Questions - please help this old lady.

1200 is too low. Here:

If you have 75+ lbs to lose 2 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 40-75 lbs to lose 1.5 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 25-40 lbs to lose 1 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 15 -25 lbs to lose 0.5 to 1.0 lbs/week is ideal, and
If you have less than 15 lbs to lose 0.5 lbs/week is ideal.


You are responsible for choosing an accurate activity level. Don't try to speed up the process by choosing "Sedentary" just because it is an option.

Almost no one is Sedentary. If you care for children at home, or go to school or have any type of job, you are not Sedentary. Choose accordingly.


http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/186814-some-mfp-basics

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/61706-guide-to-calorie-deficits

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/8977-your-body-s-thoughts-on-calories

I'm 52 and in perimenopause. Over the past year I have lost 30lbs and have averaged 1700-2100 calories per day. I certainly wouldn't eat 1200. That's far too few calories. The one thing I would say, though, is that to do that I had to increase my exercise. On a day when I am very sedentary I would burn 1600 calories. So if I want to eat more than 1600 (which I always do) then I exercise to 'earn' more calories. That way I've never been hungry. I too would recommend you listen to the 'Fat 2 Fit radio' website and listen to the audio files about their philosophy. Good luck!

I think the best way to go is to eat based on your BMR/TDEE calculation. You can go to this website: www.fat2fitradio.com and use the military body fat calculator and hten the BMR calculator. Based on your activity level you can see how many calories you should eat to attain and maintain your goal weight.

1200 is probably too low for you - I am 42 and eat 1750 a day to lose .5 per week (I am very close to goal - your loss will likely be faster at first).

Remember - you should not eat below your BMR for an extended period of time as yoru BMR is what your body needs to maintain proper organ function. If your organs are not functioning properly, imagine how much harder it is to lose weight...so eat between your TDEE and BMR.

This ^^^^^^^

Finally, I'd suggest an excellent book that will explain about how to keep fit and healthy into your 80s and beyond - it's called 'Younger Next Year' and it will be the best few £s or $s you ever spend!

I'm a female, 53 years old and just started going through menopause a year ago. I've always had a good normal weight of 125-130 pounds throughout my life now I weigh 165 pounds. I sure age has a lot to do with the weight gain since the metabolism has been slowing down. What I'm having trouble with is feeling hungry all the time and eating non-stop all day. I have never felt this way before the doctor said when you start losing hormones due to menopause this can happen. I will be getting my thyroid and hormones check soon.
Now to my question, MFP set my net calories to 1200 is this total number I should be eating every day? Also on the left side of the goals MFP set my calories at 1700 (rounding number) - 500 calories = 1200. What I'm thinking I have to eat 500 calories less to lose a pound a week. Please don't look at my diary I'm ashamed of the amount I eat and not to mention junk food. I am working on changing my eating habits one day at a time. I tried eating more protein and fiber but I still feel hungry. I've always had a secondary lifestyle but for the last two weeks been using Leslie Sansome dvds, 'Walking at Home', and burning 200 calories a day
Can anyone help me to figure out how calories I should be eating a day before exercising and should I eat back my exercise calories? I appreciate any help. Thanks.

The bad news is that new research has demonstrated that eating junk food (very high in carbs--especially sugar) damages one's metabolism. Several docs have discovered that their patients' thyroid function improves when their patients eliminate sugar and cut back on carbs (to 100-200 grams per day--with the higher amount on exercise days). So you probably have damaged your metabolism. The GOOD NEWS is that you can get healthier by avoiding the foods that have damaged you and eating the foods that are good for you. My body was a total wreck a little over a year ago. I was 100 pounds over-fat, had high blood sugar-- was"pre-diabetic," and had high blood pressure (was on two different medications, both of which made me sick and achy all the time). I had mood swings, was diagnosed with "gouty arthritis" and caught every single bug that was going around. Then I got mad about feeling so crummy (and I'm older than you, so stop calling yourself old! ) I read LOTS of stuff about aging and health (aging is a lot about disease and pre-disease states). Since I started my "get healthy" campaign, I have lost 50 pounds of fat (7.5 inches off my waist) gotten off of both blood pressure meds, normalized my blood sugar numbers, my joints haven't felt this good since I was a teenager, and I generally feel GREAT! I know that, in due time, I will lose the other 50 and keep it off--unless I can't exercise for some reason. :frown: In the course of my journey, I arrived at some bits of knowledge that I remind myself of every day:

