How low can you go....under your daily suggested calories?

adammacvicar
adammacvicar Posts: 12
in Health and Weight Loss
Heya guys, just joined up after spending a couple weeks on my diet, figured it was time to stop freestyling and time to start planning. The issue I am having is that I am not coming close to my daily suggested calorie limit, but I am not hungry at all! I feel like I could survive on half of the suggested calories per day, but is that healthy? I want to lose weight and all, but I have a very physically demanding job and don't want to harm my body by underfeeding it.

For a larger male (6'2, 265lbs with broad shoulders and lots of muscle mass) that works a heavily physical job, what is the minimum calories I should be consuming to stay safe? I'd rather have slower weight loss that is healthier and safer than to damage my body, but at the same time I find myself coming well under my suggested goals and am not even hungry at all throughout the day.

And just in case anyone was going to ask, no I am not taking any supplements or pills of any kind. The closest I am coming to a weight loss aid is a couple cups of black coffee in the morning, and a cup or two of tea after work. I am planning on taking protein supplements once my exercise ramps up a bit, but currently have not started with that.
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Replies

  • SteelySunshine
    SteelySunshine Posts: 1,092 Member
    This is the calculator I use. If anything it underestimates calories needed so it's safe IMO.

    http://www.fitnessfrog.com/calculators/tdee-calculator.html

    I know when I was working a job like yours I ate at least 3700 calories (it was too many I gained) but, I am much shorter, older, female, but I still needed a lot, just not that many.

    Anyway, from what I gather here you go 20% below your TDEE and log all of your food. Since you have a physical job you probably won't have to worry a whole lot about exercising beyond what you get at work, but a couple weekend walks can't hurt.
  • adammacvicar
    adammacvicar Posts: 12
    Wow...according to that calculator I should be consuming almost 4k calories per day, and I am struggling to manage the 2500 that MFP suggests. Also that's just with the moderate exercise button selected...

    Who would have thought the hardest part of my diet would be eating MORE!?!
  • katy_trail
    katy_trail Posts: 1,992 Member
    can you put your diary setting to public so we can give tips on what to add?

    often it's easy to add some olive oil to a recipe you're already having or
    nuts just as examples, of stuff you can eat when you're not hungry
  • katy_trail
    katy_trail Posts: 1,992 Member
    actually, i have total empathy for your situation
    never thought i would feel that way
    but i've been feeling that way on and off last couple of weeks
    since i started eating drastically more protein
  • adammacvicar
    adammacvicar Posts: 12
    Changed it to public. I should note, I only have a couple days tracked so far.
  • tinypastels
    tinypastels Posts: 32 Member
    Yep, its oh so true! Some people who have used heart rate tracking devices to really tell how much they're burning versus eating, actually found they were eating too little when they plateaued. Once they ate more, boom! The weight came off! Eating for Beauty by David Wolfe has some radical suggestions to overthrow your diet, but I like the random superfoods he lists for you to eat. After reading it, I'm thinking "so wait...I need to allot 5000 calories to get all of that??" haha not really, but you feel tempted!
  • katy_trail
    katy_trail Posts: 1,992 Member
    well that's expected you just joined, the days that are logged, is that a typical day?
    do you kinda just eat the same things over and over
    or is it different each day?
  • katy_trail
    katy_trail Posts: 1,992 Member
    well you're already eating calorie dense foods, are you also really busy all day?
    they seem to be quick foods too
  • adammacvicar
    adammacvicar Posts: 12
    well you're already eating calorie dense foods, are you also really busy all day,
    they seem to be quick foods too

    Yeah I have a very busy schedule, and I don't really have a typical day yet for my food lol.

    The closest I have to a regular pattern so far, is I eat a piece of fruit or two in the morning, some nuts/fruits/seeds at work, then some sort of dinner right after work, and usually a snack of some kind after that.
  • trumpkat80
    trumpkat80 Posts: 42 Member
    I can completely relate. I've been at a plateau for a while now & just figured out I'm consuming 600 cals less than needed daily! I train like a beast & wasn't getting results. Starting tomorrow I'll aim for 1,800 (instead of 1,200) Good luck & feel free to add me, we can encourage one another to eat more ;)
  • katy_trail
    katy_trail Posts: 1,992 Member
    so are you eating fruit (nothing wrong with fruit, i love fruit)
    for breakfast, bc its fast or just bc you're not hungry yet?
    if you're hungry just in a hurry, there's lots of things you could try
    if you're not hungry yet, then it's different ideas
  • adammacvicar
    adammacvicar Posts: 12
    so are you eating fruit (nothing wrong with fruit, i love fruit)
    for breakfast, bc its fast or just bc you're not hungry yet?
    if you're hungry just in a hurry, there's lots of things you could try
    if you're not hungry yet, then it's different ideas

    I never have gotten hungry much in the morning, in fact it's rare that I would even eat ANY breakfast before my diet, indeed it was few and far between that I would have more than a small snack at lunch as well. The fruit is mostly just so I have something in my stomach other than coffee for the start of my shift at work.
  • Requiembell
    Requiembell Posts: 106 Member
    I am a similar body type. What will happen if you don't enough is that you burn the muscle and don't build it back, keeping the body fat.

