Am I eating too few calories?

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Schmidty102
Schmidty102 Posts: 168 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hey all,

I went on a diet about two weeks ago but have yet to lose any weight. I started out at 180lbs, and am still there. I have been restricting myself to roughly 1500 calories a day.

I am 18, male. 5'6"

I do about 200-250 calories of cardio every day.

Any suggestions on how to get myself down?
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Replies

  • Schmidty102
    Schmidty102 Posts: 168 Member
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    Bump
  • CloverCreeper
    CloverCreeper Posts: 178 Member
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    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12
  • misssiri
    misssiri Posts: 335 Member
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    What she said

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12
  • billsica
    billsica Posts: 4,741 Member
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    Open your diary, so we can see,
  • jzammetti
    jzammetti Posts: 1,956 Member
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    You are still growing - my son is also counting calories and we had a tough time finding a TDEE calculator that worked for someone who was still growing. Maybe use this site I found: http://www.bcm.edu/cnrc/healthyeatingcalculator/eatingCal.html

    It is specific to kids aged 2-20. When we did the typical BMR/TDEE calculator for my son it came out to 1900 calories a day to lose about a pound a week. Well, it worked for 3 weeks then he stalled. We found that other site and recalculated - his TDEE is 2800. So, with a cut of 500 a day he is eating at 2300 a day. We tried it last week and he lost 2 pounds.

    Best of luck to you!

    Edit: I put your info into that website and at a 20% cut (nearly 2 pounds a week) you should be around 2400 calories a day. I know it sounds high - but when you are still growing your body needs more than a fully developed adult. If we do not eat enough, our body loses lean body mass and slows your metabolism (from everything I have read, and personally experienced, this seems to be true).
  • jenniferldorris
    jenniferldorris Posts: 15 Member
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    You have many advantages that will assist you at reaching your goals, 1. You are male and therefore are going to have a higher metabolism, 2. You are 18 so you have the advantage of age as well as energy levels. I would make sure your intake for those 2 weeks was accurate because you should have seen a loss the first week. Increase your activity as much as you can and as you start to build muscle you will begin to burn even more calories per day. Good luck and stick to it! It will work.


    I would also say make sure you are getting enough protein, alot more than what your breakdown says.
  • symonspatrick
    symonspatrick Posts: 213 Member
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    1700 or 1800 calories sounds more healthy than 1500 since you should be eating 1666 if you were just laying in bed all day. You should be losing weight even with 1800 calories. Maybe you need to more carefully track your food intake and make sure you are logging correctly. Also it would help if you open your diary so people can give you better feedback.
  • krickeyuu
    krickeyuu Posts: 344 Member
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    I am a 52 year old female, 5'4" and I eat more than 1500 calories a day so I am sure you need to eat more food. See a Dr. or Registered dietician to find out what an 18 year old young man should be eating to lose weight but not compromise development.
  • Schmidty102
    Schmidty102 Posts: 168 Member
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    I just joined the site today, so I do not have any food tracked in there yet. I will start keeping track tomorrow. I was trying to use an iPhone app called "Lose It!" and it told me to eat 1,581 calories a day. Do you think I should eat about 1600 calories for another week and if there is no loss, up the calories by about 200?
  • mockchoc
    mockchoc Posts: 6,573 Member
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    I'm a 119lb short old lady and I'm on 1650 and doing about the same exercise calories. Yes you need to eat way more.

    Did the app include exercise calories. I'd say eat what it says plus your excercise cals. Best though is to do the roadmap link above.
  • Schmidty102
    Schmidty102 Posts: 168 Member
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    The link above says I should be eating roughly 2000 calories. That seems really high to me, as I ate around that in the summer and did not really fluctuate in weight any, plus I worked mowing lawns all summer. Does this seem right?
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
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    are you just doing cardio or also weight training...

    you said you do cardio everyday..is that seven days a week no matter what or is every day really five days?

    at 3-5 days of activity your maintenance calories are 2990 deducting 30% from that gives you about 2090 calories per day and that is a 4200 a week deficit...

    If you are not strength training you should seriously consider starting a total body workout plan and mixing in some cardio...at the minimum you should probably bump up to 1800 and see how that goes for a few weeks...
  • Schmidty102
    Schmidty102 Posts: 168 Member
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    I generally do 2-3 miles of walking/jogging/running 6 days a week. I do a little bit of weight lifting twice a week, but nothing big.
  • Schmidty102
    Schmidty102 Posts: 168 Member
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    bump
  • Energizer06
    Energizer06 Posts: 311 Member
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    This sounds right for u.....plus add the 200 or so calories from your workout days. Yep, its a hell of a lot of heathly food everyday. I'm 38 burning close to 2900 calories a day....eating 2500 which is very hard when its all healthy. And still losing a lb/wk
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
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    I generally do 2-3 miles of walking/jogging/running 6 days a week. I do a little bit of weight lifting twice a week, but nothing big.
    can you join a gym or do you already belong?

    If yes, then you should probably try and go with a total body work out three days a week where you hit legs, arms, chest, back, etc...and are doing squats, deadlifts, overhead press, pullup/chin up, etc...and then do cardio on your two days and take two days off...

    try that for four to six weeks and adjust as necessary...
  • julesxo
    julesxo Posts: 422 Member
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    It seems too low. I would bump it up to at least 1800 cals
  • deksgrl
    deksgrl Posts: 7,237 Member
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    For the love of [insert your deity here], eat some more food.
  • WendyTerry420
    WendyTerry420 Posts: 13,274 Member
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    Hey all,

    I went on a diet about two weeks ago but have yet to lose any weight. I started out at 180lbs, and am still there. I have been restricting myself to roughly 1500 calories a day.

    I am 18, male. 5'6"

    I do about 200-250 calories of cardio every day.

    Any suggestions on how to get myself down?

    Men should not go below 1600 calories. At your height and weight, you should shoot for only a slight deficit. You are NOT obese.
  • Schmidty102
    Schmidty102 Posts: 168 Member
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    At 1800 calories MFP says I will lose about .8lbs a week. I am wanting it closer to 1.5lbs a week. Are you thinking I will lose more than what MFP says with 1800 calories? (I am trying to get down to 155lbs by graduation).

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