Should I Increase My Calories?

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ValerieMartini2Olives
ValerieMartini2Olives Posts: 3,036 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I am a firm believer in the whole Eat More to Weigh Less philosophy. I eat so much more now than I ever did when I was 300+ pounds. My typical day then would be something like a candy bar or similar for breakfast, probably McDonald's for lunch, and something like Popeye's for dinner. I would regularly cook for myself, but making 2 or 3 times the portion I should have been eating. Now, I eat a ridiculous amount of food! I love it! I love being able to eat tons of nutritious and healthy food.

But I feel like I might still be eating too little. I currently have myself set at 1700 calories. I am 29 years old, 5'5'' and currently 225 pounds. According to my Omron body fat analyzer, my body fat is 35%. I work out 6 days a week with various activities. I do TurboJam DVD's (strength and cardio), I walk and run - alone or with my daughter in the jogging stroller, I ride my bike, and really just try to do anything that gets me up and moving! But I make it a minimum of doing a half hour of SOME type of activity. For work, I deal blackjack, so I am standing all night. We get breaks every hour and 20 minutes for 20 minutes and it is a long walk from the casino floor to the breakroom. I also am working my other job one day a week which is VERY physically demanding. Lots of heavy lifting, pulling, squatting, climbing, etc. And I have a 5 1/2 month old daughter, so that is demanding in itself. I sleep about 6 hours a night.

I have looked at numerous calorie counters online, and they all give drastically different results. I was thinking about going to around 1900, but I don't want that to be too high.

Based on my info, what do you think I should do?

Replies

  • billsica
    billsica Posts: 4,741 Member
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    Do it, try it for a month. What have you really got to lose? worst case scenario, you gain a pound. Best case scenario, it works.
  • WhatAnAss
    WhatAnAss Posts: 1,598 Member
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    I agree with billsica....it's gonna be trial and error. Up your intake and just see how it makes you feel. It won't take long to figure out if you feel better or worse. Your body will let you know. Good luck to you!
  • LaColombicana
    LaColombicana Posts: 63 Member
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    I think you are correct! It looks like your BMR should be around 1805 cal based on the Katch-McArdle method. This is just your BMR. This does not take into account your current activity level. So...you are at 225# = 102.27 kg and your BF is at 35% then your LBM is 66.47 kg. Your BMR = around 1800 (rounded down for ease) Now your activity leve needs to be taken into consideration. 1800 x 1.4 = 2520 cal to maintain. To lose weight you subtract 10-20% so, 2520 cals - 20% = 2016 cals. So you should be around 2000 cals.

    http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=121703921

    This is the ^^^link ^^^ to a forum so you can make your own calculations or you can reference back to it. I just found this last night, because I have pretty much stalled and I'm training harder, but the pounds are not dropping and I also need to increase my cals. I need to increase my calories but, I'm doing it slowly at 100 to 200 for every two weeks until I reach my goal because I don't want to gain by increasing my cals to fast. Hope this helps! Make sure to continue past calculating your BMR.
  • fivethreeone
    fivethreeone Posts: 8,196 Member
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    Based on your height and weight I knew that your calories were low, so I ran your numbers through the most accurate calculator I know of and your "very active" TDEE is 3100 calories.

    TDEE-20% for you would be 2500 calories. Do not eat back exercise calories, as they are included in your TDEE (if you like tracking your exercise, log it as one calorie burned so it doesn't mess up your net). Because you have been eating too little, just increase your calories by 100 per week until you get to 2500. You should find a point around there where you are satisfied, energized, and still losing weight.

    Try that for a month and see how it goes. :)
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
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    http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/
  • ValerieMartini2Olives
    ValerieMartini2Olives Posts: 3,036 Member
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    From everything I had looked at, I didn't think I was eating enough. I will increase calories today, but I am not a big fan of the TDEE -20% calculation. I don't like a big high number and not log the exercise. I like doing the base calorie plus the eat exercise calories back.

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