Calorie question for LARGE males

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Ascolti_la_musica
Ascolti_la_musica Posts: 676 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Male, 1.83m tall, large frame.
CW 167 kg.
GW 73 kg.

Completely sedentary. Desk job, zero exercise, zero willingness to exercise. Does nothing but play video games while at home.
Walks around 500 steps per day, or less. (Usually MUCH less. Our house is not that large, and he stays in his office chair most of the time.)

Does 3,000 calories seem too high?

We're trying to make a meal plan, including his favorite chips, bottle of soda with lunch, candy, etc. and it seems like MFP wants him to eat even MORE food than it took for him to get this fat. We added in PILES of crap, and still had to find more junk to add to reach 3,000. Something is just not adding up here. We calculated his food for an average day (including 5 servings of dinner and half a bag of chips) and he came in around 2,600.

I am hopeful that once we get his diet under control and he begins to lose weight that way, he will be more inclined to try exercising with me. For now, we are only interested in figuring out his calories.

How did the larger guys get started? Back when you were at your fattest and unwilling or unable to exercise, how many calories were you eating? What did you drop it down to when you decided to lose weight?

Replies

  • pastryari
    pastryari Posts: 8,646 Member
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    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/819055-setting-your-calorie-and-macro-targets
  • Markguns
    Markguns Posts: 554 Member
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    try the spreadsheet in this thread, here:

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/750920-spreadsheet-for-bmr-tdee-deficit-macro-calcs-hrm-zones


    Start WALKING.....
  • jakeabhau
    jakeabhau Posts: 30
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    I am 6'3" (1.9m) tall and started at 103 kg. My goal weight is 82 kg and I am at 86 kg right now. I have done this by eating 1700 calories per day and it has taken me 4 months to get here. I do exercise twice a week. but even on those days, I don't eat much more than 2000 calories. Its enough. Its not too much. It's challenging and I'm healthy.

    Just saying. For what its worth
  • TravisBikes
    TravisBikes Posts: 674 Member
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    3,000 isn't a lot. It may be quite a bit more than what most people *think* they are eating though.

    http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/

    Use that to calculate the TDEE with a 20% cut. Which does put it at ~3,100 calories. It would be a good starting place.

    If you look at calorie counts, one 3.5oz bag of chips can have 3-5 servings in there, at ~140 cals each for example. Oils used in cooking, or condiments can add up too.

    Try getting everything weighed with a digital food scale, and log accurately, doesn't take much to get to 3,000.

    I'm at 215lbs, and on 2500 calories a day.

    Even logging calories, and ESTIMATING my amounts I put in here, some days I probably ate between 3000-4500 while maintaining my weight, not losing anything, and not gaining.
  • goodtimezzzz
    goodtimezzzz Posts: 640 Member
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    vary them 3000 one day 2600 the next 3500 the next 2200 the next etc. find your magic pattern:)
  • matt2442
    matt2442 Posts: 1,259 Member
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    :grumble:
  • Danni3ll3
    Danni3ll3 Posts: 365 Member
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    I think you are off on your calorie count. A day that includes "5 servings of dinner" unless it was mostly vegetables is nowhere near 2600 calories. A small dinner is around 500 calories so 5x500 is 2500. And that doesn't include breakfast, lunch or that bag of chips. You might want to actually measure the food in cups or weight it. And be sure to use the accurate amount of calories. Unfortunately, MFP has a lot of wrong entries.
  • mwbulechek
    mwbulechek Posts: 162 Member
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    I started at 371 pounds, MFP recommended 2300 per day, I too sit at a desk and did very little to exercise. After speaking with my doc she told me to set my goal at 1700 calories and to not go over. That is what I have stuck to with the few times I have gone a little over.
    When I started I cut out all extra sugar items, soda, candy, cake and such just cold turkey. After about 2 weeks I started to cut my calories back and then cut them down to 1700 on about week 3. I maintained the no extra sugar theory for a month or two, I do have some here and there now. Even a 1/2 piece of Cheese Cake Factory cheese cake the other night and stayed at my 1700 goal. The initial weight loss for me was about 4-6 pounds a week! Gave huge motivation to keep it going! I started to go to the gym about 4 weeks into my journey. I go 4-5 days a week now! Kinda a bit of an addiction for me!

    Hope it all goes well!
  • Ascolti_la_musica
    Ascolti_la_musica Posts: 676 Member
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    I am 6'3" (1.9m) tall and started at 103 kg. My goal weight is 82 kg and I am at 86 kg right now. I have done this by eating 1700 calories per day and it has taken me 4 months to get here. I do exercise twice a week. but even on those days, I don't eat much more than 2000 calories. Its enough. Its not too much. It's challenging and I'm healthy.

    Just saying. For what its worth

    Thank you! Responses like this from a man with experience is most appreciated! We all know the 1,200 calorie thing for women (1400 is my happy number), but I was unsure what the "low" was for men. I think 2,000 would be a good number to start seeing progress, but worried about "starving" him.