    You need to eat, and you need the right things. Lots of the advice people will give you about fruit and such will likely not work very well, especially if you do low intensity labor all day. (construction)

    Feel free to hit me up with your details if you want to know what I do.

    Edit: Oh and as much as you hate it, eating in the morning will help you.
  • simplynaturalfarm
    simplynaturalfarm Posts: 73 Member
    I might suggest you go lighter on the nuts - I find that if I eat a couple oz of nuts that makes me full enough to happily skip a meal. Now if I don't need a meal that is one thing, but if you are trying to consume your calories, eating 2 cups of a nuts a day is very filling. :)

    I honestly can not imagine eating like that - I love my protein and there are a lot of calories in protein and fat. I eat cheese, lunch meats (I do my own so as to avoid nitrates), boiled eggs, my breakfast every day is homemade sausage and 2 eggs, lunch is usually a protein filled salad (it is very easy with 1/2 avacado and a few cubes of cheese to get to 500 calories with a salad), and supper is where I often add my tiny bit of carbs with my protein and veg. I also include a lot of fat in my diet, so ghee, coconut oil, fatty meat etc take the calories up quickly. I also use good homemade low carb dressing, but there are tons of calories in dressing - whenever people tell me they can't get to their calorie goals, I tell them to stop with the no fat unhealthy dressing ;)> then again, my macros are set to 20/40/40.
    But I do raise all my own meat and dairy, so i am very confident of the source and quality - I have to admit that if I had to buy from a regular store I most likely would not consume protein like this. :)

    My husband eats the same but no fruit and very few carbs (his blood pressure goes up with carbs), and weight just melts off him . . . me,I followed his diet and for 5 weeks i lost nothing - nada, not an ounce LOL. Very frustrating because I logged and weighed things every single day and I was absolutely anal about everything.
    I added about 50 grams of carbs per day and am losing about 1.5 -2lbs per week. We are all different so you can chuck my advice in the garbage if you like. :)
  • katy_trail
    katy_trail Posts: 1,992 Member
    that is what i suspected, my guy eats the same pattern as you, except even more drastic often only eating 2x. he wakes up not hungry for hours, works either doing stuff around the house or going to his job, and he's either waiting to eat till he
    gets done with something or when he's hungry several hours later. then at night he has a big meal, and in the morning he's not hungry again. anyway, so it sounds like similar eating pattern. i've noticed when i eat dinner earlier, then when i wake up, i'm hungry. and the amount of protein you're eating at dinner also affects it, keeps us full for a long time. so you had a big steak last night and you're digesting it all night long. not really a surprise you're not hungry right?

    so you could experiment with different eating times, i'm not sure how much you can change that.
    and experiment spreading the protein through the day so it doesn't all come at the end of the day.
    if that sounds good? then i could get more specific
  • katy_trail
    katy_trail Posts: 1,992 Member
    i think the nuts was a good portable idea. i'm sure what you can bring to work is pretty limited.
    was a good fats and protein healthy choice
  • Requiembell
    Requiembell Posts: 106 Member
    Katy has such a cute puppy. I just want to fluff it and tug its ears.
  • katy_trail
    katy_trail Posts: 1,992 Member
    Katy has such a cute puppy. I just want to fluff it and tug its ears.

    her name is Shiva and she is queen of ice :D

    here's abit older pic
  • katy_trail
    katy_trail Posts: 1,992 Member
    when we brought her home she was no bigger than an adult cat, she was 2 months old
  • adammacvicar
    adammacvicar Posts: 12
    I am a similar body type. What will happen if you don't enough is that you burn the muscle and don't build it back, keeping the body fat.

    You need to eat, and you need the right things. Lots of the advice people will give you about fruit and such will likely not work very well, especially if you do low intensity labor all day. (construction)

    Feel free to hit me up with your details if you want to know what I do.

    Edit: Oh and as much as you hate it, eating in the morning will help you.

