Advice from bigger guys who lost weight.

BoilerMaker22
BoilerMaker22 Posts: 53 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I'm 6'5 and 320 lbs. With all the calorie tracking to calculate my deficit, I'm having a difficult time believing that I should eat 2500 calories and still lose 2 lbs a week.

Can some guys around my height and start weight who have lost weight give me some insight? How much did you eat to lose weight? Was it around 2500?

Thanks.

Replies

  • howardheilweil
    howardheilweil Posts: 604 Member
    Well, according to Scooby's Workshop (and some assumptions), your BMR is around 2500 calories. That said, 2500 might actually be on the low side for you, but certainly it not too high. Good luck!
  • Iwishyouwell
    Iwishyouwell Posts: 1,888 Member
    I'm not your height, but I did have the exact same starting weight (still very hard for me to fathom that).

    I feel you. Eating that much and still being expected to lose at a decent rate was something I had trouble wrapping my mind around.

    I've now lost about a 100 lbs, and am still going down. Plenty of people will just tell you it's simple calorie counting. Well I gained a lot of weight eating in that range when my diet was filled with tons of carbohydrates. Even in caloric deficit my body has trouble releasing fat when I eat a lot of carbs.

    I do lose in the 2500-3000 range when I drop down to a very low carb, high fat, high whole/real food diet. That's how I lost my first 50 or so lbs. I actually maintained my weight loss for a year and a half, give or take 10 lbs, eating that way.

    Since June I started losing again. I've now lost over 60 lbs (and am currently losing) doing a combo of intermittent fasting, lower carb, but have added back in moderate amounts of fruit, and now consider nothing off limits. I stay naturally low carb, have for a long time and will for life, as it's protecting me against a very real family history of T2D. But the IFing is doing wonders to drop weight, and has allowed me more freedom to enjoy myself with any type of food that I like. But it's also helped reset my taste buds, my cravings for the "naughty" foods are the lowest they've ever been in my entire life. These days I finally, finally feel in complete control of my eating, having found something that works almost too well for me. Feels almost like a dream coming to life for me.
  • gman94568
    gman94568 Posts: 12 Member
    I started out with a more aggressive goal. I am right at 1700-1800 calories daily but I am not adding calories (or very few calories) for any exercise. I shoot for 4000 calories a week in exercise. It seems to be working pretty well for me but will probably increase my calorie intake after I hit the 3 month mark.
  • jimshine
    jimshine Posts: 199 Member
    I was not far off and I started out eating about the same calories. Yes, it did work. Infact those earliest days I lost much quicker. Enjoy it because as you lose the intake goes down. I am now in the 1400's a day as a base.
  • joshdann
    joshdann Posts: 618 Member
    I am 6'6" and started MFP at 320 at the end of July. I didn't eat as much as 2500 calories once for the first 39 lbs I lost. I'm currently going through a *sort of* metabolic reset experiment, but I'm still barely getting 3300 (and today I burned about 5000 calories). I don't expect an actual increase in my metabolic rate (since it didn't drop from day 1 to day 75, as measured) but I wanted to at least test the theory.

    Your BMR is not the minimum number of calories you should eat in a day. Anyone who tells you that does not understand what BMR means. Get your protein, dink lots of water and exercise plenty. We big guys can lose weight fast and healthily if we want to... also, come join our Big & Tall group. you fit our mold perfectly :)

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