Help with calories please?

XxElla93xX
XxElla93xX Posts: 13 Member
in Getting Started
MFP calculated me at 1200 so I've been eating this minus my exercise as I've not really been 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 which shot up during my recovery period over 2 years. 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! :)

Replies

  • editorgrrl
    editorgrrl Posts: 7,060 Member
    With 32 lbs. to go, set your goal no higher than 1 lb. per week—which is more than 1,200 calories. Your MFP calorie goal has your deficit built in, so you must eat back at least some of your exercise calories. The calorie counts & burns are estimates, so some people reduce the margin of error by eating back half their exercise calories. It will take trial & error to find what works for you.

    Food is fuel, so you should be looking for the maximum number of calories at which you lose weight—never the minimum.

    Read this: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants
  • XxElla93xX
    XxElla93xX Posts: 13 Member
    Thankyou this is really helpful! I'll give that link a look :)
  • brookemart81
    brookemart81 Posts: 62 Member
    I'm about the same height as you (5'7') and have the same goal (125), though I'm starting at 140 so I don't have as much to lose. But set at 1lb a week it's giving me about 1400 calories, which I have found totally doable. I feel like I would be miserable with just 1200!
  • imacowgirl2
    imacowgirl2 Posts: 4 Member
    I'm 5'7" and at 165 lb, MFP calculates 1400 calories for me (I think my goal is 1 lb/week)...bare minimum for good nutrition for women is 1200 calories/day. I personally eat back between 1/4 - 1/2 of my exercise calories in a week (avg approx 2000 exercise calories every week) because I've found that if I personally eat back all my exercise calories, I stop losing, and sometimes start gaining. At this level, I'm losing approximately 2 lb/week, which is my short term goal -- I'm doing a Biggest Loser challenge right now, so once those 6 weeks are over I'll start eating back a few more of my exercise calories to move back up to only 1 lb/week lost.

    I think it really depends on how much you are exercising as to how many of your exercise calories you're eating back...if you're only exercising a little bit, you might be fine not eating them back, but if you're exercising a lot, you should be eating back more of them, especially if you're only taking in 1200 to begin with. Also, listen to your body -- if you're eating healthy, and hungry all the time, you're likely not eating enough. If you're satisfied all the time, you're probably eating enough. That only works if you're truly eating healthy though..because if you're eating non-healthy, you'll take in a lot more calories and still be hungry, especially if there is a lot of sugar and/or simple carbs in your diet and not much healthy fat and protein.
  • fdagasdgfasdgsda
    fdagasdgfasdgsda Posts: 20 Member
    Hey Ella I'm glad I found your topic.

    A couple things to start, these are all my personal opinions formed through trial and research. I have only been eating clean and to the gram (weighed) for 4 months now and I have lost 20lbs (160-->138) before I realized I could not maintain my body at 1100-1200 calories a day. I looked great, but your body can't really sustain itself on those low of levels, especially when you're telling yourself to eat that and anything over you feel terrible about. That's not healthy. My goals have changed since cutting, and I plan to bulk properly but I'd like to share with you as much as I can about what I learned from that.

    I think the MFP calculations may be a bit off. Don't use them. 1200 calories is very low if you dropped 15lbs like that you would eventually plateau. Your body isn't stupid and will put itself into an even deeper starvation mode, slowing your metabolism further. You would have to drop calories even further to lose weight, and if you aren't doing regular exercise to begin with you will lose a lot of muscle if the number on the scale even drops further.


    Maybe you should try finding your maintenance caloric requirements by using a formula. This thread really breaks it down for you http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=156380403 . Once you know a rough estimate of how many calories your body needs to maintain itself each day you should write that number into your calorie goal manually on MFP.

    I know your maintenance calories should be around ~1850/day. I think if you brought your calories up by 100/week until you met that number. Then ate that for a week or two as a clean, weighed to the gram, correct macronutrient diet you would feel a lot better and your metabolism would come up slowly and correct itself. Then from there decrease yourself 100 calories and then weigh yourself the next week. Record it. Once the scale stops for two weeks, then drop for 100 more. At that point I can see yourself getting healthily down to 120. No way by starting out at 1200.

    As far as macronutrients try for 1g/lb bodyweight a day in protein (158g), and .4g/lb bodyweight a day in fat ( 63g). Fill in the rest of your calories with carbs. Protein intake is important along with strength exercise to keep what muscles you have intact while your shred that fat off. The fat intake is also very important, it helps control those sudden binges and also with headaches for myself if they are too low.

    Exercise calories are nice to look at, but I don't personally like to add them in. Along with when I calculate my calories I always set my activity level at the lowest (sedentary 1.2). This creates a nice little buffer zone of lost calories if I accidently add a little too much of something while cooking my meals and go over my intake by a hundred or two calories once in a while.


    A couple questions for you,

    Do you weigh yourself once a week or multiple times?
    Do you weigh everything that enters your mouth the gram with a food scale? (Oils, breads, butter, drinks, alcohol, and all food)
    Do you keep weekly records of all your measurements?


    Sorry if any or all of this has been old news or redundant for you, but I hate to see someone be unhappy. In the end that is all we are looking for.

    Feel free to message me also with any questions.

    -Frank

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