Assistance with calories/day please!

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andreyadonna
andreyadonna Posts: 70
in Food and Nutrition
I know we're all really good at hazing conversations when we get into the good and bad of Calories. So please, be patient. I've been expirmenting with my calories and eating trying to find a sustainable pattern for my weightloss. And for a little bit, I was aiming to eat 1500 calories a day and discovered I was having to cram food in at the end of the day and I felt awful. So I dropped my calories to 1200 a day. Which went fine for a couple of weeks, but I'm finding myself incapable of staying under that number now. My weight loss was pretty impressive to begin with, I feel like it's not sustainable though. I also feel like my hunger is really lopsided throughout the day. That all leads me to think that I need to adjust maybe both my calories as well as how frequently I eat. So here's where I sit. I currently weigh 230lbs. I'm 5ft 4in, and 25 years old. I'm not currently following IIFYM but I used a TDEE calculator for them, it reports my BMR is 1775, my TDEE is 2131.

Have I been starving myself? I guess I don't understand what all that raw information means as a whole. I understand the basic concept CaloriesIn<CaloriesOut=Weightloss. And I know how to eat nutritionally good food. I believe I'm missing something in the nuances of how much to eat in calories. Input?

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  • deksgrl
    deksgrl Posts: 7,237 Member
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    I believe that 1200 is appropriate for some people but not everyone. If you are hungry, then eat more.

    You should be eating in the 1500-1700 range.

    What kinds of things are you eating where you had a hard time reaching 1500? You can easily add calories without it adding a lot to the volume of food. Cook with butter or olive oil, add olive oil to your salads, add nuts and seeds, eat a tablespoon of peanut butter on an apple, use full fat dairy, not low fat, don't eat diet low cal foods, eat regular food.
  • andreyadonna
    andreyadonna Posts: 70
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    I believe that 1200 is appropriate for some people but not everyone. If you are hungry, then eat more.

    You should be eating in the 1500-1700 range.

    What kinds of things are you eating where you had a hard time reaching 1500? You can easily add calories without it adding a lot to the volume of food. Cook with butter or olive oil, add olive oil to your salads, add nuts and seeds, eat a tablespoon of peanut butter on an apple, use full fat dairy, not low fat, don't eat diet low cal foods, eat regular food.

    I wasn't eating anything particularly "Diet". I was just portion controlling and I was eating less at work.
  • sfsoccermom2
    sfsoccermom2 Posts: 233 Member
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    I don't honestly know. I have been wondering the same thing. I've been eating between 1280 and 1400. I have my first follow-up with my nutritionist since I started. He didn't give me the calories I needed three weeks ago because we did testing to see what my calorie burn was at rest. I will get the results tomorrow. I will let you know what he says.

    Not much help, sorry. :(
  • andreyadonna
    andreyadonna Posts: 70
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    I don't honestly know. I have been wondering the same thing. I've been eating between 1280 and 1400. I have my first follow-up with my nutritionist since I started. He didn't give me the calories I needed three weeks ago because we did testing to see what my calorie burn was at rest. I will get the results tomorrow. I will let you know what he says.

    Not much help, sorry. :(

    That's alright, at least it keeps the thread up so other people see it. Surely someone out there knows.
  • deksgrl
    deksgrl Posts: 7,237 Member
    Options
    I believe that 1200 is appropriate for some people but not everyone. If you are hungry, then eat more.

    You should be eating in the 1500-1700 range.

    What kinds of things are you eating where you had a hard time reaching 1500? You can easily add calories without it adding a lot to the volume of food. Cook with butter or olive oil, add olive oil to your salads, add nuts and seeds, eat a tablespoon of peanut butter on an apple, use full fat dairy, not low fat, don't eat diet low cal foods, eat regular food.

    I wasn't eating anything particularly "Diet". I was just portion controlling and I was eating less at work.

    Maybe it is just a question of better planning then. Plan for x number of calories for breakfast, lunch and dinner to hit your goal. Three meals of 500 calories each. Or, if you need to snack to make it through to lunch, plan to break up those 500 calories to cover both breakfast and a snack. Or maybe you need an afternoon snack. What works for me is I often graze through the morning, like, I'll have just coffee when I get up, then I'll have a yogurt when I get to work, then an hour later I'll have 2 cheese sticks and then an hour after that I eat an apple. Then sometimes I don't eat lunch until like 1:30, then that carries me all the way until dinner.
  • kuolo
    kuolo Posts: 251 Member
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    Basically as long as you eat under your TDEE you will lose weight. If you eat an average of 500cals a day under your TDEE you should lose 1lb a week, 750 under for 1.5lb etc. A lot of it is trial and error, finding a calorie amount that feels comfortable and allows you to lose weight sustainably. Make gradual changes and stick at a new number for a few weeks to see how it works for you. Hope that helps!
    If it's any use I'm 5'7" and 170lbs and I eat between 1500 and 2000 a day but my activity levels vary hugely and I find I can trigger an old ED if I eat too little (which was originally caused by spending most of my teens on a 1200 cal diet)
  • andreyadonna
    andreyadonna Posts: 70
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    Basically as long as you eat under your TDEE you will lose weight. If you eat an average of 500cals a day under your TDEE you should lose 1lb a week, 750 under for 1.5lb etc. A lot of it is trial and error, finding a calorie amount that feels comfortable and allows you to lose weight sustainably. Make gradual changes and stick at a new number for a few weeks to see how it works for you. Hope that helps!
    If it's any use I'm 5'7" and 170lbs and I eat between 1500 and 2000 a day but my activity levels vary hugely and I find I can trigger an old ED if I eat too little (which was originally caused by spending most of my teens on a 1200 cal diet)

    Thats good info, thanks!
  • J72FIT
    J72FIT Posts: 5,951 Member
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    You should be eating in the 1500-1700 range.

    I did some calculations and this range seems pretty legit.
  • andreyadonna
    andreyadonna Posts: 70
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    I did some calculations and this range seems pretty legit.

    Okay. So what calculations do you do to get that number?
  • deksgrl
    deksgrl Posts: 7,237 Member
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    I did some calculations and this range seems pretty legit.

    Okay. So what calculations do you do to get that number?

    That range would give you an average of 1 pound per week loss, and would not be so low below your BMR as to be unsustainable.
  • J72FIT
    J72FIT Posts: 5,951 Member
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    Mifflin - St Jeor Formula

    Women

    
10 x weight (kg) + 6.25 x height (cm) - 5 x age (y) - 161

    10 x 104.5 + 6.25 x 162.5 -5 x 25 - 161

    1045 + 1015 - 125 - 161

    1775 x 1.2 (sedentary) = 2130 TDEE

    2130 - 500 (little over 20% deficit) = 1630

    You could start out with as little as 10% deficit and go up as high as 25%. When you plateau, take a week off dieting and eat at maintenance. Then go back to it. It is important to readjust your numbers as you lose weight.

    And get moving... something as simple as walking an hour a day is great for energy balance and overall health.

    Hope this helps...
  • andreyadonna
    andreyadonna Posts: 70
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    That's an excellent explaination guys! Thanks so much!

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