    So I think you're right on target
  • CDAGMA
    CDAGMA Posts: 9 Member
    My calories are at 1310 now based on losing 1/2 lb. per week. Still seems low to me but on workout days I can have 1640. I thinking I am building more muscle than I thought therefore not losing the weight quickly.... is this a realistic calorie goal for a day? It still seems low to me - BMR is 1306.

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