can't believe the calories!

I do not dare!!!

I did that and it was over 3000 calories. And that was how I used to eat nearly every day. Now I am perfectly happy at 1400-1600.

Yep...I've done counts where I was over my limit halfway through the day. It's amazing the crap we put into our bodies.

Close to 3 grand a day. It was pretty nuts.

That is why logging your food is so critical to success. You can't make changes if you don't know where you're starting from!

Yep, realized some days were 3000-3500 in one day. Now that I know, its hard for me to have a "cheat" day. I still do, but I am just now really aware and it amazed me that I could eat all of that without a second thought. Sometimes I miss being ignorant to it honestly, but I'm thankful too because it helps keep me on track.

I was eating about between 5000 and 6000 calories a day i love d my chips and soda and candy a lot of junk and fast food i went the other day to McDonald's and i seen a double cheeseburger was like 540 calories and a med fries i was in shock and i use to eat like 2 dbl cheeseburgers a large fries and a 10 piece chicken nugget with a lg diet drink that is my calorie intake for almost 3 days now it was a real eye opener!!

Oh yeah I did this and it was like no wonder I am the weight that I was at when I started here in January at 225 pounds. I also had this same type of reaction when I purchased a food scale and actually started weighing and measuring my servings that was a real eye opener too. Especially with ice cream. I wanted ice cream one evening and I put 1 serving in my bowl, and I was like is that ALL lol. So then I went on to put who much I usually ate and it cam out to be over 6 servings. Just in ice cream it was upwards of 1300 calories and I would typically eat that multiple times a week.

I wish I had done this! I don't even remember how I used to eat! I think it was mostly drinking calories (orang juice, coffee/tea additives, regular pop, hot chocolates,) didn't even think about consuming these where at all a bad choice now nothing crosses my lips without thought, try not to drink my calories at all these days.

I haven't done this, but I think it is a great idea! I honestly can't figure out how I gained weight besides starting a prescription (gained 20 lbs in 2 months after starting). I wonder if I was eating much more than I thought, too....

I tracked for a couple of weeks before I focused on losing... because I wanted to see the good, the bad and the ugly of it all. I wanted to see where I REALLY stood. So I could accurately adjust.
It' didn't seem thaaaaaat bad to me... 1700-1800 calories. Certainly not the recommended 2000 cal. on the nutritional facts.

How did I put on almost 50lbs since college?

So I....
1) Input my stats for my 22-year-old self (22/5'6"/135 lbs) and clicked maintain. 1790 calories

2) Input my stats for my 50-year-old self and clicked maintain. 1790 calories

Turns out I didn't change much, But I didn't know that you needed to deduct 10 calories a day from your diet every year. Over 30 year that's 300 calories.

:noway: :grumble: :explode: :grumble: :noway:

hi!

I pretty new and I thought that it would be interesting to have a look at how many calories I was eating in an average day. I was maintaing my weight with small fluctuations i would go between 66-69 kg and I was thinking that I was eating ok but with a daily treat muffin etc but often with more than 1 treat in a day. It worked out to be between around 2600-3000 calories!!

Anyone else entered what they used to eat into MFP?

Quick - you have the best possible setup for continued success, possibly. Very rarely does anyone do this. You know what your maintenance is before starting a diet.

So many people see 1200 calories recommended (not realizing that is recommended as minimum for sedentary females), and then think that 1500 sounds oh so high of calories to eat, and surely they will gain weight ....

Have you changed your exercise routine since eating at that level?
Or was that pretty much non-exercise level, and you will start now?

Because take that avg eating level, divided by the BMR that MFP is using for you (Apps - BMR Calc).

That is your activity factor for whatever level of activity you did.

If no exercise at all, you have what MFP calls maintenance, no exercise included.
If that includes exercise you intend to keep doing, that is called TDEE, which includes exercise.

If the former, select the Activity Level that is closest to that multiplier.
1.25 - Sedentary
1.35 - Lightly Active
1.45 - Active
1.55 - Very Active

Select a weight loss goal that is reasonable, usually the 1 lb weekly unless you have more than 60 lbs to lose.

Now you have a goal eating level correct for you, based on actual results. No need for months of testing to discover this after a 6-12 month plateau of no weight loss later.

Now log your workouts and eat back those calories, minus 20%.

If you do intend to keep the exercise routine you were already doing during that discovery, then take that avg eaten with no weight change as your TDEE.
Again find the BMR and activity factor, because as weight drops you'll need that again.

Manually set your goal to that TDEE - 20% deficit, and eat that daily. Do NOT log exercise since you already were doing it and it's included.

First method MFP will adjust goals as weight drops.
Second method you'll need to wait until 5 lbs dropped, look at new BMR, multiply out with your personal activity factor for new TDEE, and take 20% off again, and manually change goal.

Excellent chance to set it all up based on your given results already. You might enter some more sample days to really try to nail an decent estimate.

hi!

I pretty new and I thought that it would be interesting to have a look at how many calories I was eating in an average day. I was maintaing my weight with small fluctuations i would go between 66-69 kg and I was thinking that I was eating ok but with a daily treat muffin etc but often with more than 1 treat in a day. It worked out to be between around 2600-3000 calories!!

Anyone else entered what they used to eat into MFP?

If you were maintaining at that intake, you probably were 'eating ok'. The problem for me is when the 3000kcal days outnumber the 2600kcal days, I suspect.

I've never worked out a 'before' day because I know what I've changed. I used to eat far too Little at mealtimes and then binge on whole tubs of Ben &Jerry's and not gain! I dropped from 70kg-60kg rapidly by cutting out the snacks, then switched to mfp to try to slow down, which didn't work because I had the wrong data.

You have the data, so as heybales explained, you really are ahead of the game!

What heybales said...and mrsbigmack