1) Sugar will make you sick and too many simple carbs will make you sick. The more you eat of them, the sicker you will get.

2) Exercise must be viewed as just another type of nourishment for your body (and I have been sedentary most of my life). You really start to shrink when you get your exercise level to 150 minutes a week but for optimum fat burn, three hours or more is better. But listen to your body and build up slowly. I know that I will have to increase my exercise for the second half of my journey (because you have to have a minimum number of calories to be properly nourished so, you have to just expend more calories as you get closer to your goal weight).

3) You will not do exercise you don't like or if it hurts you. So strive to find one that you DO like and stay with it (and everyone can find something. Mine is swimming and water aerobics because I have arthritis and I also do not perspire well, so I tend to overheat and faint doing non-water exercise.)

4) Vegetables are especially healing. (Too bad if you don't like them---eat them anyway. Once you stop eating so much junk, you may find that you actually like them after all.) Fruits are potent healers too but should be limited to one serving or two servings a day max while you are trying to lose body fat. (Bears get very fat by gorging on massive amounts of wild blueberries and buffalo berries at the end of summer. But then they use up their body fat when they hibernate. Now...If we could only figure out how to hibernate... )

5) Don't eat "low-fat" or especially "no-fat" processed foods. They take out the fat, and put in sugar and/or starch to replace the fat they've taken out. Studies have shown that it is possible to lose weight on "no-fat" foods but that when the diet is stopped, the participants tend to regain (probably because they have depleted their essential fatty acids, among other things). Our ancestors ate about the same amount of fat as we do--but they were thin. Now, most of them DID get a lot more exercise than we do (they did heavy manual labor and they walked a lot) but, interestingly, they also ate fewer calories over all--even when food was cheap and plentiful. Where do our extra calories come from today? Simple carbohydrates, and especially sugar. Our per capita consumption of sugar in this country has gone from 5 pounds a year in 1900 to 150 pounds a year now! :noway: It would be bad enough if it were just "empty calories" (which it is--and we can ill-afford "empty" calories on a calorie-restricted diet) but it is worse than that. The rise of obesity and Type II diabetes (which is really just one disease--some researchers term it "diabesity") perfectly tracks the rise in the consumption of sugar. Like other addictive substances, we tend to want to eat more and more of it. There's a book called, "The Fat Switch" by cardiologist/renal specialist, Richard J. Johnson, M.D. whose research has demonstrated that fructose (table sugar is 50% fructose) is dangerous to eat in large quantities because of the metabolic derangement that it causes. One small orange has about 2 grams of fructose, one can of soda (which is sweetened with high fructose corn syrup) has about 26 grams out of a total of 44 grams of sugar.

6) Wheat is addictive for me so I have eliminated wheat products and replaced it with 100% organic whole rye bread--no one "pigs out" on 100% whole rye bread--they would be physically unable to eat anything else. It's that filling--unlike refined wheat. I could eat a half loaf of fresh white wheat bread in one sitting, in the past. (See the book, "Wheat Belly" for some interesting bio-chemistry on wheat consumption.)

7) Don't try to take "shortcuts" by limiting your intake even further than what is recommended. The idea is slow and healthy loss of body fat. Losing lean muscle mass will hurt you in the long run, which is what will happen if you don't keep your calories up and make every one of them contribute to better health. It doesn't seem fair that we can gain body fat much quicker than we lose it, but that's just the way it is. A bear puts on a lot of fat very quickly and loses it over a period of at least 6 months. There's probably a survival mechanism operating there---both for the bear and for us. We need to be grateful for that--otherwise, we likely wouldn't be here having this discussion.

