1600 cals seems like a lot of food

I eat 1850 a day, seems like I'm eating all the time! But I am losing way more weight. I used to eat 1600 and it was horrible :grumble:

'i love reading this, from someone who has lost the magic nuimber i'm aiming for especially!! thanks xx and congrats!

I want to know what people are eating that is keeping them full for under 1600. ??? I am struggling staying under 1800 net. AND I am eating healthy. Breakfast puts at 400+ and that's eating nonprocessed oatmeal, fruit , milk , a juice ( a spritz of juice with water) and coffee 2 sugars a milk. Add a healthy, low darb sandwich around noon at 300 and that leaves me 700/800 more till 10pm not alot for dinner, snacks, drinks. What am i missing???

I wonder if cutting down the calories in your drinks would help - if you are haveing a few coffees a day with 2 sugars each and other drinks with calories these will push your calorie count up without keeping you full.

Most days I just drink non sweetened coffee and water , maybe half glass of OJ - and I find that doesnt add many calories at all.

It really depends on your height and your starting weight. When I first started and punched all the numbers in, it said that I should eat 1200 cals a day. I eat that amount probably a couple of days a week but for the most part I am at between 1000 and 1100 per day. I burn an extra 500 - 700 per day during my workouts and I do not replace those calories on most days. I have been consistantly losing an average of 1.5 pounds per week. I have been on MFP since January and have lost 39 pounds. The key for me is that I eat if I'm hungary, I don't force myself to eat just to reach my calorie goal for the day. My suggestion to you is to listen to your body, see how it goes for a couple of weeks and make adjustments as needed. Also, make sure your calories are a good balance of carbs, proteins and fat. Good luck to you!!!

My advise, don't listen to what this lady does. Not cool. Netting around 500 cals a day is pretty sure to do you more harm than good in regards to long term weight maintenance. I wish people would temper their advice when it's like this. You may be happy abusing and under feeding your body but please don't encourage new members to do the same.

This.

That was horrible advice. I agree that nobody should listen to it. In fact, I'd delete it if I had the power. It should probably be reported as "promoting unsafe diet practice", which is against forum rules, but I'm not report-happy like some people...

Yeah, 1600 calories can feel like a lot depending how you eat, and how you are used to eating. Healthy fats are your friend--they will add beneficial calories as well as nutrients. Do you like avocados? I love them because they're so tasty, but also full of stuff that is so healthy including good fats. They're also higher in calories, so when I find myself a bit low for the day, avocado is one of my favourite foods to grab to boost the calorie numbers to where they should be.

good to know...although i think i have been eating around 1200-1500 ish and then i was burning about 600 so it seems like i was left with 900 could that be why i couldnt loose weight?
I am not used to this approach of eating more!

This is why it works, you do not have to starve yourself to lose weight. I would never been successful if I had to eat the bare minimum. Plus MFP estimates your daily deficit, so I ALWAYS eat back my calories. I lose the amount I am suppose too.

Definitely eat your calories back! I have my cals set at 1200 which is low for me but I do around 600 cals of exercise or sometimes more and always eat the calories back. It is a better way of losing weight and you are need the energy! There is already a deficit built in by MFP so you shouldn't make it more of a deficit by not eating back exercise cals. In the long term, you are much more likely to keep the weight off too. Don't eat low cal versions as people have said...they are usually not that good for your body anyway.

is it just me or does this seem like the opposite of what you are used to doing? do really need to eat the cals that i burn too? or will i loose weight quicker if i do not?

I too am a little confused by this. All "eating more" has ever got me was more pounds. I'm not sure I trust the wisdom of this.

Have you noticed the people who are saying this (like me) have been around here a while and lost a decent amount of weight? Why would you not trust someone who's had such fantastic results?

is it just me or does this seem like the opposite of what you are used to doing? do really need to eat the cals that i burn too? or will i loose weight quicker if i do not?

I too am a little confused by this. All "eating more" has ever got me was more pounds. I'm not sure I trust the wisdom of this.

Eating more than what - that is the question.

yes if you eat more than yuor maintenance you will gain, but that's not what people mean.

Mostly it's aimed at people who eat the bare minimum, and they can actually eat more than they are, and still lose, as they are still eating under maintenance.

I prefer to eat the maximum I can whilst losing weight, not the minimum, which for me is a sensible 20% defict from my TDEE.

It really depends on your height and your starting weight. When I first started and punched all the numbers in, it said that I should eat 1200 cals a day. I eat that amount probably a couple of days a week but for the most part I am at between 1000 and 1100 per day. I burn an extra 500 - 700 per day during my workouts and I do not replace those calories on most days. I have been consistantly losing an average of 1.5 pounds per week. I have been on MFP since January and have lost 39 pounds. The key for me is that I eat if I'm hungary, I don't force myself to eat just to reach my calorie goal for the day. My suggestion to you is to listen to your body, see how it goes for a couple of weeks and make adjustments as needed. Also, make sure your calories are a good balance of carbs, proteins and fat. Good luck to you!!!

