1200 or 900 net calories per day!

Hi everyone!
I am 5'2" and i weight 128 pounds. I want to reach 108 pounds. Ive been doing exersise and tracking my food for a month now and i only lost 2 pounds. First two weeks i was netting 1200 calories, then last two weeks ive been eating a bit more because i read that maybe i was not eating enough. usually i eat 1500 or 1600 calories gross and i do high impact aerobics (turbo jam, 50 minutes) + 30 day shred + zumba or bellydance or abs. in all this i burn about 400 calories.
I was reading the nutritional guide of Turbo Fire and it states that you should calculate your calorie intake by doing the following formula:

1) Calculate your resting metabolic rate (your current body weight x 10= in my case is 1280

2) Calculate your daily activity burn based on your current levels of exersise (apart from exersise) (1280 x 10% as i have a sedentary level)= 128

3) calories burned from exersise= 400

4) calorie deficit i want to have (500 calories per day if i want to lose 1 pound per week and 250 to lose 1/2 a pound.

5) then do 1 result + 2 result + 3 result - 4 result = 1280 + 128 + 400 - 500= 900

so it says i should be eating net 900 calories per day to lose 1 pound per day. what do you think about this? is this healthy? does someone did it and worked?

Replies

  • FatFreeFrolicking
    FatFreeFrolicking Posts: 4,252 Member
    1 pound per day? Not healthy. You don't have that much weight to lose.

    You should be aiming for 0.5 lbs PER WEEK.

    Your BMR is 1290 and your TDEE is 1774.

    For fat loss @ 15%, you should be eating 1508 calories a day.

    ETA: http://iifym.com/iifym-calculator/
  • mortuseon
    mortuseon Posts: 579 Member
    Brackets.

    (1280+128+400) - 500 = 1308kcals net. NOT 900!

    Also, 1lb per day is incredibly unlikely. More like 1lb per week, less if you're small. :)
  • mortuseon
    mortuseon Posts: 579 Member
    1 pound per day? Not healthy. You don't have that much weight to lose.

    You should be aiming for 0.5 lbs PER WEEK.

    Your BMR is 1290 and your TDEE is 1774.

    For fat loss @ 15%, you should be eating 1508 calories a day.

    ETA: http://iifym.com/iifym-calculator/

    I agree with this method. What I have posted above is just a correction of your own nutrition plan. The one quoted will probably lead to slower loss but more sustained loss.
  • SerenaKitty
    SerenaKitty Posts: 142
    Of course it's not healthy.
  • XxElla93xX
    XxElla93xX Posts: 13 Member
    I've just tested this out and got 1453 and would like to know too!

    MFP calculated me at 1200 so I've been eating this minus my exercise as I've not really eating my exercise calories back, only when I've felt hungry. I normally feel full due to drinking a lot of water and tea.

    Should I be eating more than this? As a normal day of not dieting would be about 1600-1800 and I've been gaining weight when my intake is this much. I'm 5ft 6" weighing 158lbs and I'm hoping to get back to my original weight when I met my partner of 126lbs.

    Any info anyone could give me would be really helpful! :)
  • lee91356
    lee91356 Posts: 330 Member
    You seem to be doing fine at 0.5 pound per week. When your are smaller and your weight loss goal is smaller, then the weight loss isnt as drastic unless you take extreme measures.

    This is not only mathematically and scientifically the case but a true to life story lol. When I weighed over 300 pounds it was really easy to lose 1-2 pounds a week since my TDEE/ BMR was REALLY high (like about 3000) and just cutting out 500 calories a day was all it took. Even exercising burned more calories - a 30 min walk could burn over 200 calories. Now in the 140 pound zone its SO HARD to lose those last 10 pounds since my TDEE is about 1500 calories (so every calorie I consume matters) and exercise burns way less, ex: jogging for an hour burns a little over 200.
  • ottermotorcycle
    ottermotorcycle Posts: 654 Member
    OP meant 1 pound per week. Clearly a mistake. Also math mistakes - that doesn't add up to 900.

    OP, I know you said you are sedentary, but your multiplier still seems really low to me as well. x1.2 (20%) is what people normally use for a sedentary lifestyle - unless you are bedridden or otherwise disabled. So 1280 x 1.2 = 1536, which is your sedentary maintenance number. If on top of that, you burn 400 calories a day in exercise, you are burning 1936 calories every day. A 500 calorie deficit from there is 1436, so eat 1436 net calories every day to lose 1 pound per week.