I don't know if it is so in your case but prior to being diagnosed with hypothyroidism I was starving constantly. I kept telling the Dr. but I ams so hungry I can't stick to this 1200 calorie sheet he passed off. i changed Dr.'s and the first thing she did was test my thyroid. It was extreme. I now take 188mcg's of synthroid every day. My skin is no longer cracked, I am no longer sleepy all the time, my legs don't hurt anymore and I can lose weight although it is harder. I also am not constantly sincerely hungry. Best of luck to you!!

I sure age has a lot to do with the weight gain since the metabolism has been slowing down.

You may want to read an online article by Joel Fuhrman entitled Slow metabolism linked to longevity, which says that "raising your metabolism is not the key to weight loss." But could speed up aging, which is not so nice.

I sure age has a lot to do with the weight gain since the metabolism has been slowing down.

You may want to read an online article by Joel Fuhrman entitled Slow metabolism linked to longevity, which says that "raising your metabolism is not the key to weight loss." But could speed up aging, which is not so nice.

Yeah, I think that is the likely mechanism operating in the rat longevity experiments they did a number of years ago. They discovered that if they cut the rat rations in half, that the rats became thinner but that they also lived quite a bit longer than their lab-mates who received a normal level of rationing . The metabolism of the deprived rats probably fell off a bit. Now, it is important to note that laboratory rat food is nutritionally complete (unlike our SAD diets which are full of junk food). Consequently, it would not do to cut the typical human diet in half as that would likely lead to some kind of nutritional disease in short order. One of the main reasons why it is a bad idea to include junk food in a calorie-restricted diet. Not only does it lead to nutritional deficiencies but an even likelier prospect is that the weight will be regained in the body's relentless pursuit of what it needs to be healthy.

I'm a female, 53 years old and just started going through menopause a year ago. I've always had a good normal weight of 125-130 pounds throughout my life now I weigh 165 pounds. I sure age has a lot to do with the weight gain since the metabolism has been slowing down. What I'm having trouble with is feeling hungry all the time and eating non-stop all day. I have never felt this way before the doctor said when you start losing hormones due to menopause this can happen. I will be getting my thyroid and hormones check soon.
Now to my question, MFP set my net calories to 1200 is this total number I should be eating every day? Also on the left side of the goals MFP set my calories at 1700 (rounding number) - 500 calories = 1200. What I'm thinking I have to eat 500 calories less to lose a pound a week. Please don't look at my diary I'm ashamed of the amount I eat and not to mention junk food. I am working on changing my eating habits one day at a time. I tried eating more protein and fiber but I still feel hungry. I've always had a secondary lifestyle but for the last two weeks been using Leslie Sansome dvds, 'Walking at Home', and burning 200 calories a day
Can anyone help me to figure out how calories I should be eating a day before exercising and should I eat back my exercise calories? I appreciate any help. Thanks.

I'm 51 and I've been in menopause for about 2 years now, and so my loss should tell you it can be done. Everyone's body is different no matter what others may tell you. Drives me nuts when people say THIS is what you have to do to lose weight cause nothing else is right and nothing else works. We are all supposed to work the same way but we don't, if that were true we'd all be skinny or we'd all be fat. So it's safe to say we all lose the weight different ways. I do my way and love it, cause it works perfectly for me. Find something that works for you and don't be discouraged if it doesn't work, learn to adjust and remove or add things to find the perfect balance for you. Fasting works, eating several small meals a day works, eating low works, eating high works, eating low carb works, carb recyclying works, eating paleo works, find what works for you and don't let others tell you that their way is the best because your way is the best for you (when you find your way).

BTW, when I get the chance to exercise I don't eat my exercise calories back, learned it doesn't work for me. It may work for you.