My advise, don't listen to what this lady does. Not cool. Netting around 500 cals a day is pretty sure to do you more harm than good in regards to long term weight maintenance. I wish people would temper their advice when it's like this. You may be happy abusing and under feeding your body but please don't encourage new members to do the same.

Agreed!! Eating 1000 - 1100 calories and then burning 500 - 700 calories during a workout without eating those cals back? I would pass out every single day, I don't understand how or WHY people do it.

I eat 1640 cals per day and I eat my exercise calories back and I lose consistently. I have my goal set to 0.5 pounds per week right now because I'm close to goal (before that I was eating 1500 to lose 1lb per week) but I usually lose about 0.8 pounds a week right now.

So yourself a favor and forget all the crap people have been saying for decades about how to lose weight. The best way: lose it slowly, it will stay off - you develop good habits that you will take through your life time. So, eating more will give you energy to keep you motivated and happy and let you live while losing. It's not a diet, it's a healthy lifestyle change. I'm in maintenance right now and trust me the better you eat during the early stage the easier maintenance is.

It really depends on your height and your starting weight. When I first started and punched all the numbers in, it said that I should eat 1200 cals a day. I eat that amount probably a couple of days a week but for the most part I am at between 1000 and 1100 per day. I burn an extra 500 - 700 per day during my workouts and I do not replace those calories on most days. I have been consistantly losing an average of 1.5 pounds per week. I have been on MFP since January and have lost 39 pounds. The key for me is that I eat if I'm hungary, I don't force myself to eat just to reach my calorie goal for the day. My suggestion to you is to listen to your body, see how it goes for a couple of weeks and make adjustments as needed. Also, make sure your calories are a good balance of carbs, proteins and fat. Good luck to you!!!

My advise, don't listen to what this lady does. Not cool. Netting around 500 cals a day is pretty sure to do you more harm than good in regards to long term weight maintenance. I wish people would temper their advice when it's like this. You may be happy abusing and under feeding your body but please don't encourage new members to do the same.

This.

That was horrible advice. I agree that nobody should listen to it. In fact, I'd delete it if I had the power. It should probably be reported as "promoting unsafe diet practice", which is against forum rules, but I'm not report-happy like some people...

agreed

is it just me or does this seem like the opposite of what you are used to doing? do really need to eat the cals that i burn too? or will i loose weight quicker if i do not?

Unless you're working out HARD for 2 hours straight, there's a very good chance that you're overestimating how much you burn working out.

Eating back your calories or not depends on the type of formula you used to calculate how much you should eat. The one MFP uses does have you eating back exercise calories.

I can put away 1600 calories in a meal, it's near impossible for me to eat less than 1600 without feeling like I'm going to eat someone's arm off.

<snippety>
Don't focus on the scale, or how long its taking or going to take. Just log your food, try to get as close to netting your calorie goal as possible +/- 90% of the time and relax. Calorie deficit + exercise + wait for results = success. If you follow that, you WILL lose weight.

Yes! That. Unlike this poster, I log it all, because I do need to keep track of how far over I go, AND I have found that my appetite often gets me to a happy weekly average.

I have found it can be challenging to get enough calories, and my goal is about 3000 just to maintain with my activity level, so I have a lot of calories I'm supposed to find during the day.

To me, the challenge seems to come from a trend where health-conscious food items or recipes tend to focus on being low calorie. Most of the recipes I use from books that are health conscious enough to provide the nutrition information are usually 300-400 calories. Freezer meals, especially Healthy Choice / Smart Ones type meals, can be similarly focused on keeping their calories low. Usually, I'll build the core of my daily diet around healthy recipes and then have space where I can make up the rest of my needs with fun, less health-focued foods like chocolate milk, flavored almonds, even a chocolate bar now and then. Consuming the bulk of the calories from healthy sources keeps me from overdoing the fun stuff, but having some room for the fun food helps keep things from feeling restrictive.

As far as eating back calories: IF your exercise is included in the activity level you selected to calculate your needs, do NOT eat them back. You have already "gotten them back" by being allowed a higher baseline calorie level.

What many people do is set their activity level at "sedentary" so their daily calorie allowance is the "survival" amount. When they log activity, that calorie requirement is in addition to their needs at a sedentary level, so they DO need to eat the exercise calories back.

Im dreading it when my cal intake drops after losing weight

My calorie intake went up as I lost weight, not down.

I started off obese, so was eating 1300 cals/day. A bigger deficit is safer if you have a lot to lose.

As I got leaner, I switched that to 1400 cals/day to avoid loss of lean tissue and metabolic slowdown. I also was more active, simply because I was fitter so was able to do better workouts.

As I got leaner still, I switched to 1500 cals/day. I wasn't really doing all that much more exercise than at 1400 cals/day

I'm currently maintaining my weight at 1800-1900 calories/day. And I'm not even that active. In fact right now I'm not even allowed to lift weights (medical reasons), though I can't wait to get back into it.

If you look after your lean body mass and metabolism, it isn't necessary to keep on cutting your calories lower and lower.

Thank you funny you say that. Ive been eating more than my allotment just a couple of days here and there. I workout alot but the past seven days I have been so hungry so ate more. I appear to of dropped weight for a change *thumbs up*