    We do know how to use the search function, and clicking through a few links to a broken spreadsheet is not helpful.
    I started at 371 pounds, MFP recommended 2300 per day, I too sit at a desk and did very little to exercise. After speaking with my doc she told me to set my goal at 1700 calories and to not go over. That is what I have stuck to with the few times I have gone a little over.
    When I started I cut out all extra sugar items, soda, candy, cake and such just cold turkey. After about 2 weeks I started to cut my calories back and then cut them down to 1700 on about week 3. I maintained the no extra sugar theory for a month or two, I do have some here and there now. Even a 1/2 piece of Cheese Cake Factory cheese cake the other night and stayed at my 1700 goal. The initial weight loss for me was about 4-6 pounds a week! Gave huge motivation to keep it going! I started to go to the gym about 4 weeks into my journey. I go 4-5 days a week now! Kinda a bit of an addiction for me!

    Hope it all goes well!
    Also helpful. Thank you!
  • Ascolti_la_musica
    Ascolti_la_musica Posts: 676 Member
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    I think you are off on your calorie count. A day that includes "5 servings of dinner" unless it was mostly vegetables is nowhere near 2600 calories. A small dinner is around 500 calories so 5x500 is 2500. And that doesn't include breakfast, lunch or that bag of chips. You might want to actually measure the food in cups or weight it. And be sure to use the accurate amount of calories. Unfortunately, MFP has a lot of wrong entries.

    We checked the labels on the packages for the ingredients, and they measured up with MFP's numbers. I also use a food scale and measuring cups in my kitchen for everything. The numbers are correct.

    Five servings of beef stroganoff over two servings of egg noodles, the lunch I pack for him every day, his morning bowl of cinnamon toast crunch with fat free lactaid, gobstoppers, Italian ice, and utz crab chips. Dinner is when he eats the most, and when he adds in all of his snacks. He says he is not hungry, he just likes having all the "flavors" in his mouth.

    Looking back over a couple of typical weeks for myself, my dinners are 176-437 calories each. There were a few exceptions from eating out, but I very rarely top 500 for dinner.
  • Brownsbacker4evr
    Brownsbacker4evr Posts: 365 Member
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    I feel like if the person is unwilling to exercise they will not achieve that goal weight anytime in the very late future. Especially on 3000 calories a day, and especially if you are going to include all those things like soda, chips and candy.

    At my highest weight of 354 pounds....close to the weight of this person you are asking about, I knew if I was going to lose weight I had to cut out the garbage. Cold turkey'd all the soda, chips, and all the other garbage food.

    So if this person is trying to lose weight willingly, no doubt about it they should add exercise along with a better diet.
    If they are not willing, then i'd definitely cut the calories down at least to 2000-2500 and add better options to the diet.

    Don't have to cut out all the things you like completely, but cutting down is certainly a big must.
  • Mock_Turtle
    Mock_Turtle Posts: 354 Member
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    I know of a dude who exercises at best on average 2 times a week but often skips them, and has gone from 380 ish to 230 ish in 6 months.

    He reduced calories to 2300 then 2000 and then 1800.
  • Ascolti_la_musica
    Ascolti_la_musica Posts: 676 Member
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    I know of a dude who exercises at best on average 2 times a week but often skips them, and has gone from 380 ish to 230 ish in 6 months.

    He reduced calories to 2300 then 2000 and then 1800.

    That sounds like a good plan for my husband. I can get him to exercise on occasion, but he barely gets his feet off the floor and will NOT walk with me. He is *only* willing to let me cut his calories because we are going on our (long overdue) honeymoon in August.

    Going down in increments like that could work, if I sneak it in gradually.
  • jdim1093
    jdim1093 Posts: 418 Member
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    Whatever you try, try it for a month. You know that your body adapts and changes slowly. Don't change anything for a full 4 weeks and monitor the results weekly. too many people freak out if the scale goes up a pound in three days. This is a marathon, not a sprint!

    I understand the sugar addiction. I have my own to deal with. Finding creative ways to leave the soda and candy in is a really smart idea. Everyone I know who tried anything "Cold Turkey" failed after two months or less. It may have taken me 13 months to lose 80 pounds, but over the past 6 weeks of completely ignoring MFP, I only gained 5-7 pounds back (and some of that is water, I'm sure). Today was my first day on the scale and 2nd day in probably 8 weeks to log a real diary.

    My first month, all I did was log. I made no diet or exercise changes for a full 4 weeks. I just wanted to get into the habit of logging.
  • gward_1984
    gward_1984 Posts: 13
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    I know this is kinda an old thread but there's not many places on here for tall men. I'm 6'5 and currently 221 lbs. I end up eating around 2700 cals a day, but I also do a lot of walking to and from work and shopping etc as I dont have a car, and I go running a few nights a week as well so I end up burning around 600 - 900 cals a day.

    I don't know if at some point i'll plateau, because I think that i'm doing too much exercise or slightly less eating I dont know but i'm going to stick with it and see what happens.

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