    Yeah I'm doing warehousing, but specifically taking the harder posts lately where I can work as hard as I can manage if I so desire. And yeah, that is my major concern for long term, is losing muscle mass. Right now I would say I am at or very near where I want to be for muscle, perhaps a bit more tone but my mass is great atm, my problem is this fluffy outer coating haha.
  • adammacvicar
    adammacvicar Posts: 12
    I might suggest you go lighter on the nuts - I find that if I eat a couple oz of nuts that makes me full enough to happily skip a meal. Now if I don't need a meal that is one thing, but if you are trying to consume your calories, eating 2 cups of a nuts a day is very filling. :)

    I honestly can not imagine eating like that - I love my protein and there are a lot of calories in protein and fat. I eat cheese, lunch meats (I do my own so as to avoid nitrates), boiled eggs, my breakfast every day is homemade sausage and 2 eggs, lunch is usually a protein filled salad (it is very easy with 1/2 avacado and a few cubes of cheese to get to 500 calories with a salad), and supper is where I often add my tiny bit of carbs with my protein and veg. I also include a lot of fat in my diet, so ghee, coconut oil, fatty meat etc take the calories up quickly. I also use good homemade low carb dressing, but there are tons of calories in dressing - whenever people tell me they can't get to their calorie goals, I tell them to stop with the no fat unhealthy dressing ;)> then again, my macros are set to 20/40/40.
    But I do raise all my own meat and dairy, so i am very confident of the source and quality - I have to admit that if I had to buy from a regular store I most likely would not consume protein like this. :)

    My husband eats the same but no fruit and very few carbs (his blood pressure goes up with carbs), and weight just melts off him . . . me,I followed his diet and for 5 weeks i lost nothing - nada, not an ounce LOL. Very frustrating because I logged and weighed things every single day and I was absolutely anal about everything.
    I added about 50 grams of carbs per day and am losing about 1.5 -2lbs per week. We are all different so you can chuck my advice in the garbage if you like. :)

    Oh man, so much dairy. I personally had dairy pegged as my major problem, everything I ate was loaded with dairy, I havent cut it out entirely but really just some yogourt or cream cheese here or there for me.

    Actually have been using coconut oil a lot in the last while, mostly for my baking. Definitely a good idea for adding calories!
  • adammacvicar
    adammacvicar Posts: 12
    i think the nuts was a good portable idea. i'm sure what you can bring to work is pretty limited.
    was a good fats and protein healthy choice

    Yeah thats a big part of it, I take the bus to work and don't have a lot of time during work hours to really eat anything major, I crunched some numbers and saw that a mix (which I am experimenting with a lot at the moment) of nuts, seeds, soya nuts, and dried fruit was a great go-to for me.
  • katy_trail
    katy_trail Posts: 1,992 Member
    you'll need to calculate your lean body mass if you haven't yet, and eat enough protein to maintain it.
    so 1g protein per lb of lean body mass.along with eating enough calories to fuel your body.
  • tinypastels
    tinypastels Posts: 32 Member
    I've been tracking with a couple other apps since August 2010. Actually used to be 20 pounds heavier than this, but I consider this a fresh start :) Don't assume that month under names is accurate, its easy to get a new account.
  • katy_trail
    katy_trail Posts: 1,992 Member
    well I guess cheese sticks is out :noway:
  • Requiembell
    Requiembell Posts: 106 Member
    well I guess cheese sticks is out :noway:

    WHAT??!! Damn! :brokenheart:
  • katy_trail
    katy_trail Posts: 1,992 Member
    I've been tracking with a couple other apps since August 2010. Actually used to be 20 pounds heavier than this, but I consider this a fresh start :) Don't assume that month under names is accurate, its easy to get a new account.

    well he said he was new at the beginning.
  • katy_trail
    katy_trail Posts: 1,992 Member
    well I guess cheese sticks is out :noway:

    WHAT??!! Damn! :brokenheart:

    :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
  • littlebudgie
    littlebudgie Posts: 279 Member
    If you like nuts, what about a peanut butter and banana smoothie to take to work with you? Pretty good calorie boost, and I've always found it easier to drink extra calories when I'm not hungry than to eat them.
  • katy_trail
    katy_trail Posts: 1,992 Member
    i think the nuts was a good portable idea. i'm sure what you can bring to work is pretty limited.
    was a good fats and protein healthy choice

    Yeah thats a big part of it, I take the bus to work and don't have a lot of time during work hours to really eat anything major, I crunched some numbers and saw that a mix (which I am experimenting with a lot at the moment) of nuts, seeds, soya nuts, and dried fruit was a great go-to for me.

    can you take a cooler to work with you?
    how much time do you get for lunch?

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