Another one of those posts (Advice greatly appreciated)

abrown286
abrown286 Posts: 18
edited November 8 in Health and Weight Loss
Hi everyone! Y'all have been so hopefull to me on my journey and I have to ask for more advice.

I have finally realized that I have NOT been eating enough. I had only been netting around 700-800 calories per day.

I started out in May 2014 at 256 lbs, I am now at 215 lbs. I am 5'3. I reset my weight loss to 1.5 lb per week at a sedentary setting and it gave me a calorie goal of 1390. I wanted to ask you guys if you think this is a reasonable calorie limit? I am going to try and net at least 1200 per day. I would really appreciate if you guys could tell me if this was a good idea?

Thank you!

Replies

  • jenilla1
    jenilla1 Posts: 11,118 Member
    I guess everybody's different, but I personally was set to 1370 PLUS exercise calories when I was losing and I had no problems. (But that wasn't a huge deficit for me. It was only .5 lb per week. I didn't have a lot to lose. I don't think I would have been a happy camper with a deficit of more than 1 pound a week. I would have been cranky.) Some people seem to not be able to function on that low a level of calories, and others are fine. I think it probably depends on your activity level. Try it and see how you feel. :)

    P.S. I've been maintaining at my goal for over three years now, so I must have done something right. (My maintenance calories are 1700 PLUS exercise.)
  • abrown286
    abrown286 Posts: 18
    jenilla1 wrote: »
    I guess everybody's different, but I personally was set to 1370 PLUS exercise calories when I was losing and I had no problems. (But that wasn't a huge deficit for me. It was only .5 lb per week. I didn't have a lot to lose. I don't think I would have been a happy camper with a deficit of more than 1 pound a week. I would have been cranky.) Some people seem to not be able to function on that low a level of calories, and others are fine. I think it probably depends on your activity level. Try it and see how you feel. :)

    P.S. I've been maintaining at my goal for over three years now, so I must have done something right. (My maintenance calories are 1700 PLUS exercise.)

    Thank you! I have a pretty sedentary life. But, I do walk on a treadmill about 5-6 days a week for about 40 minutes. I usually end up burning around 200-250 calories a day when I do walk.
  • PokeyBug
    PokeyBug Posts: 482 Member
    The 1390 calorie goal sounds entirely reasonable to me. I use the Mayo Clinic's calculator (Mayo Clinic) for my TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) and subtract 20% for my recommended intake. I plugged your numbers in and got a TDEE of 1800 calories for your stats. Twenty percent of that is 360 calories, so, if I were you, I'd shoot for around 1400 calories a day.

    In a perfect world, a 400 calorie a day deficit, along with burning 200 calories exercising 5 days a week, would mean a loss of about a pound a week. Sounds reasonable. If you're in a bigger hurry to lose, you might want to try adding some resistance, like lifting or body weight exercises (yoga, pilates, etc.) Now, keep in mind, our bodies don't lose weight according to mathematical formulas, so YMMV.

    If you want to keep your calories at the lower levels, keep doing what you're doing. It's up to you to judge whether you need more calories than that. Look for the signs -- light-headedness, feeling tired and/or grumpy all the time, headaches. If you're noticing these symptoms a lot, you might want to increase your calorie intake and see how that works for you.
  • libbydoodle11
    libbydoodle11 Posts: 1,351 Member
    edited November 2014
    You can enter your exact info here.

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


    Or you can google another TDEE calculator.

    I would start at by at least eating 1900 calories. You can always adjust and do like Pokeybug recommended and get your TDEE and subtract the 20 percent. Why not start with eating the most calories possible while losing?
  • AestheticStar
    AestheticStar Posts: 447 Member
    MFP goes based on your height, weight & activity levels. If you aren't very active, I'd say that what they gave you is a good amount of calories. Eating under 1,200 is basically starvation. Usually if you log stuff like that, they tell you that your body will go into starvation mode (I've seen that when I was sick & really could not eat or keep food down). So you should up it at least to 1,200 or to what they give you on here.
  • Aemely
    Aemely Posts: 694 Member
    edited November 2014
    With your numbers, Scooby's calculates 2,000 TDEE and 1,700 BMR (http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/). MFP recommends 1,500 calories per day to lose 1 lb. per week. If you're exercising off 200 cals. a day, then you should be eating 1,700 cals. to net 1,500. I would try 1,500 cals. per day (net) for a couple weeks and see how you feel. I am sure you will still lose on that amount.

    That being said, I agree with LibbyDoodle that you would likely still lose at 1,900 calories/day but since you have been eating too few calories, you might need to scale up your calories a bit more slowly, wait to see how you feel, and then readjust. However, if you feel terrible, then your body may need to go with the 1,900 cals./day level as she said. You could reduce your weight loss goal to .5 per week to force MFP to give you a higher number.

    Have you talked to a trusted doctor about your plan?

    How to Change your Goals:
    Click Goals > Change Goals > Guided, Continue, enter in your accurate information and realistic goal weight, and click Update Profile.

    Direct Link: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/my_goals
    BMI Calculator: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/tools/bmi-calculator
    BMR Calculator: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/tools/bmr-calculator
  • Grace215lbs
    Grace215lbs Posts: 129 Member
    You could easily eat 1300- 1400 and you'd lose weight, anything under that isn't going to be much fun for your body. I'm waiting for all the. "eat more to lose" people that will tell you, you're going to now die unless you eat 1700-2500... Good old sabotage. :# But just laugh. So long as you're getting back to eating healthy you'll be fine now.

    But yeah, it's a good idea to avoid going under 1200. At your weight you could also eat more if you wanted. I was eating between 1390-1900. All the way down to goal. Just make sure every 10lbs down you recalculated your BMR and how much more you burn from how much you move and what not.. I find reassesing goals every 10lbs helps. When you're down to the last 30lbs... Reassess every 5lbs.
  • abrown286
    abrown286 Posts: 18
    Grace215lbs wrote: »
    You could easily eat 1300- 1400 and you'd lose weight, anything under that isn't going to be much fun for your body. I'm waiting for all the. "eat more to lose" people that will tell you, you're going to now die unless you eat 1700-2500... Good old sabotage. :# But just laugh. So long as you're getting back to eating healthy you'll be fine now.

    But yeah, it's a good idea to avoid going under 1200. At your weight you could also eat more if you wanted. I was eating between 1390-1900. All the way down to goal. Just make sure every 10lbs down you recalculated your BMR and how much more you burn from how much you move and what not.. I find reassesing goals every 10lbs helps. When you're down to the last 30lbs... Reassess every 5lbs.

    Thank you. I find that very comforting. I defiantly look forward to eating a little more! Thank you again.
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