Help with amount of calories I should be eating

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skinnytayy
skinnytayy Posts: 459
edited January 20 in Food and Nutrition
Ok so I have MFP set to 1200 and I thought that'd be enough for me but since I started doing Insanity, I don't think its enough to give me the energy I need plus I'm always hungry. I've heard talk about eating above your BMR but below your TDEE. I calculated my BMR and got 1,658 and I used iifym.com to calculate my TDEE. With the Mifflin-St Jeor formula, its 2,830. With Harris-Benedict, its 3,110 and with Katch-McCardie, its 2,549. So first question is, which one should I go with? I'm not familiar with any of this so I don't know which is accurate. My second question is if I eat 20% less then my TDEE then its somewhere between 2264 & 2488. Those numbers seem ridiculously high to me and the thought of eating anywhere near that much scares me and would likely make me puke. I was thinking of going up to around 1600 (which is just barely below my BMR) instead of 1200. Does anyone think that'd be ok or should I go higher/lower?

Replies

  • kdiamond
    kdiamond Posts: 3,329 Member
    What are your stats? Age/height/weight/activity level

    I think those numbers are probably high for losing weight...more like maintenance numbers. Sounds like you have a high activity level? Be careful with that, it is good to add in your activity, but you can easily overestimate calories burned, even with an HRM.
  • skinnytayy
    skinnytayy Posts: 459
    That's what I was thinking .. I added that I do 5 intense workouts a day but I'm certain they aren't THAT intense. I do Insanity 6 days a week but one day is more of stretching & very light cardio so I figure its really just 5 days. In between that, I do lots of yardwork/gardening, walking, and bicycling but nothing too crazy. I think those numbers are too high for me but I couldn't even eat enough to reach them anyways. Aside from that I'm 20, 5'2, and 206lbs.
  • Railr0aderTony
    Railr0aderTony Posts: 6,803 Member
    You should never eat below you BMR, sounds like you have done a bunch of research to figure all the different settings for TDEE. I would suggest you take the lowest of the 3 then subtract 20% if your Obese, 15% if you have 20-50 pounds to lose or 10% if you have under 20 pounds to lose. That would be your best bet.
  • katevarner
    katevarner Posts: 884 Member
    So, since you have a TDEE using Katch-McArdle, I assume that means you know your body fat. If so, then that's the most accurate TDEE. 20% under would put you around 2000. Fine to eat less than that at first, particularly if you have been eating 1200. I think starting at 1600 (or maybe even 1500) is ok for the first few weeks, then see how it goes. If you are still losing and want to eat more, add 100-200 calories every week or so after that until either you reach 2000 or you quit losing, taking into account that your calorie burn will go down as you lose weight (you should recalculate every 5 lbs. or so).

    ETA: If you are significantly overweight, it's ok to eat below BMR for a while--your body will burn fat to make up for the calories it needs but isn't getting.

    Hope that helps.
  • jzammetti
    jzammetti Posts: 1,956 Member
    Ok so I have MFP set to 1200 and I thought that'd be enough for me but since I started doing Insanity, I don't think its enough to give me the energy I need plus I'm always hungry. I've heard talk about eating above your BMR but below your TDEE. I calculated my BMR and got 1,658 and I used iifym.com to calculate my TDEE. With the Mifflin-St Jeor formula, its 2,830. With Harris-Benedict, its 3,110 and with Katch-McCardie, its 2,549. So first question is, which one should I go with? I'm not familiar with any of this so I don't know which is accurate. My second question is if I eat 20% less then my TDEE then its somewhere between 2264 & 2488. Those numbers seem ridiculously high to me and the thought of eating anywhere near that much scares me and would likely make me puke. I was thinking of going up to around 1600 (which is just barely below my BMR) instead of 1200. Does anyone think that'd be ok or should I go higher/lower?

    I would eat at around 1900 for two weeks (above your BMR) and see how it goes. I am betting you can go even higher, especially if you are working out hard every day (or even 3-4 days). After two weeks, check again and then decide if you should change it again. I have had to adjust calories up four different times to get the weight moving again as I added activity. I am 42 years old, 5'2" tall, 122 pounds, heavy lift three times a week (to the tune of about 500 calories each workout) and eat 1850 a day (which is still a slight deficit).
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