    HOWEVER if you are exercising you're not sedentary, so perhaps it would be easier to calculate your TDEE by using a higher multiplier instead of logging exercise separately, since it is consistent. I would suggest using 1.5 (moderately active) multiplied by your 1280... which gives you 1920 burned every day. That's pretty close to the other number we got doing it the other way, so it works out whichever way you want to do it!
  • jaz12341
    jaz12341 Posts: 2
    Hi everyone! Thank you very much for the replies :)
    Im sorry everyone, i meant 1 pound per week :) Also, i know it was a math mistake, as in my calculations i decided to not sum up my exersise calories as i dont always burn the same amount of calories, so i aim to eat 900 calories + exersise calories (400) i would eat 1200, (but of course, 400 are from exersise that i burnt, so net would be 900) im sorry, i explain so bad this things..

    I calculate how much should i eat in several places:

    The one that chalean says in turbo fire, was the one i posted before in which i should eat 900 calories + exersise calories in order to lose 1 pound PER WEEK.

    The one on team beachbody, http://www.howtobefit.com/caloric-needs-calculator.htm
    says i should eat 1065 + exersise per day to lose 1 pound per week


    then, i read another message:

    "Turbo Fire uses the same formula ( Harris Benedict ) as Insanity. I cut and pasted the formula from the internet.

    Calculate your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) using one of the equations below:
    Men (Imperial Units/United States): BMR = 66 + ( 6.23 x weight in pounds ) + (12.7 x height in inches ) – ( 6.76 x age in years ) = ________
    Men (Metric Units): BMR = 66 + ( 13.7 x weight in kg ) + ( 5 x height in cm ) – ( 6.76 x age in years ) = ________
    Women (Imperial Units/United States): BMR = 655 + ( 4.35 x weight in pounds ) + ( 4.7 x height in inches ) – ( 4.7 x age in years ) = ________
    Women (Metric Units): BMR = 655 + ( 9.6 x weight in kg ) + ( 1.8 x height in cm ) – ( 4.7 x age in years ) = ________

    Determine your current fitness level:

    Sedentary: little or no exercise
    Lightly Active: light exercise/sports 1-3 days/week
    Moderately Active: moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/week
    Very Active: hard exercise/sports 6-7 days a week
    Extra Active: very hard exercise/sports & physical job or 2x training

    Calculate the number of calories that you require in a day based on BMR and fitness level:

    Sedentary: Daily calories needed= BMR x 1.2 = __________
    Lightly Active: Daily calories needed= BMR x 1.375 = __________
    Moderately Active: Daily calories needed= BMR x 1.55 = __________
    Very Active: Daily calories needed= BMR x 1.725 = __________
    Extra Active: Daily calories needed= BMR x 1.9 = __________

    This is the total number of calories you need in order to maintain your current weight. Knowing this number you can now subtract your calorie deficit... A calorie deficit of 500 calories will give you an approximate 1 lb weight loss a week. A calorie deficit of 1000 will give you an approximate 2 lb weight loss per week. "

    This last one give me a calorie intake of 1146 per day + exersise calories in order to lose 1 pound per week.

    So i dont know how much to eat or not. My body is sooooo slow, i was eating like 1200 per day net for a month and exersising, having water , ect etc, and i only lost 2 pounds (or 1.5) in a month!!! everywhere it says a different amount of calories and im lost. some people say that i should eat net 1200 per day, while other people say they eat gross 1200 a day and they dont eat their exersises back.


    I am sedentary level as my job is in an office 8 hours, the only extra movements i do apart from working and exersising is playing gigs in bars, which for singing and playing the guitar for two hours only burn aprox 90 calories :(
  • I eat 900 calories a day, I am currently 259 pounds, down from 264. I lose a pound a day!
  • nicsflyingcircus
    nicsflyingcircus Posts: 2,861 Member
    I eat 900 calories a day, I am currently 259 pounds, down from 264. I lose a pound a day!

    Strong first post.

    If you started five days ago, this is almost entirely water weight.
  • 900 calories a day is considered starvation. With the exercise you do, I bet your excess weight is muscle. How do you feel should be a better indicator of success than a number in your case. Good luck Nancy K.
  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
    I eat 900 calories a day, I am currently 259 pounds, down from 264. I lose a pound a day!

    Hi JrFan4Life88 and welcome to MFP. You're going to find that the search feature on the boards doesn't take recency into account when displaying results. This often leads to people bumping very old threads (like this one) back to the top of the boards, even if none of the original players are around to take part in the discussion any more. It's often a good idea to double check the time stamp in the top right-hand corner of posts to be sure that it's still a current discussion.