How many calories to eat when losing weight?

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jmhetz
jmhetz Posts: 4 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I was curious to see how many calories my body would burn in 24 hours, so I wore my polar watch all day. I had a lazy day, for the most part I just sat around watching tv, with a normal amount of walking/driving around. In 24 hours my body burned 2,000 calories. I've been eating between 1,400-1,500 calories per day, I just want to make sure that I am not eating too little and putting my body in starvation mode or anything.

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  • AJ_G
    AJ_G Posts: 4,158 Member
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    I was curious to see how many calories my body would burn in 24 hours, so I wore my polar watch all day. I had a lazy day, for the most part I just sat around watching tv, with a normal amount of walking/driving around. In 24 hours my body burned 2,000 calories. I've been eating between 1,400-1,500 calories per day, I just want to make sure that I am not eating too little and putting my body in starvation mode or anything.

    Come again?
  • jmhetz
    jmhetz Posts: 4 Member
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    I've always heard that if you don't eat enough calories that your body can start to eat at muscles and can slow down your metabolism. I don't know if it's true but that's just what I call it lol.
  • AJ_G
    AJ_G Posts: 4,158 Member
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    Any calorie deficit is going to result in muscle loss. The larger the calorie deficit, the higher percentage of weight loss will be muscle loss. The best way to minimize muscle loss during weight loss is by eating plenty of protein, heavy lifting, and a small to moderate calorie deficit.

    As far as starvation mode, your body always wants to be at equilibrium (calories in = calories out). If you are at a calorie deficit for a long period of time (many months or years) your metabolism will begin to slowdown to try and balance the equation again, but this takes months and months to happen. The larger the calorie deficit, the faster your metabolism will try to bridge the gap and slow down. Most people who refer to "starvation mode" have the notion that eating at a large calorie deficit for a few days or a week will suddenly cause your metabolism to drastically slow down and eat away your muscles. That's not the case at all.

    Moral of the story: when you're losing weight, patience is the best strategy. The smaller the calorie deficit, the better for your metabolic capacity in the long run.
  • snazzyjazzy21
    snazzyjazzy21 Posts: 1,298 Member
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    ^^ On top of that, polar watches are not made to be worn for extended periods of time. They're made to measure your heart rate during aerobic activity. The number you got will probably be incorrect.
  • jmhetz
    jmhetz Posts: 4 Member
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    That's good to know! I normally just use it when I work out, I was just curious to see how much it would say I'd burned in 24 hours.
  • GertrudeHorse
    GertrudeHorse Posts: 646 Member
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    I also wore my Polar for 24 hours once -- mainly for curiosity. It actually came out pretty close to what my TDEE estimates had been, which I was amazed by. But it probably won't be accurate for most people, and I think it will also depend on which model you have and whether you can manually enter your resting heart rate or V02 max, etc. Best way to figure out your own rate is to make a spreadsheet that calculates input and output against actual weight lost.

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